2025 Media Wrap-Up
What a year! It was so long. I certainly took advantage of being unemployed. Read at your own risk. I added no pictures, videos, or even links. 2026 year of dopamine detox. You'll have to work for it. Maybe my writing will entertain you plenty...
Movies
I watched a lot of great movies this year. (71)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Drive My Car + Happy Hour
If you've ever felt like a total neurotic robot that can't communicate your honest feelings with the people you love or even yourself and instead bottle it up and shut everybody out, you are in luck because there is a whole nation society of people like that and an amazing director who honestly and respectfully portrays them as human beings worthy of love and respect. Deeply humanizing experience for me, that yes, we are all very complex emotional creatures that are often quite bad at communicating how we feel, and that simple patience and mindfulness of others is enough to work a path to empathy and understanding. Much of the acting is done by non-professionals, and Hamaguchi's direction allows them to convey actions and emotions with absolutely no ego or fakeness. Life as quiet struggles and small victories faithfully and humbly adapted for the screen.
Resurrection
Fever dream filmmaking, a series of elaborately shot, aesthetically distinct genre fiction short stories that run into the next using a history of film meta narrative implying Buddhist concepts of Rebirth and Samsara. Much of it feels like a series of parables within parables, mythological tales with vague but insistent morals centered around pop culture things you saw before falling asleep, but stretched over an entire lifetime. If you like this short 15 minute movie A Short Story that the director made a few years ago, this is basically four of those movies extended to 45 minutes each. Several Longer Stories, if you will. There is another insane long take at the end to compete with his other film I watched this year, Kaili Blues. I was left in a dream-like state on the drive home, just sort of in awe of what I think I saw but mostly felt for the 3 hours I sat in the Film School auditorium it was in. The guy beside me had the same giant 4L water bottle that everyone makes fun of ME for carrying around, except that for him it sparked a convo with the girl he was sitting next to,
Under the Silver Lake
A detective noir where the detective is a male chauvinist loser who has done nothing but spend a lot of time consuming pop culture and playing video games. A trail of video game pop culture clues and conspiracies leads him to find a class of wealthy elites who are also male chauvinist losers, except they have become rich off of the cultural sewer they created for us to live in. Seems really ahead of the curve, but LA probably has always been the center of the sloppified commercial art gig influencer economy, its just everywhere now. Extremely funny performance from Garfield, this rewatch cemented this film as a classic for me.
Cloud
A film that has embedded itself more and more into my mind long after watching it. Kiyoshi Kurosawa has said this is an action-thriller about "ordinary people" - We all know a grimy bag getter, a reseller, a rent seeker. And his enemies are all familiar too. Outrageous final act where the main character's carelessly accrued grudges are violently dealt with on the path to true sigma grindset. We must ditch the huzz and only think of making money from now on. Every day I see things in real life and conclude "this is just like Cloud."
Mamoru Oshii live action works
I've slowly been making my way through every Mamoru Oshii work. This year I saw Talking Head, which is ostensibly a murder mystery but is really a documentary illuminating how Oshii perceives his own art and the importance of film and animation as mediums. I also saw Avalon, which is sort of a refractive image of Ghost in the Shell but after the Matrix came out, completing the cycle. It's about a dystopian world (Poland) where gamers log into an deadly MMO to compete for cash and find the final level. It was co-written by the guy that went on to create .hack, so it was pretty interesting to see that this film acts like a prototype for a lot of the larger ideas supposedly present in that project, which I'm interested in checking out at some point.
Wake Up Dead Man
I was really nervous about notoriously online Twitter user Rian Johnson centering his latest whodunnit sequel around a small-town Catholic church, but he has a surprisingly touching though utilitarian opinion on how religious organizations can still be forces of good. Jud's wrestling with his calling as a priest, the stoppage of the frantic clue uncovering to take a call with Louise, and the empathy and compassion for the culprit near the end of the film gives this entry a human heart that shines above the silly quips, Reddit Blanc, and the hilariously accurate alt-right weirdos being parodied. Rian Johnson has entered his Bluesky arc? The mystery logic works pretty well, though holding up its direct inspo in the middle of the movie to give away the locked room is yeah, funny, but weak and cowardly. The lighting and color grading was distracting and ham-fisted as hell too, dude. Still, my favourite out of all three movies so far.
