Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 13

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’re returning to the rambling adventures of Frieren and her companions, as they continue north towards the land of the dead. I admit, I may have kinda-sorta written ahead of my commissioned episodes previously, meaning it’s been a couple months in real time since I last checked in with Frieren. But that actually seems perfectly aligned with the show’s own timetable – for just as I was bunkering in for winter during the last couple episodes, so too am I now anticipating the first days of spring, staring out at the melting snow just as Frieren and company tramp through the same.

Frieren’s mastery of atmosphere and sense of tangible place have always been its strongest features, but our last episode complimented them with some poignant Stark-centric reflections, using the legends of both Himmel and Stark’s brother Stoltz to interrogate the measure of great deeds and worth of a life. The actual reality of Himmel facing the sword in the stone was immaterial; he chose not to define himself as the hero who failed, and his successful commitment to his own values led history to remember him as such. Similarly, while Stoltz was renowned as a warrior so gallant he slew foes without tarnishing his white cloak, what Stark remembers are the moments he willingly knelt in the mud, ensuring his brother felt safe and loved in his presence. Conducting yourself so as to theoretically impress future generations is a fool’s game; history will reveal or conceal as it will, and what truly matters is how you are remembered by those you cared about, by the people who walked beside you and knew the truth of your heart.

With Stark newly assured that those he journeys with care about him just as his brother did, we continue onward into the vast unknown. To the north!

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Andor – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out a new property, one which falls well outside the site’s general wheelhouse, but which has received enough positive buzz that I’m eager to explore it for myself. Thus I find myself engaging with one of the inescapable franchises that have so effectively narrowed our collective imagination, as we explore the Star Wars miniseries known as Andor.

Alongside fellow blockbusters like Jaws, Star Wars was one of the death knells of the rich and varied New Hollywood era, signaling the advent of a dumber, simpler cinematic landscape consolidated around a handful of endlessly replicable genre scripts. I suppose it’s not exactly fair to blame the original film (a fine riff on Flash Gordon-style adventure serials) for the death of cinema, but it certainly didn’t help – particularly since Star Wars has continued its zombie existence for decades, and now stands alongside superheroes and “live-action” remakes as one of the main artery-cloggers of film and television.

Our perception of science fiction is narrower for the outsized footprint Star Wars has left on the genre; as is readily demonstrated by the impoverished imaginations of modern isekai, the more your inspirations all resemble each other, the less rich and distinctive your own fantasies will be. All that said, if you want to reach people, you need to speak in their language – and from everything I’ve heard, Andor uses the language of Star Wars to speak of oppression and rebellion in genuinely meaningful, well-crafted, perhaps even inspirational ways. Thus, with my antipathy for Star Wars as a cultural institution established, I nonetheless dive into Andor with great curiosity as to how good it truly is. Let’s get to it!

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Summer 2025 – Week 9 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. With The Owl House nearly completed, my house has been casting about for some reliable replacement binging, and ultimately settled on another attempt at Jujutsu Kaisen. This has sadly been as disappointing as the first; Jujutsu Kaisen is a hodgepodge of ideas stolen from Naruto, Bleach, and Hunter x Hunter, with no understanding of what made any of those ideas work in the first place. The characters are one-note, the world has no substance, and the fights are preposterous Calvinball nonsense, with combatants inventing new aspects of their abilities constantly, meaning there is never anything resembling tension or a coherent contrast of powers. Gojo is likely the worst offender – his power is basically “I can do anything so long as I use the word ‘infinite’ while describing it,” and I’m thus frankly relieved that he’s found himself stuck in a box for our current arc. Anyway, we’ve fortunately had better luck with our recent film selections, so let’s break that shit down in the Week in Review!

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The Summer Hikaru Died – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are returning to the secluded foothills of Japan, to a town where shared history is etched on every tree and stone, and where a veneer of peaceful coexistence hides a rot so deep the stench is unbearable. Yes, we are returning to The Summer Hikaru Died, Ryohei Takeshita’s skillful adaptation of Mokumokuren’s intriguing manga, wherein our protagonist Yoshiki is grappling not just with the death of his best friend, but also with the continued presence of a creature directing his friend’s corpse, offering a pantomime of Hikaru’s old personality that every so often reveals the ravenous, bestial presence beneath.

So yeah, that’s quite a heavy load for a teenager, and so far this production is skillfully juggling a variety of threads – Yoshiki’s complex feelings towards both his absent friend and that friend’s replacement, the languorous atmosphere of rural Japan in the summer, the sense of perpetual surveillance intrinsic to small towns, and the occult/animalistic nature of Hikaru’s new pilot, a creature that seems to emphasize how we are all ultimately beasts, meant to consume and be consumed in turn. That the production is managing to successfully evoke all of these themes and feelings is a credit to Takeshita’s economic direction; Hikaru’s animation resources are clearly limited, but so much is being evoked through sound design, staging, and lighting choices that the lack of fluidity feels natural, one more echo of this town’s sleepy, stagnant atmosphere. Good horror is a precious rarity in anime, and Hikaru is so far proving an exemplary new addition to the canon. Let us return to the mountains!

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Please Put Them On, Takamine-san – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on a new adventure, as we check out the first episode of the spring season’s Please Put Them On, Takamine-san. I’m frankly not sure what we’re in for here; by all accounts the production appears to be your garden variety adolescent romcom, with the overtly horny twist of a heroine who can rewrite reality by changing her underwear.

