Anne of Green Gables – Episode 10

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Wrong Every Time. Today it seemed just about time to take a trip back to Green Gables, and see how our friend Anne is faring. Last episode served as a great triumph for Anne, as her first meeting with potential friend Diana turned out splendidly. Though Anne came on a little strong with her vow of undying friendship and all that, Diana turned out to be thoroughly charmed by Anne’s eccentricities, and the two enjoyed a peaceful afternoon among the hills and flowers. Diana can’t quite match Anne’s peculiarity of perspective, but she’s just as voracious of a reader, giving the two an easy point of connection in kindling a long and rewarding friendship.

Last episode also served as a temporary sendoff to Yoshiyuki Tomino, who’ll be rejoining us for episode twelve. In the meantime, this episode will be storyboarded by Shigeo Koshi, a Masterpiece Theater mainstay who also made significant contributions to Leiji Matsumoto’s Star Blazers. Koshi will be working from a Takahata script, and with no specific episode director attached, I’m guessing this episode will most directly evoke the soothing naturalism and poetic whimsy of Takahata’s oeuvre. That’s more than fine by me; every fresh episode of Anne raises my estimation of Takahata, and I’ve already had to install a second floor in my artist-appreciation warehouse to account for how highly I currently regard him. Let’s see what wonders await us as we return to Green Gables!

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The Legend of Vox Machina – Episode 7

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am positively incensed, owing to my recent illness having stolen this week’s D&D session. We’d basically gone into hibernation mode over the winter, and had just started getting some momentum going, and then my body had the temerity to go and get sick on me! We’d just reached the ancient city! We were about to run through a miniboss rush! Who even knows when we’ll get the group together again to… aaARRGH!

Anyway. With my D&D opportunities in the outer world unjustly stolen from me, I’m planning to console myself with the continuing adventures of Vox Machina. When last we left off, the show had just announced a shocking yet inevitable reveal: Percy’s sister Cassandra is still alive, and actually working with the Blackbriars. Wha!? I know, I know, but don’t get too scandalized, since I’m pretty sure the reveal of the resistance’s mole will set her right back on the side of justice. As the tension continues to build, let’s see what awaits in a fresh episode of The Legend of Vox Machina!

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Chainsaw Man and the Poverty of Our Dreams

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Chainsaw Man commences with a grim litany of prices paid, as our hero Denji recounts all the body parts and organs he’s sold to winnow down his overwhelming debt. Having hacked off all expendable kidneys, eyes, and testicles, he announces he’s reduced his debt to a mere thirty-eight million yen. It’s not a price he could reasonably pay, not a price he expects to pay with all the fruit of his desperate labor. It is a death sentence, executed by way of a thousand financial cuts, and it will follow him until the day he finally gives up.

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Summer 2022 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. You all doing okay this week? As for me, the water has currently been turned off in my apartment due to construction, a fact which is intermingling with the ongoing heat wave to astonishingly negative effect. But that aside, I’m still feeling hyped as hell about running my own D&D campaign, and have hammered out a whole introductory quest node for my beloved players. My current biggest issue is figuring out how to effectively crib from the various established modules – I don’t want to simply embrace standard WotC adventures, but the scale of invention required for a major D&D arc seems intimidating, to say the least. And of course, the house has still played host to all manner of film viewings, as we continue to extract vital nourishment from the fertile vine of cinematic history. I can sense myself getting weirdly florid with these descriptions, so let’s not waste any more time, and see what a fresh week of films has to offer!

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Ranking of Kings – Episode 6

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d check back in on Ranking of Kings, where our two aspirants to the throne are currently each contending with their own dire turns of fate. Having been betrayed by Domas and cast into the depths of hell, it seemed like this was the end for Bojji – but between Kage’s interference and the “protection” offered by his existing curse, our boy was safely carried to the King of the Underworld.

Unfortunately, it seems there’s no corresponding Kage-like ally here to rescue the young King Daida. Though he has claimed the crown he so fervently sought, he has in doing so pushed away all allies who might genuinely aid him, be they loyal protectors like Domas or the ever-hopeful Bojji. Fear of betrayal has ironically made him all the more susceptible to it, as by rejecting all who were willing to challenge him, he has left himself vulnerable to those whose unerring support was always a façade.

As Ranking of Kings has so consistently expressed, all people contain multitudes, and unique circumstances can always lead them to embrace their worse or better instincts. That is precisely why it’s so important to have companions who wish you to be your best possible self, and are willing to step in and say something when you embrace your less charitable instincts. Having spent his youth trusting in his own strength and always fearing betrayal, Daida lacks the sense of humility and compassion that would foster such relationships, putting his fate squarely in the mirror’s hands. Let’s see what fate awaits him as we return to Ranking of Kings!

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Ganso Tensai Bakabon – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be checking out a feature that’s a little distant from our usual selections, as we explore the first episode of the ‘70s comedy Ganso Tensai Bakabon. This is actually the second adaptation of Fujio Akatsuka’s original Tensai Bakabon manga, focused on the original’s breakout character: Bakabon’s idiot father, famed for his nonsensical neighborhood schemes.

