Category Archives: Episode Writeup

The Demon Girl Next Door – Episode 10

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today it seemed like just the right time to check back in on The Demon Girl Next Door, and see how our strange assortment of demons and magical girls are fairing. Last episode offered up some charming bonding moments between Shamiko, Mikan, and Ancestor, as the three of them checked out a zombie movie and worked on mitigating Mikan’s curse. We also got to see some delightful pettiness out of Momo, as she pouted in the most deadpan way possible upon learning that Mikan was hanging out with her friend without her.

Momo’s increasing sense of jealousy over Shamiko is delightful, a soothing tonic for my romance-hungry heart. It’s also nice to see both Ancestor and Shamiko establishing themselves in the overall group dynamic, which has in turn served to further underline the oppressive nature of this whole magical paradigm. Ancestor has clearly been traumatized by centuries of perpetual failure, while Mikan’s curse serves as a tidy metaphor for the demands put upon even the theoretically favored individuals in this system. An “ideal girl” is quiet, demure, and spotless, in contrast with the loud and agency-demanding women who are condemned as demons. For Mikan, even a hint of dramatic emotions is immediately punished with disaster, turning the patriarchal demand that women be quiet and well-behaved into a literal curse upon her. Demon Girl is clearly not finished articulating its grand magical girl metaphor, and I can’t wait to see what insights and goofiness are up next. Let’s get to it!

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Sherlock Hound – Episode 4

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to Sherlock Hound, which most recently obliterated my expectations via its first Hayao Miyazaki-directed episode. Sherlock Hound has been a gripping and visually splendiferous experience from the start, but with Miyazaki and a great number of his future Ghibli associates attached, the show bloomed into film-tier aesthetic brilliance, offering countless sequences of vivid action and character acting.

Nearly all of the episode’s key positions were filled by long-time Miyazaki associates, from animation director Yoshifumi Kondo (Whisper of the Heart) to director of photography Hirokata Takahashi (Castle in the Sky). And of course, Miyazaki’s own storyboards served as an ideal venue for all these artists, bringing Sherlock’s world to life with more energy and cinematographic allure than ever before. In the escapades of Moriarty and his associates, we saw shades of classic Lupin III, as well as Miyazaki’s abiding love of great and clamorous machines. In the gestures of Sherlock’s tiny employer, we glimpsed the carefully observed body language of My Neighbor Totoro’s heroines. Miyazaki is globally renowned for his film work, but through Sherlock Hound we see that he and his team could spin gold even amidst the mercenary conditions of television animation.

Of course, a great work of anime is more than just a list of famous names. Collectively, this team feels perfectly at home in Sherlock Hound’s whimsical reality, elevating the often dry elaboration of Doyle’s stories into rip-roaring adventures. Doyle’s mysteries are here adorned in clackety-clacking machinery and feverish chase scenes, bedecked in all the passions of their adaptors, but still emanating the fundamental narrative pull of his own imagination. It’s a marvelous fusion of talents, and I’ve surely raved about it to the point of tedium by now, so let’s not waste another moment. Onward, into the continuing adventures of Sherlock Hound!

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Star Driver – Episode 7

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to the scene on the ground at Southern Cross Isle, where just moments ago, Sugata unleashed the power of the King’s Pillar. That’s right, it’s time for more Star Driver, and all the glorious action animation/confounding thematic investigation that implies. After five episodes of tentative worldbuilding hints and regular episodic battles, episode six offered a mid-season board flip of tremendous intensity, explaining Sugata’s true nature just before potentially killing him. Just like Wako, Sugata is tethered to this island by the nature of his inheritance – but unlike Wako, he is trapped not by his connection to the shrine gates, but due to the fundamental danger his power represents.

All of these mechanical revelations slot neatly into Star Driver’s ongoing thematic conflict. The shrine maiden conceit embodies a fundamentally conservative perspective on female sexuality and agency, framing women as caged birds whose “purity” must be protected at all costs. The male counterpart to this framing is men defined as insatiable sexual predators, creatures who simply cannot control their urges (thus necessitating the imprisonment of women and downplaying of feminine sexuality). Sugata being framed as “too dangerous to leave the island” completes the circuit of Southern Cross’ gender paradigm, with the threat he poses summed up by the phallic symbol of the King’s Pillar.

