Tag Archives: Anime

Dear Brother – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am feverishly impatient to get back to Dear Brother, and continue Nanako’s descent into the vicious rivalries and cunning subterfuge of Seiran Academy. After spending the first several episodes being tormented by the dreadful Misaki, it was actually Shinobu who struck the deepest blow against our beleaguered heroine. Playing up Tomoko’s preexisting anxieties about Nanako’s new status, Shinobu managed to forge a rift between Nanako and her one true friend, leaving the Sorority’s newest member adrift in a sea of adolescent animosity.

All this has made for delightfully melodramatic entertainment, particularly when you couple in Osamu Dezaki’s energetic direction. His use of heavy shadows and silhouettes, clever partitioning of the screen, gracefully audience-guiding boards, and postcard memory punchlines collectively provide Nanako’s story the theatrical framing it deserves, making Seiran feel as grand and imposing for us as it must surely feel for Nanako. Add in incidental delights like Shinobu calling people “potato heads” and “daughter of a rat dog” at every turn, and you end up with a show that demands tears, rage, and laughter in equal measure, all of which I’m happy to provide. Let’s get to it!

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Thunderbolt Fantasy S3 – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to jump back into Thunderbolt Fantasy, and see how our heroes are faring against the combined forces of the demon realm and the Order of the Divine Swarm! Gosh, even just describing the literal events of a given episode feels like hyperbole, but that’s simply how it goes with Thunderbolt. It is an exercise in cinematic maximalism, and all the greater for it.

Of course, the show wouldn’t be nearly so satisfying if all those lofty titles and action theatrics weren’t grounded in strong character dynamics and driving themes. Fortunately, Thunderbolt is also Urobuchi’s warmest, most character-rich show, offering both delightful curmudgeons like Shang and a revolving cast of endearingly terrible villains. Among these, the incorrigible Xing Hai is one of my favorites, and her newly developed Void Junction seems like it’ll prompt all manner of problems for our beleaguered heroes. Let’s see how Shang and the gang escape yet another gruesome fate, as we rally the troops for a fresh episode of Thunderbolt Fantasy!

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Hugtto! Precure – Episode 36

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be returning to Hugtto! Precure, after an episode that embodied many of the show’s finest qualities, and certainly had me sniffling as well. Aya’s anxieties regarding her mother’s new baby were relatable and poignantly illustrated, with Hana’s words of advice reflected Hugtto’s general, laudable willingness to acknowledge the fallibility of its adult characters. Hugtto often expresses its thematic focus on hope for the future through the promise of change and excitement of finding your profession, but equally important are moments like this, where young audiences can be assured that even adults suffer from worries and anxieties, and that people of any age are capable of turning over a new leaf.

Having just survived such a tearjerker of an episode, I’m expecting we’re in for some lighter fare this time, but in truth I’m ready for anything. Hugtto has proven itself full of surprises and unexpected treasures, so let’s dispense with the preamble, and see what adventure our crew is getting up to next.

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Star Driver – Episode 18

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to storm back into Star Driver, which most recently commenced its third act with the introduction of Ko and Madoka, alongside a power grab by Head that has left him as the undisputed leader of the Kiraboshi council. Between Head’s clear hostility and the growing misgivings of Kiraboshi leaders like Kanako and Benio, I’m guessing the time for plotting in dimly lit council chambers is coming to a close, as we lead into Star Driver’s tumultuous finale.

Where is all this chaotic striving headed, you ask? Well, while I’m not sure the precise narrative destination of Kiraboshi’s variable machinations, it’s easy enough to see how things are culminating in a thematic sense. Just like he did with Revolutionary Girl Utena, Enokido has constructed a cage of adolescence overseen by adults who wish to harness the power of youth, wherein the barriers of propriety and insecurity form invisible but nonetheless implacable bars.

Sex is at the center of this universe, yet it is framed as unreachable, the uncertainty of our protagonists recast as the lock and key to oblivion in the form of the shrine maiden system. The yonic gate of Wako’s shrine, the phallic weapon that is the King’s Pillar – all roads lead towards consummation, and yet the act itself is framed as the end of the world, thereby echoing in worldbuilding the war between natural instincts and conservative social mores the whole cast is struggling with. To overcome this system, Takuto will undoubtedly have to reach out his hand as Utena once did, and forge a bond that denies and shatters the staid ethics of Southern Cross Isle. Let’s get to it!

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Spy x Family – Episode 18

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Spy x Family, and see if Anya’s skillfully executed Griffin Plan has earned her any points with the dreaded Damian. The end result of their collaboration threaded the narrow needle of impressing school officials while being useless as an offering to Damian’s father, so I imagine Damian’s own feelings are as jumbled as Anya’s collaborative blessing. Regardless, the episode offered us significant insight into Damian’s motivation, with Anya’s powers offering us a window into his sense of alienation and inferiority relative to his brother.

