Modern anime convention rests upon a scaffolding that has been built up over decades, a series of aesthetic and narrative conventions established one seminal work at a time. The more I explore this scaffolding, the more I find to appreciate in modern anime; as such, I was eager to check out Kaze to Ki no Uta, the film adaptation of one of the earliest and most influential works of shounen-ai manga. The manga’s explorations of sadomasochism, incest, and other charged topics made it controversial from the start; in fact, author Keiko Takemiya’s editors waited seven years from her first conception of the story to actual publishing. And its release was a lightning bolt; a hit from the start, it would help popularize shounen-ai more generally, opening the door for manga and anime’s subsequent explorations of queer identity.
Spy x Family – Episode 17
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager as heck to get back to the adventures of the Forger family, having finally posted enough of my existing writeups to feel justified in jumping back to the series. Spy x Family has indeed become one of those shows that I can’t help but gorge myself on given the opportunity, and thus I’ve had to ration my viewing as judiciously as possible. Well, the rationing has transpired, and at last we’re here!
Our last excursion with the Forgers proved to be Yor’s finest hour, wherein the basic gag of “Yor can’t cook” was somehow expanded into an exploration of how food, family, and memory are naturally entwined, concluding with Yor finding a crucial link between her time with Yuri and her days with the Forgers. Touching on her core anxieties, her feelings about the past, and her dreams for the future, episode sixteen offered some vital texture to Yor’s personality, while further emphasizing her thematic alignment with the rest of the Forgers.
With Yor’s anxieties assuaged and Bond settling into the family home, I imagine we’re in for some Anya adventures over at the academy. But Spy x Family is full of delightful surprises, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy whatever madness awaits. Let’s get back to the Forgers!
The Legend of Vox Machina S2 – Episode 4
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to grab my dice and roll back into The Legend of Vox Machina, wherein our party are currently facing potential tragedy in the Tomb of Purvan. Having established both our seasonal character conflict (Vax’s overprotective feelings towards his sister, and her resultant frustration), as well as the fact that we’re exploring a monument to the Goddess of Death, we concluded the last episode by entwining those two threads. Vax got fussy, Vex got angry, and one hasty tomb check later, it appears our half-elven heroine has gotten herself killed. Maybe your brother had a bit of a point, Vex?
All in all, Vox Machina’s new adventure is proceeding swimmingly. Beyond that, I’m happy to report my own house campaign is also going well, and we’ve run through three successful sessions since I last checked in. With the party traveling through a particularly post-apocalyptic territory, I ran through first a Seven Samurai-style base defense, then a good old-fashioned battledome, and finally a riverboat gambling scenario, wherein my party had to dispose of a hijacker and ford a river brimming with flesh-eating manatees (“maneaties”). All of these adventures served as experiments in encounter design – first an encounter that’s being fought on two fronts, then an encounter with limited sightlines, and finally an encounter comprising both a normal battle map and a larger ship to be navigated. All three experiments were a success, and I’m eager to apply all this new technology to future quests, but that’ll be a story for next time. For now, let’s check in with Vox Machina, and see what can be done for Vex!
Spring 2023 – Week 1 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week we’re greeting the spring anime season, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s actually a couple shows I’m interested in checking out. Both Tengokyu Daimakyou and Hell’s Paradise look pretty interesting, and from last season I’ve still gotta catch up on Tsurune and Vinland Saga. Having concluded Dragon Ball (don’t worry, we’re covering that today), I’m also continuing my personal journey through missing classics with Dennou Coil, a show I’ve been meaning to get to literally since I first plotted out my key anime gaps almost a decade ago. And yet, among all the tumult of fresh anime and anime gone by, I still managed to fit in a fresh stack of feature films. You ready? Let’s do this. It’s time for the Week in Review!
The Demon Girl Next Door S2 – Episode 8
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to dive back into The Demon Girl Next Door, and at last enjoy the spoils of our hard-fought sense of genuine normalcy. After a first half-season that saw Shamiko and the gang racing through the entirety of their established conflicts, ending in both the discovery of Sakura Chiyoda and a dramatic declaration of love from Momo, it seems like things are finally calming down around Banda Terrace. Shamiko is learning to assert herself, Momo is learning to embrace vulnerability, and both of them are looking forward to a significantly less stressful fall semester.
I imagine some new conflicts will emerge to muck up all this peace and quiet, but I’d frankly also be happy to just marinate in the peace for a moment. Shamiko and Momo have been so busy accomplishing things that they haven’t really had much chance to put their new declarations into practice, and figure out how their relationship works now that they’re being so much more honest with each other. I tend to find the day-to-day practice of a relationship more interesting than the theatrics of courtship, and this production has always been uniquely perceptive when it comes to small changes in character dynamics, so I’m eager to check in on our awkward couple. Let’s return to The Demon Girl Next Door!
