The year is coming to a close and I thought I would go through the exercise of looking back on the media I consumed this year and writing about what I thought of each one. A lot of these I originally wrote in the back of my hobonichi immediately after consuming said media, so I think it will be interesting to reflect on how my feelings on certain things have changes over the course of a few months. Keep in mind that I am by no means trying to be objective about my interpretation of anything, so don't take anything I say too seriously.

BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD

Concerts/Live Entertainment

Sonic Talk - January 17th

It was nice to see them again after awhile, I sometimes forget I they're really good, and I don't just go see them because the bassist is in my DnD group. Always fun to see the assortement of bands at these smaller band's shows too.

Lavender Town Album Release Show - February 21

Great Jazz, and the venue (the Monarch) is very cool.

Hovvdy and Videoage - March 18th

It was nice to finally see Videoage live, I was really listenning to them on repeat during lockdown. I love the vibey synths and acoustic instruments. Hovvdy was also good, but I'm less familar with them.

NSP and TWRP - April 4th

I missed one or two TWRP songs due to the line being slow, which was a hit to my pride as an obsessive TWRP fan. I already have a minor grudge against the venue (the History) simply because it's not on a subway line. It was still fun seeing them, and NSP still makes me laugh. I really have a teenager's sense of humour and I may never change.

Magic Sword and Mega Ran - April 29th

Costume bands get me so hype. The opener was a nerd-rapper, who was way more entertaining than I was expecting.

Electric Six - May 4th

I love Dick Valentine's Scream, I will never get tired of it. I was really jazzed that I managed to pick up a thrown pick.

Weird Al - July 9th

I didn't really get the humour of the opener, he was some kind of clown? I can't believe how many costume changes Weird Al (along with his whole band) did throughout the show. I'm glad they played so many songs from the back-catalogue, it felt like a trip through time.

LVGO Plays Pokemon and Zelda + Dolphin Hyperspace- July 17th

Dolphin Hyperspace are so high energy, they make a great opener. I didn't recognize as many of the songs as I expected, there are a lot of Pokemon and Zelda games I haven't played, but they were performed beautifully.

Men I Trust - July 24th

Nice vibey tunes

LVGO plays Undertale/Deltarune (vol. I) - August 27th

I recognized all the songs this time, and they were arranged and performed masterfully. Amalgum was my favourite, I like how they missed samples played on a keyboard with the jazz orchestra sound. I like that the venue was a converted church (deltarune ch.4 reference?). The vibe of the crowd (which was mostly made-up of people enjoying the fandom surrounding Undertale/Deltarune the same way as me) also added a lot to the experience.

Mystery Skulls and Nite - September 10th

The opener was made up of a pair of twins playing dark synth, very cool to me that they exist. I loved seeing cosplayers in the audience. I was a little disapointed Mystery Skulls didn't also play an instrumentals during the his performance, but it was was still fun to dance around to the set.

Jazz Emu - September 12

It was more of a standup set with music than a concert, which wasn't what I expected, but I did start to suspect that might be the case when I walked into the Garrison and saw there where chairs set up. He played a lot of songs that were written just for the live show (as far as I can tell). My favourite part was when he acted out falling in love with a wacky inflatable tube guy.

Daði Freyr and Montaigne - September 12

Montaigne has an incredibly powerful voice and I really liked the little lab outfit they performed in. I saw the show in Oslo, and I enjoyed the banter during the Daði set regarding him being from a rival Nordic coutry.

TWRP and LAPD - October 10th

I made it to the front of the crowd, and being there in the front to fangirl out really adds to the concert experience, I traded stickers and photocard with some other folks in the pit. I was a little scared when Sara from the LAPD was balencing on the barrier right on top of me. I love TWRP and their skits, even the stupid stuff like hotdogs and farts. I got so hype when I caught a hotdog that Sara gently lobed at me.

Evvvie - Novermber 22nd

I overestimated how long it would take us to have dinner and walk to the Monarch, so we got there pretty early. The audience was pretty sparse when we got there, so I was a bit worried we would look at of place since the act is pretty small and most of the people there know the performers. It did fill up after awhile, but it did the show did maintain a feeling of being a bit private. This actually made it more fun since the performers told some stories they might not have shared in a room of strangers, haha. I enjoyed the vibe of femme people playing guitar and inging about their messy past relationships.

