#keep your hands off eizouken

In lieu of having anything else to post, here’s the J-Kroogz awards for ‘things I liked last year’. Maybe you might like some of them too.

Best video game: Umurangi Generation

Umurangi Generation is about being a photographer in apocalyptic cyberpunk New Zealand. It’s also about what it means to try and come to terms with the end of the world and maaaaybe not being able to do anything about it, which… might’ve resonated for some reason? It’s the most ‘2020’ game I played in 2020, and while it was originally inspired by the Australian bushfires, it serendipitously grew to encompass a lot of what went wrong in this weird, sometimes good, often awful year. Also, the soundtrack’s great!

Honourable mention: Half-Life Alyx

Half-Life 2 was what really got me deep into video games, way back in 2004. Sixteen years later, here’s a sequel, and it’s somehow incredible? VR games are good! More people should be into VR! The general Half-Life vibe of creepy minimalistic sci-fi machinery crossed with grungy, wintry Eastern European architecture is basically my happy place at this point, and getting to walk around in that world and shoot some zombies was genuinely breathtaking.

Best book: Exhalation

A sparkling collection of sci-fi short stories, each with a thought-provoking question at its core. Best of all, each story doesn’t just tackle these questions in the scientific or “logical” sense, but also explores how they might affect people emotionally, or spiritually – and it’s the characters’ responses to these sci-fi ideas that truly make each story infinitely engaging.

Honourable mention: Boy Swallows Universe

Every year I try and read one book that could arguably be described as ‘literature’, and this year, that honour goes to Boy Swallows Universe: a novel about a kid in 1980s Australia who gets mixed up in, shall we say, things kids should not get mixed up in. It’s got an excessively flowery style that I think is 80% great and 20% trying way too hard, but it’s also an exhilarating and emotional coming of age story that I ended up loving.    

Best anime: Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! (Season 1)

Eizouken is an imaginative, energetic exploration of what it means to create something: the joy of originality butting up against harsh reality, and the determination required to realise your vision versus the relief of finally sharing it with the world. (Okay, it does this by following a group of high school girls who form an anime club, but it rises above the vaguely meta premise with fantastic characters and an irresistible joy in the power of storytelling.)

Honourable mention: Haikyuu!! (Season 4)

I realise an anime about a high school volleyball team in Japan is a bit of a hard sell, but damn, if it isn’t the most heart-warming, life-affirming, hype-inducing thing I’ve ever watched. It might be my favourite piece of media after Star Wars (and I modelled my entire CAREER after Star Wars).

Best TV Show: What We Do in the Shadows (Season 2)

Probably the funniest show I watched in 2020, and for that alone, it gets top of the list! I suppose it’s “about” some medieval vampire housemates trying to survive in New York, but really, it’s “about” Matt Berry getting to say increasingly ridiculous lines while wearing increasingly ridiculous costumes.

Honourable mention: The Mandalorian (Season 2)

I wish The Mandalorian would aim for more than ’30 minutes of cool Star Wars action’ per week and not immediately shy away from the barest hint of an interesting conversation. Still, COOL STAR WARS ACTION is kind of enough to carry it, for now.

Best board game: Ech0

Ech0 is a role-playing game about kids playing in the wreckage of an old mech, finding the pilot’s ghost, and taking them to their final resting place. In the author’s words, it’s “about how we remember war, how we forget, and all that remains when the echoes fade.” A particularly unique and melancholic experience (that I probably won’t play very often, but I love that it exists).

Honourable mention: Wavelength

Wavelength is one of those ‘how well do you know your friends’ games, in which you’re given a range (say, useless to useful) and a number (say, 70% useful) and your task is to come up with a thing or short phrase that will get your team to guess that number. Is your friend’s shitty car 70% useful? Well, maybe. I hope your friend agrees.

Best movie: Portrait of a Lady on Fire

I watched, like, five movies in 2020, and I suppose this was the best? I didn’t fall head-over-heels for it as many other people did, but it’s still a wonderfully well-made movie that overflows with craft and emotion. Give it a shot if you like repressed lesbian romances in 18^th-century France, I guess, and a lot of the individual scenes are perfect.

Honourable mention: Soul

Pixar are still good at what they do.

I JUST CANT IM IN LOVE

i stand for this