2011 in manga

2011 in Manga

So this year's been pretty good for manga developments, I guess. Probably will just go through all the series I read regularly and talk about the developments they had during 2011.

Wait wait hold on first what the heck where are all these supposed 2011 posts, why did this take so long, etc?

There are many reasons but whatever let's just forget about it.

Bakuman

This year we had... Lots of Nanamine, it seems. He's an okay character in my book. Good execution of a pretty traditional villain-type, which isn't common. What else... Eiji's run to end Crow was pretty entertaining, it was a nice exciting arc with some genuine suspense. Their new series is all Death Note mode, seems cool, always knew they'd do that eventually so it was pretty, I dunno, triumphant or climatic or something. Whole series has that tone lately. Even the Aoki/Hirawaru story climaxed in a hilarious fashion. Really seems like the series is wrapping up and I'm glad, I think if they go out now with a terrific arc, final showdown against Eiji, all that, they'd really cement this as a great shonen manga. A

Berserk

So this year we got something like uh seven chapters of Berserk which is okay but they're all just him dicking around in some big sea god belly, fighting pirates or zombies or something, and then there was mermaids and I don't know. I really don't. Chapters are still really fun and exhilarating and just absolute elder god tier artwork but I don't even know what I'm looking at half the time and I'm having a hard time remembering what I'm excited about OH YEAH FAIRY ISLAND, let's get on over to Fairy Island, okay? I honestly can't even remember why we're going, something about Casca? I just want to see more of Griffith's sweet-ass kingdom and for Guts to see it so he can scream at it. B+

Bleach

Oh... God. What... what is this. What is happening? This year in Bleach we went from confusion to utter despair as the shambles of plot staggering out from the great corpse of Aizen proved, as we all knew deep down, to be nothing more than... nothing. Ichigo meets some people who want to do something something powers and then surprise twist betrayal. Then a big fight with the absolute weirdest pacing I have ever experienced in anything, everyone shows up, the sideliners get sidelined again, everyone introduced dies or something, and we're right back where we started with even less hope, if it was possible. D

Fairy Tail

2011 covered most of the S-rank examination/Tenrou island arc, basically from the initial fight between Markov and Hades to the supposed time skip. I dunno, when I look back at this arc, I can honestly say I do not feel even the slightest bit good about it. I seem to recall tolerating it when it was running because there was a lot of crazy art and some of the fights were pretty entertaining, but what manages as 5-minute-a-week entertainment really can't stand up as, y'know, good shonen manga. Like, what was the plot here? Fairy Tail's special island is under invasion, sure, that's a good enough premise. But nothing really follows from it. More and more contrived stuff just kept cropping up. I felt like I was playing Katawa Crash. Or rather I'm just thinking about Katawa Crash a whole lot these days and felt like saying that, but the analogy works. He writes like his characters fight – in a corner? Losing steam? Don't worry, something will pop out of nowhere and give you a little boost for no reason. And then that timeskip. Oh man, don't get me started. What happened there? It just baffles me. As does most of the transition into the new arc, although some of those chapters were kinda fun. On the plus side, the characters are still likable and I'm danged if his art isn't some of the best in a regular weekly series. I think he knows the plot is about as feeble as it's allowed to get and compensates by working really really hard at every other aspect. And that's more than admirable. C

It's Not My Fault That I'm Not Popular!

New series this year and oh boy is it funny. Art is perfect, timing is perfect, gags are perfect, premises, situations, references, everything. I feel like it's sort of painted itself into a corner like most sitcoms where no matter how great they do characterization or how intricate a world they build up, they'll never be able to do anything besides just funny. Which is fine I guess but I feel like there's some stuff here that approaches a border of being able to actually provide some touching insights into a tragic character. Or maybe not. Just funny is more than good enough when it is this funny. S-

