Well, well, well, would you look at that? It’s that time of the year again. Time really flies when you’re having fun. There’s a lot to unpack this year for my annual reflection, so without further ado, I’m gonna jump right into it!
Family and Friends
I’m constantly reminded that my ability to do my best everyday is largely thanks to how my family supports and continues to support me. My parents, although now retired, always offer me a place to come back to when I don’t have food for the evening. If there’s something I need their help with, they’ll always be there. I will always be thankful for everything they’ve done and continue to do. That said, with every year that goes by, it also reminds me that my parents grow older. They’re still really active and fit: they go on walks and my dad loves to run. They’re generally healthy and having the best time of their lives: going on vacations and exploring the world. I’ve been trying to balance visiting them as much as I can while having enough time to do my own things/live life.
It’s also pretty wild to think that I’ve also helped my brother propose to his fiancée this year, too! I’m excited to see what the future holds for them in the next chapter of their lives. Shoutout to my friends Dark and Kagune for taking time out of their days to help us with this!
Hangouts
I am very thankful to have amazing friends. There were several that were quite memorable.
The first hangout that stuck out to me was one where a Twitter mutual K1 messaged me after seeing the blog post I had about getting Blue Archive to run on Linux, because he was trying to get NIKKE to run in a similar setup. I actually ended up meeting up with him and his friends IRL, and I had a really fun time hanging out and meeting some new people while wrapping gyoza. Regrettably, I missed a few other gatherings they had this year, but I do hope to meet up again next year since were all in the local area.
Another was a gathering with at coworker’s (name ZT) place, where we had a holiday anime trash taste hangout. It was pretty funny because ZT isn’t too big on anime, but he asked several of our coworkers to each pick a show with what we considered the best first episode hook. A few of my other coworkers AC, MHK, JZ, and JE all brought our bests ones to the table, with 86 -Eighty Six-, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Cowboy Bebop, and Psycho-Pass, respectively. ZT also blessed us with some pretty damn good chili.
Finally, in my squad group, we’ve been doing a yearly trip to places since 2019. This year, we changed it up and stayed local: we did a gaming sleepover night at my place. This was the first time I hosted a sleepover since I moved into my currently place. It was pretty chaotic trying to fit seven of us. I put away my dakis for the night to open up another spot, and I had an air mattress in my home office, and we managed to fit two on the couch. Ultimately someone slept on the floor, but we managed to get this work. We played some Halo Master Chief Collection with all seven of us, that was pretty fun!
Trips
We didn’t make any trips down south of the border due to tensions surrounding Canada and the US. My friends and I actually did plan a trip down back in July for the Ado concert in Seattle, but we ultimately cancelled that trip and managed got our tickets refunded. I was a bit disappointed since we had tickets and hotels booked and everything, but I would rather not go down and perhaps one day see her in Japan instead. Something else to look forward to in the future. Aside from that, I went on three different trips this year.
I travelled twice to Japan for live events: the first time for hololive SUPER EXPO 2025 in March, and the other for IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls 10th MEMORIAL LIVE in September. The latter was also my first ever solo trip. Both were unforgettable experiences, whether it be dealing with the lottery fun or being able to experience the vibes of a live concert setting.
In mid-August, NekoDiv, KamiCreed, and I did a driving trip to Edmonton for Animethon, the local anime convention over there. That was super fun. That convention has been able to bring some really good guests from Japan over. I went the first time in 2023, and regretted not going last year in 2024. This year we did it. Being able to see May’n, JUNNA, Asaka, and YUC’e, all of whom were artists I recognized, were some of the highlights of that convention. There was also a group that did this really cool Vocaloid experience (VocaParty), and I had a great time jamming along to some old Vocaloid songs! We’re planning to go again next year, so I’m really looking forward to what they’ll bring then!
