Happy new year, friends! 2023 is starting off with a frigid bang, which means it’s time to make a list of all the things you plan on reading/watching/playing that in 12 months you get to look back on and feel some level of immense regret. Oh but don’t get too sullen, the other side of that coin is that sometimes you got distracted by something that turned out to be cooler than whatever was next up on your to-do list. Case in point; I was really hoping to maybe try working through the Paper Mario games I missed after finished God of War Ragnarök and Bayonetta 3, but I got pleasantly waylaid by the surprise drops of both Pizza Tower and Hi Fi Rush, two VERY good games that anyone who loves weird and energetic experiences totally owes it to themselves to try out.
Today I wanted to talk about some of the stuff I encountered in the past month that I really personally enjoyed or just found downright interesting. Key word here is “personally.” So don’t necessarily take this as my recommendations for things that were the best of the past month, more rather that something within it just resonated with me whether it was a feeling of pleasure, interest, or sometimes possibly, disgust. If you know my tastes to be ones that line up with yours, then maybe you might enjoy some of the things I did too, who knows.
So let’s dig right in and start off by talking about my favorite category of favorite things; video games!
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GAMING
Bayonetta 3 (2022, Switch)
The Paris section of this game was some of the most fun I’ve had with a stretch of gameplay in a long time. I wish I could describe it in any detail, but it would spoil the whole thing.
I have quite a fondness for the original Bayonetta. I earnestly still think Bayonetta 2 is the best game on the Wii U, full stop. Bayonetta 3 was an odd beast to approach, no pun intended. Here was a game series I adore that went through a bit of hell during development and then once again right before crossing the finish line at release. If your first thought upon hearing the words “Bayonetta 3” is to think about the depressingly messy controversy that cropped up around it… I actually suggest that you just leave those feelings at the door. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, congrats you missed out on one of the most deflating emotional rollercoasters of the end of 2022. The short version is, there was a bit of a complicated false flag going on there regarding fair compensation, but not so much that it’s worth distracting from the very hard work of some very talented and very dedicated people. Because boy howdy, did all that noise manage to distract from such a damn solid game.
Bayonetta 3 is easily the most accessible entry in the series by keeping things concise, easing up on the difficulty, and throwing a bunch of fun variety in the mix for good reason. Each entry in the series has moved further away from the unflinching challenge of its progeny, Devil May Cry, and for as much as I love the steep hyperactivity of DMCV, this is a very good thing. There were entire mechanics in the first Bayonetta I didn’t even know existed for years and the latest entry makes sure to keep this from happening by incorporating every mechanic into the core gameplay of the experience.
Most of the game is spent playing around with a variety of genuinely bonklers weapons and movesets borrowed from a multiverse of Bayonettas— don’t worry, if you’re burnt out on multiverse stuff, its mostly used here as an excuse to just dress up Bayonetta and friends in a variety of alternate scenarios, Muppet-style.
I immediately fell in love with the twin saw-blades of the giant futuristic yo-yo’s and even that was immediately topped by the unbelievable sight of a literal train Bayonetta wields as both a club and giant shotgun and can actually ride around. And I’m confident that I can spoil you fine folks out there with this, because I sincerely thought there was no way Bayonetta 3 could top a literal mini-train but they somehow managed to outdo themselves MULTIPLE times before the end.
There’s a ton of other new surprises that kept this game feeling fresh ranging from new playable characters and a radical open-world design. I know a lot of people complained that the game felt limited by the Switch hardware, but honestly, I’m okay with it if it meant that the scope of this game was reigned in for depth instead of breadth.
I feel like a lot of people walked out on this game because of the bizarre news cycle around it the week of its release, but with the dust settled and clear on that, I actually do strongly recommend going to give this one an earnest try if your mood was soured on it. Trust me, it’s still a hell of a fun time.
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BOOKS
Giant Days, by john allison
Sigh, I miss these characters so much. OH WAIT I COULD ALWAYS JUST READ IT AGAIN…
Back when I used to work at retro game store in the city, about once a month I would stop by Velocity Comics, my favorite comic store anywhere ever, and scoop up a bunch of indie comics. They had a very healthy zine/local shelf and also had a wealth of monthlies from small presses. My rule was always “if anything about the cover of a book catches my attention for even a second, I’m buying it.” That’s how I found Giant Days by John Allison.
The character art on the cover of the first issue was immediately appealing and seemed to tell part of a story I wanted to hear the rest of. I was shocked to discover some of the best writing, art and layouts I had ever seen in a comic. Giant Days follows the lives of three best friends, Susan, Esther and Daisy, as they go through three years of college in the UK.
Through their various trials and tribulations there’s the requisite schoolyard romances and anxieties about cramming for exams, but across the span of the comic, Giant Days does a phenomenal job handling some heavy, yet nuanced topics. Both Susan and Daisy learn how to deal with equilibrium of being in toxic relationships and knowing when you can make it work and when it just isn’t meant to be. After a few issues, Esther definitely shines through as the star of the show and her own journey of learning how to grow through her failures was something that rang very close to my heart, especially a a near college drop out. (Remember kids, switching majors is always and option and often is probably the right one! Take it from me!)
