Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Yuri is My Job! – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to Cafe Liebe, and see how things are faring for our hapless kohai Hime. After being conscripted into service as a replacement for her manager Mai, Hime swiftly managed to trip over or smash into basically every convention of their fictional girls’ academy. Though she has some vague understanding of the genre territory being explored, the lingo is still foreign to her; she has mastered a precise script of feigned modern-day courtliness, but her affectation bears only a passing resemblance to the assumed calls and responses of Liebe Girls’ Academy.

Of course, that precise formality of assumed language is exactly why Liebe’s customers find this performance so enticing. Hime is talented at improvising in the manner of a genuine social butterfly, but the genre-born assumptions of Liebe flatter a very different audience, comforting those who, like Kanoko, find the vagaries of spontaneous conversation foreign and intimidating. Scripts provided by fiction allow those who have difficulty expressing themselves organically to connect with others; when the rules are so clearly defined, there is little fear of putting your foot in your mouth. And of course, it’s not like organic conversations don’t follow their own unspoken scripts, as Hime’s initial talents well demonstrate. All human interactions are in part a performance of selfhood, and through Cafe Liebe, Yuri is My Job! is consistently demonstrating the differences and nuances of performing for yourself, for the sake of being understood, and for the approval of an assumed audience. Let’s see how Hime fucks it up this time!

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Spy x Family – Episode 34

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive right into the presumed conclusion of Spy x Family’s action-packed cruise arc, wherein Yor has fended off countless would-be assassins while Loid does his best to be a Perfectly Normal Man. I am proud to say that both have conducted themselves admirably; Yor’s efforts have prevented any harm from coming to her charge, and Loid has (with a little help from Anya) engaged in such profoundly normal activities as miniature golf and wearing everything in the gift shop.

Along the way, Yor has been challenged to find the answer to a fundamental question: why exactly does she fight? Yuri no longer needs her protection, and while she once saw the Forgers as a cover for her actual work, she’s now more committed to their collective life than her original purpose. What she has decided serves as a tidy echo of Loid’s convictions: she must fight to ensure other families enjoy such happiness, using her skills to preserve peace just as Loid fights for all the lonely orphans of war. I’m sure the two would be quite proud of each other, if revealing their secrets wouldn’t immediately put them in mortal opposition – but for now, I’m just happy Yor’s found a meaningful reason to fight, a drive that will hopefully prompt future growth. Let’s see if we can catch the last of the fireworks!

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The Legend of Vox Machina S3 – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am thrilled to announce we are returning to the adapted tabletop adventures of Vox Machina, that unruly band of heroes tasked with saving Tal’Dorei from the draconic Chroma Concave. Their escapades have proven both entertaining stories in their own right, and also persistent vehicles for discussion of tabletop gaming more generally. As someone who came late to tabletop gaming from a background in traditional fiction, I have a voracious appetite for any sort of lessons worth gleaning from the ramblings of Matt Mercer and his players, and have been impatiently awaiting this return to the field.

As for my own DnD adventures, it’s apparently been most of a goddamn year since we last checked in, so yes, I have news to report. The campaign I had at that point been running for around fourteen months came to an end in late winter, with my players battling an avatar of Asmodeus atop the high tower of the ninth circle of hell. It seemed an appropriately bombastic conclusion for my adventure, which followed the classic “the enemy you have been fighting was actually a pawn of the real threat” formula to swerve (with plentiful foreshadowing, mind you) from a pan-Dale civil war to a struggle to prevent hell’s emergence into the mortal realm. Old allies were recalled, grand foes were slain, and our sorcerer used grease to make the princess of hell fall on her ass at least three separate times.

Since then, we’ve begun a new campaign, with one of my campaign’s players DMing us through the on-book Curse of Strahd adventure. This has resulted in a chilling discovery: on-book DnD kinda sucks! It’s basically a sandbox designed for randomized NPC conversations and combat encounters, possessing none of the guided narrative focus and subsequent dramatic payoffs that is DnD as interpreted by groups like Critical Role. Fortunately, my group came prepared for just such a possibility, as this time we’re essentially creating our own wholly player-side character arcs, and doing our best to remain in-character all through our active sessions. I’ve been leading the charge with this, with my experience running a whole pile of NPCs making it easy to slip into the guise of Tilly the Goblin Cleric, who is a little intimidated by the gloomy world of Barovia, but doing her best to keep spirits high and limbs properly attached.

