2021 Media List (Incomplete, abandoned)
Edit (2022-01-04): I straight up never got back to this or finished it, but I'm marking it live anyways.
I figured that I should use a post here on Starset to keep track of media that I've gone through this year. But it's August and I have not been keeping particularly good track of what stuff I've watched or with who, and how I've felt about it. The plan here is to try to recall as much as possible and continue updating it going forward.
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Anime
The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!. What a wonderful show. Jahy is a great and powerful demon who's home realm was destroyed and she ended up on Earth working at a bar barely able to pay rent and buy food and refuses to accept help from anyone despite the fact if she said please, thank you, or showed any kind of gratitude or humility all of those problems would vanish immediately. It's a really cute show that I looked forwards to every week. It's a slice-of-life anime. What's wonderful is that it has times where the camera could be leery and gross about the fact one of her forms is a small child wearing nothing but a shirt, it never does. And that was my only concern after watching the first episode, but no they never do that and it's just cute and wholesome. Good show. Highly recommended.
Symphogear XV. It's over. I made a twitter thread about it. XV is the fifth and final season of Symphogear, and having watched five seasons of the show I can say that I adore Symphogear a lot. It's silly, it's nonsense, it knows its nonsense. But it's nonsense with heart, and not like emotionally I mean like it puts everything it has into being nonsense. The final season is fantastic because the antagonists for the majority of it are three girls who were victims of previous season's villains who are fighting for their life against the protagonists and other villains who are taking advantage of them. These antagonists are weak. They just don't stand up to SONG, not in resources, not in raw strength, and they know it. Every time the antagonists fight they fight at a huge disadvantage against the protagonists who are stronger than the gods, and they fight using hit-and-run tactics, diversions, hostages, and whatever means they can because a fair fight means oblivion. And what is the antagonist's goal? They want to use the tower of babel to contact/release/control god to turn them back into regular girls. That's all they want, to be normal and to have normal lives again, to undo the wrongs people have done to them. It's such an incredible twist compared to the rediculous ramping and power scaling of the show's previous seasons which started with shooting a railgun at the moon and then Hibiki flying into space to punch the piece that would have fallen and killed everyone. The series started with silly stakes and ended with silly stakes, but these antagonists were the ones that were the easiest to connect to. We unfortunately do not see Fine, and after this long I miss Fine and her Worst English Ever because things were so much simpler back when Fine just wanted to talk to her boyfriend again (her boyfriend was god). And then this season explains why the curse of babel exists and showed Fine's boyfriend turning it on because he had no other choice and apologizing because he never got to explain to Fine why it had to be done. It wraps up a lot of emotional arcs really well, with the same silly energy as the other seasons, and I just... I really, really liked it. If you can look past the leering camera (which did not get better this season, if you were wondering) then I think it's absolutely worth the time. But that camera is uncomfortable for a lot of people so, handle that how you will.
Ganbare Dōki-chan. Hell yes. Office romcom where Doki-chan (protagonist) really, really wants to get railed by their co-worker Doki-kun. They have a few failed opportunities, and then they introduce other characters who are also into Doki-kun. But Doki-kun is clearly interested in Doki-chan. It's super cute, and I'm way too invested in this story. I desperately want her to get her wish and get absolutely destroyed in an elevator by this cute dude who clearly likes her. It's not really sexualized at all really, like Tawawa is, so don't mind my language describing her goal it's super cute and wholesome and you should watch it.
Tawawa on Monday 2. Alright I've followed the artist's weekly pages on Twitter which are basically some kind of joke about a set of characters with large breasts and I don't speak Japanese and they usually aren't translated so I really wanted context. Which I got. They are dumb jokes about having big boobs. And also like high school girls trying to date older dudes and the dudes feeling really uncomfortable about it. My favorite character is one of the main character's best friends/classmates who's just a huge lesbian and fondles the MC and looks at the boys at school like, "I fucking dare you to say something, these are mine." It's really stupid, but funny.
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Arc. It's the Mugen Train movie except with an unexpected origin story for all those fucking lunch boxes that Rengoku was eating on the train. It's literally the movie cut up with extra content in the first episode, and it still rules. I love those nerds so much, they're all great.
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. It's a nonsense show with a lot of weird specific japanese culture jokes that opens with the protagonist attempting to commit suicide. It has a really offbeat energy to it that is fun, but weird, and I think it actually takes more energy for me to watch Zetsubo Sensei than it does to watch Symphogear. It's okay.
.hack//ROOTS. I love dot hack, I really do. I love .hack//G.U. the most of all, it's easily my favorite part of the franchise and I really do adore all the characters and its post-The World setting. I made a twitter thread with a bunch of screenshots for this one too because I have fun with them. But ROOTS actively sucks and I really don't like it and couldn't finish it. I'll explain why. ROOTS makes the experience of .hack//G.U. actively less good because every moment it continues past episode 12 it reduces the character's personalities, motivations, and repeatedly spoils huge emotional moments and scenes from G.U., some of which only happen in the second game. I made it to about episode 17 and couldn't continue because I was so frustrated at how dirty they were doing G.U. by showing characters doing things you shouldn't know about until later in the game. It's such a shame that it's positioned the same way that .hack//SIGN was in that it's a prequel to the series of games that came out near after, because as a prequel ROOTS undermines so much of the powerful storytelling of G.U. because they insisted on using the characters that would be participating in that story rather than some characters that would make appearances in the games but set key things in motion like SIGN did. I don't know. I think it's absolutely worth watching as long as you stop at Episode 12 or whenever you feel like the big conclusion is because every moment past it just gets worse.
Witchblade. I adore Witchblade. I've seen specifically the English dub several times, and it's just as good now as it was before. Witchblade, the anime and not the comics or any other entries in the franchise, is about a mother trying to live with their child while the government and other forces try to keep them apart. Also there's monsters destroying the city and the mother has to stop them. If you're a fan of my twitter screenshot threads, I made one for witchblade. I really do love the series and it's so much better and has way more feelings than the action-y sexy-mostly-naked-lady-making-sex-noises-while-fighting-monsters might suggest. It's a series that I can't say with full confidence that it's great or that you will love it, but if it sounds like your jam, check it out.
.hack//LIMINALITY. I'm so happy that I actually watched it because I find it quite interesting the way the events are timed along with the events of the first four games and that the ways that it reveals more about the plot/CC Corp/the world by showing whats going on outside of it. I really liked the characters featured in it, the music was good as always for the series, and most importantly I had a bug with the subtitles for the files I watched so I got one of the funniest screenshots in fucking history. This show has single-handed ruined hearing the word "Juice" for me for the rest of my fucking life because every time I heard it or think about it I want to shout out that phrase with the same energy the broken subtitles suggest it should be shouted with.
