365 Days, 365 Songs - January

It's now time to reveal the first 31 songs that I purchased as part of my new year's resolution/all-year-long project. I didn't really have any special theme for January, only to just buy a variety of songs that have long been a staple in my listening habits. However, I was being a bit selective with my choices briefly at the start and at the end of the month. More details about that down below. And the 31 songs of January 2023 are:

America - "A Horse With No Name"

Belinda Carlisle - "Circle In The Sand"

Belinda Carlisle - "Heaven Is A Place On Earth"

Belinda Carlisle - "I Get Weak"

The Brothers Johnson - "Stomp!"

Camouflage - "The Great Commandment"

Cascada - "Evacuate The Dancefloor"

Chumbawamba - "Tubthumping"

DA PUMP - "U.S.A."

Dana Dawson - "Romantic World"

Deon Estus - "Heaven Help Me"

The Doobie Brothers - "What A Fool Believes"

Evanescence - "Bring Me To Life"

Extreme - "More Than Words"

Gang Of Four - "Is It Love"

Jaki Graham - "Step Right Up"

Jasmine Guy - "Just Want To Hold You"

Jermaine Stewart - "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off"

Keith Richards - "Struggle"

King Kobra - "Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)"

Michael Stanley Band - "He Can't Love You"

Pablo Cruise - "Love Will Find A Way"

Public Image Ltd. - "Rise"

The Reverend Horton Heat - "In Your Wildest Dreams"

Shannon - "Let The Music Play"

Split Enz - "I Got You"

Steely Dan - "Do It Again"

Steely Dan - "Reelin' In The Years"

Styx - "Mr. Roboto"

Tommy Shaw - "Girl With Guns"

When In Rome - "The Promise"

As I said in the intro article for this project, iTunes was nice enough to kick off 2023 by focusing on rock songs for their biweekly $0.69 sale. Not willing to let a good deal go away, my first eight songs were part of that sale. Not my ideal way to start off this project (I was originally gonna have the first song be DA PUMP's "U.S.A.") but it ended working out in a different way.

For you see, the first song ended up being When In Rome's "The Promise". Why a 80's pop song was part of a rock song sale, I don't know. That aside, I have always loved "The Promise" ever since I was a teen. I was really into 80's music at the time, greatly helped by VH1 specials, endless watching of VH1 Classic, and listening to The Buzz 104.5, my then local 80's radio station. I discovered "The Promise" on that very radio station, where it would routinely play and always captured my full attention. Once I figured out the artist and song title (ah, the old days before Shazam), I tried to get the song, only to not find it easily on CD or on any 80's music compilation. I also couldn't download it illegally at the time because my older brother got us banned from Napster because of the Metallica fiasco and Kazaa and Limewire didn't exist yet. So, I paid $5 to one of my friends to download it along with some other songs for me and burn it to a CD. I put it the CD in, eventually got to "The Promise", only to find out my friend downloaded an incomplete version that only goes 56 seconds. It literally ended right before the first chorus! I told my friend about it when it came time for a second CD, only to get the exact same incomplete version. Eventually, Kazaa became a thing, so I was now able to get my own songs and burn my own CDs, with the first one of course featuring a complete version of the song that I personally checked and downloaded.

I don't care how cheesy it is, I will always love "Mr. Roboto". I mean come on, it was my first taste of the Japanese language and heavy 80's synthesizers. And whenever I listen to it, I always recall the famous 90's Volkswagen commercial it was in, where a goofy guy (a then unknown Tony Hale) is talking and wildly acting out in a vehicle in a silent mall parking lot, only for his buddy to open the door and cause the song to loudly escape.

As with everybody's childhood, there were a lot of visits to the doctor or the dentist or the barber that I had to endure. And of course, I also had to endure their waiting rooms. The slow waiting, the crummy magazines, the crappy chairs, the little to no entertainment unless you wanted to watch shitty daytime programming or play with baby toys. But as I often stewed in those chairs, I would prick up my ears and began to take mental notes on the music that was playing. Eventually, I would remember tracks and have some favorites. That's how I became very fond of "A Horse With No Name". When I eventually decided to check out Steely Dan later on as an adult, I realized that "Reelin' In The Years" was another one of those waiting room favorites. As for "Do It Again", I must have heard it back then but I have no mental proof of it. I mainly associate it with Guitar Hero World Tour. However, there is another Steely Dan classic that was a waiting room favorite but it sadly wasn't on sale, so we will have to wait on that one.

If ever there was a song that can best encapsulate my teen years, specifically when I was in high school, it would be Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life". Dear lord, that song was everywhere and pretty much everybody, from the cool to the uncool, had an affinity for it. Forget Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, this song was the peak of nu metal. I'm happy it has lived on and remains very popular to this day, often helped by many of an internet meme.

"Tubthumping" was probably my favorite song of 1997 and I foolishly bought Chumbawamba's Tubthumper just for it. If you haven't already guessed, yes, I am a big fan of one-hit wonders. And holy crap, "Tubthumping" was a love it or hate it song because other than being overplayed on the radio and MTV/VH1, it was featured in practically every single movie commercial in 1997. Also, I strangely always remember the Pete Postlethwaite intro on the album version of the song but always forget the weird outro that kinda ruins it. Seriously, only buy or listen to the single version.