Other favourites that I've either wrote about already or feel like I don't need to unless someone asks me to: Postman Blues, Winter Light, All About Lily Chou-Chou, Love & Pop, Peep "TV" Show, Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, One Battle After Another, Millenium Mambo
Books
Ashamedly, I don' think I finished a single book this year. (0) Some books I started but haven't got around to finishing are Tatami Galaxy, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, and The Brothers Karamazov. In 2026 I want to read more orthodox mystery, like Keigo Higashino and DWAM.
Music
I saw lots of live music this year, so I'll try and recap everything I was actually there in person to experience instead of my last.fm scrobbles or whatever.
Jane Remover + Lucy Bedroque + dazegxd
Instead of enjoying the concert I took an edible and spent most of it anxious and high wondering if all my friends hated me. Condensation was dripping off the ceiling in the hot-ass venue. The crowd seemed really evil but in a fucked up awesome way due to the almost exclusively RevengeSeekers setlist. It was one of my top listened-to albums of 2025 but was one I often felt made me pissed off and mad at the world, only able to enjoy for 30 seconds at a time before it plunged me into feelings of nihilism and frustration. JR has said she began working on Revengeseekerz after getting enraged by discovering her apartment had been infested by maggots, which I think sums up the experience nicely. Music often greatly affects my emotions, and I've learned that it must be vetted and taken in moderation much like food and water. Most any music, when played to excess can cause distemperment of the body and mind, an inbalance of the humours. JR's more recent album Heart is much more healing for the soul, though overplay, much like a fine wine, may upset the liver, and Revengseekerz remains a violent thrashing catharsis that must be taken in moderation, as overplay can cause excessively heated blood and black bile filling the skull.
Ginger Root + Japanese Breakfast
Hapa Church. Many like me here. Ginger Root has a cool touring gimmick where they have a live feed jumbotron and a couple camera guys walking around getting footage that gets put through a bunch of filters and transitions synced up with the music. There's also prerecorded skits and art spliced between the live shots. It's like having a live music video recorded in front of you. Made up for the somewhat boring indie twee city pop that they play. Japanese Breakfast had a very elaborate stage setup and additional touring members to help play songs from her new album For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women). Although I miss the smaller venues and The Cranberries covers, the production value was pretty cool and I appreciated the one Psychopomp song she played. The new album is very good, I enjoyed the richer, folk-y production that puts it closer to something Alex G would put out these days maybe? Some excellent lush strings and soundscapes really show how Michelle's music continues to refine from the raw bedroom pop she started the project with years ago. Perhaps a side effect of living in Seoul to become more Korean for a year.
NMFT vol 17: Haku + Tattletale + Capenter's Blue + Banshimoku
Third one of these that I've been to, the first being in 2018 or so. Had a lot of fun at this one. I went solo and found a group of degens to talk to then push around to start the mosh. It must have created some evil ideas in their heads though, because they would jokingly try to start one during Haku's low-key indie rock set, which I ultimately respect because it annoyed all the normies that came out of town to see them because of a viral instagram reel. I enjoyed all the acts quite a bit, but Tattletale's emo hardcore mathrock was a crowd favourite and most in line with my personal tastes. I enjoyed when the bass player tried playing a song with a credit card. Haku writes infectiously catchy indie rock and the bass player is one of the most emotive stage performers I've ever seen. Banshimoku is the most straight-forward rock acts of the bunch whose powerful growling lead vocalist-guitarist takes the spotlight. Carpenter's Blue's emotional "heart"-core music rounded out the lineup. I had a lot of funny conversations with people in the venue. People clocked each others MotFD merch. I had a body-checking contest with a bald girl. Lots of crowd surfing, and at one point a bunch of people got on stage to dance in a circle with one of the bands. One guy told me he was just there because another random guy at the bar in the neighbourhood invited him out of the blue. He told me he really liked Lily Chou Chou, but it seemed like he thought it was a real artist and not a fictional one created for a feature film.
Haru Nemuri
Really intimate set where I could cut loose and dance around with a bunch of other weebs basically. She jumped down to dance with us for a few songs and talked shit about the Toronto venue being anti-Palestine when her laptop stopped working. Fun energy. I learned this year that one of her early EP's was produced by Mariko Goto, the frontwoman of Midori, which makes a lot of sense actually. Haru Nemuri's socially aware cutesy grungy punk idol pop definitely has a lot of similarities to Mariko Goto's live performances and solo work.
