The Legend of Vox Machina S2 – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am just pleased as punch to be returning to The Legend of Vox Machina, and continuing alongside the DnD-derived adventures of our intrepid heroes. The first season proved to be a delightful experience on the whole, with the party’s confidence as a unit seeming to echo its players’ growing confidence in guiding them, all leading up to a dynamite fusion of resolving player arcs and murder-rich visual theater.

That season also offered me plenty of food for thought regarding my own nascent dungeon mastering, though I’ve of course still got a long, long way to go. Humility established, I’m also quite proud to have completed the first act of my own campaign, having guided my players from unknown adventurers to local heroes of the realm, with a continent on the brink of war now stretched out before them. Having spent much of December and January plotting out upcoming quests, I’m eager to see how my players confound my expectations and muck up my best-laid efforts. We literally just conducted the first session of act two last week, so this seems like the perfect time to hop back into Vox Machina, and see how Mercer and his crew grapple with the peculiarities of this collaborative medium. Let’s get to it!

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Winter 2023 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. We’re somehow halfway through the winter season at this point, meaning airing shows have now produced a meal-worthy chunk of episodes, which suits my modern viewing habits much better than weekly releases. That means I’ll probably be checking out The Fire Hunter soon enough, but in the meantime, I’ve been following up my rewarding journey through Mobile Suit Gundam with a dive into Tomino’s followup, Space Runaway Ideon. I’ve repeatedly heard that Ideon is an essential pre-Evangelion production, but to be honest, the first dozen or so episodes were fairly underwhelming. Ideon’s conflict and characters remained static for quite some time, but the show’s fortunately been gaining momentum in its middle stretch, so I’m looking forward to a more positive report next week. Tomino aside, the movie screenings continued as always, with this week’s viewings spanning westerns, sea dramas, and one of the most improbable revenge films I’ve ever seen. Let’s get to it!

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Anxiety in the Plague Years: Bo Burnham’s Inside

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It’s a little tricky for me to go about “unpacking” Bo Burnham’s Inside, as the special is largely concerned with Bo Burnham unpacking himself. What does Bo feel, and how does Bo feel about that, and how does Bo feel about feeling that way about that – all these questions and more are answered as the special progresses. Across an hour and change of songs and sketches, Burnham offers a wildly self-conscious reflection on the already self-conscious ways we present ourselves as modern, perpetually online human beings, exacerbated by the forced solitude of the COVID age. Through cataloging and critiquing his every wayward thought, Burnham seeks to paradoxically create something universal, something that speaks to a common experience of watching the world burn from inside your own shrieking brain. It’s harrowing, hilarious, and maybe even a touch profound. 

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Star Driver – Episode 15

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we arrive at Southern Cross Isle in a moment of crisis, with Kiraboshi having at last discovered the identity of their missing shrine maiden. Though Marino did everything she could to hide the secret identity of her sister, the fact that she denied seeing any western maiden with Ayingot’s eyes nonetheless gave the game away. All of the maidens are assigned within a year of the king’s birth, so if Marino can’t see the western maiden, that simply means she’s lying – and who, if not Mizuno, would Marino be lying to protect?

As such, I imagine Mizuno will soon be drawn into the active Kiraboshi drama, and be forced to grapple with greater obstacles than finding the courage to smooch Takuto. I’m eager to see how integrating Mizuno into that side of the narrative will change our overall group dynamic, and also keeping close tabs on Sugata’s evolving relationship with the newly reinstated Head. All signs seem to point to an approaching act two climax, so let’s not waste a moment more, and dive back into the evolving drama of Star Driver!

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Dear Brother – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to announce we’re checking out one of the most essential anime series I’ve yet to see, Osamu Dezaki’s adaptation of Riyoko Ikeda’s Dear Brother. Both of these names are legends in their own right, who can rightfully be said to have shaped the course of their relative mediums. Ikeda was one of the key mangaka of what has been retroactively dubbed the Year 24 Group, a collection of female mangaka who elevated the ambitions of shojo manga, introducing new complexities of storytelling and pointed themes regarding sexuality, politics, and much else. Alongside Dear Brother, Ikeda also wrote the massively acclaimed The Rose of Versailles, a story set alongside the French Revolution that counts among the great works of shojo history, and even earned her a Legion of Honor from the French government.

And then, of course, there’s Osamu Dezaki. One of the greatest, most iconic directors in anime history, a man who essentially pioneered a visual vocabulary of melodrama. Dezaki’s influence on anime ranges far beyond individual techniques like his “postcard memory” freeze frames. His visual philosophy of drama, his deft employment of abstraction, and his manipulation of the frame via splitscreens, dutch angles, and shadows would all go on to influence countless future artists, from Tomino to Ikuhara to Shinbo. Any anime education is incomplete without a healthy dose of Dezaki, so I’m eager to dive into this beloved work.

