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!
Spring 2020 – Week 4 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to the Week in Review. Today I’ve got a sprawling pile of movie reviews for you all, ranging from classics of horror and suspense to some poignant and beautiful modern dramas. The movies were fantastic this week, quite frankly, and I feel like as I dive further into the film canon, I’m only discovering new horizons of genres and directors I’m eager to explore. I’ve got plenty of movies to cover and far too many rambling thoughts about each of them, so let’s not waste any more time, and dive into this mountainous Week in Review!
Why It Works: How Princess Connect! Re:Dive Captures the Spirit of Konosuba!
The title pretty much says it all with this one! Featuring the same director and a variation on the same premise as Konosuba, Princess Connect feels like a direct spiritual successor to Takaomi Kanasaki’s last comedy hit, and also just a great time in general. I actually kinda prefer Princess Connect’s more slice of life-oriented tone to Konosuba’s harsher comedy, but they’re both excellent productions, and comparing them gave me plenty to talk about. Let’s get to it!
How Princess Connect! Re:Dive Captures the Spirit of Konosuba!
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – Episode 9
Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am very excited to return to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, in the wake of the team’s successful premiere of their giant robot anime. Not only did Asakusa and her team’s production garner a massive crowd and dazzle the student body, it also neatly resolved Mizusaki’s conflict with her parents. Having seen how Mizusaki is able to “perform” through her animation, they have no doubts that she’s found a path that is right for her – she has proven she can convey unique human experiences through her art, to the point where even her professional actor parents can see their daughter in her work.
Unfortunately, it turns out making great art isn’t actually the hard part when it comes to anime production – it’s making money. Having been commissioned to create their most recent anime by the giant robot club, it seems quite likely that, as it goes for actual anime studios, they won’t have much right to the spoils of their labor. The actual industry’s production committee system tends to treat anime studios as replaceable contract workers, who get paid a flat rate regardless of how well their production does. On top of that, staggeringly predatory wages mean most young animators can barely support themselves, and often rely on their family, or projects like the animator dorm initiative, just to get by. We’ve spent plenty of time exploring the sheer joy of creation and the steady labor of production, but we’ve yet to cover the true dark heart of anime, and I’m guessing that time has finally arrived. Let’s dive into another episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
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!
Spring 2020 – Week 3 in Review
With the spring season at last in full swing, I can finally return to mostly ignoring spring’s airing anime, and instead gorging myself on a variety of other films and television shows. In this season’s case, there’s not really much choice, anyway; the coronavirus is delaying productions left and right, and with everyone stuck inside anyway, what better time to power through shows you missed the first time? Personally, I’ve been finally getting around to Avatar: The Last Airbender, and discovering I missed a goddamn treasure back when it first aired. All that and more as we return to the Week in Review!
Why It Works: Fighting With Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System
With the already-limited spring season now experiencing a necessary wave of delays and cancellations, my Why It Works columns are at last able to assume their final form: weekly odes to Hunter x Hunter, each column celebrating a different aspect of its collective majesty. Alright, that’s probably not actually going to happen, but I really could write about Hunter x Hunter’s excellence forever, and I was happy to ramble about the nen system this week. Let’s get to it!
Fighting with Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Reflection
Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’ll be returning to a franchise that has at last transcended the boundaries of TV anime production, as we continue our post-A’s journey into Nanoha with Nanoha Reflection. As with the two seasons that preceded it, I’m seeing this film for the first time myself, and eager to see how the Nanoha universe expands beyond Hayate’s narrative. Though I’m watching them in reverse order, it’s easy to see how Nanoha’s villain-redeeming structure would go on to set the blueprint for shows like Symphogear; and at this point, the recruitment of Hayate and her Belkan Knights mean this is truly an ensemble narrative, demanding ensemble narrative-scale conflicts.
Reflection isn’t a direct followup to A’s, though, at least in terms of its release schedule. A’s was actually directly followed by Strikers, which jumped the timeline ten years forward, and then ViVid, which takes place four years after that. Those TV productions pushed the Nanoha universe past the point of Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate all working together as young magical girls – but ten years later, Reflection and Detonation would reverse the clock, establishing a “movie timeline” that would allow the franchise to return to that immediate post-A’s dynamic. In an artistic sphere that often seems hamstrung by its reverence for worldbuilding, it’s nice to see a franchise saying Fuck It, we’ll establish a new timeline to justify returning to this franchise’s most promising dramatic template. And if this is just an excuse to see Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate be badasses, that’s fine with me too. Let’s dive into Nanoha Reflection!
Chihayafuru S3 – Episode 24
Well shit, guys. We’re really in the depths of it now, aren’t we? Taichi at last confessed, was rejected, and responded in the most dramatic possible way: by dropping out of the karuta club completely, and not even telling anyone. Chihaya had to actively chase him down to get any answers out of him, and even then, nothing was fixed or resolved; the club has suffered a dramatic splinter, and it’s questionable whether it can even recover.
This schism was certainly dramatic, but it’s a conflict that’s been brewing since the very start of the series. Taichi’s present relationship with karuta has almost nothing to do with karuta itself; though he also shares fond memories of playing with Arata and Chihaya, neither those memories nor a genuine, personal love of the sport are what drive him to compete. Taichi competes for Chihaya’s sake, making for a situation that is both consistently painful and unfulfilling for him personally, and also utterly unfair to Chihaya herself.
Chihaya does not owe Taichi anything; he has persistently been the one to make personal sacrifices in pursuit of an entirely theoretical romantic relationship, placing selfish expectations on Chihaya that would likely already have destroyed their relationship, if Chihaya weren’t so romantically oblivious. And now that he’s finally admitted the truth, and Chihaya has responded, he is taking back all the support he has provided to Chihaya’s entire team, even though he’s the team captain. It’s a very selfish act, but also an understandably human one, and a decision likely necessitated by the unhealthy attitude and romantic expectations he’s brought to this team all along. Taichi’s self-destructive behavior, overwhelming insecurities, and tendency to bottle up his unhappiness are all parts of him we’ve come to know; it’s painful to see them result in such a negative end, but that’s the pain of seeing a convincingly human character take a convincingly human fall.
Of course, “Taichi falls into despair and quits karuta forever and that’s the last we see of him” wouldn’t make for a particularly satisfying drama, so the question now is, where does Taichi go from here? I doubt he even wants to look at Chihaya right now, but one of his other rivals or clubmates might be able to reach him – or even Suo, who could likely relate to his current bleak perspective. Wherever Chihayafuru goes from here, I’m thrilled to at last be excavating the thorny relationship at the heart of this series, and eager to see what this shattered team do next. Let’s get to it!