Category Archives: Week in Review

Spring 2026 – Week 2 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It’s been a busy week for me, as I’ve been racing to maintain my lead on reader projects while also munching through films and some recent anime productions. Inspired by kViN’s fantastic breakdown of Souta Ueno’s adaptation of last season’s Shiboyugi, I ended up munching through the whole series in a couple of days, and was similarly impressed by Ueno’s economic yet distinctive, holistic approach to the material. In his hands, the series’ death games are rendered ethereal and elegiac, a perpetual synthesis of the freedom of a great leap and the solidity of the approaching ground. The actual source material seemed pretty mediocre, harboring pretensions of human insight that its character writing couldn’t really support, but this would be far from the first time an anime director spun straw into gold. Regardless, Ueno’s elevation of the material has me eager to check out whatever he directs next, and it’s always a thrill to be introduced to a distinctive, vital creative voice. That aside, we’ve got a fleet of movies to get through, so let’s bound right into the Week in Review!

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Spring 2026 – Week 1 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. This week we’ve been continuing our march through Turn A Gundam, which has proven just as delightful and idiosyncratic as on first viewing. It’s been an interesting experience seeing this as a culmination of Tomino’s Gundams, rather than an introduction to them – the man seems to have grown gentler in his later years, and more sympathetic to the idealism embodied by characters like Loran and Dianna. That aside, we’ve also screened most of Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season, which has proven to certainly be more Jujutsu Kaisen, and followed up the frustratingly unbalanced Monster Train with… Skyrim. Yep, it’s Back To The Ol’ Me again, but it’s just hard to play games that are not Skyrim when I could potentially be playing Skyrim. I’m sorry! I’m basic, I know it, but my comfort games are probably not shifting at this point in my life. We’ve got new movies, though! Yeah, let’s get to that.

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Winter 2026 – Week 13 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. The weather has finally shifted at this point, allowing me to drag my decrepit body into motion and actually get a few jogs in over the last week. To the surprise of no one, this has led to generally higher energy and better spirits, which have been further bolstered by my dramatic progress running through my outstanding reader projects. I’m currently down to just two articles I need to send to drafts, and have already hammered out a pile of notes for the first, leaving me potentially days away from being current for the first time in over a year. Granted, that list will soon be supplemented by all the incoming April bounties, but goddamnit, I’m taking my victories where I can find them. In the meantime, let’s see what treasures we uncovered in this week’s film excursions!

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Winter 2026 – Week 12 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. While waiting for Slay the Spire 2 to make its way to consoles, this week we picked up fellow roguelike deckbuilder Monster Train, which has proven exceedingly diverting in its own right. Drafting choices feel a bit more obviously correct or incorrect than in Slay the Spire, but I’m quite impressed with how the game essentially simulates “modern Magic the Gathering” (creature-based, direct card advantage is limited, commanders define decks), in contrast with Slay the Spire’s emulation of old-fashioned magic (spell slinging is encouraged, broken combos are rampant, storm builds occur frequently). I’m definitely more of an old fashioned Magic enthusiast myself, but it’s fun to see another take on this extremely me-coded subgenre. Aside from that, we also ran down our requisite pile of films, so let’s see what we’ve got on tap for the Week in Review!

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Winter 2026 – Week 11 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. We’ve been keeping busy this week, as we continued to munch through Aura Battler Dunbine, and also screened the entirety of the live-action One Piece’s second season. I think we’re all a little understandably hesitant about live-action anime adaptations, but god damnit, they’ve actually nailed this one. The tone, the energy, the costumes, the characters; this feels less like a pale imitation than a loving revision, drawing on thirty years of One Piece history to make a concise, cohesive version of the story that still hits and often even expands on the pleasures of the original. The casting remains superb, the Straw Hats have largely settled into their personalities, and the emotional gut-punches of the early Grand Line have been preserved in full. I’m frankly astonished by the production’s combination of trust in its base material and willingness to boldly reorganize; this is a real “whoa, two cakes” situation, and I am savoring the flavor.

