Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Shoushimin Series – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re going to be continuing our investigations of the intriguing Shoushimin Series, originally written by Hyouka scribe Honobu Yonezawa, and adapted by the accomplished Mamoru Kanbe. The series’ first episode demonstrated both of these artists at their best, with Yonezawa offering a fresh collection of intriguing, multifaceted adolescent stars, and Kanbe bedecking their stories in a singular combination of lush background art and sterile, alienating intimacy.

So far, what is most clear about our protagonists Osanai and Jogoro is that we don’t actually know anything about them. Jogoro is observant and Osanai is indifferent to her peers, but they are otherwise self-conscious ciphers, dedicated to a project of “becoming normal” that seems to imply a goal of becoming part of the scenery, making no waves and attracting no attention from those around them. It’s a particularly bleak variation on Hyouka’s pursuit of low-energy living, and its advocates are as strange as you’d expect, their idle exchanges betraying a callous disconnection from their environment. Such ambiguity might be worrying if presented by another team; but given Yonezawa’s understanding of characterization and Kanbe’s fluency in dramatic tone, I have every reason to suspect these mysteries are purposeful, and our leads are precisely as unknowable as this team wants them to be. Let’s delve into their dark hearts as we return to Shoushimin Series!

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Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 15

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d check in with Doremi and the gang for another ojamajo adventure, as our girls do their dubious best to prove themselves worthy witches. Our last outing was a fantastic slice of insanity, as Doremi’s exceptional and much-adored sister Pop took center stage, balancing the affections of her classmate and arrival of a handsome new teacher with characteristic grace. We even concluded on a reprise of Faithful Dog Doremi and her canine companions, always a clear sign of an upper echelon Doremi episode.

With our last two episodes having featured first cow and then sheep stampedes, I imagine we’re in for a quieter adventure this time, perhaps one that falls more on the emotional end of Doremi’s broad dramatic palette. We’ve certainly got the staff for it; after all, this coming episode is directed by Junichi Sato, the legendary director of Sailor Moon, Princess Tutu, and Aria the Animation. With our journey in such eminently trustworthy hands, let’s see what awaits Doremi and the girls!

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Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 16

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’re returning to Ojamajo Doremi Sharp, which just recently broke my heart with its poignant Mother’s Day episode. Rather than the easy layup of simply celebrating the cast’s relationships with their mothers, our last episode explored the complicated emotions inherent in feeling isolated on such occasions, how to balance your painful grief with your desire to remember your lost loved ones, and how we can seek to connect with each other and collectively find joy in these bonds, whether our parents are together, divorced, or sadly passed away.

As always, Ojamajo Doremi soars by taking both its characters and its audience seriously, speaking without prevarication or metaphor about the genuine struggles that every child must overcome, and admitting frankly that such struggles are also faced by the adults in their lives. There is no facile assurance of “growing out” of the difficulties of coexisting; instead, Doremi offers a kindly assurance that we all face these difficulties together, that the adults we trust are all fighting their own sympathetic battles, and that through sharing both our joy and our sorrow, we can find a common humanity that is the essence of love itself, and the foundation of a compassionate society.

All that is basically the great work of artistry incarnate, but that episode also made me cry, so I’d be happy enough to cool down with goofy witch-world antics or something. Maybe a reprise of Loyal Dog Doremi? Well, whatever’s coming, I have absolute faith in this team, and am eager to get this show on the road. Let’s get to it!

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Blue Reflection Ray – Episode 9

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the battlefield of Blue Reflection Ray, after a slew of revelations left our heroes scattered and nearly without hope. In the wake of learning about her sister’s Red Reflector identity, Hiori chose to respond like she always has: by suppressing her feelings of hurt and abandonment, and acting like nothing is wrong.

Fortunately, Ruka is not the same girl she was eight episodes ago, when she lamented that she couldn’t reach out to those in pain like Hiori managed so easily. Ruka challenged Hiori to embrace her sorrow, to “realize how important your feelings are too,” and with that the dam finally broke. Just as Hiori was once able to express her pain regarding her mother’s departure to Mio, now can she express her true feelings regarding Mio to Ruka, a confidant who would never pity her.