Presumably this device will initially be used to enforce a kind of unwilling intimacy on our leads, the classic “only you know my secret” tension that inspires the initial bonds of stories ranging from Bakemonogatari to My Monster Secret. And of course, as a general device, this sort of Groundhog’s Day time reversal almost inevitably facilitates themes of learning to live in the moment, to see mistakes as happy accidents, and no longer fret about seeking the “perfect path” through life. But what’s the point in speculating when we can find out for ourselves? Let’s get to it!

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Apocalypse Hotel – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out a fresh spring production that earned a pile of positive buzz, as we explore the first episode of Apocalypse Hotel. The show is an anime-original production (always a good sign) set in a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has disappeared and only robots tend to our crumbling monuments, including our protagonist and current hotel manager.

It’s really no surprise we’ve been receiving a glut of apocalyptic media lately. Even a cursory glance at global politics will demonstrate that our present world order is in its endgame, and that if humanity survives both this reactionary social moment and our climate crisis, our societies will look significantly different than their current late-capitalist formation. Popular art reflects the psychological consequences of this understanding; some choose exodus from an intolerable reality (isekai), some cling to nostalgia (endless franchises and remakes), and some seek peace with a future that might not include humanity at all, as foretold in apocalyptic travelogues like Girls’ Last Tour and Kemurikusa.

The third of these perspectives seems the most clear-headed to me personally, and I’m thus happy to be embarking on another journey that accepts humanity might not be here much longer. As for our staff, director Kana Shundo appears to be taking a leap from primarily key animation-focused roles, while series composer Shigeru Murakoshi has written extensively for shows ranging from GARO to Zombie Land Saga. The team in general seems well-tuned for a character acting-heavy slice of life/comedy, and the show’s reputation seems to have borne that out. Let’s get to it!

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Summer 2025 – Week 8 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I concluded my journey through Slayers’ first three seasons, which I am led to understand is basically the conclusion of the “classic series,” barring some scattered film and OVA appearances. I’ll likely check out the film next (it was quite a surprise to learn the amply chested lady everyone loves doesn’t even appear in the main series), but in the meantime have since been munching through The Owl House, Dana Terrace’s entry in the post-Adventure Time western cartoon renaissance. The show is unsurprisingly delightful; I don’t know how Terrace got Disney to greenlight “lesbians hang out in the dreamscapes of Hieronymus Bosch,” but I am absolutely here for it. Anyway, films!

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Direction and Atmosphere

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I was recently asked to write a piece on direction and atmosphere in anime, in line with my previous piece regarding the priorities of Laid-Back Camp and similar shows. I initially struggled with the concept, as that older piece is largely self-contained, and focused mainly on evangelizing for shows that don’t prioritize narrative action. A lot of my pieces at Crunchyroll were basically predicated on the question of “how do I get someone who’s only watched Naruto or Demon Slayer to enjoy Hyouka,” meaning they were content to end on the suggestion of branching out and letting their readers arrive at their own conclusions. But you folks are a very different audience; anyone who is interested in my thoughts on Wong Kar-wai probably doesn’t need to be convinced dramatic minimalism can be compelling, so I won’t waste your time with an entreaty on slow cinema’s behalf.

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Yuki Yuna is a Hero (Hero Chapter) – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am frankly hesitant to announce that we are returning to Yuki Yuna is a Hero, as calamitous events surely draw closer to our long-suffering heroines in its ongoing Hero Chapter. You often hear that it’s always darkest before the dawn, but Yuki Yuna would strongly disagree – in fact, I hear it’s been working on developing a new, even darker night it calls “Night 2,” which will be taking the place of the dawn moving forward.

Of course, it’s not like we’re in a great spot to start with. After a mere half-episode of idyllic hero club shenanigans, our girls soon realized that something was terribly wrong, with Yuna and Nogi leading the charge in recalling their missing friend Togo. Having suffered through two sequential processes of fighting for the Divine Tree and watching her friends fall beside her, Togo has now disappeared from their lives altogether, presumably offering herself as a perpetual sacrifice to ensure no one else need suffer.

As ever, the Divine Tree has exploited Togo’s genuine commitment to her community, and frankly unwarranted guilt regarding her actions in the prior cycle, in order to make a feast of her better nature. It is not to gods or kings that we should declare our loyalty; it is to each other, to the people with whom we share our lives, and the community we hope to build together. Let’s get to it!

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Galaxy Express 999 – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am pleased as punch to announce that we’re shipping out aboard the Galaxy Express, joining Tetsuro and Maetel in their continued explorations of the sprawling and mysterious universe. What we may find is anyone’s guess, though we can be assured our investigations will uncover both fanciful scifi invention and sobering moral commentary, reminding us that the cruelty of society and tragedy of human ambition are constants wherever the tracks may take us.

Our last episode directly challenged Tetsuro’s pursuit of a metallic body, as he encountered creatures living formless lives with no stable bodies of their own. Their yearning for Tetsuro’s stability recalled to mind Shadow’s desperate coveting of her own abandoned form, raising a question of whether a new body can truly make us happy, or if we are simply doomed to feel forever insufficient with the form we are granted. And even if we do treasure our bodies, we must contend with the reality that nothing organic lasts – or refuse to, as the suicidal lovers of the episode’s end chose. Is it better to accept mortality or flaunt it through proud self-destruction – these and other classic children’s cartoon questions as we return to Galaxy Express 999!

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