Tag Archives: Anime

Blue Reflection Ray – Episode 14

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the battlefield of Blue Reflection Ray, as our brave heroines do their best to prevent some kind of dimension-collapsing apocalypse. While Hiori, Ruka, and their companions seek a happier union between conscious identity and emotional trauma, Shino’s red reflectors pursue an all-or-nothing approach: either our emotions must be banished to allow us freedom from sorrow, or our world and the collective consciousness of the Common must merge, ensuring total mutual understanding forevermore.

It’s certainly a fatalistic philosophy, but to those who have suffered like Niina, or made others suffer like Mio, both the assurance of Shino’s confidence and the escape she promises can seem like a light in the darkness. Fortunately, Niina appears well on her way to joining our crew, and is currently kicking all sorts of emotional ass in her defiant antihero arc. Meanwhile, our girls’ trip to the unconscious Momo has introduced a pair of mysterious new characters to the mix, the supremely Uranus and Neptune-coded Ryoka and Amiru. Things are moving quickly in the wake of Shino’s aborted apocalypse, and I’m eager to see how these new additions complicate the situation. Let’s return to the fight!

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Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out the first episode of a somewhat unusual anthology, as we screen the premiere of Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26. If you’re reading this, you’re likely aware of Fujimoto as the creator of Chainsaw Man, alongside a variety of acclaimed shorter manga like Look Back and Goodbye, Eri. The man has essentially solidified himself as the modern bridge between popular and prestige manga, earning himself a passionate shonen audience while also prompting creators as distinguished as Kiyotaka Oshiyama and Hirokazu Kore-eda to adapt his work.

I’m certainly on the Fujimoto train myself at this point; everything I’ve seen of his work has impressed me greatly, and I consider him one of the most insightful, authentic voices currently working in manga and anime. Fujimoto brings a sneering irreverence to his dramas that somehow naturally co-mingles with a profound sincerity of human expression; his distaste for expectations seems to serve as a defense of his characters’ distinct humanity, as he challenges his readers to understand both the messy complexity of human behavior and the insufficiency of genre staples’ ability to capture that complexity. He’s a bit of a genius, I think, and this potentially premature canonization of his pre-breakout works only underlines how eager we all are to watch a worthy artist take flight.

Anyway, this is indeed a collection of Fujimoto’s works from the age of 17 to 26, opening with “A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin’ In The Schoolyard,” directed by Seishirō Nagaya (a key animator turned director, with the notable credit of unit direction on The Colors Within). Let’s see what baby Fujimoto’s got!

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Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 18

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m thinking it’s right about time to check in with our ojamajos, and see how the hair-raising project of raising a witch baby is progressing. Our last episode was actually a great victory for the team, as they rallied from the disgrace of their last monthly check-in with a standout performance at the witch baby olympics, steering Hana and her companions through an obstacle course that involved labyrinths, treacherous ball pits, and even a raging river.

It was a terrible display of parental responsibility for the witch authorities, but a triumph for our girls, who earned a double stamp for successfully keeping everyone’s babies alive. And with that high-octane drama concluded, I imagine we’re now in for a more subdued episode, as we perhaps return to the poignant personal concerns of Doremi’s classmates. Regardless, this show is always a rewarding fusion of pathos, whimsy, and visual beauty, so I’m sure we’re in for something special. Let’s get to it!

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Rock is a Lady’s Modesty – Episode 9

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking back in on Lilisa and the gang for a fresh episode of Rock is a Lady’s Modesty, as our group prepares for their first performance as a quartet. The stakes are high for this endeavor, as the show is actually a winner-takes-all Battle of the Bands, with ace guitarist Shiro sworn to join whichever group emerges victorious. Who will win, and whose skulls will pave the road of their opponents’ rise to glory!?

