Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Thinking about how Ghost and Soap are at opposite ends of the gaming console spectrum. Simon has been on Xbox since he was adopted as a kid. And Johnny is PlayStation.. Johnny was playing FF 14 years before it came to Xbox. With two level hundred characters meanwhile Simon was busy mourning Cortana’s betrayal. And every now and again just to fuck with people they’d pretend it’s the opposite. But the last time Simon insulted his favorite treasure hunter. He ended up on the couch for two weeks with a sore back and hip.
My favourite books from 2024! Another really strong year of books for me -- every year will have some stinkers and a bunch of middling reads, but the highs of this year were really high so I'm pretty content
As always, I give more detailed descriptions and opinions of the books in my month reviews, but here's a quick breakdown for anyone who's interested:
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
A non-fiction book that looks at how childhood has been “rewired”, focusing specifically on the increase of overprotective parenting, increase of tablet/social media usage, and decrease of unstructured, independent play. It was a fascinating read that really looked at how children need to be given lots of opportunities to play, take risks, and make mistakes in order to learn and grow and how a loss of that might be impacting people’s mental health. As someone right on the cusp of the age bracket that’s being focused on, it felt very exposing.
Apothecary Diaries v1-2 by Natsu Hyuuga
Maomao is kidnapped and sold as a servant to the imperial palace, where she serves as a general dogsbody in the rear palace, home of the emperor’s various consorts and concubines. She’s determined to keep her head down until her contract is up… until she helps solve a mystery and catches the eye of the powerful eunech Jinshi who soon learns about her in-depth knowledge of apothecary work and anything to do with poisons. Very funny premise, Maomao hates Jinshi soooo much and he is such a simp for it. She just wants to eat poisons and be left alone and he says “no<3” to both of those
Bury Your Gays (and Straight) by Chuck Tingle
Both of these are very explicitly queer horror novels. Straight is a novella that riffs on the format of a zombie story, but with straight people becoming inexplicably violent towards queer people one day a year. Bury Your Gays is about a Hollywood screenwriter who realises his horror creations are begin to stalk him in the real world. Both are very intentionally built around social commentary on queer issues, and despite have audacious premises they completely own their camp and end up producing really well thought out, insightful stories. I can’t say I liked either as much as Camp Damascus but either is worth a read.
Console Wars by Blake J. Harris (and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier)
Console Wars is a nonfiction book I’ve meant to read for years on my brother’s recommendation and I quite enjoyed it. It explores the history of the video game console market in North America, with a focus on how Nintendo revitalized it and how Sega then swooped in to upset the monopoly it held. The book is written in a very narrative, personable style and I found myself really rooting for the various people and companies being portrayed ahahaha. A shockingly fun read. I also read Blood, Sweat, and Pixels which wasn’t quite as narratively compelling but a related read that looked at games with complex development cycles.
Defekt by Nino Cipri
Technically the sequel to Finna which I also read this year, but Defekt works as a stand-alone and is, imho, the better of the two. Both deal with a surrealist horror Ikea setting, where the sheer density and liminal-space-ness of it all allows strange wormholes to open up between these stores from different dimensions. Finna deals with actual wormhole hopping, whereas Defekt focuses in on one employee who gets assigned to a very strange overnight inventory shift.
The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish v1-2 by Xue Shan Fei Hu
Fish isekai book. Is this a good book? No. Is it a really really fun book? Yes, in spades. In this book, Li Yu wakes up in a court drama novel… but not as a character but rather as the tyrannical prince’s pet fish. He is given the task to improve the prince and is stuck figuring out how the hell to do this as a fish. This book knows exactly how ridiculous it is and leans into it. Li Yu and Prince Jing are both idiots in very unique and exciting directions. No one knows what the fuck is happening.
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
A prequel to Every Heart a Doorway, though it works perfectly well as a standalone. Honestly I liked it more than the first. This book has deliciously gothic horror vibes, and it plays with all the tropes you would expect from gothic horror / fear of the sublime. It’s about sisters who find a strange chest that lets them descend to the sinister land of the Moors. This is where vampires rule, werewolves stalk, and mad scientist’s ply their craft. The girls end up separated on and very different trajectories as they grow and acclimatize to the brutal existence of the Moors.
Escape From Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy
Exactly what it says on the tin. Completely insane book that is very worth the read if you feel like something that is patently insane. I strongly recommend treating this as a read aloud with a friend or loved one because I read it with my brother and couldn’t stop laughing. Top notch mercenary Mankiller Jones is sent to escort a computer scientist to Incel Island to retrieve lost governmental data. There they have to survive the hoards of Nice Guys, Volcels, Betas, and every other violent inhabitant of the island if they ever want to… escape from Incel Island.
