I’m sorry everyone, but nothing you can do will stop me from treating myself to another episode of Pokemon Sun and Moon. I personally feel like I’ve been very good these past weeks, and have been doing my level best to introduce more of the ambitious projects like One Piece, Evangelion, and Land of the Lustrous into my active writeup rotation. But along with those projects, anime to me represents comfort and adventure, and few properties embody those concepts more than Pokemon. Pokemon Sun and Moon is a lively, lighthearted day at the beach, a trip to get burgers with friends, a warm walk in the park; it is comfort incarnate, and blessed with flexible character designs and gifted animators, it’s also a lively visual adventure as well. I’m happy as ever to be writing for you folks, and hope you’ll join me as we explore another episode of this lovely show!
Category Archives: Episode Writeup
Toradora! – Episode 5
As teenagers, we should all probably be collectively forgiven for our trespasses in misunderstanding the feelings and identities of other people. Heck, even adults are constantly misunderstanding each other – and as an adolescent, it’s enough of a struggle to understand yourself, much less any other person. We cast around for a stable, reassuring identity, and when we fall in love, it is often not another person we are enamored with, but rather what we feel is missing from our own lives. So it went in Toradora’s fourth episode, which was ostensibly centered on the roots of Taiga and Ryuuji’s crushes, but ultimately revealed far more about how they view themselves.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – Episode 10
Folks, I am beyond delighted to be returning to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! I actually only watched up through Eizouken’s ninth episode as the show was actually airing, as other projects ended up getting in the way of me giving it the time and focus it obviously deserves. Determined to write a fresh article to document my first impressions of the whole last act, I ended up putting off new episodes until the new season began, and then… well, regardless, I’m here now, and suddenly find myself with three episodes left in what has easily been the most visually imaginative and intellectually stimulating show of the year so far.
Last episode saw Kanamori taking center stage once more, this time as the team’s financial manager, in an episode that explored the often maddening relationship between making great art and actually being paid for that art. In spite of making a film that both impressed their clients and dazzled general audiences, the Eizouken were left with almost nothing, save for a bunch of requests for other projects that also wouldn’t make them any money. The anime industry’s problem isn’t a lack of work – in fact, there’s an overabundance of projects that are already stretching the industry’s workers beyond their limits. The problem is a fundamentally predatory financial model that sees anime studios as interchangeable contract workers, as well as an established pay scale that assumes animators will work for a pittance, and either move up or burn out after their first few years.
Kanamori can’t fix the anime industry by herself, but she can do her best to make sure her friends are paid for their labor. Having secured a commission from the actual Shibahami Chamber of Commerce, Kanamori is dragging her friends towards financial stability, and I’m eager to see how Asakusa and Mizusaki bring their entire town to life. Let’s dive into another episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
The Girl in Twilight – Episode 2
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re continuing The Girl in Twilight, an intriguing 2018 production concepted by renowned visual novelist Kotaro Uchikoshi. So far we’ve received a healthy helping of science fiction mysteries, with The Girl in Twilight’s worldbuilding feeling both alluring and confident. The show’s radio frequency conceit is a clever way of imagining parallel worlds, and the first episode wisely avoided any real exposition, letting the characters’ earnest reactions to their strange circumstances speak for themselves.
Of course, it’s not actually all that common for first episodes to drop the exposition hammer – that more frequently comes in the followup, after the wild, inexplicable theatrics of the first episode have already drawn you in. That said, the pacing and dialogue of Girl in Twilight’s first episode were compelling enough that I’m not too concerned about a followup slump, and more importantly, the first episode’s actual greatest strength was how well it depicted the believable friendships of its main cast – an asset built out of deep-root character and dialogue-writing fundamentals, which are not the sort of strengths that tend to dissipate after a premiere. That’s probably enough soon-to-be-outdated prognosticating, so let’s dive into The Girl in Twilight’s second episode!
Land of the Lustrous – Episode 4
Land of the Lustrous’ fourth episode draws us towards a key turning point in Phos’ overall journey. Though Phos has experienced hardship throughout this narrative, they’ve consistently bounced back, and successfully learned basically nothing from their mistakes so far. That’s actually a key part of the show’s charm; Phos is lazy and oblivious and self-absorbed in ways that we can likely all relate to, and the comedy of those qualities playing themselves out within this resolutely self-serious society makes them a natural point of human connection for this story. But Land of the Lustrous is a story about change, and the flippant attitude Phos brings to all their endeavors will soon be tempered by the fires of life experience. Before that can happen, though, episode four is here to celebrate Phos’ silliness for one last time, as the show briefly turns into an outright buddy comedy.
