Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Anne of Green Gables – Episode 5

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to Anne of Green Gables, a shimmering jewel of a show, and one that has been thoroughly brightening my weekly schedule. I say this in spite of the show’s last two episodes serving as a delicate lesson in heartbreak; even when Anne is down in the dumps, her personality remains vibrant and idiosyncratic, making for delightful company. Meanwhile, the world around Anne is painted in a dazzling array of colors, with distant towers and forested alleyways promising adventure around every turn. With one of anime’s greatest appreciators of pastoral beauty at the helm, Anne of Green Gables illustrates the beauty and allure of the natural world like few features I’ve witnessed – and most of those also in Takahata’s oeuvre.

For this episode, Takahata will actually be stepping back a bit, as we’re moving into the first episode he didn’t personally script and storyboard. This episode’s scriptwriter Seijiro Koyama is a regular on Anne, but otherwise only worked on the Tom Sawyer masterpiece adaptation. On the other hand, storyboarder Fumio Ikeno is a masterpiece theater mainstay, having boarded or directed on over a dozen of the block’s properties. Let’s see how Takahata’s collaborators illustrate this generous production, as we return to Anne of Green Gables!

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Big Windup! – Episode 8

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Our boys have done it! After nine agonizing innings of tense gameplay and fraught psychological drama, Abe and his teammates have secured victory over Mihashi’s old team. Of course, a great part of that victory came from accepting that Abe is not the undisputed leader of his team. It took Tajima’s support to get Mihashi back in the dugout after failure, and it was actually Mihashi himself who made the crucial discovery regarding Oda’s batting strategy. As a fellow control freak, I can sympathize with Abe’s desire to micromanage every aspect of his victory – but ultimately, his perfect team can only flourish through him letting go, and trusting his players as much as his own instincts.

The results of that trust are already clear to see. When offered the opportunity to return to a repentant Mihoshi, Mihashi unambiguously declared his new allegiance, and then passed out for his first peaceful sleep in a week. Abe believing in his teammates means they will believe in him, too, and play far better for it. With our heroes having secured their first victory and consolidated into a true team in the process, I’m eager to see where their journey leads us next!

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Oregairu S3 – Episode 9

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What the fuck is wrong with you kids? Why can’t you let yourself embrace happiness for one goddamn second? Why you always gotta be martyring yourself for the sake of social conventions you don’t even fully understand? What is so wrong with having a good time with the people you love!?!?

Jesus cripes this show drives me crazy sometimes. The challenge to Yukino’s prom has been circumvented, yet our heroes are actually even more distraught than before, more certain they’re doomed to majestically drift apart. Kids, you’re only seventeen, you could fuck up for the next five years straight and still be ahead of the curve. And why would you take advice about relationships from a woman who’s destroyed all of her own personal bonds, anyway? Sometimes I feel like Ray dealing with Little Nephew when it comes to these anxious little devils, but it’s hard to fault the realism of teenagers thinking they don’t deserve love. I’m really hoping this is the low point of their journey, but I’ll be sticking by them regardless to the end. Let’s dive back into Oregairu!

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The Demon Girl Next Door – Episode 4

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Hello everyone, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Y’all ready for some Demon Girl Next Door? After two episodes of ineffectually stalking her magical girl prey, our last episode saw Yuko discovering that her family has never, ever won against a magical girl, at any point in history. Yuko isn’t just a scrappy weakling: she is the inheritor of a perpetual weakling legacy, with her weakling ancestors stretching back into prehistory. For untold centuries, Yuko’s people have been bravely sallying forth to fight magical girls, and have gotten their shit kicked in every single time.

Yuko’s ancestral uselessness is a fine joke in its own right, but also serves as a natural continuation of Demon Girl’s interrogation of the magic/demon girl binary. Purely because of the conditions of her birth, Yuko has been destined for poverty, devilry, and failure from the start. Though her ancestor urges her to succeed where others failed, it’s clear that this system is designed to produce specific winners and losers; self-determination is simply a lie that demons tell themselves, in order to cope with the underlying hopelessness of their situation. When given a chance to truly express her own wishes, Yuko’s feelings don’t seem particularly demonic at all: her main wish is “I hope we can all be friends.” But society demands heroes and villains, and so Yuko is forced to play a role she’s unsuited for, destined for a failure that’s been predetermined all along.

Meanwhile, the last episode also got terrific mileage out of brilliant concepts like Yuko is Short, or Momo is Bad at Cooking. With the show’s comedic and thematic layers each shining in their own way, let’s return to The Demon Girl Next Door!

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Eureka Seven – Episode 10

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. You all ready to dive back into Eureka Seven? Personally, I’m ready and then some; Bones’ early classic has lain dormant in my Current Projects for half a goddamn decade, but I never lost my interest in this unique and beautiful property. With one of my generous, lovely, intelligent readers having offered it the breath of life, I’m not planning on wasting this opportunity – I’m charging forward as far and fast as I can, buoyed by the wings of financial incentive to ride among the gallant Gekkostate crew.