Generator - Novermber 27th

For those unfamiliar, Generator is an event organized mostly by one of Chris Hadfield's sons where he rounds up a secret group of interesting people, who perform or do a ted-talk style presentation on their area of expertise. The only people you know are going to be there are Chris Hadfield, and TWRP acting as the house band (so obviously I always go). This was the first one since 2020, so it had been a long hiatus for the event. This year my favourite secret act was a rat psychologist who talked about her research which is beginning to show that anticipation is a big part of enjoyment (at least for rats). Great value for the $10 each we paid for tickets, especially since we got seat upgrades and free books when we got there.

LVGO plays Undertale/Deltarune (vol. II) - November 30th

Those cats in LVGO can sure cook (I think that's how you compliment jazz musicians). There were some really cool Mike cosplayers in the crowd

Books

ACOTAR 1

The lore was fun, but the romance didn't do it for me, and a lot of the plot made me cringe. I listened to the audiobook, which may have influenced my opinions since the way the female narrator gave the male love interests macho voices made me roll my eyes. I'm also less into first person perspectives in romance since I like to know the perspective of both leads.

ACOTAR 2

OOOOOoooooooh, now I get it you're not supposed to like the male love interest in the first book.

ACOTAR 3

I didn't write anything down about this book immediately after I read it, and a few weeks later when I did write something down about it I barely remembered it. It was a slog of war drama that I assumed was setting up for the next book, but in the following books it didn't seem to have lead to anything important?

ACOTAR 3.5

I took psychic damage when I realized this novella was a Christmas special.

ACOTAR 4

This book had the most non-sensical plot of all the ACOTAR books, but it also had the most smut so I probably enjoyed it the most.

Basically Nesta, the mean older sister of the protagonist from the first few books is very traumatized from being forcefully turned into a fairy (which makes her hot and immortal) and going to war (which is less fun). To cope she has been drinking and having kinky hookups with strangers. Her younger sister, who is queen now, decides she's been too much of a slutty party girl and forces her to go live and do crossfit with a guy who has imprinted on her (which as I understand it, means he is magically inclined to plowing her). Meanwhile, younger sister the queen is expected to die in childbirth because, somehow, in this world of magic and steampunk mechanical eyes, noone has thought of c-sections yet. A bunch of other stuff also happened but the plot enraged me if I thought about it even a little too hard. In spite of the very flawed plot, the book's smut sections were very fun and detailed.

Empyrean Series 1 - Fourth Wing

As a pervert, I didn't believe it when people told me the dragon politics were the most interesting part of the book and they wish there was more of that in the book, but now that I've read it I agree. The human characters were so edgy, it made me cringe, but I appreciated that the lore had more going on and more internal consistency than ACOTAR.

Empyrean Series 2 - Iron Flame

I found Violet and Xaden's petty fights annoying. The audiobook narrator kept yelling and it gave me a massive headache (I might have also just had a migraine, sinced I almost threw up later in the night when I went to see Flow after I finished listening to it). I was put off from reading the rest of the series until there's a satisfying conclusion.

Value(s) by Mark Carney

I read this book shortly ahead of the Canadian federal election, and I thought about it as Mark's cover letter to apply to be prime minister. I liked his thoughts on how we can fight the climate crisis within the confines of capitalism, it struck me as very pragmatic. I also liked reading his discussion on how putting things on a "market" can inadequately portray their value or inherently change their value (he mentioned things like giving blood is a charitable, communal activity in areas where it's expected to be done by volunteers, but viewed as an act of desperation in areas where people are paid to donate blood). It gave me a lot to think about in terms of how I want by own work to be valued. I am disappointed that now that Mark is prime minister he isn't exactly following his own playbook with regards to pipelines.

The Legend of the White Snake

I liked the descriptions of the cultural elements I was unfamiliar with (like holidays, clothing and how the courts were madeup), there were enough details to understand the setting without bogging down the story. The romance and characters felt well done to me. I feel like the snake boy coming back to life in the epilogue came out of nowhere, which was unsatisfying, but I am glad it had a happy ending.