Well alright, I suppose it’s not quite that extreme. Nonetheless, this battle of the bands typifies what I’ve come to see as a fundamental philosophical disagreement between myself and Modesty’s original mangaka Hiroshi Fukuda. To him, rock music appears to be a battlefield, a place where violent personalities clash in pursuit of utter domination. He seems to view rock as something you can “win,” and I could not disagree more; I see rock as a place of solidarity, defined by community rather than individualism, where all contributions are valued in their own way. As such, a character like Shiro just seems utterly repellant to me, embodying values I see as alternately superficial (“rock is about raising a middle finger to society”) and antisocial (“rock is about proving how I’m the best”).

I can at least understand where Fukuda is coming from; the “rock” of this production is set up in direct contrast to the forced social propriety of Oushin, and that conflict maps reasonably well to a more general contrast of “individualism versus collectivism.” But I feel like sanding off the nuances of each of these philosophies has resulted in a selfish, somewhat juvenile rock ethos, where personal rejection of propriety is the highest goal, rather than the project of collective liberation embodied by rock’s greatest firebrands (which would in turn fit so well into the larger cultural divides this show occasionally gestures towards). My hope is that Fukuda knows this as well, and that our leads are intentionally being characterized as myopic in their perspective, with a revelation on the horizon regarding rock’s genuine liberatory potential. But for now, let’s grind Bitter Ganache into the fucking dirt!

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Monogatari Off/Monster Season – Episode 11

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re continuing our journey through Monogatari’s Monster Season, as Araragi’s investigations of the high school basketball team take him first to Mayoi’s shrine, and then deep into the underworld. Emerging in an alleged hell that looks a lot more like paradise, he is confronted by the Beautiful Princess, an apparent echo of Shinobu’s former life. Will this doppelganger lead him to the blood pond, and if so, is Araragi even right to sate the hunger of the amoral Deathtopia?

It’s certainly a messy stew of questions, and a flight of fancy only grounded by this arc’s clear parallels to Kizumonogatari. Back then, Araragi’s lack of self-worth actually made these questions easier; he would have sacrificed his life for anyone, and freely consented to a cursed existence in order to save Shinobu while preventing her from killing others. Logistics aside, he is not that person anymore – he knows how much his life is worth, has come to embrace even the rejected parts of himself, and looks confidently towards a future shared with the people he loves. It takes a certain kind of madness to persist as an oddity investigator, and with Araragi’s future now accounted for, it seems like we may have to dive into Shinobu’s past to find a remedy for her first savior. Let’s get to it!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 17

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m feeling the call of the open road, and am eager to rejoin Frieren and her companions as they soldier on through the forbidding northern plains. Although frankly, their journey through the allegedly demon-haunted north has actually been quite pleasant so far; aside from Aura’s gang, they’ve mostly just encountered rolling hills, scattered villages, and melancholy reflections on the enduring value of any mortal life.

In our last excursion, the question of mortality was most directly considered through the character of Old Man Voll, a dwarven friend of Frieren who had committed himself to guarding a humble farming community. Voll’s spark had almost extinguished, and indeed, it was clear through conversation that senility was already robbing him of his memories. What kept Voll attached to this world was actually a pledge to the dead – a promise to his human wife, to protect the village she had loved. In spite of his longer lifespan, it was his ostensibly short-lived wife who maintained his spark of purpose, demonstrating how a life is defined far more by its vitality and impact than its length.

This subject was then teased at again through a Frieren staple, the interrogation of statues as symbols of enduring identity. Though we erect statues to honor specific heroes, that meaning is contained within the observer, not the stone itself, and fresh eyes will find their own meaning in mossy, untended marble. Eternity is a fool’s wish, yet our grasps towards it see us creating relics that nonetheless inspire those who follow – an odd form of immortality, but likely the most healthy we can hope for. Let’s see what fresh reflections await as we return to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End!

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Thunderbolt Fantasy S3 – Episode 8

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the bombastic battles of Thunderbolt Fantasy, as Shang and his allies attempt to thwart the various schemes of Xing Hai, the Divine Swarm, the Murder Princess Chao Feng, and presumably the newly introduced Count Azibelpher. Having tracked Xing Hai back to her time-manipulating portal-ridden Void Junction, Shang and Lang swiftly found themselves flung into the demon realm itself, where they were forced into battle with resentful survivors of the last demon war.

