2024 in Review
the best and worst of the year
Yes, another round up post. Just like I did with 2023, today I’m going to list the best and worst pieces of media I consumed last year, most of which I covered on here, and this time I’m also going to talk about what I think were my best posts and some plans for 2025. Let’s begin!
What I Read this Year.
Just like with my Monthly Wrap-Ups, we are going to start with the things I read.
Not counting rereads, I completed 28 books and I DNF’ed two (The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova and The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss). This is significantly less than last year, but the overall quality was higher, which is why this time I can do a proper top 10.
Top 10:
The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco.
Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin.
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke.
Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar.
Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson.
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson.
The Cyberiad, by Stanislaw Lem.
I cheated a little, but I couldn’t pick just one Earthsea and Poppy War books.
Besides the two books I DNF’ed, the worst book I read this year was La Casa de los Espíritus (The House of Spirits) by Isabel Allende, which was extremely disappointing. I also reread four of the Shadowhunter books by Cassandra Clare, and that series gave me severe brain rot, but the worst offender was City of Fallen Angels, which made me reevaluate whether I was truly committed to my plan of rereading the entire thing.
Fantasy and Gothic Horror were the main genres I read, which wasn’t surprising at all. My most read author was Ursula K. Le Guin, and I also read three Shirley Jackson books, which means I’m almost done with her novels.
I only completed three series: Blame! By Tsutomo Nihei, Run Away With Me by Battan, and of course, Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami which ended this year, for better or for worse. I never covered the JJK manga on here, and I probably never will, instead I’ll talk about the anime as it comes along. To me, JJK is a lot more enjoyable as an anime, MAPPA does a fantastic job with the story.
I’m caught up with Chainsaw Man, Skip and Loafer, and of course, One Piece, which has been amazing lately. Of these series, I highly recommend checking-out Skip and Loafer, it also has an anime adaptation and the second season just got announced recently, so this is the perfect time to catch up with the manga.
Instead of reading manga, this year I finally started getting into comics! I read a little bit of Batman, including The Long Halloween, Jason Todd’s run as Robin, and the Death in the Family arc. I loved Watchmen and Old Man Logan, though my favorite series was without a doubt Hellboy, by Mike Mignola. I stopped reading comics towards the end of the year, but I plan to get back into it in 2025 and I already know a few titles I’m going to check-out. If you have any recommendations I’d love to hear them!
What I Watched this Year.
Since I didn’t watch a lot of movies, I won’t be able to do a top 10.
Top 6:
The Boy and the Heron, directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The Green Knight, directed by David Lowery
Farewell, My Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige
Ghost in the Shell (1995), directed by Mamoru Oshii
Godzilla Minus One, directed by Takashi Yamazaki
Ainda Estou Aqui, directed by Walter Salles
The worst movie was Deadpool and Wolverine, which I never wrote a review about because I forgot about it. City of Bones was also terrible, but it has a certain charm that makes it slightly better.
I have a hard time watching movies, but hopefully I will watch more in 2025.
I watched 29 shows, of which I completed 25 and dropped 4 (The Boys, Super Crooks, Mashle, and Nina the Starry Bride). I’m not including Frieren and The Apothecary Diaries on my top shows because both started in 2023 and I already included their first seasons in my top 10 for that year.
Top 10:
Interview With the Vampire (season 2)
One Piece
Ping Pong: The Animation
The Heike Story
Pluto
Re: Zero (season 3, first cour)
Delicious in Dungeon
Kimi ni Todoke (season 3)
The Bear
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
I have praised IWTV before and I’ll do it again and again until everyone I know has watched it. This is prestige TV, and it better get the recognition it deserves.
This was the year I finally watched the One Piece anime, after being exclusively a manga reader. I have been watching the Netflix Brazilian dub with my family, and we made it all the way to Punk Hazard, the last arc released, so now we have to wait for more episodes to be dubbed.
