Recommendations

People ask me what TV shows or music that I recommend fairly often, at which point I immediately forget all the things I like. So here's a big list of them.

Traditional games

Video games

  • Shadowrun Trilogy - Magical cyberpunk RPG set in the Shadowrun universe. Play Returns first, but Hong Kong is the best. If you play anything in this list, play this
  • Stellaris - Space 4X game with excellent story events
  • Yakuza 0 - Brawler with excellent characters, side quests, and minigames
  • Shenzhen I/O - If you're a find programming extremely restrictive microcontrollers in assembly might be fun, definitely play this. Throw everything you know about programming out the window though, because magic optimizations and crazy hacks are pretty much required.
  • Baldur's Gate 3 - An RPG set in the Forgotten Realms D&D universe. It's a sequel to BG1&2 and based on the D&D 5e ruleset, but it's not necessary to have played any of these.

Arcade games

  • Maimai - Everyone's favorite rhythm game played on a washing machine
  • Ridge Racer - Quintessentially arcade-y racing game. There's a PS2 port I haven't played. Ridge Racer for the PSP (not a port) is also pretty good.

Music

  • Bôa (Indie rock, also funk in their early work) - This is by far my favorite band. All their songs (as of 2022) are bangers, even the unreleased songs from The Farm and Acton Live. The following I feel are standouts:
    • Duvet
    • Twilight
    • Daylight
    • One Day
    • For Jasmine
    • Little Miss
    • Deeply
    • Get There
    • Passport (C.W.B. Always with me)
    • Disco
    • Smooth Water
  • Feeder (Indie rock) - Their music is a little hit or miss, so here's a list of songs I actually like:
    • Miss You
    • Summer's Gone
    • Tallulah
    • Infrared Ultraviolet
    • Bitter Glass
    • Renegades
    • Shatter
  • Second Person (Trip-hop) - I've been told they're similar to Bôa but I don't really think so. Still good though
  • The Black Keys (Rock)
    • Ten Lovers
    • Fever
    • Lonely Boy

For weebs

  • Cepheid (Metal)
    • Goddess
    • Gaia
    • Chronos
  • ShibayanRecords (Touhou electro, etc.)
    • Fall in the Dark
    • Desert Years
    • Clockup Flowers
    • 雨はりらりら
    • 秋扇
  • Pizuya's Cell (Touhou electro, metal, etc.) - Their metal is really solid, and they do really good metal with bowed strings. For some reason some of their albums are interspersed with classical music with a TTS voiceover? I don't really get that
    • Free Your Mind
    • 電幽体の彼女
  • Syrup Confiture (Touhou electro)
    • 月影少女
    • Myosotis Alpestris
  • A-one (Touhou Eurobeat)
  • Alstroemeria Records (Touhou electro)

Live action movies

  • Infernal Affairs 1+2 - Gripping crime drama focusing on a double-crossing detective and a disgraced cop going undercover. It's much better than the American version, The Departed. I didn't get around to seeing IA3 though
  • From Beijing with Love - Hilarious spy parody written and directed by Hong Kong comedy legend Stephen Chow
  • No Exit (Huis Clos) (1954) - The only good screen adaptation of No Exit I've seen. It's in French, and subtitles might be a little hard to source. A university's interlibrary loan program is a good way to do so, if it's available to you.
  • Blade Runner
  • The Matrix
  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  • Clue
  • What We Do in the Shadows