Heaven Official’s Blessing v6-8 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
I finished the main series of Heaven Official’s Blessing (without reading the extras yet), and man what an ending! I could not have asked for a more epic or satisfying conclusion! The final battle and its various stages? The character reconciliation? The villain reveal? Perfect, no notes. The series itself follows Xie Lian, a prince who has ascended to godhood twice and been cursed and cast out from Heaven just as many times, giving him the title of the Laughingstock God. The story begins with him, to everyone’s dismay, ascending a third time.
Horrorstör (and Paperbacks from Hell, My Best Friend’s Exorcism) by Grady Hendrix
This book also deals with a Strange Alternate Ikea, but is the superior book. This was one of my top reads for 2024, and it was flawless horror. It is essentially a haunted house story set in an Ikea, that manages to be both chilling, disgusting, and a shockingly insightful critique of capitalism and retail. Very worth the read.
After reading this I also read Paperbacks from Hell (a nonfiction book that does an analysis of horror fiction from the ‘70s and ‘80s, very good read) and My Best Friend’s Exorcism (which was decent but not my favourite of Hendrix’s since possession and exorcism isn’t my favourite brand of horror. The vaguely queer undertones and ending I found interesting, and it did some cool things throughout.)
Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse
I ended up listening to so many of the Jeeves and Wooster audiobooks this summer while I was travelling. There were some I really really loved and some that fell very flat for me. I think I listened to too many in a row by the end… These books are like popcorn, not deep but very fun, and follow the airheaded but good natured Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves who unfailing swoops in to solve all the strange and inane problems the Bertie gets involved in. They tend to be funny, light-hearted, and clever in their resolution of plot problems… though some of the issues do get rather repetitive. My favourites were: The Inimitable Jeeves, Very Good Jeeves, Right Ho Jeeves, and the Code of the Woosters.
Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Some excellent science fiction, especially for my Pacific Rim loving heart. This bordered on the cosy fantasy genre, while mixing in plenty of science, world-building and a good dash of excitement. During the Covid-19 lockdown, Jamie Gray is stuck trying to make ends meet as a food delivery driver… until he runs into an old acquaintance who suggests he might have a very different job offer for him. Jamie ends up joining this very secretive “animal rights group” and finds out just how massive, dangerous, and otherworldly these “animals” are by being risked to an entirely different dimension filled with giant, radioactive monsters.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
One of my favourite books from this year! Tthis book managed to hit on very topical subjects with both tact and humour. Lula Dean has spearheaded a book banning crusade, managing to get a number of “problematic” books removed from the library and has made a show of setting up a Little Free Library in her yard full of “appropriate” books instead. When Beverly Underwood visits her mother and hears about this she’s so exasperated with it all that she quickly hatches a plan swapping out the dust jackets of some of the banned books with the ones in Lula Dean’s Little Free Library. The rest of the story is about various people in the town who borrow a book from Lula Dean’s library and how the book they got instead ends up impacting not just themselves but their town. The first story involves a penis cake. Can’t recommend it enough, starts out humour and quickly becomes something you want to rally around.
My Happy Marriage v1 by Akumi Agitogi
This was pure mindless fluff, it was honestly a delight. This is a low-fantasy, Cinderella-esque story set in the Taishō era. It focuses on Miyo Saimori who lives under the thumb of her cruel step-mother, haughty step-sister, and indifferent father. She’s resigned to being treated like a servant in her own home and ekeing out a strained existence, but her life takes a turn when she finds herself nominally engaged to the allegedly cold and cruel Kiyoka Kudou. It’s just absolutely overwhelmingly cute and I really enjoy the contrasting POVs.
A Series of Unfortunate Events and Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket
I’d never finished The Series of Unfortunate Events when it was originally coming out, so I finally sat down and did that, and honestly it was well worth the wait! It was a very interesting series to read as an adult, especially all in one go, because it really let me appreciate everything that Snicket was trying to say. It was a much more clever and philosophical read than I was anticipating, and The End was fucking superb. He absolutely stuck the landing, it completely blew me away. Poison For Breakfast was also a very interesting standalone novella that felt like surrealist philosophy. I might have even enjoyed it more than the basic TSOUE.
