2022: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. At least for me. This year was one of the most enjoyable of my lifetime, with some of my fondest experiences coming from this year. But it is also responsible for some of the worse experiences of my life, and a decline in my mental health, especially towards the end of the year. All I can do now is hope 2023 is more of that good stuff and less of that bad stuff.
But 2022 was also a year a dug deep into storytelling and in a lot of ways, that really helped me, especially through the bad times. And now I want to talk about those stories, because if you follow my Twitter, you know I’m really passionate about stories and talking about them. So without further to do:
HM1: attack on titan
This didn’t make the list because it wasn’t all this year. I experience the beginning through Marley last year, then did a complete reread this year since the Colossal Editions were finished. Since I experienced a good chunk of the story before 2022, I decided to keep it off this list, but holy shit I still have to talk about it.
The plot is insane, maybe the tighest I’ve ever experienced in storytelling. You consistenly want to know more and the story always feeds you just enough to keep you wanting more, and when those big revelations come they produce some of the greatest moments I have experienced in all of fiction. If I were to make a list of my favorite fictional sequences alone I experienced this year, the Paths sequence with Eren and Zeke would almost certainly make the Top 5.
The cast is also all incredibly solid. Not every character is super compelling, some (Mikasa) felt like they could’ve used more development. But the characters that fuck, FUCK. Eren is incredible. He’s this pathetic child who has also committed innumerable war crimes and is also borderline insane. He has become one of my favorite characters to talk about because there’s just so much about him. Reiner and Zeke are also incredible, as are Levi, Erwin, Gabi, Falco, etc.
The ending wasn’t perfect, but the story was so consistently good beforehand that I can easily forgive it and respect what it was trying to go for. Overall it was a really fun experience that got me really invested and has become one of my favorite stories to discuss with friends. Tatakae. Tatakae.
HM2: Berserk
This didn’t make it for the same reason AoT didn’t consumed too much of it before 2022 and wanted this list to be fresh experiences. But dear Lord, Berserk, FUCKS. Art. FUCKS. Characters? FUCK. Conclusion? RAW AS FUCK.
Seriously there’s not much I can say about this story that hasn’t rightfully been said before. It is probably the greatest manga of all time (though not my personal favorite) with mindblowing character dynamics and thematic storytelling that makes you feel like you could overcome literally anything life throws at you. It is unbelievable, there were several parts of this story were I legitimately could not believe what I was reading was something produced by the hands of man, it is that fucking good. Read Berserk, that is all I can say.
Now, on with the list!
#5: arcane
I was not expecting Arcane to make this list. I mean, it’s based off of League of Legends, a game I’ve never played but the internet tells me I should hate so I do. Damn though, it hit different. Arcane’s most impressive quality to me is it’s ability to tell so many stories, each with their own protagonists and antagonists, and have them all be equally compelling. I had my favorites for sure (Jayce & Silco MVPs), but I was never unhappy to cut to a character because I was so interested in all of their tales. There’s a tragic aspect to ever character, to the point where I had empathy for just about all of them.
It combines this with a creative, imaginitive world that piqued my curiosity whenever we learned something new about it. Zaun and Piltover serve as fantastic foils for one other and the multi-faceted conflict between the two nations made for a Game of Thrones that constantly kept me waiting to see how it would resolve. Throughout this 9 episode season, I can’t remember ever being bored, which is incredibly impressive. Each act just improved the story more, and by the end, I could call this some of the finest television I’ve ever watched. The best game adaption ever created and one of my favorite shows period, I’ll be damned.
#4: a game of thrones
I am not a book person, or at least I wasn’t before this year. My preferred mediums always involved visual storytelling, and I find it hard to connect to just… words on page. So what made me decide that my first novel in forever should be over 700 pages and take me more than 30 hours to complete? I thought it would be interesting, and you know what? It was. This book actually has a lot in common with Arcane in terms of its strengths. It follows a multitude of protagonists who are incredibly interesting as the try to find their place in the world, whether its with their family, or with their kingdom.
I think there were more moments/characters in this book that left me a little bored than there were in Arcane (which is again, very little), but the peaks of this astonished me more than anything in Arcane did (which is again, a whole lot). The story will just hit you with a WHAM! moment that will take you a day to recover from, then you go back and see the seeds were planted all along. Every shocking moment makes complete sense due to the incredible consistency in which GRRM writes his characters. It’s a thing of beauty and I did not expect words on a page to make me feel the emotions this did. I put it slightly higher than Arcane though, mainly because this had more to prove to me as a novel, and god damn, it delievered and actually started making me read more this year. The commitment is pretty high, but I’m excited to keep going through this series, maybe ACOK will end up on next year’s list if I do that.
#3: The lord of the rings (movies)
Yes, I am 19 and this was the first year that I, someone who loves Fantasy, watched the LOTR trilogy. Shock and horror, but yeah it’s just as good as everyone says it is. These movies were a lot more interesting thematically than I thought they’d be. A lot of people online portray LOTR as a strictly black-and-white story, good triumphs over evil, and while it is about that, there are shades of gray that make this so much more interesting. The humans/hobbits/elves/yougettheidea in this story aren’t these untouchable demigods who are always virtuous, they’re people trying their best to do the right thing, and sometimes they fail. I mean, aside from the climax of the whole trilogy, there’s Boromir in the first movie being and his relationship with Aragorn. Neither can resist the ring, but only one is wise enough to acknowledge he can’t handle it and take responsibility, and that’s where his heroism lies, and I find that really interesting.