Games
While I was able to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the game in person alongside other Ps, I’ve slowly waned off deresute. I’ve just found less time to play (especially now that I drive to work), and with no new content updates, it just sits there. I still pay for the monthly premium pass to get free daily gacha rolls. The site I use to scrape stats from the game was also retired, so it really does feel like the end of an era. It does leave me with a bit of a melancholic feeling after a game that’s been with me for a little over a third of my life is slowly losing relevance, but my love for the iM@S franchise is still strong. Cygames have done the iM@S franchise and the Cinderella Girls series justice these past 10+ years: I’m extremely thankful that this game still exists.
As much as this next part’s going to sound, this year, my friend K1 mentioned off-hand during an IRL hangout that NIKKE had a pretty good plot, and that kind of stuck with me. I should emphasize that we’re talking about the story plot here. I decided to give it a try in the later half of the year (right before my September Japan trip) after I saw a figure go on pre-order from said game (specifically, the 1/3 scale Alice bunny by FREEing), and I wanted to get some context for it before I double downed. I actually missed the pre-order window for it, but I got sucked into the plot, and I must say: it’s actually pretty damn good! I haven’t caught up on the main story yet, but I’m getting close (thanks in part by their story mode which makes fighting enemies a lot easier).
Honestly, the fully voiced main story has been an such a pleasure to read. Sure, there are some busty girls and the commander POV of your girls shooting the enemy and their interesting physics may detract from the game itself (depending on who you ask), but the story, overall character design, voice acting (at least in Japanese, since that’s what I’ve been playing with), and also the OSTs have all been top tier. I also don’t really play PC games at all these days, so I welcome another localized mobile gacha game that I can play on my phone.
The English version of Umamusume also released this year. I personally don’t play it that much, but it was pretty cool to see how this exploded in popularity globally. Instead, I enjoy the music and seeing Cygames’ 3DCG lives continue to flourish on through the game (under the assumption that they’ve applied all their experiences from developing deresute).
I still play Blue Archive. I haven’t caught up to the main story in that either, but the event stories have been a nice read. I hope to continue playing and catch up soon.
It’s been a bit slower on the Steam Deck side of things. I did buy two new games this year: Mush Dash and Balatro. Mush Dash has been out for quite a number of years, and I like rhythm games, so when I saw the game and some of the songs they had in the DLC, I decided to get it. I did just in time before my first trip to Japan. That meant I had something to play on my 10 hour plane ride there and back, which was nice.
Balatro was a pretty addicting poker-like card game I saw one of my coworkers play when they came over to my place, and I tried it, liked it and also tossed a few bucks to get it. The game’s instructions are very clear and precise, and the joker modifiers are all really neat. Each run can be so different and the strategies are really endless. I haven’t fully beat this game yet, but when I go for another Japan trip, I’ll spend my flight time playing more of it.
Hello, Goodbye Roseto
I usually don’t talk about the food places I go to, but I was sad to see one of my favourite food places I found last year ended up shuttering this year. It was this small Korean fusion place called Roseto Bistro that served up Korean inspired Italian pasta dishes. One interesting fact I learned from the owners was that Roseto stood for Rome, Seoul, and Tokyo, because they were inspired by cuisine from those three places. They were super accommodating: one time I was coming home late from work on a Friday night. I ordered takeout because they were were closing within the hour. When I got there, they recognized me and offered to let me stay and eat there next time. I was always really happy when they greeted me by name as I walked through the door!
The chefs (father and son if I heard correctly during my conversations with the waitress) always made food that slapped hard. If I had to pick my favourite dish from that place, it would be the chicken marsala. That entree had some of the best sauce I’ve ever had. A close second would be the fettuccine kimchi, a really neat fusion item and was the first thing I ever ordered there (and also the last thing I ordered). It had a really nice creamy sauce with a kick of spiciness coming from the kimchi.
I heard they originally had some issues with their lease, which was why they had to close up shop. I really hope they re-open again in the future: I would gladly stop by for another meal!
Anime
I didn’t watch a lot of seasonal anime this year, so I don’t really have too much to talk about. I did rewatch some older anime, like Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Special A, and Assassin’s Pride. If I had to pick a couple of favourites this year, it would be Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu, Bukiyou na Senpai, and Medalist, in no particular order. The first two are more about work life, which is something I can relate to more often these days. Medalist was also a nice anime about figure skating and competition. It also has a second season coming its way, so I’m excited for that in 2026!