"More Than Words" was one of those songs that I heard a lot as a kid but it never really stuck with me, not really until it became a titled tune for CD compilations and featured prominently in their television commercials. I really like the song but I have a hard time nowadays separating it from the infamous bomb The Love Guru, where Mike Myers bizarrely/stupidly does a serious cover of it for supposed laughs.

Oh man, I was so, so happy when I discovered that Jasmine Guy's "Just Want To Hold You" was now available to purchase. Yes, that Jasmine Guy, the actress from A Different World and Cats Don't Dance. I burned this little R&B gem on to a CD as a teen and would often play it, before it was eventually transferred to my iPod and was frequently listened on there. I recently just found out that the guy she sings with right near the end of the song is none other than James Ingram!

Another "now available" tune I was happy to see is Dana Dawson's "Romantic World". I only discovered it last year but I watched the music video for it a lot on YouTube. Not well known at all here in the States but it was huge in France in the early 90's.

When I was getting knee deep in my love of one-hit wonders, of course I came across and instantly fell for "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off". Absolute 80's banger that has thankfully outlive that later dreadful Gym Class Heroes song that sampled it. I'm more of a fan of the single version of the song, as the album version has a Prince-like talking sequence that's kinda off-putting.

When I was really into anime as a teen, I would often stay up far into the night every Friday and change the channel to Showtime Beyond. There, I would watch the likes of Dirty Pair Flash or a movie/OVA from Central Park Media or an episode or two of the non-anime Shadow Raiders (aka War Planets). But before I could, Showtime Beyond would often air a promo video for the channel set to The Reverend Horton Heat's "In Your Wildest Dreams".

No, George Michael didn't sing "Heaven Help Me". Deon Estus did. But George Michael does do the backing vocals for the song, as a favor for his backing vocalist at the time. Unfortunately for Estus, though this choice helped the song get play on the radio, many people still think it is a George Michael song.

Remember Last.fm? For those you don't, it was a free music service where you could essentially create your own radio station by adding you favorite songs and having them play in shuffle form with included ad breaks. You also could listen to an auto-generated station of recommended songs. Hence how I discovered and fell in love with Jaki Graham's "Step Right Up". And then Last.fm completely fell apart by bad decisions and the introduction of Spotify.

I remember when "U.S.A." first dropped and became a surprise hit in Japan back in 2018, and also it being a viral fad later in the United States mainly due to the signature "Shoot" dance featured in its music video. I wanted to check the song out but I didn't until two years later where it would become my top song of 2020 on Spotify. Often nowadays, it's my most played J-pop song in Japanese music rhythm video games.

Belinda Carlisle. A pretty underrated pop diva, as ridiculous as it sounds. I mean come on, she was the lead singer/cover girl of a very famous all-girl rock band, had a successful first solo album, and then had an even more successful second album with three top ten singles including a number #1 hit. On the other hand, she didn't sell out or really budge from the music she wanted to make after that success, proceeding onward into the 90's with some less than ideal singles and albums in America but earning a second life and fruitful career in the UK.

Originally, I was only gonna go with just one song from Carlisle: "Circle In The Sand". First discovered it through Last.fm, then became a music video favorite on YouTube. But when I was about to buy it, I noticed that "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" and "I Get Weak" were on sale. So I bought all three.

Honestly though, "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" is a stone cold favorite of mine and a lifelong single in my life. I had to heard/love the song as a kid because when I went got the CD compilation More Pure 80's and put that track on, as soon as I heard the opening "Ooh, baby...", it felt like a huge dam just exploded in my mind.

"I Get Weak" had a different road in my life, as I do remember hearing it frequently when I was a kid. I always associated with the hair salon I would go to at my local mall, where it seemingly played there every time I went. Never knew who sang it but always remembered the chorus. "I Get Weak" is also the first Diane Warren song to appear in this project and I do expect her to pop up again.

"What A Fool Believes" was another waiting room favorite. I always really loved the chorus and would often silently sing it to myself or do a mocking version of it. I would also hear it here and there as a kid, especially on adult contemporary radio stations which were my parents' stations of choice. Now it has become one of my favorite songs of all time.

Keith Richards certainly is not a singer and his solo stuff isn't well known. But I adore "Struggle". I love it simply because of its opening guitar riff. I first discovered the tune thanks to Saturday Night Live. No, I didn't watch the 1988 season premiere as a kid where he memorably performs it. But I did see the performance back when Comedy Central was actually good and would air old episodes of the show including the musical performances.

Be prepared to see more yacht rock in the future but pretty much none of them can conquer the king that is Pablo Cruise's "Love Will Find A Way".

As weird as it sounds, one of my favorite television shows of all time is a hourlong block of music videos. Specifically, a block named We Are The Eighties which aired on VH1 Classic. This was my literal jam. I would watch it whenever it was on, most notably every morning before I had to catch the school bus. And I can't count the sheer amount of times where I would scramble to find a pen and paper to write down artists and songs or thought I could mentally remember them. What made the show so great was the utter variety of music videos; it wasn't just the usual heavy hitters of the 80's or the most overplayed videos. To draw up an example, you would see a video from A Flock of Seagulls, followed by Del Fuegos, Kate Bush, Boys Don't Cry, Simple Minds, Dramarama, and Alison Moyet.