Naruto

So the big war arc (penultimate arc?? I'm crossing my fingers!!) has been going on for about a year now, eh? Well geez it's been one big blur for me. Some of the villains have actually been kinda neat, I'll admit. I mean, Kishimoto can do whatever he wants with this stupid thing. It is stupid, yeah, but at least when he does something stupid he makes it so stupid that he can get away with anything. Like an army of resurrected ninjas, okay. That's dumb. But he gets the chance to bring back any character he wants, plus add any new one that can do anything and he can write whatever “cool” back story he wants for them too. Former Kages, legendary assassins, whatever. Total freedom. That's pretty smart. Sure I can only remember like two or three winners generated by this system – those being a few of the former kages that had cool designs and did neat things – and I can remember many more utter failures (remember those Batman villain guys with the magic jar that would suck you in if you said the wrong word? I wish I didn't) but really I think what's most unimpressive is the vast number of characters introduced this way that were just really really uninteresting. Like guys who would get multi-chapter arcs and they'd just have these stupid little gimmicks that got old and usually forgotten within two pages and then it would just be another ninja fight. Seems weird that for characters that are supposed to specialize and individualize as they matured, pretty much everyone in Naruto these days seems to fight using the same stupid fireballs or summons or big wave of whatever moves. Dumb dumb dumb. Seriously the more I think about it the more utterly mindblowingly dumb things I remember like the whole retcon about Gaara's mother or when Madara showed up and threw a big rock or the stupid little arc in the medical tent with the imposters or oh geez it just goes on and on, special negative bonus points for any fight where the enemy's emotions would leak through or whatever and they'd shout their weaknesses at the good guys, that was absolutely painful. And uh anything with the tailed beasts is dumb, there was another “what's the real body?” fight that was dumb, lots of fights that start and then don't go anywhere aw man screw it this was just too dumb. F

One Piece

Okay, so was this the year One Piece jumped the shark? Or went into the deep end? Har har har harummm yeah Fishman Island wasn't quite what I hoped it would be and it's really bugging me. Pacing problems I can forgive, it reads a lot better in volumes, but there's something else a little weird. People compared it to Skypiea a lot and I think Oda wanted it to be like a new Skypiea maybe? With the ending I get that sense, plus a lot of the other parallels. But Skypiea's real strength I think was the really simple three-act structure to it. They showed up, had an adventure, got all split up and came back together. That was act one, lots of world building, few major fight scenes. Then they had a good reason to go back in, the whole survival game which I think is generally just genius gave a really clear but compelling way to get everybody fighting, there was several really good fight scenes between established characters, and the build-up to the final act, with the flashback (I guess this could be an act in itself, but it's really more of a gaiden, if you will) and the ark arc (lol)... it was just sublime. With Fishman Island, everything was muddled. Everything seemed a bit less natural. Many characters underwhelmed. Instead of spread out all over this cool island, things seemed to be happening in this vague poorly space that seemed almost... dare I say it? Bleachean. And none of the fights really seemed that exciting once we realized that the New Fishman Pirates weren't real enemies. I mean, it was cool 'cause we got to see the Straw Hats' new powers, but it didn't really seem to be building to anything. And the climax was just pretty absurd, I think. Van der Decken going down basically off-screen, Hodi not really doing anything interesting, and the final suspense of Luffy almost punching a boat to death. It's just... weird. And all the half-assed resolutions of Caribou and the treasures and Shirley's prophecy really don't seem like Oda. Unless they're not really resolutions but geez I don't know what they could do at this point. ON THE PLUS SIDE: the flashback has grown on me since I last talked about it, the art's fantastic as always, there were some really exciting parts, all the characters and their new powers are so cool I just oh wow, and oh man that Big Mom arc is looking really really exciting, the character designs of her crew are just fantastic, I am hyped. A-

Oyasumi Punpun

This year we got volumes 7, 8 and 9 but really volume 7 actually came out the year before so I'll just focus on 8 and 9. Both of these volumes really impressed me, but what can you expect, it's Asano! Uhh I dunno I feel like I've said mainly what I want to say when I first talked about the volumes. I think the series is wrapping up and it's doing so in a grand, all-encompassing fashion. How it will end I have no idea but I think we're in for something truly special. Both the Pegasus and Punpun plots are getting pretty intense, and all the side characters are being developed wonderfully as well. The big twist with his friend uh the hallucinating friend, that was pretty crazy. As was the holy crap realization of the connection between the cult Aiko's family was in way back in volume 1 being the same one that Pegasus is involved in now. Oh yeah retroactive spoiler warning whoops. Also not sure if there will be any supernatural elements or if I want that or not. Hmm, hmm. Good stuff though yeah. *

To Love-Ru Darkness

Man why am I admitting I read this? Well no one's ever called me out on something like this in my blog 'cause no one reads my blog so bun whatever. I guess the real question is why am I reading this in the first place? I don't know it's just fun, I guess, and I'm pretty invested in the series and characters after reading all of the original and all that. Plus sometimes they provide small bits of what appears to be an actual plot when they have time but I don't really see that going anywhere. Oh well, it's more of what it is, and I think it's just getting more and more refined in its unrefinedness. B

Yotsuba&!

So this year I think we got 10 chapters? Probably 12 actually I don't think I remember him missing a month. And honestly I don't know what I can say about Yotsuba, it certainly hasn't gotten any worse which means it's one of the best comics running. And actually a lot of these recent chapters have been above even that lofty average – Duramulin's surgery arc was intense! Cameras? Classic! The return of Danbo??? I dunno this is probably the BEST comic running right now! Yeah yeah!! **

Okay those are the series I read regularly this year and how I thought they did this year.

