Category Archives: Episode Writeup

BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into the drama of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!!, after an episode that saw Anon doing her best to resolve the roiling emotions and profound regrets left in CRYCHIC’s chaotic wake. It appears Soyo was indeed correct to choose Anon as her instrument of conciliation; after hearing the whole story from Tomori, Anon was swift to plant Tomori, Taki, and Soyo down in a café together, and demand these woebegotten teenagers Talk This Shit Out.

The resulting conversation was refreshing in its specificity of perspective and authenticity of character voice, but that’s frankly what I’ve come to expect from MyGO. This production’s script is one of the best I’ve seen in years, capturing the nuances of character voice and the inherent friction of motives and personalities in conflict with a grace that puts it in the upper echelon of high school dramas. Coupled with storyboarding and character acting dedicated to conveying the finer unspoken fault lines within these relationships, the overall effect is utterly gripping; with characters this fully realized, it’s fun just watching them bounce off each other. Let’s see how new guitarist Raana secures her place in the band with a fresh episode of MyGO!

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Toradora! – Episode 11

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There are few scholastic touchstones more beloved by anime than the vaunted high school cultural festival. And it’s not hard to understand why; such festivals provide a natural disruption of their attendees’ standard, frequently unconsidered school activities, offering events that both force collaboration between unlikely student alliances and also challenge characters to move outside their comfort zone, prompting reflection on how they’ve changed over the preceding year. 

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Sherlock Hound – Episode 6

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am utterly thrilled to be returning to Sherlock Hound, that shimmering jewel of ‘80s anime elevated by a rogue’s gallery of all-time artists and animators, including both Hayao Miyazaki and many of his eventual Ghibli compatriots. The show has so far provided a buffet of riches on both the aesthetic and narrative front, marrying playful animation and sumptuous background art to capers that jump-start Arthur Conan Doyle’s original material with a healthy dash of Lupinism, alongside an abiding love for convoluted mechanical contraptions. The adventures of Sherlock, Watson, and the perpetually amused Mrs. Hudson have been a delight so far, while simultaneously filling out one of the key gaps in my post-Toei, pre-Ghibli education on the scions of animation. Let’s see what madness this marvelous production team cook up next!

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Hugtto! Precure – Episode 39

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today an overbearing cloud bank promises an altogether gloomy afternoon, so I’ve decided to rally against the weather with a sunny episode of Hugtto! Precure. Our last episode offered a generous buffet of Halloween-centric designs and festivities, while once again offering a humanizing splash of frustration and regret to the show’s former villains. While Hugtto’s young leads are largely preoccupied with the intimidating open canvas of their encroaching adult lives, its older villains serve as an encouraging reminder that even adulthood is a process rife with mistakes and reinvention, and that nothing about our future is ever truly set in stone.

Whether in context of the Precure’s villains or their parents and community guardians, I remain greatly appreciative of Hugtto’s acknowledgment of the conflicts and anxieties that carry on into our adult lives. The show celebrates finding a place you belong without framing dreams as destiny, a balancing act that encourages exploration and self-discovery rather than anxiety over your “one true path.” Let’s see where their passions take our heroes next as we return to Hugtto!

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The Legend of Vox Machina S2 – Episode 11

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m thrilled to be diving back into the adventures of Vox Machina, who most recently joined Grog in clobbering the shit out of the Storm Herd, and bisecting his Vestige-clad mountain of an uncle in the process. The battle against Kevdak saw our heroes united for the first time in half a season, flexing their powers as Grog resolved both his lingering backstory and emotional journey. It was a fine demonstration of how DnD’s narrative and mechanical elements can be harnessed to work in service of the players’ character arcs – of course, such a collaboration requires a player who’s interested in portraying a character arc, which brings us to the current conundrum of our irreverent Scanlan.

Scanlan has time and again been offered a call to grow into a greater sense of responsibility as a character, and has time and again resisted the offer to be anything more than an irreverent prankster. That’s a fine approach to DnD in a campaign where the players are intended to be static reactors to external conflict, but Vox Machina’s campaign is clearly designed around the player avatars overcoming their fatal flaws, be they Percy’s obsession with revenge, Grog’s heedless pursuit of strength, or Vex’s lingering regrets regarding her father. While most of the players have taken to this process with enthusiasm, Scanlan has time and again turned away from the brightly lit signs stating “character growth this way,” prompting the eventual introduction of Kaylie as a daughter-shaped representation of the consequences of his actions.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that my own campaign is again chugging along, with my Cloud-based player having recently triumphed in the final battle against their Sephiroth-esque nemesis. Though my initial thinking ran along lines like “how can I integrate my players’ desires into the narrative I have planned,” the course of our campaign has revealed a pretty obvious truth: player desires will always inform the most passionate and effective collaboration, so they should be built as centrally into the campaign’s structure as possible. With our next session coming this very afternoon, my mind is abuzz with further plans for paying off my players’ desires, but this intro has already run too long as it is. For now, let’s dive back into the journeys of Vox Machina!

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Spy x Family – Episode 24

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d say we’re about due to check back in on the Forger family, after a two episode arc that saw Loid and Frost competing in the most high-stakes and dangerous of semi-professional tennis tournaments. Their participation in the Campbellian offered an opportunity for both Wit and Cloverworks’ animators to really flex their muscles, while also reveling in the sincere spy drama trickery Tatsuya Endo clearly loves.

