Tag Archives: Anime

Star Driver – Episode 1

Posted on by

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be embarking on a new journey, as I at last dig into one of the few modern anime remaining on my must-watch list. It’s time at last for Star Driver, that variably beloved collaboration between writer Yoji Enokido and director Takuya Igarashi.

This pair have spent the last decade mostly slumming it on the mediocre action/comedy Bungo Stray Dogs, but there was a time when they were each key contributors to some of the greatest anime of all time. Yoji Enokido wrote scripts for Revolutionary Girl Utena and Evangelion, along with spearheading the writing of stunning GAINAX projects like FLCL and Diebuster. And Igarashi has been a legend since the ‘90s, shifting from Sailor Moon to Ojamajo Doremi and Ashita no Nadja, while more recently finding time to direct cult favorites like Ouran High School Host Club.

Enokido and Igarashi’s talents are beyond question, but I have almost no experience with Star Driver – I basically just know “it’s a giant robot show where teen hormones power the robots,” and also “it’s far less acclaimed than you’d expect given its key creators.” Conjecture is cheap, so let’s waste no more time pondering what Star Driver might be, and get right into the business of what it actually is. Onward!

Continue reading →

Bodacious Space Pirates – Episode 16

Posted on by

Ladies and gentleman, we have finally arrived. After fifteen episodes of setup and space adventures, Bodacious Space Pirates has at last reached the promise of its title: an entire yacht club’s worth of high schoolers, let loose and in command of a majestic pirate ship. As much as I love the Bentenmaru’s usual crew, it is even funnier to see them wince and grind their teeth as the equivalent of a litter of puppies is set loose on their delicate machinery. The yacht club almost blew up the ship just sending it into hyperspace; god knows what will happen if they actually have to cross blades with an enemy ship, or really accomplish anything more difficult than progressing through empty space. This production’s sturdy scifi groundings and slice of life stylings have at last converged into beautiful madness, and I am pretty much vibrating in my seat in anticipation of the chaos to come. Let’s return to Bodacious Space Pirates!

Continue reading →

ODDTAXI – Episode 13

Posted on by

It’s not that I go to art specifically seeking punishment, or anything like that. I understand the appeal of stories that simply sooth or excite us; these are noble causes, and any balanced art diet will naturally contain many cheerful and comforting stories, works that can serve as emotional candles in the dark. But ultimately, it is the works that test their heroes to the limits that most directly speak to me – the stories that acknowledge a genuine darkness in the world, and are both too smart and too earnest to answer that darkness with either platitudes or escapism. Even when the protagonists of such stories fail, there is a vitality in their striving that feels inspirational all the same. The more bleakly honest a narrative’s perspective, the more solace I can take in its heroes’ struggles, as they bravely face the unrelenting terror of existence.

ODDTAXI’s heroes have all struggled to make peace with that terror, and I love them for that all the more than if they’d somehow “figured it out.” There is no “figuring out” the modern intersection of technology and capitalism; we live in an era where we’ve all been redefined as products, and humanity is, in a very literal sense, not built to handle the pressure of society’s collective surveillance. All we can do is find some peace within this paradigm, holding close to the people we care for, and understanding we are far more than our retweets or viral posts or dating profile cachet. The world can attempt to commodify us, but to the people we love, our worth will always be beyond measure. Here’s hoping at least a few of ODDTAXI’s lost souls come to see their true worth, as we return for the last time to this poignant production.

Continue reading →

Winter 2022 – Week 5 in Review

Posted on by

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. After the overwhelming sequence of complex and criticism-rich films from last week, I was more than ready to enjoy some straightforward comfort food. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in a whole bunch of horror screenings for this week’s post, but don’t worry, I also found time to check out a hidden gem of animation, along with whatever films I’ll hopefully add to this post between writing this paragraph and releasing it. In the meantime, it’s starting to feel like our house is actually running out of reliable horror selections, so if you’ve got any suggestions, please do your best to terrify us. Alright, let’s kick off the Week in Review!

Continue reading →

Anne of Green Gables – Episode 5

Posted on by

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to Anne of Green Gables, a shimmering jewel of a show, and one that has been thoroughly brightening my weekly schedule. I say this in spite of the show’s last two episodes serving as a delicate lesson in heartbreak; even when Anne is down in the dumps, her personality remains vibrant and idiosyncratic, making for delightful company. Meanwhile, the world around Anne is painted in a dazzling array of colors, with distant towers and forested alleyways promising adventure around every turn. With one of anime’s greatest appreciators of pastoral beauty at the helm, Anne of Green Gables illustrates the beauty and allure of the natural world like few features I’ve witnessed – and most of those also in Takahata’s oeuvre.

For this episode, Takahata will actually be stepping back a bit, as we’re moving into the first episode he didn’t personally script and storyboard. This episode’s scriptwriter Seijiro Koyama is a regular on Anne, but otherwise only worked on the Tom Sawyer masterpiece adaptation. On the other hand, storyboarder Fumio Ikeno is a masterpiece theater mainstay, having boarded or directed on over a dozen of the block’s properties. Let’s see how Takahata’s collaborators illustrate this generous production, as we return to Anne of Green Gables!