.hack//SIGN. It's so hard to decide where to begin with this. This has always been one of my favorite anime of all time, and the music exists in my brain always. But coming back to watch it the past couple years has always made me appreciate it more and in new ways. This time through it was... revealing, in ways I didn't expect. I am trans and queer, and looking back at .hack//SIGN I realize why it resonated so deeply with me. It is an incredibly queer story, in such explicit terms that would never, never pass censors and studios nowadays. There is no way to read the primary romance that is the focus of the entire story without it being queer. Tsukasa is a queer girl from an abusive household who falls in love with Subaru, a queer disabled girl in a wheelchair. Only on this watch did the depths of the sapphic energy between these two characters really sink in, such as in this one minute and thirty one second scene that is just Tsukasa and Subaru staring longingly at each other from a great distance and experiencing feelings. Or the incredibly explicitly gay dialgoue of two people in love here. I think that .hack//SIGN is in many ways better and more revolutionary a story now than it was when it originally released because centering a queer relationship in explicit terms with explicitly romantic payoff (them crying and hugging in slow motion irl), featuring a physically disabled character and a character escaping an abusive environment and never being told they need to or should make up with their abusive family. They both get to be happy, and so many people all around them work so hard to make sure they can be happy, and it's beautiful and I'm fucking crying again god damn it.
Arcane. Literally perfect, absolutely incredible storytelling, incredible characters, incredible art. Just flat out incredible all the way through, and I love everything about it. Do I have in-depth thoughts about it? I sure fucking do and I am working on a big ol' separate post about it and why I love Silco's portrayal above every other character in the show (and all the other characters are also awesome btw).
Kino's Journey (2003). Very good show that's just too chill for it's own good. I started a screenshot thread some episode in. Every episode takes place in a new land with a hyper-specific focus on one particular hypothetical or realistic problem. Kino themselves are just an observer in each land, only there for a few days. The show poses many questions to the viewer about the different conflicts/problems/solutions in each place, while actively portraying those elements in a particular light, without specifically or explicitly making a statement about what Kino thinks about it. I would typically call this weak writing, but it's notable that Kino implicitly has opinions but explicitly refuses to make statements about cultures they are not a part of. Also they're a non-binary icon and enforces their agender status at gunpoint when necesary.
Bungo Stray Dogs (Seasons 1-3 and Dead Apple). Hell yeah this show ruled. It's very much a shounen story that doesn't have a whole lot of deeper themes and stuff to say, but it executes on what it is very well and I adore the world it has built. The story is set in the city of Yokohama which is ruled by three different groups of differing power, and they do a very good job of balancing the unending conflict between the three parties against the fact that those three groups also have to look out for each other because all three are necessary for the city's peace. The characters are also very, very good. I made a short thread, but not like one intended to be as in-depth as my Vanitas one and shit.
Symphogear AZX (season 4). This franchise continues to be very silly and very fun despite the many, many problems it was with fanservice. It continues to introduce new bullshit. "We have a new villain." "Is it Fine again?" "No..." "Is it?" "Yes..." We haven't seen Fine since season 2 but I love that all the bullshit villains in the series have branched off from her at various points in time. I did a thread of screenshots for this one too, because there's just so many stupid wild things to take screenshots of. It's fanservice doesn't stop and it's really awful and gross but I just get so distracted by how utterly silly and nonsense it is that I just miss how gross it can be at times. Hibiki is the perfect idiot.
Mob Psycho 100 (Seasons 1 and 2). Good show. It's an oddity. The character designs are weird and a little off-putting, and the art swings wildly from incredible to a point where I wouldn't watch it. But it's compelling, and the characters are good, and I love the themes and character stories. Mob tries and never gives up their dream of growing as a person who doesn't need psychic powers ("Psychic powers aren't good for everything. For example, psychic powers don't make you good at math.") and it does a very good job of contrasting that against all the people who think Mob is incredibly powerful and set for life because of their powers. Every single human being on the planet needs the Body Improvement Club in their lives, just a group of himbos who have your back and are hyped about every single small step forward you make in your life. One more push-up than before? New record baby, five himbos cheering for you. The Body Improvement Club is I think one of the most wonderful groups in any media because they're all super buff and work out constantly but they don't judge anyone for anything because all that matters is improvement and so they don't care where you start or where you are on your journey. I'm tearing up and crying thinking about all their interactions and how genuinely, sincerely supportive they are. Beyond wholesome. God, I love them so much. Mob Psycho 100 is good and I eagerly look forwards to season 3.
Pretty Boy Detective Club. I am mixed on this. I wrote two threads on twitter why (nested here with a QT). It's undeniably a trans-masc story. But the show, especially with the knowledge that there'll be a second season, seems determined not to directly address it. The main character Mayumi is... a trans man. Mayumi joins the Pretty Boy Detective Club, which has four incredibly literal rules: 1. Be pretty, 2. Be a boy, 3. Be a detective, 4. Be a team. They attempt to sidestep rule 2 by saying that boy means retaining the childlike wonder of a young boy, the youthful energy and curiosity and so on. It doesn't hold up, because the words they use are incredibly gendered. Mayumi joins the club, cuts their hair short, starts dressing in the school's boy's uniform, takes voice training lessons to join the boy's choir. They're trans. But the show won't say it, and continues to build off-ramps so that they can veer off at the last second before they end the series. I see it coming and it's frustrating, but as it is now: It's really wonderful, actually. Mayumi is not a good person, they are rude and insult people to their faces - and not by accident - and not a single person ever tries to change them. They don't hurt anyone, but people will roll their eyes at the mean-spirited nicknames they give out, and prod fun back. And I think that's kind of wonderful to, that Mayumi doesn't need redemption or to have a character moment where they realize they need to be a better person who takes care of their friends, etc., because they already look out for their friends. I think the show's biggest actual weakness and not a speculative weakness, is that the arcs have zero connective tissue and nothing really carries over between them - that criminal smuggling gang from the first arc? Are they responsible for this new crime? No. They aren't even tangentially related. Nothing ever is. And that's a structurally frustrating problem because it never really allows most of the cast to grow beyond their one-note charactizations they were introduced with. Mayumi is really the only character that gets to grow, though not necessarily for the better in some cases. It's a good-enough show, that desperately wants to be a trans-masc story but can't commit to it (probably for financial/production reasons).
