Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! Can you feel the excitement? CAN YA FEEL IT? That’s right, it’s new series time, and today we’re beginning a series that I’ve been wanting to watch for years now. Just in time for the next generation of Pokemon, we’re diving back in to the last generation of Pokemon, and checking out the widely acclaimed Sun and Moon anime!

Though the Pokemon anime has been running consistently ever since its start back in the ‘90s, it’s traditionally been seen more as a series for young Pokemon enthusiasts than the “sakuga crowd” or whatnot. That’s not to diminish its importance, of course – on the contrary, Pokemon was one of the most important properties in introducing and normalizing anime in the west. I myself was a fan of pokemon specifically before I learned the appeal of anime more generally, and even saw the first Pokemon movie when it came out in theaters (it came with a free Pokemon card!).

But while Pokemon has always been a massively influential cultural force, its progression into a visually accomplished production has been significantly more gradual. Sun and Moon represents a serious break in this franchise in terms of its character designs, as designs that had remained relatively static for nearly two decades were reimagined with softer lines and rounded curves, making them far better suited to fluid character animation. I’ve already played the Sun and Moon game, and found its cast immensely charming there, meaning I’m very excited to see them in motion, and to return to an anime I haven’t watched since I was a child. Let’s check out the first episode of Sun and Moon!

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Land of the Lustrous – Episode 2

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Editor’s Note: My “episode one article” for Land of the Lustrous turned out to be more of an all-encompassing thematic overview of the show. The show’s themes obviously haven’t changed between episodes, so we’ll be diving into more of the nitty-gritty craft stuff this time. Let’s get to it!

Land of the Lustrous’ second episode opens with a history lesson courtesy of Master Kongo, who tells us that “six shooting stars once visited this world. All six of them fracturing, and giving birth to six moons.” He goes on to describe a mythology that seems equal parts biological and mystical, combining evolutionary changes with florid touches that naturally highlight the symbiotic relationship of history and myth, or our selfhood and our perception of the world. Illustrated through a background like a church window or illuminated manuscript, his words seem intended to assign purpose or destiny to the whims of evolution. Even his initial phrasing, that speaks of shooting stars “fracturing” as their route to rebirth, seems to imply a gemstone’s perspective. To a complex and seemingly meaningless series of biological shifts, Kongo’s certainty implies meaning, or at least a certain steadiness of direction.

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Chihayafuru S3 – Episode 1

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It’s time. It’s time! IT’S TIME! It’s been thirteen long months since I concluded my journey through Chihayafuru’s second season, and season three has finally arrived! SIT THE FUCK DOWN EVERYONE, IT’S TIME FOR CHIHAYA SATURDAY.

Alright, I know it’s probably a little inconsiderate of me to say “finally,” considering some of you have been waiting six friggin’ years for this season. But Chihayafuru is just such a fun, lovable property that even my much shorter wait has felt pretty interminable, and to those of you who’ve actually waited the full six years, I salute your fortitude. It has been far too long since we’ve spent time with Chihaya and the gang, and I couldn’t be happier to be back here with the karuta crew, and all of you as well.

When we last left off Chihayafuru, a great number of our key characters had just experienced a variety of major transitions. Arata at last returned to competitive karuta, and ended up beating Shinobu in his first major match, prompting immediate speculation about his path towards the master seat. However, Arata’s victory might have ultimately ended up impacting Shinobu’s journey more than his own, by pushing her another step closer towards embracing karuta as a communal activity. Meanwhile, Taichi at last earned his entry into Class A, and will be joining Chihaya for intensive training under the badass Sakurazawa. With all our leads on new paths and the rest of Chihaya’s team gearing up for fall tournaments, we’ve got plenty to look forward to from the season to come. Let’s return at last to the wonderful Chihayafuru!

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Hugtto! Precure – Episode 10

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Folks, it is well past time to explore another episode of Hugtto! Precure. I have been loving my first dive into the sprawling Precure universe, from its sensitive exploration of sympathetic characters like Hana and Homare, to its delightfully whimsical art design and often remarkably executed action sequences. Though not every fight is a highlight, the show’s storyboarders and animators seem to possess an understanding of weight and impact that make its marquee battles some of the more thrilling sequences in modern anime, where you can really feel the thundering consequences of each larger-than-life blow. And in between those aesthetic peaks, Hugtto offers a diverse array of charming episodic vignettes, all the while exploring the complexity of figuring out how your passions and personality will ultimately integrate into the adult world.