As far as Dear Brother itself goes, my understanding of its narrative is “elite boarding school melodrama,” and I’m content to let the show itself flesh out that impression. Let’s get to it!

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Winter 2023 – Week 5 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. How are you all holding up as we march into February? It’s been a busy week on my end, as I’ve been hammering a bunch of ambitious drafts into shape, and trying to keep this streak of long-form essays going. A few months ago I couldn’t have imagined maintaining this sort of pace, but rearranging my schedule and simply embracing the challenge has carried me through so far, and I frankly feel a lot better mentally now that I’m tackling all these major projects.

Work aside, I’ve also continued storming through the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and at this point have just a handful of episodes to go. The show continues to impress me at every turn; by now you can really feel the weight of exhaustion hanging over the whole crew, making each new battle feel that much more desperate and unpredictable. I’ll likely take an opportunity to ramble about Gundam at length sometime soon, but for today, let’s explore a fresh selection of films. It’s time for the Week in Review!

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The Crafting of Magic in Witch Hat Atelier

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From your first glance at its volume cover, it is clear that one of Witch Hat Atelier’s great strengths is its lush illustrations, which delight in both their whimsical form and detail-rich content. Even the chapter index is adorned with herbs and baubles, speaking to the love of tiny mysteries and scene-setting details attendant in this realm of old woods fantasy. A pinch of this rare herb, a shaving of root, and something bright and glittering from the high jars of the atelier; the magical artisan at work is this story’s quintessential image, capturing both the wonder and the skill of true creation.

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The Demon Girl Next Door S2 – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be checking back in on The Demon Girl Next Door, wherein Shamiko most recently acquired a new part-time job, and is currently serving as a waitress in the most demon-haunted cafe in town. Fortunately, the demons in question seem like the agreeable sort; Shamiko’s tapir boss is at the very least utterly harmless, and while her Huli Jing coworker’s food might occasionally send her into an amnesiac stupor, that’s ultimately more a result of oblivious negligence than malice. In spite of Momo’s worries, Shamiko’s infiltration mission has been a clear success, and the team now have a direct line to this town’s demonic community.

The story could theoretically rush straight ahead towards more revelations about Sakura Chiyoda, but I’m guessing that, like with Mikan’s introduction, we’re presumably in for an episode or two of adjusting to these new arrivals. Even Shamiko simply hanging out with Mikan tends to inspire some jealousy from Momo, so I’m mostly just holding out for more adorable possessiveness from our least sincere of magical girls. Let’s dive back into The Demon Girl Next Door!

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Bocchi the Rock! – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to jump back into the misadventures of Bocchi and her friends, as we explore the second episode of Bocchi the Rock! Well, I say friends, but truthfully you couldn’t call them more than acquaintances at this point. Bocchi simply lacks the confidence or comfort level to interact on any level more familiar than a hostage negotiating with its captor, and so it’s a little tough for real camaraderie to develop. And that itself is one of the things I loved best about that first episode: it wasn’t simply “wacky girl finds friends,” it was “girl with painfully realistic portrayal of anxiety finds people willing to tolerate that for the sake of a successful performance.” Some of my favorite moments from the premiere were those that genuinely acknowledged how Bocchi’s nature would impact her life, as when Nijika briefly considered abandoning her, or when Bocchi herself turned down a post-performance chat because she’d simply used up all her social energy.

Alongside its refreshingly frank portrait of anxiety, that premiere was elevated tremendously by its manifest production strengths. The layouts which, through their management of character blocking and overall spatial configuration, managed to visually convey Bocchi’s journey from isolation to a vast new world. The energetic character animation, boasting infinite ideas for contorting Bocchi into shapes that better articulate her mental state. Heck, even the show’s moment-to-moment sense of timing and visual-aural synchronicity is remarkable, whether it’s applied to something like using a Bocchi original to score a sad montage, or to illustrate how Nijika and Ryo are in mental sync on the stage. Bocchi the Rock! hit the ground running with an altogether remarkable premiere, and I’m eager to see how our anxious heroine develops. Let’s get to it!

Episode 2

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Winter 2023 – Week 4 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’ve got a touch of sound and fury for you all, as the week’s screenings included a film I hated with every single fiber of my being. Yes, we did indeed watch Favreau’s detestable Lion King remake, so you all get to enjoy a dash of that naked fury that I only direct at things that make the world worse. Fortunately, the rest of this week’s screenings were much more fortuitous, ranging from a distinctive artifact of anime’s digital transition to a just plain excellent slasher film. Let’s start with the bad and push on through the good then, as we run down the latest Week in Review!

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