Continue reading →

Big Windup! – Episode 8

Posted on by

Our boys have done it! After nine agonizing innings of tense gameplay and fraught psychological drama, Abe and his teammates have secured victory over Mihashi’s old team. Of course, a great part of that victory came from accepting that Abe is not the undisputed leader of his team. It took Tajima’s support to get Mihashi back in the dugout after failure, and it was actually Mihashi himself who made the crucial discovery regarding Oda’s batting strategy. As a fellow control freak, I can sympathize with Abe’s desire to micromanage every aspect of his victory – but ultimately, his perfect team can only flourish through him letting go, and trusting his players as much as his own instincts.

The results of that trust are already clear to see. When offered the opportunity to return to a repentant Mihoshi, Mihashi unambiguously declared his new allegiance, and then passed out for his first peaceful sleep in a week. Abe believing in his teammates means they will believe in him, too, and play far better for it. With our heroes having secured their first victory and consolidated into a true team in the process, I’m eager to see where their journey leads us next!

Continue reading →

Oregairu S3 – Episode 9

Posted on by

What the fuck is wrong with you kids? Why can’t you let yourself embrace happiness for one goddamn second? Why you always gotta be martyring yourself for the sake of social conventions you don’t even fully understand? What is so wrong with having a good time with the people you love!?!?

Jesus cripes this show drives me crazy sometimes. The challenge to Yukino’s prom has been circumvented, yet our heroes are actually even more distraught than before, more certain they’re doomed to majestically drift apart. Kids, you’re only seventeen, you could fuck up for the next five years straight and still be ahead of the curve. And why would you take advice about relationships from a woman who’s destroyed all of her own personal bonds, anyway? Sometimes I feel like Ray dealing with Little Nephew when it comes to these anxious little devils, but it’s hard to fault the realism of teenagers thinking they don’t deserve love. I’m really hoping this is the low point of their journey, but I’ll be sticking by them regardless to the end. Let’s dive back into Oregairu!

Continue reading →

The Demon Girl Next Door – Episode 4

Posted on by

Hello everyone, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Y’all ready for some Demon Girl Next Door? After two episodes of ineffectually stalking her magical girl prey, our last episode saw Yuko discovering that her family has never, ever won against a magical girl, at any point in history. Yuko isn’t just a scrappy weakling: she is the inheritor of a perpetual weakling legacy, with her weakling ancestors stretching back into prehistory. For untold centuries, Yuko’s people have been bravely sallying forth to fight magical girls, and have gotten their shit kicked in every single time.

Yuko’s ancestral uselessness is a fine joke in its own right, but also serves as a natural continuation of Demon Girl’s interrogation of the magic/demon girl binary. Purely because of the conditions of her birth, Yuko has been destined for poverty, devilry, and failure from the start. Though her ancestor urges her to succeed where others failed, it’s clear that this system is designed to produce specific winners and losers; self-determination is simply a lie that demons tell themselves, in order to cope with the underlying hopelessness of their situation. When given a chance to truly express her own wishes, Yuko’s feelings don’t seem particularly demonic at all: her main wish is “I hope we can all be friends.” But society demands heroes and villains, and so Yuko is forced to play a role she’s unsuited for, destined for a failure that’s been predetermined all along.

Meanwhile, the last episode also got terrific mileage out of brilliant concepts like Yuko is Short, or Momo is Bad at Cooking. With the show’s comedic and thematic layers each shining in their own way, let’s return to The Demon Girl Next Door!

Continue reading →

Eureka Seven – Episode 10

Posted on by

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. You all ready to dive back into Eureka Seven? Personally, I’m ready and then some; Bones’ early classic has lain dormant in my Current Projects for half a goddamn decade, but I never lost my interest in this unique and beautiful property. With one of my generous, lovely, intelligent readers having offered it the breath of life, I’m not planning on wasting this opportunity – I’m charging forward as far and fast as I can, buoyed by the wings of financial incentive to ride among the gallant Gekkostate crew.

Episode nine served as a clear turning point in the narrative, as Renton at last learned the true history of Gekkostate, and was formally inducted into the team as a full crewmate. Learning that the team were former military agents actually explains a great deal; their hardware all seemed oddly advanced for a group of beach bums, and odd details like Eureka’s children now make perfect sense. But while the path behind is now clear, the road ahead remains a mystery. I’m hoping Renton’s new position means we’ll at last be learning something of Gekkostate’s true objectives, as we return to the exhilarating Eureka Seven!

Continue reading →

The Hakkenden – Episode 1

Posted on by

Alright, now we’re getting into some shit. Based on the legendary epic novel, the OVA series The Hakkenden is known as one of the great classics of anime history, an “animator’s masterpiece” that is as revered among Japanese animators as it is unknown to international audiences. It is widely regarded as one of the great works of anime’s OVA era, that period of the late eighties/early nineties where the medium’s most daring works were embracing the potential of direct-to-video, broadcast guideline-circumventing media, and Japan was still enjoying an impressive economic bubble

 Even just a brief scan down the show’s credits reveal that this first episode possesses key animation by legendary figures like Norio Matsumoto and Mitsuo Iso, all working in service of a bold revision of a literary classic. The Hakkenden is an essential screening for any self-respecting animation nerd, and I’m eager to find myself utterly out of my depth in assessing its greatness. Let’s get to work!

Continue reading →