I just realized the other day that I had completely forgotten to put up a post once I finished my annual horror movie marathon this past October (here’s the X thread to prove it), and so here goes. I still love doing this, the 6th year (666?) doing it, following 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. I’m impressed I managed to watch this much, considering that in October we had an 11-day trip to Japan, and also moved to a new apartment. Here then is the list of what I watched, with links to my mini reviews on Letterboxd for the movies.
For the 14th time (following 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022), here then is my entirely subjective compilation of favorite media I devoured over the past year. The main rule? It only contains things that were released in 2023, which of course means there’s tons I’ve missed (or haven’t had time to get to yet) that I’ll end up enjoying in the years to come, but I still find it to be a fun exercise to do, and hopefully it acts as recommendations for others. For each category I include a top 5 in alphabetical order, and then include a few honorable mentions (also in alphabetical order) if warranted. Let’s jump in.
Favorite Games
The biggest change in my gaming life this past year was getting a Steam Deck, which finally gave me the opportunity to play PC games in a big way (and I later even got an Asus ROG Ally, to play PC games from the Epic Games Store, PC Game Pass, Ubisoft Connect, and even Steam stuff that doesn’t run on the Deck). That also meant that a lot of what I played was from previous years, as I dove into a lot of things that I had in my Steam library, and added a lot as well. But this is representative of my favorite games that were released in 2023, including stuff like MK8, Vampire Survivors, and Warframe because they received new content.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch)
Pikmin 4 (Nintendo Switch)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo Switch)
The Crew Motorfest (Xbox Series S)
The Making of Karateka (PC)
Honorable Mentions: Hi-Fi Rush (Xbox Series S), Jusant (Xbox Series S/PC), Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (Xbox Series S/PC), Metroid Prime: Remastered (Nintendo Switch), Parnanormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (PC), Planet of Lana (Xbox Series S), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo Switch), Vampire Survivors (PC), Warframe (Xbox Series S)
Favorite Movies Looking at my favorite films of the year you’d think I just like stuff that’s action-related, but I definitely watch more older films than I do new ones, and continue to do my year-based movie marathons — this time for 1983 and 1993 (still ongoing), and you can see my faves from those years below — as well as my October horror marathon.
John Wick: Chapter 4
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Creator
The Killer
Honorable Mentions: A Haunting in Venice, Barbie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Nimona, Shortcomings, The Covenant, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Wingwomen (Voleuses)
Favorite Movies of 1983
National Lampoon’s Vacation
Never Say Never Again
Octopussy
The Dead Zone
Trading Places
Favorite Movies of 1993
Dazed and Confused
Sonatine
The Firm
The Fugitive
The Scent of Green Papaya
Favorite TV
The biggest change this year is that despite the fact that my absolute favorite thing to watch every week continues to be all of the AEW weekly pro wrestling shows (Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision), it always takes up one of my top 5 slots, and since it’s live content and I watch it via a streaming service (Triller TV), I’m moving that to what used to just be my “Web” category (where I already include F1 anyway). Also, I’d say this is probably the strongest top 5 I can remember having, as I loved all of these series incredibly and equally.
Copenhagen Cowboy
Poker Face
Scavengers Reign
The Bear
Welcome to Wrexham
Honorable Mentions: Ahsoka, A Murder at the End of the World, Blue Eye Samurai, Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story, Break Point, Citadel, Drive to Survive, Sanctuary, The Makanai
Favorite Anime Series
Another great year for anime, with a few returning series with new seasons. I think the biggest surprise has been Frieren, as I don’t generally like fantasy series, but his one just feels so different and special.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Jujutsu Kaisen
Phoenix: Eden17
Pluto
SPY x FAMILY
Honorable Mentions: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, Nier Automata
Favorite Web/Sports
I’m updating this category this year to include both web content and sports, which I was sort of already doing by including F1 TV in previous years, but I want to move all pro wrestling content here (instead of in the “TV” category).
AEW Collision/Dynamite/Rampage/PPVs (Triller TV)
AEW Control Center/Zero Hour/Buy-In/Media Scrums (YouTube)
Favorite Albums
Last year I feel like I included way too many records in the honorable mentions section, so this year I’m trying to highlight just records I think I really listened to the most, or that I feel were really favorites — there are probably many I’m missing, but this is stuff I quite enjoyed that came out in 2023.