Huggto’s last episode introduced a girl who might already be my favorite character, the passionate and deeply insecure Emiru. Emiru is full of self-loathing and terrified of making mistakes, consistently and understandably wondering if her friends simply consider her a burden. Though she ended up being praised for her own talents at the end of that episode, her journey is far from over, and I’m very much hoping this episode continues our investigation of The Precure With Anxiety. Let’s see what awaits in the next episode of Huggto!

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Girls’ Last Tour – Episode 9

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Hey everybody, and welcome back to Girls’ Last Tour. This lovely show’s last episode concluded on one of its most beautiful and transcendent moments yet, as the discovery of a long-abandoned beer stash led to Yuu and Chi drunkenly dancing on the edge of the world. It was a terrific sequence that, like the girls’ earlier discovery of music during a rainstorm, seemed to embody Yuu’s philosophical defense against the harshness and unfairness of this world: “if you keep living, something good might happen.” The rational, day-to-day substance of Yuu and Chi’s lives is fundamentally hopeless; there is no better future waiting for them, and the threat of death is a constant companion. But any life, even lives like these, can occasionally erupt into moments of wonder and joy – and in between those moments, they still have each other.

Last episode was a very generous combination of basically all of this show’s strengths, from its beautiful shots of the city to its reflections on impermanence to that final dance. I’m not expecting another episode to match it so soon, but either way, I’m eager to see what’s in store for our girls. Let’s dive into another episode of Girls’ Last Tour!

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Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 7

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It’s a cold and cloudy day today, as the last dregs of summer’s humidity brush up against the chill of New England’s nine month winter. Somebody’s been hammering and yelling outside at about equal volume for maybe three hours now, which served as this morning’s alarm clock. I went to sleep with profound anxiety and have woken up with profound back pain, symptoms which may or may not be related. All in all, it’s been a pretty lukewarm morning.

Fortunately, all those trivial gripes don’t matter much now. It’s time for Ojamajo Doremi, and when it’s time for Ojamajo Doremi, I really can’t complain. Our last episode of Sharp offered the kind of story I’ve been eagerly awaiting all season – a return to vignettes about Doremi’s classmates, focusing on the charming friendship between Marina and Kimura.

Doremi’s strongest episodes often inhabit one of its genre extremes; either they’re full-on magical spectacle, either full of farcical spells or focused on the alluring witch world, or they’re full-on character drama, stories that barely make use of magic at all, and instead illustrate fundamental truths of emotional development. Last episode fell in the second category, and offered a tale of insecurity, misunderstanding, and regret that barely involved our actual stars. As is often the case, the resolution didn’t come about as a result of some massive emotional revelation or shocking twist; Kimura simply needed a friend he could talk to without any sense of insecurity or defensiveness, who could help him acknowledge the truth he already knew. With a full season of ensemble character development behind us, Doremi can now pull off episodes that are almost Doremi-free – we’re well acquainted with several dozen of Doremi’s classmates at this point, and watching them interact and resolve their own problems is an inherent validation of all the time we’ve shared. Whatever this episode brings, I’m excited to return to this lovely show. Let’s get to it!

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Scorching Ping Pong Girls – Episode 11

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Hello everybody, and welcome back for another episode of Scorching Ping Pong Girls! This week, we’ll finally be… wait, that was last episode. Koyori and Kururi played out their long-hyped match, Kururi’s unhealthy fixation on “proving herself worthy” was resolved through Koyori’s joyful play, and the two vowed to continue their rivalry at the actual tournament. Our heroes’ battle with Mozuyami ended with a glorious visual spectacle and satisfying emotional resolution, and Scorching Ping Pong Girls concluded the arc that has dominated its entire second half. So, uh, what do we do now?

