Anime of the year
If you know me, you probably also know that I’ve almost completely stopped watching anime in the last three years. Still, there are some anime I can’t miss, and the recently released Aria the Benedizione movie was just that. It’s the final entry in the illustrious Aria series, and this fact in and of itself made me almost teary-eyed. I will probably never get back into anime like I used to, but there are still some upcoming titles on my radar that I hope will make my end-of-year results for 2023. Looking at you, Magus Bride! Game of the year
This year was sort of milquetoast in terms of quality releases. Sure, we had some stand-out games like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök, but that’s simply because they’re high-profile AAA titles, they would always stand out. Still, I very much enjoyed Elden Ring for what it gave me, and that’s why I hold it in such high esteem – it’s by far the best Soulslike for me. And GoW, despite all its shortcomings, is a good game. But my GOTY is neither of those titles – it’s Vampire Survivors. A very basic game that activates the very same neurons the slot machines do. It’s incredibly satisfying, surprisingly deep, and costs like $5. None of its copycats managed to replicate the same dopamine-rushing sensations yet.Movie of the year
Movies, as always, aren’t a big priority for me, but I do like to go out and watch some of them at the cinema several times a year. Didn’t manage to watch that many this year, and even then, my movie of the year was the one they never brought over here. It’s The Banshees of Inisherin. Won’t say a thing about it, because it’s Martin McDonagh and you should watch it blind and watch it now.
TV Series of the year
Ah, TV Series. I tried watching House of the Dragon (deez nuts), but I never got past ep 1. Ring of Rest in Power I dropped halfway through ep 1. Started watching Alice in Borderland season 2, and it’s fine I guess. But my pick is The Boys season 3. They managed to steer the ship in the right direction after the abysmal season 2. Still, I have my problems with it, it’s literally a 6/10 at best.
Manga of the year
Keeping up with Magus Bride's official translation PROBABLY counts, right?
Book of the year
Most of 2022 for me was the Dresden Files rereads, and I’m filled with a newfound appreciation for the series as a whole and Jim Butcher as a writer. Literally can’t wait for the next entry in the series. The stakes are as high as they’ve ever been, but it looks like the next book will be somewhat of a breather? Who knows. That’s good and all, but my book of the year is The Martyr by Anthony Ryan. It’s a sequel to my 2021’s book of the year, The Pariah. It’s a quasi-religious fantasy framed as a historic one, with heroic undertones. Hard to explain, really. But it’s plenty good.
Artist of the year
If you know me, you know I’m an Aimer fan and nothing will ever change this. She had some releases this year, but not enough to warrant the Artist of the year title, as I prefer to give this to someone who actually released a full album. This someone this year was MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. I’ve been waiting for years, and they didn’t disappoint.
Album of the year
Continuing from the previous category, here it is. Awakening:Sleeping by MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. Now, MasuDore is quite divisive, and if you tell the fans of their early works that you enjoy the new stuff, you’ll get many sideways stares. But I don’t care, I very much enjoy both. And while this isn’t their strongest release, they’re still very much and pretty comfortably one of my favorite shoegaze artists.
Song of the year
I’ve posted my year-end results at various places already, where I put Everstrong by Eye of Melian as my song of the year. It’s probably up there. I adore both of Johanna Kurkela’s new projects — Auri and Eye of Melian. Both are very ethereal, very nostalgic. But my actual song of the year is obviously Scream by Masayoshi Soken and AKINO. The reason I forgot it was this year's song is that Endwalker is from 2021, and I kind of forgot the song wasn’t there on release. Soken is a genius, nuff said.
Character of the year
This is weird for me, as I usually have a plethora of waifus characters to pick from. Not this year. I mean, I very much enjoyed some of them — Odin was incredible in GoW, and I loved the entire cast of the Banshees of Inisherin. But the most profound character for me was Evadine Courlain from The Martyr. She’s an open mystery, a character denied truth, but who’s carving her own truth for herself despite it all.
Event of the year
I’ve been watching football since 1998. The first game I ever watched was Barca vs Osasuna, where Rivaldo scored. While I instantly became a fan, I didn’t watch much of Barca in the coming years, as our TV channels mostly showed Serie A. And let me tell you, it had a truckload of Argentines. That’s how I became I fan of their national team. Later in 2004 Messi debuted, and the rest is fucking history. He’s been the GOAT for me for over a decade, but a final stamp that he put on this claim is welcome nonetheless. Messi finally won his World Cup, and I cried.
Person of the year
There’s a proverb, “Do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I disagree with it. I have a job that I love, but it still very much requires effort, sometimes it tires me out, stresses me out, it’s inevitable. But what I will say, is that if you choose a job you love, you will find fulfillment. Every single success we have as a team at DashFight makes me so incredibly happy. In January of last year, I became the head of the team, and while I really can’t judge how good of a leader I am, I see the results the team shows and I can’t be more proud. I hope, everyone is fine with me leading them in 2023 as well. My person of the year is the entire DashFight team.
Purchase of the year
This year, I’ve been blessed with the ability to fulfill many of my long-standing wishes. I do not take this for granted, but I’m happy nonetheless. In terms of purchases, it’s probably between the PlayStation 5 and 4K TV combo, and the RTX 3070 GPU. Or maybe a new phone. Probably PS5.
Surprise of the year
I am cool, and I can do cool things. That’s it.
Disappointment of the year
Too many to say.
Website of the year
I’m very proud of what we achieved in 2022, so my website of the year is dashfight.com.
Streamer of the year
I didn’t have much time to watch streams this year, but I still managed to watch some. The streamer I watched the most is Northernlion. He’s simply too good, and anything he does or plays is peak content. He has an incredibly sharp wit, also he’s bald? Another good shout is his fellow Canadian, Pawnce. He’s a streamer that used to do League stuff, but got disillusioned with it and now does variety. His channel is much smaller, sadly. He deserves a much higher viewer count. Another great streamer is Josh Strife Hayes. He’s a well-dressed, double-barreled MMO content creator who does the most insane streams. He’s very much quality of quantity, and his “Asmongold react incident” stream was the best and most insane 3.5 hours I spent on Twitch.
Object of the year
Me like reading. Kindle help me reading. Kindle good.
Tradition of the year
Point above.
Best day of the year
December 18th was the day I felt the happiest during the year.
