Category Archives: Episode Writeup

CITY The Animation – Episode 6

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are returning to the bustling streets of CITY The Animation, after an episode that casually offered one of the defining sequences in twenty-first century animation. That’s not a claim to make likely, but it seems inevitable that episode five’s screen partition medley will be referenced and celebrated for years to come, a visual articulation of CITY’s “every community is a living organism” theme that astonishes both as a feat of sheer animated manpower, and also as a somehow cohesive, easy-to-follow master class in visual direction.

Episode five also offered the show’s first continuous narrative, taking advantage of its compelling venue to articulate a tale of hospitality deferred across a distinctive series of preposterous non-challenges. Given all that, I’m expecting we’ll be returning to the usual skit-based fare this time, if only because episodes like that last one must be a strain on even KyoAni’s incredibly healthy project scheduling. Fortunately, “a standard episode of CITY” is still one of the best things you could possibly experience, and with every episode we watch, more amusing/endearing bonds between its sprawling cast reveal themselves. Let’s see what’s going on in the city today!

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Kemonozume – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m happy to report our return to Kemonozume, Masaaki Yuasa’s bloody and enthralling full-series debut. The series has wasted no time in introducing us to a series of generational, political, and emotional conflicts, as we were introduced to the proud warriors of the “Kifuuken,” a clan dedicated to destroying Flesh Eaters that hide in human skins. While our protagonist Toshihiko seeks to overcome his fears and carry on the family traditions, his half-brother Kazuma sees this battle as an opportunity, a chance to introduce his mechanical warriors to the world at large.

The clan’s drama is already providing us a hearty stew of thematic variables, from questions of inheritance and familial duty to the relationship between war and technological progress. And that’s before we add in this narrative’s actual thrust – the burgeoning relationship between Toshihiko and one of the Flesh Eaters, a woman who seems determined to constrain her violent nature. Then of course, there’s the contrast of the opening sequence’s conflation of flesh eating and misogyny with the reversed power structure of this new bond. Yuasa’s works generally delight on both a visual and thematic level, and between Kemonozume’s wild aesthetic flourishes and layered conflicts, I’m eager to see how this story unfolds. Let’s get to it!

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Toradora! – Episode 13

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Can human beings truly come to understand each other? Can we untangle ourselves from the bitter biases of our own hearts, applying only what insight might be considered “universal” to our judgment of another’s feelings? And what is truly “universal,” what core of humanity might be extracted from the threshers and autoclaves of lived experience, might be applied without error in our assessment of another’s feelings? Is there any way of analyzing human psychology while removing the human element, or are we all just applying personal frameworks of purpose, passion, and morality to stories built on wholly incompatible fundamental assumptions?

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Rock is a Lady’s Modesty – Episode 8

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re touching down at Oushin Academy during a moment of crisis, as Lilisa’s fledgling rock band faces its first major clash of personalities. Lilisa invited Tina into the band somewhat by accident, initially unimpressed by her piano skills, but ultimately inspired by her unflagging dedication to the cause, a passion that reminded her of her own efforts to impress her father. However, Shiro has no patience for imperfect performers, and has at last demanded Lilisa fire Tina from the group outright.

This disagreement speaks to a more fundamental issue the group hasn’t resolved: articulating what specifically they want out of this band. Lilisa set their initial goal as appearing at a specific festival venue, but that alone doesn’t dictate what sort of dynamic they’re seeking to cultivate as a group. Is this just a place where adversarial individual musicians spar and rage at each other, as Otoha seems to desire? Lilisa might have initially accepted that, but Tina’s continued presence would likely require a softer touch, and that in turn would challenge the show’s unconsidered assumption that “social niceties are false, aggressive confrontation is authentic.” I’m frankly ready for the text to move beyond that adolescent “fuck normies” ethos, but I’ve at this point learned to temper my expectations regarding this production’s insights into the philosophy of music. And hey, violent clashes of big personalities are basically their own reward, so let’s settle in for the fireworks as we return to Rock is a Lady’s Modesty!

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Dear Brother – Episode 14

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we might take a stroll down to Seiren Academy, and see what fresh hell our students are enduring this week. After the revelation that Miya-sama is actually Saint Juste’s older sister, our last episode seemed to revel in the callous contrast between them, framing every luxury or cruelty of Miya-sama against the deprivation and agony of her sister’s experience. Living alone in a shadowed hall of mirrors, Saint Juste is surrounded by ghosts, from the lingering memories of her porcelain doll to the hated reflections of her own face.

All of this misery served to raise a further question of what it means to be close to one another, and what responsibilities arise from love or affection. Kaoru sees her “friendship” with Saint Juste as a vow of trust, a pledge to be at her side until these storms eventually pass. Though their bonds seem destructive, Shinobu at least sees something vital in that, believing that there could be nothing more romantic than a pledge of mutual self-destruction. Is it possible to commit yourself so fully to love without losing yourself, or is it that act of surrender that defines love in the first place? Let us hope Nanako at least draws something more life-affirming from her bonds, as we return to the tragedy of Dear Brother!

