My media of the year: 2025

I forgot that I did this for 2024 so here’s my media of the year for 2025! The only difference is that I’m going to pick two for each category: one from 2025 and one not from 2025 that I consumed last year (unless they’re both the same!)

Film of the year

2025: KPop Demon Hunters

I only watched 6 new movies last year and honestly, I would have struggled to pick a winner had KPop Demon Hunters not been amongst them. It was such a good movie with plenty of the hallmarks of a global phenomenon. I’m looking forward to what the burgeoning franchise has to offer next.

Not 2025: Training Day/Tombstone

I wasn’t sure which to pick as the best not-new movie I’d watched last year so I chose two. Training Day was stellar and Denzel acted his arse off (IYKYK). I swear his performance changed my brain chemistry for about a week after watching it. No one has deserved an Oscar more than he did for that role.

Tombstone was long overdue despite not knowing much about it beyond it being a “modern” Western. For everyone who said it was the greatest western of all time, I’m right there with you. It’s sad that Val Kilmer’s passing brought me towards it but I’m glad I watched it because his performance deserved an Oscar just like Denzel’s… except Val didn’t get one of any kind. When you watch it, you’ll be disgusted too. So many quotables. Great movie.

Game of the year

2025: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33/Pokémon Legends: Z-A

This looks like “one of these things is not like the other” and you’d be right but hear me out. I only played two new games in 2025 and only finished one which was Pokémon Legends: Z-A. But in terms of an overall better game, the few hours that I played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 I really enjoyed.

I’ve not gone back to Clair Obscur for a while due to my backlog but I certainly will. As for Z-A, I enjoyed the base game and DLC but it ran out of steam fairly quickly. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone full pelt from October to December but I like to immerse myself in a new Pokémon game and did everything I wanted to in 8 weeks which sounds ridiculous considering I got 3 years out of Scarlet/Violet + two DLCs.

Not 2025: Final Fantasy IX

I wrote about it in my completed games of 2025 blog post but here’s a snippet:

What a game […] the story drew me in from the get-go, the dialogue was mature and whimsical […] and gameplay was the peak of pre-3D FF combat with the ATB system

Book of the year

2025: “Solidarity with Children – An Essay Against Adult Supremacy” by Madeline Lane-McKinley

*sigh* another thing I didn’t finish but enjoyed a lot. “Solidarity with Children” digs into the way children are often ignored and mistreated from a societal perspective and offers ways to remedy that. I felt myself recollecting not only my own childhood but my parenting over the last 10 years and I hope to work through the rest of the book and practice what it preached.

Series of the year

Not 2025: Monster Rancher

A real throwback. I watched this anime when I was a kid but never finished it. In fact, I thought the episode I watched was the end but it was just the end of the first season. I watched it from start to finish before Christmas and finished it yesterday but I’m counting it for 2025. Really fun, whimisical, and so heartfelt. It took a lot of cues from the Pokémon anime but went down a different path so it could stand out; just about.

Streamer of the year: Chazingdra

It’s been great watching Chazingdra’s channel continue to grow and all the cool new Pokémon challenges he took on in 2025. More to come and I can’t wait to see it.

Honourable mention: Possum Oakwood

Album of the year

2025: Kaytranada – AIN’T NO DAMN WAY!

When Kaytranada drops something, you drop everything and listen. AIN’T NO DAMN WAY! was something of a surprise given he’d just released an album the year before (which was also a banger). I keep saying this but his unbeaten streak needs to be studied because everything he’s ever released has been perfect. No skips whatsoever. It’s been over a DECADE.

Honourable mentions: Vulfpeck – Clarity of Cal and Σtella – Adagio

Performance of the year: Wolfe Glick winning EUIC

Phenomenal performance with that iconic speech and the shock announcement at the end. Beyond goated.