Unfortunately, at some point, the corporate overlords of VH1 Classic began to alter and destroy the channel and my beloved We Are The Eighties was heavily affected. It then started to be nothing but the big hits of the 80's, eschewing all of the great oddities and little seen music videos. There were now more commercial breaks and pathetic consumeristic integration. I vividly remember one of the last times I watched the show: They came back from commercials, aired Cameo's "Word Up!", which had "Buy This on iTunes!" banners at the beginning and ending of the video, and then went to commercials.

But I will always cherish those years I had with that show. My only remaining proof of that time are those beloved burned CDs of mine filled with songs I discovered thanks to the programmers at VH1 Classic. So if you're wondering why Camouflage, Gang of Four, Public Image Ltd., Split Enz, and Tommy Shaw are here, it is all because of We Are The Eighties. And even more of those discoveries will be coming to this project.

I kinda wish I discovered Michael Stanley Band's "He Can't Love You" via VH1 Classic but alas I found and fell in love with it via compilation videos of 80's music on YouTube. Fun fact: "He Can't Love You" was the 47th music video to air on the first day of MTV.

And the 31st song goes to King Kobra's "Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)", the very cheesy title track to the 1986 action film/ripoff of Top Gun. And if you felt bad for Louis Gossett Jr. while watching that movie, wait till you see him in the official music video for the song.

365 Days, 365 Songs - Introduction

Everybody tries to follow through on their New Year's resolutions. Join a gym, lose weight, get a new job, move to a new place, go somewhere, etc. Of course, most people fail at them pretty quickly, especially if the goal is too unobtainable, has a time limit, or they just plain forget about it. This year, I have six resolutions I wish to achieve, all of which are pretty easy to do. However, even I'm about to fail one of them come February 1st largely due to my time management, the allure and excitement for Fire Emblem Engage, and a significant lack of utilizing Netflix. For those wondering, this resolution is to watch at least one premiering Netflix film in their given month. To make matters worst, this is a redo, as I tried to do this last year and also beefed it!

Thankfully, I'm currently still on course with one of my main resolutions: to make each day of 2023 special, I plan on buying one song from Apple iTunes per day. Hooray for consumerism!

So why would I want to do this? Like anyone, I love music but I have been a cheapskate and a swindler with it for quite some time now. Instead of actually buying songs or albums from digital storefronts, or even daring to be like the cool kids and download stuff illegally, I more often than not just listened to them or watched their music videos on YouTube, over and over again. Yes, I did buy CDs back when they were still a thing but even with the convenience of iTunes, I just shied away from buying music for no good reason. And then Spotify had to come in and give me even more of an incentive. Just how bad has this affected me? It has largely been a thing since my college years, where I would stupidly refuse to buy anything from iTunes unless I got an Apple iTunes card as a gift. What a total goof I was.

Now anyone can just go on a spending spree and buy 365 songs in a small amount of time. To make the resolution matter more, I set up some ground rules. They are as followed:

1. I must buy one song from iTunes per day.

Pretty basic and easy to understand. If there are any special sales on iTunes or I might have future plans to travel and/or be offline, purchasing songs in advance is allowed. This has already has been implemented, as there was a very convenient sale on rock songs for $0.69 each at the start of the year.

I'm also not going to penalize myself or fail the resolution if I forget to buy a song one day. All that really matters in the end is that I have a full playlist of 365 songs to represent the 365 days of the year by 11:59 PM on December 31st 2023.

2. Each song has to be meaningful to me. It can't just be a random purchase.

There are a lot of songs that mean the world to me. They helped shaped my life. They're forever tied with special memories. Or simply they moved me so emotionally that they have an eternal place in the jukebox in my mind. And yet, I don't have them in my purchased digital music collection. So I'm going to try and rectify that slight, especially if I have put off purchasing them for a long time.

To keep this rule pure, I refuse to buy songs mainly just for the sake of it. For example, The Eagles' "Take It Easy". Yeah, unlike The Dude, I enjoy the song but it doesn't mean much to me. I could make the case that it is meaningful because it always reminds me of a 90s television commercial for a local radio station that featured a snippet of the song's chorus. But that's really it. On the other hand, I do have certain memories and stories in regards to "Hotel California" and "I Can't Tell You Why".

3. Full albums can not count.

Quickly filling up the list with a bunch of albums is just incredibly lame, even if they happen to be some of my favorite albums of all time. Prince's Diamonds & Pearls? Daft Punk's Discovery? The Beastie Boys' License To Ill? KMFDM's Nihil? HAIM's Days Are Gone? Kate Bush's Hounds of Love and The Sensual World? All amazing, all meaningful to me, and all obtained through legal means (copying from CDs or free downloads through local libraries).

But that also means that I have not digitally purchased them. Rather than buying them now just to fill out the playlist or even select a song or two from them, I want to treat them with the respect they and other albums deserve and just purchase them separately.

4. No songs released in 2023 can count.

Pretty straight forward. Another easy way to just pad out the list. Even if let's say a special memory is created this year for me with a 2023 song, there are just so many other older songs and memories that richly deserve the spotlight.

That pretty much sums everything up. Now that I let this out of the bag, I'm of course not just going to keep the rest of this resolution/project to myself. So, at the end of each month this year, I will reveal all of the songs that I purchased and explain the significance of them. To spice up matters, some months will feature a special theme. For example, one of my favorite national selection competitions for Eurovision, Sweden's Melodifestivalen, runs through every Saturday next month so expect February's list to be filled with a lot of Melopop. And of course, I hope you enjoy this journey through my musical heart and maybe find a new song or two or an old favorite to add to your own personal music collection.