Japan trip
I went to Japan with a couple friends, staying in Shimokitazawa for the first week. Shimokitazawa is known for being a bohemian district with a staggering amount of live venues that harbor a large portion of Japan's underground music scene. It's hard to line up a lot of these small shows in advance when flying from overseas, but part of the experience is showing up to a random venue and seeing some good music that you've never heard before. Most shows are 3 or 4 bands playing short 30-45 minute sets, so there's a good chance you'll hear something you really like after the somewhat steep 3000 yen entry fees. At all the shows we went to, without fail there would be a different lone white dude who spoke Japanese and seemed really deeply integrated in the local scene.
DUALTONES + Kogane Collective +LOVE AND CIGARETTES +Hooloos
The first show we went to at LIVE HAUS. We went here to see Dualtones, a 10 piece dub band with wildly varying member ages. (like 19 - 72 or something) They played beautifully and I loved seeing each musician have their own solo section where they eke out a little improvisation between the reggae bass lines and catchy melodies. Unfortunately it was our first night in Japan and the jetlag was hitting us pretty hard. It was a real struggle to stay awake listening to the calming repetitions of dub music.
STRL + Salan + paddy isle + persimmon
The second show we saw was also at LIVE HAUS. I spend a lot of time watching live footage of these shows and venues, so it was funny to show up and see the guy with the tripod and sock mic recording a set for his youtube page. One of the bands had a keyboardist and he was playing a Korg Kronos, which, along with being the keyboard that I've owned and played for years, is a pretty rare keyboard to see at a show. So when his power strip went faulty and shut off his keyboard, I knew that it's HDD took over 8 minutes to load the OS back into memory on reboot, ensuring he would not be playing the rest of the song and was just going to have to awkwardly stand there while it did it's thing. When it happened a second time and he looked up at the ceiling in defeat, I could only stand there and silently sympathize with him because the same thing has happened to me many times before. Fight on....
Fallsheeps + Sabanoomisony +hardnuts + lilyray + Süden
We also travelled to a small town outside Tokyo called Ashikaga (which also happens to be the filming location of All About Lily Chou Chou) to see a show featuring a couple of bands that we saw in Canada at NMFT vol 16. One of the openers, Plumberry, was a high school band and much of the crowd were probably students as well. Super funny to hear what is basically midwest emo, DIY and hardcore, and shoegaze, but in suburbs, Japan. Happy that I got to see Sabanoomisony in their natural habitat. My friend took a picture with the Sabanoomisony singer and got reposted on their IG. Most of the bands just mingle in the crowd before and after their sets so it feels super lowkey and intimate. It seems like Fallsheeps lost their second guitarist at some point before this, which definitely impacted their sound live but they still have great energy, and the core compositions are still incredibly good. Hardnuts was a highlight, I really dug a lot of the grooves and enjoyed studying the lead guitarists technique. It felt really special to finally be immersed in the type of music that I loved so much when I was a teenager.
Luna Li
I bought tickets but it was really just because she's Canadian, is a hapa, and has hairy armpits. In a moment of clarity I felt shame, and decided to stay home and eat the ticket cost as penance.
Yuele
Again, I bought tickets because they're hot and also refrained from going for the same reason. Yuele's new album Evangelic Girl is a Gun was my most listened to album in 2025, but I think I've completely exhausted it. Yeule's internet horror lyrics about Instagram music idol industry and the psychological effect of having commercialized and fetishized personas eat away at their perception of reality begins to affect you as a listener, gnawing at your brain and leaving you disconcerted and slightly irritable. Like an evil, schizoaffective Caroline Polachek, it perfectly conveys the rotting cultural whirlpools of TikTok Asian soft power dynamics.
