Now that we’re settled into 2025, let’s look back on the past year. It’s my first year medicated and that definitely helped me throughout. I got out of some slumps I was in and really managed to get a hold of my life. And throughout this all I’ve been consuming media. Some of these pieces of media were good enough that I wanted to talk about, but I never really managed to find the time or talk about it enough, so instead of that, we’re doing a large post with all of my favorites that I consumed in 2024. Strap in, this might be a long read. Feel free to skip to the part that interests you.

Books

One of my new year’s resolutions was to read more books and I did just that. I didn’t read quite as many as I set out to read, but I still went through some fun books. For starters, I read Chris Broad’s book “Abroad in Japan”. He’s a youtuber that lives in Japan and films blogs and documentaries there. His grumpy British attitude accompanied by true skill with a camera and an eye for interesting locations has quickly made him one of my favorite youtubers. I’m not one to read a lot of autobiographies – having only read Stephen King’s autobiography before – but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I also finally started reading a fan favorite. I read Terry Pratchett’s Colour of magic. It was… interesting. I would tell anyone that likes fantasy and writing to give it a read. It’s very different from anything else I’ve read and there’s a wit there that is refreshing. Despite those qualities, I don’t think I’ll read many more of his books as it didn’t quite jive with me.

What did jive with me – much more so than I ever expected – were Christopher Paolini’s books from the Inheritance series. I originally read Eragon and its three sequel books when they first came out and I enjoyed them very much. Then years later I gave them another read, only to find that the first book was really bad. Despite my reservations, when I saw that he had since then written two more books in the same world, I decided to give it another chance. Sure, the first book in the series was rough, it was very interesting to see how with each book the writing improved in big steps. By the time I finished the fourth book I was fully invested again. I will read the new two novels in 2025, and if they’re also good, I will make sure to let you know. I’ve read a few other books, but those were the stand-out ones. Let’s move on.

Music

So I listened to a lot of the same music this year that I did last year. A lot of Fall Out Boy, Aimer, One Ok Rock and of course Taylor Swift. Still, there were quite a few new songs I listened to and even a couple of albums I discovered this year that I really enjoyed. Let me give you some recommendations.
Let’s start with the final album of a legendary band, Sum41s Heaven :x: Hell. An album that’s one half pop-punk, one half metal and 100% a certified banger. Sum41 has been in my rotation for years, with their older songs like Underclass Hero, Fatlip and Still Waiting being some of my all time favorites. This new album adds a few songs to that list with in particular songs like ‘Dopamine’ and ‘not quite myself’ and ‘you wanted war’ being very good. If you like pop-punk and some light metal then definitely don’t sleep on this record. Not a bad album to close the curtains with.

An artist I had listened to a little bit in 2023, but fully embraced in 2024 is the very talented Charlotte Sands. I initially know her from a song she did with Mod Sun called Sexoxo which has arguably some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard in a song but is still incredibly catchy, and then looked into more of her discography. Songs like ‘Bad Day’ and ‘Dress’ were very good but not long after I found her music, she came out with a new album: Can we start over? With great pop-punk songs that – although somewhat repetitive sounding at times – do the job. Two of the stand-out songs on this album are ‘spite’ and ‘teeth’. Definitely give those a listen.

Continuing their road of releasing a bunch of very good singles as they had already done in 2022 and 2023, One Ok Rock doesn’t deliver us any new albums in 2024 but does give us three very good singles. We got the songs Delusion:All, Dystopia and +Matter. Leaning into how much is going wrong in the world right now, they bring us more English language songs as they continue to reach out to a bigger and bigger audience. What strikes me most about this band is the energy they have. Their shorts on Youtube are always fun to watch and I can’t help but smile every time one of their songs comes up in my rotation.