With our lead reflectors now resonating like never before, I imagine it’s time for a counteroffensive against the increasingly audacious agents of Mio. They’ve accelerated from individual soul-stealing to app-based crowdsourcing to mass emotion-sapping weather phenomenon, and it’s up to our brave heroes to put a stop to it. Plus, with Hiori and Ruka making such positive strides, I’m hoping it’s time for Miyako to gain her own reflector credentials, and perhaps a sweet reflector weapon in the bargain. Regardless, the hour of conflict draws near as we return to Blue Reflection Ray!

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The Legend of Vox Machina S3 – Episode 7

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be returning to the Legend of Vox Machina, touching down in a moment of crisis and calamity for our poor adventurers. Having just secured a platemail vestige for Pike and beaten a dragon in the bargain, they returned to Whitestone to see it bathed in fire, the sky alive with Thordak’s nightmare brood. This attack marked the end of their alliance with the devious Raishan, and the beginning of a new quest: killing that asshole Anna Ripley.

So basically, it seems like we’ve surmounted the third act finale of Mercer’s overall campaign structure, in keeping with the villain-slaying standard of the Whitestone and Thunder Herd act finales. DnD is an eternal compromise between player agency and narrative necessity; stories aren’t structured arbitrarily, their rise and falls of drama are paced so as to cultivate reader interest, offer moments of release, and ultimately reward the reader for their investment. As such, while DnD campaigns are often more freewheeling than your average fantasy novel, a skillful DM will still infuse them with the structural momentum of a traditional narrative, drawing rising action together into cathartic peaks, and then humbling the party before starting that rise over again.

Incidentally, my party’s own ongoing campaign has just reached a similar point, having recently defeated the vampire Strahd with some kind of holy hand grenade. We’re actually in a much trickier spot, as the self-contained nature of the Curse of Strahd campaign means we’re now left with no dangling threads to pursue, and essentially have to reinvent a reason why we’re even traveling together. I’m doing my best to make some player-side sense of our ramblings, but have to admit I’m becoming increasingly nostalgic for my days of DM-side campaign control, as the richness of a player character is in large part a reflection of how meaningfully they can interact with the DM’s world. Let’s enjoy Mercer and Percy showing exactly how that’s done as we return to Vox Machina!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 11

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to the wandering journeys of Frieren and her companions, in the wake of their victory over Aura the Guillotine and her executioners. Though this arc was ostensibly an articulation of demonkind’s incompatibility with human society, our last episode demonstrated that it was more specifically about Frieren’s soft-spoken hatred for demons, the experiences that led her to see them as incapable of compassion or emotion. In her attempts to define monsters, Frieren only demonstrated how her own life has led her to be so quick to assign that label.

It is now much easier to see how Frieren has drifted through life while acquiring so few emotional attachments. A conventional social structure was stolen from her as a child, while her replacement “family” Flamme taught her only to pursue power and cultivate ruthlessness. Even Flamme ended up regretting her pragmatic bond with Frieren, relenting just in time to pass on the field of flowers spell that connected her with her own parents. Given her own insistence on adorning Himmel’s monument with flowers, it’s clear that lesson stuck – but otherwise, Frieren’s lessons and temperament reveal she is precisely the weapon Flamme made of her, no more or less.

As such, it is up to this current journey to teach her new lessons, to invite her to find love and sanctuary in others, even if such unions will inevitably pass. Every day with Fern and Stark demonstrates that time spent with valued companions is never time wasted – in fact, it is often the seemingly idle, shapeless days that stand most clearly in memory, typifying the spirit of mutual fondness that made your time together so special. Let’s see what fresh memories await as we return to Frieren!

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Yuri is My Job! – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! Today we return to Cafe Liebe in a moment of crisis, with the tension between Kanoko and Sumika approaching some kind of breaking point. While Kanoko initially joined the Cafe Liebe staff just to spend more time with Hime, what she has discovered since has proven intolerable. Not only is Hime thriving in this space, she’s even reconnected with her first friend, who seems to share some bond with Hime that Kanoko herself cannot understand. What happened to her Hime, the Hime who secretly despised all others, and who was only willing to share her earnest feelings while nestled against Kanoko’s shoulder? This clearly will not stand!