Anything in Return – Instrumentals (Toro y Moi)
Crispy Crunchy Nothing (Packs)
Get Up Sequences Part Two (The Go! Team)
Off Planet (Django Django)
Pedestal EP (Fraulein)
Honorable Mentions: Flowers at Your Feet (Rahill), Parade (Takeshi Nakatsuka), Paris-Hawaï (La Femme), Sandhills EP (Toro y Moi)
Favorite Tracks
I haven’t included a “Tracks” category in years since I found it hard to remember what tracks I really liked more than others, especially since I tend to listen to albums, but this year I did some digging via Apple Music, and I think these are tracks that stood out for me over the past year.
“4th of July” (Packs)
“Big Cool” (Fraulein)
“Complete Me (feat. Self Esteem)” (Django Django)
“Gemini” (The Go! Team)
“The Weasel” (Young Jesus)
Honorable Mentions: “Give a Little Time” (Belle and Sebastian), “Ladies and Pac-Man” (Takeshi Nakatsuka)
Favorite Podcasts
The only change this year is the inclusion of the 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s podcast, which I came across a couple of months ago, and have enjoyed immensely, as I continue to dig back into the archives.
60 Songs That Explain the ’90s
All Songs Considered
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Pure TokyoScope
Whatculture Wrestling
Favorite Comics
This year I found myself enjoying the books of Mark Millar again, which I had stopped reading years ago, and so found myself catching up on many of his series (and include here his books that came out in 2023). It’s also amazing to me how much I continue to enjoy Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe series, which just re-launched with a new publisher (but continuing the issue count from back in the 80s).
Batman Off-World
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
The Ambassadors
Usagi Yojimbo (Ice and Snow, Lone Goat and Kid)
Void Rivals
Honorable Mentions: Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham, Big Game, Creepshow, Cyberpunk 2077: XOXO, Geiger: Ground Zero, G.O.D.S., Groo (Gods Against Groo, In the Wild), Hexagon Bridge, Junkyard Joe, Nemesis Reloaded, Night Club, The Forged, The Human Target, The Ministry of Compliance, Wonder Woman
Favorite BDs
I feel like there are quite a few other bandes-dessinées (French language comics) that came out in 2023 that I haven’t had a chance to read yet and that could end up being in this list, but this at least serves as a round-up of things that I really enjoyed so far.
Adieu Aaricia (Thorgal Saga, Tome 1)
Azur noir (XIII Trilogy – Jones, Tome 1)
Bellatrix – Épisode 1
Scotland– Épisode 2 (Kenya, Saison 4)
Vertiges (Europa, Tome 2)
Honorable Mentions: Danitza 1965 (La Fortune des Winczlav, Tome 3), Le retour de Lagaffe (Gaston, Tome 22), L’Iris Blanc (Astérix, Tome 40)
Favorite Magazines
No change here from last year. I still read a lot of magazines via Apple News+, but at the same time, I don’t find many that I truly love (I browse a lot of them), but these are the ones I tend to read more, with Monocle remaining my top choice.
Oh how I love it so, taking time to think about all of the wonderful media I enjoyed over the past year, this time for the 12th consecutive year (following 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021). Yes, this is a highly subjective list of my favorite things I took in this year, and it’s not exhaustive, as it is only based on what I was able to consume throughout the year. The only strict rule is that it must have come out during 2022 (with a little wink to my annual movie marathons), which is why I don’t include board games or books, as I’m not as “of the year” for those. Each category is made up of a top five (in alphabetical order), followed by a few honorable mentions if warranted.
Here we go.
Favorite Games What surprised me while making this list is that although I played tons of games over the past year (many via Game Pass or picked up on the Nintendo eShop on sale), I didn’t actually play that many proper 2022 releases — and I also saw myself embarking on an Assassin’s Creed kick by replaying both Origins and Odyssey a second time. If I were to pick an absolute favorite game for the year, it would be Vampire Survivors — even though it’s not a type of game I usually gravitate towards, I found myself absolutely obsessed with it, needing to complete all the achievements (which I did for the DLC as well). I also include Mario Kart 8 due to the track DLC released this year, and would have liked to include Cyberpunk 2077, which I finally played this past year following the latest patch, and it ended up being one of my favorite games played in recent years.
