A genius tactician from the Three Kingdoms era arrives in modern day Shibuya to help an aspiring pop artist. Brilliantly fun.
The Details, Ia Genberg
Stunning writing; these long, beautiful sentences that in the hand of a less skilful author (and indeed, translator) would be pure hell but here just work so well.
7th Time Loop, season one
The full subtitle of this show is bonkers: “The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!” It’s pretty by the numbers, but I enjoyed it.
Asa, Imamura Natsuko
A haunting and beautiful collection of short stories that explore the gaps between the real, the imagined, the mundane and the surreal.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, season one
Beautifully animated and drawn. It’s very much “cute girls doing cute things” but there’s a real passion and charm to this series that sets it apart from many others of its ilk.
Cherry Magic, season one
The first BL anime I’ve watched, and found it incredibly charming and sweet. It hinted at the ongoing discrimination and barriers queer folk in Japan face but I think wasn’t concerned about fully exploring this, which is a shame, but not surprising.
Spice and Wolf, season one
Economics! Wolf God! Simmering tension between the two leads. Fantastic. A little uneven episode to episode, but it ends quite strongly.
2024 Backlog
I neglected my logging duties over the last few months of 2024. Here’s a list of the things I can remember, to be converted to their own proper entries in due course.
- Goodnight Tokyo, Atsuhiro Yoshida
- Inspector Imanishi Investigates, Seicho Matsumoto
- Gifted, Suzumi Suzuki
- This is Amiko, Do You Copy?, Natsuko Imamura
- The Hole, Hiroko Oyamada
- Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa
- The Empusium, Olga Tokarczuk
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare
- Taskmaster, season 18
- Great British Bake Off, season 15
- Goblin, season one
Chainsaw Man, season one
I finally watched this, afraid that it wouldn’t live up to the substantial hype. But I enjoyed it.
365 Days to the Wedding, season one
A nicely told awkward love story between colleagues. It was a little by the numbers at times, but largely charming.
Negative Positive Angler, season one
A beautiful story about finding value in life and finding one’s people.
Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner
An absorbing meditation on the world and what it might take to change the world (as well as the forces that protect the status quo). Brilliant.
Alien Romulus, Fede Álvarez
Space: not all it’s cracked up to be. Also kinda iffy on androids. I thought this was a fine addition to the aliens universe.
Heretic, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Hugh Grant is transcendent. The movie has a few wobbly bits but is so worth watching for his performance.
The Wild Robot, Chris Sanders
Boy this robot sure is wild. A fine time, if not the most memorable.
Dandadan, season one
One of my favourite things from 2024. Adored this. Bizarre, funny, amazing art, kicker op.
The Substance, Coralie Fargeat
Holy moly. What an experience. A testament to the power of cinema. Shocking and subversive and important.
Show Me the Bodies, Peter Apps
A stunning and vital piece of journalism. The sheer failure of the state to protect its citizens is appalling, as is the indifference shown to the victims and survivors. Shame on the UK gov, the council in question and all those who sought profit over safety.
Asteroid City, Wes Anderson
My least favourite WeAn movie. The bits actually in Asteroid City were fine, I think, but the rest was an indulgent snore.
Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski
Tom Cruise is extremely Tom Cruise. There’s so much in this movie that is deeply silly but somehow it all works. Also I love how often they say the phrase “fifth generation fighter” in the movie.
A Minute to Think, Juliet Funt
Superficial and breezy, but I’m inclined to be generous given how valuable and important the underlying message is.
Aqua Trope on White Sand, season one
A beautiful and gentle series. Very much cute girls (and a few token boys) being cute, but with penguins and other sea critters. Surprisingly nuanced in parts about the role and value of aquariums.
Plate Up, It’s happening
Stressful and chaotic multiplayer fun. More of a focus on automation than, say, Overcooked, and so less of a casual experience. But enjoyable if you know what you’re getting into.
Taskmaster New Zealand, seasons one and two
An excellent version of Taskmaster, and one that I find much more enjoyable than the Australian variant. Our Kiwi cousins have an excellent sense of humour.
Ripley, season one
Andrew Scott is thrilling, charming, disturbing, human and monstrous all in equal measure in this excellent adaption. Also, Italy is very beautiful.
How Charts Lie, Alberto Cario
Nothing brilliant but a fine recapitulation around charts and how they can lie, cheat, steal etc.
Nobuo Uematsu conTIKI
A fantastic night of music; the crowd absolutely loved every moment. I was expecting to prefer the Final Fantasy music but I found myself completely enthralled by the original music, especially this completely addictive number. Given his age, I felt very lucky to be able to see him!
Supacell, season one
I don’t often love superhero stuff, but this smart, modern take was stylish, fun, and well-paced. Perhaps I just don’t want to see generic US superhero stuff?
Godzilla minus one, Takashi Yamazaki
A strange movie at times both tonally and pacing-wise, but the movie hits hard and delivers what it promises.