So yes, Sugata has waggled his metaphorical penis around and potentially destroyed the island, himself, or both. But it was for a good cause! Let’s see how he and our other thematically imprisoned heroes are faring as we return to Star Driver.

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Eureka Seven – Episode 16

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Hello, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d step back in on Eureka Seven, wherein Renton most recently drove a strange rift between himself and Eureka. After a trip to his uncle’s farm raised old feelings of inadequacy to the surface, Renton rallied back through his declaration that “I am who I am,” asserting his proud separation from his family’s expectations. Having thus embraced his true desires, Renton was able to pilot the Nirvash like never before, deftly dispatching his enemies and rescuing Eureka in one swoop.

Unfortunately, Eureka doesn’t seem to appreciate Renton’s transformation. Her response to his piloting was simply “that’s not like the Nirvash at all,” and since that flight, she has forbidden Renton from even approaching the mech. Fresh off a key emotional revelation, Renton must now figure out why his actions hurt Eureka so, and what exactly he can do about it.

And honestly, I feel for the guy. These last couple episodes have hammered heavily on the “difficulty of true mutual understanding” theme, a concept Eureka Seven has carried on from Evangelion – but crucially, Shinji’s quest for understanding generally centered on his relationship with other recognizably human characters. Misato, Asuka, and even Gendo possessed full and coherent human personalities – in contrast, Rei Ayanami was always more of a ghost, and was never fully understood by her companions. With her blue hair, minimal emotional responses, and supernatural origins, Eureka is clearly modeled on Rei, meaning Renton is being asked to achieve a connection not just between human beings, but likely between different species. Eureka’s actions aren’t just mysterious to insecure teenage boys, they’re mysterious to everyone – and if Eureka Seven plans on pursuing this thread of sincere connection, it will likely have to abandon some of Eureka’s impenetrable mystique.

In the meantime though, I’m guessing Renton will attempt a whole bunch of attention-grabbing antics that only serve to weird Eureka out. That sounds plenty fun to me, so let’s get right to it!

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Bodacious Space Pirates – Episode 20

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. How’s everyone doing today? For me, the mood is a little restrained due to the currently overcast weather, but that won’t matter soon, as there ain’t no clouds in SPACE! Wait, are there clouds in space? Don’t quote me on that, I don’t actually know anything about science or the natural world. Regardless, we are indeed piercing the firmament and jetting into the vast beyond, as we check out a fresh episode of Bodacious Space Pirates.

When last we left off, Marika had almost made a serious mess of things by misplacing her captain ring. In her attempts to carry the weight of both the Bentenmaru and the yacht club on her shoulders, Marika swiftly exhausted herself, leading to dangerously sloppy behavior. Fortunately, her reliable princesses were there to save her, returning her ring while rightfully demanding she let her companions share her burdens. Marika is clearly a powerful space warrior, but even she can’t handle all these responsibilities alone; fortunately, from the yacht club through the Bentenmaru crew through Serenity’s royals and beyond, she’s established a remarkable network of allies to stand beside her.

With inter-act responsibilities resolved, it’s presumably time to embark on Bodacious Space Pirates’ final adventure. I’m eager to see what shenanigans our heroes get up to, so let’s dispense with the preamble, and set out for the stars!

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Spy x Family – Episode 4

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Hey folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d take another look in on the Spy x Family, who recently celebrated their newfound unity with a group outing. After the first episode secured Loid a child and the second gained him a wife, episode three offered our first glimpse at their overall family dynamic, with the madness that is the Forger clan operating in full swing. Museums were visited, thieves were apprehended, and our trio began to resemble a functioning family, more or less.

That thief apprehension was Spy x Family’s most rewarding sequence so far, as all three of the Forgers got to show off their talents in pursuit of a common goal. But with so much deception baked into their relationships, I’m curious to see how often this story will allow them to be on the same page like that. What I’d most like to see is more tending to our cast’s fledgling points of connection – how Loid’s childhood makes him particularly sympathetic to Anya, how Yor’s sacrifices make Loid seem like a kindred spirit, etcetera. Close personal connections are generally built on vulnerability and honesty, and with Spy x Family’s premise almost necessarily forbidding such gestures, I’m extremely curious to see how it actually brings this trio closer. Let’s find out!