Grid Legends (Xbox Series S)
Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo Switch)
Marvel Snap (Mobile)
Pentiment (Xbox Series S)
Vampire Survivors (Xbox Series S)
Honorable Mentions: As Dusk Falls (Xbox Series S), Immortality (Xbox Series S), Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope (Nintendo Switch)
Favorite Movies This was certainly a great year for movies, and I got to see more new releases than I normally would due to the accelerated digital releases we get these days. And as with previous years, I include top 5s for some of the movie marathons I did (1982, 1992, Zhang Yimou), just for fun.
Carter
Decision to Leave
Everything Everywhere All at Once
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick
Honorable Mentions: Apollo 10 1/2, Barbarian, Jackass Forever/Jackass 4.5, Men, Metal Lords, Pearl, Prey, Studio 666, Terrifier 2, The Batman, Watcher
Favorite Movies of 1982
Blade Runner
E.T.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
The Thing
Tron
Favorite Movies of 1992
A Few Good Men
Patriot Games
Reservoir Dogs
Strictly Ballroom
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Favorite Films of Zhang Yimou
Hero
Ju Dou
Raise the Red Lantern
Red Sorghum
Shadow
Favorite TV Every year I include the AEW pro wrestling shows Dynamite and Rampage in my top 5 because I love them so, although I sometimes feel like I shouldn’t include them since everything else are scripted shows. I think Irma Vep, Better Call Saul, and Severance were absolutely my other favorite shows this past year, and the last spot could have been taken up by any number of shows included in my honorable mentions — but She-Hulk was a fun surprise, and a joy to watch.
AEW Dynamite/AEW Rampage
Better Call Saul
Irma Vep
Severance
She-Hulk
Honorable Mentions: Andor, House of the Dragon, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Primal, Peacemaker, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Sandman, Tales From the Territories, That Dirty Black Bag, Tokyo Vice, We Own This City
Favorite Anime Series This category comes and goes, as there are years where I don’t watch much anime, but this past year has been quite a strong year, and I’ve found myself watching many of these (everything in the top 5 except Cyberpunk) with my wife, who loves them as well.
Chainsaw Man
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Pop Epic Team
SPY x FAMILY
Honorable Mentions: Ghost in the Shell, Summer Time Rendering,Uncle From Another World, Vampire in the Garden
Favorite Web Series/Channels This category has pretty much turned into nothing but pro wrestling related content — the various AEW series, plus Being the Elite and KanaChanTV — except for Formula 1 racing, which I watch via a subscription to the F1 TV website/app.
Favorite Music My list of honorable mentions is a bit extensive here, but hey, no music no life. Although I always just include albums, there are certainly songs I’ve specifically enjoyed a lot this year, but I’m not able to properly track them. And my most listened to album this past year is easily Maki Nomiya’s New Beautiful. And yes, three albums by Guided by Voices, so what.
Beatopia (Beabadoobee)
Household Name (Momma)
Mahal (Toro y Moi)
New Beautiful (Maki Nomiya)
Talk Talk Talk (The Paranoyds)
Honorable Mentions: Alpha Zulu (Phoenix), Back on the Music (Paul Cherry), Barbara (Barrie), Cheat Codes (Danger Mouse & Black Thought), Counterpoint (Tomggg), Crystal Nuns Cathedral (Guided by Voices), Domestic Fantasy (Hook-Ups), Du haut du 33e étage EP (Bertrand Burgalat), Dutronc & Dutronc (Thomas Dutronc & Jacques Dutronc), Get Back: The Rooftop Performance (The Beatles), Golden Apples (Golden Apples), Growing Up (The Linda Lindas), Happy Now (Thick), Hello (μ-Ziq), Hello, Hi (Ty Segall), Here with You (Tahiti 80), In Cinerama (April March), Laurel Hell (Mitski), Let England Shake – Demos (PJ Harvey), Multitude (Stromae), Plasma (Perfume), Pompeii (Cate Le Bon), Scalping the Guru (Guided by Voices), Sexy (Coco & Clair Clair), Slight Variations (Fujiya & Miyagi), Steady (Sloan), Strata Records: The Sound of Detroit (Jazzanova), Teatro Lucido (La Femme), Tremblers and Goggles by Rank (Guided by Voices), World Wide Pop (Superoganism)
Favorite Podcasts The two new entries this year are also my current favorites: the TokyoScope spinoff series Pure TokyoScope, that brings together Patrick Macias and Matt Alt (the episodes they did together on the original TokyoScope podcast were always the best anyway), and Video Archives, the new movie discussion podcast with Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery.
