Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week we’re greeting the spring anime season, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s actually a couple shows I’m interested in checking out. Both Tengokyu Daimakyou and Hell’s Paradise look pretty interesting, and from last season I’ve still gotta catch up on Tsurune and Vinland Saga. Having concluded Dragon Ball (don’t worry, we’re covering that today), I’m also continuing my personal journey through missing classics with Dennou Coil, a show I’ve been meaning to get to literally since I first plotted out my key anime gaps almost a decade ago. And yet, among all the tumult of fresh anime and anime gone by, I still managed to fit in a fresh stack of feature films. You ready? Let’s do this. It’s time for the Week in Review!
Tag Archives: Film
Winter 2023 – Week 13 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’ve got a motley collection of films for you all, ranging from pulpy scifi spectacles to a mid-century classic, and even a buddy film starring a dog. It’s been a fairly busy week both in films and elsewhere, as I managed to munch through two of my ambitious backlog projects last week, thereby dragging myself a few inches closer to being genuinely current on my current projects. It’s still a distant dream, but I’m nonetheless proud of my progress so far this year, and can’t wait to share more of these big articles with all of you. Anyway, enough patting myself on the back, let’s break down some films!
Winter 2023 – Week 12 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am at last feeling optimistic about spring’s theoretically imminent arrival; in fact, I’m actually sitting here typing this in my running shorts, waiting for the thermometer to inch its way up into the fifties. I know I really should get a gym membership or something for the winter months, but it’s just hard to beat the convenience of stepping outside my door and jogging off in whichever way I choose. Anyway, I’ve finally written up some of those recent anime I’ve been yammering about, so today you all get some thoughts on Outlaw Star and Berserk in addition to our usual cinematic ramblings. Our assault on classic anime shows no sign of stopping, either; we’re currently charging through Dragon Ball at breakneck speed, which has been both a delight in its own right, and also a welcome education in the roots of modern shonen convention. More to say on that later, but for now, let’s run down the features of the week!
Winter 2023 – Week 11 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I hope you’re all doing well and acting suitably wary on this Ides of March, whether you’ve attracted the enmity of the Roman senate or not. Personally, I’m feeling close to the opposite of perforated with treacherous daggers: work on articles has been proceeding smoothly, our movie screenings have been largely rewarding, and my house is continuing to munch through episodes of supplemental anime in between the feature films. With Berserk now concluded, we’ve been charging full-time through Dragon Ball, and I’m thinking I’ll next add Dennou Coil into the mix. Catching up on One Piece was truly a game changer; where I once would have taken months to get through one of these personal enrichment projects, I can now happily sit down and watch through ten episodes without fidgeting. I’ll have more collected thoughts on these supplementary anime soon, but for now, let’s break down some feature films!
Thunderbolt Fantasy: Bewitching Melody of the West
It is always a delight to return to Thunderbolt Fantasy. The production’s puppet theatrics are genuinely entrancing, and Gen Urobuchi is to my mind one of the greatest writers to ever work in anime. His stories of mankind rallying against brutal architectures of despair, be they oppressive governments or supernatural phenomenon, are always brimming with thoughtful arguments, hard-tested themes, and engaging characters. But as a show like Thunderbolt Fantasy demonstrates, Urobuchi is also perfectly comfortable outside of those questions of human nature and utilitarianism, weaving thrilling tales of swordsmen and wizards that are also enriched by his intelligence and wit.
Winter 2023 – Week 10 in Review
Hey folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am frustrated to admit that spring still offers no sign of its allegedly imminent arrival, but I’ve been making do the best I can, and putting all this time inside to work on various media projects. Admittedly, one of those projects was just “play the shit out of Pokémon Violet,” but I’ve also been dedicating myself to several more reputable endeavors. Alongside our usual film viewings, we’ve also started on two more anime projects: the original Dragon Ball, as well as the ‘97 adaptation of Berserk. Both have been engaging in their own ways, though Berserk’s unrelentingly grim tone has made for necessarily staggered viewing. Fortunately, what Berserk lacks in cheer is more than made up for by Dragon Ball, which has so far proved itself to be just as joyful and significantly more horny than I remember. Anyway, I’ll likely have more to say about those journeys once I’m further in, but for now let’s run down the week’s feature films!
Winter 2023 – Week 9 in Review
Hey folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. I hope you’re all staying warm through these interminable winter days, and am happy to report I’ve got a sturdy pile of film reflections ready for your perusal. I’ve also been continuing my journey through anime of the past; after subjecting my housemates to eighty episodes of Tomino, I figured it was time to call for suggestions from the crowd, and thus Outlaw Star served as our latest anime endeavor. I last saw Outlaw Star in episodic fragments after school on Toonami, so it was quite a blast of nostalgia to return to its crew, and even more satisfying to realize Outlaw Star is just a damn good time. I’ll probably rustle up some composed thoughts on the show soon, but for now, let’s run through a fresh selection of feature films!
Winter 2023 – Week 7 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. I hope everyone’s been having a reasonably agreeable week so far; as for myself, I am happy to report that after a couple yanks on the chain, my dormant DnD campaign has leapt back into action, with our second post-break session proving one of the most exciting of the campaign so far. My intent was to create a Seven Samurai-style quest wherein the players fortify and then defend a village against bandits, and things went off swimmingly – the players clearly felt invested in their various defensive arrangements, my attempt to define separate front and rear battlefields succeeded without issue, and the session ended with players brimming with future ideas for their characters, which is always a heartening sign. We also went for five and a half goddamn hours, so apparently my dungeon mastering stamina has not suffered greatly from my time away from the board. But don’t let all this ecstatic table talk mislead you into thinking I’ve neglected my cinematic duties! I’ve got a pile of gooey features for you all, so let’s not waste any more time, and get right into the week’s selections.
Winter 2023 – Week 6 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. We’re somehow halfway through the winter season at this point, meaning airing shows have now produced a meal-worthy chunk of episodes, which suits my modern viewing habits much better than weekly releases. That means I’ll probably be checking out The Fire Hunter soon enough, but in the meantime, I’ve been following up my rewarding journey through Mobile Suit Gundam with a dive into Tomino’s followup, Space Runaway Ideon. I’ve repeatedly heard that Ideon is an essential pre-Evangelion production, but to be honest, the first dozen or so episodes were fairly underwhelming. Ideon’s conflict and characters remained static for quite some time, but the show’s fortunately been gaining momentum in its middle stretch, so I’m looking forward to a more positive report next week. Tomino aside, the movie screenings continued as always, with this week’s viewings spanning westerns, sea dramas, and one of the most improbable revenge films I’ve ever seen. Let’s get to it!
Anxiety in the Plague Years: Bo Burnham’s Inside
It’s a little tricky for me to go about “unpacking” Bo Burnham’s Inside, as the special is largely concerned with Bo Burnham unpacking himself. What does Bo feel, and how does Bo feel about that, and how does Bo feel about feeling that way about that – all these questions and more are answered as the special progresses. Across an hour and change of songs and sketches, Burnham offers a wildly self-conscious reflection on the already self-conscious ways we present ourselves as modern, perpetually online human beings, exacerbated by the forced solitude of the COVID age. Through cataloging and critiquing his every wayward thought, Burnham seeks to paradoxically create something universal, something that speaks to a common experience of watching the world burn from inside your own shrieking brain. It’s harrowing, hilarious, and maybe even a touch profound.