Jackson's Blog

Stuff I thought was cool from the year two thousand and twenty-five

Hello and welcome

I used to never read anything besides the occasional graphic novel/manga/manhwa. I got tired of having a bunch of books piling up and articles bookmarked. So a few years back I started tracking all the articles I would read. Then I started tracking my books. Then my music, and games. Now I’m reading more than I ever had in my life, more than college, more than high school - and actually enjoying it too. I’ve gone from around 500 articles a year to close to 900 articles, a dozen or so books, and multiple albums of music (I’ve never been a full album Andy). Not many games this year, but 2025 was hard.

Here’s some stuff I thought was good, or cool, or interesting, or bad enough despite itself that it bothered me.

Video Games

Warframe

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Warframe is something so special. Fantastic movement, game-defining music, emotional stories, and - impossibly - one of the best communities on the internet. 2025 brought (evil) Boy Bands, AIM-like visual novels, and MOTORCYCLES that you can use (almost) ANYWHERE. And now, post-prequel, we’re tee’d up for TAU and possibly the biggest narrative shakeup in 5 years. Play Warframe.

Guilty Gear Xrd

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Play Guilty Gear. Play fighting games. Fuck the meta. I just switched from stick to leverless and I felt my mind expand and my hands relax.

Wanna Play Right Now

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I don’t know if I’ll ever play a TTRPG - though that’s not stopped me from picking up the gorgeous MORK BORK and Lancer rulebooks - but Wanna Play Right Now and the viral clip it’s based on has thrust me into learning about the fascinating cross-section improv and game design. Understanding that the bones of this genre are based more on collaboration than strict policy has opened my eyes for what makes a good DM, player, and a good story.

Haven

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After FURI, I couldn’t help but follow The Game Bakers. Haven was their next release. It’s quaint, but I think calls to a big niche in RPGs that should be tapped. Haven is a fairly standard RPG with the exception of being co-op; two characters, each controlled with their own controller (though it can also be played solo). I think I only know of the early Final Fantasy and Tales Of series that allowed you to play co-op. Though, at least for FF, that co-op was more “give your younger sibling the second controller” rather than an actual collaborative experience. Haven has to actually chaining attacks together, as well as making story decisions together. I’d love to see The Game Bakers (or Hazelight) take a another swing at this underdeveloped genre.

Music

Father of Peace - Enemy [Strings Version]

Close enough, welcome back (folk, indy) System Of A Down.

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth, Pretty Hate Machine

I’ve loved NIN since I found some long-deleted edgy AMV with the songs Only and The Hand That Feeds. So this year I went back not only to With Teeth, the album featuring Only, but also NIN’s debut album Pretty Hate Machine. With Teeth is fantastically dark, with sharp edges and catchy rhythms. I’d say it’s a go-to for anyone looking to get a taste of what NIN is about. Pretty Hate Machine is equally impactful, but clearly has a rougher angle. Sure, we have Head Like a Hole, the best of NIN’s socially charged songs. But there are tracks that border on synth noise music, making Pretty Hate Machine more of a kick in the teeth, welcome to the party, we’re gonna have a bad time.

Bartky - Vesnyanka

Heavy Ukrainian folklore goes fucking hard.

Slipknot - The Dying Song

If you told high school me that I’d still be listening to Slipknot I probably would have not talked to you and had a panic attack about messing up a social situation once I got home. But then I’d wonder what the heck this band would sound like in 15 years. Turns out: still damn good.

Zaid Tabani - PRESSURE: The Music of EVO 2025

OKAY HEAR ME OUT. Previous year’s tracks were definitely hammy. Runback City was self-referential but fun with its Guile remixes, and Waves is a synth vibe that barely misses the peak energy. But 2025? Holy shit, 2025, y’all. This year’s EVO tracks go hard - and the music videos? Burn Me Out is downright iconic for Tekken. Shame we gotta boycott 2026, but it looks like Combo Breaker and AlexV have us covered.

Joey Valence & Brae - HYPERYOUTH

SHAKE YOUR ASS, MAKE YOUR ART, WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR ANYTHING ELSE AND WE WANT TO SEE YOU WIN, LEIGE.

