0323 | 2021 year in media

yes today is 28th december 2022. you might find it hard to believe (or easy if you do know me well) but i actually created the gdoc for this post on 1st january. i took a look at it today and thought screw it i'll just finish it up and post it. and here it is.

sorry to be unhinged but i consumed an embarrassing amount of media in 2021 so i thought i might as well write an entire post to talk about what i enjoyed and what i endured. before you proceed i just want you to know that i tend to watch things with the mindset of a writer, as in i would think “if i was the writer i would write it this way” which is annoying even to me because i don’t feel satisfied with anything ever!!

i know you will find this post extremely long. if you are a lazy person like i am you can alternatively just look at the list here.

anime

chihayafuru (s1-3) — i don’t remember what exactly made me decide to start watching chihayafuru but i think somewhere between finishing haikyuu and not having anything to watch at the moment (and probably seeing my friend tweeting about chiha too) i just thought of giving it a go. and I REGRET NOT WATCHING IT WAY EARLIER!!! it’s such a lovely piece T__T i came across hyakunin isshu poems some time ago but never really went through them properly so i love love that chiha showcased the beauty of each poem. seriously what other anime can give you slice of life, sport AND literature at the same time? also important to note that i rewatch 3.23 every now and then because i clearly enjoy hurting myself
sangatsu no lion (s1-2) — umino chica-sensei!!!!!!!!!!!!! first of all you should know that i love love love her way of waving stories and taking you through a journey of emotions with her characters. tbh i’d been putting off watching this for so many years because 1) i don’t know anything about shogi, 2) i heard it was depressing. i actually did watch the first episode some time ago and decided not to continue because at that time i was going through a mildly depressive phase, but last year i finally gathered my courage and IT WAS THE BEST DECISION. one thing about umino-sensei’s style is that she tends to start on a quiet note, turn things around and fool you into thinking they misgenred the anime/manga because it’s so freaking funny, then punch you in the gut with all the feelings. s2 especially is PHENOMENAL i’d never seen anything like it in any form of media before. if you’re still reading this i’m actually begging you on my internet knees PLEASE DO WATCH IT DON’T MIND THE SHOGI BECAUSE I STILL DON’T GET IT EITHER!
kimetsu no yaiba (s1) — look i only watched this because 1) the movie was about to be released in japan then and there was a lot of hype around it, 2) the preview appeared when i opened netflix one day and i was deceived by the good graphics. i’m so sorry to any kny enthusiasts reading this but I HATE IT SO MUCH. no lie i watched the second half of the season on 4-8x speed and minimum volume because i was so so annoyed by a lot of things. i remember watching the spider dude’s sad backstory scene thinking “i literally can’t care less” and wishing it would be over soon sdsfgsfs
jujutsu kaisen — three things that made me watch this: 1) jujutsu koshien episode, 2) megumi, 3) i kept seeing gojo clips on twt and i got curious. actually i don’t have a lot to say lol while i did enjoy jjk i’m not crazy about it!! still obsessed with the lost in paradise closing sequence btw and kaikai kitan is the perfect anime opening song.
cross game — i watched 5 episodes a few years ago and attempted to continue it but the school politics is too much for me!! but mary told me once i get past the school politics the real plot will come so let’s hope i’ll find it in me to attempt it again. but the kou-wakaba-aoba triangulation is really cute so maybe i will.
free! (s3) — rewatched this season shortly after i finished kny because as i told yun “i need to cleanse my mind” LMAO look i do love free but s1 and 2 don’t exist to me
hachimitsu to clover (s1) — i rewatched s2 the previous year while writing a short story for my fiction writing course so i couldn’t not rewatch s1 as well. h&c my favourite anime of all times 300% recommend.
haikyuu!! (s4) — i watched the second half of s4 while it was still airing and also watched other things in between so i didn’t quite enjoy/digest it properly. plus i wanted to rewatch the ball boy arc. also kita-san is god
tokyo revengers — okay look the only reason i decided to watch this is because the live action movie cast is pretty much made up of my favourite people. but omg i really did go batshit crazy and watched the entire season + caught up with the manga in two days. in all honesty it was BAD but for some reason i was entertained by it? also i hate to be that girl but i am fond of mikey even though he’s shit. i haven’t continued reading since then but i hope he’s stopped being shit.
uramichi oniisan — the way i’ve campaigned this to everyone BUT NO ONE WATCHED IT FOR ME. uramichi oniisan is the realest anime ever i love it so much but i hated watching it and relating to uramichi’s character almost on a god level. kuma is perfect though? those scenes of him quietly petting and feeding cats — i’m so gotten.