Bargain Wife by Mary Burchell

I bought this book a few years ago because it was 50 cents at a library sale, but I just got around to reading it this year. I had an idea in my head when I bought it that it would be fun to get into reading old harlequin romances.

The plot was so messy, in a soap opera way, which was entertaining. It's interesting to see how romantic fantasies have changed over the last 80 or so years since the book was originally written. Over the course of the book the protagonist goes from being a performer in a sleazy New York jazz club to becoming a doctor's wife and living in a patient recovery centre (which she paid for via an inheritance scam). I would personally fantasize more about being a performer in a jazz club than a doctor's wife, so the story didn't feel like the romantic fantasy it was written to be. I think it would have been nice to see her play music for the patients and to see her rediscover her love of music outside of the clubs she hated.

There's a line early on in the book where a character describes herself as "a golddigger who paints her toenails" and the line has been bouncing around in my head since I read it. Was painting your toenails was considered something only a promiscuous woman would do back in the day? My Grandma has also told me that if I'm painting my fingernails I should also be painting my toenails so my partner doesn't feel neglected, and I don't know what that was about either. Were a lot of guys into toes in the 50s?

Emma

The neverending party planning and get-togethers in the middle of the book dragged on to the point where I quit reading the book for a year, but I'm glad I went back to the book and finished it. Seeing the truth of Frank's intentions and then seeing all the other relationships fall together was satisfying (although I would have like to see a bit more of Harriet's perspective in the end, to know that she's happy).

My favourite part was when Emma forces Mr. Knightley to read a letter that the reader has also just read in full and he provides opinionated commentary on it. It reminds me of when I make my own partner read my texts so we can talk about them together.

My least favourite part was when Mr. Knightley mentioned he started loving Emma when she was 13. Ewwwwwwwww!

Red, White and Royal Blue

I started reading this on a plane back to Canada from Norway, which made me think a lot about how inconvenient going back and forth between the US and UK would be. I know the book was written as escapist fantasy in 2016, but here in 2025 it feels a bit depressing how impossible the idea of a progressive female president in my lifetime has become (let alone one who is divorced with inter-racial, queer children).

It's also worth mentionning that I felt uncomfortable with how much drinking the characters did, it felt like that was leading somewhere dark.

I still enjoyed the execution of romance based on an outrageous premise.

Tomes & Tea 1

I like that this was a romance book that took place while the couple was moving in together, and that the couple had a very mature communication style. I feel like those aspects are very rare in romance books. I also like that while the setting was "cozy", there were still some high stakes. The way the evil Queen was dealt with was unsatisfying, but I'm assuming that will be addressed in the sequels. There were some details of the world building I had a hard time accepting (mostly the quality of the trade routes for books and trivial minutiae like that).

Tomes & Tea 2

This one felt less focused than book 1, and I didn't like the second couple as much since they lacked the maturity of Rayne and Kianthe.

I'm curious if the pirate setting was inspired by the show "Our Flag Means Death", if cozy queer pirates is just a trope that I was previously unaware of, or if the similarities are a coincidence. I'm glad the book exists just for the opening page about doubling the lesbians.

Tomes & Tea 3

This one stressed me out, planning a wedding and trying to peacefully overthrow a government simultaneously would be simply too much for anyone. It was satisfying seeing the plan work out in the end, even if the lost alternate heir to the throne agreeing to become prime-minister despite adamantly refusing to be a figurehead beforehand felt a bit illogical to me.

Tomes & Tea 4

This one had a similar structure to the previous book in the series where there's a big, fantasy-society problem in addition to a relatable personal problems that end up wrapping up in a surprisingly convenient way. I wish sorting out how to balance personal and career ambitions could wrap up so conveniently in real life.

It was kinda weird that the evil Alchemist's plan basically ends up working out, apart from the fact he dies and doesn't murder anyone?

The Murderbot Diaries 1 - All Systems Red

Murderbot is truly one of the most relatable characters ever written, I'm looking forward to reading more of the series when I can get it at the library. I may need to reread it first though, so I can get a handle on all the other characters though, since there is a pretty big cast and I rushed through the book.

