Category Archives: Episode Writeup

The Legend of Vox Machina S2 – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to continue exploring the second season of Vox Machina, as our intrepid warriors head to Vasselheim in search of new allies. Will they find the reinforcements they seek, and can any force of mere warriors hope to stand up to the might of the Chroma Conclave!? If the laws of satisfying DnD experiences are to be obeyed, then “yes, obviously,” but I’m grateful to Mercer for setting up such a seemingly implacable foe.

Frankly, this season’s dramatic opening sequence is making me feel a little regretful about not destroying my own campaign’s main city, and merely subjecting it to an attack that saw its rulers killed and towers toppled. If my players are going to believe the whole world is in peril, I should at least be willing to destroy one city to prove it, right? But that’s just the sort of insight I love from this show, as it and I grapple with the perpetual negotiations of player satisfaction versus dramatic necessity, agency versus narrative focus, and all the other unresolvable contradictions that make DnD so interesting, so ambiguous and alive. Let’s sally forth to Vasselheim, as we continue to explore The Legend of Vox Machina!

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Bocchi the Rock! – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into the perpetual anxiety nightmare that is Life As A Bocchi, and see how our girl fares in the wake of her first day at work. Manning the concession stand at Starry was indeed a harrowing experience, but it was clear that Bocchi was making progress by the end, and equally clear that Nijika has been a good influence on her. From that first crossing of the playground fence to her admission that “I’m having a better time because you’re here,” Nijika has consistently and compassionately drawn Bocchi towards comfortable socialization and the rich high school life she’s always dreamed of.

Granted, making an effort for one work shift is a little different from committing to a customer-facing job permanently, but the formalized, simplified interactions of the concession stand might actually serve as socialization training wheels for Bocchi, getting her comfortable talking to people within the confines of easy questions with easy answers. Regardless, I’m sure this preposterously ambitious team will animate her trials with flair to spare, so let’s see what’s cooking with Bocchi!

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Star Driver – Episode 16

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Hello and welcome all back to Wrong Every Time. Today we return to Southern Cross Isle in a moment of crisis, with Mizuno having just discovered the true, inarguable limits of her gilded cage. After a lifetime of considering this island her sanctuary, the return of her despised mother made it suddenly intolerable. Seeking escape by ferry, she soon realized that shrine maidens aren’t simply forbidden from leaving the island, they physically cannot escape it. Every attempt to escape its grasp sent her tumbling back to the prior morning, with only increasing cracks in this island’s supernatural firmament to show for it.

Alongside its clear narrative import, all the visual signifiers of that last episode further emphasized that we’ve reached the conclusion of Mizuno’s comfortable fantasy. All of the sequences that initially introduced her (the ferry passing, the bird nest) were here reframed as conclusions, new friends and baby birds replaced by Mizuno’s mother and an empty nest. I’m feeling for Mizuno, but also eager to see how all these revelations change her relationships with the rest of the cast – after all, as Kanako and Benio have demonstrated, it is only once these students shed their false, expectation-borne shells that they can express their true selves. Let’s see what chaos awaits as we return to Star Driver!

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Dear Brother – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’re returning to Dear Brother, and continuing to explore its fusion of Ikeda’s propulsive storytelling and Dezaki’s expressive direction. I’ve seen scattered fragments of Dezaki’s work before (his Cobra film, his Ganso Tensai Bakabon episodes), but I was still not prepared for the visual imagination elevating every scene of that premiere, and framing the drama of Seiran Academy at precisely the fever pitch Nanako was experiencing it. In Dezaki’s hands, anime embraces the tools of both theater and traditional painting; rather than attempting to mediate the distance between art and audience via an illusion of realism, Dezaki embraces formal artifice to create something that is both visually striking and emotionally authentic.

Also, Ikeda’s story! I was curious to learn how a boarding school would provide the necessary flint and tinder to spark a proper melodrama, and that premiere felt like a masterclass in efficiently establishing conflict and intrigue. Between Nanako’s relationship with this mysterious brother, the approaching chaos of the sorority proving, and the larger-than-life auras of Seiran’s three champions, it seems Seiran is stuffed to bursting with conflicts and dark histories just waiting to be revealed. I’m eager to see how these mysteries unfold, so let’s quit with the rambling and dive back into the show!

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The Demon Girl Next Door S2 – Episode 6

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Holy shit, ring the alarms, evacuate the facilities, we’re in full crisis mode. Sakura Chiyoda has appeared on the scene, confounding all my pacing and structural expectations for this season, and rocketing us to within striking distance of actually learning about Shamiko’s father. I was fairly confident we’d be spending most of this season chasing Sakura’s footprints, but now that she’s here in the flesh (or at least whatever equivalent of flesh applies to a mental projection within Shamiko’s memories), it seems like we might be moving right onto the secondary task of dismantling her barrier, and establishing true freedom of interaction between demons and magical girls.

Granted, that initial plan was hatched before Shirasawa revealed that this town is literally the world’s only demon sanctuary, raising some question as to whether undoing Sakura’s work is the wisest choice. But regardless, I’m eager to hear from this story’s most hyped-up heroine. Let’s get to it!