And one last mention – maybe I’ll do another post about music soon, I’ve been adding a ton to my playlists after all – is the wonderfully named Creepy Nuts. Let me come straight out of the gate. I’m sorry, I don’t like Bling-bang-bang-born. The creaking hinge in the background of the song is grating at best and painful at worst. It doesn’t help that I strongly dislike the anime Mashle that it is used for. Their other big single this year – Otonoke – which was the opening theme for the wonderfully strange Dandadan is much better. I have been a fan of Creepy Nuts since I first heard them on the anime Yofukashi no Uta and many of their lesser known songs – at least in the west – are much better than the more popular ones in my opinion, but I don’t want to be a scrooge and say someone else’s fun is wrong either. If you’re completely unfamiliar with Creepy Nuts, definitely check them out. ‘Daten’ is my favorite song of theirs, if you’re wondering.

Manga

Although I didn’t read a ton of new manga this year, I did continue reading a lot of existing series or series I was already familiar with in some form. There are a couple I’d like to quickly mention.
First, let’s talk about the domain expansion in the room; Jujutsu Kaisen. I’ll be the first to admit that I genuinely really enjoyed the first half of the series. Everything up to and including Shibuya and its aftermath are some of the most fun I’ve had reading shonen. Once we got past that point, I felt like it got less interesting. The whole culling game arc didn’t quite do it for me and the final arc – I won’t go into spoilers – truly left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like a lot of setup was ignored for pure shock value and plot twists. It reminded me of Game of Thrones and that’s not a good thing.

Let’s talk about something I did enjoy. March comes in like a lion is one of my favorite anime and has been for a long time. I’ve never read the manga, but they did start publishing them in English, so in 2024 I finally started reading them. So far I’ve only been able to get the first four volumes, but they have reminded me how truly special this story is. Many stories try to address mental health problems and to different levels of success. None of them have ever managed to hit quite as hard as the depression and slow recovery that Kiriyama experiences throughout the story of March. If you have an afternoon and need to cry your eyes out, check out the anime or the manga for this wonderful story.

Anime

The big one. Probably the most interesting part about this post. Which anime stood out in 2024? Not a ton, if I’m perfectly honest with you. I’m forgoing sequels for this post, since most of the big sequels that happened this year already have my opinion on them written somewhere. Danmachi, Tensura, Re Zero, Bleach, Blue Lock, Tower of God, Banished from the hero’s party, Tsukimichi, Yuru Camp and Demon Slayer all had good seasons this year and if you haven’t watched any on this list yet, I suggest you at least check out a trailer and a description for them. If you feel left wanting more Tower of God, the webtoon is about four times as long as what the anime has covered so far and is one of my favorite stories ever. Now with that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about some anime from 2024 that you don’t want to miss out on.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

The manga for Frieren are sitting on my shelf behind me – still untouched – calling out to me. I first heard about this manga in a Gigguk video in which he talked about how it was such an incredible manga. I figured I’d check it out one day but never got to it, until the anime was announced. Frieren is an elven mage who traveled with the hero’s party, defeated the demon lord and saved the world. Then her party grew old and died in the blink of an eye. Now that she is alone again, she is slowly starting to realize how much that “mere 10 year adventure” truly meant to her. Traveling with the apprentices of two of her former party members, she is retracing her steps that she once took with the hero, and learning just how much impact she and her companions had on the world. It’s heartwarming, it’s funny, it’s beautifully animated and it truly makes you appreciate what life has to offer. There’s a reason it’s become a top 3 anime on most anime rating websites. 

Apothecary Diaries

Speaking of top 3 anime. A show that caught me by surprise and that I honestly missed out on at first is this next one. Maomao is a young woman who was kidnapped to work in the rear palace. She is soon singled out for her ability to read and incredible medicine and deduction skills. A force to be reckoned with, Maomao manages to impress everyone around her while helping out where she can. Her complicated relationship with Jinshi complicates things as the “creepy” man doesn’t match with her at all at first, but slowly the two grow closer while still keeping a professional distance. Mixing comedy, palace politics and beautiful animation and art makes for another anime that has quickly risen to the top of the charts and rightfully so. The fact that both these shows aired around the same time made it so that any season of anime afterwards felt lackluster in comparison. To make things even better, a second season of Apothecary Diaries is about to start, so now is a great time to catch up on the first season.