ZOMBIE-CHANG - Petit Petit Petit

This song, and it’s train crossing “ding ding ding ding” and synth beat has been stuck in my head the entire year. I wanna kiss, we shoulda kiss, I wanna kiss, we shoulda kiss.

Chumbawamba - Anarchy

Stumbled across Chumbawamba’s Nazi, and had to listen to Anarchy. Punk takes work, rest is resistance.

X JAPAN - BLUE BLOOD

Yes, DAN DA DAN’s reference to X JAPAN, Hunting Soul, is why I pulled this up. It’s damn good, with a sound like NWOBHM, and a forward marching instrumentation that does not stop.

Castle Rat - SERPENT

Foremost, it’s amazing to see Castle Rat getting their dues, getting to tour with the legendary Amon Amarth and Deathklok. Metal is fucking stupid, lean in, we’re all here to have fun. Castle Rat understands this best, with band members fighting costumed rats on stage while their heavy, reverberating sound gets trapped in your chest.

Tsuneo Imahori - TRIGUN THE FIRST DONUTS

Love me some donuts. Variety and vibes, just like the show.

Unlucky Morpheus - Convergent Rays

The fucking licks this band has are insane.

FEX - Skyscraper

The most mysterious song on the internet is a bop.

Slump Girl

The final year of The Pillows means I had a small, ever-smouldering, angst-shaped hole in my heart. Slump Girl, especially their song FLUFFY, is a fantastic salve kindling. Young, underrated, imperfect, and greater than the sum of their parts.

Leslie Parrish - Music For Girl Drivers

How did I ever think I was falling out of love with Eurobeat this year? The Music For Girl Driver’s album is a smorgasbord of what makes this genre so ever-present. How every racing game doesn’t offer a eurobeat soundtrack option is beyond me.

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

I feel like it’s insane to put out an album of 10 songs where each track sounds different from one another. And, like, what IF Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?

Geese - 3D Country

Learned about Geese this year. First album was cool, but felt like each song consistently fell into a cool but not my vibe jam session. I listen to 3D Country while commuting in traffic. The urge to eject from my car and push every vehicle out of my way after hearing “GOD OF THE SUN I’M TAKING YOU DOWN ON THE INSIDE”. I can’t believe I still have 1(ish) more album of theirs to listen to.

BONESAW - ON THE WIR3, DASSHIT, SEATHESIGNS, HOT SENS4TION, RUMINATE, GAMBLER’S REQUIEM

I found BONESAW’s music while looking at songs similar to Hideki Naganuma’s (Jet Set Radio) discography. After listening to all of their music, I found out BONESAW makes these funking firecrackers to accompany their rule-of-cool webtoon SHOGUNNED. I’m barely halfway through SHOGUNNED, but damn this combined style runs parallel to Bleach.

SOFIA ISELLA - Above the Neck

Sofia Isella scares me and I can’t stop watching.

Anime

Solo Leveling / Kaijuu No 8

I think it’s hugely important to incorporate “bad” media in your content food pyramid. By extension that means is important to be a fucking hater. It’s for my health.

Solo Leveling is bland. The only spice is the MC embodying a hydrogen bomb while fighting a coughing baby. It makes no discernable changes from the early twenty teens gamer isekai manhwa boom. It’s dialog fully expects you to be dividing your attention between your phone and your display. We’re talking “This battle is quickly draining my mana. If it gets too low I wont be able to use my spells.” [less than 2 minutes pass] “I’m out of mana. I can’t use any of my spells.” Most annoying is that under all of this is the potential for a show about the loss humanity in the face of preservation. I also have to note that each season’s ending theme (ed one, ed two) far outshines the show itself.

I was excited for Kaijuu Number 8. A new powerhouse at a dynamic time for Shonen Jump? I feast on that drama. I cruised through both seasons this year and I couldn’t figure out why I disliked the show. The end of season 2 has some enemy kaijuu designs that I still think about; haunting, existential designs, and revealed in a fantastic, observational (dare I say bureaucratic creepypasta) way that accentuated their horror…and then I tried to name any of the cast. Or describe them with more detail than their 1 weapon, and 1 trauma (two dead parents still counts as 1 trauma). I realized this is just Bleach. I love/hate Bleach, but I never thought I’d long for Bleach’s multi-episode fights, rife with flashbacks and monologues. Meanwhile Kaijuu Nubmer 8 is Bleach at 100 mph with no time to stop because we have highlight videos to publish, merch to press, and a gatcha game with an 18-month lifespan to shlock. Surely there’s some pacing middle ground to be found for a series that has such an earnest, empathetic core.

