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!
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.
Spring 2020 – Week 6 in Review
Hey folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! I’ve got quite the grab bag of a Week in Review this week, as my house checked out some Bollywood action-dramas, examined Justin Roiland’s new comedy, and at last watched the anxiety-inducing Uncut Gems. At this point, perpetual lockdown has turned this entire spring into one unending and largely featureless day, and checking out new media has become one of the only things separating what I did this week from what I did seven weeks ago. So please enjoy my attempt to maintain some sense of time’s passage as we all endure this stressful era the best we can. Take care of yourselves out there, and please enjoy the new Week in Review!
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!
Why It Works: Let’s Celebrate the Birthday of A-1 Pictures!
Welp, it’s A-1 Pictures birthday, and I think you all know what that means: time to shamelessly plug every single artistically interesting thing they’ve ever been involved with, and hopefully trick some unsuspecting young anime fans into broadening their aesthetic horizons. In spite of lacking any overarching artistic vision or creative mandate, A-1 Pictures have produced some terrific shows over the years, and I was happy to celebrate them once more. Let’s get to it!
Let’s Celebrate the Birthday of A-1 Pictures!
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.
Spring 2020 – Week 5 in Review
You folks ready to talk about some movies? I didn’t get to a huge number of new features this week, but the films I did watch left me with plenty to talk about, so hopefully we can spin a satisfying Week in Review out of my ramblings. Eraserhead in particular turned out to be one of the most unique films I’ve seen in… well, ever, I suppose, but I guess that’s what happens when you remove all of David Lynch’s power limiters. I’m frankly kinda lucky I got to see it; one of my housemates recommended it without really knowing how resolutely anti-narrative it was going to be, and while I actually did have an inkling of its structure, I am certainly not above abusing my housemates’ ignorance to trick them into watching unabashedly surrealist madness. Anyway, enough preamble, let’s get to the movies!
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!