It is not some great moral conviction that drives Phos into the sea. If anything, it’s closer to the opposite – a total absence of feeling, and lack of concern for their own fate. Even after being reconstructed from the nautilus’ shell, Phos still possesses no value within gem society; the only one who seems to actually need them is this weird slug-creature. Like Cinnabar, Phos clings to this paltry source of value out of desperation – and also like Cinnabar, they do this in spite of having people who actually care about them, and want to see them happy. So often, we are our own cruelest judges.
Adachi and Shimamura – Episode 11
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d say we’re past due to check in on that most hapless of couples, the perpetually self-defeating Adachi and Shimamura. In spite of Adachi’s joy at the two of them once again sharing homeroom, the slight barrier of their desks’ distance proved to be almost insurmountable. And when a new group of students decided to make friends with Shimamura, it was all too easy for each of them to slip back into old habits.
Adachi and Shimamura has been refreshingly honest about the stop-and-start pacing of personal development. Its characters falter often, embracing the comfortable over the unknown, and frequently second-guessing their own emotional development. Nothing about Adachi and Shimamura’s relationship is “fated” – it would have been easy for the two to drift apart right here, and for Adachi to become another Tarumi-like figure of nostalgia and regret. The fragility of this relationship is nerve-wracking, but it’s also what makes the drama land; these characters feel imperfect in emphatically human ways, and my ability to relate to their frailty makes me want to see them happy all the more. With two episodes left, I’m guessing we’ve got time for maybe three-and-a-half more heart-stopping emotional revelations. Let’s see what’s next!
Scum’s Wish – Episode 2
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be diving back into Scum’s Wish, the Masaomi Andou-directed adaptation of Mengo Yokoyari’s thorny adolescent drama. So far, the show has offered plenty of Andou and plenty of drama, as high schoolers Hana and Mugi pine after the crushes of their childhood, while consoling themselves with the bodies of each other. It’s a deeply unhealthy state of affairs, a fragile disaster waiting to happen, and I’m eager to see it all come tumbling down.
More immediately, though, I’m mostly looking for this episode to add some distinctive human texture to our four leads. So far they’ve largely been defined by their romantic feelings, which doesn’t really tell us much about them specifically; we know Hana and Kanai clung to each other as a result of their missing parents, but that’s about it as far as character motivation is concerned. What we might need is some general group activity or event, something for each character to react to in their own way, and thus establish their personalities outside of the context of their romantic feelings. That’s my main narrative hope, but either way, I’m looking forward to munching on more of Andou’s delicious compositions. Let’s get to it!
Fall 2021 – Week 1 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. The fall season has officially started, meaning we’re gearing up for another bout of seasonal depression, or as I like to call it, depression. I’m not the most cheerful of souls at the best of the times, but the dreary winter weather certainly doesn’t help. Like many folks, I often write to intellectualize my feelings, and through defining them hope to resolve or at least come to peace with them. Like Dobu says, most people don’t think about themselves all that much; writing at times feels like an act of therapy, so I hope you all forgive me for taking advantage of my platform to mumble about my feelings.
Of course, one of my most sure-fire ways to get out of my own head is to get into someone else’s head, and explore their take on the world for a while. Thus this was a fairly productive week, as we knocked out a mixed bag of films, along with a couple of acclaimed streaming series. Let’s break ‘em all down in the Week in Review!
Blue Flag – Volume 2
Blue Flag’s second volume starts off with a reminder of the first thing that struck me about the first volume: the careful attention this story pays to the way clothes hang on the body, and project confidence, insecurity, or any manner of other emotions purely in the fit of the fabric.
It’s fitting for a story about adolescence to be preoccupied as well with the awkward physicality of our outfits – how some of us seem to exude natural confidence at all times, while others seem perpetually uncomfortable in their own skin. It’s also fitting for a story by KAITO, who is so capable of conveying emotions through presentation, as with their masterful use of paneling. Gaining comfort with both our bodies and our feelings is a circuitous learning process, and though some of Blue Flag’s leads seem more confident in their clothes than others, they all struggle with the difficulty of presenting an authentic self.
The Demon Girl Next Door – Episode 1
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! Today we’ll be embarking on a new journey, as we check out the first episode of 2019’s The Demon Girl Next Door. I’ve been told this show is “the most directly post-Madoka series” of recent years, but beyond that mostly know of it via cultural osmosis, as a generally well-regarded mix of slice of life and romance. It’s based on a 4koma strip, so I’m expecting things will be fairly gag-driven, which seems to suit its director Hiroaki Sakurai (Cromartie High School, among a variety of other acclaimed shows) quite well. I feel like it’s been too long since I checked out a solid slice of life show, so here’s hoping Demon Girl offers the good vibes we’re looking for. Let’s check it out!
The Woman Called Fujiko Mine – Episode 9
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be returning to the beautiful, incendiary production that is The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, where we most recently learned the name of her childhood tormentor: Count Luis Yew Armeid. A figure of seemingly supernatural menace, Armeid has been manipulating characters like the fortune teller Shitoto from behind the scenes, as he attempts to guide Fujiko towards some unknown end.