All Songs Considered
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Pure TokyoScope
Video Archives
Whatculture Wrestling
Favorite Comics I feel like I slowed down a bit when it comes to comics this past year, and so no honorable mentions — and the Usagi Yojimbo mention includes both the ongoing new series, as well as the color reprints of old material.
Batman
Do a Powerbomb
Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to be Kin
The Human Target
Usagi Yojimbo
Favorite BDs Although I consistently read a lot of BDs (bandes-dessinées, or French language comics), in the past year or two I didn’t include the category because I wasn’t reading a lot of new releases, but this past year I was able to include a few choice titles that I quite enjoyed.
Cuba, où tout a commencé (XIII, Tome 28)
La mort de Spirou (Spirou et Fantasio, Tome 56)
Neptune – Épisode 1, 2
Scotland – Episode 1 (Kenya – Saison 4)
Tom & Lisa 1910 (La Fortune des Winczlav, Tome 2)
Favorite Magazines The biggest change in the list this year is that I finally stopped buying/subscribing to the physical edition of Monocle, and switched over to a digital subscription (due to my move to China). Everything else I continue to read though my Apple News+ subscription.
For the 11th consecutive time (previously: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019), here’s my massive look-back at all my favorite things that I consumed over the past year. As always, this is limited to things that were released in 2020, and it’s of course HIGHLY subjective — this is not a round-up of the best media of 2020, but rather a look back at stuff I really enjoyed this past year, because I like the exercise of doing it. And that of course means there’s plenty that came out this year that I haven’t yet had the chance to check out, and I’m sure I’m also forgetting things I did enjoy. So be it. Each category is made up of an alphabetical top 5, followed by a few honorable mentions if warranted. I’ve added some new categories, with some disappearing, like board games (because I barely bought anything in 2020, for obvious reasons) and French comics (since I’ve been mostly limited to what’s available digitally from my local library).
Favorite Games Despite the list below, I will say that the highlight of my gaming year has been getting access to Game Pass when I got my Xbox Series S upon release, and catching up on tons of games I missed out on in recent years. And my most happy game times have been playing Forza Horizon 3 and 4 — these were the games that I was really sad I missed out on since I didn’t have an Xbox One, and it’s been a joy to dig into both over the past couple of months.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Xbox Series S)
Hades (Switch)
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Switch)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Xbox Series S)
Warframe (Xbox Series S)
Honorable Mentions: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch), Destiny 2: Beyond Light (Xbox Series S), Genshin Impact (PS4), Ghosts of Tsushima (PS4), Watch Dogs Legion (Xbox Series S)
Favorite Mobile Games This is a category that comes and goes over the years, as some years I end up playing a lot of mobile games (mostly on iPad), and some I don’t. Up until about a month ago, I wasn’t planning on including it, since the majority of iOS gaming I did was on Apple TV with a controller (mostly Apple Arcade games), but then I got the Backbone One controller to use with my iPhone, and since then I’ve absolutely loved playing games on my phone, as it really does feel like I’m playing with a true portable gaming system.
Alba
Creaks
Legends of Runeterra
Legend of the Skyfish 2
Little Orpheus
Honorable Mentions: Marble Knights, Slash Quest, South of the Circle, The Collage Atlas, The Last Campfire
Favorite Movies It was obviously a strange year for movies, with a lot of big releases being pushed back. But I did find a lot to like, even though I do probably spend more time watching older movies (through all the movie marathons I do) than I do new releases.
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm
Da 5 Bloods
Possessor
Weathering With You
Wolfwalkers
Honorable Mentions: Altered Carbon: Resleeved, Beastie Boys Story, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Color Out of Space, The Go-Go’s, The Invisible Man, You Cannot Kill David Arquette
Favorite Movies of 1990 As I’ve been doing in recent years, here’s a top 5 for one of the movie marathons I did in 2020, for movies from the year 1990 (and I’m not done yet).