One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

This was an interesting book to me because the main character and I live in the same city (Toronto), are the same age (our birthdays are just a week apart) and have the same hair (curly, reddish brown). It was enjoyable seeing references to neighbourhoods and brands that are local to me in a romance novel. One way the main character and I differ is that she was born and raised in Toronto, and for the most part, her family still lived nearby. I am a transplant to the city. Sometimes, while I was reading, I was jealous of the character. She has the ability to instantly go visit nearby relatives during emergencies and enough generational wealth to spend time worrying about whether her career is creatively fulfilling. After reading the book I found myself grateful that I have the space to make my own choices without family meddling and that I felt proud of what I have earned for myself.

Maybe because everything felt so grounded in reality, I can say with confidence that I would not be able to tolerate the male love interest in real life, even as a friend. I would consider a stranger correcting my phone etiquette incredibly disrespectful. A stranger telling me that "we would be seeing a lot of each other" while I'm staying at a cottage alone with my grandma would make me feel deeply unsafe. I can understand why some people would find his helpfulness endearing, but to me it reads as "I don't tolerate women's boundaries". I could empathize with him as more of his tragic backstory came out, but I couldn't bring myself to like him. Maybe if I had read book 1 in the series, I would have a better understanding of him? (I might also just be biased against Bay st. finance bros)

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

I enjoyed the parts of the narrative where they were young. It felt like a realistic account of young love and its undoing. I loved the setting (I might need to take a trip to Barry’s Bay this summer and have some perogies). Since it takes place in an area local to me, so much felt like gossip I might hear about a friend of a friend.

I would have liked to follow the protagonists more as adults. From what we see, it seems like neither has worked out their respective issues. Percy is still very self conscious. Sam still worries more about fulfilling his potential than living in the present. It’s hard to imagine them working out long term. It might not have worked in a romance book, but I almost would have preferred it if they had a good discussion about their perspectives and regrets and agreed to stay friends rather than get back together at the end.

This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune

I love the way this author describes places. I know this was a romance book, with some really great spicy scenes, but my brain really enjoyed it as a PEI travel book with some blazing hot fictional gossip on the side. I feel I may find myself at the Anne of Greene Gables house sometime in the future. I’m glad the shows and tiki bars that keep me planted in Toronto got some mentions too.

I love that after the characters get together and the main character was willing to drop everything to be with her boyfriend in PEI, he instead encouraged her to forget about him for a while to figure out what she really wants out of life. When they did reconnect it was in a less frantic, more wholesome way that felt more realistic and sustainable to me.

Maybe I'm not a true "girl's girl" but I could not be friends with Bridget. What a stunt. Just talk about your feelings girl, I am out of vacation days. lmao

Movies

2001: A Space Odyssey

I had an idea of what happens in the film through pop culture, but I wasn't sure what was going to string together the scenes with the apes, a space mission and a giant baby. Turns out, not much! Cool visuals though!

Masters of the Universe (1987)

I saw this at the Revue as part of the Dumpster Raccoon film series, so I had fun seeing various he-man costumes in the audience. The film itself was an extremely generic "characters from a cartoon get transported to the real world" sort of deal so it was pretty forgettable.

Flash Gordon

I also saw this at the Revue as part of the Dumpster Raccoon film series. There was a pre-show featuring a drag queen who dressed as a worm, and that made a much stronger impression on me than the film itself. I did enjoy the soundtrack and costumes in the film though!

Flow

I got extremely seasick watching this movie, I saw it in a theater and I was holding on for dear life to not throw-up in my seat. I can still appreciate the beautiful and unique animation though. I also thought the way the animals were slightly more intelligent than their real-world counterparts without being fully anthropomorphic was a nice and unique idea.

KPop Demon Hunters

This was objectively a really cool movie, but I didn't connect with it the way I thought I would. Probably because I haven't really followed Kpop? I still think of 'Gee' by Girls Generation, and the Super Junior deput film where all the pretty boys get attacked by a poop throwing bandit when I think of Kpop.