Episode nine served as a clear turning point in the narrative, as Renton at last learned the true history of Gekkostate, and was formally inducted into the team as a full crewmate. Learning that the team were former military agents actually explains a great deal; their hardware all seemed oddly advanced for a group of beach bums, and odd details like Eureka’s children now make perfect sense. But while the path behind is now clear, the road ahead remains a mystery. I’m hoping Renton’s new position means we’ll at last be learning something of Gekkostate’s true objectives, as we return to the exhilarating Eureka Seven!

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The Hakkenden – Episode 1

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Alright, now we’re getting into some shit. Based on the legendary epic novel, the OVA series The Hakkenden is known as one of the great classics of anime history, an “animator’s masterpiece” that is as revered among Japanese animators as it is unknown to international audiences. It is widely regarded as one of the great works of anime’s OVA era, that period of the late eighties/early nineties where the medium’s most daring works were embracing the potential of direct-to-video, broadcast guideline-circumventing media, and Japan was still enjoying an impressive economic bubble

 Even just a brief scan down the show’s credits reveal that this first episode possesses key animation by legendary figures like Norio Matsumoto and Mitsuo Iso, all working in service of a bold revision of a literary classic. The Hakkenden is an essential screening for any self-respecting animation nerd, and I’m eager to find myself utterly out of my depth in assessing its greatness. Let’s get to work!

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Symphogear XV – Episode 7

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are storming right back into Symphogear, as it has been far too long since I watched a girl punch a tank, assault the moon, or sing a laser barrage into existence. Regardless of the specifics, you can be certain any given episode of Symphogear will contain at least one preposterous impossibility, frequently complimented by a commentator grimly explaining that Ah yes, when the Shroud of Turin is draped over the Nimblypimbly of Gertrude, of course a giant laser explosion will result. Guided by excess and grounded by its charming idiots, Symphogear is one of anime’s greatest works of pure, gleeful indulgence.

Last episode was certainly no slouch in that regard, as we witnessed the introduction of Ogawa’s glorious Car Clone Jutsu. It’s a rare show that can introduce boob missiles only to immediately eclipse them with something sillier, but Symphogear is a rare show indeed. With an ominous light now piercing the horizon, let’s return to the battlefield of SYMPHOGEAAAARRRRR!

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86 – Episode 7

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today you will have to forgive me, as we’re stepping back into the world of 86, and almost certainly have a tragic journey ahead of us. 86’s last episode certainly didn’t pull any punches; a momentary tactical error resulted in Daiya’s senseless death, while even before the fresh tragedy, flashbacks to our unit’s first deployment offered a melancholy reminder of all that we’ve lost.

That episode exemplified 86’s thoughtful, compassionate approach towards portraying the horrors of war. While many stories use the depiction of graphic violence as their central markers of horror and tragedy, 86 understands that how these characters die is only noteworthy in how pointless it is, not how graphic. Rather than laboring over gore, 86 celebrates its characters for how they lived, focusing chiefly on the vibrant characters we’ve lost and the empty spaces they leave in their communities. It can be difficult to convey violence without in some way glamorizing it, particularly since the excitement of high-stakes action is one of anime’s chief exports. But 86 is determined to celebrate its characters as multifaceted people, not simply effective warriors, and thus both its lack of glamorous action and resultantly mournful tone are intentional and essential to its purpose.

Last episode also served as an aesthetic high water mark for the series so far, proving that young director Kuniyasu Nishina is a talent to look out for. I’m looking forward to seeing more of their work in a few episodes, but for now, I’m eager to see how Spearhead handle their doomed current assignment. Let’s return to the world of 86!

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Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 49

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C’mon, we can’t stop right there, can we? Lillie’s in jeopardy! After fighting hard to overcome her pokemon phobia, an unexpected confrontation with Silvady has left her as traumatized as ever, and unable even to hug the bundle of light and joy that is Snowball. Alola is supposed to be a place of peace and comfort, and I cannot accept abandoning our heroes in their hour of greatest need. Indeed, it seems the only honorable choice is to keep watching Sun and Moon until all of its characters are happy again.

Alright, you caught me, I’m just fishing for more excuses to watch Sun and Moon. The show is delightful, spending time with its cast is fun even in moments of crisis, and I’m sure Lillie will overcome this trial with her usual can-do spirit. Let’s settle in for another episode of Sun and Moon!

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The Woman Called Fujiko Mine – Episode 11

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be returning to the sensual thievery of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, and hopefully discovering what the heck is going on with Fujiko. Though she prides herself on her independence, it’s clear that she’s still running from the scars of her childhood, and at least partially defining herself in opposition to the wishes of Count Armeid. The lingering influence of that trauma was made clear in her reaction to the tattooed woman, as she nearly destroyed herself in her attempts to obliterate this shadow of her past.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise; at the beginning of every episode, Fujiko herself warns us of her urge for “beautiful destruction,” a seduction that leaves both participants as hollow as she believes herself to be. Embracing thievery seems to be a way for her to redefine her fundamental “emptiness” as a strength, a weapon – but ultimately, it seems that framing Armeid’s influence in this way has only tightened his grip on her psyche. Fujiko has taken the insults thrown at her and sewn them into luscious finery, but for Armeid, only total rejection will suffice. Let’s hope her Samurai Friend can help her back to her feet then, as we storm towards the climax of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine!

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