Die Hard 2
Goodfellas
Miller’s Crossing
Misery
Total Recall
Favorite TV Yet another strong year for TV series, which made it difficult to narrow down what would make it to my top 5. But what is there is truly what I enjoyed the most — and if it had released a day earlier (and not on January 1), I would have included Cobra Kai.
AEW Dynamite
Long Way Up
PEN15
Primal
The Mandalorian
Honorable Mentions: Altered Carbon, Better Call Saul, Devs, High Fidelity, High Score, Lovecraft Country, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, Raised by Wolves, Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Picard, Ted Lasso, The Boys, The Last Dance, The Queen’s Gambit, Tiger King, Westworld, What We Do in the Shadows
Favorite Anime Even though I’ve gotten back into watching a lot of new anime series as of 1-2 years ago, this is the first time I include it as a category — I guess I finally feel like I’ve watched enough to be able to warrant making a list.
Great Pretender
Japan Sinks 2020
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Sing “Yesterday” for Me
Wave, Listen to Me!
Honorable Mentions: Dragon’s Dogma, Kimetsu no Yaiba, The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited, Woodpecker Detective’s Office
Favorite Web Series I do still spend a lot of time watching a lot of stuff on YouTube, to a point where this year I finally started paying for YouTube Premium because I couldn’t stand the insane amount of ads anymore. As you can see in my top 5, it’s pretty much all wrestling-related, except for the Formula 1 channel, which I tune in to watch the race previews, as well as First Practice and Qualifier highlights.
Favorite Music When I look at the automated list that Apple Music creates at the end of the year, it’s pretty much all composed of hard bop, which continues to be what I listen to the most, but I did enjoy quite a few new albums this year, as listed below.
Always Tomorrow (Best Coast)
Coriky (Coriky)
Dry – Demos (PJ Harvey)
Earth (EOB)
Everything Else Has Gone Wrong (Bombay Bicycle Club)
Honorable Mentions: Causers of This – Instrumentals (Toro y Moi), Domingo (Chip Tanaka), Fake It Flowers (Beabadoobee), Future Past Life (STRFKR), Giant Steps – 60th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (John Coltrane), Host (Cults), It Is What It Is (Thundercat), Ludi (Chassol), Mordechai (Khruangbin), Mr Experience (Donny Benet), Not From Where I’m Standing (Various Artists), Palo Alto – Live (Thelonious Monk), Seeking Thrills (Georgia), The King of Sudanese Jazz – Habibi Funk 013 (Sharhabil Ahmed), To Bring You My Love – Demos (PJ Harvey)
Favorite Podcasts As with the web series category, my podcast listening is very wrestling heavy. My favorite new podcast though has been TokyoScope — I get a lot of enjoyment out of listening to Patrick and Matt talk otaku (and Tokyo in general) topics.
AEW Unrestricted
All Songs Considered
Talk Is Jericho
TokyoScope
Whatculture Wrestling
Honorable Mentions: Japan by River Cruise, Pop Culture Happy Hour, The Stack
Favorite Comics As I mentioned in the intro up top, I’m not including picks for French comics this year, since I didn’t read enough 2020 releases (due to me not going to the library). As for American comics, again, I should probably seek out more original graphic novels (that I keep seeing in year-end “best of” lists), but I’m a weekly comic reader.
Batman
Decorum
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
Usagi Yojimbo (regular series and color reprints)
X-Men
Honorable Mentions: Hill House (comic imprint), Pulp, Strange Adventures, Rorschach, Spy Island, Star Wars: Darth Vader
Favorite Magazines I love magazines, and I still read tons of them, but I’ve never included a category for some reason. The only two titles that I buy physically are Monocle and Konfekt (that just launched), and the rest I read digitally via Apple News+.
This is another 80s anime film that I decided to revisit for this horror-filled marathon, and I’m glad I did. Sure, it drags on here and there, but it’s still a neat story (despite the traditional vampire setup, the setting is Mars) and the designs of the creatures are pretty gruesome and fun to take in (especially in that sequence where he enters the castle through an underground corridor filled with monstrosities). I think I missed that a sequel was released in 2000 (although note that this is an adaptation of a rather large book series), so I think I’ll probably check that out at some point.