Lite + Covet + Wylie Hopkins
Wylie's second concert ever. Bedroom rock project. Insane songwriting talent. I hope he get popular enough to get a band. He had a nice girlfriend that sold his T-shirts. Lite actually blew me away. I could immediately tell that this was an insanely experienced, talented band that exuded aura on stage while powering through incredibly technical bars of mathrock with ease. The older generation of Japanese rock bands really seem to have an edge to them that the newer ones lack. Mass of the Fermented Dregs meets Toe. (Sorry) The lead guitarist speaks great English and I had fun talking with him about Mouse on the Keys and other bands they've collaborated with. Covet is Yvette Young's aging progressive mathrock band project, this tour was probably the last swan song for that type of sound for her, as she has stated she wants to level up and begin working on new projects in the future. I've always admired her guitar playing, her classical piano background made her subsequent transition to guitar using open tunings and tapping understandable and familiar to me as a musician. As a listener, it can get pretty exhausting, as their songs never really let up the long lines of fast, sustained, subdivided riffs, and it lacks a lot of interesting dynamics. It's all one volume, one speed, song after song, and it starts to blend together. Still, very impressive musicians. Another concert where I went solo and ended up talking to strangers about music and other stuff. A couple animation students were pretty neat to talk to and it was funny but sad when they inevitably told me they're cooked when they graduate. Going solo is not something I've done much in past years so I was once again pleasantly surprised how easy it was to strike up a conversation with other cool people in a city that pundits often call fake and gay.
Kumo 99 + goreshit + AUXO
Had one of the worst openers I've ever seen, Auxo, followed by goreshit, which was cool but strange to listen to in meatspace and not while dissociating in bed or on the computer. Seeing Kumo 99 in 2024 blind absolutely mogged Magdelena Bay, who they opened for, and I eagerly awaited seeing them headline this show. Kumo 99 has concocted the perfect formula of electronic internet music that people will actually want to dance and mosh to, maintaining meter and setting catchy hooks throughout its screaming vocals, breakbeats, stomp-techno and beat switches that let even a guy like me think that clubbing could actually be really cool and fun. Yes, I clap and yell ay on the beat, and do weird movements that I pretend are dancing, but if I got everyone else to do it with me in the heat of the moment then maybe it's awesome actually, not cringe. I think crowds need to be more open to engaging with music in a musical way, like singing, dancing, and clapping, and not just alternating between standing like a statue and bouncing off each other like those beans in the Plinko minigame in Pajama Sam. (Which is fun too) I don't blame them though, the countless instances of phones held up to perversely record every minute of a live act or crowd crashout are evidence that we have turned into a culture cop surveillance society.
Bladee
In retrospect this setlist was actually insanely awesome and had something for every Bladee fan (concerning amount of 5ft children with their parents were here) but I think the flu I came down was messing with me too much. The night right after in the hostel was complete torture, I thought I was going to die. I was so dizzy and nauseous on the drive home, and I forgot to pee in the hostel before I checked out so I pissed in the parking garage and watched it trickle down like 500 metres and several levels before pooling at one of the exits. Why did I have to piss so much in there. I was not of right mind and I'm sorry if anyone was inconvenienced by it later. The water content was so high and so colourless I doubt it smelled or anything, at least. Anyways, I still got to see some of my favourites, but I guess during the concert I was so mad about missing out on the Cold Visions tour that I got greedy and wanted more. Maybe I'm just jealous that he has a girlfriend and consequent girlfriend merch. I'm kind of a fake Bladee fan, only listening to a few key songs and albums and not as religiously as other real Bladee fans, but I had a great time regardless and it was great hanging out with my friend and his partner and soy out with all their favourites too.
2025 favourite finds:
Vylet Pony - Love and Ponystep Album of the year. At first, the hyper-specific 2012 internet references and samples activated my fight-or-flight response in an extremely violent way, giving me panic-inducing flashbacks to being cringe and gay in middle school. Soon though, I realized it was because I had been poisoned, I had simply constructed layers upon layers of irony, and post-irony, and post-post-irony to repress and hide parts of me I had otherwise tortured and wrangled to conform, and what I was feeling was that sickness being confronted and vomited up. Love and Ponystep wrestles with the zillennial urge to protect oneself from vulnerability and authenticity, a kneejerk reaction to supress negative emotions with nonsensical humour and aloofness. An absurd, chaotic journey of self-betterment, rehabilitation, and overcoming toxic mental patterns and a bad breakup using self-reflection and humility. Creative resampling and remixing as acceptance and reclamation. Retooling our references and walls to be more genuine, not less. Jester hits so close for me. This album is the living template I needed to work at resolving the disparate parts of myself.
Other quick thoughts on some other finds:
Dabda
My new favourite band. My bucket list is to see them live. Just kinda ticks all my boxes. Mathrock to sing to. Their energy is infectious.