Psycho-Pass: First Inspector. Apparently First Inspector wasn't a movie so much as several episodes of about 40 minutes long. I guess that they could be cut together for a theatrical release. It's uh, it's Die Hard. It's just Die Hard, that's all it is. But Die Hard is such an incredible baseline concept that you can do it an infinite number of times and still have it be good. It's really, really good and advances all of the character's relationships with each other and the system. Shion Karanomori's advancement is by far my favorite, personally, because seing Yayoi reintegrate into society fundamentally changed her in that suddenly she's aware that there could be, there is a life waiting for her out there, and her psycho-pass begins to trend towards her release because of it. During the second act or third act she has a moment where she has an opportunity to commit to doing something to protect someone else directly and not from far away, and says that doing that is her proof to herself that she's capable of change. And then in the epilogue we see her out in the world nursing an injured Yayoi (she survived the end of season 3 btw), and they talk about basically moving in each other. It's cute and I'm so happy they get to be together and that the system doesn't like explicitly hate them because they're gay or because they actively challenge it. Oh god, I forgot that. At the end of First Inspector the system shows radical signs of change, the results of years and years of fighting from Akane and the others, which is more hopeful than I imagined. Is Sybil evil? By the end of First Inspector it's difficult to say, with the kinds of changes that they show because the Sybil system, while controlled by serial killers and other people, is a system that was designed to grow and they allow people like Akane, like Arata, like so many of the main characters, the freedom to actively challenge it and present hurdles for the system to overcome - which is a fantasy because the real world doesn't have systems of government that are willing to give to any amount of change. It's a really good series, and First Inspector was incredible and absolutely worth delving into.
Psycho-Pass Season 3. Hey, it gets even better on a second watch. The focus on a new cast was an incredible choice, at exactly the right moments. I love that they advance the world that changes the way the Sybil System interacts with the world just enough that it can ask more questions. Seasons 1 and 2 focused on individual harm where one person can be directly responsible, but season 3 asks what happens when crimes happen on a societal level, like mortgage bubles and so on, and nobody involved is directly responsible with intent for the system's harm. It's really good.
Kaguya: Love is War (Seasons 1 and 2). This is an incredible show that I could not have watched alone. I get second-hand embarrassement really bad and there's a lot of moments that I just would not have been able to get through. Having someone else there let me power through and I've never seen a show with such subterrainian stakes as this one be given the gravitas and energy of this. The show's first two episodes open with an introductory sting that... re-invents the concept of tops and bottoms to explain why neither of these two can admit why they love each other. There's a ton of silliness and antics and then it gets really serious and sincere at exactly the right moments. I was and still am deeply, deeply invested in the characters in this show in a way that I don't think I've felt for other characters. Just absolutely incredible.
Boogiepop and Others. Yeah, so I went back and finished it. I think that I have decided that it is good. It is interesting and weird in the way it tells its stories through everybody's eyes but Boogiepop, because Boogiepop doesn't have a terribly high amount of agency. It's consistently compelling enough to keep watching despite only really making sense at the conclusion of each arc. And on a second watch of most of those arcs, they actually get better, it's not like they reveal a twist that makes the whole arc less interesting on a second watch. Yeah, it's good, I've decided. The opening is incredible also.
86 Eighty-Six (Season 1, Again). Why is this on the list twice? Because I watched it when it aired the first time and then again before Season 2 came out. Still incredible, with no flaws. My understanding is that the timeline of the series, diving deeper into events happening simultaneously to Spearhead and Lena in San Magnolia, doesn't happen in the originals. That the originals kept moving forwards and when it switched you didn't get to see what was happening at the same time, whereas the anime you get like half an episode with spearhead and then half an episode with Lena, and I think that the anime is much stronger for that decision. It gives the show the ability to really interrogate San Magnolia's fascist state and bring a much more damning condemnation of it to bear. Incredible series.
A Certain Scientific Railgun (Season 1). Still a good show. The opening is a fucking bop. I adore Saten and her arc still hits really hard at the start. I think Kuroko is a much stronger character when she isn't in the same scene as Misaka because she becomes very one-note in those scenes. Uiharu is a wonderful child and I love her relationship with Saten. There is absolutely a bunch of fanservice weirdness, but it's not nearly as bad as some things I've watched recently. I think of the three series - A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun, and A Certain Scientific Accelerator - Railgun is absolutely without a doubt the strongest entry because it is much more focused on a smaller cast and doesn't get really weird at the end like Accelerator does.
The Case Study of Vanitas. Hoo boy. Uh. This show is incredible. I posted a very spoiler-free screenshot thread to twitter. It's a long thread. Vanitas, the main character, is an awful human being who decided they were going to save all vampires from utter destruction out of fucking spite. Noe was tasked with coming to a conclusion about the "nature of the book" and the people who are touched by it and it's weilder (Vanitas and The Book of Vanitas). Vanitas and Noe are a perfect pairing and the opening credits and the ending credits are incredibly gay about those two in particular. Even the literal official music video for the ending credits is little more than an AMV about the romance between these two male protagonists, just longingly staring at each other and reaching out for one another. It's a brilliant show. One thing that I actually really love is that vampires biting and drinking blood is repeatedly, thoroughly, a sexual act - an intimate act - and they don't shy away from that. You might think, "Of course it is, it always has been" but it's also true of the flashbacks to when many of the adults were children biting each other, but not in a like sexy-sexual way, but an exploratory-sexual way like real children do with kissing and stuff. It's not weird or sexual, but that's because the younger vampires haven't yet grasped the intimacy of those acts the same way kids don't. Also Vanitas is just the worst, he's awful, but he's so sexy and charming that despite everyone constantly hating him he flips his hair and smiles and they all curse under their breath "he's so hot though."
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (Season 1). Still incredible. I don't have much to add because it's my favorite gundam for every reason. It's very blatant about it's themes (child abuse, neocolonialism, fascism, toxic masculinity, and more), and because it's decision to not include beam weaponry of any kind means that impact weapons, swords, lances, clubs, axes, all tear through the metal of other mobile suits in a way that feels way more visceral and brutal than other Gundam series. It gives it a more gritty and grounded feeling. The character stories are all really good in it. I adore it.