Released back in 1987, this is another anime film I dug up while searching for anime releases that were horror-themed. It’s pretty much a take on Alien, and so a crew on a long-distance cargo ship starts having to deal with something killing the crew. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was entertaining, and decently animated. I only wish I could have watched the original Japanese edition — I could only find the American dub, which was apparently heavily edited (by Carl Macek of Robotech fame no less).
Since I’m a big fan of Junji Ito’s work, I’m really surprised that I had missed the release of this (back in 2012) — I just stumbled upon it while searching for horror-themed anime to watch. If you’re a fan of Ito, then you know what to expect: deliciously grotesque happenings of the weirdest kind — in this case, fish (and other creatures of the sea, including sharks) start roaming the streets with insect-like appendages. And then it gets even weirder. I quite enjoyed this, and would now like to read the manga story it’s based on.
Something I haven’t done so far as part of these October horror marathons is watch something animated, nevermind anime, and so I decided to look up a few things I could watch, and this came up. I do remember that this existed, with the reputation of being one of those “dark and dirty” animated films from Japan, but can’t remember if I ever actually watched it or not. Well, despite this being included in lists of horror anime films, this ended up being much more porn-y (with even a tentacle scene, natch) than horror. The setting is actually interesting, with the idea that humans and demons have a pact they renew every couple of centuries, and I liked the ending, but all of it takes a back seat to sexual encounters throughout. Oh well.
I never got around to posting about what shows I checked out during this latest TV season, but I did do a Twitter thread about it, that I figure I’ll adapt as a post here. It’s getting more and more difficult to do a “start of season” post these days though, as a lot of these series that I’m watching are coming via Netflix, which just releases them whenever they feel like it.
Japan Sinks 2020 is one of those new Netflix series, and having watched it all I can say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. The opening credits sequence is a delight, and I really loved the pacing and overall mood of the show. Basically, a huge earthquake hits Japan, and it explores the aftermath. This was directed by Masaaki Yuasa, and it then got me to go and get caught up on all of the movies and series that’s he’s been producing in recent years, that I’ve been chronicling in this Twitter thread.
Based on the first episode, Deca-Dence takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where humans are holding up in a moving fortress, to defend against the appearance of giant (and not so giant) monsters. My feeling was that I could go either way on this one, with the first episode being decent, and I was planning on giving it 1-2 more episodes. Well, I bounced off quickly, as I didn’t like the swerve it took in episode 2 (it’s a virtual game that weird cartoony bots/creatures are playing).
Dorohedoro aired in Japan late last year, but popped up on Netflix recently. I’ve watched the first few episodes and like it. It’s set in a weird post-apocalyptic world with forms of magic that deforms some people. I like the animation style — and it’s gory as fuck.
Great Pretender gets bonus points for its Lupin-like opening theme song. It’s about a Japanese grifter who in the first arc (of five episodes) finds himself in LA. It’s a very Lupin-like mix of humour and action, which is right up my alley (considering how big a fan I am of Lupin in general). I’m more than halfway through this first season, and I know that there are more episodes coming later this year. Again, it’s one of those Netflix series.
The only other series I wanted to watch this season was the return of The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited, which was put on hiatus last season after only two episodes due to COVID. I like this show (it’s still airing new episodes), and episode 4 was especially fun.
I’m filing this in the “On Anime” section because it seems to fit there, but what I want to recommend here is what has turned into my current favorite podcast, and that’s Patrick Macias‘ TokyoScope. It was launched last year through Patreon, and it took me until recently to finally create a Patreon account to subscribe, but I’m so glad I did. I’m still making my way through all the archives, but this is basically people I like (Patrick, of course, but Matt Alt is a regular throughout) talking about stuff that I like (Japanese pop culture, old and new, with a focus on classic anime). Listening to chats about old Godzilla films or just what was hot in 1979 is pretty much my jam, and it’s incredibly fun — feels like you’re sitting in the corner of a dingy izakaya with Patrick and friends, chilled mug of Yebisu in hand. Oh, and each post on Patreon that accompanies a new episode is always filled with great imagery.
And although I had already started my Leijiverse journey (that’s still going strong) before I started listening to the podcast, it was all the episodes with mentions of Yamato (Star Blazers) that got me to finally watch some — I decided to start with the fairly recent Space Battleship Yamato 2199, which is a retelling of the original series.