Live action TV

  • Star Trek (Sci-fi) - My favorite is Deep Space Nine, but start with The Next Generation. To get into it, you might want to watch some of the highest rated episodes on IMDB first, because Star Trek series tend to have rocky early seasons.
    • The Next Generation
      • Measure of a Man
      • The Drumhead
      • Tapestry
      • The Best of Both Worlds 1+2
      • The Inner Light
      • Deja Q
      • Chain of Command 1+2
      • Cause and Effect
    • Deep Space Nine
      • Duet
      • The Visitor
      • Things Past
      • In the Pale Moonlight
      • Far Beyond the Stars
      • Past Tense 1+2
      • Our Man Bashir
      • Civil Defense
      • By Inferno's Light (watch In Purgatory's Shadow first)
      • Trials and Tribble-ations
      • Take Me Out to the Holosuite
      • Honor Among Thieves
    • Voyager - The lows are so low, but the highs are so high!
      • Year of Hell 1+2
      • Worst Case Scenario
      • Message in a Bottle
      • Body and Soul
      • Critical Care
      • Dreadnaught
      • Tinker. Tailor. Doctor. Spy.
      • Blink of an Eye
      • Equinox 1+2
      • Message in a Bottle
    • Lower Decks - (Not live action) Miraculously, every season has been solid so far. It really finds its own identity starting season 2 and eases up on pandering to pre-existing Trekkies.
  • Signal (시그널) (Drama, police) - The best police procedural I've ever watched, centering around a junior detective who solves cold cases with the help of a detective from the past who talks to him over a walkie talkie during limited time windows.
  • 30 Rock (Sitcom) - It really helps to know about American politics and pop culture for this. It's also the show that made me go to NYC, which was every bit as cool as I thought it'd be.
  • Community (Sitcom)
  • Scrubs (Sitcom)
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Sitcom, police)
  • Arrested Development (Sitcom)
  • Wednesday's Downtown (Variety) - Variety show hosted by the Japanese comedy duo Downtown that primarily focuses on investigating trivial theories like "If you sneak change into the hood of someone's hoodie, they won't notice until there is 10000 yen or so" and performing pranks on comedians.
  • Tantei Knight Scoop (Variety)
  • Taskmaster (Game show)

Anime

  • Ghost in the Shell - GitS: Stand Alone Complex is my #1 favorite, but I'd watch the classic 1995 movie first. These are defining pieces of the Japanese cyberpunk genre, and a huge reason for my love of cyberpunk as a whole.
  • The Tatami Galaxy - A dark comedy that explores the life of a somewhat misanthropic university student across alternate timelines where he makes different life choices. Has a very unique art style, and an excellent soundtrack.
  • Seitokai no Ichizon - A hilarious deconstruction of the anime harem genre with frequent 4th wall breaks.
  • Gamers - A romantic comedy you watch to see how the trainwreck mess of love triangles plays out. The gaming is mostly a secondary plot device. It's funny and really deserves a second season, which we'll never get.
  • Steins;Gate (Sci-fi)
  • Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (aka Nichibros) (Slice of life)
  • Re;Life (Slice of life) - The manga of this is also really good and has more of the story

Manga

  • Yuugai Muzai Gangu (Avant garde, supernatural, sci-fi) - A collection of short stories by Ura Shino. My favorite is the eponymous first story Harmful Innocent Toys (Japanese: Yuugai Muzai Gangu), which tours a museum of innocent SCP Anomalous Items-esque toys that have been recalled for being unintentionally harmful.
  • Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san (4koma, CGDCT) - A cute girls doing cute things manga about an otaku vampire and her neighbor who moves in with her.
  • Pokémon Adventures (aka Pokespe) (Pokémon) - I've read up to and excluding the Black 2/White 2 chapters, and excluding Emerald chapter. Each generations' story arcs (e.g. RBGY, GSC, RS) are mostly independent, but I would start at the first chapter anyway. It's not as dark as some on the internet would lead you to believe, despite the infamous cut-up Arbok panel, because it's still ultimately a kid's manga where it is the exception, not the rule. The fandom also introduced me to shipping.
  • Mousou Telepathy (4koma, slice of life) - A manga about a slightly anxious girl who can read minds, and a boy who is into her but doesn't vocalize it. It gets kinda sexy at times, but nothing explicit.
  • Sket Dance (Slice of life)
  • Re;Life (Slice of life)