Year in review quiz

[got_quiet]

I think the same end-of-year quiz I did last year showed up on my dash, with some small modifications. So here it is! I got it from this tumblr post Feel free to use it for yourself too, of course!

1. Song of the year? Maybe KDA's Popstars? It's not new but I did listen to it a lot when doing chores.
2. Album of the year? Probably Mai Yajima - Heaven Knows.  Strong Visual Kei with a female vocalist. It reminded me of how into Visual Kei I was as a student.
3. Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year? Also Mai Yajima! I discovered her this year.
4. Movie of the year? I think it's The Boy and the Heron by dint of my not seeing that many stand out movies at all this year. The Dungeons and Dragons movie was fun but not groundbreaking or anything. I also saw Arrival and was disappointed by it, but only for the linguistics part. The story itself was quite good despite that.
5. TV show of the year? I binged Metalocalypse and saw a lot of episodes I hadn't seen before. I love that show. The new Castlevania was also good.
6. Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you? Seeing Demon Slayer in the theater just because it was not the usual sort of thing I bother doing, but I enjoyed myself.
7. Favorite actor of the year? I haven't even played the game yet but every time I see a video of Astarion gameplay I want to destroy that twink so maybe that guy.
8. Game of the year? Oooh this one is kind of hard! Even though everyone is talking about how amazing 2023 was for gaming I haven't played a single one of the new games! One game that isn't out yet but has a demo I started playing this year and enjoyed quite a bit is Leur and the Dim Settlers. It's a simple tile based city builder that can be played chill on the easier difficulties but is kind of scary in the harder ones.
9. Best month for you this year? September, for the Japan trip.
10. Something that made you cry this year? Oh, Nimona was this year! I definitely wept at the end of Nimona.
11. Something you want to do again next year? Go to Japan lol.
12. Talk about a new friend you made this year. Actually I did kind of make a new friend this year! He was my brother's friend first but we got to know each other this year and I think this officially counts.
13. How was your birthday this year? I don't believe I noted it.
14. Favorite book you read this year? Widdershins and the series that followed. Loved those books.
15. What’s a bad habit you picked up this year? Nothing new, thank goodness. The one I really need to get rid of is spending time on my phone before I get out of bed.
16. Post a picture from the beginning of the year. (I got completely distracted digging through a years worth of twitter likes for this.) Here's a SFW pixel art of an apartment scene and here's a very NSFW Thanatos/Zagreus
17. Post a picture from the end of the year. This chaekgeori screen that I found literally today.  Chaekgeori are a genre of image showing "books and things" or scholar's collections. (wiki) They're extremely cool.
18. A memorable meal this year? Hard to pick out of all the food we ate in Japan. The most perfect, soft and fresh, perfectly flavored strawberry daifuku are probably up there. For full meal we had a four course seafood nabe with surprise fugu that was both absolutely delicious and a fun experience as the women who did the cooking at our table were fun conversationalists too.
19. What’re you excited about for next year? Arcane Season Two and getting to finally play Long Gone Days in its final form. And Baulder's Gate!
20. What’s something you learned this year? I'm certainly not done learning it but I started learning Hakobi Usucha Ro for tea practice.
21. What’s something new about your place of residence (room, home, or general location) now vs the start of the year? About 50+ new books. T_T
22. Favorite place you visited this year? I liked the Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, because for a small entry fee they let you actually walk around the back of the shrine and see what is obscured by the curtains. Pictures were prohibited. It's like a runway of moss and stone arranged so there is an indented stone space at the end. Was fascinating.
23. If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be? That student forgiveness bullshit is definitely not happening so don't overthink it.
24. Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions? Yup, hooray! I read about 30 books this year.
25. Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? I wrote a few ideas about a fantasy priest, his "familiar" and a stray familiar they kind of pick up along the way. Nothing that even approached an actual scene though RIP.