Figure Collection
The collection continues to grow. This year, I added almost 20 figures to my collection, with half of those being 1/4 scale figures. I installed two BILLY bookcases from IKEA to accommodate this.
While I have no regrets for all the figures I added to my collection, if I had to pick one of the new additions as my favourite figure of the year, it would have to be the 1/7 scale Fischl figure from Genshin Impact by ALTER. I love everything about her: the sculpt is excellent, colouring is beautiful, and her chuuni peace pose is just so damn cute. The electro effects were a bit of a pain in the ass to put together, but they really make her unique. ALTER has once again delivered another amazing figure: that’s really all I can say.
Coming in a close second was AMAKUNI’s 1/6 scale Reisalin Stout from the Atelier Ryza series. I was on the lookout for her while I was in Japan, but ultimately didn’t get her because of the box size and not wanting to deal with the ensuing Tetris to get it to fit without damaging the box. Instead, I managed to snag this figure during one of AmiAmi’s 20x point sales this year. I really love her dynamic jumping pose, and although she has an additional support peg by her other leg, it doesn’t really detract from the overall vibe of the figure. Her thighs are also massive, with her thigh high squeeze really emphasizing their thickness! 🙂
Another figure that sparked a lot of joy was BINDing’s Fraise figure from the NEKOPARA series. I’m a sucker for catgirl figures, and this one delivers. I have other BINDing NEKOPARA figures (Azuki and Coconut), but Fraise is the first one that looks really cute in her topless form. I prefer the other ones in their clothed maid outfits. Maybe I’ll do a post about her at some point.
In terms of the best figure deal of the year, I found someone selling 1/4 bunny Shiro from No Game No Life for $100 CAD. The figure itself is pretty provocative in terms of the pose, but genuinely, at the time, market value was ~36k JPY, so from that point of view, it was pretty much a steal. A close second are two iM@S figures I also got from marketplace. I managed to find ALTER Futaba Anzu and Ninomiya Asuka for $370. At the time, market value for a ITEM B figure of both were approximately 28k and 24k JPY, respectively, before shipping, so that was a pretty decent find.
As a special mention, I also managed to cover one figure shipment completely with AmiAmi points, mostly due to the 20x point sales. It was the 1/4 scale bunny figure of Kazamaki Matsuri from Ayakashi Triangle, which hit the bargain bin after release. I saw this figure during the pre-order phase, and was skeptical on the armpit area sculpt, but from photos after the release, they actually toned it down quite a bit, and I managed to snag her at 65% off. Paired with slow boat (surface mail) shipping to Canada, and I got her completely covered by points.
I have a handful of figures on pre-order, so I’m looking forward to next year’s haul.
Server Homelab
I’ll probably talk a bit more about this next month since I haven’t done an infra post in a while. The fun in the homelab never stops and never will: there is always something to learn! I’ve done a lot this year with my smart home by revisiting Home Assistant.
Music
This year has been a wild journey through music, too. My most played song this year was In My Feelings by Nerissa Ravencroft. I really related to this song, and I had many opportunities to sing it in karaoke when I was in Japan. Still staying strong and in second place was the Matikanetannhauser character song from Umamusume called TAILWIND. It was my most played song in 2024, and it still slaps.
One song I want to give a shout out to is one of Amane Kanata’s original songs: Cupid. It sits in the number 3 spot of my top songs of the year as of the last day of the year. I also did try singing this song at karaoke, and it was pretty hard for me, but I really love this song. She just graduated from hololive and doesn’t plan on re-incarnating in a “new life”. I wish her the best on her future endeavours.
On the last.fm side of things, as of December 30th, the most played song also matched Spotify. I didn’t really listen to too many things outside of Spotify this year. The only exception are songs from the iM@S franchise, as not all the full versions of the songs are there. My most played album this year was from Blue Archive: the OSTs came out on top this year, with Nerissa’s EP In My Feelings also being a second, followed by NIKKE OSTs. The Liyue Genshin OSTs are still in a close fourth place, but it’s nice to see myself change it up a bit this year.
