Tag Archives: Anime

The Big O – Episode 19

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to at last be returning to The Big O, after an outrageously overlong stay of absence. Big O’s mixture of noir drama, robot action, and philosophical interrogation of identity has made for a show unlike any I’ve seen, one of those unique genre blends at which animation uniquely excels. The show is expertly woven with internal mysteries, but they’re frankly unnecessary to maintain its allure; not when every episode offers something so novel and compelling, whether it’s Dastun’s lost movie love or last episode’s Beck insanity.

With our last escapade serving as perhaps the most irreverent of the series so far, I’m guessing things will settle a bit this time, as we presumably return to the question of Roger defining himself outside of Rosewater’s shadow. Roger has always seen the Big O as his method of enacting change in this world, his will to protect and redeem Paradigm made manifest – but if his identity as a pilot is also Rosewater’s design, can he truly hope to change his destiny through the very means that destiny was provided? Regardless, I imagine we’ve got plenty of sumptuous imagery and charming Roger-Dorothy moments ahead of us, so let’s get right to it!

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Wonder Egg Priority – Episode 11

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am both eager and apprehensive to return to Wonder Egg Priority, after an episode that at last revealed the original crimes of Acca and Ura-Acca. Like all of Wonder Egg’s malevolent adult villains, the pair saw young women merely as objects built for their entertainment, toys to be roughly handled and discarded when the interest had passed. However, they took this idle fascination a horrifying step further, actually designing the young Frill “just for fun.”

The audacity of their crime echoed across their lives, though the two remained untouched themselves, and clearly indifferent to the moral wretchedness of their choices. When Azusa and her pregnancy took command of their attention, they discarded Frill without a care, seeing her as a trifle whose purpose had passed. Fabricated nature aside, Frill was treated little differently from this series’ abused protagonists – and like them, she ultimately struck back against her jailers, stealing their new happiness by killing first Azusa, then her daughter Himari.

It is tragic but not surprising that other women paid the debt of Acca and Ura-Acca’s crimes. Even after all they had done to betray her, she still hoped to regain her fathers’ love, or at the very least to be acknowledged as a person. “Don’t pretend not to see me,” she begged. “I was born from the two of you.” But rather than acknowledge their daughter and their crimes, they chose to define her as a malignant, unreachable “other” – a detested symbol of female agency, now hunted by whatever other girls they can con into their service. Though they have saved their own precious friends, Frill remains trapped within the system Acca and Ura-Acca created, lashing out in defense of the only humanity she was ever afforded. Let’s see if our heroes can save her!

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Anne of Green Gables – Episode 14

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to return to Anne of Green Gables, after far too long away from our precocious young heroine and her fanciful adventures. In the time since our last visit I’ve continued to enjoy as much Takahata as possible, screening both later Ghibli films and Toei Doga classics like Horus, but there’s nothing quite like his beautiful, meditative television work. The World Masterpiece Theater productions remain a singular high point in anime history, and Takahata will likely always be one of my very favorite directors.

Anyway, it is delightful to be back, and it looks like we’re in for another sturdy episode production-wise. World Masterpiece Theater and Miyazaki/Takahata mainstay Seiji Okuda is back on storyboarding duty, with the lack of a distinct assigned director again leading me to assume this’ll be an episode hewing closely to Takahata’s vision of the story. And though scriptwriter Kaizo Kamiyama is relatively untested, I’m not particularly concerned; Anne’s dialogue sings because so much of it was taken directly from L.M. Montgomery’s novel, a trend I expect to continue with fantastic results. Who knew that closely adapting classic novels would result in superior anime dramas? But let’s not get snippy about The General State Of Things, for we’ve got a show to watch. Onward to Green Gables!

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BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Episode 13

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today it is with a heavy heart that I announce we have reached the finale of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!!, and will soon be asked to leave the venue and shuffle our way home. It’s been a poignant, frequently transcendent, and ever-engaging journey with the lost girls, and I’m sad to see our time together drawing to a close. But at least we’ve still got the memories: Anon’s delightfully mercenary recruitment of Tomori, that devastating elaboration of Tomori’s life story, the desperate machinations of our girl Soyo, and the thunderous performances that first rent and then reunited our stars, aligning them in their collective need for a little warmth and understanding, a place that might make a pillbug like Tomori reach for the sun.

It’s been profoundly rewarding watching this crew grow into an ever-frictious but nonetheless supportive whole, and I’d frankly be perfectly content if this episode was just a full-length encore performance for MyGO!!!!! But of course, our story possesses one last lingering question: what the fuck is going on with Sakiko, and why is she assembling a cabal of musical supervillains. Her initial formation of CRYCHIC seemed almost as Tomori-focused as our dear Taki’s motives, and it’s clear that seeing Tomori move on and find a new community hit her like a punch in the gut. Will we at last learn why she was moved to disband her own precious community, and what she hopes will emerge from the ashes? Let’s get to it!

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Star Driver – Episode 23

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Star Driver, as we dispense with school festival theatrics and surge onwards towards our grand finale. As expected, our last episode featured the cast’s long-awaited festival performance, which turned out to also serve as the vehicle for conveying the Southern Cross legend which set this whole Cybody situation in motion. There were tragic betrayals, heartfelt declarations of love, and even a brief appearance by what seemed to be an actual alien, here briefly controlling Sarina in order to ask Takuto the essential question: will he use the power of the Cybodies for selfish, destructive means, or only for love?

