Galaxy Express 999 – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am beyond excited to be embarking on the Galaxy Express, and once more exploring the sights of Leiji Matsumoto’s fantastical adventure. The first episode proved more action-packed than I would ever have predicted, with our young hero Tetsuro responding to the death of his mother through a fit of righteously murderous fury, destroying the contemptible Count Mecha and fleeing the police with the mysterious Maetel. Escaping the earth as fugitives, the two now rest aboard the Galaxy Express itself, ready to experience the wonders of the universe.

Alongside the obvious excitement of so much immediate dramatic commotion, it’s also clear that, in spite of its fantastical embellishments, Galaxy Express is deeply concerned with the inherent injustices of modern society. Both Megalopolis’ stratified pleasures and the allure of cyborg bodies serve as clear illustrations of capitalism’s cruelties; the hope of “work hard and you’ll succeed” was immediately proven a false idol through the death of Tetsuro’s mother, emphasizing how class is for most people an inescapable life sentence. Whether Galaxy Express continues elaborating on that theme or uses its rambling structure as a vehicle for new meditations, I’m eager to experience whatever wonders are up ahead. Let’s get to it!

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Yuri is My Job! – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on a brand new adventure, as we check out the first episode of Yuri is My Job! I doubt I need to explain to any of my readers that “yuri” generally refers to lesbian romance in anime or manga. Yuri has a long and storied tradition in these fields, with the early 20th century Class S dramas that were often focused on all-girl schools informing the works of the Year 24 Group in the 1970s, including such enduring classics as Riyoko Ikeda’s Dear Brother. These stories influenced the next generations in turn, with ‘90s highlights like Maria Watches Over Us and Revolutionary Girl Utena paving the way for modern, somewhat more grounded stories like Bloom Into You or Adachi and Shimamura, as well as lighter romcoms like The Demon Girl Next Door.

Anime and manga have often been a haven for society’s outsiders, realizing the hopes and aspirations that would invite censure in a rigid, conservative culture. And even as we’ve begun to break the shackles publicly inhibiting expressions of homosexual love, yuri dramas have continued to evolve with the times, even hopping aboard the isekai boom through stories like I’m In Love With The Villainess. Yuri is My Job seems to fit neatly within the modern self-aware paradigm, with its genre-savvy title and heroine whose name is literally Hime, meaning “princess.” It apparently takes place at a cafe themed after those classic Class S dramas, making me curious as to both how it might comment on genre convention, and how it will express earnest character drama in its own right. Let’s find out!

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Summer 2024 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. As the summer heat continues to bear down upon us, this week saw my house concluding our run through Victory Gundam, which has left me scrambling to find a proper followup production. I definitely need to take a break from Gundam, but I’m not really sure what else I can rely on for group viewings – we’re currently watching through the highlights of the modern isekai boom (Log Horizon and Grimgar), but I’m still in the market for a new longer-term project. Maybe the Hajime no Ippo adaptation, or possibly Sailor Moon? Anyway, I’d welcome any suggestions from all of you, but in the meantime, the conclusion of Victory was of course accompanied by plenty of old-fashioned film screenings. Let’s break ‘em down!

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Common Faults and Monsters

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Like most films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Monster begins quietly, tracking the shoes of a child as they silently navigate a grassy embankment. The movement is furtive, hesitant; the boy we are following seems uncertain of his destination, yet cordoned in his wandering by fear of reprisal. Beyond him, electric lights glimmer in reflection upon a dark river, while the sirens of the city howl in the distance. We pull up: a firetruck, a bustling crowd, and a great burning building looming in the distance. How can such an aberrant form coexist with this gentle moment, this private odyssey of youth on the riverbanks? Odd how a panning of the camera can change a scene so utterly, make beauty into ugliness, or the terrible glorious to behold.

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Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d like to check back in on the trials of Doremi and the gang, as our crew continues their magical training and witch baby-raising under the dubious tutelage of Majo Rika. Of course, there’s plenty of room for detours along the way, along with self-imposed trials like messing with Hadzuki’s dance lessons. Ultimately, magic is really just a fantastical garnish for Doremi’s true substance: its thoughtful, wide-ranging exploration of the trials of youth, and the lessons we must internalize to mature happily and with confidence.

In Hadzuki’s case, that lesson was a familiar one, resonating with past trials like Onpu coming to understand her mother’s trauma, or Aiko accepting her father’s pursuit of new romance. Ojamajo Doremi’s empathy and insight stretches to its adults as well as its leads, emphasizing that we are all fallible works in progress, and in turn encouraging its heroes to walk forward with an understanding that there is no finish line to growing up. We’re all just doing the best we can, and in this production’s hands, the wonder of coming to love ourselves and our fellows feels as magical as any outright fantasy. Let’s see what shenanigans our team gets up to next!