I also feel like the themes of the movie were a bit muddled? I got the impression the movie was both saying Rumi needs to accept that being half demon is not a flaw, and also all demons are evil and can't be trusted. I still hope to see a sequel that fleshes out the lore a bit more.

The part were it cycles through all the iterations of the demon-hunting girl bands over the course of history was my favourite.

Red, White and Royal Blue

I feel like this kinda proved the point I made when I read the book about how the general population isn't ready accept a divorced woman president, since they left her marital status ambiguous in the film.

Blackberry

• I like how the team used a similar mockumentary style of filming in this as they did for NTBTS.
• The way most of the characters were played straight apart from the the main three was so funny.
• Much like in the Silicon Valley show, seeing the screaming dorks onscreen is hilarious, but it also makes me question what I'm doing in tech.

Inu-Oh

A very fun movie that felt targeted to me specifically as a costume band and concert enjoyer.

Heavenly Bodies

I rented after getting it mixed up with the movie "Perfect". About 15 minutes in I started wondering where Jamie Lee Curtis was and why Playboy was in the producer credits. It felt like the protagonist was constantly making terrible choices in her interpersonal relationships but I enjoyed the choreography and 80's workout outfits. I started looking for local aerobics classes after I watched it, since it made me nostalgic for my childhood ballet classes.

Zootopia 2

The lynx boy was so charming to me, I think I finally came to fully understand the furry subculture. I took it personally when he turned out evil.

The Shining

One of those movies that I feel like I had already seen most of due to its presence in pop-culture, but it was enlightening to see it properly. I was under the impression the haunted-ness of the hotel and the isolation turned Johnny evil, but he actually already sucked as a person and I think he would have eventually murdered his family anyway. The ambiguous nature of the film makes it fun to discuss. I had no idea that the Dick Hallorann character existed, the way his storyline ends with getting killed immediately upon getting to the hotel after coming to help felt borderline offensive.

I really liked Wendy's outfits, and the set design in the film.

Asteroid City

I like the style of Wes Anderson films, including this one. Some of them make me feel like I should be writing a high school essay though, and this is one of those. I kinda wish the cast was less star-studded, all the recognizable people got distracting.

Evil Dead II

I didn't see the first Evil Dead movie, but I understand this one is more of a parody of the original than a sequel. Deeply unserious movie with some great stop-motion and practical effects. It didn't keep my attention throughout, so I was playing on my phone for a lot of it. I think this would be a good movie have on in the background at a Halloween party.

Wake Up Dead Man

I liked this installment of the Benoit Blanc Mystery franchise more than Glass Onion, but not as much as Knives Out.

I wish some of the characters in “the flock” were more fleshed out to make their characterization seem more plausible (specifically with Cy and Vera).

The way the film depicted religion was really interesting to me. I like that the depiction of religion felt balanced, as an institution that can be both a force for good and bad, and for both shame and empathy. I was a bit distracted by how aspects of how the Catholic church was depicted weren’t entirely accurate to my knowledge, and seemed more protestant? Mainly the way Wicks had full independance with how he ran the local church.

For full disclosure, while I was raised Catholic-ish, I have considered myself agnostic for a long time. Most of my understanding of the inner workings of Catholicism comes from small town gossip I hear from people in my home town. When a local priest in my home town started going on aggressive tangents during mass and going against the modern practices of the Catholic church (he was doing stuff like conducting mass in Latin) he was demoted. That priest went on to start his own local cult with his fans where they’re all anti-vax for some reason. I suspect that’s what would actually happen with Wicks.

Fire and Ice (1983)

One of those experimental animated films where it feels like you can just about see how it how made just by watching it, and it makes me want to make stuff myself. The background art made me want to practice gouache painting, and the rotoscoped characters made me want to take a life drawing class.

The plot was pretty unsubstantial, and the way the villains were either queer-coded or darker-skinned made me uncomfortable.

Zorro (1975)

It was interesting to see this an anthropological way. After wracking my brain for a bit, I've realized I've ever seen a western before, let alone a spaghetti western or a Zorro film. I didn't find myself that interested by the western setting. The way all the dialog was dubbed to hide the casts' various accents was distracting.