movie

um i’m not going to explain my thoughts about each and every movie but out of all the movies i watched in 2021, and excluding the ones i rewatched, my favourites are omoi omoware and hanataba. i wouldn’t call it a favourite but josée was so impactful and i appreciate the nam joohyuk and han jimin reunion so much, and it’s so satisfying see his improvements after all these years. takeru is unsurprisingly beautiful in rurouni and god knows how i screamed when kamiki finally appeared lol. black widow affected me more than i would expect? and despite the obvious age lines oryo really works as mikey idk how he does it.

fortuna's eye (2019)
pride and prejudice (2005)
omoi omoware furi furare (2020)
chihayafuru: kami no ku (2016)
chihayafuru: shimo no ku (2016)
chihayafuru: musubi (2018)
josée (2020)
to all the boys: always & forever (2021)
inakunare gunjo (2019)
minari (2020)
revenge girl (2017)
sangatsu no lion zenpen (2017)
sangatsu no lion kohen (2017)
gol & gincu (2005)
murder at shinjisou (2019)
sweet & sour (2021)
high☆speed! -free! starting days- (2015)
rurouni kenshin (2012)
rurouni kenshin: the final (2021)
sakura (2020)
hanataba mitaina koi wo shita (2021)
bokura no gohan wa ashita de matteru (2017)
honey (2018)
kimetsu no yaiba: mugen train (2021)
black widow (2021)
seito ga jinsei wo yarinaoseru gakkou (2021)
chungking express (1994)
shang-chi (2021)
tick, tick... boom! (2021)
dune (2021)
tokyo revengers (2021)
spider-man: no way home (2021)
stand by me 2 (2020)
nobita's dinosaur (2006)

drama

while this is not an important detail i just want to highlight that in the beginning of the year i accidentally alternated between watching a kr drama and a jp drama, and then kr again and so on. and when i realized it i just decided to keep up with that. even when there were more jp dramas that i wanted to watch i was strict on myself for absolutely no reason at all just to be consistent.

