2023 Visual Media List

Time for the start of my visual media list, which includes a list and thoughts of all the things I watched or played this year. It will primarily be Anime, Movies, and Games. Books, articles I found particularly interesting, music, and basically anything else will be in another post.

Anime

The format of this has gone through several revisions in a short period, mostly because I've realized how much anime I watch generally. God damn. Anyways, here's a series of shorter lists broken into Must Watch, Recommended, and Bad. I'll have a post with deeper thoughts on some from each of the lists where they're warranted.

Best Of New Watches (Must Watch) Shortlist

This is the list of the best anime that you absolutely should watch.

• Heavenly Delusion. Best of the best. Top tier trans sci-fi fiction. I can't believe Disney would pay so much money for a show so full of gender and messy and complicated feelings and gays.

• Oshi No Ko. Despite it being dangerously and suspiciously straight, I adore this. Making people watch the 90 minute first epsiode is so fun because nobody is ever right about what the seriees is about until the last few seconds.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (Season 2). Yeah G-Witch absolutely fucks and a lot of smarter people are gonna have a lot more feelings about it than I do. I have a lot of feelings about it, certainly, but they're all gay screaming because it ticked every box in my little heart.
• Buddy Daddies. Between this and Akiba Maid War, I'm going to watch every new original IP that comes out of this studio because god damn they're so good. This show has so much heart and is so much more about parenting and its challenges than it is about them being hitmen. It's truly wonderful.

New Watches Shortlist (Recommended watches)

I only have a few sentences about all of these so I'd rather keep them to a short list. These are ones I think are worth watching, generally.

• BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls’ Story- Season 2. Amuro was Killed in Golf for our sins on Good Friday. I don't have deep thoughts about it, but it still goes so hard and is so wonderful to watch.
• Hell's Paradise. Gabimaru is a little guy who just loves his wife so much. Fantastic, exactly the quality I expect from Mappa. Enjoyable.
• Yuri is My Job!. I managed to get really attached to it by the end, surprisingly. Worst Girls' Cafe was honestly by the end of the season something I really looked forwards to watching.
• Dorohedoro. This one was really good! Animation was a bit janky, but super endearing and fun. Nikaido and Noi are my favorites.
• Princess Principal: Crown Handler, Part 2. Show continues to be damn good spy fiction and I can't wait for the next crown handler film.
• Bungo Stray Dogs (Season 4). It's more Bungo Stray Dogs, which is just very good and fun. This season featured Rampo and the mean doctor lady a lot, so obviously highly rated from me.
• Monogatari (Final Season). I love everything Monogatari does except for when it leers at Nadeko and Hachikuji but like, I get why it's doing it. I'm still judging it though. Perfect series otherwise. It makes me tear up often.
• Dead Mount Death Play. Written by the Baccano! writer, and has a lot of hallmarks of their writing. It's goofy and fun and knows how serious the start of the show comes off and riffs on it a lot. Good.
• My Home Hero. The real hero is Kasen who didn't bat an eye when her husband killed several men. Very good crime thriller in a medium where there's no other mundane (read non-fantastical/sci-fi) crime thrillers.
• Lee's Detective Agency. Very fun little shorts exploring different characters. Jaye is the most normal man ever, please let him retire.
• Urusei Yatsura (2023). The original rom-com anime still does it's bits better than every pretender that's come along since. It's just funny and good.
• Trigun Stampede. It's very, very funny and I do love it a lot. But I also haven't really thought about it a lot. It's animation is top notch and brings the exact goofy 90s flailing and screaming energy to 3D and it looks great. Performances all around were incredible. Wolfwood was perfectly cast, god damn.

• ONIMAI: I'm Now Your Sister!. I have so many feelings on this and I do genuinely think it's very good. But avoid it. Do not watch it. Those first few episodes have a camera actively trying to commit federal sex crimes, going directly against the actual energy of the show itself.
• The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (MagiRevo). Explicitly gay, but rediculously chaste. Only slightly less chaste than Executioner. But damn, it did pick at some very specific feelings in me and I did really appreciate it. Worth a watch for sure.

New Watches I Have No Feelings On (The Bargin Bin)

This is just where I'm putting a list of things that I watched and have no extended thoughts about. This is to cut back on how much stuff is above. If I don't have a bunch to say about something it'll go here.

• Magical Destroyers. Had a lot of potential early but wasted. There's a reason GAINAX went under (several actually). Cut four episodes from the middle and it would have been really tight and well paced.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Advent of the Red Comet. The several years-long time skips really hurt the pacing on this one. Bummer! But I liked it overall.
• Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village. It sure is more Demon Slayer. It's really cool and very pretty, but that's about it for me.
• Revenger. I also haven't seen media set in this specific era of Japanese history when the borders opened back up to the English and suddenly everybody has fucking guns and Christianity gets really popular. It's one of those series that is just very solid all the way through. Gen Urobachi loves when two dudes are good friends.

