Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. With my housemate back from vacation, my progress through Sailor Moon’s final season has slowed precipitously, but I am determined to complete the journey! And though I miss Chibi Usa, if that’s the bargain that must be made to ditch Pegasus, I will make it gladly. Meanwhile, my house’s reassembly has facilitated a return to Strahd for our DnD group, wherein I continue to be deeply unimpressed with Chris Perkins’ approach to character design. Practically everyone I’ve come across in on-book DnD feels no more substantive than that guy in an RPG who says “there are many dangers in the forest” and exactly nothing else – even Strahd himself, who is allegedly the centerpiece of this campaign, is a tedious and superficial villain. Still, we are determined to conquer this foul land, and I’ll be sure to keep up my reports on our efforts to do so. In the meantime, let’s break down some films!
Category Archives: Week in Review
Summer 2024 – Week 9 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I’ve been continuing my brave journey through Sailor Moon, completing Sailor Moon S and trekking perhaps two-thirds of the way through SuperS. It hasn’t always been easy; the episodic pleasures of hanging out with the girls remain a delight, but the overarching narrative has shifted from “tedious” to “actively aggravating,” with SuperS for some reason introducing a horse that Chibi Usa is in love with. The further I get into this series, the more an idea of a “manga-faithful remake” like Crystal seems utterly absurd to me; though Takeuchi built a fine initial template, basically all of her narrative ideas are a net negative, with the entirety of the show’s strength coming down to its adapted brilliance. I’m hoping the show’s final season has a better conceit than this goddamn horse, but in the meantime, we’ve got some films to get through. Let’s get to it!
Summer 2024 – Week 8 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I write to you from deep in the midst of my Sailor Moon marathon, having completed the show’s first two seasons and first film, and just recently started on Sailor Moon S. The show’s got a pretty steady formula, but it’s a good one – the main cast are charming and bounce off each other well, and both the direction and character acting remain exceptional, which is no surprise given its absurdly distinguished core team. Funnily enough, it’s actually when the show tries to do serious, multi-episode drama that I generally tune out; the fantasy action is repetitive and seasonal arcs kinda weightless, so my interest tends to ebb whenever the stakes start to rise. Fortunately, each new season offers a reset back to sailor guardian infighting and cat episodes, so there’s always something fun just around the corner. I’ve also been munching through some interesting films as of late, so let’s turn our attention to those, as we burn down the latest Week in Review!
Summer 2024 – Week 7 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week my housemate has set off on a trip to Germany, meaning I get to watch all the classic anime I couldn’t successfully pitch as group viewings. This has in practice translated to around three hours of Sailor Moon a day, which has by all accounts been a deeply enriching experience so far. Sailor Moon has one of the strongest core production teams of any anime in history, with Junichi Sato, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Takuya Igarashi, and plenty of other legends all elevating the tales of the charmingly unheroic Usagi and her brave companions. The show’s mostly been about the surface pleasures so far, but with a team this good, even the most frivolous of premises offers plenty of strong gags and ridiculous faces. And of course, all this Sailor Moon has been accompanied by a steady diet of cinema as well. Let’s break down some films!
Summer 2024 – Week 6 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. As the summer heat continues to bear down upon us, this week saw my house concluding our run through Victory Gundam, which has left me scrambling to find a proper followup production. I definitely need to take a break from Gundam, but I’m not really sure what else I can rely on for group viewings – we’re currently watching through the highlights of the modern isekai boom (Log Horizon and Grimgar), but I’m still in the market for a new longer-term project. Maybe the Hajime no Ippo adaptation, or possibly Sailor Moon? Anyway, I’d welcome any suggestions from all of you, but in the meantime, the conclusion of Victory was of course accompanied by plenty of old-fashioned film screenings. Let’s break ‘em down!
Summer 2024 – Week 5 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. This week our film screenings ranged from classics of western cinema to modern spinetinglers, alongside one of my few outstanding theatrical projects spearheaded by either of Ghibli’s legendary directors. I believe I’ve actually seen every Miyazaki film at this point, but still have both Grave of the Fireflies and the intriguing mixed-media project The Story of Yanagawa’s Canals outstanding among Takahata’s projects. I’m basically waiting for the right mental state to watch Grave of the Fireflies, but in the meantime was happy to savor a lighter project embodying many of Takahata’s finest qualities. Let’s start with that feature, as we burn down a fresh Week in Review!
Summer 2024 – Week 4 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. This week I hit another milestone in my backlog progress, as I finally watched the last Rebuild of Evangelion film, 3.0+1.0. I’d been saving the viewing until after I finished my original Eva writeups, and am quite happy I did so; the film offered a worthy sendoff to the franchise at large, and I am currently hard at work chiseling an article to match. In contrast with the relatable myopia of the original series, the Rebuilds offer a path beyond Evangelion altogether, grasping towards a world where human connection need not be quite so torturous, and where we might learn not just to coexist, but to work together in building a gentler future. Anyway, I’ll have more to say about that once my piece is finished, but in the meantime, this week also featured its requisite share of film viewings. Let’s get to it!
Summer 2024 – Week 3 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week has been a productive one on a variety of fronts, as I’ve been clearing out the last of my outstanding essay projects while also catching up on anime of both recent and venerable vintage. My viewing party just finished season one of the excellent Delicious in Dungeon, which now stands proudly beside Edgerunners among my favorite Trigger properties. Given my distaste for Imaishi’s dramatic preferences, I suppose it’s little surprise that I most enjoy Trigger’s more far-flung adaptations, but I nonetheless had a fantastic time with Laois and his crew. I’ve also been continuing my Gundam journey with Victory Gundam, which so far has proven one of the most tightly composed and altogether satisfying Gundams since the original series. And then of course, there have been The Films, a wandering collection of features spurred by idle whimsy, recommendations on Twitter, or just whatever happens to show up on Netflix. Let’s get to it!
Summer 2024 – Week 2 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I am sorry to announce that I watched some deeply obnoxious movies, which I’m sure sounds like a good time to all you vultures out there. I honestly do not pick out films intending to hate-watch them; I am always looking to be fulfilled, enlightened, or at least just entertained, while watching a bad movie to me just feels like being stuck in traffic for two hours, waiting for the journey to end so I can get on to something genuinely enriching. Nonetheless, a wide enough trawling of features will inevitably result in some stinkers, and this week my fearless embrace of any and all horror films resulted in some painful misses. Let’s break both them and one fantastic consolation prize down as we storm through the latest Week in Review!
Summer 2024 – Week 1 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I largely spent my precious, beautiful summer days cooped up inside, furiously replaying Elden Ring so I could then leap into Shadow of the Erdtree. I’m happy to report that I’m now getting my ass kicked somewhere in the Shadow Lands, and will likely have more coherent thoughts on FromSoft’s latest in the near future. But for now, all that time playing and trading off on Elden Ring also left plenty of opportunities for new film screenings, alongside a swift viewing of the unexpectedly renowned League of Legends spinoff Arcane. Let’s run down the spoils!