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Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Hero Chapter – Episode 4

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are once more leveling our swords towards the uncaring heavens, as we charge through a fresh episode of Yuki Yuna is a Hero’s appropriately titled Hero Chapter. With our club members having successfully extracted Togo from the Black Hole of Perpetual Suffering, it would appear things have returned to normal for the moment. Of course, nothing good comes without a price, and this time that cost falls upon Yuna herself, who is now cursed to suffer the flames of creation in Togo’s place.

And frankly, that’s not even the worst part of this new curse. Having apparently learned from the acts of selfless solidarity that liberated prior heroes, the Divine Tree has appended this fresh hell with a non-disclosure clause, preventing Yuna from even confessing her suffering to her closest friends. As always, the powers that be have taken something inherently precious and honorable – Yuna’s willingness to shoulder her friends’ burdens – and warped it into a new tool of entrapment and abuse. I can only hope that Yuna’s increasingly obvious suffering draws her friends into action as we return to the hero club!

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Bigtop Burger: Season One

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re exploring something a little outside our usual fare, as we munch through the first season of the Bigtop Burger animated series. From what I understand, this series is a frantic, irreverent comedy created by Ian Worthington, produced in Blender and featuring the voices of a variety of Youtube talents. The series follows the adventures of the titular burger truck and its clown-painted employees, though I imagine not much actual burger-vending will take place.

The series appears to fall into the same post-Invader Zim space as Vivziepop’s productions, with an emphasis on frenetic action and verbal sparring. I’ll admit, I was too old for this particular wave of online media; I was watching Invader Zim when it first came out, while my formative online video consumption was decidedly pre-Youtube, centered more on the stick figures and Salad Fingers of the old Newgrounds era. Nonetheless, I’m always curious to check out more of the internet’s diverse artistic microcultures, and imagine there’ll be much to poke at in this season’s blistering eleven minute runtime. Let’s get to it!

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Monogatari Off/Monster Season – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re continuing our journey through Monogatari’s Monster Season, as Araragi maintains his investigation of a series of vampiric near-murders around town. Having been conscripted by Gaen into one more oddity adventure, he has since discovered that five members of the girls’ basketball team have been targeted, and that the club itself has lost the sense of positive camaraderie that defined its glory days.

That’s our narrative on the surface, at least. Cracking open the carapace, it’s clear this arc is intended as a mirror of Kizumonogatari, with its parallels serving to illustrate just how much Araragi and Shinobu have changed since their first encounter. For Araragi’s part, it’s apparent already that he has come to value his present life and his intended future, having escaped both the clouded sense of self and self-destructive impulses of his earlier adventures. As for Shinobu, we have watched her become a mutually trusting partner to Koyomi, and also come to enjoy her role as both family member and stalwart protector in the Araragi house. The key question remains Deathtopia’s perspective – will she accept this version of Acerola who has found peace in domesticity, or will she demand a revival of the guarded Heart-under-blade, preferring the eternally questing maiden to one who has actually achieved her dream? Let’s find out!

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Wicked

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on a somewhat unusual journey, as we dawdle our way through the 2024 film Wicked, adapted from the 2003 stage musical of the same name, which was itself adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. I’ve never seen the play or read the novel, but from what I understand, it catalogues the younger days of The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, extrapolating an era spent at some sort of magical academy alongside Glinda the Good Witch.

Directed by John M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), the film stars Cynthia Erivo as our wicked witch Elphaba, and musical star Ariana Grande as the good witch Glinda. And that’s… basically everything I know about this film, beyond some general critical consternation regarding its staging and color design. I am a fan of musical theater, but I often find actual musicals to be a bit broad in their writing, rather than the incisive narrative song-cycles you can find on a good concept album. Either way, I’m eager to patch up this clear gap in my cultural knowledge, so let’s get on with the show!

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Star Wars Visions, Volume 3 – Episode 9

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I once again find myself in the unexpected position of screening a universally acclaimed Star Wars production, the much-heralded ninth episode of Star Wars Visions’ third season. Each of these “Visions” seasons features a sprawling collection of animators and production studios, with each individual episode offering a different team’s take on some aspect of the Star Wars universe.

While I’m generally a big fan of animated anthology projects, that overarching “Star Wars” label has kept me from checking out Visions in particular, as I’m just plain tired of the franchise’s wildly oversaturated tropes and tones. However, just as Andor successfully harnessed Star Wars’ mythology in service of an original, astonishing work of political theater, so have I heard that Visions’ most recent season offers a work of singular talent and vision, in the form of its Shinya Ohira-helmed ninth episode. 

I doubt there’s an animator in the industry who would refer to Ohira as anything less than a living legend. His fluid, ever-morphing forms possess a vitality unlike anything in the medium, and his contributions to productions ranging from Akira to The Boy and the Heron are some of the most captivating, unbelievable feats in animation history. His style of relentlessly shifting full animation is an outlier in an industry defined by compromise, and having assembled a preposterous team of similarly talented animators (Kou Yoshinari! Bahi JD! Daniel Kim! Masaaki Endo! Takeshi Honda! Weilin Zhang! Vincent Chansard! Toshiyuki Inoue!) for this project, I imagine we will here see him working without compromise, demonstrating a fluidity of form, scale of visual drama, and ambition of concept that will surely boggle the mind. Let’s get to it!

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