One Piece aside, we of course munched through our usual assortment of cinematic spectacles. So let’s get right on that, as we run down the latest Week in Review!

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Winter 2026 – Week 10 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week has seen my house complete another long-term viewing project, as we screened the last episode of Cloudward Ho!, the most recent adventure of Dimension 20’s main cast. This frankly leaves us in a somewhat worrying situation, as a major pillar of our broadcast schedule has now been fully consumed, but we at least still have Aura Battler Dunbine to console us. Tomino’s isekai adventure has been an expected delight so far, offering plentiful dramatic twists and brutal Tominoisms while also scratching my irrepressible high fantasy itch. And with our schedule relatively free, I’ve actually been considering a Katanagatari rewatch; it’s been too long since I spent time with my favorite sword and tactician, and have been meaning to introduce my housemates to the series anyway. In the meantime, the film screenings have continued as per usual, so let’s get this show on the road and break down some movies!

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Winter 2026 – Week 9 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re striding forth boldly into March, though sadly, here in New England that still means it’s the middle of winter. Though I seem to recall the existence of spring and fall from my childhood, lately it’s felt like there’s only two seasons around here: the blessed summer of May through October, and the hateful winter of November through April. Fortunately, we’ve still got plenty of stories to tide us through the cold, and I’m personally excited to be cracking the seal on a whole slate of new features. Having finished Fallout, Moribito, and the delightfully soapy Sandokan, we’re now returning to the Tomino well with Aura Battler Dunbine, while also looking forward to the upcoming second season of One Piece’s live-action adaptation. I’m frankly eager to get back to Dunbine right this minute, but first, let’s run down the week in film!

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Winter 2026 – Week 8 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week a fresh carpet of snow has descended to terrorize my poor neighborhood, meaning I’ve had plenty of time to stay inside and screen fresh projects. We completed the second season of the Fallout adaptation, which continued to nail the aesthetics and rightfully bleak philosophy of the games, while apparently receiving enough of a budget boost to include dramatic full-scale clashes of New Vegas’ various factions. I thought Mr. House’s preoccupation with an ultimate “man behind the curtain” felt more about providing plot hooks and incentive for a third season than furnishing the show’s main themes, but was otherwise a fan, particularly since this season actually upped the Walton Goggins quotient significantly. That aside, we’ve of course been plowing through our regular allotment of feature films, so let’s get down to the Week in Review!

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Winter 2026 – Week 7 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week has seen my house sweeping up the loose cobwebs of various outstanding series, as we finished our group watch of Frieren’s first season, and also continued to munch through the second season of Fallout. It feels morbidly validating for Fallout to be telling this story at this particular moment in time; I feel like “corporations blew up the world on purpose for quarterly profits” would feel a little far-fetched in most eras, but in truth might actually be understating the case as we currently face it. We’ve also been keeping up with the current season of Critical Role, which continues to astound me with its richness of worldbuilding and complexity of drama. Brennan Lee Mulligan is basically going for “we’re going to construct one of the enduring fantasy epics as a collective roleplay experience,” and so far has actually been following through on that preposterous proposal. I’m eager to see how the Seekers’ first arc concludes, but for now, let’s move on to the week in film!

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Winter 2026 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I am officially a year older, a fact I am attempting to accept with whatever grace an old fogie like me can muster. It’s an odd thing to have moved so fully beyond mass culture’s sphere of interest, but it turns out life does continue after the halcyon days generally featured in anime, and thus we all gotta make the most of it. A nice meal, hanging out with friends, watching a fucked-up movie; in my experience, the greatest joys in life are not far out of reach, just so long as we keep recommitting to seeking them. And personally, sharing my errant thoughts on art is absolutely one of the things that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other, certain that tomorrow will be a new day with its own unexpected joys. So thank you all for reading my ramblings, and I promise to keep digging at the wonders of anime, cinema, and whatever else crosses my path. Now let’s check out some films!

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