The worst shows of the year were mostly returning shows: Tokyo Revengers, Demon Slayer, Invincible, House of the Dragon and Arcane. I think I’m in the minority regarding Invincible, that show just isn’t for me and I’m likely not going to bother with the next season.
Besides movies and shows, I also watched Alien Stage, which I haven’t been able to cover on Substack because I’m not quite sure how to go about it. This is a YouTube series made up of several music videos that tell a singular story about children that are raised to sing for the aliens that have conquered Earth. These singers are put in a competition where the ones that lose get killed, and the complicated relationships between the contestants make the competition even more intense. The series starts with Round 1, and I think it’s worth checking out both for the story and the music.
The Best of Maria’s Corner.
Finally, these are my best posts of the year, not all of them did well but I’m still proud of the work and effort that I put in them.
Fire, Blood and Nature’s Vengeance: An essay about the role that dragons play in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series and Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings universe.
"What do they call you, boy?" The use of names in Realm of the Elderlings, Part 6: In this series, I analyzed the way that Robin Hobb utilizes character names as a narrative tool in the Realm of the Elderlings universe. Each entry in the series focused on a different character, and I’m particularly happy with how the final entry about Fitzchivalry turned out.
Grief, fatherhood, and tragedy in AMC’s Interview With the Vampire: An essay about some of the major themes in my favorite show of the year.
Take Care, Miss Nanami! They are trying to eat you!: This was one of my longest posts, and it was a pretty in-depth analysis of the use of food in Revolutionary Girl Utena and the significance food has in Nanami’s character arc.
My Review of Arcane (season 2): I was quite critical of this season, and sometimes being a hater is fun.
If we never get Winds of Winter: A retrospective on the state of the ASOIAF fandom in 2024. It was fun to go back and organize everything that we know about Martin’s progress on Winds of Winter, and it also helped me put into perspective just how hard it has been for him to finish and why.
Otaku Hot Girl: An essay about sexism in Shōnen manga, where I highlight the misogynistic practices of the magazine Shōnen Jump and look into some specific examples of sexism in their series. By far my most popular post of the year, and for good reason.
Something that I’ve been struggling with this year was deciding what I wanted to focus on with this newsletter. As you can tell by looking at these posts, I mostly write about fantasy literature and anime, with a little bit of everything thrown in as well. Common advice says to find a niche, but I find it hard to cut out parts of myself. I want to talk about lots of different things, and it would feel disingenuous to say “Now I’m going to only post [x]” just for the sake of growth. In the end, I’ve decided to just continue doing what I’ve been doing, since it seems to be working.
This year I’m starting a couple new things, including our very own Anime Club! Last week I explained how it’s going to work, and I asked you guys to vote on which shows we were going to cover. Sakamoto Days won, and the other options were tied so I picked Honey Lemon Soda as our second show. Our first discussion is going to be on January 26, so if you are interested in participating, you can join us by becoming a paid subscriber.
Depending on how this first edition of our Anime Club goes, this may become a permanent part of the newsletter, and we may expand the number of shows we watch together. I’m also considering starting a Fantasy Book Club, because as far as I could tell there aren’t any fantasy-focused book clubs on Substack, but that will have to wait for now. If that sounds interesting to you, let me know!
I had plans to start posting more this year, but my schedule is a little tight at the moment and I wouldn’t want to put out mediocre posts for the sake of more content. For now, we will continue with just one weekly post and 1 extra post for paid subscribers.
That’s all I have to say today, thank you for your support and I hope we can keep growing together for another year. Let me know what were the best and worst things you read and watched in 2024, and if you are a writer, share the post you are the most proud of!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoy what I do but are not ready to become a paid subscriber, you can support me on Ko-Fi, where you can decide how much you want to pay. If you want to read my paid posts, consider subscribing for just $5 a month. Paid subscribers will receive at least 1 extra post each month, including my reviews for completed series, and you also get to participate in our new Anime Club.
I’m curious to know why you didn’t enjoy Demon Slayer this year. What are your thoughts?