Kaiju No 8

A shonen about a man who failed to become a Kaiju hunter but then one day gets possessed by one and uses this power to help out humanity. No convoluted plot, no boring filler, just a very straightforward story about humans fighting monsters that does what it set out to do and doesn’t overstay its welcome. The manga for this one is great too, although the irregular release schedule makes it a bit difficult to recommend in its current form. I’d argue reading them on a volume by volume basis will be better. What makes this one extra fun is that the opening is sung by Yungblud – one of my favorite artists – and the ending theme is sung by OneRepublic. Both are bangers.

Spice & Wolf

Remaking a classic is always a risk, but I think the remake of Spice & Wolf landed well. As you all are well aware by now, I quite like this series, so seeing a modern version of the anime was always going to be a blast. It felt comfortable and even though I’ve consumed the story four different times by now, I still enjoyed seeing my favorite characters go through the motions again. Also seeing their daughter in some of the scenes, knowing that we likely won’t get to see that ever again was nice too. It made me want to read more of the novels beyond where I left off at volume 11

Solo Leveling

Alright, I don’t like early Solo Leveling that much. I absolutely love later Solo Leveling though. To put it into perspective, the first season basically covered everything that I consider to be boring. That does mean that if you find the first season to be even remotely interesting, you’re going to love the rest of this series. Another classic example of setting up the plot slowly and then delivering on every single aspect of it, Solo Leveling tells the story of the weakest E-rank hunter becoming one of the most powerful people alive wielding strange shadowy powers. Things keep escalating and the beautiful art in the manwha makes for an incredible read. I cannot wait for the second season which should start any day now.

Closing thoughts and a game recommendation

That was a lot. But to be fair, I did warn you at the start of this post, did I not? I plan to read and watch even more this year, but like many of my plans it’ll probably end up falling through. That’s okay though, plan big things, so you have something to work towards. I’m already halfway through the first book of the year, so there’s that. I also played the game Core Keepers last year. If you like Terraria, you’ll like this game too. If you’ve never played either, then check out Terraria first, it’s one of the best games ever made. In a year filled with fun content and the year that I finally got somewhat well versed in the Vtubing community, realizing there are some incredibly funny people hidden behind those avatars – shoutout to the time I randomly heard the computerized voice that Zentreya uses in a different setting and was thoroughly confused as to why I heard her speak before realizing that she’s probably not the only one to use that voice. Path of Exile II started early access and although I’ve only played a couple hours, it looks to be a great game. I replayed Bastion and enjoyed every second of it and I bought so many switch games that I won’t get bored for many many months. I will keep updating you here on fun stories, games, youtubers and other things I discover throughout the year while I’ll also work hard on my own writing. I firmly believe that a good story is one of the most important things we can create as people. (besides the actual things we need to survive, let’s not pretend artists are more valuable than bakers and carpenters) So with that all in mind, I’m going back to my video game. There is another trilogy of books I read this year, but I’ll talk more about that next week. Thanks for reading!

Late addition to the list

You thought I was done (and so did I) but I thought of something else I wanted to quickly mention. I went to Denmark during summer. I went and visited some friends of mine and putting the obvious anxiety aside, it was a lot of fun and I’d love to visit again. We played a fun game called “unstable unicorns” which is a card game with cute art on the cards. I loved it so much that I got it for myself as a Christmas gift. I also helped make Gyoza and ate it for the first time. It was bloody delicious. I’m a very picky eater and I’m quick to dislike new foods – I blame the ‘tism – but this very pleasantly surprised me. With a mushroom soy sauce to combo it with, it was probably the best new dish I tried this year. I want to try making it myself sometime, but when I remember how bad my actual gyoza looked after filling it compared to the others, maybe I shouldn’t. Okay I promise that was all.