Texas 3000
Expat's eclectic band project. I narrowly missed them when travelling to Japan. Hope to see them one day. Pretty raw, lots of potential in the future. Can't wait to see what they create next.
Games and VNs
I played and rolled credits on a a disgusting amount of games. (65) I still managed to avoid a lot of stuff I SAY I really want to get to, but the time commitment and difficulty make video games the hardest medium to power through. Going forward, as a hopeful employed person I naively aim to make time for mostly visual novels and arcade games, and older auteur works. Keeping up to date with new games is difficult and often disappointing.
Of the Devil
Cyberpunk murder mystery game with a twist. I found it first being posted in an umineko thread on /v/ in an offhand way that I can't repeat, but quickly saw it being hyped up in a mystery fiction server that I respect the tastes of quite a deal. My expectations were greatly exceeded. The game punches so far above it's weight, especially since it was made by a tiny team with one artist, one writer, and one programmer. Apparently the writer wrote all of Of the Devil and created picrew character sprites to pitch a powerpoint to his friends, who then agreed to help him turn it into a real game. A true ideas guy and "we should make a game" squad that actually delivered. Inspirational. The presentation is very stylish, using a mix of 3d environments and 2d art. The writing is witty and snappy, and constantly expands on the cyberpunk world and social commentary without feeling like a slog. There's both direct and oblique references to analogues like Umineko, Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, but the unique characters, (especially the protagonist), solid mysteries, media literacy tests (lol), and gambling mechanics help propel the work as something wholly unique and interesting. My favourite game of 2025.
Misericorde Vol 1. & 2.
Vol 1 is a well researched, historical mystery horror novel about a murder that occurs in a strange English abbot, and the hopelessly useless anchoress detective who is tasked with solving it. Mostly follows a WTC inspired route, and is completed by crunchy 1-bit graphics and a killer soundtrack. Vol 2 expands on that, but also highkey becomes an eroge, as the main character Hedwig, despite being a socially undeveloped tradcath pervert NEET, bags woman after woman, including one that matches her freak, incredulously. Yes, Hedwig, I would let Angela ruin my life too. All of this is in service of investigating the historical reality of being a woman in the 1700s, religious institutions and their unique encompassment of society, and the meta narrative of historical accuracy and personal truths. Umineko heads will be uniquely attuned to what Misericorde is playing with here, though what xeecee has managed to accomplish feels truly impressive on its own. Vol 3 is a long ways away, but promises a finale to all the burning questions and insanity that happens here. I'm looking forward to it!
ZeroRanger
By complete coincidence, (or maybe not), many of my favourite works I encountered this year were deeply seeped in Buddhism, either visually or narratively, but ZeroRanger fully inhabits Buddhist themes mechanically, as a shmup. The continue system, the level design, the meta-narrative, feel perfectly concocted to pull you into a Zen-like state necessary for traversing the increasingly hectic and diverse stages. A perfect distillation of shmup conventions faithfully conserved and elevated by its spiritual energy and heart. May you obtain enlightenment.
Undertale
I was worried that playing Undertale now, with its influence and copycats, that the metanarrative and anti-RPG stuff would age poorly, but it really is the best of these I've played. Immense heart, very touching, a lot of great ideas and designs even if the technical skill to implement them isn't quite there, though you could say that it's an intentional effect and callback to RPGmaker games that heightens the intimacy of the story. The Flowey fight actually blew me away, the design and style are ace. Toby Fox has managed to insert all his pervert freak anime obsessions in a completely PG cartoon way, mashing bullet hells, Chulip-likes, dating sims and more into a beautiful, emotionally authentic RPG story of love and acceptance. The level design and pacing strip away the more tedious parts of playing RPG's and plays more like a narratively driven boss rush than anything else. While you lose the impact of developing party member relationships and things like that, it makes up for in pacing and impact. I'm looking forward to moving on to Deltarune.
Other faves that I won't talk about them unless prompted: Demon's Roots, Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, MAHOUTEQ, Touhou 6, Silksong, Touhou Luna Nights, Drainus, Astebreed, Birdcage, Last Call BBS
Weeb
I watched some anime and read some manga. Let's try to be succinct with these.
Manga:
Houseki no Kuni
Takes a simple premise and follows it to it's most terrifying, absolute conclusion without holding back for a moment. Tragic, soul-crushing, but also spiritually cleansing, full of empathy. Deeply moved by it's representation of sacrifice and unconditional love in spite of it all. The anime was also really good, a shining example that 3DCG can be incredibly artistically striking, it's a shame it was never finished.