Damian and his family are clearly being set up as a thematic inverse of the Forgers: while the Forgers are a technically fake family that genuinely love each other, the Desmonds are a technically real family that share no personal affection. In fact, it seems like Damian’s closest confidant is the one member of his family who isn’t related by blood, his butler Jeeves. I’m always a sucker for these “families are the people you choose” sorts of narratives, and love the particular disconnect represented by Anya and Damian’s relationship. What Damian truly needs is someone who cares about him for reasons other than his status, and thus teaches him to avoid reproducing his family dynamic in his school life (as he has with his current toadies). Anya isn’t mature enough to realize this, but in her flailing attempts to impress him through stuff like showing off her cool dog, she’s nonetheless offering friendship without strings, and showing him that not all relationships need to be about structures of power. Let’s see how these kids are doing as we return to Spy x Family!

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Kaiba – Episode 6

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After several episodes spent exploring the individual human tragedies fomented by Kaiba’s system of purchasing bodies, wherein debt slavery can steal not just your time and labor, but your very ability to interact with the world, episode five brought us to the bleeding edge of transhumanism. The promise of new limbs and healthy bodies for those suffering from disease or injury has been discarded; after all, what good is a customer who purchases your product and is then content, with no desire to make future purchases? No, the customers for this miracle technology must be perpetually discontent, always purchasing the latest in body-morphing innovations, and never satisfied with the results. The future of capitalism is a donkey chasing a carrot on a string, while consistently paying his masters for the privilege.

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Bocchi the Rock! – Episode 5

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be returning to the trials and tribulations of Bocchidom, in the wake of an episode that actually saw Bocchi earning some key victories. After first attempting to write a set of generic lyrics in order to please some imagined general audience, Bocchi received some key advice from Ryo, who told her that there’s no point in playing music if it means abandoning your uniqueness. Music has always been Bocchi’s creative outlet, and behind the guitar is where she is most authentically herself – why give up what makes music worth pursuing simply because the world might not resonate with your sound? In fact, playing music authentically is one of the best ways to find your people, to send out an earnest signal and see who resonates with your heart’s cry.

With that pep talk behind her, Bocchi reemerged with a flurry of Bocchi-authentic downer lyrics, and was rewarded for her bravery with a stack of band photos. Sure, maybe wallpapering her room with those photos was a little much, but two steps forward one step back is ultimately still one step forward. Let’s see how her journey fares as the band construct their first song!

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Tsurune S2 – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re charging back into Tsurune in the midst of the regional tournament, with our Kazemai heroes having just secured sixteen hits in their first round. Meanwhile, old bonds and new rivalries are emerging and asserting themselves across the board, from Kaito’s reunion with his old teammates to Minato crossing paths with two separate former rivals. It’s a busy narrative stew, but in the hands of director Takuya Yamamura and his incredible team, all of these threads have been interwoven with incredible grace, conflicts often requiring no more than a pointed expression or juxtaposition of storyboarding to clarify.

Through its elegance of form, Tsurune has been consistently demonstrating how formal beauty of animation or boarding are not simply their own reward – they are tools through which novel forms of storytelling are made possible, allowing a theoretically dense narrative to come across as light and effortless. Relationships like that of Minato and Shu can be clarified with a glance and a gesture, rather than engaging in laborious and unnatural acts of exposition. A work like Tsurune demonstrates how the inherent intentionality of every drawn choice in animation can make for a uniquely resonance-rich drama, with every aesthetic element facilitating the story in its own way. Let’s see what new treasures this team offers as the tournament continues!

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Thunderbolt Fantasy S3 – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m happy to announce our commencement of a new project, which is also technically a return to an old favorite. Having brushed up on Lang Wu Yao’s history with the altogether excellent Bewitching Melody of the West, today we’re breaking into the third season of Thunderbolt Fantasy, and seeing what the long-suffering Shang Bu Huan has been getting up to.

It certainly hasn’t been an easy pair of seasons for our curmudgeonly sword-snatcher. Thunderbolt Fantasy’s first adventure saw him handling basically all the legwork for Dan Fei’s mystical journey to the aptly named Demon Spine Mountains, all while suffering the persistent mockery of weed wizard Lin Xue Ya. Season two only ladled on more sources of frustration and indignity, ranging from that smarmy hunting fox Xiao Kuang to a sentient, malevolent sword known as the Seven Blasphemous Deaths. It’s been a bumpy ride, but also a highly entertaining one, offering dazzlingly realized battles and plenty of Urobuchi’s reliable wit. I’m sure our Edgeless Blade will have ample new troubles awaiting him this time, so let’s dispense with the recap, and dive right into Thunderbolt Fantasy’s third season!

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Intimacy’s Vanguard: Kaze to Ki no Uta

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Modern anime convention rests upon a scaffolding that has been built up over decades, a series of aesthetic and narrative conventions established one seminal work at a time. The more I explore this scaffolding, the more I find to appreciate in modern anime; as such, I was eager to check out Kaze to Ki no Uta, the film adaptation of one of the earliest and most influential works of shounen-ai manga. The manga’s explorations of sadomasochism, incest, and other charged topics made it controversial from the start; in fact, author Keiko Takemiya’s editors waited seven years from her first conception of the story to actual publishing. And its release was a lightning bolt; a hit from the start, it would help popularize shounen-ai more generally, opening the door for manga and anime’s subsequent explorations of queer identity.

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