Of course, focusing so completely on a “Spy” escapade has left this production’s “x Family” element by the wayside, so I’m looking forward to a return to our heroes’ fraught domestic life. I am happy to admit I’m an easy mark when it comes to found family drama, and the gradual transformation of each of our leads as they come to trust and rely on each other never fails to warm my heart. Loid has come to care for and even take pride in his daughter’s accomplishments, Yor is gaining greater confidence in her worthiness as a partner and mother, and Anya is beginning to believe that her parents really are her stalwart protectors, spy mission or not. It’s always a pleasure seeing lonely people find their missing pieces in each other, and Spy x Family’s eminently likable crew are seeming more unified and whole by the episode. Let’s get to it!

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BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Episode 4

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d say it’s past time to return to the tortured drama of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO, after a third episode that ripped my heart out and tore it to pieces. After two episodes of watching Anon stumble around the periphery of CRYCHIC’s messy fallout, MyGO’s third episode offered an intimate detailing of not just that particular catastrophe, but also Tomori’s entire life story leading up to it. Literally trapped in her headspace via the episode’s relentless perspective, we got to experience a lonely lifetime of knowing you can’t quite interact on the wavelength of your peers, but still desperately wishing to form meaningful connections. And then came Sakiko, with her promise of understanding and praise for your unmediated confessions, with her offer of a place where you truly belong.

Episode three was a tiny masterpiece of perspective and characterization, and also a welcome explanation for the former CRYCHIC members’ current circumstances. The light Sakiko brought into Tomori’s life, and the subsequent crashing fall when she suddenly decided to leave the band, have more than clarified Tomori’s hesitance to form a similar bond with Anon, as well as Taki’s violent reaction to any such suggestion. Whatever prompted Sakiko to kill the band, it feels difficult to forgive her for exploiting Tomori’s isolation and then thoughtlessly casting her aside; Sakiko is clearly socially savvy enough to understand just how much Tomori invested in her promises, pushing her unilateral separation beyond the realm of selfishness and into outright cruelty. In contrast, Anon’s interest is genuine, but idle; she may want to be in a band, but I’m not sure she’s prepared to take on the weight of the hopes that Sakiko left behind her. Let’s see how this messy crew fumbles forward as we return to MyGO!

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The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out a brand-spanking new production, as we explore the first episode of the currently airing 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You. Just by that title, it seems we’re in for a tongue-in-cheek take on the distinguished harem genre, a genre that was actually instrumental in both my original induction into anime fandom (Love Hina), as well as my migration to professional anime writing (Bakemonogatari). Though the base concept of “one protagonist surrounded by a crowd of romantic prospects” might not seem like the most thoughtful or poignant of premises, the genre frequently exhibits uncommon flexibility, ranging from hilarious sex comedies to trenchant explorations of the human condition.

As for The 100 Girlfriends, I’ve heard plenty of positive things about its manga, which fans praise as both funny and frequently heartwarming, with a cast who all seem to like each other on the whole, and not just exist in parallel orbit of our central protagonist. That all sounds like a good time to me, so let’s dispense with the preamble here, and see what these hundred girlfriends have in store for us!

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Kiss x Sis – Episode 2

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Honestly, at this point, bring on the little sister fetish shows. I at the time thought they were generally as artless as television anime was going to get – utterly lacking in any sort of meaningful character writing or thematic intent, but at the very least siloed within a specific realm of fetish-driven content, proudly offering no reason or incentive for actual critics and art enthusiasts to engage with them. They were valueless, but they were also harmless; a clear reflection of a particular sub-subculture’s fetishization of their difficulties connecting with the opposite sex, nothing more or less.

I was wrong. Dear reader, I was so, so wrong.

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Bocchi the Rock! – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ve got a bittersweet spectacle ahead of us, as we journey through the final episode of Bocchi the Rock! I’m eager to see this last performance, but sad to say goodbye; Bocchi has been a delightful journey from start to finish, owing both to the inherent strength of its material and the inventive passion that Keichiro Saito and his team have brought to its adaptation.

Bocchi shines from pretty much whatever angle you choose to approach it. As a character-driven slice of life or situational comedy, the show possesses an uncommon understanding of anxiety’s variable manifestations, and realizes the halting, often circuitous process of acclimating yourself to social confidence and even performance with grace. But the show’s sensitivity of characterization isn’t limited to Bocchi herself; though they’re obviously given less screen time, her bandmates also come across as fully realized teenagers, convincing in both their oddball competencies and emotional blind spots.

Then there’s the show’s articulation of the music club scene: a quietly fading world of basement venues and found families, where weirdos who’ve found community in chord progressions assemble to bleed their hearts out on the stage. From the care taken in visually realizing these spaces to the tenderness with which characters attest to their worth, Bocchi the Rock serves as a loving tribute to local music scenes of all stripes, affirming how even those who have trouble speaking their feelings can feel at home strumming them on guitar.

And then, there’s of course Bocchi’s luxurious production merits, from its spacious, often thematically purposeful layouts to its countless stylistic digressions and animation flourishes. It seems like every moment spent with Bocchi offers some fresh reward, so while I’m loath to say goodbye, I’m thrilled we’re finishing on one last performance. Good luck up there, Bocchi!

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