Media of the Year 2022

Lots of great stuff this year! The fall anime season alone was incredible, and there’s still a ton I have to catch up on. Some music releases I was really looking forward to that ended up not really clicking for me (Charli XCX, Bladee, etc) but there was a TON I loved, especially track wise. Also I only read one real book, The Spear Cuts Through Water, but it quickly became one of my favorite books.

Some stuff I did this year!

• Got my ears pierced (which still haven’t healed LMAO)
• Saw Bladee/Drain Gang live :’)
• Met Jeff Wiggins and got a pop’n music controller (cleared some uhhh 30s i think??)
• Saw My Chemical Romance live after that show was delayed two whole years
• Took a trip to NYC to visit john hill and it was ~3 days full of non-stop activities! Playing DDR and visiting happy99 were highlights for sure
• Flew to San Francisco to see Second Sky 2022 (and mariah) which was GREAT and I would absolutely do again. Seeing Taku Inoue specifically ruled, such an incredibly fun set. Got me planning out a Japan trip in 2023!!!!

Music

Albums

• Never before seen, never again found by arm’s length
  • Fav emo/pop punk release of the year!
  • Favorite tracks: Object Permanence, Formative Age, In Loving Memory
• Actual Life 3 by Fred again..
  • Only learned about Fred again.. this year when he was on the Second Sky 2022 lineup, I checked out the first thing that appeared when searching for him on youtube which was one of his piano lives and I was like “oh cool he’s like a dancey piano guy, that’ll be fun during the sets” and then he came out with his Boiler Room set and I realized how wrong I was. GREAT album!!!!
• to not now, nor to ever, despair by geotic
  • I rediscovered Geotic’s 2020 Oxperls this year which honestly gets retroactively put on my favs list since god that thing is incredible. BUT this album is also great, I love the return to a much more drone/ambient style for him on this project.
• shiawase ni narukara, narouyo by jyocho
• rot by tennyson
• BAD mode by hikaru utada
• killer in neverland by 4s4ki
• LOG 3-8 by Miyauchi Yuri
  • peak passive listening, great to put any/all of these on shuffle and go for a walk
• en by ryutist
  • RYUTist rules!!!!! I love when jpop idols work with super interesting producers/composers and make super unexpected stuff. This whole album is great but たったいま:さっきまで is my standout for sure

things i have to listen to more but really liked so far

• uragaeshi by ilie
• honeybee table at the butterfly feast by teen suicide
• 春火燎原 by haru nemuri
• it’s hard to see color [when you’re so impossibly far away] by jaron

Songs

• Fantasy by Bodysync
  • CERTIFIED BANGER
• dust bowl by Ethel Cain
• Object Permanence by arm’s length
  • the peak of current emo imo
• 風のゆくえ by Ado
• Megaton Kaiser by DJ Myosuke
  • one of the hardest tracks of the year, just absurdly aggressive, absolutely hits everything i want out of this style of hardcore, 200 bpm and no one section lasts longer than 20 seconds
• Glimpse of Us by Joji
• Die Young by Lil Texas
  • that vocal chop at 1:44/1:56 is sooooooo good
• The Light by Lyrical School
• A New Start by Nanashi Mumei
  • Isekai anime-core, the obligitory vtuber song, legit love this song though
  • Obligitory mention of these two great remixes: Eivesohn’s swancore/pop punk remix, Wherefore’s bootleg
• Astrogirl by Tsukumo Sana & Snail’s House
  • Okay the other vtuber song, though it’s kinda cheating since it’s really a Snail’s House song.
• carrefour by phritz
• Everything Goes On by Porter Robinson
• Strong by Romy & Fred again..
  • LOVE this trance-y sound
• たったいま:さっきまで by RYUTist
  • I truly do love pairing japanese idol groups with absurd net-label-esque production techniques. The Sophie samples at 1:53 into a full-band rock section right after rules.
• Reallywanna by Tennyson
  • So wonderfully textural, that signature Ryan Hemsworth (co-)production, that vocal processing, that key change!!!

Anime

• Bocchi the Rock!
  • Absolutely the best anime of the year, no bad episodes, incredible animation, super funny while also being wonderfully heartfelt. Dearly hoping for a season 2. Literally bought a guitar to start learning because of this show!
• Lycoris Recoil
  • Great original concept with some weird execution! I cared so much more about the main two characters and their relationship than I did any of the surrounding stuff. Gimme a spin-off manga about just their antics
• My Dress-Up Darling
  • Super cute! Really nice character animation!
• Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit
  • Incredibly comfy as always, made me write down a bunch of places I want to go when visiting Japan
• Mob Psycho 100 III
  • Honestly???? didn’t like this season as much as the rest. It’s a very nice conclusion for the show, but the pacing felt weird and I wasn’t anywhere near as invested in the story arcs here.

Movies

• Aftersun
  • Gorgeous, that dance scene near the end is incredible. Highly highly recommended
• Top Gun: Maverick
  • I’m rarely a “gotta see this in theaters” kind of person but this one earns it!
• RRR
  • An instance of a movie I wish I saw in theaters! Well, other than the length since I paused multiple times to take a break and get a snack lol.
• The Batman
• Everything Everywhere All at Once

Games

• Beatmania IIDX 29: CastHour
  • Another year of sinking an absurd amount of hours into this game!! Cleared a 10, some 9s, lots of 7s and 8s, and got a lot more AAAs all the way up to 6s. Feeling great about my progress in this game!
• Fortnite
  • The ultimate hangout game, I used to play Apex all the time which, admittedly, is the much better game! But Fortnite is just so casual in comparison that it acts as a great vehicle for conversation and just Hanging Out while still having fun mechanical engagement which I’m always in the search for more of.
• Tunic
  • God I loved tunic, reminded me so much of the experience of playing Fez, finding all of these hidden secrets and puzzles and needing to do some real lateral thinking to figure some of them out. Love it!!!! I fully admit to using a guide for a good amount of the end-game stuff though
• Neon White
  • It’s so rare that I strive to 100% a game but I absolutely had to here. It helps that I never got tired of that soundtrack and the mechanics felt just perfectly tuned to me getting better and better times.
• Immortality
• Stacklands

Not yet finished but I’m really enjoying:

• Signalis
• Need for Speed: Unbound