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panchambro · 2 years ago

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Year in Review 2022

What a wild year...y'know.

With all the stuff that has happened within the past couple of years, I think it's important to highlight the important events that has happened to me in 2022.

Happy New Years!

(My full thoughts on 2022 below)

In my 2021 summary, I mentioned how 2021 was "the end of many eras". Well, if 2021 marked the end of many eras, 2022 was the beginning for many eras, albeit some eras came to a close.

I may also add that 2022 also marked a chaotic fluctuation with my interests. With nothing new for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and nothing new from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and with so many endings last year, the year began without Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Animal Crossing: New Horizons on my mind.

But January wasn't as uninteresting as it was on the animation side of things. Around this time, Encanto was making the waves across the animation community, and I so happened to have stumbled right into this film right before 2022 even began. I'd argue that it is a good musical at heart, and Lin-Manuel Miranda has done a fantastic job with the score and songs. There are some pacing issues, but overall the movie has class, and I would want to talk more about it…but we don't talk about Encanto (ha ha…Bruno joke).

At the same time however, The Mitchells vs. The Machine also popped into my mind. It was the last movie I saw before the New Year, and I was very excited to watch this on my brand new laptop, while waiting for the midnight clock to occur. I really wished that I saw this way back in April 2021, but nevertheless, the animation of Mitchells is superb. Taking cues from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the artstyle reeks of a 2D animated film, but set in a 3D environment. And I enjoy 3D animation as it, but there is a magic with 2D animation that I feel has been lost lately. And the emotional impact, don't get me started. This really is the best Sony Pictures Animation film, and I'd be damned if it isn't.

Both Encanto and The Mitchells vs. The Machine dominated film award seasons during this time of year, but while Mitchells managed to snag the Best Animated Feature from the Critics' Choice Awards and the Annie Awards, Encanto, with Disney's bribery and illogical voters, snagged major awards such as the Golden Globes, the British Academy Film Awards, and most importantly the Oscars. But we'll get to the Oscars in a bit.

Also around this time, I fully embraced the short form video content from services like YouTube Shorts and eventually TikTok. It introduced me to content creators like MrGreen (or NileGreen), who makes spoofs of NileRed's YouTube content, and GeoFacts with his country battle royale. Other YouTubers such as Mrwhosetheboss and Marques Brownlee also came up to my mind during this time, as my interest with smartphones generally rose again following my acquisition of my Z Flip 3 last Christmas. It all culminated with me watching the reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra on February 9, 2022, serving as a sequel to the Galaxy Note series.

But even though Animal Crossing: New Horizons wasn't a priority for me after 2021, I turned to the other Animal Crossing games for Nookipedia. In this time, my activity skyrocketed to the point where Nookipedia had reached 1 million edits, thanks to Cephalobot. My main priority however was Animal Crossing: New Leaf and its new spreadsheet data that I had contributed towards in a way. For much of 2022, it was my duty to create item pages for the game. But that didn't happen until the last month of the year. Oops. At least I kept my interest in check and visited TreeckoBro at every opportunity provided for me.

And…it was Olympics season again. In Beijing…in a semi-capitalism and authoritarianism country. The only time it was interesting was the moment that Super Bowl LVI had to broadcast in the middle of the Winter Olympics…and that time when Kamila Valieva was forced into doping by her coach, and subsequently humiliated by the public. Great…

Now unfortunately, I need to address an important event that occurred around this time. On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin began an invasion of Ukraine, just days after the Winter Olympics had concluded. This invasion, while proving to be devastating for many Ukrainians in the process, has fortunately not been entirely successfully. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the comedian turned president, has become a war hero for Ukraine, simply with his country's endurance of the invasion. At one point, Putin was really close to invading Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and where Zelenskyy was located, but thanks to Zelenskyy's leadership and his bold ass statement of asking for "ammunition, not a ride", it wasn't as successful as Putin thought, and Ukraine managed to push Putin back.

