Well the title explains itself. For me, 2025 was not that particularly good to start with, but it did get better over time (in spite of the world enshittifying). But less about really personal matters, here I am to list the cool shit in media (vomits) I experienced (vomits) this year, most of which was made before this year. Or this decade. Supposedly in chronological order of when I consumed (hold on it’s coming back again where’s your bathroom) these pieces of media (astaghfirullah MAKE IT STOP). I don’t intend to include series I have continued on from previous years.
If you would like to tell me that the media (Get the phone. Call 999) talked about here is problematic (WHY DID I TAKE IPECAC) in some way, please harass and doxx me at pfpchanger.bsky.social. Much appreciated.
During the first few months I was still in A-Levels and I believed that playing games was a waste of my time, and thought consuming slop content on YouTube instead of studying was a far better usage of it… I didn’t play much video games. But one I did play a few times for the first time this year was a neat little game made by Capcom called Rival Schools 2. Or Moero! Justice Gakuen if you’re Japanese. Or Project Justice if you’re American.
I played this through my own Dreamcast… with a burned disc, this game is too expensive to buy even loose. But yes it is a fun game. The fast paced nature of it was a bit too much to begin with, but when I got into the groove it was a really solid experience, and I especially like the team mechanic and the special moves that can come with them. The music is great, man I FUCKING LOVE that character selection screen. In general I think it a very competently put together game… unfortunate however that the game had a pretty cheap localisation, with some extra modes being excluded. It’s available in the recently released Capcom Fighting Collection 2.
I also have played the original Rival Schools on PS1. Similar thoughts to what I have on its sequel, with the exception of some features not there, and especially in regards to the localisation.
also Hinata best girl. Ran is cool too.
Watched Slayers back in 2024. Thought it was some crazy shit that was fucking cool and funny. This is still some crazy shit that is cool and funny. It gives me an excuse to talk about the series as a whole, and I will say I love how the series balances swords and sorcery, and a heavy dose of comedy. There’s a reason this show was popular in the 1990s if you were an otaku. There was an episode where they were… trying to cook dragons, and that is a very funny episode. Bait and switch jokes around the episode to keep you laughing. I still need to finish this, but mark my words I will enjoy the rest of it.
Haven’t finished this. But I have enjoyed much of what I have seen. Think Magic Kaito meets Sailor Moon. You get the picture. I enjoyed the various heists within the series and the elaborate setups to them, the random religious themes, and also the transformation scene is great.
I do like the dynamic between Meimi/Saint Tail and Asuka Jr. (he is a boy despite the name). As of where I watched up to I could clearly tell Meimi does show affection to Asuka, and while Asuka is more focused on finding… Saint Tail, in turn finding out who Meimi truly is, he does also clearly show affection to her, just not in a very direct way.
“She’ll steal your heart!” is the show’s tagline. I will say, the series does ealte feelings of warmth, with the plotlines, artstyle, and the music.
Ok yes, white people rap. Specifically from the Czech Republic. But I dunno, I have a soft spot for really violent horrorcore, (maybe I’m violent myself, I dunno). This stuff got me through the days of sixth form, where I had to wake up at 6am to 6:30am and get out at around 7… I dunno, do you want me to take it out on random people? His music is generally very rough sounding, and takes on many taboo topics, such as killing all of humanity, being a pedophile, and killing drug dealers.
Reznik/Martin Pohl’s songwriting is rather gratuitously edgy, I mean it is Eastern European. He made a song called Konency reseni (translation: Final Solution), complaining about the homeless and suggesting to beat them up and kill them… and then he made a music video about the trial that happened that resulted in him being found not guilty. He has collaborated with other people also known in the horrorcore scene (MC Bushpig, Heaven, Dope Dod), and it’s very interesting hearing the linguistic shift between these rappers (Reznik raps in his native language). Martin Phol has also made a variety of games, and feature films under his real name. Recently he made one called “Na plech”, about a squeaky-clean wannabe worker coming into contact with drug addicts. I plan to watch that soon.
But yes, I love violence. And that’s why I loved listening to his works.
As I’ve made clear before, I love Detective Conan. So when news broke out that another one of Gosho’s series was getting an anime adaptation… another one as they did do so in the 1990s, I was ecstatic. And then I saw the trailer. And then I was even more excited. And then I watched it for myself. And then I realised… this is peak.
The animation in this series is some of the best I have seen… ever. It’s very fluid, and transfers Gosho’s classic stylle very well. It also doesn’t have washed out colours, everything is very vibrant. The story itself is rather… meathead shonen type, don’t go expecting something grandiose, but if you enjoyed stuff like Dragon Ball then you probably will enjoy this as well. Story’s about a young powerful samurai who becomes a freeloader on some middle schooler, and then gets himself into shit with an oni, have to go into training and find really powerful orbs for swords and for some reason there’s time travel, and a mecha in one episode… it is in your brain’s best interest to watch this. Dopamine will release momentarily.