Last year I made a series of posts for my favourite things in several categories, and I wanna do it again! These thing did not necessarily come out in 2023 and many of them didn't because I tend to catch up to things late. All that matter is they were part of my 2023. Also I will arbitrate on categories however I feel like it.

First up:

My Favourite Books of 2023

It's been a hell of a year for reading. I set an ambitious reading goal of 40 books, not too concerned with whether or not I actually hit it. I'm currently at 61 books, and likely to finish another one before the week's end. This doesn't even include manga because there's no real sensible way to "count" those. That said, these are some of my stand out picks:

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun

But I also really just enjoyed the meandering prose, swerving worldbuilding and Severian being a little weirdo. I have plenty of issues with the book as a whole, but it hit a real sweet spot for me. The one where I go "I like this with caveat... what if I made something inspired by it without those caveat". Thing are cooking, we'll see if fruit is borne of it. Because the conclusion of New Sun did not satisfy me. But the journey! It was something.

Martha Wells's All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy

These 4 novellas are included as one entry because each just felt like one particularly long podcast episode I slammed through in a short space of time. They're not dense or complicated stories, but Murderbot is a fun relateable character for someone who likes engaging with non humans grappling with whether they count as people, or if that's even what they want. I have not yet read on to the next installment, but I am looking forward to it.

Babel or the Necessity of Violence

This is just a great book. I went in with the barest of a pitch about linguistic silverwork evoking magic by incantation, with imperialim happening too. The route the book then takes is unexpected and fun, with a good core cast. Another case of an ending that didn't wow me, but it felt like it couldn't have done much else to maneuver around the way everything had been built up.

The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

I read this as part of a murder mystery book club, and it was a surprise in that context. Operating within the framework of a murder mystery story with some weird layers on top of it. The point of view character is dumped in a strange place and time, trying to get his bearings as he is tasked with solving a murder in a tense game where the rule themselves are obfuscated. I fully recommend checking it out if you like the mechanics of mystery plots and seeing it come together. This book has such ambitious moving parts, I can't vouch for the mystery being fully coherent as much as it does some interesting maneuvers within the set up.

I'm mixing movies and shows here, because the lines of most here get a little blurry. None of these are new for 2023 at all, they're probably not even particularly unexpected picks. But I got to them all this year, and each of them still hit for me.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Season 1)

I've been watching Gundam along with the Great Gundam Project for years now. Production order Gundam really peaked thus far with Turn A, but I was still having fun with (some) other shows. 00 is the first time in a while where fingers crossed it's been firing on multiple cylinders. It has a wide cast that actually gets balanced well and plays off each other in fun ways. I am only one season in, so we'll see what happens in the back half, but it's riding high currently, as long as it can avoid crashing and burning (like certain other shows).

Kara no Kyoukai

Another one I followed along with a podcast, for Fate Moon Archive a podcast about wading through 20 years of Type Moon. The journey has been up and down, even the popular hits are sometimes things I'm mixed on (Fate Stay/Night will never live up to the high points of Tsukihime).

Kara no Kyoukai is a series of movies about a weird knife girl and her bizarrely normal pet boy solving monster of the week cases while a hot milf smokes and explains the monster's backstory in voiceover. It's fantastic.

Putting Nasu's inventive worldbuilding into this structure is genius. I want a full procedural show in the vein of Angel about Shiki stabbing her way through a new problem every week. I fully believe Nasu would have a whole stack of ideas for this set up. Not every one of these was great but it was consistently a good time, with some fun highs and even enjoyable in the baffling lower moments.

PSYCHO PASS: Season 1 + The Movie

Psycho Pass the show is about a world where everyone has a score of their likelihood to perform criminal activity, and it's this level that leads people to be criminalised and punished accordingly. It's a good cop procedural with themes and sci fi ideas sprinkled throughout. The main character is technically a rookie new cop who had good enough scores she could've done anything but chose to be a cop. However for a good chunk of the show, the other protagonist, a gruff jaded veteran, starts to take over the spotlight.

The movie is an absolute banger. It's the stuff mentioned above, but it takes the conclusion of the first series further. The rookie protagonist I mentioned above gets a great arc and conclusion by the end of the movie. There's a cyborg mercenary who quotes Fanon. It has everything you could want from this movie.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Show + Rebellion

Madoka can be a victim of its own reputation, where some people (erroneously) try to say it's a magical girl show but dark. The real way to sell Madoka is that it's a magical girl show you can watch in 12 episodes + a movie. Probably 6 hours total, give or take. There's also a great aesthetic for how the witch fights look.

I otherwise can't truly say anything unique about Madoka, it's just good. A solid cast of girls struggling with monsters and self actualisation. Y'know, a magical girl show. If you haven't seen it, just pick it up and run. You truly can't undervalue a show being just 12 episodes long.

My friends: You sleep just flat on your back with your arms at your sides? That's so funny, you're like a dracula.
Me out loud: Ha ha, yeah.
Me in my head: