- I'm not 100% sure when I fell in love with musicals, but I have a strong suspicion. Buried in my parents' record collections was an old album that my mother would occasionally play when the mood struck: the soundtrack to the film Paint Your Wagon. I had never seen the film, nor the musical upon which it was sort of based. But the songs were so evocative to my young ears that I could see those gold miners singing their hearts out. Eventually I met my wife and she introduced me to Broadway musicals in a big way. I still remember sitting with her, front row at Les Misérables, with tears welling in my eyes as the overture began. I've been hooked ever since.
- It's not really any surprise to me that I enjoyed Hamilton. The hip-hop inspired retelling of the life of Alexander Hamilton is absolutely fascinating in its construction. It should never have worked, but I find myself enthralled with its catchy tunes and clever loops the narrative runs on. And although I notoriously detest most second acts, Hamilton has enough drama and conflict to carry the story aptly to its conclusion. Of course, I've seen the filmed version of the show numerous times before we had the chance to attend ourselves. But instead of retreading points that have been written a million times over the last decade, I'd like to share the three things that enchanted me the most about seeing the show performed live. And yes, "The Ten Duel Commandments" ran through my head as I wrote out these points.
- Number One: One of the fun ways that the movie succeeds in bringing the musical to the screen is how it brings you onstage to see the performers from from intimate distance. But what the movie cannot replicate is the magic of the proscenium. From your viewpoint in the audience, you can take in the entirety of the production at once. And Hamilton is a busy show, with the bigger numbers absolutely overwhelming with things to take in. The filmmakers, in producing what is likely the best reproduction of a stage musical for the screen, still understand that they have to take advantage of the convention of movies. But that doesn't allow much time to luxuriate in the specticle. There was a huge grin on my face through the entirely of the show as I could pick out individual details that weren't important for a camera to focus on.
- Number Two: A corollary to the prior, one of the issues with flattening the show for a screen is that leaves not room for the audience. It was a little strange to see the performers playing to the audience in ways that don't come across well on film. King George is probably the most visible instance in the movie, but his antics are heightened on the stage, as are several of the other performances. That interaction is impossible to capture on film. It was so much fun to have the performers acknowledging that there was an audience in rapt attention.
- Number Three: Finally, the intensity of "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" does not come across on television. Maybe if I had a massively more capable audio system, it might approximate the live experience. But I doubt that you could reproduce those thunderous booms of cannon fire that you could feel in your chest. It is absolutely the high point of the musical, but I was not ready for just how intense the scene would be live.
- I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to, well, just about any media that I consume. So when something amazing comes along, it restores my ardour for the artform. Seeing Hamilton reminded me just how transcendent live theater can be.
- 2022 was the year that I returned to anime in a big way. I had intended to tell you about it, but blogging isn't as easy for me as it once was. Thus, here at the end of 2024, are my top five anime for 2022. At last.
- Call of the Night - I can't remember having a series written specifically for my tastes, but that seems to be what has happened here. So thank you to Lidenfilms for this gift. Call of the Night is the story of a teenage boy who has become so unmoored from the his day-to-day life that he can only find solace after dark. Yes, it heavily trades on the ol' vampire trope, but it embraces the subtext of why that trope is so seductive. As an inveterate night owl myself, it was amazing to watch an anime that really understood the beauty of solitude in the night time.
- My Dress-Up Darling - It really was a close thing, deciding which anime would top this list. For as much as I love Call of the Night, it's My Dress-Up Darling that I can gush over endlessly. A tale of two high school kids, unable to share the things they love with anyone else, finding a way to bond over cosplay. For everything that people will tell you this show is about (like romance, cosplay, or lewdness), the thing that really draws me in is how the main characters are kids on the verge of adulthood, struggling to deal with situations that they are not quite mature enough to handle, yet find their way through together. All that and they do it with joy and a laugh. See, I could go on, but let's see what else is on the list.
- Spy x Family - This Shonen Jump megastar came with all of the fanfare one would expect of their next big hit. The shock to me was how well that was deserved. Spy x Family is so many things: an espionage story, a wacky comedy, a somber drama, and more. It shouldn't all work together, but the characters are so likeable that I would watch them do just about anything. And I'm sure they will.
- Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story - There is no reason for a golf anime to go this hard. The dichotomous main characters could not be more different except in their passion for the sport. This show has some wild swings (goddammit), but I found myself grinning from the audacity of the show from start to finish. I don't even know how to decribe it without sounding ludicrous. Just watch an episode and take in the madness of peak golf anime.
- Kaguya-sama: Love is War - Ultra Romantic - Aka Akasaka's tale of the battle of the sexes reaches its climax here in the third season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War. The comedy is still peak, the character work is on point, and the romance is at its height. All of the laudets for this series are well earned. If you find yourself inclined to see a fun take on the romance genre, well, don't start here. But do watch that first season because you will find yourself here before you know it.
- Let's see when I get around to my 2023 list.
- 2023 was certainly an interesting year, with all of that connotes. It would be weird to write about all of the great video games I got to play without mentioning the thousands of people laid off by the games industry due to terribly short sighted corporations as they try to extract every last dollar of profit, even at the expense of the people who count on them. Games don't spontaneously emerge, they are the hard work of people who genuinely love them and those people deserve to be treated better. By celebrating these games, I celebrate the people behind them and hope everyone can find stability in the new year.
- Monster Hunter World - Some five years after its release, I finally saw the ending of Monster Hunter World. That it took a foray into Monster Hunter Rise to remind me that I never completed the earlier game feels a little silly, but I'm glad my appetite for fighting those gargantuan beasts brought me back. MHW let you explore the world, learn how to navigate it, and discover how the monsters act there. It was neat to get to know those environments and really explore those fantastic ecosytems.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - It feels a little strange to put a game on this list that I played thrugh to completion previously, but BOTW really earned its return trip to the top five. And the reason for that is that I played through the game for my daughter. It wasn't hard to convince me since I wanted to warm up for the impending Tears of the Kingdom. In a way, it reminded me of my childhood when my brother and I would game together, with one of us at the controls and the other navigating. We had a great time, laughing our way through the game. I'll never be able to say the words "spirit orb" without a funny voice again.
- The Making of Karateka - I received the Criterion Collection DVD of >Citizen Kane as a gift one year and was immediately taken with all of the extras included that help explain why the film is held in such high esteem. Without all of the work, the film might have come off as terribly boring because decades of movies have learned so heavily from it. I suspect the same would have occured if I attempted to play Karateka outside of this amazing package. More documentary and archive than game, The Making of Karateka walks you through its creation and the discusses the advances Jordan Mechnar made in bringing his vision to the computer. It is an exciting start to Digital Extreme's Gold Master Series, and I'm fascinated to see when they go in the future.
- Vampire Survivors - When Vampire Survivors first came out, I was perplexed as to why anyone find it fun. "You just run around and try not to die?" I asked myself. Thanks to Game Pass, I was able to try it for myself and discovered that there is a lot more to it. The "trying-not-to-die" part is greatly assisted by the upgrades you choose and your thoughtful positioning to get the most use out of them. It is a very strightforward game, but the simplicity of execution allows for an easy on-ramp to the layers that it adds. For a while there, it became a ritual to run a level before work every day. I don't know if there is any way to finish the game, but I quite enjoyed my time with it.
- Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - When this game was first announced, I had trouble understanding why it was necessary. Having finished it, I still have the same thought. But it doesn't have to be necessary to have been a joyful addition to the Like A Dragon series. Just running around Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios' Sotenbori again was enough to remind me how much it is to just exist in this world. Of the two combat styles, I far preferred the Yakuza style to the new Agent style, but the game did not suffer due to that preference. If anything, the game was very welcoming to just going out and having a great time. So much so in fact that it was the first AAA game that I ever completed all Xbox achievements on. For it to grab ahold of me that thoroughly is quite the compliment.
- Honorable Mentions: Hi-Fi Rush, Saints Row, Starfield, and Borderlands all flirted with space on this list, but didn't end up making the cut. I still liked them all for various reasons.