Kanoko’s perspective is unhealthy, but perfectly understandable. While Hime initially thought she was teaching Kanoko how to get along in society, the lesson Kanoko received was to always rely on her specifically, and to trust in Hime to be her sole confidant in an otherwise hostile world. But in spite of Hime’s cynicism regarding social performances, she’s actually a deeply empathetic person; while Kanoko simply tunes out her surroundings, Hime is always aware of people like Mitsuki or Kanoko, those who need help connecting with others, or a particular space where their personalities can shine. Hime’s personal bonds are a route towards a greater general appreciation for people’s diverse personalities and passions, while Kanoko has made a fortress of her one bond, seeing Hime as the only connection she’ll ever need. That’s obviously unsustainable, meaning the question is really just “how much will Kanoko tear down before she starts to grow up?” Let’s find out!

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Mezzo DSA – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re diving into another property by Yasuomi Umetsu, the distinctive director of Kite, Mezzo Forte, and Wizard Barristers, alongside an eclectic scattering of OVA contributions and other projects across the last few decades. Umetsu’s unique aesthetic style and dedication to kinetic action drama mean that although his works are few in number, they’re all extremely reflective of his art design preferences and narrative interests; he composes action with the playful mastery of John Woo or Shinichiro Watanabe, imbuing his worlds with a weighted sense of physical conflict and a vast assembly of character-rich background details.

Having already screened the two-part OVA Mezzo Forte, we’re now diving into the franchise’s followup television drama, Mezzo DSA (short for Danger Squad Agency, the optimistic title of our main trio’s operation). The OVA era was likely a perfect fit for Umetsu’s mixture of perfectionism and incidental erotica – a fifteen year stretch where you could fund an intricately animated passion project, just so long as there was a sex scene to promote on the cover. With that era now ceding to the late-night TV paradigm of the post-Evangelion market, I’m intrigued to see how Umetsu adapts his style to the more limiting confines of weekly episodes, as well as simply happy to check back in with this charming trio of mercenary miscreants. Let’s get to it!

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Galaxy Express 999 – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to the journey of Tetsuro and Maetel, as we explore a fresh episode of the fantastical Galaxy Express. Our last episode saw the pair touching down on the planet Trader, and for once enjoying the generous amenities of a modern city as they prepared for the next leg of their journey. But no glimmering facade comes without its ominous underbelly, and in Trader, the vast gulf between the haves and have-nots is expressed on every street corner, as desperate travelers beg for charity from anyone who might answer.

The threat of starvation has a way of clarifying our relationship with others, demonstrating how the civility of society is essentially another form of imprisonment, a culturally conditioned expectation that we will suffer in silence rather than disrupt the mirage that is capitalism. True scarcity pierces the veil, forcing us to act in desperate, ugly ways in order to survive, and through this desperation reveal that forms of classism or servitude based on financial relations are in truth no more civilized than the gun and the lash. It is a very convenient thing to have your inhumanity enshrined as the culturally accepted mode of exploitation, while the cries of those you’ve impoverished are at best framed as “undignified,” and likely as not criminalized altogether. All we can hope for in such desperate times is that the fire of compassion not be snuffed out by pragmatism – and in this woman he has allied with, whose poverty and kindness remind him so much of his mother, Tetsuro may have discovered another keeper of the flame. Let us return to Galaxy Express 999!

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The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You – Episode 13

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are privileged to be checking back in with a family we all know and love, a family which only seems to grow stronger and more preposterous with every passing episode. That’s right, we’re returning to the adventures of Rentaro and his soon-to-be one hundred girlfriends, their ranks just recently bolstered by the addition of initial girlfriend Hakari’s mother Hahari.

With Rentaro now dating a fellow student and her mom at the same time, there is effectively no known boundary for the coming absurdity. Of course, even more preposterous than 100 Girlfriends’ premise is the fact that it actually, consistently demonstrates the fundamentals of mutually loving relationships, demonstrating more clarity of affection and constancy of consideration than many traditional romances. As I’ve said before, 100 Girlfriends’ secret weapon is that Rentaro himself is utterly charming; far from the nebbish creeper harems often set as audience surrogate, Rentaro is actually easy to fall in love with, and consistently proves himself a paragon of romantic gallantry. With the family secure and the future bright, let’s return to 100 Girlfriends!

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