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The Big O – Episode 21

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to The Big O, which we last left in a moment of total crisis, as both Roger and Dorothy found themselves under assault by agents of the mysterious “Union,” the only glimmer of civilization we’ve seen from outside the walls of Paradigm. Living in the ruins of the wider world, they have infiltrated Paradigm on all levels, from Roger’s would-be confidant Angel to Alex Rosewater’s associate Alan Gabriel. And now their agents have gathered, amassing in their chapel to pass judgment on this hedonistic dreamworld.

The unveiling of Paradigm’s true peculiarity has been the great work of Big O’s second half, as both Roger and the audience shift from taking his retro-futuristic city for granted to acknowledging it as a strange and unnatural outlier in a world otherwise fallen to ruin. Whatever Gordon Rosewater did, it appears his intent was to create a bubble world much like his tomato garden, a patch of enduring twentieth century excess that would resist the ruin otherwise enveloping the earth. To this end, he likely programmed Roger and others like him to act as this vessel’s antibodies, rooting out threats both internal and external in order to ensure the safety of the harvest. But what can Roger even do with this information? Knowing he is a pawn, would it be better to rebel against his programming and risk all of Paradigm, or remain complicit in Gordon’s project to protect his home? Neither answer seems quite right, which makes me all the more eager to see his own choice. Let’s get to it!

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Summer 2024 – Week 5 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. This week our film screenings ranged from classics of western cinema to modern spinetinglers, alongside one of my few outstanding theatrical projects spearheaded by either of Ghibli’s legendary directors. I believe I’ve actually seen every Miyazaki film at this point, but still have both Grave of the Fireflies and the intriguing mixed-media project The Story of Yanagawa’s Canals outstanding among Takahata’s projects. I’m basically waiting for the right mental state to watch Grave of the Fireflies, but in the meantime was happy to savor a lighter project embodying many of Takahata’s finest qualities. Let’s start with that feature, as we burn down a fresh Week in Review!

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Phoenix – Volume 3

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Phoenix’s first volume took us back to the dawn of Japanese history, detailing the selfish ambitions and overwhelming violence of the island’s origins, how “Japan was formed as a nation through invasion, war, and slaughter.” Its second volume sped forward to the end of human history, offering a vision of the future where our shortsightedness and distrust of the Other led to the destruction of not just our species, but life on earth altogether. Though the phoenix itself embodies hope of a better way, that hope is clearly a distant one; for as Tezuka has continuously demonstrated, individual acts of charity or enlightenment cannot halt the overall tide of tribalism, indolence, and desperation for personal glory that seems to define our greater nature.

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Blue Reflection Ray – Episode 4

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d check back in on Blue Reflection Ray, and see how our heroes are faring in the wake of their successful rescue operation. Saving Miyako from the red reflectors ultimately required a brave step forward from Ruka, as she pushed past her anxieties to stand up for a person who was hurting, and thereby become the kind of person who can actually reach out to others. That in turn echoed the very reason she was fighting for Miyako: for no matter how painful our feelings, if we choose to learn from them rather than tuck them away, there is always hope we will do better next time.

It’s a fine dividing line between our blue and red reflectors, tethering that familiar conceit of “powerful emotions conjure powerful magic” to the further question of how precisely we choose to process those emotions. I’ll be interested in seeing how this metaphor develops, but in more immediate terms, I am also eager for the snarky, self-important Miyako to spend more time aggravating our initial pair. The irritants in these groups often turn out to be my favorite characters, and Miyako has so far proven to be an extremely charming brand of irritating. Let’s get to it!

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Call of the Night – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m feeling a certain yearning for the wild side, a clamoring for deviant adventure that can obviously only be sated with some Call of the Night. Granted, our featured nightwalkers aren’t exactly the most intimidating of creatures; in fact, they spent most of their last encounter debating the significance of a first kiss and also playing Street Fighter. Nonetheless, their dissatisfaction with daylit society and slow progress towards mutual trust have been an overall delight, a charming slow burn of romance and incidental escapades.

Through both its careful color design and the anxieties of its main cast, Call of the Night has been articulating a poignant sense of dislocation within modern society. This fundamental loneliness is balanced by the tentative intimacy shared by Kou, Nazuna, and newcomer Akira; none of them are quite sure where they belong, but all of them are desperate to not be alone. All that plus a heaping helping of sensually charged imagery makes Call of the Night a natural continuation of director Itamura’s Monogatari-forged expertise, and a show I’m always happy to revisit. Let’s not waste any more time then, and see what Nazuna and her human companions are up to!

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