Usually anime is the most important thing that happens every year, but not this year. This was a year of music listening, replacing, sorting, rating and posting, alongside the books that allowed me to sit still and listen until the job was done. I've always listened to music and always read books, but never before to this extent. It completely took over my life.
It's a magnificent accomplishment, a list of 5500 songs, all vetted by listening to them over 100 times, such that there are no bad songs or remixes among them, for myself and the general public to enjoy hereafter. And with the helpful rating system, people can start at the top, the 5-stars only, and if they like them only then descend to the 4-stars, and so on. It's a chance to enjoy the world's greatest productions across all time and space.
I've been beavering away at this moment for six years, but through frenzied pacing managed to finish before the year-end summary was due. Now I can mark this year as the year, especially, of music.
Over the course of the year around a hundred great new songs entered my hall of fame, and almost as many left. The list I presented yesterday was greatly different than what I had at the beginning of the year, thanks to amazing new additions like the music of Octopath Traveler. The new songs were generally 4 or 5 star, while the old kicked out songs were all beneath even 1 star worth. The housecleaning led to a gigantic increase to the whole list's average worth.
By listing the composers in order of quality x quantity, instead of pure quantity, I was able to correct the stain on Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda's honor for not being listed as music's #1 and #2, with scores so much higher than everyone else. Motoi Sakuraba's prolific nature did help him out and earned him the #3 slot, but that's a far cry from the #1 he's had all this time until now.
Music only occupies the ears, something is needed for the eyes as well, but it has to be something silent. Only books fit the agenda, and boy did I read a lot of books. Let's just start with the fact that I re-read and re-edited my own book, 'In Another World With 100 Waifus,' six times, adding entire pages of new content, cutting hundreds of unnecessary usages of the word 'just,' switching out tons of inferior fictional character names for superior ones, etc. By the time I was done, on my 30th edition, the book was more fun to read than my first time. That's an unprecedented miracle as far as I know in the world of bookdom. If not for my music hall of fame, all the hard work I put into editing '100 Waifus' would be the headliner, but it was actually less hard work than I put into my music.
Once I've played Tales of Arise, I hope to improve '100 Waifus' one last time by adding the worthy characters of that game to my fictional character hall of fame, kicking out some unworthy Tales names that currently inhabit the slots. But first PS5's would have to stop being sold out at all times. Hopefully sometime in 2022?
But my book wasn't the only thing I was reading. Starting from this January, I've read new Haruhi Suzumiya, 12 Kingdoms, Grimgar, Outbreak Company, SAO, SAOAGGO, Xanth, Imouto Sae Ireba Ii, Bakemonogatari, Sekai no Senki, Bleach Can't Fear Your Own World, Wolf and Parchment, Spice and Wolf, Index GT, Hataraku Maou-sama!, Facing Reality, Ryuuou no Oshigoto, Eromanga Sensei, Unlimited Fafnir, No Game No Life, Red Wheel, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and re-read the old Lensman series.
And not just one or two volumes of all these series, in some cases like Ryuuou and Bakemonogatari more like 10. It was a treasure trove of great new books I'll never see the likes of again. A saved up explosion that has now fully exhausted its potential energies. In the case of Unlimited Fafnir and Outbreak Company I actually, finally, got to read the ending of their tales, and they were both really good. A satisfying ending is like discovering a city of gold, you thought they only ever existed in myth.
I also read tons of manga this year, which also have the benefit of being silent. Shadows House is the biggest new name on the block, but tons of old practitioners also did their part, like Edens Zero, UQ Holder, Saki, Hinowa ga Yuku!, Fairy Tail, One Piece and all the rest. In fact, I'm following over 100 manga series right now as they come out, and not a single one of them ended or was fully translated this year. It's rather mind-boggling. It leaves a lot to look forward to for 2022.
Visual novel translation speed has dropped to nigh zero this year, but I still read quite a few visual novels thanks to a saved-up backlog. I read the new and welcome Majikoi A-4 and Koikari, but also the old Fate/Hollow Ataraxia and To Heart2. All four were totally respectable, full of great art, story and characters. I can't rely on such a tactic in the future, I don't have a backlog anymore, but I won't need one. Soon, Trinoline Genesis will come out, then Aiyoku no Eustia, Majikoi A-5, Summer Pockets Reflection Blue and all the rest. 2022 will be the year of the visual novel. No matter how slow a translation is, when it's delayed an entire year like it has been, the floodgates have to open soon.
For movies and television I enjoyed the new Mortal Kombat and Dune movies, as well as the Hawkeye and Legend of El Cid tv shows. More often I was nonplussed by how bad American art was.
On the bright side there's always sports, and sports delivered in spades. The delayed Tokyo 2021 Olympics takes the highlight of the year, with America beating China for most total medals and most gold medals, keeping the streak alive. Suni Lee winning the individual women's gymnastics all-around gold was beautiful and inspiring to see. Many swimming records were broken. I saw many cool new skateboarding and cycling tricks. And the opening march of nations honored Japanese video game music composers by using their tunes in a medley. I couldn't have asked for more.
On top of the Olympics were the usual events, college football (Cincinnati is in the top four!), the NFL, March Madness (this time not cancelled!), etc. It was all much more fun than 2020. It was a long time ago, but it was amazing to watch the Trump supporter Tom Brady win the super bowl yet again with a brand new team, proving that he and he alone was the wellspring of success. His legacy is unquestionable now. Yes, that happened this year!
As for video games I had a great time with Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 as well as Octopath Traveler. The music was out of this world, but the plot, graphics and characters were also commendable. None of these games approached the god-like masterpieces of FF7 Remake, Dragon Quest XI, Valkyria Chronicles 4 or Dynasty Warriors 9, but you can't ask for that sort of thing to fall from the sky on a weekly basis. This was plenty.
I changed my top anime rankings to exclude short stories and moved them over to a place of honor of their own, the good movies hall of fame, where they now shine with new life as '#1.' Short stories can't compete with long-form works and they shouldn't have to. It's like using transgender swimmers in women's sports competitions. Now my top anime rankings, sorely lacking in personnel, can be steadily improved to a new state of equally good perfection from top to bottom in the years to come.
I rewatched a lot of those anime 'movies' this year, Gunbuster, In This Corner of the World, Read or Die, Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare, etc., and they were all really good. They deserve a spot of honor of their very own.
I also rewatched a ton of old anime, from the anime that entered my rankings earlier this year or in 2020, to ancient epics like Fate/etc., Fairy Tail, Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball, etc. At one point I'd actually managed to rewatch all great anime in my rankings, even up to the episodes that were currently releasing that week. It was a nice moment, but now of course I've fallen behind schedule again. I even went to the extreme of rewatching a bunch of shows for a third time when their blu-ray releases came out and gave me a good excuse to try them again. Galaxy Angel the most ancient among them, suddenly released in blu-ray after all this time.
As for the great anime that came out this year, I present 2021 in review:
How did 2021's great franchises stack up against each other and what were they?
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