The stunts were impressive in their scale, especially with all the horses, if a bit messy in parts. I also liked the wardrobe.

It was interesting to experience this character for the batman-precursor that he is. Like Batman, you have to wonder why a man with his power and influence doesn't use his position to impact societal change rather than putting on a mask and running around with a sword.

I still admittedly chuckled and rolled my eyes at the reveal that the evil ice lord was a petty twink with a controlling mother.

The Man from Hong Kong (1975)

Awesome fight choreography.

The incidents in this film would obliterate any extradition agreement between Australia and Hong Kong.

Blade

Very stylish film, in a late 90s soft club kind of way. Some goofy lines, plot points (pretty lucky that the girl Blade took pity on is a world class blood expert, huh?) and effects (the winged skeletons popping out of the the elder vampires sure was something). The goofiness overall added to the film's late-90s charm.

There were some well-done thematic elements addressing the ineffectiveness of established government systems to improve society due to connection to authorities that benefit fromt the ineffectiveness, which I enjoyed. I like that the film had more going on message-wise than the average goofy superhero movie. The metaphors did break down in parts though, like when he stabbed his Mother with a sword because she joined the other vampires. That didn't seem like a sensitive way to handle a woman who had her baby taken away after experiencing an assault and who was trying to survive the only way she could knew how?

Christine

I've been loving John Carpenter's cinematography and scores from what I've seen so far. I might have clapped every time Christine's headlights flashed in sync with a musical sting. I did find the film less interesting past the halfway point when Christine stopped victimizing people with her allure, or with what could plausibly be explained as mechanical glitches, and became a self-driving, self-healing, invicible car.

Tremors

I acknowledge that the acting and practical effects were good, but the movie was pretty boring to me.

Games

I am going to talk about both videogames, tabletop games and boardgames in this section.

Mansions of Madness

• I like that the app kept the game moving.
• Really well balenced.
• Sometimes I found it hard to understand the win conditions.
• I liked the tension that came from the insanity machanic more than the similar but more binary betrayal mechanic in Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Deltarune Chapter 3

There was no topping the cyberworld setting of chapter 2 for me, but I knew that going in.

At first I was less into Tenna because I was comparing him to Spamton, but upon further consideration I realized he has a persona remisniscent of Dr.Sung in the TWRP show, and the copious amount of Tenna fan-content made me develop a soft spot for him.

Deltarune Chapter 4

• I never expected to see such an accurate depection of waking up at a sleepover, having amazing pancakes and then being brought to church. Truly I have no unique experiences.
• I ended up accidentally unlocking the "secret" boss fight and then making my partner beat it for me.
• I loved the song "Neverending Night".
• I laughed a lot at the "your taking too long" boss, even while it was kicking my butt to an embarassing degree.

Curse of Strahd the DnD 5e Campaign

This campaign took my group and I about 3 years to complete. My character was a Swiftstride Shifter Monk, which is a surprisingly powerful combo. I just thought it would be funny to play an antisocial catgirl. After all the time we spent playing, finishing the campaign felt like the end of an era. That said, after spending a lot of time in the dreary Barovia setting, I'm looking forward to trying something new.

Arcs

It took me awhile to wrap my head around the rules, but it has a satisfying game loop, cool theming and cute art!

ENA: Dream BBQ

The game had great music and character animations! Unfortunately I could only play for an hour because the first person perspective made me feel ill.

TV Shows and Anime

Neon Genesis Evangelion

It sure is unconfortable watching those kids get abused. I maintain my opinion that the last few episodes where the irl studio has run out of money so it gets weird and experimental are the best part of the show.

TNG

I had a lot of thoughts about this show, I really should have written down my thoughts on each season as I watched them. Oh well!

My main takeaway was that I love Data.

My Dress-up Darling - Season 2

This season adapted the part of the manga where it started to drag for me. It felt like it kept introducing new characters with tragic backstories that I didn't care about, and I had a hard time keeping track of them all. The anime followed the manga pretty closely so it shared the same issues. I did like the animation and the random puppet bits. I also still enjoyed the silly romance between the two idiot main characters. I really hope it gets renewed for a final season and that the anime will flesh out the manga ending, which felt rushed.