Scootering Accident
I had a scootering accident at the end of August this year. I lost control of my electric scooter while making a turn in the parking lot. I was doing it like I usually would, but it was over some hashed lines on the parking lot. As I was turning, I pretty much lost all traction and the scooter slid from right under me, and I fell hard onto the ground. Although I was wearing a helmet, I made impact with one of my front teeth, and that tooth ultimately lost all nerve feeling, and I had to get a root canal done for it. I also had to go to emergency to get several stitches on my chin and upper lip, as it was split open.
Thankfully, aside from that, my tooth was still fine, and it’s more or less healed up. As a corollary to this, I had to wear my retainers 24/7 for a couple of weeks to make sure it healed up properly. Unfortunately, my oral hygiene took a bit of a dive because I couldn’t clean my teeth while I was out, so I ultimately got two cavities which I also had to get filled. I had lots of out-of-pocket expenses due to this entire ordeal because I exceeded my insurance limits for the year. Overall, it was an expensive learning experience. Ever since this accident, I haven’t ridden my electric scooter. I’d probably still ride it again in the future, but most likely not until I get a full face helmet!
Goals
I made some goals last year for 2025. Looking back at those, there’s several that I’ve completed, and a couple that I missed. I’ve successfully ran more than 50 times. I’ve also read at least 10 books. Well, technically they’re all light novels: 6 of Gimai Seikatsu and 5 of Liar Liar. I definitely didn’t cook enough for myself this year. Right now, cooking for myself isn’t as fun as I would like it to be. Then again, no matter what I say, they’re just excuses. I just want to spend my time on other things right now, like running, phone games, thinking about the next thing I want to write here, taking figure photos (I’m also really slacking here!!), and hanging out with friends.
For next year, there are a few things I’m looking forward to. First, I signed up to run the local marathon. It’s going to be a challenge to try and finish 42.2km of running, but my dad’s been doing it for over 10 years now, so I think I should be able to tackle this, too. I definitely need to do some training (hence I’ve gotten back into a routine of running at least 3 times a week, but I do need to pick up the distance a bit in order to get ultimately get to the 42.2km mark eventually.
I do also want to pick up some more books to read. It was nice to just sit in bed some nights and just read. Definitely not the same as watching anime, but it was a great change of pace. I’m thinking maybe picking up The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten (Otonari no Tenshi-sama) and maybe another one, but I haven’t figured out the next one.
I did pick up piano as a hobby. This was largely driven by the Gimai Seikatsu OSTs, from which I’ve been learning to play two of them. I’ve got one more or less nailed down, but still need to practice more to get the other one down, so that’ll be my goal.
Finally, I do also want to go out and meet more people. I’ve been staying at home too much in 2025, and while that has been pretty comfortable, I do want to find others that have similar hobbies. Relationships do cross my mind every so often, since some of my high school friends are now getting married and having kids. I don’t want to force it, but I do want to revisit it soon.
And with that, my (somewhat tangible) goals for 2026 are:
- Run at least 100 times throughout the year.
- Finish a full marathon.
- Find at least 2 more light novel series to read.
- Finish learning that one Gimai Seikatsu piano song.
- Go out and meet some new people.
Conclusion
I’m content with everything that’s happened for me this year. Yeah, there’s a lot of depressing things happening around the world, but getting together with others and living life has been amazing. It’s truly been a year of experiences, with two overseas trips and a local trip. That’s not to say there hasn’t been any bad things: I had a few setbacks this year (injuries and other mental blocks), and work has been stressful lately, with more responsibilities coming my way and me trying to balance everything. But amongst it all, I always look forward to improving upon myself and planning that next escape from the normal flows. I’m looking forward to planning more trips in the new year: I have some things in mind but need to discuss with some friends before I fully commit.
Anyways, that’s really all I had on my mind. I hope everyone had an opportunity to look back at their own year. I hope everyone has a happy new year!
See you in the new year! よいお年を！
~Lui
