elijahgonzalez.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

OH MY FUCKING GOOOODDDDDDDDD MATSUNO YOU ARE THE ETERNAL GOAT

submitted 18 days ago • 81 comments

Love that in a year with so many thoughtful anime written by women that portray systemic misogyny, grapple with grief and the passage of time, etc., (Apothecary Diaries, Delicious in Dungeon, Frieren) the show that wins is the shameless power fantasy with zero drama and paper thin characters.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Hey PAX East came and went, and so I wrote up a list of the top 10 games I saw at the show. Freaky horror titles, excellent platformers, and one particularly clever board game stood out from the hundreds of booths. I didn't see everything, but I was definitely satisfied with this haul.

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

Clair Obscur is the best game I’ve played this year, a stunning homage to classic RPGs and about a billion other things (including fine art and mimes) that hones it all into something new. And dear god the soundtrack is so good, and it probably has the best Mario RPG-style combat in a videogame?

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

Anime does in fact continue to be released, so I wrote about the best premieres of the Spring. Definitely an eclectic lineup, and there are some great sleeper picks this time around: we've got post-apocalyptic hotels, toxic girl bands, and adaptations of early 20th century Canadian novels.

submitted 73 days ago • 2 comments

A new season of anime is here, and we've rounded up the five best premieres of Spring 2025, including the new Gundam series and more. www.pastemagazine.com/tv/anime/bes...

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

I reviewed The Last of Us Season 2, and even as someone with mixed feelings about the second game, I was largely impressed. Outstanding performances, new scenes, and subtly different framing make a big difference. There are still some problems, but it’s a crushing seven episodes of TV.

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

I've seen the first five episodes of Lazarus, and it's solid so far! These episodic-ish adventures eventually get into the swing of things, and Watanabe's trademark sense of style smooths most of the rough edges. The way it courts Bebop comparisons might backfire, but I'm eager to see more.

submitted 83 days ago • 1 comment

For its 10th anniversary, I wrote about Bloodborne and how it does cosmic horror better than anything Lovecraft ever wrote by inverting the underpinnings of the Cthulu Mythos.

submitted 90 days ago • 1 comment

This season of anime is winding down, so I ranked the best shows of winter for Paste. Of them, more people should be talking about Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, a historical drama that acts as a love letter to human curiosity. A must-watch for history freaks and heliocentrism enthusiasts.

submitted 96 days ago • 0 comments

I reviewed Wanderstop, a (sort of) cozy game with thoughtful takes on burnout and anxiety. While I think some may expect it to subvert this style of game a bit more than it actually does, it all largely fits into its heartfelt narrative. My biggest takeaway: we all need a Boro in our lives.

submitted 104 days ago • 0 comments

I did my due diligence in writing about Thunderbolt Fantasy, a Taiwanese martial arts puppet series that's one-of-a-kind. An outrageous script from Gen Urobuchi, ornate puppets beating the shit out of each other, and guys with aliases like the "Screaming Phoenix Killer," what more could you want?

submitted 135 days ago • 2 comments

Me irl

submitted 153 days ago • 15 comments

Be weird and make art. Love and support your friends, especially your LGTBQIA+ friends. Punch Nazis in the fucking mouth.

submitted 153 days ago • 8 comments

Many rightly point out how unparalleled Lynch was at depicting primordial evil, but what’s always resonated most with me is how he was equally good at capturing deep seated kindness and what it costs. I honestly don’t know what we’re going to do without him, just a genuinely singular artist.

submitted 157 days ago • 0 comments

I reviewed Season 2 of Severance, which at least through its first six episodes, is as strange, sharp, and visually striking as the first. It was a long time coming, but it seems like the wait was well worth it.

submitted 166 days ago • 0 comments

My top 10 games of 2024 list is up! While there are still quite a few things I want to check out from this year (Nine Sols), I'm relatively happy with the amount of videogames I crammed into my eyeballs these past 12 months. My number 1 on here is an all-timer; I really hope more people play it.

submitted 173 days ago • 0 comments

Huge shout out to @diegoarguello.bsky.social for putting together this excellent roundup about gaming in 2024, which doubles as a way to find lots of great writing on games. Thanks for inviting me, and thanks for doing this!

submitted 174 days ago • 0 comments

The latest season of Squid Game suffers mightily from being one season of TV cut in half, but it still maintains the justified anger and most of the sharpness of its predecessor. It digs at the intersection between democracy and capital in a way that’s uncomfortably timely.

submitted 178 days ago • 0 comments

I reviewed Alien: Rogue Incursion, a VR game about shooting Xenomorphs with a Gun that initially very much delivers on that premise before succumbing to repetition. Also it made me feel more nauseous than I've ever felt in VR b/c it doesn't have a teleport option for movement: not great!

submitted 186 days ago • 0 comments

I put together Paste's Best Anime of 2024 list. The industry continues to be on fire, but that didn't stop talented creatives from making the most of a bad situation with some real showstoppers. The Apothecary Diaries, Delicious In Dungeon, DanDaDan, etc.; this year was a good one.

submitted 193 days ago • 1 comment

I reviewed Secret Level, the videogame anthology series from the Love, Death & Robots studio, which didn't land for me. There are a few quality shorts in here, but most are aggressively one-note and come across more like ads for these games rather than imaginative riffs on the material.

submitted 199 days ago • 3 comments

we did it. thanks to @dialacina.bsky.social and @marcnormandin.bsky.social for consulting on this, and as always all gratitude to @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social for helping keep my sections afloat.

submitted 201 days ago • 4 comments

The best games of 2024 are like tiny flowers growing out of the cement cracks of the apocalypse that is the games industry. www.pastemagazine.com/games/best-o...

submitted 201 days ago • 14 comments

Paste's Top 40 Games of 2024 list is up! The industry may continue to be on fire, especially at the AAA level, but that didn't stop devs from putting out as many weird, interesting, moving, and meaningful games this year as ever, even if plenty of the best ones required a bit of digging to find.

submitted 201 days ago • 3 comments

I reviewed The Return for The A.V. Club, a grim take on the end of The Odyssey bolstered by an excellent performance from Ralph Fiennes. Its morose tone is hit or miss, but it largely translates Homer to a world where the gods are absent, and all that's left is mortals weighed down by past choices.

submitted 202 days ago • 1 comment

I had a great talk with @itsbrianawhite.bsky.social, the voice of Aerith, about the Final Fantasy VII remakes, how she crafted her performance, and what defines her character.

submitted 206 days ago • 0 comments

Arcane's finale was messy but largely cathartic. I wrote about how it followed through on its characters' arcs and larger themes, even if it would have definitely benefited from more time.

submitted 209 days ago • 1 comment

I feel like the ending of Arcane is very much a Witch From Mercury situation where it’s sort of a mess that needed another season and drops the ball on almost all of the political threads, but they largely do right by my little guys so I’m content.

submitted 210 days ago • 0 comments

MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD

submitted 212 days ago • 5 comments

I really enjoyed my time with Sorry We're Closed, a survival horror game that's mostly about surviving getting dumped. I wrote a bit about its thoughtfully presented relationships, approach to romance, and other storytelling boons.

submitted 212 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 212 days ago • 14 comments

You gotta take the little victories in life, like Matt Gaetz eating shit.

submitted 213 days ago • 0 comments

Pokemon Gold and Silver turn 25 tomorrow, so I reflected on how Gen II's changes, big and small, helped pave the way for the many sequels to come. We got day-night cycles, we got Crit not being tied to Speed, we got Wobuffet; what more could you want?

submitted 214 days ago • 0 comments

1000XRESIST not being nominated for best narrative is certainly a choice.

submitted 216 days ago • 0 comments

I did a mid-season round-up on the best anime of the Fall so far. Dan Da Dan continues to cook to degrees previously thought scientifically unachievable, but I'd also like to highlight Negative Positive Angler and its fishing-based ruminations on depression and finding a cute pink-haired bf.

submitted 219 days ago • 1 comment