List of Top Things in 2020

2020 was a bad year. Plans got cancelled. Was repeatedly threatened with homelessness. Global pandemic. But some good things happened, right? Yeah, some good things absolutely happened.

Movies

These movies are not ranked in any particular order. They also may not have all come out in 2020, but it's my list and I make the rules for it.

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

I was anticipating Birds of Prey long before launch. I love Harley Quinn as a character (don't test my nerd cred I will fail, I am bad at pop-quizzes). This movie was everything I wanted and more. I watched it over, and over, and over again with friends and on my own. It's just such a fun movie, and I am so glad that Margot Robbie didn't have to settle with Suicide Squad as being Harley's film representation forever.

The Old Guard

This one came out of nowhere for me. I just saw a bunch of people talking about it on Twitter, saw that it was on Netflix, and it was incredible. Charlize Theron makes a very good John Wick parallel. I think I have loved her in everything that I've seen her in, Atomic Blonde especially (which is an honorable mention here for watching it with friends).

Knives Out

Daniel Craig solves a Clue-style mystery, with an interesting accent. The movie is very funny, well done, and so very charming. I got to watch it a couple times with friends, and it was just a very good time.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I know this wasn't this year. I don't care. Back when it was in theaters, I saw it four times on my own and a fifth time with someone else. This year it became available to me in Canada online, and I was able to watch it with a bunch of friend who hadn't seen it and who ended up loving it as much as I did.

Anime

Anime that may not have come out this year, but still managed to become my most thought about or loved this year. Not ranked in any order.

Fire Force

Fire Force is just good. Good characters, good writing, excellent animation. Season 2 just finished, and it continues to be excellent. I don't have much to say about it other than "It's very good."

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

This is a very odd entry because it's the only harem anime that I remember liking since I was a teenager. Catarina is such a wonderfully oblivious character, and unlike every other harem anime I've dipped into it actually makes sense why every character in the show is head over heels for them. I decided to watch it on a whim, and it was so surprisingly good. I highly suggest giving it a try.

A Certain Scientific Railgun T (and the rest of the franchise)

Another anime that I started on a whim (A Certain Scientific Railgun). After getting about halfway through the first season of it, I roped in a friend and we watched the entire franchise together. Railgun, Railgun S, Index, Railgun T, Accellerator, Index II, and finally Index III. It was all quite good, but the parts that were just about Railgun and her friends was easily the best part of the whole franchise.

Yasha-hime: Princess Half-Demon

It's not finished, it's only 12 episodes in. It is still so wonderful for a continuation of a series that I haven't thought about since I was in late middle-school. The first episode is a previously-on for the original cast of Inuyasha, that sunsets their adventures and provides an epilogue. From the end of that episode on the show is about different characters on a different adventure, and we have only heard passing mention of characters from the original series (episode 12 featured Miroku, many years on who has grown as a person significantly).

Moroha (Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter) is absolutely incredible and even though the show is about Setsuna and Towa (Seshomaru's twin daughters), Moroha steals every scene she's in. She's so animated and wonderful, and commits crimes in multiple time periods.

SSSS.Gridman

Fuck you, I can put whatever I want on my lists. SSSS.Gridman is on this list because I got to share it with two more people who hadn't seen it before, who got to experience it with some very minor guidance to see the attention to detail in the show. They loved it, and I loved sharing it with them. Also SSSS.Dynazenon is coming out next year and I'm beyond excited for that.

Games

Games that I played and loved in 2020, ranked in no particular order.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

I have not played World of Warcraft since early in Cataclysm, and had never planned on jumping back in. But with Shadowlands approaching, I jumped back in with some friends into a fantastic community for the end of Battle for Azeroth. We cleared Heroic Ny'Alotha as a guild, and now that we are into Shadowlands we are working on Castle Nathria. In a year that has been very bad for socializing and keeping up with people, World of Warcraft gave me a place and a reason to be among people that I like on a daily basis.

Hades

The game's good. Supergiant is a good studio. Moving along.

Persona 5 Royal

I got to spend a lot of time with Persona 5 Royal this year, and it is easily the best JRPG I have played I think ever. The combat felt good, the characters were all charming, the story was good. I'm not here to write a big review of it, but I just loved it.

NecroBarista

Necrobarista was a surprise. It is a visual novel that does an excellent job of cinematography, character writing, and just good storytelling. It has some heavy themes about coming to terms with death, but if you're down for that ride it is absolutely worth playing.

Ikenfell

Ikenfell gets an honorable mention here, because I have not finished it. But it is a charming little game that I am playing on my Switch. The characters are all wonderful and queer. In a year that's been very bad for queer witches and wizards, Ikenfell puts in the work to give them something better just for them.

New Year's Resolution

Well, it is New Year's Eve, in which we make unrealistic goals for the next year. I also figured I should attach this to my list of good things in 2020 because it seems thematically appropriate. My New Year's Resolution can be summarized into two points:

• Become girl
• Live alone in a decent one-bedroom apartment with my cat