These revelations were certainly dramatic, but frankly, they also fell perfectly in line with the story as articulated so far. There was always going to be some spark of the supernatural that gave Southern Cross this power, and even across the stories of Toshio and Sugata, we’ve already seen how the tale of the Cybodies is an eternal, circular conflict, each generation weighing the responsibilities of tradition against their personal desires for power or freedom. This is also far from the first time Enokido has tethered thematic or contextual revelation to the theater; frankly, after his work on Utena and FLCL, I’d have been surprised if this play didn’t offer some kind of narrative bombshell. As fellow long-time collaborators with Kunihiko Ikuhara, Igarashi and Enokido both understand how theater and anime are adjacent art forms, each serving as ideal vectors for heightened emotions and imaginative aesthetic pageantry, each asking us to find the human and universal in the fantastical and melodramatic. With the stage now set for Takuto to craft his own legend, let’s see where this story goes!

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Blue Reflection Ray – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d check back in on Blue Reflection Ray, after a first episode that offered us a bounty of fantastical inventions and an impressive spread of new characters. Fortunately, both the show’s worldbuilding and character beats so far have proven familiar enough to make for an easy on-boarding; we’ve got our core contrast of the somber Ruka and energetic Hiori, we’ve got a second layer of magical girl mayhem seemingly linked to these gemstone rings, and we’ve got some ambiguous antagonists with a similar interest in these would-be magical girls, seemingly intent on claiming their energy before they can “bloom” into their true powers.

Alongside all of that relatively conventional worldbuilding, we’ve also got some mysteries to resolve regarding the prior generation of magical girls, and what their fates imply for our current heroines. It seems clear that Hiori’s sister was a Reflector in the past, and that her absence still hangs heavily over Hiori. Additionally, the final moments of the first episode seemed to imply an obvious path of development for Ruka as well: learning from Hiori’s gallant example, and becoming a Reflector strong enough to protect her in turn, thereby filling the role of emotional pillar that her sister used to provide. With our loose predictions set, let’s see what actually awaits us!

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Spring 2024 – Week 4 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It’s been another productive week on my end, as I’ve reduced my outstanding Current Projects to less than a dozen essays and other features, with my article buffer now encompassing more than a month’s worth of drafts. I’ve matched that productivity with a fair portion of off-the-books anime viewing, as we munched through more of Gundam’s supplementary Universal Century projects, as well as anime films both venerable and vestigial. Having watched so many of the early Toei films, I’m now looking to round out my ‘80s animation education, while also likely taking a break from Gundam to watch some other outstanding series; I haven’t quite decided yet, but Nadia, Mononoke, VOTOMS, and Moribito are all high on my list. Anyway, I’ll catch you all up on that when I get to it, but for now let’s break down my latest animated escapades!

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 18

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We begin on an ominous cold open, as Unit 03 is transported from the remains of the US base to Japan, a grim specter lurking within the clouds. The Eva units have never felt exactly comforting; in fact, our very first image of Unit 01 comes as a terrible shock, a monster that our young Shinji is somehow supposed to bend to his will. The arrival of a giant robot, particularly one with a young human pilot, has traditionally been a moment imbued with optimism and excitement, the moment our proud technology rises to rally against the chaotic forces of the universe. But while the angels are certainly ominous in their own unknowable way, the Eva units are clearly monsters, creatures with cold eyes and cruel teeth and uncertain wills of their own.

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The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You – Episode 4

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d take a stroll back to the land of 100 Girlfriends, and see what fresh shenanigans are brewing with Rentaro and his swiftly expanding harem. Our last offered an efficient romance and a preposterously adorable new heroine, as the quiet librarian Shizuka found herself bowled over by Rentaro’s manifold charms. And why not? The dude has clearly got plenty more love to give, as demonstrated through his gallant efforts to allay Shizuka’s troubles with communication.

Rentaro’s commitment to aiding Shizuka seems to point towards a larger theme of the text: his dedication to loving these girlfriends for who they are, and aiding them in their struggles without attempting to fundamentally change them. He is embodying the philosophy of a loving and considerate partner, and though the whole 100 Girlfriends thing makes this all seem a tad farcical, I’m nonetheless beginning to see why folks consider this such an unexpectedly wholesome narrative. Let’s see what new theatrics await for Rentaro and his destined lovers!

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Call of the Night – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d take a walk on the wild side, and step out into the alluring darkness of Call of the Night. Though frankly, while calling this show’s drama the “wild side” would undoubtedly flatter Nazuna, the show has in truth been pretty chaste so far, more concerned with the universal transgressive thrill of claiming adolescent independence than anything specifically ominous or vampiric. Nazuna attempts to play it cool, but she’s truthfully as naive as her new companion Ko, just as nervous about romance, just as eager to play games with transceivers. The show has been closer to “Skip and Loafer for Insomniacs” than any sort of ominous dark fantasy, and that suits me just fine; I always enjoy spending time with well-realized and charmingly inept characters, and the bond between Nazuna and Ko already feels convincingly precious to both of them. Let’s see how Ko’s transceiver-bearing classmate complicates things, as we once more answer the Call of the Night!

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