The Big O – Episode 4
Today I’m eager to return to a production I’ve been greatly enjoying, the gracefully genre-splicing Big O. Last episode saw Roger Smith taking a journey to Electric City, where he met the thieving femme fatale Angel, and ended up doing battle with a genuine electric kaiju. The episode was somewhat light on narrative tissue, but rich in atmosphere, with Roger’s quiet investigations of a rundown power plant offering plenty of that distinct, slow-burning noir appeal. The fact that Smith is generally just a guy in a suit asking questions actually makes The Big O feel remarkably close to its film forebearers at times, at least until a giant robot rises out of the ground and punches an electric eel. I’m looking forward to enjoying as much of that atmosphere as I can this week, but to be honest, I mostly just want to see Roger and Dorothy have more adorable bickering fits. Look, I’m a simple man, I enjoying watching a stuffy detective get owned by his robot assistant. Let’s get to it!
Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 8
Strap yourselves in folks, we’re catching a flight to the sunny shores of Alola, for one more episode of Pokemon Sun and Moon! Sun and Moon’s last episode was essentially constructed as a tiny adventure film composed from the perspective of a cat, so, you know, that was fantastic. I’m not expecting episode eight to match a conceit as strong as “full damn episode about an adorable cat,” but I’m certainly looking forward to reuniting with Sun and Moon’s larger cast, and am particularly hoping that Team Rocket have a fun role in this one. However this episode plays out, Sun and Moon has been a charming and nostalgic journey so far, and as long as we continue to explore the delightful Alolan scenery, I’ll probably have a fine time. Let’s get to it!
Hugtto! Precure – Episode 13
Folks, it has been altogether too long since we checked in with the stars of Hugtto! Precure, and I’m aiming to fix that right now. When last we left off, the gang was enjoying some well-earned time off, as they hosted a classic slumber party over at Harry’s quasi-treehouse. That episode concluded on a menacing cliffhanger, however, as we learned that Criasu Corp’s resident robot had somehow smuggled herself into Hana’s home, and even brainwashed her mother into believing she’s a member of their extended family. Having spent a great deal of time with some of twitter’s preeminent magical girl aficionados, I already know that Lulu the robot is a fan-favorite character – and with her currently disrupting Hana’s home life, I’m eager to see how the team deal with this unprecedented new attack. Let’s get to it!
The Girl in Twilight – Episode 1
Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! Today we’ll be embarking on a new notes project, as we explore the first episode of 2018’s The Girl in Twilight. This show was technically just the first wing of a theoretical multimedia project that also included a mobile game, a specific cross-promotional mix that has become increasingly common in recent years. It’s only really the mobile game aspect that’s new, though; anime are rarely green-lighted as fully self-contained commercial objects, and are generally intended to at the very least sell toys or music. In the age of massive mobile game sales, anime productions have naturally migrated towards promoting more mobile games; though in The Girl in Twilight’s case, the game it was promoting barely survived until the end of its own seasonal airing.
Moreso than its promotional intent, The Girl in Twilight’s most noteworthy feature is the presence of Kotaro Uchikoshi, who contributed the show’s base concept and scenario. Uchikoshi’s anime work has been pretty limited; his biggest “claim to fame” there is writing 2015’s Punch Line, which was a conceptually interesting and visually appealing production whose unfortunate “if I see panties the world ends” gimmick kept me from sticking with it. However, Uchikoshi is also responsible for writing the acclaimed Zero Escape game trilogy, along with a variety of other reality-bending, mystery-centered visual novels. The golden age of visual novels has tragically passed (they too have largely been replaced by mobile games), but Uchikoshi is considered one of its titans, and I’m excited to see his ideas at work in The Girl in Twilight. With our journey’s first steps established, let’s dive into The Girl in Twilight!
Symphogear AXZ – Episode 1
Well folks, it’s looking like we’re watching some goddamn Symphogear. I’m frankly not quite sure how much I’ll be able to critique for you all here – Symphogear is pretty much insane nonsense from start to finish, and attempting to soberly quantify it as an artistic text feels like a bit of a fool’s errand. That said, I am an acknowledged fool, and have actually already reviewed the show’s first three seasons over on Anime News Network.
Looking back on those, I see I docked the second season for “losing any semblance of intelligent writing” and the third season for “going all-in on narrative ideas it’s not nearly well-written enough to support,” so uh, I guess that’s where we’re at as we embark on season four. But really, Symphogear has never actually been about clever or thoughtful writing – it’s about absurd, bombastic action setpieces tethered to an incredibly charming core cast, making for an experience that can see-saw wildly between goofy character drama and world-threatening apocalyptic theater at a moment’s notice, or even faster. It is indulgent and exuberant at all times, and by following the Nanoha model of “giant robot action, magical girl heart,” it’s able to tether its excesses to characters I would probably die for. Let’s dive into the fourth season of Symphogear!