This year I also read a bunch of old manga but really the only ones I feel I ought to mention particularly is that I read Nausicaa and Phoenix for the first time and loved both of them, but more serious rambling on that subject will have to wait until I do some sort of “top 10 manga” post, so like essentially never sorry I'm lazy.

Next will be... anime of 2011? I dunno.

2011 in books

2011 in new books

Uhhh... the only book I read that actually came out this year was The Pale King. And that was far from having been written this year. Hmmm.

I'm not especially happy with not being at all current with literature but whatever can't have them all.

2011 in old books

Okay since I keep track of such things I'll just go through and talk about every book I read this year in roughly chronological order. Crazy? Ha but you're reading it who is crazy now???

James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Reread this near the start of the year, can't remember especially why except that I guess I was just reading stuff on the new kindle. I actually got a nice hardcover version of this from 1960 today for five bux at the used book store. It's illustrated too. But yeah good book second favorite book. ****

Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow

I didn't read this through cover to cover again but I did probably reread the entirety at least once this year as it was sitting next to the toilet. Compared to stuff like Finnegans Wake or Infinite Jest, which I also had in the “study” for frequent nonlinear “study”, GR is probably the most fun 'cause the mysteries of the text can usually be found just through concentrated imagining, not novel-spanning analysis or uh whatever cosmic knowledge is required for FW. Plus the whole thing is fairly hilarious. Good stuff. ***

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot

I think I started this last year but only finished it this year. Prolly my third favorite Dostoyevsky. Maybe the best example of a purely sympathetic character who is compelling and generates genuine sympathy in any novel outside of Alyosha I guess. ***

Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

Reread this some afternoon on the kindle 'cause I was curious if his little drawings were recreated in the ebook. They were. This is still my favorite Vonnegut, I think it captures a lot of concepts he goes for in a lot of his books the best, like, the “running joke” idea thing, the idea of author as god within book, some of the best Kilgore Trout novel within novels, etc. *

James Joyce - Ulysses

Reread this twice cover to cover this year, plus probably most of it three or four times in sections. Definitely have sank more hours into this than any other book this year, probably twice as much time as the second most read book, Infinite Jest I guess. Anyways uh still the best piece of text produced by mankind and an artistic achievement on the tier of Beethoven's Ninth, Tetris, etc. *****

David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest

First big novel I read this year. Also the biggest novel I've read ever. Beautiful, beautiful book. I regard it now as the true manifesto outlining the death of the dehumanizing cynicism of postmodern aesthetics. Is that a “crazy sentence” either because it means nothing or means something untrue? I'll have to get into it more later but uh I would love to see it regarded down the line as influential in a new era of sincerity in writing. I'd love to see it as influential in any of the millions of other regards in which it is brilliant, too. ***

Stuff by H.P. Lovecraft

I read a whole lot of his short stories at the start of the year. I can't remember which ones but obviously your famous Cthulhu stuff and colour from space and what have you. Some were great, others just decent. His language is always very vivid and evocative and imagining whatever crazy thing he's dreamed up is trivial so the quality hinges mainly on the novelty of the idea. And really most of them were novel at the time, it's just the ones that are easier to replicate have been replicated many times and now feel lame. So I dunno, fun stuff in general.

Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita

Starting in on the Nabokov with his most famous. And for good reason! This is a memorable, one of a kind book. Yeah yeah unreliable narrator risque subject matter they're all novel but I think the quality really comes from the beauty of the prose. Holy cow the man can write, can't he? What I remember more than any plot element is the descriptions of things that really could be found in any story. ***

Tao Lin - Shoplifting from American Apparel

I figured I had to read this and it was short so whatever. Seems like lots of people on the internet are writing like him, even those people who don't like him so much. At times I think I'm in that category. Guy has some insight and poetics but really I dunno like really there isn't much actual content here. B

Jack Kerouac - On the Road

I guess this was the beat generation's Tao Lin? Ha ha not at all. Seriously the frantic writing of the futureless has certainly changed over the years, hasn't it? This is gripping explosive prose that stirs the most irrational parts of the inner soul. *

ulillillia - The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters

Geez what can you say of a masterpiece like this? I don't think I've ever seen someone's artistic vision rendered so acutely, so accurately. Seriously this is like a 1:1 pixel-by-pixel mapping of everyone's favorite posthuman's imagination. *

David Cross - I Drink for a Reason

Funny stuff, I dunno, some of it kinda hit or miss but mostly laughs. Worthy of being written which is what I think these celebrity comedian text-version-of-their-routine books should strive to be. A-

Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar

Oof, bleak! Third bleakest novel I read this year? Or second? Some real nice writing makes her plight pretty intimate. I loved her poetry so I love this too, that checks out. S+

David Foster Wallace - The Pale King

dfw moves on from tackling the extremities of human emotion to the extremes of unemotion. Well and a lot of other emotions too but here we actually have a writer actually sitting down and going “today I am going to write about boredom”. Amazing. Some of his best writing, and thus some of the best writing in the post-internet voice. Also contains some beautiful beautiful forays into the realm of “confrontational sincerity” that was conceptualized in his earlier stuff, really the only example of long prose in this mode, which I honestly believe/hope will be the major literary style of decades to come. It's also tragically unfinished and disjointed without the microcosms of resolution seen in his short story collection, which makes it end up being just... dissatisfying. Ahhhh welllll. *

Milton O. Percival - William Blake's Circle of Destiny

I was reading some essays on Finnegans Wake and one got really into Blakean mythology and mysticism and all that so I felt pretty lucky when I picked up this nice book on the very subject. Sorta dry but I suppose most literary explication texts will be. Very informative and insightful, really spells out with clearness and organization Blake's system of mythology. Has great reproductions of Blake's drawings, too. S

Ernest Hemmingway - The Old Man and the Sea

I dunno why I left this classic for so long. I feel like I missed like a whole category of writing, of the like, single event in epic mode with allegorical easiness. Well I guess some Orwell stuff qualifies, anyways yeah I still wish I had read this earlier. It was the sort of thing that I heard so much about that eventually it seemed like I had read it. But yeah, gripping powerful stuff. I read it over a weekend where I was sick, I think that helped me get in a good mood for it. **

Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore

There was stuff I liked here, yeah, some nice writing and an intriguing plot, but lots of it is pretty silly too. Basically he can't write well enough yet to get away with whatever he wants. Almost, but not quite. Maybe that's just the translation, I dunno. I wish he could be like Pynchon and make everything wonderful, but not quite. A

Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene

I dunno why I waited to read this one for so long either. I think it was on some level just 'cause other aspects of Dawkins bug me, but that's a dang silly thing and I regret that pettiness. On another level I just thought I probably knew all the relevant stuff from this but geez no, even though I basically understood gene theory before but explanation made me realize quickly I didn't really know it. Fascinating, fascinating stuff. And now I act like I know even though I just read the most surface explanation of it. Cool cool whatever. S+

Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart

Took another stab at Murakami, had more fun this time. The simpler plot suits him nicely, and his little artistic commentary tangents seemed way more natural. S-

David Foster Wallace - A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Great stuff. Titular essay is probably my favorite, but his look into the dynamics of reflexivity and cynicism of TV as a medium is one of the most insightful looks into the culture of my generation that I've ever seen. *

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment

Reread this, can't remember why, why not I guess. Second favorite Dostoyevsky, very focused, very intense. A real thrillride, something you might not expect from the Russians. Well maybe not quite a thrillride, something like a fast and scenic train ride through Siberia. ***

Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

Had to read this for class. Brutally uninteresting. Empty glorification of insubstantial idleness. Only redeeming feature is the prettiness of the writing. C

David Foster Wallace - Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Great stuff in general, some a bit hit and miss but some on par with the best of Infinite Jest. Lots of cool experiments into literary form, not all successes but the inclusion of ugly attempts seems endearingly sincere and insightful and entertaining. This is also I think the first time I think people actually hard called out the fundamental paradoxes of sincerity in a postmodern environment. Sure, he didn't really escape that trap, but at least he acknowledged it. S

David Foster Wallace – Oblivion

Oh geez this is brutal. Tragedy too intense for anything longer than a short story. Some of his best work in both the neo-sincere and postmodern “writing as logical exercise” modes. **

Richard Harrison - The Hero of the Play

Had to read this for class. Collection of poems about hockey. Fun, sure, good stuff, good way of addressing subject matter. B+

Richard Outram - Mogul Recollected

Had to read this for class. Collection of poems centered around the drowning of an elephant after the sinking of a circus ship. Lots of animal humanizing stuff, fine with that. Also like half-parody of traditional poetic styles, that's always a lot of fun. Some really deep ideas here, too. A

Marilyn Dumont - Really Good Brown Girl

Had to read this for class. Collection of poems from a Metis author. I actually met her, yeah! It was pretty neat, fun to talk to an author about their work. I wrote a pretty decent essay about her approach to dual acknowledgment of cultural perspective and refusal of the expectations of that perspective. Fun times. A

Kate Chopin - The Awakening

Had to read this for class right after Austen and I was like ehhhhhhh bet I'm gonna hate this too, but nope! This was a very refreshing piece of work. Really ahead of its time, beautiful prose, complex ideas about societal roles that has some good relevance today without being too hamfisted about it. Wrote an essay about this one where I went crazy trying to explain some half-baked idea about dreams structures but my TA liked it so okay. S

Aiyoku no Eustia demo

This was a visual novel demo that my roommate got me to read. I had never been into VNs but this started turning me around. The release of Katawa Shoujo is obviously the big event, though, oh man excited for that. Anyways uh since this is a VN I wasn't sure if I should talk about it here or in the post I plan on making about comics/manga or the planned one about video games or what, but whatever here's good enough. Plot/setting/protagonist all good, on the tier of good Final Fantasies. Dunno if it'll live up to that reputation in terms of scope/villain but so far so good. Supporting cast is obviously pretty different in role from FF games, dunno yet if there'll be like, routes, but I doubt it. I like all the characters though. Music and voice acting are great, fan translation reads nicely even if it's more like, light novel/anime narration tier than a contender to real lit. A

James Joyce – Dubliners

Reread this after we took on “Araby” in class. Still my favorite collection of short stories, even if only “The Dead” is on the tier of Ulysses. Recently I've been reading a lot about Joyce's early work and first attempts to be published, it makes me respect this work even more. ***

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

Had to read this for class. Pretty nice book overall. I liked the greyness of the morals and the strong sense of immersion in the community. When a setting influences the prose on a very basic level I really find myself getting into it much more. Plus we talked about Colonialism in class a bunch, interesting stuff there. S-

Thomas King - Green Grass Running Water

Read this one for class too. Postmodern look at the intersection of the western academic/intellectual canon and the traditions of Aboriginals with a fairly predictable moral base, albeit a more complex one than most. Comedy through the mashing up of various canonical texts that ol' trick, well, I like it. And I liked the characters and the way he writes. Good stuff Mr. King, I will look for more of your books I think. S-

That's about it for books in 2011.

Since then I've started Pale Fire, enjoying it so far but also just completely failing to “get it” on other levels.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post, I certainly enjoyed making it, you can hopefully expect to see more such things for TV and video games and anime and comics and movies and music.

Hey Steven I don't get your ranking scale

Yeah me neither. It's based off the one in ITG, I like it because it goes from letters to stars and there's no sense of something being out of something (even though in ITG this is absolutely the case). Instead the thing just gets the grade it has earned. It looks like this:

F – Absolutely nothing of value contained within.

D-

D – Insufferable. Nothing good.

D+

C-

C – Bleh, mostly average stuff, just mediocre. Maybe a few decent elements.

C+

B-

B – Good enough that you don't regret viewing it/reading it/whatever as a waste of time. Worthy of inclusion in the medium or genre.

B+

A-

A – Really enjoyable on some level. Has some ideas or elements worthy of thought and full appreciation.

A+

S-

S – Exemplary work, something great, something worthy of really sitting down and thinking about why it is so great. Contains real originality and interesting ideas.

S+

* - Fantastic. Good enough to make your jaw drop. Will stay with you for years.

** - Wonderful. Good enough to make you feel like fainting at times. Will stay with you for the rest of your life.

*** - A masterpiece. An artistic effort so magnificent that you feel you cannot, perhaps never will, be able to appreciate it fully.

**** - God tier. The sort of thing you could happily devote your life to study of. Completely changes the way you think about things on a fundamental level. Stuff that constitutes the cornerstone of a medium.

***** - The greatest artistic achievements of man.

****** and beyond – I think I'd only go here as a joke, or maybe in weird specific cases like trying to put the Hidamari characters on a scale that has Strike Witches characters at *.

No I mean I don't get what the point of it is at all, like, who rates books in such a childish manner?

Me. Because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get so enthusiastic to write up little blurbs about random stuff I've read this year. 'Cause like without the ranking what's the point of those little blurbs? I can barely begin to explain how much I liked something, let alone why, so I ought to make one of those really clear at least.

And why do you have such a detailed record of all the books you read this year? Who does that?