This production has been refreshingly direct about Armeid’s crimes: it seems clear that he sexually abused Fujiko as a child, and that her resulting trauma manifests through the otherworldly flashbacks to her childhood abuse. An incidental detail like an owl motif on a wall can draw Fujiko right back to those strange chambers, where the specifics of her experience are abstracted into this ominous owl-headed count, the nightmare jailer who haunted her childhood.
In the present day, Armeid seems determined to embody more than just the lingering effects of trauma. Statements like his intent to “test the Third to see if he’s worthy of Fujiko” imply a sense of patriarchal ownership, as if Fujiko is Armeid’s possession, who can only be gifted to another man by her current owner. It’s a not-uncommon cultural assumption, drawn to its perverse extreme by the fact that Armeid was already her childhood abuser.
Of course, all of this is precisely what Fujiko has spent her adulthood rallying against. She values freedom over all else, and makes it a point of pride to mock and discredit those who’d hope to cage her. She does not see her femininity or sexuality as a “precious gift” to be claimed by some male retainer; she has sex freely and for personal or mercenary reasons, disdaining the idea that woman are “supposed” to be meek and modest. That convention is just another sort of cage, after all.
Ultimately, Armeid seems like the ideal antagonist for a show so in tune with the complex realities of gender as a social construct. He represents basically all of the conservative, patriarchal social values that Fujiko disdains, coupled with the menace of the violent desires those values have worked to sanitize. He is the condescending pat on the head and the underlying threat of consequence in one, and though Fujiko has grown far beyond his influence, destroying him would nonetheless serve as a satisfying denouncement of his wretched perspective. Let’s get back to Fujiko at work!
Summer 2021 – Week 13 in Review
Buckle up, everyone. Once again, the absence of a steady One Piece supply led us to gorge ourselves on feature films, as we feasted on a diverse array of recent flicks, classics, and genre oddballs. Having already watched plenty of the acclaimed spaghetti and revisionist westerns, it’s been interesting to push backwards into westerns’ original golden age. Westerns dominated Hollywood for years, but these days, their most lasting cultural influence is tied to movies that dispel the myth of the heroic cowboy. As a result, diving deeper into westerns has provided fascinating context for the films I’ve already seen, helping to fill in the dialogue that Sergio Leone and others were in conversation with. So let’s start with some westerns then, as we barrel through another Week in Review!
ODDTAXI – Episode 9
How did it all come to this? Somehow, the spiraling conflicts of ODDTAXI feel both implausible and inevitable, a thousand quirks of fate culminating in an unstoppable tragedy. Odokawa has never done more than drive his taxi and try to protect his friends, but he has nonetheless found himself at the core of a deadly conspiracy, suspended between crooked cops and violent criminals. He is now possibly the only person who can save Taichi – and yet Odokawa himself is the biggest mystery of all, with his tragic history, strange skill set, and ominous closet all presenting their own questions. In another show, this lack of explanation might feel frustrating. In ODDTAXI, Odokawa’s personality has been presented with such nuance and clarity that he still feels like a close friend, even for all his secrets.
Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that. Odokawa might conceal information, but he does not lie about his feelings. He is always earnestly himself, regardless of the circumstances. This might sometimes get him in trouble, as during his engagements with Dobu and Yamamoto – but it also attracts fast and loyal friends, who appreciate the company of someone who says what they feel. While characters like Kakihana or Taichi seek validation through the assumption of an online persona, they are ultimately promising more than they can provide, and eventually find themselves consumed by a culture whose hunger can never be satisfied. With his gruff yet undeniably earnest nature, Odokawa has won the trust of the people he cares about, and cultivated bonds that just might carry him through the waiting crucible. Let’s see if he can rescue Taichi from himself!
Symphogear XV – Episode 5
Hello everyone, and welcome the fuck back to Wrong Every Time. You all ready for some SYMPHOGEAR??? It’s been altogether too long since Hibiki last punched somebody, and I think we could all use a little righteous fury right now. Plus, we’ve at last reached one of my favorite supergroup staples: that part where your financial/political backers betray you, and you find yourself a bunch of wanted outlaws.
It’s a pretty handy dramatic conceit, for a variety of reasons. A betrayal like this introduces a great deal of uncertainty into the narrative, making the cast seem far more vulnerable than before, and thus creating a greater sense of challenge for the tasks ahead. Additionally, robbing the cast of their institutional backing forces them to reckon with their own values, as they are forced to choose between personal justice and society’s preferred justice for the first time. That personal struggle will in turn inform this season’s thematic trajectory, as the wielders challenge the nationalist rhetoric of Kazanari. And of course, it’s also just fun watching a team like this cope with less-than-optimal conditions; seeing the wielders deployed as a scrappy guerilla group is a payoff in its own right, demonstrating how their strength has nothing to do with their institutional power.
So yeah, I’m pretty pumped for this turn in the story, and excited to see just how badly Kazanari fucks this up. Symphogear villains have overreached in the past, but with the architects themselves in play, I’m guessing Kazanari’s reenactment of this meme will be the show’s most satisfying to date. Let’s get to it!