Well, as it turns out, the process of adapting a continuing manga into a one-off anime season can be a little messy, and so it looks like we’ll be wrapping up the series with two episodes of post-arc downtime and training sessions. While this is certainly a little odd in a structural sense, it’s the kind of compromise you tend to get used to in this medium, and I’m frankly eager to see how the cast play out all the personal growth they’ve recently experienced in a less competitive venue. A great deal of Scorching Ping Pong Girls’ appeal is how much its cast obviously all love each other, and the Mozuyami arc featured reaffirmations of those relationships all across the main team. Let’s see how the dust settles in the next Scorching Ping Pong Girls!

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Rilakkuma and Kaoru – Episode 2

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You wouldn’t think a bright, stop-motion story about a young woman and her three stuffed animal friends would offer such consistently piercing meditations on aging and purpose, but here we are. Rilakkuma and Kaoru’s first episode offered a direct and familiar punch to the jaw, centered on the difficulty of maintaining contact with friends as you move into adulthood, and the fear of being left behind by the people you love. In the end, Kaoru’s friends didn’t all suddenly reappear in a glorious refutation of those fears; after all, that process of separation is an inescapable fact of adulthood. It’s not all sunshine and roses – in fact, it’s more often about coming to terms with imperfect circumstances, and finding the joy in what you can. Kaoru can’t rekindle her college friendships, but she can sit and watch the stars by the riverbank, and maybe that’s enough.

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Scorching Ping Pong Girls – Episode 10

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The preliminary matches have all been concluded, and the record stands at two matches to our brave and gallant heroes, and two matches for our fiendish, nefarious villains. After their enemies ruthlessly cut down Hokuto and Hanabi, Suzumegahara’s heroes rallied back with Mune and Kiruka’s doubles match, followed by Agari’s close win against Mozuyami’s captain Zakuro. Now, with Koyori’s faith in her own play having been restored by Agari’s victory, it’s time for the true battle. You folks ready for battle!? You folks ready for BLOOD?!?!?

I’m pretty excited personally, if you hadn’t guessed. But I don’t think I’m alone here – this series has literally spent two-thirds of its running time hyping up this particular match, with Kururi having been framed as the “true threat” of Mozuyami from the very start. Additionally, Scorching Ping Pong Girls’ core theme is “finding a positive, fulfilling reason to play,” and Kururi represents the most unhealthy negative articulation of that theme. Early on in the season, the show’s central emotional conflict was Agari learning to play for the joy of play itself, instead of the brittle comfort of having her skills validated. The moment that conflict was resolved, the narrative essentially introduced Kururi as a super-Agari, someone even more invested in table tennis as a source of validation, rather than personal joy. Will Koyori’s joyful play and inherent puppy-ness convince Kururi to play for her own sake, and realize that seeking her own happiness is also the best way to make Zakuro happy? I mean, probably, but I still wanna see how we get there. LET’S GET TO IT!

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Girls’ Last Tour – Episode 8

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I didn’t really intend for tragedy to always return me to Girls’ Last Tour writeups, but here I am again. This has not been an easy summer for me, and Girls’ Last Tour is pretty much where my headspace is – “getting along with the feeling of hopelessness” and all of that. At its core, Girls’ Last Tour is a story about death specifically, and about things ending more generally. The decaying civilization that Chi and Yuu struggle through is a reminder of the impermanence of all things, the kind of reminder that makes it impossible to live without acknowledging your own impermanence. Yuu and Chi cannot console themselves with “our lives will be remembered,” “our actions will contribute to a greater cause,” or anything else that implies a kind of eternity – the crumbled streets they putter through stand as a guard against any such illusions, emphasizing that all things eventually end.

As we make our own way through lives full of restless action and ambitious plans, perpetually reflecting on impermanence isn’t necessarily a helpful exercise – yeah sure, it may all turn to dust eventually, but we still gotta work and eat and take care of each other. But when you are reminded of impermanence, and lose something that cannot be replaced, it helps to have stories like Girls’ Last Tour, which acknowledge that loss while insisting that life is worth living even though life will end. There is so much beauty in this world, and I am forever thankful for the stories that acknowledge both the beauty and the sorrow, and greet the inevitable tragedies of living with honesty and hope. Living is its own meaning, and love is its own reward. Let’s return to the irrepressibly joyous Girls’ Last Tour.

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