86: Eight-Six Season 2. Incredible. When it came out I said that they would have to do two things: show us what exists beyond the borders of San Magnolia, and go hard on Lena's transformation at the end of the first season. They delivered incredibly well on both, and continued to add more things to talk about and have very serious opinions on. Lena's development into season 2 is incredible: she has stopped playing by the Republic's rules and has started preparing for the big invasion and ensuring that as many 86 survive as possible, and she's gotten good enough at the bureaucracy that she has leverage and protection that extends beyond her family's name. The main characters in San Magnolia continue to express incredible self-loathing and continue to get spurred to action by Lena's fight against the genocide state. Spearhead squadron continues to have excellent stories to tell, in particular they discover a country that learns that there are still humans beyond the Legion and celebrate, then find out that San Magnolia's doing a genocide and get real angry. Spearhead is faced repeatedly by people telling them that they've fought enough and that if they want to "fight to the end" as they've said they intend to, they have to prepare for a time when the fighting is done and that means thinking about a real future. And then showing that the 86 are still discriminated against in this new country but for different reasons (they're "monsters" because they're children who are more skilled and experienced than the Federation's generals). Just, an incredible show that continues to have very pointed things to say about war, discrimination, fascism, and the way that fascist states cannibalize themselves.
Princess Principal: Crown Handler 1. 2021.09.26. So there's going to be six of these hour long OVA/movies. Crown Handler 1 is just as good as the rest of the series and executes on being a really good spy story just as well if not better than the series. Oh, and Crown Handler is like, a continuation of the series, not like a side thing, a direct follow-on. There's a like five to eight minute chess match in which two spies talk back and forth while being observed by antagonistic powers and the whole conversation is really tense, filled with double-speak, and strikes that perfect tone for good spy fiction.
My Hero Academia (Season 5 or 6? The most recent one). Finished as it aired. Very good! I really, really like that they give so much time to The League of Villains - Especially Twice and Himiko Toga, who are such a wonderful pair and they never like imply that there's anything sexual or the like between them. They're just really good friends who are like, good for each other's mental health? I adore the League of Villains because from their introduction they're a weird found-family that legitimately care and look after each other. Anyways, they also continue to handle Endeavor and his family really well, in that he just straight up doesn't get a pass on being an abusive shithead and that like atonement is hard because sometimes the people you want to be better for are better without you. Anyways. It's good, just excellent shounen.
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (Season 2). Finished as it aired. Alright, so. I came into season two of Dragon Maid with the opinion that the first season was good and had an ending that didn't demand more. And thus, if I didn't like season two then I could just ignore it and everything would be fine. However: Season Two was incredible, it was fantastic. It starts off pretty rocky, but pulls itself back because Kobayashi is a wonderfully written character, and watching all the cast go through huge developments in their lives was fantastic. I didn't like the new character initially, but once you get like four or five episodes in they stop leaning on her so heavily for jokes and let her be a character, and from there she's really good! Yeah, if you liked Dragon Maid, you'll probably really like season two by the end of it. Good watch.
My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! (Season Two). Finished as it aired. I am not an isekai person. Just not a genre I'm particularly interested in, since they all kind of seem to fall into a very repetitive sense of humor. However, just as in season one, Catarina Claes is perfect. She's the dumbest human being on the planet with an absolutely infinite well of empathy and kindness, and is the type of person to lift you up and talk you up even if you've only ever been mean to her. As a character who only reads romance novels and eats sweets you would think she would catch onto other people being interested in her, but she just doesn't percieve actual romantic advances at all. I have nothing but good things to say about this anime and would happily suggest it to pretty much anyone with zero caveats. Also they put in a hook for a season 3, but I also hear a movie has been announced. I legitimately can't wait for more of this group.
Princess Principal. 2021.09.11 - 2021.09.18. This anime was made by 3hz, which is the same studio that made Flip Flappers. It is just as explicitly gay as Flip Flappers was, if not even more so. I decided to watch it because I saw the opening and thought "eh, alright" and then saw a youtube thumbnail of the main character next to James Bond that read "what makes a great spy story" and thought, wait it's about spys, I'm fucking in. It's beyond good. It doesn't get leery that I remember, it handles spy/political plots really well, and its setting is fantastic. Think Atomic Blonde (Berlin around the fall of the Berlin Wall) set in steampunk London. It's just fantastic. Absolutely blown away by it.
Flip Flappers. 2021.09. So, I also rewatched Flip Flappers before I watched Princess Principal. It's also fucking great, still. It holds up so well. It's a show I really don't feel like I can talk about really well because there's so much going on in its themes and the material its pulling from/referencing. But it's gay, magical girls, and has some really good, well-handled moments that hit pretty hard. I really, really like it.
Promare. 2021.09.05. I finally got to watch this with a large group of people who love it. Many pointed out new things that are incredible and subtle in the movie. Others simply reveled in the delight of the absurdness of it. But once more Promare only made me love SSSS.Gridman more because even with everyone pointing out how good Promare was, it continued to shine a light on Gridman as showing Studio Trigger as capable of more than mile-a-minute storytelling and ever-escalating stakes. Anyways, Promare is good and you should watch it.
SSSS.Gridman. 2021.08.30-2021.09.02. I watched it with some people from the discord. This time I did not give them the guided tour, which is a real thing that I do to share it with some friends that is very disruptive. I pause constantly whenever I have a thought or feeling or have knowledge about something happening in a scene and explain it in detail. It was hard to hold back since there are so, so many things I have feelings about in SSSS.Gridman and so many incredibly powerful moments that I didn't get to like properly talk about. Akane is such an incredibly well-written character and its such a tragedy that the show attempts to trick you into thinking the show is about the other characters for the first while.
The Rebuild of Evangelion (1.11, 2.22, 3.33, 3.0+1.0). 2018.08.21. These are legitimately moving and incredible movies. I have a lot of feelings about them. The original series is dull as shit. There's a ton to love and a ton of really good character moments, but it's an unbearable slog that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Evangelion 1.11 is a bit like that as well, but it and 2.22 speedrun the basics of the Evangelion anime series so you don't have to watch them. 3.33 is very good and has a modern budget. 3.0+1.0 is so good that I would have to write half an article gushing about it. A friend said that 3.0+1.0 is good because it is the same writer/director (Anno) telling roughly the same story from two points in his life - when he was much younger and in a bad place mentally, and now much older with a more hopeful eye for the future. There's a good 40 minutes of 3.0+1.0 of just... showing that despite everything that's happened, people are still pushing forwards and finding happiness and creating comfort with others, and that it's worth putting in the work to be a part of it. It's just fucking wonderful. It also has one of my favorite scenes I will think of forever. Edit/update (2021.08.28): Mari can get some whenever she wants from anyone. She deserves it.