Yuureitou – Volume 4
It’s been six chaotic years since I last wrote about Yuureitou, yet the work is such a singular, insistent creation that jumping into it was as easy as if I’d never left. Yuureitou clearly has a few key influences, and is not afraid to bash them together in strange, sometimes even ludicrous ways, all for the sake of promoting a unique emotional or dramatic result. Part Hitchcockian thriller, part reflection on gender identity, and part grindhouse or Hammer horror, Yuureitou is happy to swing wildly between these passions at a moment’s notice, daring the audience to challenge its nature much like the manga’s characters often do. The manga buries itself in the messiness of identity, and through its meandering course exemplifies the multiplicity of our experience, the reality that we are all composed of jagged, contradictory instincts and emotions.
Tsurune S2 – Episode 2
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to get back into the second season of Kyoto Animation’s Tsurune, a production which has already leapt beyond the standard set by its impressive predecessor. From the premiere’s remarkably seamless storyboard to its personality-rich animation, to say nothing of the graceful composite drawing it all together, Tsurune S2’s first episode was a tiny masterpiece of animated drama. Though anime is often renowned for facilitating individual artist voices within a larger work, a show like this demonstrates just how powerful a unified production can be, with all of Kyoto Animation’s talented artists straining in the same direction, hoping to achieve something both simple and nearly impossible to convey: the felt experience of a human life.
Throughout that first episode, I felt the rush of emotions as the arrow’s song brought memories to the fore. I knew the frustration of not being able to convey my intent through my clumsy hands, and the elation of realizing a slight adjustment in form was all I needed. I shivered with impatience as I consented to delay kyudo practice, and sprang up with excitement as an impromptu practice session emerged. My favorite studio has woven its familiar magic again, and I’m delighted to be caught in its spell. Let’s see what wonders await in the next episode!
Winter 2023 – Week 13 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’ve got a motley collection of films for you all, ranging from pulpy scifi spectacles to a mid-century classic, and even a buddy film starring a dog. It’s been a fairly busy week both in films and elsewhere, as I managed to munch through two of my ambitious backlog projects last week, thereby dragging myself a few inches closer to being genuinely current on my current projects. It’s still a distant dream, but I’m nonetheless proud of my progress so far this year, and can’t wait to share more of these big articles with all of you. Anyway, enough patting myself on the back, let’s break down some films!
Anju to Zushiomaru
Hello friends, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’ll be returning to the Toei Doga film catalog, as we explore the followup to Saiyuki: Anju to Zushiomaru, also known as “The Littlest Warrior.” This film is based on a 1915 short story by Mori Ogai, which was also adapted into the acclaimed 1954 film Sansho the Bailiff. The story follows two aristocratic children who fall on hard times, and are eventually sold into slavery.
Compared to the boisterous fantasy of Saiyuki, I’m told this film is a more grounded human drama, offering plenty of opportunities for character animation flourishes like Yasuji Mori’s stunning Saiyuki sequence of Rin-Rin collapsing in the snow. I’m also told that the film’s main animators, Mori included, essentially disavowed the film right upon release, and that its themes are a dubious mix of “accept suffering and don’t seek to raise your station,” “might makes right,” and “the ruling class knows what’s best for us.” As such, I’m expecting an intriguingly lopsided viewing experience, with gorgeous character animation working in service of seriously dubious values. Let’s get to it!
Dear Brother – Episode 4
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am absolutely beyond eager to get back into Dear Brother, and at last find out however Nanako handles the imposing Sorority sisters. I’ve frankly been consumed with anticipation ever since I watched the last episode; I could try and feign some critical distance here, but the honest truth is this show has already swept me up, and I’m eager to simply know what happens next. I know, me caring about plot developments? It’s a strange affair to be sure, but Ikeda is proving herself a master of hooks and momentum, and Seiran is such a fantastical venue that it feels like anything is possible.
Last episode saw Nanako racing towards her destiny with renewed determination, as Misaki’s schemes forced her to abandon her comfortable passivity, and actually fight for her position in the Sorority. Her personal growth was accompanied by a variety of ingenious new visual tricks from Dezaki, ranging from the glimmering motes of light used to convey sunset’s glow, to the aggressive screen partitioning and negative space used to foster a sense of growing entrapment. Nanako’s already changed to such an extent that she’s unwilling to reveal her transformation to Dear Brother, but I imagine it’ll take even more calluses than that to survive the trials of Seiran. Let’s get to it!