These also might be the most breathtaking movies, potentially even works of art, that I have ever experienced. If I could see any movie ever in an IMAX cinema, it’d probably be these movies. The preformances are all so phenomal to the point where if I ever read the books, these will probably still be the characters I envision. The score too, it is just peak in every aspect a movie can be peak in. This is maybe the greatest adaption of something from one medium to another ever. And those action scenes? Hype. As. Hell. This is an unbelievable story that I am so glad I finally got to experience.
#2: Bojack horseman
So confession: this is the only thing on this list I haven’t actually finished (I have 8 episodes left), but since I don’t expect it’s position to change and don’t want to leave this for next year, I’m putting it here. Like LOTR, I always expected to really like this one, but… holy shit, this is one of those rare fictional experiences that feels life-changing. If I had to describe this show in one word, I’d choose “fascinating”. A lot of times I didn’t know what to feel, but I couldn’t look away from it. Bojack is one of the worst protagonists in terms of morality I’ve ever sat with, but he may just be one of the most compelling fictional characters ever. He’s like that show Becker, all the pieces are there for him to get better, but he can just never put them together, and even when he does some of the most fucked up things you’ll ever witness, you can’t help but pity him a little.
Speaking of which, this show does go places I’ve never seen many pieces of media go. Despite this being a cartoon with talking animals, it is one of the most grounded stories I’ve ever experienced. It is not afraid to look at the dark side of people, but it never shrugs its shoulders at these issues, it always offers a solution. Things do get better, but only if you work towards that. This message is communicated unbelievably well through the show’s structure. It builds up to the infamous Episode 11s will have you questioning your own existence and reason for living, but Episode 12s give you the aftermath, and things get better, or at least it shows us that they can.
That’s not even mentioning the other characters. Diane and Princess Carolyn are incredibly fascinating in their own ways, dealing with similar issues to Bojack (a lot of times because of Bojack) but going about it different, usually healthier ways. Then there’s the comedic reliefs, Todd and Mister Peanutbutter, who are incredibly funny but when they get real, it’s beautiful to watch. I am biased to Todd because seeing actual Asexual representation on screen was otherwordly but these are all S-Tier characters. It’s a show that is somehow both incredibly creative, which each episode being a completely new experience, while also really grounded as mentioned before. It’s now my favorite TV show of all time, bravo funny horse man. Hell, it probably even enters my Peak Fiction tier of media, which before only had 6 other stories. In any other year, this would not doubt be my #1.
And yet…
#1: OMORI
You know that scene in Ratatouille where Anton has to write his review for the food he just ate, and before he does he just stares out the window, unable to articulate a critical review because what he just ate affected him so personally?
…Yeah. That’s how this feels.
Granted, this is not a very critical or analytic post to begin with, I’m just talking about stories I like and if someone tries out something because I made it sound appealing, that’s great and would make me incredibly proud. But in each of the stories above, I could seperate my personal feelings from the work, so I could talk about how it amazed me critically as well as why I personally liked it. Omori tops this list not because it’s a better told story than Bojack Horseman or The Lord of the Rings, but because no other story I have ever experienced has felt this personal to me.
But let me try that for a moment… that whole critical analysis thing. Omori was a story that knew exactly how to use the medium of video games to its advantage in creating moments where you could feel exactly what the protagonist did. When the protagonist was astonished, so was I, in those few moments of peace he gets, I also felt at peace, and in those horrifying moments, boy did I feel what he did. I used “I” there a lot didn’t I? Well anyways, it combines this transcedent immersion with shocking plot beats, and the result is a recipe that will emotionally hit you like a god damn bullet train. Not once, but oh so many times. Seriously, GO IN TO THIS GAME AS BLIND AS POSSIBLE. I CAN NOT RECOMMEND THIS ENOUGH. The game doesn’t really reveal what it’s about until the end, which has led to some players not really enjoying parts of the beginning and middle of the game. But I think the mystery and atmosphere that always feels off provide a good hook that left me invested in the entire game.
The characters are all also really good. Featuring the greatest silent protagonist in the entirety of the medium for the reasons I alluded to earlier. But his supporting cast is also incredible. Like many stories on this list, all of the characters have this element of tragedy to them, as they each have to deal with this shitty thing that happened to them in their own lost, confused way. Nobody is perfect, but nobody is a villian. They’re all just kids trying to find out how to move forward after being pushed so far back. I can’t remember wanting a cast to just be happy in so long. All of this builds in a climax and ending that might just be the best I have experienced in fiction. Like Bojack, the most shocking moment isn’t where it ends, it’s how to keep going in its aftermath.
Again though, this is #1 because of what it means to me. I can’t go into detail without getting more personal than I should in a WordPress post, but this game tackles a lot of issues that I have personally dealt with in my life (well, not the exact circumstances, thank God), but it tackles these dark, relatable subjects beautifully. I got out of it an experience that resonated with me in a way I still feel months later. I dare to say that no story has ever made me feel seen the way Omori did, hell it feels like no story will ever make me feel the way Omori did.
There’s so much to say about this game, but to prevent this from getting way sappier than it is, I’ll leave with this: Of all the stories on this list, it’s the one I have the hardest time recommending, it’s not a perfect game (especially in the actual game aspect), but if you watch the trailers, and think in any way this might appeal to you, TRY. THIS. GAME. I don’t think this game is going to hit everyone like it did me (though considering 2 of my college roommates are just as enthuastic about the game, I could be wrong), but I don’t want anyone to miss out on what was to me, a transcedent experience.
Fuck wait I didn’t talk about the top tier music uh… I like the song with the piano in it.
Thank you all for listening to my nonsense. See ya!
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