Initial Reaction to the 2022 Oscar Nominations

Once again, I'm back in the saddle to react to the Oscar noms. No big emotions either way on any of them. They were all pretty much what I expected.

I am glad Everything Everywhere All At Once got the headlines with the most Oscar nominations (11) but I do kinda feel that it will not win Best Picture. It thankfully will not suffer a shutout as Quan is a definite lock for Best Supporting Actor. I was very happy that Jaime Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu got in for Best Supporting Actress

Dear lord, I've been monitoring the awards train for All Quiet On The Western Front as it prepared to make its final stop at the Academy but I didn't expect it to transform into a Thomas The Tank Engine-like superbeast! It didn't get the most nominations (tying with Banshees with 9) but it felt like it was nominated in every single category. That's what happens when your movie title starts with an A!

Babylon go rightfully shafted. I chuckled whenever I read or heard from the "awards experts" saying it would definitely get in for Best Picture. People actually need to see it, like it and like Damien Chazelle again before that could have happened. In fairness, I am glad it got in for Production Design, Costume Design, and Score. Sucks that Margot Robbie didn't get Best Actress but we will get to that category in a bit.

Oh no, the shock, the horror at Black Panther 2 not getting a Best Picture nom! Seriously, the movie is popular but not Top Gun: Maverick popular. It made a lot of money but there really wasn't any truly meaningful conversation about the movie itself outside of Angela Bassett. Please let her finally get an Oscar!

Women Talking was highly talked about all through last year among critics. Unfortunately for the movie, those were the only people who really cared about it quite frankly. I knew it was too dark and depressing for the Academy but hey at least they got in for Best Picture.

Now, as for the controversy surrounding Best Director. Yes, it does suck that there is not a single female director nominated after two back-to-back wins in the category. It would have been cool if someone like Sarah Polley was there. But you must always remember that the Oscars is and always will be a popularity contest amongst a closed knit industry. Though there should be diversity in the big name categories, that doesn't mean the Academy must always leave a spot open just for the sake of a token appearance.

James Cameron didn't get a nom for Best Director. The fact that that snub is being talked about in the same breath as the no women directors discourse is so unbelievably hypocritical.

I'm happy for the somewhat surprise success of Triangle of Sadness. I wish Charlbi Dean or Woody Harrelson would've gotten nominated though. And yes, I would rather have Dean in contention over Dolly de Leon.

Hooray for Paul Mescal getting in for Best Actor. And though he's in the traditional British actor/career thespian nom slot, I'm happy that Bill Nighy finally got to be noticed by the Academy. Where were they after Love Actually came out?

No Tom Cruise for Best Actor but that was expected.

Ana de Armas?! She's one of my favorite actresses working today but come on, the Academy. We as a true blue American society have tried to forget that Blonde was ever a thing.

Oh, Andrea Riseborough got nominated. Interesting.

Yeah, I'm not really shocked about the Riseborough nom. If you were following Hollywood news and gossip lately, you would have already heard about the sudden and very loud social media praise she was getting in the last couple of weeks, most notably from many very big actors and actresses.

The Woman King completely snubbed, including Viola Davis. This despite that movie being one of the very, very few profitable awards season movies last year. No Danielle Deadwyler for Till also sucks.

Please let this not be the only time Brian Tyree Henry gets Oscar love.

I do pour one out for Paul Dano losing out in Best Supporting Actor but Judd Hirsch is just so great in the few scenes he's in.

No Janelle Monae! Okay, I take back the "no big emotions" remark. That's some bullshit right there.

Surely, the Oscars would give a lot of love to Jordan Peele and Nope, right? Insert Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley gif here. Honestly, I knew the Academy would not treat that movie well, to the point that I just plain forget that it was snubbed until some critics pointed it out in their reaction articles. I roll my eyes at anyone who really though Keke Palmer had a chance but the fact that the movie didn't get a nom for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound is pretty astounding.

No Inu Oh or Mad God for Best Animated Feature. Kinda prefer one of those over Puss In Boots 2.

Decision To Leave, Saint Omer, Plan 75, The Quiet Girl and Bardo all missed out in Best International Feature. Shame about that. Well, except for Bardo of course.

No RRR for Best International Feature is a complete shocker, considering all of the hype and chatter it had last year. At least it's there for Best Song. Which leads too...

No Taylor Swift! Hooray! Now if only Rihanna and Lady Gaga weren't there as well. Seriously though, I like/love those three but their movie songs all had issues.

Of course Diane Warren found a way to get in. Remember what I said about the Oscars being a popularity contest?

My Year of Dicks. What a title! And what a great audience break for that during the nomination reveals. Only for it to get better when it is followed by An Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I Think I Believe It.

No Top Gun: Maverick for Best Cinematography! Are you freaking kidding me?! Look, I love Roger Deakins, but Empire of Light being nominated over Top Gun is ridiculous.

Hey, remember She Said? No? The Academy didn't either.

That about does it. Come back in March for my predictions which I obviously will fail at.