I’ve been further solidifying our player-side development through the creation of Tilly’s Reports, essentially formalized, in-character session notes that help to keep the party on the same general page dramatically. I’d be happy to share those and more news of our ongoing DnD trials later, but for now, it’s past time to get on with the adventures of Vox Machina. Onward!

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Yuki Yuna is a Hero (Washio Sumi Chapter) – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. You all ready for some suffering? I had figured saving the entirety of humanity at enormous physical and emotional cost would have earned the girls of Yuki Yuna a reprieve, but apparently the beatings must continue. With more than a little trepidation, today we journey onward into Yuki Yuna is a Hero’s Washio Sumi Chapter!

If anything, we’re now actually worse off than we were before, as this is a story with a known and terrible ending: the tale of Togo’s first run as a hero, wherein she was adopted into a family blessed by the Divine Tree in order to be exploited as a sacrifice to their god. We learned enough from the first season to grasp the broad beats of this narrative, so what I’m most intrigued about is gaining more context regarding the Divine Tree itself, its nature and how it expresses its will.

The idea that humans are simply pawns in wars between overwhelming eldritch identities, and that we’ve furthermore chosen to ally ourselves with one such implacable being in order to cling to survival, is a fascinating conceit for a magical girl drama. Additionally, human resilience in spite of a profoundly broken world is one of my favorite dramatic juxtapositions, embodied even in that “if anyone says there’s no reason to hope, I’ll prove them wrong every single time” line that gave my site its name. Let’s see how our heroes rally against the dying of the light as we return to Yuki Yuna!

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Skip and Loafer – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d like to settle down to enjoy a cozy new episode of Skip and Loafer, and see how Mitsumi is faring with festival preparations. Our last episode offered one of this production’s most enchanting tone pieces so far, vividly realizing the nostalgic, lackadaisical atmosphere of Mitsumi’s summer vacation. You could practically feel the sun and taste the watermelon as Mitsumi reunited with her old friends, with this gentle romantic comedy demonstrating its command of boarding, pacing, and sound design can compete with the best slice of life productions in the business.

Now that we’ve returned to school, the race is on to prepare for the upcoming school festival. But while Mitsumi is prepping for the trials ahead, Shima is still bound by the past, unable to embrace his high school life in the wake of his prior transgressions. That’s somewhat understandable given he’s literally got an old friend shouting “how dare you embrace high school in the wake of your prior transgressions” right in his ear, so my current hope is that Ririka and Mitsumi actually meet and hash things out, prompting Shima’s childhood friend to perhaps lighten up and embrace forgiveness. Regardless, I’m sure we’re in for some thoughtfully written and altogether charming shenanigans, so let’s not waste any more time hypothesizing. Onward to the festival!

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Uzumaki – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out a new production, as we explore the long-awaited adaptation of horror mangaka Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, or “Spiral.” The acclaimed manga centers on the town of Kurouzu-cho, where some sort of spiral-oriented curse is steadily infecting the townsfolk and the landscape around them. In classic Ito fashion, Uzumaki wavers between eerie body horror and high-concept farce, treading the uncertain line dividing horror from comedy, and ultimately building a profound sense of entrapment and dread across its spiral-centered vignettes.

Whether Ito’s work can be translated to effective animation is another question entirely, and one that has been afforded some worrying precedent through prior adaptations like Gyo and the recent Junji Ito Collection. Conveying horror through the inherently affected medium of animation is extremely difficult; horror generally demands a sense of vulnerability, and an audience’s awareness that they are watching lines drawn on a page tends to undercut any aspirations in that direction. It is additionally the inherent wobbling nature of Ito’s linework, as if he’s scratching with the charcoals of a ritual fire, that often affords his stories such profound emotive power. Stack all that with his work’s tendency to strain suspension of disbelief even in its original medium, and you’ve got a mammoth task facing any prospective adaptation.