DON'T ASK ME THAT >=[]

My Top 10 TAS Videos of 2011

Top 10 TAS Videos of the Year

I knew I had to make this post as soon as I started really investing into my theory that 2011 would somehow end up being the best year for pretty much every medium of entertainment. At the same time, despite wanting to do this from very early on, I still don't really have a very good idea of what exactly the list should contain. Okay yeah my ten favorite tool-assisted replays from video games sure but there's some ambiguity there. Should this just be actual “runs” (I eventually decided yes) or could they contain short demos and such too, and if so, was there really anything in the latter that I wanted to include? Sure maybe some of wak's tool-assisted Melee matches have the most “thrills per second” of anything I've watched, but can they compare to the impressiveness of a full run? But wait is impressiveness the word I want? Or does that lean too hard towards “difficulty to make” and not “fun to watch”? And moving on from that, what should the policy be regarding movies that are slight improvements on older movies, if it's like, just a few frames faster and more awesome than a legendary older movie, then it's obviously that much more legendary and amazing, but is a list like this better suited to things that had really never even been imagined before that particular run? Oh and should I preference stuff that's actually entertaining from a sheer visceral level over glitched out runs where you can't even tell what's happening? Or is the latter even more entertaining? And how much does my enjoyment of game elements out of the TASer's control factor in, like, the music and graphics and stuff? Really I think this is why TASvideos.org's award-show style is so much better but oh well I like lists I do lists.

I decided not to really go hard on policies and just choose stuff that I really liked watching, that I'd go back and watch again and again. All the factors I mentioned played into this, but not in any strict way.

First:

Honorable Mentions

I decided not to include the new Super Mario World any%. Even though sub-10 is amazing, the sub-5 or whatever that the new run using the credits glitch will be even better. It's the same situation with Super Mario 64 DS – sure, 8-star is cool, but 1-star will be cooler. Seiken Densetsu III and Secret of Mana both had hugely impressive runs, but I think I'd have to be a bit more intimately familiar with them to really enjoy it. Same with the amazing 8-hour Final Fantasy VIII run. The fact that Super Metroid any% had an improvement is bananas, but I opted for an even more fun Super Metroid run instead. A few other games with improvements like this – Super Mario Bros. 2, some Sonics, Mega Mans, Goldeneye, etc. - all deserve huge applause for their efforts, but I dunno, I just think they didn't have enough substance overall to keep me coming back. The Super Mario Bros. 2 warpless almost made the list and maybe I ought have just done top 20. No because then I'd spend hours getting the order right argh. Anyways uh also shoutouts to wak and brasterd and everyone else doing that's amazing Super Smash Bros. Melee videos, all of Mugg's insane glitched runs, that great butunoptimized Sunshine run from nicovideo, and tons and tons of other ones I've forgotten.

10. Ivy the Kiwi? “100%” in 15:23.86

Nintendo DS

by Ryuto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfpxcNF5sVk

This might seem like an odd choice after talking about the noninclusion of so many great runs for famous (for a reason) games. Ivy the Kiwi? is a cute enough game with a clever concept but it didn't get a whole lot of attention. I bet it would have if playing it was actually anything like this movie. Ryuto proves himself to be the master of touch-screen TASing again by twisting a Lemmings/Canvas Curse style platformer into a chaotic bullet-steering simulation. Watching the bird navigate increasingly intricate courses at non-stop break-neck speeds brings back the simplest joys of TAS. It might sound repetitive on paper, but watching the run never gets old.

9. Pokemon Blue “Gotta Catch 'Em All!” in 3:20:46.17

Super Gameboy

by p4wn3r and Mukki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1csHl7oe3vY

One of the beautiful things about video games is how, due to their predictable logic and wide range of possibilities, the previously unimaginable can quickly become the hypothetical. Any question you can ask of a game, like, “what would happen if I got out of Kokiri Forest without beating the Deku Tree?”, you can come up with a reasonable answer for just through knowledge of the game. The beauty of TASing is how the then hypothetical becomes the real. When I saw people on the TASVideos forums discussing a run that would catch all 151 Pokemon of the first generation as quickly as possible, I wrote it off as an exercise in hypothesis. I honestly never believed I'd someday have over three hours of Pokemon-catching action in front of me, but that's TASing for you. Now, when I say action, I may be generous. The fast forward button was made for this sort of thing, I admit. And although the variety of and glitches is pretty vast and the blatant disregard for the supposed rules of the game is hilarious, this is really a run you go back and watch bits of occasionally instead of sitting down with a bowl of popcorn for the duration. But don't get me wrong, those brief visits won't fail to leave you with an undeniable sense of awe at all the brilliant creative work put into route-planning (and probably a strong case of “nostalgia sickness”). The players simply go to work on this game. Never have I seen what should be the unfeasible ultimate goal of a huge game like Pokemon deconstructed and solved with such ruthless efficiency. And yet, there's some undeniable charm in what really boils down to the adventures of the luckiest Pokemon trainer hypothetically possible.