Paprika. 2021.09.03. I remember this movie being weird the last time I watched it. You know what? It's still weird, but this time I watched it in English and I think that hearing the... unrelenting fatphobia surrounding a character in it hits much harder and feels more uncomfortable when I hear it in a language I understand versus subtitles I'm reading. I think it's still good, it just feels really unnecessary and if it didn't feel so shoehorned into every line of dialogue about the character then it would be a significantly better film. Also I totally missed the weird homophobia in it before? I'm really not selling it well, am I? I liked it, it was fun to watch with friends on a Friday night.
Redline (English Dub). 2018.08.28. Absolutely wild movie that introduces a lot of little plots and a ton of immediately interesting characters and their relationships and absolutely refuses to elaborate on anything including the worker's revolution and bioweapon kaiju Funky Boy. Highly recommend.
Black Lagoon (English Dub) - 2021.08; one of my go-to comfort anime. It has a lot of problems but it's so over the top and fun that I tend to forget/ignore them.
Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail (English Dub) - 2021.08.15; I hadn't previously watched Roberta's Blood Trail, but it was super worth it to do. It really expands your understanding of a lot of the characters, and advances Rock and Revy's relationship in a refreshingly adult fashion. Neither character gets embarrassed when someone implies/questions if they're in a relationship, just shrug, and move on with the conversation. The one weird thing with it is how... uh... heroically/positively it portrays the US military and by extension disparages all the other characters. But it ends with Ultimately Nothing Changing despite Rock's best efforts, which is truly the best way to end it, as they did at the end of Second Barrage (season 2). I liked it, and would recommend it to anyone who's watched and liked Black Lagoon (seasons 1 and 2).
Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny - finished 2021.08. Surprisingly both of these are much better than I remember. I think it is one of those series that I watched when they were coming out when I was much younger and in English so that probably contributed to my negative view of them.
Symphogear (Seasons 2 and 3) - Still as indecipherable as the others. It's nonsensical and fun and actively resists being thought of beyond surface level, and it's lucky for that because it still has a pretty gross sexualization of underage girls thing going on. I don't know if it's worse because its peppered in throughout but never has scenes that are explicitly about it that linger and leer or not. There's definitely more of that in Symphogear as a general thing than other stuff, but it feels easier to ignore here.
SSSS.Dynazenon - finished as it finished airing. What a wonderful show. I adore it with all my heart. It does a lot of things differently than SSSS.Gridman, and is a much stronger ensemble show for it. It's different, but just as good. It's just as well directed with the same intentionality and attention to detail as Gridman was.
Psycho-Pass (Season 2) and Psycho-Pass the Movie - 2018.05 to 2018.06? I finally watched the second season of Psycho-Pass, and found it surprisingly good. Same with the movie. I was certain that the end of Season 1 was a good enough ending and they couldn't do anything more but I was absolutely wrong. Season 2 follows many of the same beats but asks different questions and interrogates the system established in the first season in different, profound ways. The movie is a good lid on this set of characters and their story. It does not have the same time to interrogate the system, but does not feel out of place or like it wasted the potential of the series. Good series, overall.
Psycho-Pass (Season 3) 2018.08.31. You know what, I don't mind it. It took a little bit to really get a grip on what it wanted to do, but once I did I think it did a pretty good job at it for the most part. Also seeing all the characters some years on from where they began in season one is really nice as well. A lot of them developed in ways that I didn't expect. The series leaves off on a huge fucking cliffhanger and Psycho-Pass: First Inspector is required watching to get the end of it, so I guess that means I'll be tracking that down sooner rather than later.
The Vision of Escaflowne. This was quite good, though a bit slow in many places for me. I realize now having gone back and watched it as an adult that it was very much not aimed at me as an audience. It's very much a shoujo series, despite featuring mecha. Which was a fascinating concept.
Eureka 7 (episodes 1-35). I did not finish Eureka 7. But it was okay when it was paced well, and other times it just dragged for me. I understood why the pacing and the story beats it spent time on were important, but it didn't grab me. And I realized that it is very much the same type of story as Escaflowne and that shoujo mecha differs from say Gundam and other mecha in that most of the major conflicts are resolved outside of the mecha. Which leaves me feeling weird and a little disinterested, though I absolutely understand how good the series is and recognize it is not for me.
Vivy -Flourite Eye's Song- - finished as it was airing. What if Hastune Miku was sent back in time to stop skynet? What if Hatsune Miku was the terminator? That's this show. It's got a great collection of music and is very well told. I have a personal feeling that episode 12 would have been a perfect end point for that story, and really profound and brave way to end it; Vivy having lost, humanity dying to falling satellites, leaving Vivy - and the viewer - with the question "what is a heart?". Alas, the series concludes in Episode 13 where Vivy gets One More Shot and saves people, discovering what a heart is. It is very good and I would recommend it to people.
86 Eighty-Six - finished as it was airing. Never have I seen a show go so hard, so quickly on "hyper-fascism is horrible and the people who benefit are all complicit" as this series. It is very good, and the story follows some fairly predictable twists, but is just excellent. Also the animation for the spider-tanks is really, really cool.
World Trigger - Surely I watched this this year. World Trigger is something I picked up on a whim and burned through very quickly despite it being a very long series. It's so good, and since the new season came out maybe last year, I expect it will continue to get animated. It is a battle shounen anime where no character in the series at any point gets noticeably more powerful. It is a battle shounen where tactics, teamwork, and creative use of the tools available to everyone else is the key to winning.
Jujutsu Kaisen - I watched this near the end of its season one run, which was at the start of 2021. It is damn good, just damn good at everything it does. All the characters are lovable dorks, and the battle animations are incredible. I love the very concept of Gojo, one of the protagonists, being so powerful that a group of evil spirits as old as humans have known fear had a meeting at a Denny's to discuss why fighting Gojo is off the table and how they need to concoct a situation where Gojo will not be present for The Evil Plan.
Fire Force (Seasons 1 and 2) - I rewatched Fire Force because it's still just such solid shounen and I would still happily recommend it to people. I am really excited for season 3, whenever it comes, because god damn the season 2 ending was such a cliffhanger.