Anime Watch of 2022

2022 was pretty monumental for the anime industry, especially here in the United States. After much stalling and people lamenting when the other shoe would drop, it was announced in March that Sony would consolidate their anime brands. Funimation, the long time anime distributor and licensor company which had survived both the 90s anime rush and the mid-to-late 00's dark age of anime, would be consolidated with Sony's streaming service Crunchyroll. All of Funimation's current acquisitions and airing shows? Now premiering on Crunchyroll, including the dubs. Their back catalog? Slowly being added throughout the year. The online store? Also consolidated with Crunchyroll's. The home video releases? All now under the new name and sporting the Crunchyroll logo. And their current streaming platform? Still up as of January 2023 but no new titles and will eventually be sunset.

I get it, the Crunchyroll name and brand is more well known across the globe but it does still suck. Despite their own history of issues, I've always liked and trusted the Funimation brand; whenever I saw their logo pop up before something, it would make me smile and give me some assurance that everything would relatively be in good hands. Unfortunately for me and everybody else, there were far more things that sucked with the Crunchyroll "takeover". First, most obviously because of the merger, Sentai Filmworks removed many of their exclusive titles from the Crunchyroll platform by the end of March, including several big shows such as the first two seasons of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Then to further conquer the anime market and beef up their frankly poor online store presence, Crunchyroll bought up the popular anime online retailer Right Stuf in August and did the obvious corporate decision by immediately jettisoning their adult section. And finally, to hurt even more feelings and cause a lot of controversy, the company in September chose to not renew voice actor Kyle McCarley's contract to voice the main character of hugely popular show Mob Psycho 100 largely due to him being a member of SAG.

All of that sucked but unless you wanted to enter pirate waters to watch anime, you just had to swallow it and move on. And the thing is, at least with me, it wasn't really that bad. I was very concerned about the merger especially since I had a yearly subscription to both Funimation and Crunchyroll. Thankfully, Crunchyroll was aware of this issue with many of their subscribers and thanks to the very helpful customer service department, I have a free subscription until December 2023. Though they took over Right Stuf, non-adult business is still usual and Crunchyroll hasn't prevented any of their competitors from having their products be listed. However, though I am happy that a lot of the Funimation crew and cast are still being retained, I do really wish that Crunchyroll start to take voice acting and unions more seriously.

Now enough about Crunchyroll, what about the anime of 2022? Well, as I said up top, is was pretty monumental. Spy x Family and Chainsaw Man were the two most popular new shows of the year and crossed over with a lot of non-anime fans. Romantic comedies were all the rage led by the pretty surprising success of My Dress-Up Darling. Netflix and Studio Trigger's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners surprised everyone by actually being very good, so much so that it helped spur sales of the infamous video game it's based on. Several cult gems popped up and became the most talked titles of the year, such as Lycoris Recoil, Bocchi The Rock!, and the non-licensed Summer Time Rendering. Many shows returned with another season, Urusei Yatsura got a modern remake, Bleach came back, Blue Lock made Americans interested in soccer and people started to care about Gundams again with Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. And then you have the rich collection of anime movies that all quite surprisingly got theatrical releases here in the States, including One Piece Film Red, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Jujutsu Kaisen Zero, The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island and Teasing Master Takagi-San: The Movie.

Of course, not everything was truly rosy. Some of the new seasons/parts ended up being huge disappointments. The most notable examples: the second seasons of The Rising Of The Shield Hero, The Devil Is A Part Timer!, and Rent-A-Girlfriend; the second part of Ranking Of Kings; and the final season of Attack On Titan. People were rolling their eyes and mocked the heavily censored World's End Harem and Harem In The Labyrinth Of Another World. The highly anticipated anime adaptation of Lucifer And The Biscuit Hammer was so bad it created a ton of vitriol online not seen since The Promised Neverland Season 2 (wait, no, there was no second season). And truly the worst thing to happen last year for anime, worst than anything you can say about Crunchyroll, voice actor Billy Kametz passed away shortly after revealing that he had been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.

As for myself in 2022, well, though everything eventually worked out with the Funimation-Crunchyroll merger, the drama of it all coupled with my declining interest in watching anime let alone television in general hurt my anime watch. Of the six titles I mentioned at the end of my Anime Watch of 2021 article that I planned on viewing, I only saw half of them. I stupidly skipped out on Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man, Love After World Domination, and Shikimori's Not Just A Cutie even though I'm a fan of their respective manga. Did the same skip with The Genius Prince and Trapped In A Dating Sim despite being a fan of the light novel series, especially of the former. I couldn't stupidly bring myself to spend $5 for at least one month for Hi-Dive just to view Call Of The Night and most egregiously Season 3 of Teasing Master Takagi-San. And despite my praise for them in the past, I didn't watch the latest seasons of Uzaki-Chan Wants To Hang Out! and Welcome To Demon School! Iruma-kun. I spent more time last year caring about watching anime on the movie theater than I did on my computer or television. Fun note: I literally planned on making a long drive to Boston in order to see Teasing Master Takagi-San: The Movie, this despite again not even attempting to watch Season 3!

Since I like to capture my thoughts and feelings, I once again decided to create a list of my watched anime shows, starting from what I dubbed were the best and traveling all the way down to the ones that left me angry and/or stupefied. The rules of the list are the same: The overall quality of the show and my personal response to it are the major factors towards their rank. However, other additional factors such as replayability, voice talent, and lasting impact can help sway their placing. Only new shows/new viewings count; rewatches are immediately disqualified and if I watch a show that I already started, only the continuing unwatched episodes will be reviewed. I treat and grade all series fairly, even ones that I haven't actually finished or may not choose to finish. If you see a * next to the title, that means I had a limited sampling of the show or didn't complete the series/franchise fully.