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Anne of Green Gables – Episode 10

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Wrong Every Time. Today it seemed just about time to take a trip back to Green Gables, and see how our friend Anne is faring. Last episode served as a great triumph for Anne, as her first meeting with potential friend Diana turned out splendidly. Though Anne came on a little strong with her vow of undying friendship and all that, Diana turned out to be thoroughly charmed by Anne’s eccentricities, and the two enjoyed a peaceful afternoon among the hills and flowers. Diana can’t quite match Anne’s peculiarity of perspective, but she’s just as voracious of a reader, giving the two an easy point of connection in kindling a long and rewarding friendship.

Last episode also served as a temporary sendoff to Yoshiyuki Tomino, who’ll be rejoining us for episode twelve. In the meantime, this episode will be storyboarded by Shigeo Koshi, a Masterpiece Theater mainstay who also made significant contributions to Leiji Matsumoto’s Star Blazers. Koshi will be working from a Takahata script, and with no specific episode director attached, I’m guessing this episode will most directly evoke the soothing naturalism and poetic whimsy of Takahata’s oeuvre. That’s more than fine by me; every fresh episode of Anne raises my estimation of Takahata, and I’ve already had to install a second floor in my artist-appreciation warehouse to account for how highly I currently regard him. Let’s see what wonders await us as we return to Green Gables!

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The Legend of Vox Machina – Episode 7

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am positively incensed, owing to my recent illness having stolen this week’s D&D session. We’d basically gone into hibernation mode over the winter, and had just started getting some momentum going, and then my body had the temerity to go and get sick on me! We’d just reached the ancient city! We were about to run through a miniboss rush! Who even knows when we’ll get the group together again to… aaARRGH!

Anyway. With my D&D opportunities in the outer world unjustly stolen from me, I’m planning to console myself with the continuing adventures of Vox Machina. When last we left off, the show had just announced a shocking yet inevitable reveal: Percy’s sister Cassandra is still alive, and actually working with the Blackbriars. Wha!? I know, I know, but don’t get too scandalized, since I’m pretty sure the reveal of the resistance’s mole will set her right back on the side of justice. As the tension continues to build, let’s see what awaits in a fresh episode of The Legend of Vox Machina!

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Summer 2022 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. You all doing okay this week? As for me, the water has currently been turned off in my apartment due to construction, a fact which is intermingling with the ongoing heat wave to astonishingly negative effect. But that aside, I’m still feeling hyped as hell about running my own D&D campaign, and have hammered out a whole introductory quest node for my beloved players. My current biggest issue is figuring out how to effectively crib from the various established modules – I don’t want to simply embrace standard WotC adventures, but the scale of invention required for a major D&D arc seems intimidating, to say the least. And of course, the house has still played host to all manner of film viewings, as we continue to extract vital nourishment from the fertile vine of cinematic history. I can sense myself getting weirdly florid with these descriptions, so let’s not waste any more time, and see what a fresh week of films has to offer!

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Ranking of Kings – Episode 6

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d check back in on Ranking of Kings, where our two aspirants to the throne are currently each contending with their own dire turns of fate. Having been betrayed by Domas and cast into the depths of hell, it seemed like this was the end for Bojji – but between Kage’s interference and the “protection” offered by his existing curse, our boy was safely carried to the King of the Underworld.

Unfortunately, it seems there’s no corresponding Kage-like ally here to rescue the young King Daida. Though he has claimed the crown he so fervently sought, he has in doing so pushed away all allies who might genuinely aid him, be they loyal protectors like Domas or the ever-hopeful Bojji. Fear of betrayal has ironically made him all the more susceptible to it, as by rejecting all who were willing to challenge him, he has left himself vulnerable to those whose unerring support was always a façade.

As Ranking of Kings has so consistently expressed, all people contain multitudes, and unique circumstances can always lead them to embrace their worse or better instincts. That is precisely why it’s so important to have companions who wish you to be your best possible self, and are willing to step in and say something when you embrace your less charitable instincts. Having spent his youth trusting in his own strength and always fearing betrayal, Daida lacks the sense of humility and compassion that would foster such relationships, putting his fate squarely in the mirror’s hands. Let’s see what fate awaits him as we return to Ranking of Kings!

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