[This post was originally published on Cohost.]

Everyone does it, and I will too: Some quick year-end thoughts on things I read, watched, or listened to this year, and liked well enough to write about them here. Where appropriate I’ve included links to the official source material. (I avoid scanlation sites because as a practical matter I want to encourage publishers to translate more works into English and distribute them as widely as possible.)

I don’t do rank ordering or numerical scores, these are just in semi-random order, starting with my top 5 yuri manga:

  • Yuri Is My Job! (10 volumes in English, ongoing). This started out as a parody of class S tropes as filtered through Maria Watches Over Us, but has become deeper and more interesting over time, both as a story and as metatextual commentary on the yuri genre. It will be interesting to see whether the upcoming anime adaptation does it justice.
  • How Do We Relationship? (7 volumes, ongoing). Unlike many yuri works, this manga doesn’t end when the main couple gets together; in fact that’s just the starting point, and now the main couple isn’t even a couple any more.
  • Even Though We’re Adults (5 volumes, ongoing). The most adult yuri manga around, not in the “adult video” sense, but in the “adults having problems only adults have, and working through them as adults” sense. This is Takako Shimura’s best work published in English thus far.
  • I Can’t Believe I Slept with You (3 volumes, complete). Another work which considerably transcends its (somewhat dubious) premise.
  • She, Her Camera, and Her Seasons (5 volumes, complete). One of the better depictions of a love triangle around, and one which avoids a pat resolution. It also deftly uses photography as a running theme: taking photos is so central to two of the main characters’ lives that they do it even in—really, especially in—their most intimate and vulnerable moments.

Other non-manga yuri works worthy of note:

  • Otherside Picnic light novel (7 volumes, ongoing). What really sells this work is the narration by and interior monologue of Sorawo, one of the two protagonists. I watched one episode of the anime, which was unexceptional, and am skipping the manga.
  • Yurizen! Salon—Shirayuri’s Comforting Food Therapy super-light novel (23 volumes, complete). This is another entry in the genre of yuri works involving food, here made more interesting by featuring traditional Chinese medicinal recipes.
  • GAP: The Series live-action TV series (6 episodes, ongoing). This Thai production features a rather clichéd trope—romance between an overbearing and emotionally cold boss and her younger naïve but spunky subordinate—but it’s more than redeemed by the incredible chemistry between the two co-stars. I wrote about this one as an example of the growing creation of yuri/GL works outside Japan. (There are several more upcoming yuri live-action series from Thailand, although Thai GL works are still far outnumbered by Thai BL works.)
  • She Makes My Heart Flutter live-action web series (5 episodes, complete). This Korean work is a sweet “love comes late” story, featuring two generations of lesbians and their different perspectives.

Finally, some other things I enjoyed this year:

  • Anime: I watched all episodes of well over a dozen series this year. These were my top 5, in no particular order: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Akiba Maid War, Birdie Wing, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, and My Dress-Up Darling.
  • Film: Everything Everywhere All At Once. Unlike some, I didn’t think this was a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it well enough, and it’s good to see Michelle Yeoh get more recognition.
  • Music: This was the year of DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ. According to Spotify I listened to over 125 hours of DJ Sabrina tracks (including over 80 replays of “Lose Myself”), and I probably listened to that much or more on the Apple Music app after I bought all her albums on Bandcamp.
  • Books: Almost all of my reading was done as research for my book. Other than that I don’t think I read an entire book “for fun” all year, which is rather unusual for me. However I’ve started reading poetry in earnest again; right now I’m halfway through H.D.’s Selected Poems.

Finally, while (unlike some) I won’t do a “worst of 2022” list, I did want to mention two works that I found disappointing, and for which my opinion is somewhat of a minority one:

  • I’m in Love with the Villainess light novel. If this series had ended with volume 3, I would have been perfectly happy (well, except for the stupid and unnecessary incest subplot). The last two volumes felt like the author was writing to satisfy the expectations of fans and the publisher for more material. I thought the conclusion of volume 5 in particular was an ass-pull that for me at least strained my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.
  • Spy x Family anime. There’s nothing inherently bad about this series, but I found myself continually putting off watching the latest episode, until finally I dropped it.

Thanks for reading, and here’s wishing you a Happy New Year!