The manga is one of those Japanese cultural institutions like Sazae-san that never really got much traction abroad, presumably due its culturally embedded perspective and the general difficulty of adapting comedy between languages. Of course, all those challenges only make this viewing more interesting to me, as a snapshot of a particular moment in mid-century Japanese culture. And beyond its historical relevance, this particular adaptation happens to benefit from the presence of Osamu Dezaki, one of the greatest titans in anime history. Dezaki directed over thirty episodes of Bakabon under his Makura Saki pen name, including the one we’re about to get on with. I’ll admit this seems like a somewhat unusual place to begin my Dezaki investigations, but I’m sure you’d all agree that some Dezaki is better than no Dezaki, and I’m happy to provide. Let’s see what Ganso Tensai Bakabon has in store!

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Hugtto! Precure – Episode 32

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d stop back in with the heroes of Hugtto! Precure, which my autocorrect will probably never stop replacing with “procure” every time I type it. Boo to autocorrect, but hurray for Precure, which never fails to conjure a tear and a smile. Our last episode fell more towards the tearful end of the spectrum, as Hana at last confronted the girl who inspired her pre-series transformation. Hana’s defense of Eri back in middle school led to her total ostracization, forcing her to rebuild herself as a new and resolutely chipper Hana for high school. But when faced with the girl who forced that change, Hana reverted to her old fears, worrying that even her courage was a burden to Eri.

Fortunately, the Hana we know is a far cry from the Hana of middle school – and perhaps even more importantly, she now has an unwavering support group of friends to stick by her. Just as Hana has so often demonstrated the power of a friend cheering you on, so was she invigorated by the words of her own friends, to the point where she actually rekindled her friendship with Eri. As it turns out, the feelings we anxiously assign to others are often just projections of our own fears; both Eri and Hana truly wanted to reconnect, and simply needed a slight push to get there.

Meanwhile, it seems like the forces of Criasu Corp are cannibalizing themselves faster than ever. Funny thing, that; when your organization is designed as a zero-sum corporate bloodbath, it’s kind of difficult to maintain a willing labor force. With our heroes on the ascent and Criasu on the backfoot, let’s see what new schemes our villains concoct in a fresh episode of Precure!

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Summer 2022 – Week 5 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. How are you all enjoying the advent of August? Though I’m certainly not happy about the speed with which yet another summer is slipping through my fingers, I can at least appreciate the dissolution of our boiling planet’s latest heatwave. As for more personal affairs, I’m currently in the process of hashing out the early beats of my first me-led D&D campaign, and am having an incredible amount of fun with all of it. I’ve been wanting to get back to writing my own fiction for years now, and hammering out area descriptions, side characters, and narrative beats has served as a delightful return to the world of pure creation. I’m taking this opportunity to indulge in my own favorite flavors of storytelling, so I’m sure it comes as no surprise that the campaign will be commencing during a Wicker Man-style harvest festival. I’ll keep you all posted on that as it develops, but for now, it appears we’re due for the Week in Review. Let’s run down some movies!

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Symphogear XV – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Are you ready for the penultimate episode of Symphogear!?!? Yes, it has been a long and frequently minigun-pockmarked road, but we’re at last nearing the conclusion of this modern action classic. Standing proudly on the shoulders of giants like JoJo and Nanoha, Symphogear is proud to answer every call of “too much?” with a resounding “not enough,” and has somehow found a way to outdo itself for five seasons straight. But all good things must come to an end, and it would be an utter tragedy for Symphogear to ever fall into predictability, so I’m happy to see the show concluding at the peak of its powers.

When last we left off, a computer containing the soul of a Sumerian deity had just explained to our heroes that the villain is now both a language and a DNA sequence, making directly punching her a little trickier than usual. But I have confidence that Elfnein will ramble off several sentences of nonsense that everyone else nods gravely at, eventually resulting in Shem-ha transmuting into a more punchable body. Let’s see what everyone’s favorite pint-sized scientist has cooking, as we barrel towards the conclusion of SYMPHOGEAR!!!

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Star Driver – Episode 6

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d take a trip back to Southern Cross Isle, where the heroes of Star Driver most recently faced off with their predatory school nurse. Last episode basically felt like a classic Igarashi comedy episode, with a single ridiculous concept leading a parade of goofy expression work and improbable punchlines. He’s directed more than his share of such episodes over the course of Sailor Moon and Ojamajo Doremi, but of course, given Star Driver’s unique preoccupations, the tone here was just a smidgen different. Igarashi has been involved in some of the most poignant and thematically rich anime in history, but he still finds time for goofiness in all of them, and for that I am thankful.

Given the proud irreverence of the entire previous episode, I’m expecting this one will steer us back into murkier waters, perhaps elaborating on the odd bond between Wako and her “fiancé” Sugata. We know troublingly little about Sugata considering his centrality to the narrative, but to be honest, we know troublingly little about basically everything at this point. More data is clearly required, so let’s break out our thematic notepads and settle in for another episode of Star Driver!

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