• High Card. It was okay. I'll watch a season 2.
• Nier:Automata Ver1.1A. The plot of Nier Automata verbatim, with some cool choices. It's okay.
• Tomo-chan is a girl!. Wow, I hate it. It's awful and sexist. Avoid.
• Technoroid OVERMIND. I wish I could unwatch this attrocity. It's just boring and not interesting and the songs aren't good. Shame on them for trading on Symphogear's name.

Rewatches

Things that I have already seen before but have decided to rewatch. My feelings often change or grow on repeated watches as I catch more nuance and explore the themes in new ways.

Monogatari

My partner and I binged three and a half seasons of Monogatari and it quickly became one of our favorite anime. Going back to rewatch the first season let us catch jokes we missed the first time, appreciate new small details in the animation, and most importantly catch just how gay Senjougahara is for Hanekawa and how subtle it is at the start. I adore Monogatari a lot, and I will never forgive people who spent years saying this show is bad. It's not bad, it's just incredibly niche.

Rewatches That I Have No New Opinions On

Same section as the one above rewatches. Things I've rewatched that I have no new thoughts on, to save space as a list instead of big sections.

• Re:Creators. Still one of the best stories about being a creator, and how your creation is more than just the thing that you made, and how once something you make gets out in the world how it affects others and yourself.
• Little Witch Academia. Unlike BNA, LWA is all the good parts about Studio Trigger's animation while telling a story that doesn't boil down to "aliens innit". Charming and good.
• BNA: Brand New Animal. Trigger doing what Trigger does. It's kinda weak in comparison to their other stuff. Very safe and kid-friendly. I like when Trigger experiments and takes risks or doesn't cater to kid-safe stuff.
• Kakeguri. It's good and very horny. I do have more opinions but like, not enough to spend a bunch of time on.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. I started doing gunpla, and I love Gundam much more. IBO continues to be my favorite setting and has a ton to talk in-depth about with how hard it commits to its themes.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED Destiny. Still SEED Destiny alright.
• Lycoris Recoil. It executes everything well, but takes no particular risks.
• Engage Kiss. Excellent and messy. Will continue to rewatch and share.
• Bocchi The Rock!. Still great. Soundtrack slaps. Knowing Bocchi is gay makes a lot of early gay moments much clearer and makes the show overall much funnier.
• Princess Principal. Continues to just be the best written spy fiction in anime. Genuine political intrigue, no leering at high schoolers, and Dorothy who's just a 20-year-old grown woman pretending to be a high school student who's convinced she's pulling it off.

Movies

I definitely don't watch nearly as many movies as I used to, but they are fun to watch with friends and the few that I see tend to be pretty good. In the same fashion as anime I'll keep a running list and fill out information later when I have more thoughts.

Promare

Promare is Promare and it fucking rules, still. It doesn't stop being good no matter how many times I rewatch it. I also got someone new to rewatch it and they absolutely loved every part of it too. You should watch it if you haven't and rewatch it if you have.

The Old Guard

Please put Charlize Theron as the action hero in like every action movie. Let her do Die Hard. Let her do John Wick. Please. She's so cool and good at being the action hero.

Underworld

I had a conversation with my ex went like this:

Me: I think about Underworld a lot, though I don't remember much about it. I wonder why that is?
Her:Kate Beckinsale is a babe.
Me: Ah, of course.

Sums up my feelings to this day. Also the practical effects are still really fucking good, god damn. I miss when movies had good practical effects. But yeah Kate Beckinsale is a god damn babe.

Games

There have been games. I don't play as many as I used to, but I should point out my experiences with the ones I have played.

Fire Emblem: Engage

Getting back into a new Fire Emblem has been a good experience. I really enjoyed Three Houses but Engage has also been very good for different reasons. I really enjoy that all the characters in the game are very endearing dumbasses. Also I will continue hearing "It's me! Boucheron!" until the day I die.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

The start of the expansion (at the initial time of posting) has been pretty fun. I have gripes about the crafting system but it makes more sense to me now than it did when I started several weeks ago. I continue to main only Shadow Priest, with an Enhancement Shaman and Protection Paladin in my back pocket. Dragonflight re-inspired me to write stories about my priest and my paladin on this very website under the tag Voidborn.

Arknights

2022 was the year I started playing the gacha game arknights. After spending way too much money I am very powerful and continue to enjoy the game as a strategic experience and really compelling story about environmental and health disasters and trying to navigate and mediate violence in the world while doing The Least Harm Possible. Anyways, I continue to play it and become more powerful and Kal'tsit and W and their whole story happening in the background of everything else with Theresa and Kazdel is so good.

Persona 5: Royal

Replaying this game with my partner during their trips has been so good, and I still deeply love best girl Kawakami (depressed sex worker and teacher) and second best girl Haru Okumura (bubbly ball of infinite rage, and she owns Big Bang Burger).

Etrian Odyssey

Fuck yeah baby I sunk like 24 hours into it across like 3 days. It's very grindy and tough and pretty unforgiving in a lot of places, especially when it comes to money and funding the adventures. Gotten farther than I have gotten before but I'm determined to see it through and also I have two more Etrian Odyssey games to go once I'm done.