The invasion is still ongoing, and I have no idea where the country or the world itself will go following these events. But I think it's very important, as someone who has talked to some Russians, that it's not the fault of the Russian people that the invasion is happening. Putin, and most importantly Boris Yeltsin, are the sole reasons why Russia is in a dismal state as it is, and while there are some Russians who are eager to support Putin and his cronies, there are Russians that hate Putin and his supporters. Therefore, we should support the Russian people against Putin, and against this war. Because if the invasion escalates further, it's not going to end well for all. Support Ukraine and support Russians to fight back against Putin! Слава Україні!

Alright, serious real-world topic over. With that out of the way, Turning Red.

This movie…just had to become one of the most talked about things in March. From the promotional material, to the actually good art style of this movie and the good emotional impact, to fucking association with a very particular event in human history. I think it's safe to say that this movie is batshit crazy. And I like it for some reason, maybe it's because of how relatable it is, especially as I'm a child of migrants from the Philippines.

And yeah, this movie might be bait again with how Encanto was last year, but who could blame them? Especially when the voters for these awards are run by people who don't have any taste in animation and think it's a "kids thing". I'm sorry, animation is not just for "the kids". If you think The End of Evangelion is a kids movie, you are entirely wrong. That's why I think the Annie Awards get this stuff right, because they are run by people who have knowledge of animation to better pick the ones that are actually really good. It's why Mitchells won Best Animated Feature in that award show. If the award show demonstrates a lack of genuine positivity with animation, it shows how much it fails in my opinions.

And that's how I feel about the Oscars. Now before I address one particular event, yes, Encanto won Best Animated Features. And yes, the presenters balked that animation is "for kids". By giving the feature to Encanto just for being a "Disney family kids movie" and not Mitchells and describing the animation industry as one targeted for kids, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a fucking joke. Because as I mentioned, animation is for everyone, you don't need to make it something that kids will like. Yeah Encanto was good, but what will it take to actually nominate an animated film with mature themes? I know one person who was upset that Belle, a film by Mamoru Hosoda, was never nominated at all, while Flee, a movie that I have yet to watch, is a Danish film that was nominated for Best Animated Feature. How the fuck did Belle NOT get nominated when other foreign films are eligible for nomination? Heck, Mirai was nominated in 2018! It's evident that the nomination of three Disney films (Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca) prevented any nomination by, say, any good non-Disney animated film.

I could go on with how the Oscars treat the animation industry as a joke, but to add insult to injury, we have Will Smith slapping Chris Rock and shouting explicit language on live TV…in the Oscars. Honestly, I don't care much about the actions of Will Smith or Chris Rock for that matter like others have been doing for months now, but this event destroys ANY credibility that the Oscars had before then. If the animation is for kids quote from the presenters was enough to label the Oscars as a joke, the Will Smith slap destroyed any last hopes. And I think I'll still peek my interest every now and then to see what gets nominated and who wins, especially with Everything Everywhere All at Once (but I'll talk about that later), but I don't care! The Oscars are bad! Fuck the Oscars, y'know! Fuck the Oscars! Fuck it! I'm telling you. It's like…this is bullshit!

But with the awards bullshit leaving me in a bad taste, I turned to YouTubers like Mark Rober and JimmyHere. Mark Rober was interesting, from glitter bombs on package thieves to pranks set against Indian scam call centers, his content was fascinating to watch. I would definitely like him more…if only he wasn't in colludes with Autism Speaks. JimmyHere on the other hand, responsible for the "It's Wednesday, My Dudes" meme grew more in prominence with his "You Laugh You Lose" series. For a while I was trying to get JimmyHere to laugh during one of his "You Laugh You Lose" series, but so far I haven't been successful. Maybe if I find something that is really funny, I hope he'll finally chuckle a bit. The peak of my interest with Jimmy was when JimmyHere released a song called "Maid Outfit", a song that I was highly into during this period.