Azumanga Daioh
Cute, pretty funny, but don't really remember the characters or anything that happens. Oh well.
Emanon
The art is really good.
Oshi No Ko
Last movie arc acted as an answer arc, but the delivery and revelations really deflates any mystique about the early questions set up at the beginning of the series. The arcs that examine Japan's media industry through a great cast of characters still hold up really well, though.
Inside Mari
Shuzo Oshimi might be my favourite manga authour. Shares similar elements with Aku no Hana, but the specificity and genre convention help set it apart. A body swap tale that gives a harrowingly honest look into gender stereotypes, dysphoria, perversion and intimacy. A late series twist is enjoyable but weakens some of the themes it grapples with earlier. I need to check out more of his work.
Bokutachi ga Yarimashita
Big giant magnifying glass on all the crudest basest human emotions, extremely funny but also so cruel, it's so over the top it would border on parody if it wasn't so raw. Coming-of-age in a world of toxic masculinity, anti-social ennui, a godless society. Exposes and examines a wide array of maldeveloped dudes, but I find Maruyama especially interesting to think about. A timid, nerdy kid who if given the power to do what his bullies do to him, would do so tenfold, and to the people he calls friends too. That shy timidness, when poisoned, turns into malicious cowardice that destroys everything around him when he's given the chance. Many great insights on display here.
Drip Drip
Paru Itagaki reveals the hardships of achieving intimacy as an autistic woman in a male-dominated world. Grungy and stylish. Short and succinct.
Mob psycho 100
One Punch but better, a story about what it means to grow up and fit in when you've never fit in anywhere before, to cultivate relationships and refine yourself as a human being with traits and strengths, to accept your weaknesses, to have humanity. The best shonen of all time.
Spirit Circle
Perfect, no notes. Empowering story centered around the concept of accepting and facilitating dharma, understanding that our lot in life may begin predestined, that a series of births and deaths create our circumstances, and it is up to us to take hold of this life, begin something anew, and give it meaning while respecting what came before and what will come after you are gone.
Goodbye Eri
Fujimoto just moves different. Goodbye Eri examines what it means to be genuine, the various faces and feelings we project onto others and how we choose to remember each other. Fujimoto uses every facet of the medium at his disposal, playing with POV and chronology in impressively mind-twisting ways.
Anime:
Sanda
Hard to write about. I really like a lot of the themes it's playing with, but they are lore-dumped on you at such arbitrary moments and with such insane premises that it's hard to resolve all of them into a strong, competent thesis. I really like how they adapted Itagaki's art style to an anime, it's a shame Beastars didn't look like this. I want to check out the manga and see if the story is easier to digest in its original format.
Nekojiru
Looks awesome. Morbidly cute. I am reminded of Mind Game, Kaiba and other Masaaki Yuasa works.
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
So freaking good. Kind of the anime arthouse equivalent of something like Speed Racer, where it's use of 3D CG visuals in its respective medium was unfairly derided when in actuality is the most transgressive, well implemented use of them of all time. Another great cyberpunk noir mystery like Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor 2 where the main intrigue is when the heroes and villains talk vividly about philosophy and literature, though the plot is also well sequenced.
Chainsaw Man Reze Movie
Entertaining, really crazy sequences. I'm not sure how they did a lot of this. I still think the manga is perfect and any adaptation fails to capture its spirit fully, but the anime and movie got me to reread Part 1 and confirm that to be the case. I think Fujimoto especially, but also manga in general, effectively leverages your imagination through technique and mastery much like in a way a book does that films just can't replicate without destroying a part of that well-crafted illusion.
FLCL
Good. Not much else to say, it took me several aborted attempts over a decade to finally finish it.
Gurren Lagann
Yup its good. I don't necessarily agree with its idiotic vibes based hero worship but its heart and style are hard not to get behind. Sometimes you just have to go crazy, go stupid!
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
The most literal entry of the Kerboros Saga, Jin-Roh uses its alternate history to create a more violent, visceral presentation of the anxieties and fears manifested in the Anpo struggle. Beautiful and terrible. Much to take from here, as we enter a more extremist era where political revolt and subsequent government violent quelling seem more likely to be frequent occurences in the next decade.
Thank you for reading.