Better late than never, eh? As always, not a list of things that came out that year, just a list of things i discovered for the first time that year. :>



Anime:

-Law of Ueki
Stupid a shell Shonen that is way too entertaining for its own good. We can put this in the "so bad it's good" corner.

-Boku no Hero Academia + Vigilantes
Gave me my new favorite character to fangirl over, Skeptic! >D I can't believe it's over... I binge watched it so hard. Probably the best paced Shonen show in existence? By comparison to a lot of other Shonen that way overstay their welcome... yeah, this might be the best i ever watched. (Except season 4. Fuck season 4. And fuck Eri and Lemillion. And Hawks. Especially Hawks. Fuck that guy. )

-Akuma-kun
It's just like GeGeGe no Kitaro, except a lot better than the actual 2018 Kitaro show... you cans afely skip that one. And absolutely watch Akuma-kun instead!! IT'S GOOD

-Sakamoto Days
Same! It's good! And funny!

-Another
Excellent horror anime. Just solid to boot. I will spoil nothing. WATCH IT.

- a bunch of GeGeGe no Kitaro shows, from all across the decades. it's soooo hard to track these down.... ;w;
MY BOI KITARO NEEDS TO BECOME MORE POPULAR, DAMN IT

Games:

-Final Fantasy Legend (specifically the color mod on the Gameboy, that also fixed some bugs)
It's so funny, i kept wracking my head how you could make Pokemon's combat + skill system more interesting. FFL had it all along! The Mutant/Esper class will randomly gain new skills whenever the attack points of a given skill run out. It's like a pokemon attack randomizer, and it's SO much fun.

- Slender Threads
Had this on my watchlist for a while. Decent enough point+click adventure. Really wished it leaned more into the horror than the comedy, but eh. Ending was a letdown, over-explains itself too much. It's ok to leave some stuff ambiguous, guys. Had a lot of promise, and ended up a victim of incompetent writing. But still had a good time with it for what it's worth.

- Opoona
Technically i have played through Opoona before. Twice, even. But last year i sat down to re-experience it, even practically 100%ed it. This game is so much fun, despite some mind-bogglingly bad level design. Everybody gets lost in the damn dome cities, and the tedious elevators are straight from hell. BUT. I still highly recommend this one! Some people call this an Earthbound-like, and yeah, i can see some similarities. It's a very upbeat JRPG, with lotsa quirky NPCs and mini games and TONs of stuff to do. And fantastic soundtrack to boot!

- Link's Awakening DX (on the GBC)
Almost my new favorite Zelda game... except for every dungeon starting at dungeon 5. >:/

Books:
- The Kingdom of Agartha
This is a crazy one. It's about the hollow earth theroy, written by some French dude in the 19th century. He tells it like he actually was there, and it's a fascinating read. Has a tinge of Lovecraftian horror mixed with high fantasy. It's fascinating.
- lotsa books on Gnosticism & Occultism like The Black Arts, The Secret Teaching of the Ages, Gnostic Philosophy, etc. Occultism is one of my long-term obsessions, and the best source on that is still good old books.


Movies:

- Sonic 3
Still watching these guilty pleasures. TBH the best one out of the life-action Sonic trilogy. Shadow is almost sorta well written here? Hell of a lot better than in any other thing he was ever in.

- Night of the Comet
Fun end-times movie form the 80s, starring what-hos-name form Start Trek Voyager.. the guy with the facial tats. Chakoty?

- The Re-Animator + From Beyond
Now this. THIS. Is Schlock done right. With real acting, and amazing practical effects. What absolute cult classics. I'm glad i waited so long to get into these movies, the wait was well rewarded.

- The Christmas Toy (Muppets Christmas Special)
In my quest to hunt down every Jim Henson related media piece in existence... well, i watched this one too.

Music + Soundtracks i guess?!:

- Antonblast
I refunded the game, and then bought the soundtrack instead. Cause it's just that good, been listening on repeat for weeks.

- This thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws


And the biggest letdown of the year:

The Drifter.... I was so hyped for this. And boy, did i not enjoy it when i actually played it. And i guess it's my own fault for going in with the wrong expectations. I expected Hobo with a shotgun fights Cthulhu, what i got was a bunch of trite Hollywood cliches about time travel, and much whining about dead sons and comatose wives... UGH. What a waste of a great premise. Pixel art is cool, tho. And nice OST.


All in all, not a bad year for discovering new media! Let's see what 2026 has to offer.