Other stuff that happened in March was my first time experiences with Baba Is You, which I obtained from purchasing the Bundle for Ukraine on itch.io. As a cool puzzle solving game, it was enjoyable, and it's no wonder why I chose to feature it at the start of the video. April 1st was also the time Nookipedia unveiled Cephalopedia, and you know the bot is still wanting to take over the site sometime soon.

Playing Baba Is You was foreshadowing my gaming interests around April to August. I started April off with old games released on Steam like Portal, Portal 2, The Henry Stickmin Collection, and The Stanley Parable, in order to build up anticipation for the upcoming Ultra Deluxe version of The Stanley Parable released on April 27. I appreciate the meta-commentary with how Ultra Deluxe's existence was to poke fun on publishers who make sequels of games with no rhyme or reason. But I wish besides the funny bucket, that it was easier to experience these events again without resorting to deleting my user data of the game.

While April had a couple of highs, it was also unfortunately the same month that Gilbert Gottfried passed away, a tragedy for many, especially because of his role as Iago in Aladdin and Digit in Cyberchase, including a cameo in one episode of the Angry Video Game Nerd. His voice will fortunately never be forgotten for years to come.

It was during this time too that I became an collector for Nintendo Switch Online icons. I was so desperate to have at least every weekly icon before they disappeared that I wasn't aware that Nintendo could bring those icons back anyways. I did unfortunately lost my streak into collecting as many Nintendo Switch Online icons, but from the numerous icons costing 10 Platinum Points to the Expansion Pass-exclusives, it became harder for me to continue this pursuit. Regardless, my desperation to collect Platinum Points for icons led me to do various tasks, including playing game trial with my Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

One of these games was Stardew Valley, which was added to the game trials list in June, and hoo boy I was so hooked I brought the game officially on Switch and on Steam. Although my time with the game started off slow, it started off quickly with how I was trying to collect and catch every single material in the game. I ultimately didn't go the Joja route, and took my time to finish all the Bundles (I wasn't a hungry capitalist after all). And while the game has some tedious moments, such as traversal, this was a good game. There are plenty of fun moments too, such as using the Lucky Purple Shorts to prank Mayor Lewis, or the Darts minigame in the late-game. I also turned to Stardew Valley YouTubers like Waligug, whose video on random monster spawns per five seconds definitely had me laughing at certain points. Overall my experience in the Stardew Valley community was enjoyable.

Sadly, June was not a perfect month. That month saw Billy Kametz and Technoblade tragically lose their fight to cancer. I'm under the belief that Technoblade never truly dies and his legacy as a Minecraft YouTuber will live on. I express my condolences to his family for his loss, especially for someone at a young age to deal with this disease.

Billy Kametz's death however hurt me more. As the person behind the dub voice of Josuke Higashikata, Ferdinand von Aegir, and Takuto Maruki, the loss of a voice actor means that their voices may never truly be replacable, even if they technically are. His performance as Takuto Maruki from Persona 5 Royal is what brought me to tears. His calm demeaner fits the role of a counselor turned maniac for the world, and the quotes that he leaves behind are but an unfortunate implication. Even if his seiyu is still around for future appearances in the Persona series, it will be tough to find a dub voice actor for Takuto Maruki that can match the excellence of Kametz. It's very fitting too that around this month, Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Portable were announced to be releasing on PC, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. A hope that his voice will still be remembered. Even though both him and Technoblade are long since gone, their impact will be remembered for years. Thank you Technoblade. Thank you Kametz.

The last major video game that I played this year was Bugsnax, which came out on other platforms in April roughly around the same time as The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. I didn't play it until July, after I acquired the game during the Steam Summer Sale. And my golly is this game a joy and also a shock to play. I really enjoy capturing the snack-like bugs that infest Snaktooth Island with all the tools that I was given, and I was particularly surprised during certain points in my gameplay, including the DLC content of which I wasn't aware had been added in this version of the game! The LGBT representation in this game is also top nothc, with Snorpy and Chandlo, who are best bros in love, and Lizbert and Eggabell, also in love. I won't indulge any more details however, so if you want to learn more, buy Bugsnax! Also Bunger.

#panchambro #recap #year in review

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