My Hero Academia (Seasons 1 through 5) - Also just incredible shounen. Deku is an incredibly well done character, and the way that Bakugo and Shoto have developed has been great as well. So have the rest of Class 1-A! I'm glad its still coming out and I'm still having just as much fun and am even more invested in it. The recent bits around Shoto's father, Edeavor, have been handled really well in that Endeavor has already had the emotional turning point but just because he was a terrible person and understands and is working to get better that doesn't mean that his family is ready to forgive him for the abuse they suffered. But it's a long process and they're handling it very well.
Bleach (Episodes 1 through 163) - 2021.01.30 - 2021.02.20. Better than I remembered generally, up to the weird necromunda arc or whatever where they go to the Hollow world, which ends up feeling like just another soul society arc. The Soul Society arc itself was very good though, and I did love that immensely.
Boogiepop and Others - 2021.02.06. Well, "and Others" is very apt. Its been six months since I watched it and I remember it being fascinating and compelling, but that's about it. I still haven't decided whether or not it was "good" or if I particularly "enjoyed it", but as I've always said something doesn't have to be good to be fun, and all something has to be to succeed is compelling. In that sense Boogiepop and Others passes.
Naruto Shippuden - 2021.08.08 - ongoing. I watched all of Naruto last year, by myself and then with my partner, and doing much the same with Shippuden now. Naruto overall is much better than I have memory of it being (and certainly better than I remember it being regarded by others). This is almost certainly due to Naruto and Naruto Shippuden consisting of almost 40%+ of filler each.
B: The Beginning (Season Two). Uh, if you thought the first season of B: The Beginning was interesting, this one is also interesting, I guess? It has the same problem that the first season had which is that it doesn't know what anime it wants to be. It has like four different storylines which in season two has condensed down into about two stories, but it's super unclear where it wants to go, but it wants to go somewhere since it set up a season three.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Actually much better than I remember it being. I think Lelouch is a much better and more interesting character than I remember them being, with a lot more internal conflict and layers of motivation than I remember him having. I suspect this is largely due to remembering the English dub and being younger. I actually don't remember having many/any real problems in this past rewatch with the show. I think it's just good, not great, but good.
Games
This is going to be a much tougher category for me to remember since there isn't a chronological list of when I played a given episode and the like as there is with anime.
Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond. I didn't play this gen like at all when it was original. I probably won't complete this one. I wish I didn't spend the money. It's not bad, it's just exactly the same game as it was back then without any of the quality of life of modern titles. I heard that they used an outside team or like a team that doesn't usually handle Pokemon stuff to make this, which makes sense. It's too faithful to Diamond and Pearl, in a way that these remakes usually aren't because they usually add new features or story bits and this just doesn't.
Shin Megami Tensei: V. I have a lot of thoughts about SMT:V that I shared in this thread here on Twitter. I want to go back to it, but I'll need some time. More or less, there are some mechanical complaints I have that I was prepared for coming in, like the obtuse recruitment system and the complexity/lack-of-tutorializing of the demon fusion stuff. But the things I wasn't ready for that are killing my will to play is how brown and boring and empty the world is. Yes, it's a post-apocalypse thing, I get it. But they introduce you to a bunch of characters and a colorful-enough city and then immediately take all of it away and drop you in a very large brown desert and do not introduce you to anyone to talk to or reason to be invested in this world at all in the first five hours. It is made more frustrating by the game repeatedly stopping me along the path to tell me to grind more constantly and warning me that I'm not strong enough for whatever lies ahaed. I expected the game to be difficult and I was okay with that, but the reason I keep trying to push forward is that I am looking for something to care about. The demons have character until they're in your party and then they're just stat blocks, which means there's no inter-party dialogue or anything. It's just... boring. I'll push through eventually a while later if only because I paid full price for it on release, but like I wish there was any characters or color in the world to like make moving through the environments fun or at the very least visually interesting.
Darkest Dungeon II (Early Access). I got this game on release of it's early access and finished the first act, and I intend to return to the game when it is 100% complete and released for real. The tale of my first completed run through the game is fantastic and I am proud of it and you can find it in my thread here. This game is going to be an incredible and far more hopeful successor to the original, and I think it will be better for the changes made to the formula.
Metroid: Dread. Really good game. I played Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Fusion back on the GBA and those were some of the only games I think in my life that I actively got 100% on. I did not get that far with Metroid: Dread, but I think it absolutely lived up to those two games. Creepy vibes, and the EMMI are just scary enough to give you anxiety until the mid-late game when you have more power and feel more proficient and you get confident enough to just outrun them in their environments. I can see some narrative elements happening subtley that I think got spoiled for me but I wasn't paying too much attention to the chatter. Yeah, worth the money and time I put into it.
Get In The Car Loser. 2021.09.25. I probably won't finish it. I don't finish most games. But! It is incredibly well written and plays really well, and I love every single main character I've interacted with. I gave an angel a milkshake and she renounced God and said God has obviously been to divorced from their mortal charges because she didn't know something this good existed. The leader of the party isn't like a chosen hero, she's just someone who stole an ancient artifact because she was tired of waiting for the chosen hero to arrive to defeat Machine Cultists (nazis) and decided she would just do it herself. It's really good, and I hear it gets really good. Don't ask me for content warnings I don't know any, I didn't see anything in my play that I felt the need to give people a heads up for but its emotional so there could be coming up.
Final Fantasy 14. Yeah, I'm back into Final Fantasy 14. Dancer is still really fun. The WoW guild formed a free company, so that's why I jumped in. Endwalker is the next expansion and is coming sometime this year allegedly? I might become a healer. Oh, and I'm into glamor hunting now. That's just a thing I do now, try to make okay outfits and fail and just copy other people's cool outfits.
Neo: The World Ends With You. Gosh, what an incredible game. As of the time of writing I am probably about 60-80% through the game. Fret is a wonderful idiot who has never done anything wrong in his entire life. All the characters have such good interactions and feel really naturally written. The game's writing team and localization team have done the best job of any major title I've played. The battle system gradually leads you into playing how it wants you to, allowing you to button mash at the start, and then giving you mechanics slowly that emphasize how to string combos together and how to time them. Just a masterpiece of a game.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Been playing with my guild since Shadowlands released and then took a large break at the mid-point of patch 9.0. Raiding as a Shadow Priest has been great, and I deeply love being able to continue to play my literal first World of Warcraft character and still prefer them to anything else in the game.
Guilty Gear Strive. Also very, very good. It's the first time that for a while I was able to keep up with other people since I jumped in right when it launched. I-No played surprisingly the best for me, and that's surprising because I-No is apparently a weird character for most other people. I think that once I get more of an income and spending money that I'll pick up a Hitbox and try playing again, since most of what was holding me back when I stopped playing was stick movements being difficult for me.
AI: The Somnium Files. What a weird fucking game. I loved it. The characters were weird and lovable, and the story did a good job of balancing seriousness with absolute goofball bullshit. I should have seen the twist coming but I absolutely did not. I am looking forwards to the sequel that was announced this year, where Mizuki (the best character in the game) is the main character (with a telescoping cyberpunk lead pipe).
The Nonary Games: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999). Also a weird fucking game. One of the writers from this game worked on AI: The Somium Files I heard, alongside a Danganronpa writer. It shows in The Somnium Files. Weird, mostly intuitive puzzles. Was happy to have spent the time to go through the game.
Persona 5 Strikers. This is a game I have mixed feelings about. The game play is incredible! All the characters feel really good to play and fight with. The game itself was clearly written by fans of Persona 5, and that is not a compliment to the game's writing. The writers of Strikers loved Persona 5, but missed a lot of what the narrative was about and lost a lot of nuance about the characters, instead focusing down on a few memorable jokes and comments they made and attempting to replay them for laughs again and again. I couldn't finish it because by the late-mid point of the game, I was just tired of pushing through. The boss designs past the first one don't even feel particularly thematic to either the story/narrative or character that they represent. It was intensely frustrating to see how they squandered such a strong start and their incredibly tight and well constructed combat.
Ace Attorney (Trilogy). There was a time before I watched, and later played, Ace Attorney that I thought Pheonix Wright was a skilled hotshot lawyer and not a complete dunce who spoke loudly and with confidence but had no idea what they themselves were about to say or point to as evidence. They are a great character, and the cast of the game for the most part is also fantastic. I greatly enjoyed the games and am glad the remaster exists.
Pokemon Unite. This goes here because for the two weeks after it launched I was super into it. I'm less into it now for a bunch of reasons, but I think the game play is really tight. If I kept playing I could be very good at it, but it also just feels like a game that is going to eventually take too much of my money for too little return (and honestly speaking it already has).
Death's Door. Bird souls! A wonderful souls-like game about a small crow that is also a reaper. I did not complete it, but I plan to get around to it eventually. I watched someone else play through it all so I know roughly what to expect, but playing the game just feels good.
Legend of Mana (Switch Port). Just as wonderful as I remember it. Combat feels a little less janky than I remember it. Also there are way more mechanics and systems in the game than I remember and almost none of them are explained. It is still one of my favorites and all the little stories throughout are short and cute and good. Nostalgia glasses don't even apply to this, it's still just good.
Monster Hunter Rise. Very good. I was very into it until I got to near the end of the main story/gear/after-story stuff. It was worth the money for the time and enjoyment I got out of playing it by myself and with friends.
Bravely Default II. A good jrpg. That's really all I have to say. I really enjoyed the time I spent with it but I did not finish it and don't know if I'll go back. Not any fault on it, I've just moved on. The class system was very fun and I got most of the classes maxed out on most of my characters, including the optional ones. I think I just burnt out on the grind.
Ikenfell. I think I played this this year, or maybe I played it at the end of last year? Almost certain this year. It's a wonderful little adventure rpg about a girl at a magical high school. It's incredibly, incredibly queer and friendly. Just a delightful game. I also didn't finish it because I just started doing other things and forgot to come back and finish it.
Movies
Van Helsing (2004). Hey, this movie still fucking rules. Bisexual monsterfucking awaking for many, I'm sure. Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckensdale just looking hot while fighting monsters. Fantastic movie. But more importantly they use a lot of CGI and it looked really good because they use it mostly in conjunction with practical effects (which they use a lot). The set design is incredible, and the way they choose to portray the opening in black and white is so good. There's also so many good uses of splicing footage together to let characters walk upside down on walls while characters pass in front and behind them. It's a really well made movie, and still absolutely fucks. You should go watch it.
Jennifer's Body. I wish I watched this a long time ago, but you know what? I don't think I would have gotten it. I watched it on a whim after reading a review of it, and it was enough to push me to watch it. This movie was just straight-up incredible, funny, and had very pointed opinions that absolutely got it crucified when it came out. Also it's incredibly, incredibly gay. It was absolutely marketed at the wrong people - marketed as a sexy shlock horror movie for dudes, rather than a comedy-horror for women as it was intended. It is unfortunate that it's a cult classic now and didn't get the attention and respect it deserved when it came out because becoming a cult classic now doesn't help the people who made it then. God damn. I want to watch it again.
Kate. Fuck. This movie fucking rules. Straight up one of the best action movies I've seen. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is perfect for this role. She played Huntress in Birds of Prey, which was my favorite character in this movie. She plays a more serious character in this but with the same general vibe and kills it. It's a movie that takes place in Japan and only features two white characters (both of which die) and it doesn't become a Tokyo Drift where white characters show up and do traditional-Japanese-thing-better-than-the-natives situation. All the action in the movie is incredibly well choreographed, the vibes are immaculate, when the movie wants to be funny it nails it and when it wants to be serious it does. Breaking champange flutes and holding them by the base to use as punch/push daggers is fucking inspired. Like Gunpowder Milkshake, John Wick is a huge inspiration here in terms of the lightning and protagonist-too-angry-to-die thing. This movie is incredibly violent, but if you're down with that aboslutely fucking watch it it's so much better than I can convey. Probably my favorite movie this year.
Gunpowder Milkshake. Fuck. I have some issues with this movie, but have to preface it with: I do not pour time and effort criticizing things that I do not care about or enjoy. This movie could not decide what it wanted to be. Was it a comedy/parody of a John Wick action movie, or was it trying to be John Wick? It had tonal whiplash in the worst way where they would provide comedy dialogue to a scene that was played dead serious and then try to be serious but coming out more funny than anything. They also wouldn't commit to speaking in euphemisms, which really weakened it's worldbuilding and made it seem like the writer's liked John Wick's universe but didn't know what made it cool and interesting. It really comes down to the dialogue throughout the movie being very clumsy because all the action scenes were incredibly well done and the characters were all really well acted, but the dialogue was clunky and stated things multiple times or dragged on. It is a frustrating movie for me because I could see what it wanted to do and I could see how it wasn't quite getting there, I could see the missed potential.
Kubo 2 Strings. You know what? I really liked this movie but other than the art-style/stop-motion sticking out to me/being absolutely godly, now like a month or two out from it I can't really remember specific moments that I really liked. Absolutely worth a watch and actually makes me consider going and watching Coraline which I believe is done by the same studio.