8. Super Mario World “small only” in 1:18:23.22

SNES

by PangaeaPanga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpdpVOutIHc

This is a category that might not sound good initially – without Yoshi or powerups, Mario's options are pretty limited. But when you look at the number of exits this run manages to clear without these luxuries, you'll quickly realize that what few tricks Mario still has will be pushed to their absolute limits. Level clearing aside, speed optimization becomes a whole new game when flying isn't an option, and some of the tricks used to eke out a few frames are mind-boggling. Super Mario World nails that miraculous instance where the fastest thing is usually the coolest looking.

7. Super Mario 64 “0-Star” in 5:03.73

Nintendo 64

by Kyman, sonicpacker, Nahoc, Molotov and SilentSlayers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBoqw7kGH00

Improvement not contained in that encode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHBGuo0Ll58

I went back and forth about including this a few times. If you had asked me a year ago if I'd call like 2 seconds of improvement over the course of a year a “revolution” in Super Mario 64, I probably would have, well, uh, I probably would have said “yes”. But if you asked a random person that, I kinda doubt they would have. But honestly, the 0-star team continues to leave me in total shock and awe over the most seemingly minor improvements. I mean, wall-jumping up the BitFS towers? It's so simple, so elegant, and yet, you really feel the bleeding-edge sense of pushing the envelope you might get in an extremely fast new car. If I can make a weirder sort of comment here, I really feel like Mario 64, like the good sciences, is moving through periods of innovation and weirdness towards a universal, celestial perfection that we will know through its beauty and simplicity. Weird thing to seriously think, sure, but look at the final backwards long jump in that new version of BitS, doesn't that just look... right? If I can someday watch a 120-star run that is all that beautiful, I'll die a happy man.

6. Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 2 (USA) and 3 in 10:39.75

NES/Famicom

by agwawaf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9Pwy8C_6s

It was only a matter of time before the multi-game, single-input challenge that Mega Man fans flocked to came to Mario. Want a new favorite way to get a headache that doesn't involve binge drinking? You've found it. Iconic sound effects highlight the synchronization and the feeling of three Marios “waiting” on the last to do some trick is hilarious. The best part is, more than just the combination being very clever and entertaining, each run, although not as great as it would be solo, is still an exciting classic on its own right. These sorts of exhibitions, challenges unimaginable to an unassisted player, really prove the worth of TASing as a creative and enjoyable art form.

5. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island “any%” in 1:33:40.18

SNES

by Carl Sagan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sCG3X8WBU

Most TASing comes from within the community, that is, someone who makes a TAS of a given game is more likely to be an experienced TASer rather than an experienced player of that game. This is a notable exception, and it shows. Carl Sagan is a name well known to uh, fans of science. Sorry. That will be my only reference to the player's internet handle. Carl Sagan is also a name known for different reasons to fans of Yoshi's Island, as well, as an extremely talented unassisted speedrunner. Watching his unassisted runs feels like watching a TAS – not just because of the preciseness and inhuman speed, but because of the crazy tricks and shenanigans he manages to squeeze in. It's a full celebration of the game, born out of a love that hasn't diminished through expertise. So when he actually TASes, this same attitude blooms even further. Autoscrollers becomes circuses of juggling. Enemies become platforms. Doors become warps. One of the fundamental aspects contributing to the joy of playing Nintendo platformers is that few things slow you down when you do them. In Yoshi's Island, this is especially true, and in a TAS, it's especially doable. Give all these possibilities and tools to someone with a proven dedication and appreciation to the game and the result is something beautiful. Can't wait for the 100%!

4. Mega Man & Bass “100 CDs” in 38:07.60

Super Famicom

by sparky, parrot14green and woabclf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAJ44SRoYpQ

Mega Man is an incredibly difficult series to TAS, I'd imagine. With an arsenal of weapons and tricks to add platforms or little boosts – each of them with limited ammunition – the amount of options in each room can be head-spinning, especially when you consider the many speedy TAS-only zipping glitches that end up being possible in the weirdest of places. Add to that the ability to choose stages and thus unlock weapons in an order of your choosing, creating a challenging “traveling salesman” problem, and you get a puzzle with a solution that would induce migraines in all but the most veteran TASers. Luckily for viewers, these same challenges create one of the most beautifully busted and varied series to watch. For my money, there's no run that provides better Mega Man hijinks than this full exploration of one of the series' best games. Sure, the NES-era might be more thoroughly annihilated through glitches, and even if skips of that magnitude were possible here, the requirement to hunt down all the CDs would prevent them, but when the gameplay is this entertaining, I'm glad we have to actually make it through the whole stage. The sheer number of glitches, movement tricks and clever small skips required makes for a seriously varied run, and anything unnecessary is shown off during the periodic bits of downtime while waiting for Rush to dig up a CD or a boss to cycle back into vulnerability. The players here show a serious commitment to milking every frame to maximum energy, and the result makes an hour pass like a minute.