1. My Dress-Up Darling

2. Komi Can't Communicate (Season 2)

3. How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom (Part 2)

4. Kotaro Lives Alone* [eps. 1-2]

5. Knight's & Magic* [eps. 1-5]

6. Absolute Duo* [eps. 1-6]

7. Trinity Seven* [eps. 1-3]

So, where do I go from here? Well, my number one thing to do in 2023 is definitely watch Spy x Family. Regardless if my anime fever remains low, I just have to watch that show. I definitely also want to watch Season 3 of Iruma-kun, maybe after rewatching Season 2 with the English dub. I do want to turn things around and watch more anime but I don't want to force it. On other hand, I don't want to watch something just when I happen to have a sudden interest in it, as that was my strategy in the second half of 2022. I'll certainly figure something out and not lose sleep on it. Besides, even if I don't watch anything in the first three months of this year, I'm not losing any money for it plus there are several titles I'm looking forward to come April. Hopefully you get to hear my thoughts on those and more next January.

Best To Worst Films of 2022

2022... was a year. Yeah, I know that's not really a catchy way to start recapping last year. It's also a little insulting to describe it that way, especially considering how we all sadly had to experience Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing war of attrition in that region, and how a lot hearts and minds on the issue are fading away thanks to distractions, disinformation and other problems. Plus, we still had the stinking shit the Supreme Court left us with, not to mention the continuing misadventures of frivolous anger and pathetic nonsense being spouted out and promoted in public and online. But maybe it's just me being a bit too hopeful but I felt that 2022 saw us starting to turn a corner on several key issues and troubles. We're not back where we used to be but for the most part we have adapted and rebuilt a lot of lost and new ground.

The same can sorta be said about the film industry. Okay, now that's maybe me being a little too hopeful. For you see, with every big positive gained for cinema last year, there was an even huger negative. The general public returned to the movie theaters, giving them the pleasure of experiencing some great displays of entertainment while also giving the studios and theater chains some much needed box office revenue. However, the public is now far more selective on what they want to watch and how to view it (why pay a premium to bring the family to see that crappy animated spaceman movie when it will come to Disney+ sooner rather than later?). This new smarter thinking led to some pretty big box office bombs and too many dry months at the cinema. Genre fans got to rejoice heavily, as many anime films, horror films, and other titles with cult appeal got to hang out with the big kids in theaters and often stole their thunder with good returns, long runs, and/or the privilege of ruling the top spots in a given weekend. And sure, let's also give the Christian film industry some love (much to my chagrin) as they too performed better than anticipated. This is all fine and dandy for fans of the niche but with theaters now only catering to the small but loyal and big but fickle audiences, anyone can see that there's a huge lack of normal, easily pleasing B-level movies being offered up. You know, the kind that really keep movie theaters a float because people often want to go out and have a good night by seeing something simpler? We got a few winners here and there (Barbarian, Ticket To Paradise) but this fare either died a swift death like Bros and Easter Sunday or were relegated to streaming only. As for the streaming side... yeah, even with the surprising success stories like RRR and Prey, streaming didn't really have much positives last year.

I mean, come on, you had Netflix suffering a huge drop in viewers in one quarter, which reverberated so thoroughly throughout the nation that it hit them hard on Wall Street and now have people questioning the whole streaming industry in general. Then you had HBO Max destroying all their good will thanks to new CEO David Zaslav and an upcoming merger, with the former writing off two nearly completed movies (plus a cult animated series) as tax write-offs, removing a ton of HBO Max exclusive movies, series and even Looney Tunes in order to avoid rights fees, and just being an overall asshat to the public. Then there's Disney, oh boy oh boy Disney. They sharply canceled the theatrical run of Turning Red and brought it to Disney+, where it becomes a big hit with critics and audiences, meaning no new money for the Big Mouse. Their supposed red hot titles for theaters Lightyear and Strange World become the biggest laughingstocks of the year. The company again falls into the same trap with the lack of a theatrical run for Hocus Pocus 2. They start to poison the well of Disney+ with the likes of Pinocchio and Disenchanted. And just when we thought we saw everything, Bob Iger elbows his way back into the company!

As for more bad film news in 2022, there was the continuing nonimpact of the Sundance Film Festival. The Golden Globes went private with no one really caring that much. The Oscars became a big fiasco, first with the announced decision to "cut" eight full categories in order to "save ratings" only for the actual show to shamble about until The Slap ruined the night. Films annoyingly become way too long as the year went on, with even the simplest film now being at least over two hours long. The Japanese film industry experienced their own day of reckoning when harsh accusations hit acclaimed directors Sion Sono and Naomi Kawase. The legacy of Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi is on the verge of being torn to shreds after he's indicated of plagiarizing the idea of A Hero from one of his students. Don't Worry Darling quickly changes from a highly anticipated movie to a bomb waiting to happen thanks to a poor showing at Venice, salacious tabloid and online drama, and of course "Spitgate". And in very worrying news for movie studios and auteurs, the American public chose to avoid nearly all of the Oscar bait and awards hopeful movies in theaters during the fall season, thus leading to an uncertain future for those months and certainly another poorly viewed Oscars.

