A list of my top media things from 2018, or at least things I enjoyed in 2018.
Books
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. I read this late in the year, but easily the best story I read this year. The summary on the back doesn’t really do it justice. And the end is just 👌🏼.
Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman. A very funny memoir. Made for great bedtime reading.
Provenance by Ann Leckie. Set in the same universe as her Ancillary trilogy, but relatively smaller in scope. I appreciate that she pulls off not just telling the same story.
Music
FooL on CooL generation by the pillows. Technically a soundtrack to the FLCL sequels, but functionally a “here’s some great music by the pillows from the last 18 years”. And actually available on US streaming services! The original FLCL soundtrack was my first import from Japan.
I’ll Be Your Girl by The Decemberists. Still enjoying this album. Saw them live, and they still put on a great show.
The Other Shore by Murder by Death. My first listen to the band. I’ve really enjoyed it.
Movies
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I love comics. To paraphrase someone else, this is a comic book movie. Beautiful, fun, humorous. Watch it on the big screen if you can.
Mary and the Witch’s Flower. Well done, beautiful and fantastic aesthetic. Not quite that Ghibli level of perfection, but very much that type of story.
Thor: Ragnarok. Took me a while to see it, but wow. It’s far from perfect, but it is fun. The scenes are all visually stunning, the music perfectly paired, and just enjoyable throughout.
TV
Adventure Time finished this year. The last episode was great. A nice wrap up to a show that started out much simpler than it ended.
Anime
GAMERS! is a fun series that celebrates a love of video games. Read the Polygon review for a good summary.
Games
Celeste. I’m not a fan of the brutal platform genre that became big with Super Meat Boy, but Celeste does an excellent job of easing you into it, and you can complete the main story without dealing with anything too insane. The story is great. All the feels.
Destiny 2 continues to occupy a lot of my time. The Forsaken expansion was very well done, and has kept me coming back.
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