I used to keep up with this series every month until I made the move to Chicago and fell off my comics routines. After getting recently acquainted with my local library, I zeroed in on the complete trades of Giant Days and read through them all and finished the series over the winter. I was elated to discover that the comic was still as strong as I remember, especially in regards to its writing. Allison managed to create characters that feel so real, they feel almost like three-dimensional friends you’ve known your whole life.
Finishing up this series was definitely a great way to start of my year as it got me really excited about my own personal comic projects. Giant Days is a lofty goal to aspire to but it certain was one that reading it set my brain on fire in a way I haven’t really felt since sitting down to finish reading all of Bone. Revisiting this series cemented it as one of my new favorites. I really hope this team reassembles to create something new someday.
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MOVIES
Broker (2022)
My favorite scene in this movie is one that grapples with the way we distance ourselves from the humans involved with tragedy to keep ourselves from caring. It’s like the dark side of the “thoughts and prayers” coin.
I’ve been watching a LOT of movies the past few months and having a wonderful time— so it has admittedly been a shock to the senses to hit the usual January doldrums of going to the theater. There’s less enthusiasm for crowd-pleasers after the holidays and screens are already a little slower right before the Oscars. Plus I get the feeling everyone was scared to compete with Avatar The Way of Water, which did admittedly set the stage for M3GAN to steal an entire nation’s hearts, minds and wallets.
But hey! I still did go to the movies a few times this month. I just found myself hungering for anything to leave me feeling as well fed as stuff like Tar, Decision to Leave, or The Fablemans had in recent weeks. Nothing quite reached those heights but I did really enjoy Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker, a movie about opportunistic lowlives who sell abandoned babies and end up joining forces with the mother of one such baby dedicated to finding a good home for her son.
Okay yees, it is a kinda heightened portrayal of *ahem* human trafficking, but fortunately the movie doesn’t shy away from confronting that idea head-on. While I didn’t enjoy Broker as much as his previous film Shoplifters (take one guess what that movie is about), I still found a lot to latch on to in this project. Chiefly some wonderful performances all around and some truly heartwarming tenderness around a group of strangers as they slowly develop into an unconventional family. Just, you know, a family with a vested interest in getting that dang baby sold.
There’s a lot this movie has to say about how systemic society can fail the people who often need care and guidance the most. The mother, Moon So-young, laments to sting detectives midway through the film that the law explicitly avoids intervening to prevent someone like her from abandoning a child but will wait in the shadows for that brief moment of vulnerability to lock her away forever. Did I say this movie was heartwarming? Because it absolutely does have its heartbreaking moments too.
There’s no denying the marketing power of both Broker and Shoplifters cashes in on the recent vested interest of western audience in Asian Marxist fables, but the story told in both movies stand on their own with a resolute perspective on refusing to turn a blind eye to the voiceless. Definitely recommended.
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TELEVISION
Hey Arnold!
I don’t get why they call him out on his “football head” when like half the characters in this dang show have heads the exact same shape if not often even wider.
Over the holidays, I bought a complete Hey Arnold DVD boxset on flash sale from some website and have spent the last two and a half months slowly rewatching the show. I think the last time I did was ten years ago in college, and even then I don’t think I watched the last dozen or so episodes because I absolutely missed that the last episode is all about Phoebe’s anxiety over farting into a microphone. But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s dwell on the full five seasons of a genuinely sympathetic and soft-spoken show.
I think many millennials remember literally the first four or five episodes of the whole show (see; anyone who immediately mentions Stoop Kid when you bring up this show) but beyond that is an extremely soulful show that may earnestly be one of the most tender things Nickelodeon ever produced. Okay sure, the first season is a little repetitive with Arnold playing the role of an optimistic day-dreamer, but past that point, I think the writers settle on two things at the heart of the show; one, every other character around Arnold is way more interesting and two, that Helga Pataki is most fun character on the show. Once they start pulling back the curtain on her home life, what starts as a love-sick bully transforms into a neglected girl with a good head on her shoulders that just never really learned how to express love.
And that sorta thing really is the heart of the show— the dimensionality of the people who live in our neighborhood and a type of brotherly love that can only exist in the city—where getting along with the people who are within 5-feet standing distance of you at any given time is the genuine secret to survival. No one is truly evil or weird in the world of Hey Arnold (except for Curly, that’s guys a freak-a-nature). Everyone has a reason for being who they are and learning to love that opens up so much about our world. On top of that, it’s also just a very funny show with really pleasant oil painted backgrounds.
If you haven’t watched Arnold in a while or if your memories of the show stop at Pigeon Man, I do implore you to sit down and spend some more time with the show. Projects aimed at kids like this rarely feel like they’re made for the old soul that hides within in all of us and we’re honestly quite lucky we got Hey Arnold when we did. And I’m certainly glad it was still something I could revisit and find something to enjoy.
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So those are my highlights of the past month to kick off the year! As I enter the rest of 2023, I’m still trying to find time to feed my mind in between work and sleep; there really just aren’t enough hours in a day. If you wanna keep up with what’s more casually on my mind, I’m often yelling about things like this on my twitter, though try as I might, I’ve been trying to keep my ramblings to a minimum there these days.
You can also always follow me on Letterboxd where I write a few words on most things I watch. Believe you me, I was really tempted to write about Skinamarink for my movie pick this month, but honestly that movie just fascinates me more than it brings me genuine pleasure.
Okay gang, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time when I talk about some of my favorite things from February! Stay warm out there!