Wow, I really laid out a lot of bad stuff that happened last year. Thankfully, none of it really affected my personal life. 2022 was a frankly okay year for me, as I mainly just coasted through all of the ups and downs that came up. Nothing was taken off my bucket list but I got to do more stuff with friends and family and enjoyed celebrating several people's milestones in life. I unfortunately did get COVID at one point but it thankfully came and went, save for an annoying cough and mucus buildup that took a while to get rid of. While that sucked, the "worst" thing that really happened to me was the now recent closure of my beloved Replay, one of the few remaining independent movie stores in my area. I racked up my credit cards to buy all of the DVDs and Blu-rays that I had put aside for a rainy day purchase or whatever was still hanging around, leaving the store several times with literal boxes of the stuff. But my love for movies didn't just end there. Thanks to Regal Unlimited, I got to savor going to the movie theaters more often than I did for the past two years and turned a profit on my subscription. Unfortunately, even with the increase in cinema visiting, I missed out on many big titles, the worst skips being Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Regardless, I do truly treasure the cinema experience as it has really become my main source in movie watching. I don't sit down and view a ton of movies at home like I used to, often now being distracted by YouTube, Twitch and video games, so I try to overcompensate by making an effort to visit the movie theaters as much as I can. Maybe I'll do more of that this upcoming year.

My final total of 2022 films that I watched is 28. Oh hell yeah! Bust out the champagne because I'm still increasing my year-to-year movie count! And as is now my new tradition, I will arrange the films in the order of my opinion of them, from the best to the worst.

(EDIT: So I sadly never really got around to getting all of my thoughts down for this article. Rather than leave this further in draft limbo, I decided to post what I have digitally written down. Again, sorry it's not up to par with the my previous Best and Worst lists.)

First up... a true top ten films of the year! Now granted, the first eight films were definite locks while the last two films were added to truly make it a top ten list. On the other hand, #9 and #10 do deserve their placements as they both surprisingly stuck with me throughout the year.

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once

2. Top Gun: Maverick

3. Belle

4. Pearl

5. Nope

6. The Menu

7. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

8. Fire Of Love

9. Pompo The Cinephile

10. Triangle Of Sadness

Next up are six films that would have been placed in what I used to call The Next Ten, aka my #11 to #20 best films of the year. However, though I have very favorable opinions of all of them, they for the most part had a disappointing element or two that really affected my enjoyment.

11. The Fabelmans

12. The Batman

13. The Northman

14. One Piece Film: Red

15. Inu-Oh

16. Men

Next are the "creamy middles", the movies that were quite effective in their execution and entertainment but would just miss being in my best of the year list. These are also the last movies to cross the finish line successfully and avoid being given the "distinction" of making my worst of the year list.

17. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

If I ever just want to see high octane fist-fights and a lot of stuff blow up real good in animated form, I can't go wrong with a Dragon Ball film. The latest film from the enormous media franchise may in part have been crafted to serve as a splendid showcase of adapting the world and characters to 3D animation. However, funnily enough, it was the plot that really wowed me, giving the spotlight to Gohan, Piccolo, and the other non-Gokus and non-Vegetas for a change and its humorous/action-filled take on superheroes secretly orchestrating events in order to get their fellow superhero off their ass.

18. The Bob's Burgers Movie

If this movie was made in the past three decades, it would have gone straight to video. Luckily, it was brought to theaters and has now become the best animated film based on a Fox animated series. That's not really saying much considering its competition but the film delivers a lot of great laughs, some genuinely heartwarming moments, and a couple of catchy tunes to make you feel real good inside. And before you lambast me, I was referring to Fox's primetime animated series, so you Batman: Mask of the Phantasm fans should relax.

19. Jujutsu Kaisen 0

As cool as it actually is and how absolutely amazing the animation can get in its television adaptation, I just can't really get into this shonen series. This prequel/side story film didn't change my opinion but it does have some fine anime action and an easy to digest plot to fulfill fans and newcomers. And if that doesn't work, the makers cast Megumi Ogata as the main character, who just happens to be a troubled high school student with severe issues.

20. Sonic The Hedgehog 2

This was the benchmark in my assessment of what made a film good or bad last year. The overlong dance battle sequence in the middle of the picture was pretty tedious but the rest of the film delivered the standard action and comedy you would want in a Hollywood movie. But when you remember that this is based on a video game franchise, let alone a sequel, that serviceable achievement turns into a gold trophy. Also, major props for voice actress Colleen O'Shaughnessey being cast as Tails instead of just another famous actor, even though Idris Elba was the film's standout as Knuckles.

21. Terrifier 2

This film was so very close to making it on to my worst films list or at least having a special spot of its own due to my conflicting opinion. However, despite its near unbearably long running time and an uneven script, I chose to be a little kinder to this ultra extremely gory horror flick. It's a huge, huge improvement over the first film, which was far shorter yet a horrendous chore to endure. Writer-director Damien Leone ups the ante on the gore to a masterful degree, gives us characters to care about including a proper final girl, and of course gifts Art The Clown and his performer David Howard Thornton a lot of time to shine as the new faces of horror. Kudos also must be given for the sheer fact that an indie horror film like this was playing in major cinema chains.