- Um, I'd better get started on the 2024 list if I want any chance of releasing it before the end of 2025.
- 2022 was an interesting year for video games. I found myself with less time and less drive to play games. But also found that Xbox Cloud Gaming works really well, so I played more than I expected. Here are the five games that ended up occupying my time and headspace the most in 2022.
- Elden Ring - An understandable game of the year. It really deserves all of the rewards it received. That said, I mostly ended up playing this for my daughter. If I were writing this from a 2023 perspective, I'd have pulled it from the running because I'm kinda exhausted with it. (Look forward to my forthcoming post on why I need to stop hatefucking Fromsoft games.) As it stands in 2022, I can't deny that this game started out fun and gave me something to do with my daughter.
- Conan Exiles - One of the themes of my gaming this year was finding world live in rather than conquer. Conan Exiles, for all of its hardcore tendencies, is also a game that you can just nest in. I made a nice little house, outgrew it and started a bigger house, made some "friends", and generally had a good time. I eventually drifted away, but there was a lot to just enjoy about being in a world that was only as savage as you wanted it to be.
- Arcade Paradise - I love a good "out of nowhere" game, the kind that blindsides you and reminds you that you don't need follow every marketing post for a year just to enjoy a game. Arcade Paradise's tale of a teenage parental disappointment who slowly transforms a laundromat into an '80s arcade is both sad and heartwarming. But under the story is just a fun collection of throwback arcade games and the compulsion to just put in one more quarter. Not every machine is a hit, much like at any arcade. But I was a lot of fun to play and work and see the arcade slowly grow.
- Disney Dreamlight Valley - Heh, this is like Disney's Anti-Conan. In many ways, this game scratched the same itch as Conan Exiles. There is the same exploration, playing dress up, and homemaking, but with a lot (A LOT) less bloodshed. If you have a fondness for Disney characters and just want to hang out with them, this is a fun way to do it.
- Cyberpunk 2077 - The launch of Patch 1.5 did a lot to revitalize interest in Cyberpunk, with many taking the opportunity to finally venture into Night City, myself included. The game, well, is still the game. Many of the roughest edges have been filed down, and there is great fun to be had. In many ways, it feels like a much prettier Borderlands to me. But I'm not sure if I'll ever finish the game. And that's okay. I had a good run with it.
- One game that I wish I could have placed on this list is Tunic. Tunic's entire Zelda-like, meta-examination of the joys of discovering a new game hit me right in the nostalgia center of the brain. But then the all-to-frequent difficuly spikes pushed me further and further from that joy until I could not bring myself to even try to headbash my way through the next brick wall in front of me. /sigh
- What's this? We're halfway through 2023 already? I can't wait to see what ends up on this year's list. (Or when I'll actually post it.)
- I didn't mean for this to become the anime blog, but I guess we play with the hand we're dealt. And my hand includes the most aggressively mediocre show that I have watched in I do not know how long.
- Like, I don't even know why I did it. I bounced off of Aharen-san wa Hakarenai after just one interminable episode. I gave up on The Executioner and Her Way of Life and Trapped in a Dating Sim after just a few episodes each, once I realized I didn't actually care what happened to the characters. But for some reason, I just kept watching Skeleton Knight in Another World even though it's not a very good show. It's barely a passable show, but I kept watching.
- Skeleton Knight stars your standard overpowered isekai protagonist, Arc, who wakes up one day as his character in his favorite MMO. Only, his character was using a transmog to appear as a skeleton, which has carried over to this new world! Of course, none of that matters outside of a few gags. If you removed the skeleton conceit, it would have no effect on the story.
- Not that the plot is any better. Arc quickly discovers that slavery is common in this new world and finds himself helping those in need of protection. He ends up assisting an elf warrior and a beast girl ninja in freeing various captives and striking down their captors, not out of any sense of justice, but because it's the cool thing to do. As I type this, I come to realize that this my largest issue with the series. It presents this world as full of injustice, but the protagonist could not care less. His companions may provide direction, but he's just a tool, in every sense of the word.
- Don't be a tool. Don't watch this anime.
- Rating: 1 1/2 stars