true beauty — it was carried over from the previous year but i don’t know if there were a lot of bad kr dramas in 2021 or i just didn’t watch the good ones because this ended up being one of my faves from last year. the first half was so so sooooooo fun and actually has a great message but like most kr dramas the way they dragged the love triangle ruined the show for me. i still would rewatch the first half again and again though.
oneechan no koibito — i watched this because i wanted something i could watch on netflix and at that time there weren’t a lot of options. lol it’s a typical encouraging jp dramas and it was nice but i just watched too many of them.
sunbae, don't put on that lipstick — rowoon’s office noona romance drama was a must watch for me. it wasn’t quite up to pretty noona standard and quite forgettable (i actually did forget about it) but it was still heart fluttering so thank you for your service rowoon
uchi no musume wa, kareshi ga dekinai!! — in all honesty i only decided to watch this for daisuke (minami as the lead is a plus for me) but i ended up loving everything about this drama!! it’s so so warm and lovely and i love having mother-and-daughter relationship as the central focus of the drama instead of romance because it’s really rare. however unfortunately for me i was so gotten by kenshi’s face and his mildly charai character did not help!!! looooove the scene at the traffic light so much.
vincenzo — i didn’t start watching vcz until it was i think 2 weeks away from ending so i didn’t have to wait for new episodes lol (actually i did this with a lot of dramas recently) and in hindsight it was a great decision because it was fun watching it continuously. geumga plaza to this day is iconic and like mary said it’s the perfect economy! this is also a perfect tweet.
ore no ie no hanashi — look at this point you should know that my decisions to watch a certain drama rely heavily on whether it has someone i like. and this drama has micchi. surprisingly this drama was so heartfelt and made a lasting impact on me? micchi was cute though.
player — i don’t exactly remember why i didn’t watch this drama after it aired but i’m glad i finally did because it turned out to be my most favourite soojung drama (i didn’t watch habaek but i already know it wouldn’t be my favourite lmao). love the gang even though i don’t particularly like ssh. would love a proper sungcheol/soojung drama though!!!
kikazuru koi ni wa riyuu wa atte — LOVE! i love this drama dearly it’s my 99% perfect romance drama and i love it so much i’m rewatching it right now. sharehouse trope is something i’ve always loved and to add clashing personalities to it???? what makes it even better is that they actually communicate and address the issue instead of unnecessarily complicating things (LOOKING AT YOU KR DRAMA WRITERS). still obsessed with shun’s room and wardrobe btw because i can never.
my roommate is a gumiho — what’s funny about gumiho is that i didn’t really have plans to watch it, at least not right away, but i got curious after watching hyeri and jky’s nolto episode because their chemistry was so electric plus their photoshoot was surreal. also i was actually spiralling down. i remember how the first episode made me laugh so much that i actually started feeling better! the drama itself is very cute, though i could do without the second male lead (his character is soooo unnecessary and he didn’t even have a good personality). dojae is the only man ever btw oreushin who
oh! my boss! koi wa bessatsu de — this is your token not-good-but-not-bad-either romcom, but it was kinda cute. i didn’t like mone’s character but everyone else is so good especially nanao’s and i’m so glad for her for this breakthrough!
the boy next door — SCREAMS where do i start about this drama???? the funny thing is i’ve known the ost for some time because it’s wooshik singing but i never planned on watching the drama. i never even looked up the synopsis!! this drama is so insane i’ve never felt so much secondhand embarrassment that i had to stop watching after 10-ish episodes and only continued a couple of months later shgfhsjdfg. still the experience is unmatched and the mv scene is unbeatable 100% recommend (pls don’t watch it with someone though)
chuugakusei nikki — admittedly i decided to watch this 100% for kenshiface even though the plot is questionable. it is a questionable and actually quite infuriating drama jskshdfjsd but kenshiface is good at least!!!
so not worth it — look i watched this without expecting anything and i think that’s the only way you should approach this drama LMAO. not that it was bad but it’s obviously amateurish, but the funny scenes are funny! also would like to thank the writers for the jjw cheater role because art imitates life.
honey & clover — what i love about h&c live action drama (although some people might hate it for) is that it doesn’t follow the exact plot/scenes as the anime, but at the same time the general idea is there so it’s like getting another version of the story! rewatching it for the first time in a while felt so nice, like visiting a place that holds your most nostalgic memories T__T beautiful as the first time.
a love so beautiful — i watched episode 1 of the original a while back but for some reason i can’t remember now i never continued? yes i watched this for yohan, but it’s such a nice surprise because as cringe as it is the drama is actually so lovely and adorable and so jooyeon is the cutest ever!
gto — the first time i watched this i think i wasn’t even 10??? i remembered nothing about it except that there was a character called kikuchi and he was cute LMAOOOO. he wasn’t as cute as i remembered but he was attractive and his hair was amazing. unforch although the humane aspect of the drama was great i hate all the sexual jokes especially since some of them involved minors :\
the devil judge — in retrospect i don’t think this drama was fleshed out that well but the gay was so great. hate to be that fan but there is no heterosexual explanation for whatever that’s going on between yohan and gaon.
voice jp s1 — look i only watched this because daisuke is in season 2 but after finishing this i found out that no one subbed season 2. to this day it’s still unsubbed. why.
police university — sometimes god gives you what you want (your favourite people in one drama) but not what you need (a good script).
99.9 keiji seimon bengoshi — screams i actually wondered what’s with the hype around this drama but was never interested in it UNTIL they announced there’ll be a movie and micchi will be in it. yes i am that kind of mum. i finally understood the hype once i started because it is INCREDIBLE. i’m a language nerd who loves puns so i greatly enjoyed all the puns, and i’m also an enjoyer of dramas that flesh out side characters well. this drama did and achieved everything.