And finally, here are the seven worst films of 2022. Unlike 2021, I really didn't see any films that were right on the border between entertaining and disappointing last year. Instead, I had seven movies that I flat out didn't like, with the one that had absolutely no redeeming elements given the bottom slot.

22. Babylon

Ooh, look at me, I'm ruffling some feathers with this rank. I would call this the new Joker but a lot of people actually paid good money to see that film and many actually liked it. This however was a major boondoggle. An overlong, over-the-top cacophony of LOUD NOISES, pretentious artistry, and increasingly boring displays of debauchery. It had some merits (Margot Robbie, the score, the cross-cutting dual filming sequence) but you had to wade through a lot of gross muck, including the overflowing elephant diarrhea that opens the pic, and a never-ending stream of obnoxious behavior to enjoy them.

23. Thor: Love And Thunder

The movie that has seemingly squandered all of Taika Waititi's goodwill. I really don't expect him to experience a Lin-Manuel Miranda bounceback. The MCU continues to falter and unable to stay cultural relevant with this pretty flat fourth misadventure of Marvel's thunder god. When it wasn't focused on Thor, Jane Foster, and very begrudgingly Korg, the film shines (Christian Bale, Gorr's entire storyline, Russell Crowe as Zeus). Unfortunately, Waititi would rather you "enjoy" more of him, his take on the Thor-Jane relationship, and some tedious and badly lit battles, all set to the overplayed tunes of Guns N' Roses.

24. Don't Worry Darling

We are now three for three on huge misfires from once promising directors. At least the previous two fell apart once people actually saw the final results; this one was DOA thanks to an infamous "spat" between two co-stars in public and a bad promotional tour. Florence Pugh and Chris Pine are utterly wasted in this so-called psychological thriller. I say so-called because the movie screws the pooch early on with its handling of the main character's mental state and then struggles to keep the facade up by throwing in random surreal imagery and a bizarre dance break. And then you get to the twist, which just breaks the film in two and leads to a multitude of questions that it refuses to answer. Stick to The Stepford Wives (the 1975 one of course) and leave this flop to the Harry Styles stans and bad movie aficionados.

25. Lightyear

If ever I need a quick easy reminder of my dislike of this film, I just have to remember that infamous introductory title card. Dear lord, talk about an easy strategy to cause your movie to fall apart within seconds. This animated bomb would have a lot better if it jettisoned the Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear IP and instead gave us a sci-fi action comedy centered around Keke Palmer's character and Sox the robo-cat. But no, Disney wanted to squeeze more from Pixar's prized cow and gave us an inept and inert dud that quickly faded from everyone's memory once the credits hit. And to make matters worst, they also gifted us another annoying supporting performance from Taika Waititi.

26. Jurassic World Dominion

You know what people would love to see in the latest dinosaur movie, from a franchise all about the sights, sounds, and actions of dinosaurs? Giant bugs. A lot of giant bugs, mainly to be used for global capitalism instead of, you know, killing and eating people. Oh, and an annoying clone kid that no one will ever truly love. As with Lightyear, this film squanders everything going for it in its opening minutes, wiping away the dream scenario of humans vs. dinosaurs for the control of America via a fake online news segment. Awful auteur/useful human tool Colin Trevorrow then treats us to a complete slog full of sigh-inducing fan service, a severe lack of drama and stakes, and Chris Pratt being dominate over every single type of dinosaur simply by holding his hand out at them. When the Steve Jobs wannabe let the flaming, seemingly hard to kill giant bugs out into the dinosaur preserve, causing the entire place to go up in flames, I threw my hands up and was done with this Hollywood trash.

27. Halloween Ends

I liked this movie back when it was called Christine. Seriously, how could David Gordon Green further fail after the disasterpiece that was Halloween Kills? Anyone with a brain knows that in order to make a satisfactory Halloween film, you just need Michael Myers, some likable protagonists, and a chilly suburban atmosphere. Instead, this concluding chapter swaps out the masked boogeyman for a pitiful social outcast named Corey who gets beat up by the town's school marching band. Oh but wait, in order to make his hero/villain look good, not only does Green give him a backstory that is less haunting and more hilarious, but he has Corey "absorb" the evil from Michael via eyesight and has him beat up Michael with ease and steal his mask. All the while you wallow in the endless misery that is Green's vision of Haddonfield, the annoying flip-flopping attitudes of the main characters, and a climax that ends via a dropped refrigerator. Man, those Rob Zombie's takes on Halloween are looking better and better.

28. Ryoma! The Prince Of Tennis (Decide)

I rarely if ever feel embarrassed when watching a movie in theaters. But when I was sitting through this "anime" film at my local art theater, I was deathly afraid of someone, anyone coming in and giving me that "what are you watching?" facial expression. This film is supposed to be a continuation of the once popular shonen sports manga but it is secretly a fans-only joint for the people who still care for this property, that being the mainly-female audiences of the stage musicals. Yes, this is a musical, an absolutely horrible one at that as all of the songs are incredibly awful and cringe-worthy at their worst. Then you have the pathetic 3D animation, the bizarre time travel story which involves an evil mobbed-up Serena Williams, and the criminal notion of paying to see this film twice just to see the main character have a phone conversation with a different supporting character (hence the "Decide" subtitle). But I sat and squirm through it all, including the bonus so-called music videos post credits, just so I can thoroughly claim this to be the worst film of 2022.