Not a great situation, I gotta admit. Fortunately, while their enemies are vicious and great in number, they are not exactly unified in their intentions. Jun Po’s alliances to both the Divine Swarm and Murder Princess are unstable at best, while Xing Hai and her sister are clearly only aligned with the Divine Swarm out of momentary convenience, and both Lou Zhen and Azibelpher possess distinct secondary motivations. While the straightforward Shang likely can’t make much use of this fragility, this whole situation is basically catnip for Lin, who Xing Hai rightly defined as a “sadist who takes sick pleasure in the suffering of villains.” I’m thus expecting some gleeful machinations from the Enigmatic Gale as these forces collide, and am eager to find out who he gets his kicks from next. Let us return to the battlefield of fate!

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Shoushimin Series – Episode 9

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Turn. Today we’re returning to the adventures of Jogoro and Osanai, as they recuperate from a potentially devastating moment of crisis. Moving far beyond questions of who ate which cake, their last adventure found Osanai outright kidnapped by a group of drug-dealing students, and almost stabbed by their leader. It was only through the swift intervention of Jogoro and the police that Osanai was rescued from a dangerous situation entirely beyond her control.

Though of course, it wasn’t entirely beyond her control. As Jogoro subsequently pointed out, it seems likely Osanai provoked this situation intentionally, knowing she would be kidnapped in the process. This forms a natural parallel with the sixth episode’s conflict, wherein Jogoro intentionally misled Osanai about her cakes in order to provoke a fun mystery – but the clear differences between these two scenarios emphasizes the wildly differing stakes of their “becoming ordinary” mission. For Jogoro, indulging his allegedly “anti-social nature” means slightly misleading a friend in order to instigate a battle of wills – for Osanai, it means picking fights with criminals who are known to employ violence and intimidation, purely for the thrill of the conflict.

That is not a safe, sustainable hobby, and it points to a destructive instinct that clearly must be either denied or at least guided towards a different, less dangerous form of fulfillment. As Jogoro is our perspective character and Osanai generally keeps her own council, we haven’t had that many opportunities to dig into the psychology of the wolf, but we’re clearly reaching a breaking point. Let’s see how the pair handle this latest backslide towards the extraordinary!

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Takopi’s Original Sin – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out a fresh and fairly recent production, as we explore the first episode of last year’s Takopi’s Original Sin. Even before there was any hint of an anime adaptation, I was vaguely aware of Taizan 5’s original two-volume manga, whose reputation ranged from “a stark, unflinching portrayal of childhood’s genuine tragedies” to “basically just misery porn.” And given a variety of my own favorite stories are often uncharitably described as misery porn, I’m quite curious to see where my feelings on the material land.

As for this adaptation, I’ve heard nothing but effusive praise regarding Shinya Iino’s take on the material, as well as the brilliant animation conjured by character designer Keita Nagahara and his top-notch team. The small staff list and extensive support of young, digital-native animators seem to imply a labor of love embodying anime’s increasingly global talent pool, making me all the more excited to see what painstakingly sculpted horrors await. Let’s get to it!

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Apocalypse Hotel – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re taking a trip downtown to the Gingarou Hotel, where I’m told the accommodations are lavish and the shampoo hats are in abundant supply. Yep, it’s time for a fresh episode of Apocalypse Hotel, wherein we will rage at the dying of the light by providing top-notch service for our theoretical clientele.

Apocalypse Hotel’s first episode did a fine job of balancing its unique combination of fatalism and whimsy, echoing the post-apocalyptic embers of shows like Girls’ Last Tour and Kemurikusa. As our own world lurches towards climate disaster, global conflict, or worse, it is oddly reassuring to imagine how life will continue beyond us, and what strange creatures might find comfort in the bones of our once-proud society. You might think post-apocalyptic media nihilistic, but I tend to find it the opposite; stripped of the artifice of civilization, such stories often zero in on precisely what makes us human, the dignity, compassion, and determination that can survive even in the harshest of climates. Let’s see how our staff put their best feet forward today!

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