A Knight's Tale. Fucking fantastic movie. Going back to it, I now realize that it's plotline is a very common scrappy sports team moving up in the world story, but like, yeah. This movie fucks. It utterly fucking rules because instead of trying to be period-accurate it goes head first into vibe-accurate and absolutely kills it. Chaucer is incredible, they're all incredible. What an incredible movie that absolutely deserves to be watched like right now, go and watch it.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have been quoting things in this movie my entire life, and will continue to do so. A wonderful movie that I adore greatly, but don't have many particularly deep thoughts about. The bowl of petunias, "oh no, not again," will exist forever in my head as will "so long and thanks for all the fish."
Cabin in the Woods. Yeah, that was really good. Even in the ways that it's being subversive it was mildly predictable, but what wasn't predictable was how deep they went on their joke/bit. I really liked it in spite of the writer/director. Would recommend.
O Borther, Where Are Thou? 2021.09.25. I actually was not aware until this group watch of this movie that it was a retelling of The Oddessy but a large part of that is because I'm only vaguely aware of it and not like actually super familiar with it enough to spot an adaptation. Anyways if a group of sexy ladies by a river want to kidnap me, I guess that's just how I go out. An incredibly quotable movie that actually aged really well surprisingly. Geez. Good shit.
Anon. 2021.09.25. Great movie. It does an excellent job of creating the cyberpunk world of say Bladerunner without leaning on big neon colors - in fact there's definitely filters going on to remove color from the world. The Girl is an incredible character and I love the story surrounding her and what the movie is very clearly saying with her and whats going on. It's not exactly subtle about it's themes and at the end they just give you the thesis statement. Good shit.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. 2021.09.27. Continues to be a good movie. I threw it on during work and I still love literally everything about that movie. Gwen-Stacy showing up and being the most competent character in the whole movie is great. Miles is great. Spider-Man Noir is perfectly cast and portrayed. Fantastic movie.
Spider-Man 2 (2004). 2021.09.21. You know what? I loved this movie. Watching it with friends was great, but it's just a really good movie actually. The acting is all done really well, even though some people aren't particularly believable (specifically Spider-Man). My new favorite headcannon is Aunt May thirsting for vengeance for Ben. There's a bunch that's just, hand-wave we needed a reason for this cool thing, but like who cares it was really cool and that's all it needed to be.
The Fifth Element. 2021.09.18. Uh, this is a perfect movie, actually? What? I haven't seen it since I was very young, and didn't remember almost any of it. No movie in history has ever done overlapping scenes or had scene transitions nearly as good as The Fifth Element. It did the best job and nobody has been able to compare. What a wild fucking movie. Highly recommended. It also aged incredibly well considering its age, like it didn't make too many like jokes in bad taste generally. Good film.
The Matrix. 2021.09.12. I haven't seen The Matrix since I was young, and you know what? It's good. That's a good movie. The performances in it are all outstanding. It's The Matrix, you know its good. Also its trans.
The Suicide Squad. 2021.08.18. Wow. Just wow. This movie was fucking incredible, actually? Really, really fun. I quite enjoyed all of the characters, their chemistry was all very good, and also they just lean into everything being really silly and fun. I don't have much/anything else to say but "wow, this was really good and I really liked it."
The Terminator (1984). You know, I didn't realize/forgot that it was a horror film and not an action film. It was interesting, and fun to watch with a group of people. Ultimately not something I'd watch again on my own. Not a bad movie.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). A re-watch of one of my favorite superhero movies of all time. It's wonderful, colorful, and fun. The characters of Gotham are portrayed as being silly and cartoonish in their behavior and in their villainy. I've rewatched this movie more than five times and I wish I had been able to catch it in theaters.
John Wick (1, 2, and 3). They're just incredibly good movies. I don't particularly have that much to articulate about them. They're good, they're exciting, I love the world they've built. I would watch them all again if anyone asked.
The Old Guard. Can we please just make Charlize Theron like the action hero lead in every movie? The Old Guard is another movie I've rewatched multiple times since it came out on Netflix. There are immortal gays who have a canonical enemies-to-lovers backstory. Charlize Theron is just incredible, as she always is in everything I've seen her in. A very good action movie.
Atomic Blonde. Speaking of Charlize Theron, I'm pretty sure when I showed The Old Guard to someone this year I also took us back to watch Atomic Blonde. Incredibly good spy/action/thriller movie. I did see this one in theaters when it came out, and it was very good then and even better now that I've seen it with multiple friends at different times.
Godzilla: King of Monsters. I also saw this one in theaters. A bunch of friends decided to watch it together, so hell yeah. This movie is super dumb and has some of the dumbest lines of dialogue ever spoken. And importantly canonically establishes that scientists would absolutely start shipping the kaiju based on absolutely no evidence. Also a category six hurricane can also be referred to as "King Ghidorah".
Pacific Rim. Listen, it's a good movie. It's a stupid movie. But it's so, so good. I love Pacific Rim a lot. Big robot punches kaiju.
Venom. A group of friends got together to watch Venom, and it was a good movie. It was actually really funny and endearing and I'm deeply looking forwards to the next one. I think that the way that the movie was marketed was incredibly sloppy and did more to make me want to avoid it than want to watch it.
(Brendan Fraiser's) The Mummy. 2021.08.27. Uh, yeah it's a movie. I understand why it was enjoyable when it came out. It sure does love British colonialism and being super casually racist just in its core concepts. It's fun with a group of friends though, so that counts for something. Technically I watched this twice this year for some reason, with mostly the same overlapping group of friends. Why the fuck did that happen?
Shrek. 2021.09.04. It's fine. I can't think of anything particularly awful about it right now. The people that I watched it with are truly unhinged and that was fun. They also had a lot of trivia I didn't know about the movie. Also there were a lot of jokes I didn't catch or get as a child. I didn't finish it because I was tired and don't have any kind of investment in the movie itself.
Books
I keep meaning to read more, but then I will read one or two books and I won't be able to take a third one. When a book grabs me, it grabs me hard. When one doesn't I just fall away really quickly.
Gideon The Ninth, Harrow The Ninth. The best books I've ever read? I don't even have words, other than there was a huge hole in my chest when I finished both and didn't have a third to complete it with. They are fucking incredible, and filled with so much gay and dumb jokes and endearing characters. I am in love with both Gideon and Harrowhark, and it is a literal crime that they are fictional and not real people. The third in the trilogy was announced and I cannot wait for it. It cannot come soon enough.