Terror in Resonance

A bit middling, with space left in the shoes it’s trying to fill. At worst it felt like it was doing an impression of a nighttime high-stress TV series but with a young adult writing budget. At best, it’s a beautiful series that struggles to blend real teen trauma with teen…terrorism? Fuck it, a Yoko Kanno soundtrack could blend peanut butter and toothpaste. My kingdom for a release of the Yoko Kanno x POP ETC collab song.

Dungeon Meshi / Delicious in Dungeon

WOAH HEY! Finally, some good fucking food. And a great English dub, too! ProZD, Damian Haas (Smosh), Emily Rudd (live action One Piece) and Casey Mongillo (CSM, Stone Ocean) make for a stellar cast that boasts, bickers, and bounces like a natural D&D Wizardry party. Plus, a single dungeon with ecosystems, magic systems, and interpersonal relationships fleshed out. It’s shandification worldbuilding, and it makes the series feel timeless from episode 1.

Overtake!

A quick digression: I spat and dropped MF Ghost in 2024. I had such high hopes for the spiritual successor of Initial D. My patience with the anime for full-frame shots of teenage ass reached meltdown when they introduced the character that only dates a specific age of teenager. His lucky number is 17, so he dumps them when they turn 18. Fuck off, sex pests, and the boring men who draw them.

So, given this year was the first season of Formula 1 that I followed closely, I took a chance on this 2 year old sports anime series about Formula 4. Every good sports anime isn’t about the sport but the players. Overtake takes a further step back and makes this about both players and observers. This show had me crying at multiple points as it told a fantastic story about finding your confidence, no matter the source, so you can take a step forward after “failure”.

Dan Da Dan Season 2

The Dan Da Dan train does not stop. I yelled at every big action sequence, I screamed any time the main couple gently stoked their feelings. While this is an easy rec, there’s no getting around the vapid emulations of sexual assault that Momo is constantly written into. If you can stomach that, it’s a top-tier series.

Yakuza Fiancé

Hell yeah I watched an insane heartthrob yakuza man eat pussy on crunchyroll dot com while I was on a plane. The show sweeps its own legs on multiple occasions, but it’s pretty to look at.

Wind Breaker

Tuned in for the legendary trans representation, and it did not disappoint. I think there are shows that do fighting teenage vagrants better (shoutout Holyland). But it’s a stupid fun show with a heart of gold.

TRIGUN & TRIGUN: Badlands Rumble

After the gorgeous Trigun Stampede, I had to go back to watch the original for the first time. The first few episodes left me worried. I wasn’t here for a character that I’d have to rate on the sex pest scale. But holy shit did this show grow on me. Stampede is a fine show, and is a testament to how beautiful and liberal a CG adaptation can be…but original Trigun has so much more to chew on. The slow-burn mystery of what how who the fuck Vash is. The constant moral quandaries the series throws at you. The interplay of the main cast, their attitudes, personalities, and careers. And the ever-(non)present Knives!

=SPOILERS=

What does it say about a character when upon one of Knives’ lackies meeting Vash, he instantly chooses suicide? This shit has layers compared to Stampede’s single coat of glaze.

=SPOILERS OVER=

I also watched Badlands Rumble. Essentially an extended episode of the anime, but with one of the hardest fight scenes in the animated series.

My Hero Academia: The Final Season

MHA has had some middling seasons. I think the finale* (what do you mean there’s one more episode in MAY???) does a great job* (for a Shonen Jump show) at wrapping up a flagship series. Enough time to fight AND multiple episodes to tie up plot points and show the cast readjusting to their new lives. Shame those cowards gave Toru Hagakure (a 100% invisible character) visibility, complete with anime tiddy jokes.