3. Super Metroid “Reverse Boss Order” in 48:08.58

SNES

by Taco, Kriole and Hero of the Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X71iFHw7cwE

For a detailed explanation of why this run is amazing, you'd be better to ask my roommate or one of the other members of the cult of Super Metroid. My mental encyclopedia for the game is hardly comprehensive, the limits being something like “wow I didn't know you could do that there and wow how does he do that when that's still aaaaaaaaghehgbfelfph”, like someone who has only seen a tire rolling down a hill and then is shown the Autobahn. Reverse Boss Order, which, as it sounds, has you fighting the major bosses of the game in reverse before finishing off Mother Brain, seems like a bit arbitrary, like someone running out of other things to do, but watching it should make it clear that this is a route that is just riddled with cool stuff. Well, cool stuff doesn't really begin to explain it. Cool stuff is a bit of an understatement. Just watch it. Even if you somehow have had some childhood of Kafkaesque tragedy where you never got to play Super Metroid, just watch it.

2. Cave Story in 50:10.30

Windows

by nitsuja

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NYJA-JGJx0

If you've played Cave Story and you've watched TASes, I don't need to sell this to you. It's simple. Running and gunning doesn't get much more fun than this, and seeing it done perfect is pure joy. Cave Story was on the shortest of short lists of games I eagerly looked forward to seeing TASed, and the result meets and exceeds my expectations. Again, I shouldn't have to sell this if you're at all familiar with what you're about to watch. Enjoy.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 1:29.32

Nintendo 64

by MrGrunz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1RrLvJ4qsA

It should come at no surprise to anyone that MrGrunz's masterpiece of TASery is my favorite run of the year. It's probably my favorite TAS of all time. The 2-year history of the creation of this run could make for an entertaining movie itself: full of controversy and intrigue, tantalizing previews and bitter disputes, false starts and false ends, dates promised then missed, and the payoff, oh man, the payoff in the end. The any% route for Majora's Mask is like a gift from the Gods of video gaming, varied and exciting, glitched-out and wacky without seeming unsatisfyingly broken. We're further treated to an execution of this route where more ground is covered through explosion-propelled slides and jumps than any conventional means. Trips back to the bomb shop might be one of the few tedious parts of the run, but you'll appreciate the break and savor the anticipation it serves, as not a single explosive is used in any case where your jaw doesn't end up dropping. There's like a million ways to speed yourself up a bit in this game, and Grunz does all of them, often all at once. The excitement is heightened by expert camera work – you can tell he had a very clear picture of not only what the run should contain, but the coolest way to display it. The result is positively cinematic – pulling back for big jumps or arcing overhead to emphasize the chasm crossed, oh, and the entirety of the isometric view in the Deku Palace... but if I start naming highlights we'll be here for days. The whole run is a highlight. It plays like a highlight reel of the coolest parts of thousands of other hypothetical runs for lesser games. There's something said about the quality of Majora's Mask too when you consider all the amazing things you're thankful that he can't manage to skip. Such an amazing game deserves nothing less than this wonderful string of inputs.

So that's the list!

I hope you enjoyed it. Come back for more “best of 2011” pointless retrospecting soon. Oh but first a quick bonus:

My top 10 anticipated TAS runs for 2012!

(Note that at best I just hope these will come out in 2012. Some I am fairly confident in, others not so much, but I do know there is at least some work being done on them. I think.)

10. Metal Gear Solid

9. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

8. Super Mario 64 DS “1 star”

7. Super Mario World “glitched any%”

6. Super Mario World “96 exits”

5. Final Fantasy VII

4. Final Fantasy IX

3. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island “100%”

2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time “Medallions, Stones and Trials”

1. Super Mario 64 120 stars

Even if half of these actually come out it should be a great year. Look forward to it!

Special last minute addition!

So I wrote this a couple of days before the year actually ended and I just knew somehow it would come back to bite me. And I also knew that if it did, it would be because of a good thing – another fantastic run cropping up. And here it is!

Super Mario World “glitched any%” in 2:36.40

SNES

by Masterjun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syo5sI-iOgY

I'm not sure if I would have included this on the top 10 list or not. It's certainly pretty entertaining, and quite mind-boggling, and the research that lead to the discovery of the credits glitch is fascinating, but really, there isn't a whole lot of content to the run. Still, amazing beyond all recognition.