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Spy x Family – Episode 14

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re diving right back into the drama of Spy x Family, in the midst of a high-stakes adventure involving psychic children, future-sighted dogs, and an attempted political assassination! The show is certainly wasting no time in its second cour, and appears to currently be charging towards the fulfillment of one of its most tantalizing promises: the whole Forger family in full battle array, coordinating their powers to solve some grand political crises.

This lever was pulled only once before, during that purse-snatching incident near the beginning of the series, but it’s looking like preventing this assassination will require all hands on deck once again. The key staff also look quite strong for this one; episode director Takahiro Harada has credits ranging from Idolmaster to Birdy the Mighty, while storyboarder Takahiro Miura appears to be something of an action specialist, with regular Ufotable credits on Demon Slayer and the various Fate adaptations. Given Spy x Family’s split studio production, I imagine the team has been afforded plentiful time and resources for what is essentially a “second premiere” of the second cour. Let’s see what they’ve got on offer!

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The Legend of Vox Machina S2 – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am just pleased as punch to be returning to The Legend of Vox Machina, and continuing alongside the DnD-derived adventures of our intrepid heroes. The first season proved to be a delightful experience on the whole, with the party’s confidence as a unit seeming to echo its players’ growing confidence in guiding them, all leading up to a dynamite fusion of resolving player arcs and murder-rich visual theater.

That season also offered me plenty of food for thought regarding my own nascent dungeon mastering, though I’ve of course still got a long, long way to go. Humility established, I’m also quite proud to have completed the first act of my own campaign, having guided my players from unknown adventurers to local heroes of the realm, with a continent on the brink of war now stretched out before them. Having spent much of December and January plotting out upcoming quests, I’m eager to see how my players confound my expectations and muck up my best-laid efforts. We literally just conducted the first session of act two last week, so this seems like the perfect time to hop back into Vox Machina, and see how Mercer and his crew grapple with the peculiarities of this collaborative medium. Let’s get to it!

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Star Driver – Episode 15

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we arrive at Southern Cross Isle in a moment of crisis, with Kiraboshi having at last discovered the identity of their missing shrine maiden. Though Marino did everything she could to hide the secret identity of her sister, the fact that she denied seeing any western maiden with Ayingot’s eyes nonetheless gave the game away. All of the maidens are assigned within a year of the king’s birth, so if Marino can’t see the western maiden, that simply means she’s lying – and who, if not Mizuno, would Marino be lying to protect?

As such, I imagine Mizuno will soon be drawn into the active Kiraboshi drama, and be forced to grapple with greater obstacles than finding the courage to smooch Takuto. I’m eager to see how integrating Mizuno into that side of the narrative will change our overall group dynamic, and also keeping close tabs on Sugata’s evolving relationship with the newly reinstated Head. All signs seem to point to an approaching act two climax, so let’s not waste a moment more, and dive back into the evolving drama of Star Driver!

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Dear Brother – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to announce we’re checking out one of the most essential anime series I’ve yet to see, Osamu Dezaki’s adaptation of Riyoko Ikeda’s Dear Brother. Both of these names are legends in their own right, who can rightfully be said to have shaped the course of their relative mediums. Ikeda was one of the key mangaka of what has been retroactively dubbed the Year 24 Group, a collection of female mangaka who elevated the ambitions of shojo manga, introducing new complexities of storytelling and pointed themes regarding sexuality, politics, and much else. Alongside Dear Brother, Ikeda also wrote the massively acclaimed The Rose of Versailles, a story set alongside the French Revolution that counts among the great works of shojo history, and even earned her a Legion of Honor from the French government.

And then, of course, there’s Osamu Dezaki. One of the greatest, most iconic directors in anime history, a man who essentially pioneered a visual vocabulary of melodrama. Dezaki’s influence on anime ranges far beyond individual techniques like his “postcard memory” freeze frames. His visual philosophy of drama, his deft employment of abstraction, and his manipulation of the frame via splitscreens, dutch angles, and shadows would all go on to influence countless future artists, from Tomino to Ikuhara to Shinbo. Any anime education is incomplete without a healthy dose of Dezaki, so I’m eager to dive into this beloved work.

As far as Dear Brother itself goes, my understanding of its narrative is “elite boarding school melodrama,” and I’m content to let the show itself flesh out that impression. Let’s get to it!

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The Demon Girl Next Door S2 – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be checking back in on The Demon Girl Next Door, wherein Shamiko most recently acquired a new part-time job, and is currently serving as a waitress in the most demon-haunted cafe in town. Fortunately, the demons in question seem like the agreeable sort; Shamiko’s tapir boss is at the very least utterly harmless, and while her Huli Jing coworker’s food might occasionally send her into an amnesiac stupor, that’s ultimately more a result of oblivious negligence than malice. In spite of Momo’s worries, Shamiko’s infiltration mission has been a clear success, and the team now have a direct line to this town’s demonic community.

The story could theoretically rush straight ahead towards more revelations about Sakura Chiyoda, but I’m guessing that, like with Mikan’s introduction, we’re presumably in for an episode or two of adjusting to these new arrivals. Even Shamiko simply hanging out with Mikan tends to inspire some jealousy from Momo, so I’m mostly just holding out for more adorable possessiveness from our least sincere of magical girls. Let’s dive back into The Demon Girl Next Door!

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