Geek Babble – I’m Naughty for Being Out of the Loop for Streaming Entertainment

The year 2021 has been somewhat of a wild ride. A sharp increase in the volume of work we process at my main job and longer hours meant I found myself way too tired to enjoy my hobbies at times. About eight months ago I fell behind in my TV viewing. The anime, TV shows, and movies I wanted to see continued to pile up until I found myself with another large backlog. Part of this is why my contributions to Quarantine Control have been irregular at best. If you’re a longtime reader you might remember that big anime queue purge I did in 2018. It feels like all of the progress I made got chucked out of the window. The only entertainment win I have for this year is a smaller video games backlog thanks to streaming on Twitch.

 

 

On the anime side of things, the year started out decently enough. I managed to watch season 2 of Beastars not long after it released on Netflix. I watched Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Yashahime, Dr. Stone: Stone Wars, and Re: Zero 2^nd Season Part 2 as they all aired. I managed to catch up on season 2 of Fire Force, Cells at Work: Code Black and season two of Cells at Work (these two were delayed because I wasn’t watching on Funimation), and The Great Pretender. My viewing wasn’t as strong as in previous years, but watching a few things was better than nothing. That all changed when the spring season came in April.

At first I blamed Funimation for taking the lion’s share of streaming titles. So I subscribed to their Premium streaming service. After watching The World Ends With You: The Animation and Moriarty the Patriot, I fell behind on everything. This includes Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, season 2 of Demon Slayer, season 5 of My Hero Academia, and even season two of Yashahime— a mediocre mess that fascinates me. Heck, I stopped watching season 2 of The Promised Neverland thanks to crushing disappointment, but I would like to know how the series ends. I haven’t even mentioned the countless smaller shows that would normally catch my eye– looking at you Megalobox. There’s also a number of Netflix-only anime series that I want to see such as Dorohedoro, Yaskue, and Canon Busters. On Amazon Prime the four Evangelion movies, Banana Fish, Land of the Lustrous, and Made in Abyss are just too interesting for me not to watch.

 

 

Currently, I’m using my break from livestreaming to list the anime from the seasons I’m behind on in my streaming queues. I’m not sure how well I do, but I am happy to be making some progress with the first 12 episodes of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean. I’ve also started watching episodes of My Hero Academia. I’ll also be starting on those new episodes of Demon Slayer as soon as I watch the movie.

Speaking of Netflix, it’s another service that’s complicating matters with so many shows to choose from. In addition to the anime I normally watch, I also enjoy animation geared toward adults. I was able to watch season 5 of Rick & Morty and season 2 of Tuca & Bertie as they aired on Adult Swim this summer. I saw the final season Castlevania in a timely manner. I just recently got caught up on season 5 of Big Mouth. (I really need to write about this show for QC.) I’m still behind on seasons 2 and 3 of Disenchantment. That leaves me with new episodes of F is for Family and Love Death + Robots that remain untouched.

I don’t do a lot of live-action TV, but I have been extremely curious about the Watchmen TV series on Hulu. On Amazon Prime, The Boys seem like a good subversion of superhero tropes– it might go well with Invincible, which I did watch earlier this year.

 

 

I’m also very much behind on movies. The last movies I saw in theaters were Judy and Promare a few months before the pandemic would shutdown large swaths of society. Other than that, thanks to our past weekly showings in my Balto fan Discord server we managed to see a decent number of movies when everyone was home during the height of the pandemic. This includes Togo, Balto 2: Wolf Quest, Hotel Transylvania, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Princess Bride, and Spaceballs. Over the Thanksgiving Weekend, I did have a chance to see The Harder They Fall— which feels like it could have been directed by Quentin Tarantino. Movies I’d been wanting to see in general include Black Panther, Wonder Woman, and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.

I hope to make my progress during what’s left of my holiday break from streaming on Twitch. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t pushing hard to make decent progress in Shin Megami Tensei V. Heck, maybe I’ll just have better luck with catching up in 2022. Maybe not.