Of the Year 2025
2026-01-01
Feeling: Honk shoo
Listening to: Still fondly considering the Project Diva f MV for World's End Dancehall by wowaka
I'm not gonna complicate this, here's just some short listings of things I enjoyed in 2025, in chronological order.
1000xRESIST (game, Sunset Visitor) really impressed me. Anything I could say about the writing would be a disservice because I'm not good enough with words, the story is incredibly raw and excellently performed the whole way through by really impressive voicework. The visual direction is incredibly striking too. As a game, it's really janky to play, but I think it's a story that really deserves to be experienced by anyone who has the slightest curiosity in it.
Firefly Wedding (manga, Tachibana Oreco) is still ongoing, but I was just really pleasantly surprised by it? It's a historical romance action josei with a yandere guy love interest who's actually fun and doesn't suck ass?? Mainly because he's a yandere directed at anyone who isn't his love interest and not just a gross abusive man dressed up in lovey-dovey language lol. Beyond that the main character is well written and real girlfriend hours, and there's some great action and drama. Excited to check back in on this periodically.
Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage (manga, Shinohara Chie) is admittedly kind of mid. It's a horror shoujo that starts incredibly strong, has a great slasher girlboss and some striking visuals. But the story's kinda uneven, it loses its luster the longer it goes, and I really didn't care for the villain. I just had a blast reading it and I don't even remember why I picked it up but I was just pleasantly surprised and had so much fun going through it. Really encouraged me to try to discover more series that I've never even heard about and nobody ever talks about because you might find something rewarding in there.
Small Saga (game, Darya Noghani) wasn't my favorite thing of the year, but I thought it deserved a shoutout. Just a really well-executed short throwback RPG that actually has a unique, interesting aesthetic identity and hook. The gameplay is pretty simple, with low numbers and low amount of resources, but it's fun, and the game has several great setpiece moments that I felt really captured that Square magic.
Sorry We're Closed (game, à la mode games) I think I've written about before? Silent Hill 3 is the Silent Hill for gay people but Sorry We're Closed is actually the Silent Hill 3 for gay people for real. Explicitly queer, evergreen lowpoly aesthetic, great story and cast and banger soundtrack. Gameplay's kind of janky, partially on purpose to evoke older survival horror stylings, but I found the tight precision required in the shooting at times kind of accessibility unfriendly unfortunately. Not sure if the game's been patched since, I brought it up in the feedback forums, but extremely worth experiencing nontheless.
Kamisama Kiss (manga, Suzuki Julietta) kicks ass. I watched its anime adaptions way back when they aired and finally got around to reading the manga and it's just as good as I remember it and even better. It's so funny, I was constantly posting panels and pages in my group chat as I was reading through it. The cast is great and romance really cute too. Absolute banger.
Basara (manga, Tamura Yumi) is like, a masterpiece. Absolute classic fantasy adventure, excellent "fated child unites the nation against an oppressive ruler" narrative. The drama is exquisite, the art is unreal, pacing that at times makes it feel like the pages are turning on their own. I'm still thinking about multiple moments that actually had me gasping. Please read Basara.
Angeline Era (game, Analgesic Productions) is the best game ever made maybe. I was worried I was hyping myself up too much for this game after recently falling in love with this studio's previous games Sephonie and Anodyne 2, but it absolutely met my expectations and I was delighted. The gameplay is so snappy and fun, the lowpoly graphics look amazing, and the soundtrack is perfect. This game is hilarious too, Angeline Era is a game that understands that dying in video games is really funny, and the writing is equally hilarious at times. Towards the end the story dives head-first into expected Analgesic contemplative, complicated life experiences subjects which might be a bit jarring for anyone who hasn't played their previous games, but I loved it.
Yona of the Dawn (manga, Kusanagi Mizuho) was a last-minute read that I picked up on a whim at the start of December when I heard its final chapter was releasing, and I promptly stayed up multiple nights reading through the entire thing. Man. Just solid, great fun fantasy adventure stuff that I think literally everyone would enjoy and my misandry grows stronger as I think about all the bad shonen series that get endless marketing and anime adaptions when there's excellent shoujo like this out there. Please read shoujosei manga.
That's all for this time I think. Once again I haven't been drawing much recently, this time because I noticed the cable, or possibly the plug itself on my tablet has gotten a bit loose and the screen power flickers if the cable gets shaken? I immediately ordered a replacement cable from XP Pen that didn't cost much and like worst case I guess I'll just have to buy a new tablet it's fine sometimes things break but it's kind of messed with my groove lol I don't want to touch the tablet... But I'm setting up a new computer this weekend which I reluctantly ordered last month since the RAM and GPU market is going nuclear because I've wanted to get a computer that isn't a potato for years and that is something that is only going to get exponentially more expensive in coming times. New year new start new setup etc I'll be back to drawing soon.
Photo Corner
Until next time!
