Donut's Thoughts

Reflecting on my 2023 media

2023 Media Grid

This post is pretty much "in retrospective" - I should have wrote this in 2023, but well I didn't. I still wanted to give my flowers to the stuff that held me down throughout the year so here's that post.

Each year, I try to take some time not only to think about what my favorite stuff of the year was but also build a lil' 3x3 of the 9 things that I felt really resonated with me.

This year in particular had a LOT of high highs and low lows. Between going on a great Japan trip and welcoming a new nephew into the world to more turmoil with my broken arm, it kind of helped having some stuff to enjoy in-between all of that.

Top Left to Bottom Right

While it doesn't show much here, this was the year I got a new gaming device - the Miyoo Mini Plus - and really dove into playing on my Steam Deck. The Miyoo Mini has been a godsend in being the perfect addition device alongside my PC and Steam Deck. This year was when I got into playing a lot of shorter titles like the GG Aleste series and Harmful Park, so it worked perfectly to sit aside the Steam Deck's approachable form factor and my PC's capability for the stronger stuff. That said, my favorite game this year was a one-off April Fools title! The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is short, but does such an incredible job feeling like the perfect marriage to the characterization found in the IDW comics now and the usual comical "joke visual novel" you'll find around this time.

That said, as you can tell, this year was taken up much more with movies and anime. Polite Society was a breath of fresh air and my entryway into trying to watch movies in theaters solo (a nice experience but also something I need to do more) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, looking back, is not as hot as I thought it was at the time but it's still hard to debate how incredible it looks while still being one of the better Spider-Man films too. For anime, I appreciated Trigun Stampede's aim for individuality - it inspired me to read the manga itself and I love how all three versions of Vash and his story feel unique in their own special way. Overtake! was special though. Not only do you not get many solid series about racing, but it handling both of its narratives with such perfect nuance was a delightful surprise.

Lastly, music wasn't as big this year for me as usual but still played a part. This obviously also doubles into the movies section, but Blue Giant was a delight to find available on the flight going to Japan. I enjoyed the film of course but the soundtrack was miles better, for sure. More than that though, this was absolutely the year of me putting Scaring the Hoes on repeat. Probably my favorite album from both JPEG and Danny, this one was killer. I also listened to other stuff like Ooh I Rap Ya as well, but this easily took over my listening habits whenever I had free time.

Usually, I'd write what I want to look forward to in the next year, but seeing as this is much much later than 2023, kind of tough to do that. I do know that as a whole, I wouldn't haven't gotten through 2023 as mentally sound as I somehow did not only with the stuff here, but with my friends helping me out along the way.

Here's to (the eventual) 2024 (media post that's years late)! 🎉

#3x3 #media #year in review