cafe midnight s3 — i wish i could defend doie but i can’t. i wish this was good but it wasn't. doie i'm so sorry.
99.9 keiji seimon bengoshi s2 — once again the puns are gold i would watch 10 more seasons of this drama even if it didn’t have micchi
a piece of your mind — if an interviewer were to ask what’s an advice i would like to tell a younger me, i would say “never let other people’s opinions affect you”. i was scared off by the bad reviews i read that i was reluctant to watch this drama at first, BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DRAMAS TO EVER EXIST????????? i watched up to ep 5 in 2020 and stopped because i was afraid to continue since it ended so beautifully and people said it only goes downhill from there, but they are so wrong. what i love the most about this drama is that it’s about grief and facing it head on, so it’s very quiet and slow paced. unfortunately people are stupid and call it boring, so it had to be cut down to 12 episodes which ruined the pace, which is the latter half of the drama is bad!!!!! i hate everyone truly.
kanojo wa kirei datta — i didn’t watch the original but i don’t think i ever will because this remake is perfect. i love that ai’s character isn’t “ugly”, she just never had time for herself + take care of her appearance because she’s been busy working. and i can’t imagine anyone else being sosuke because the role is perfect for kenty?! also yes unfortunately gotten by akaso eiji and his interesting wardrobe here.
encounter — watched this because i promised myself and mira that i would before bogum was released lol + i was also curious about the noona romance. i watched the later episodes on 4-16x speed.
kieta hatsukoi — i’d been excited for this since the first announcement back in august even though i didn’t know anything about the original manga solely because #MICCHIEMPLOYMENT and #MICCHIMAINLEAD. I NEVER IMAGINED THE WAY IT WENT VIRAL THOUGH???????????? good for micchi but also this toxic parent part of me very much would like to gatekeep my son sdgfshdfsj
d.p. — was hesitant to watch this initially because i heard from my friend that it’s very hard to watch, but eventually i decided to pluck up my courage. yeah it was pretty gory and disturbing to some point (i still can’t stop thinking about the nail on the wall) but it’s also phenomenal. still so obsessed with the opening sequence.
koi desu! — watched this for hana-chan but omg sugino yosuke as a thug with a flower garden for a heart. obsessed with so many things about this drama like kurokawa being “black panther of the east” and shishio “golden lion of the west”, kurokawa’s innocent infatuation with yukiko, the halftime comedy break with the blind comedian and also shishio’s long history with kurokawa. everything is just so wholesome and at the same time so educational.
yeonmo — i had high expectations for this but i guess that’s the reason i found a lot of things disappointing. first of all i’m a huge huge fan of moonlight drawn by the clouds and coffee prince — i know since they have the same crossdressing theme some things are inevitable but while watching this i can’t help thinking that i’m watching a bad imitation. a lot of details weren’t explained and elaborated well and i hate how the girls were wasted even though their characters were so solid. also i caught a second lead disease so that one is on me.
okaeri mone — i really liked the first 1/3 of this but mone grew up her character started to be more and more flat to me and it became so boring. i wish they didn’t drag ren’s problems and feelings too much because if i hadn’t been biased i probably would’ve hated him lmao. plus um i can’t really accept sakana and mone’s age gap. i don’t mind age gaps normally but this one is kinda weird to me because they first when mone just finished high school and even though he hadn’t developed any feelings towards her then, the people around them were already trying to matchmake them. that aside i truly enjoyed learning about weather forecasts and what goes behind.
school 2021 — omg after all the commotion i was really hoping for this one to be good but it was just… bad. i totally respect how the writers went for a different direction and chose a vocational school as a setting instead but they could’ve done more. and the taekwondo history baiting????? i need a 5-page apology letter for that!!! still i can’t believe despite the bad plot and cliche tropes this drama gave me a really good confession scene… writer-nim you had one job and you actually nailed it.
super rich — i think i read somewhere that this drama was exaggerated on purpose but it was so unserious it’s unreal. nothing beats the time skip scenes and the fact that they did it several times, they’re seriously unreal. honestly it could’ve been a 100% inspiring and wholesome drama if they didn’t push the romance.
our summer — oh my god wooshik in a summer themed romance drama was everything i wanted. my expectations were ridiculously high and the first episode was so good but i was disappointed by so many things…… i don’t even want to elaborate it but i pretty much watched the last few episodes on 4x speed. nj is everything to me though with better writing and more screentime she could’ve been cindy.
konto ga hajimaru — imagine waiting so many months for a drama’s subs to be completed only for it to be picked up by netflix. (look i’m thankful to netflix for ending my agony but i still hate their subs with a passion) anyways this is a 150% perfect drama. the netflix subs don’t do it justice obviously but nevertheless i wish everyone would give it a chance because it’s so so so uplifting and healing while being extremely entertaining. it’s a treasure of mine.

random

kpop — for some reason i watched a lot amazing saturday and very little kpop content, even for groups i like. it’s probably obvious but i kinda lost interest since most of my favourite groups went on a hiatus and at the same time i fell out of love with the new trends, be it sound or style.
jpop — i can’t tell if it’s related but while i fell out of love with kpop, i fell back in love with jpop (aka johnny’s pop) and got to know some of the newer groups. it was mostly nanidan because i was anticipating micchi’s debut so much and the songs they’ve had were great. funnily i didn’t end up getting into them lol
misc — uh it started with yun’s “hey do you wanna watch japan volleyball team’s first game together?” at the beginning of olympics and here we are. we ended up falling deep into the hole that after olympics ended we considered paying money to stream another tournament and later started watching league matches too. and from japan team we started stanning so many players from other teams too.