CITY the Animation

Truly the peak of the "cute girls doing cute things" anime genre. I like that it sometimes bent the genre by proving that your cute girls, don't always need to be young ladies. They can be a group of middle-aged men who are planning a beach trip. The animation was incredibibly over the top and high effort. Just crazy to think about how long it must have taken.

The Summer Hikaru Died - Season 1

A cool premise that feels like it might get interesting eventually, but so far it's kinda boring.

Nirvanna the Band the Show

I can't believe I was completely unaware of this franchise until this year. I think I find the making of the show, in which the creators partially improvise scenes based on how the members of the public react to their antics, more interesting than the show itself. Most of the episodes have one or two really funny parts and then the rest is mostly only interesting to me because it takes place in parts of Toronto where I often go on walks. The "Hackers" episode was my favourite, since I too like to spend an afternoon looking for cool hacker outfits in Kensington Market and then looking at computer parts at Canada Computers.

Dandadan - Season 2

A bit less hype than season 1 but still very good as a shonen battle anime with romcom elements and very stylish science saru animation. I found the Cursed House Arc gets way too convoluted for my taste. I also wish there was another classical music remix like the William Hell Overture from season 1 for the Music Room Portrait fight.

Musical Albums

TWRP - The Longest Weekend

The album didn't get the listen time Digital Nightmare did for me, but the themes of taking time to disconnect and spend time with nature and friends, and trying to be creative for the sake of your own satisfaction, while also knowing you still need to feed the machine to survive really spoke to me personally this year. It worked really well as a followup to "Digital Nightmare". I love TWRP.

Worthikids - 13 Jokers

I know this is a fan album based on Belatro, a game I have not played. Nonetheless, this album was a massive ear worm for me, especially the final song, Baseball Card.

Takashi Kokubo (小久保隆) - Blessings Of The Forest (森の恵み)

This album came to my attention as a youtube recommendation. It was a good entrypoint into the world of atmosperic Japanese jazz, which I now listen to a lot.

Online Videos

ENA - Temptation Stairway

Something about this animated short scratched my brain in a nice way and I enjoyed watching it on repeat.

BIGTOP BURGER: VENEZIA

Weirdly emotionaly touching? Incredible reveal that Ceasare used to be hot and italian. I quote the "Fuck you! Gepetto!" line much too often.

Disney's Living Characters: A Broken Promise by Defunctland

I can't believe how fascinating the video was throughout the entire runtime despite being 4 hours long. I'm glad I watched it over the course of a few sessions.

Comics/Manga

My Dress-Up Darling

I had stopped reading this for a bit due to what felt like endless miscommnunications between the protagonists who should have been dating already. One day I decided to pick it back up and it turned out they had finally gotten together in the previous chapter, which was a huge relief. There were a few more chapters where they annouced to their friends and relatives they were dating and they went on one date. Then suddenly there was a time skip, they were married and the manga was over. I was really hoping there would be another arc where the characters would do a couple's cosplay.

My Love Mix-Up

This was really cute, it had me kicking my feet and giggling a lot. The artist also did the art for "My Love Story", and I like how they do silly faces.

The Summer Hikaru Died (Ongoing)

Cool premise, I might wait until more has happened before I catch up with it again.

The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All (Ongoing)

I like all the references to music, and the fashion. This is what I wanted Nana to be.

There's something funny about how listenning to dad rock makes you feel cool when you're a teen girl. I like how fans refer to it as "The Green Yuri"

Komi Can't Communicate

This was unavoidable, given that the premise is that Komi is trying to make 100 friends, but the cast got overly large after a certain point. Najimi Osana was my favourite character, the idea of a universal childhood friend worked for me.

Vermis - I

This took me awhile to read, and I suspect it's not really meant to be read front to back. I enjoy it more when I'm flipping to random pages and looking at the art like I would a real videogame guidebook. Plastiboo's art is so creepy and cool.

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún

The mangaka successfully created a spooky, mysterious atmosphere with his beautiful, intricate art. I'm afraid I didn't understand the ending or themes, but sometimes that just goes with the territory of spooky and mysterious media.