Fortunately, director Hiroshi Nagahama is an absolute master of tone, and has already proven through both his Mushishi and Flowers of Evil adaptations that he is literally the best horror director working in animation. If anyone can manage it, Nagahama can, and I’m certainly eager to see him try. Let’s get to it!

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Sol Bianca: The Legacy – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re going to be embarking on a new journey, as we explore the first segment of six-episode OVA series Sol Bianca: The Legacy. I’ll admit, I know basically nothing about either this series or the original two-episode OVA that preceded it; I’ve frankly never heard of either, but that’s little surprise, as the OVA boom was flush with productions that didn’t necessarily make an international splash.

The original Sol Bianca was actually cut short at two installments due to low sales, and only followed up a decade later by this quasi-sequel. The two share the titular all-female pirate ship, as well as animation director/character designer Naoyuki Onda, who’s enjoyed a fruitful AD career on projects ranging from Record of Lodoss War to Rage of Bahamut. The Legacy’s director Hiroyuki Ochi has also mostly worked in animation direction and key animation, so if nothing else, I’m expecting some luxurious cuts and character art ahead of us. Let’s check it out!

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Hugtto! Precure – Episode 45

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d check back in with Hana and the gang, as our brave Precures charge towards the conclusion of their grand adventure. Over the past forty-some episodes, our heroes have made lifelong friends, discovered key facets of themselves, and even fallen in love (with a hamster). And through all these trials, Hugtto has continued to offer charming and poignant reflections on aging, teaching both its heroes and its viewers to look towards adulthood with ambition and hope.

Most recently, we’ve been tying up the loose ends of our heroes’ various personal journeys, starting with first Homare and then Saaya. If the pattern holds, I’m looking forward to some hard rocking Emiru adventures, as she continues to break free from the expectations of her grandfather and embrace her own guitar-shredding identity. Let’s see what awaits us in a fresh episode of Hugtto Precure!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today a late summer storm is currently raging beyond my window, fleets of rain shaking the trees as I sit quietly ensconced in my bedroom. It’s a scene much like the comfort of watching snow fall from beside a warm fire, a snug feeling of safety within a tumultuous world, and the whole scene has me thinking it’s just about time for an episode of Frieren.

Frieren has so far proven itself a show all about enjoying moments like these, the incidental fragments of impossible beauty scattering our passage through life. When we are preoccupied with distant goals and tangible landmarks, we have a tendency to miss the observations and indulgences that ultimately furnish our memories, transforming a list of tasks accomplished into a journey rich in unexpected wonders. Whether it’s in narrative drama or our own lives, the incidental, ephemeral things matter more than we might think, adding distinct texture to our experiences, and texturing our own personalities and memories in turn. Let’s see what memories our pair make next as their journey continues!

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Trigun Stampede – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to Trigun Stampede, and see how Vash and his companions are faring. It certainly hasn’t been an easy road for them; although Vash possesses tremendous destructive power, he is loath to use his abilities to harm others, even if those others have every intention of harming him. This has made for a difficult trek across this sand-blasted planet, as every mercenary and their mother is intent on capturing him, to which he can generally just offer a lopsided “can’t we just be friends?”

Descending from the heavens alongside his twin and shadow, Vash is clearly being framed as a messianic figure, a savior whose infinite charity might counterbalance the selfishness and violence of mankind. But in a cruel world, there is often little choice but to be cruel ourselves; though Vash possesses the strength to stand by his pacifist philosophy, he cannot single-handedly save this world, cannot transform it into a place where the necessities of life are so plentiful as to facilitate such effortless charity among the rest of us. Of course, this is all assigning him a thematic significance I’m sure he’d find lofty and embarrassing; as a person in his own right, he seems mostly concerned with not becoming the “weapon” that others see him as, a tool whose only purpose is destruction. The contrast of these two perspectives, alongside the inherent thrills and charm of this lushly appointed production, have made for a thoroughly satisfying meal so far. Let’s get back to it!

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