Spy x Family Season 3

HEY DID YOU FORGET THIS IS A SHOW ABOUT SPIES IN A WAR? Some of the best episodes of the series. Season 3 really feels like we’re starting to reckon with the world, and not just excuses for comedy - though this season was also one of the funniest. It takes an exceptional kind of creator to make natural humor in a terrorist scene.

Reading

Graphic

Ushimitsu Gao / Her Face at the Witching Hour

CW: Erotica, gore, sexual violence.
If you can manage past the content warnings then you’re in for a fun one. Ghost cuckolding comedy quickly unravels (spirals?) into something more, in the way only Paru Itagaki (Beastars) knows how. This is about boundaries, how they dissolve, get crossed, get reestablished, get maintained. That’s hard to contain in a content warning, but like a messy episode of Couples Therapy, it’s great fun to pull apart, rearrange, and see a new perspective.

Extremely Straightforward Boyfriend x Girlfriend

CW: Erotica.
Picked this up after years of chuckling at the often shared “MUTUAL CONSENT” page. The 29 chapters can get a little long, but it doesn’t stop you from pulling for both of these dumbasses. Bonus points: many of the relationship troubles they experience go beyond communication (physical and social challenges, impressing your SO’s parents, sexual gratification) and don’t simply boil down to “holy shit just talk to each other”. May all our relationships have as much dedication and full-tilt devotion from all parties involved.

My New Girlfriend Is Not Human?

Monster girls are for the freaks. Monster women? Also for the freaks - but damn. That said, this series is comedy, slice of life, adult romance, and lore instead of straight up horny. It’s nice that such a short-form series (most chapters are <10 pages) can find time to deliver on the mundane absurdity of living with a non-human, the love these characters have, and some enthralling and cool worldbuilding + action. No spoilers here, as this is one of my all-time favorites. Taya forever <3.

Books

Hell Followed With Us

“Between the cars ahead of me, a tangle of limbs unfolds, and it shrieks and howls with all the pain of Hell, the weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Went in expecting YA with some religious trauma and monsters. That expectation wasn't wrong, but holy shit the sheer, extravagant body horror. I didn't imagine I'd be discussing HFWU alongside Parasyte, though the former has more scenes that were hard to stomach. The descriptions, full of bone, tissue, and blood, have me excited to see how Lilly Wachowski plans on adapting it to an animated flick.

I wasn't a church kid, so lot of the specific religious theming was lost on me. There's no shortage of bible quotes and references. But the broad strokes are obviously unmissable. Unfortunately I found many of the characters a little paint-by-numbers. Even in 400 pages, the non-main characters were relatively 2d with little detailing them past their introductions. The most challenging parts were the sections where it felt like the diary of an upset teenager. But Andrew Joseph White released HFWU the year he graduated college - he was (I assume) quite literally an upset teenager as he was writing this.

Its a disgusting, worthwhile, and breezy read. A high fucking mark for a debut novel, and I cannot wait to read more of AJW.

And Then I Woke Up

“The problem with the truth was that it was so poorly written”

A fun spin on the zombie apocalypse trope. Worth the read, especially at <200 pages.

Crying in H Mart

“Standing at the counter, we’d open every Tupperware container full of homemade banchan, and snack together in the blue dark of the humid kitchen.”

What a gift, to be able to put such expressions of memory, human relations, love, and life into both lyrical prose and biographical narrative.

Morbito: Guardian of the Spirit

Morbito the anime sits as one of my all-time favorites. Balsa is an underrated protagonist, especially for their gender, but particularly because the narrative has them beautifully engage with deeper topics; Vengeance, challenging romance, lineage, survival, and some of the best fight scenes in 00’s anime.

Did you know, dear reader, that Morbito is based on a book? Did you further know the anime only covers the first of a TWELVE VOLUME SERIES?

The books are for a young audience, and only the first 2 were officially translated (by Scholastic, if that gives you an idea of the age range we’re talking about). It moves fast, with just under 250 pages. Nothing in the book particularly captured me, but it’s amazing to see what was drawn from to make a full 26 episode series.

Articles

Thanks for reading!
Any love I made you feel is yours to keep.

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