The Poison Squad (and The Poisoner’s Handbooks) by Deborah Blum
Poison Squad is a very compelling and topical nonfiction about the formation of the American Food and Drug act. The state of unregulated food processing in the late 19th century was, in a word, nightmarish. Don’t read this book if you have a weak stomach. But it’s completely fascinating to see how one person, Dr Harvey Wiley, made it a personal mission to scientifically prove what all these mysterious food additives were doing to people and put limits to what could be sold to consumers. I liked it so much I went to read Blum’s other book, The Poisoner’s Handbook which is set during Prohibition and explores the rise of forensic medicine and again exposes how people were being poisoned by simply living their standard lives.
The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill
The real, true history of the New York City Pushcart War!! For real!!! This is a delightful underdog story that is really written in the style of a history textbook recounting the fictional Pushchart War. This war started in New York City as the roads get increasingly congested with traffic, the worst offenders being the increasingly massive and arrogant trucks. The trucking companies hatch a plan though: if they begin to push out the little pushcarts, framing them as the problem for the congestion, then how hard would it be to push out taxis next? Or buses? Or motorcars? How long until they can make the road a perfect habit for trucks and trucks alone? How can something as small and poor as a pushcart owner fight back?
Railsea (and This Census-Taker) by China Miéville
I heard Railsea described on tumblr and it sounded sufficiently insane that I had to read it for myself. This author is truly unrivaled when it comes to bizarre worldbuilding that feels both very, very grounded in reality while also being completely unexplained and impossible. Railsea is essentially a Moby Dick meets Treasure Island retelling but with trains instead of boats and giant, mutated, vicious moles instead of whales. Unhinged. Can’t recommend enough. I followed this up by reading his novella This Census-Taker which was not as much of a frolicking adventure but fucked with my brain just as much or more than Railsea did. Genuinely not sure I even know what happened in that story but I enjoyed the experience of being completely fucking baffled for some 200 pages.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Another book to ideally not read if you have a weak stomach. This novella is very big on unrelenting body horror. This is a twisted fairytale retelling in which a cannibalistic Little Mermaid meets a plague doctor Frankenstein. Both of them are walking away from cruel past lives, along a trail that’s soaked in blood and viscera. You feel how painfuly and disgustingly human this book is, while also being so wildly separate from anything that resembles human anatomy or morality. Superb.
Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System v1-4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
The last of MXTX’s three series I needed to read. It was the one I was most hesitant about, but I ended up having a really great time with it. It is simultaneously the most light-hearted and silly of the three series, while also the one that most gleefully dives into torture and sex. So you get a bit of everything with this, and as usual MXTX does a really good job of mixing the humour and series in a way that keeps things constantly interesting. The story is about Shen Yuan who dies our of pure, frothing fury after reading the shitty ending to the shitty, porny webnovel he’s been reading for hundreds of thousands of words. He dies cursing the lousy author and the lousy writing so he’s given a chance: step up and do it better! Which is easier said than done, when he finds himself waking up in the body of the series’ villain who is destined to be gruesomely tortured to death. Better get on that!
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea
This is the written result of a number of interviews held between Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea and she discusses her time as a Shakespearean actress. It looks into what her time working with theatre companies was like, summarizes the plays she took part in, and delivers into some fascinating character analysis of the roles she played. An absolute treasure of a book for someone who enjoyed their Shakespeare and/or Judi Dench.
Singing Hills Cycle v1-5 by Nghi Vo
Probably my favourite series that I read this year, I can’t wait for the next book! This series follows Chih and her magical bird companion who come from the Singing Hills Monastery, an order that is devoted to keep recording tales and keeping a history of the land. Chih travels all over in these various novellas, collecting stories, memories, and histories that they come across. The first book has them entering the recently unwarded palace of the late Empress to learn about her marriage, imprisonment and rise in power. The second has them trapped by a pack of tigresses with nothing to do but frantically lure them into comparing stories.
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Ten year old Ada was born with a club foot and because of it has never been allowed to leave her apartment. She lives a hard life trying to care for her younger brother and suffer through the abuses of her mother. Things change though as the Second World War truly begins and London begins to evacuate children to the country. Ada is determined — she and her brother will evacuate, they will escape their mother’s house, even if it means her learning how to walk on her club foot. Even if it means facing how different life is for unwanted slum children in the country, and confronting how much she and her brother don’t know about life. This was a very touching book, it did a great job of balancing Ada’s justifiable pain and anger with an optimistic story. Queer elements are all subtext but there — they aren’t the main focus of this story.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
This book absolutely took my breath away, it was a next level literary experience. It’s very, very solidly magical realism, so don’t go into this expecting true fantasy, everything going on here is allegorical and a beautifully done allegory at that. This story is set during the 1950s, in a time surrounding an event known as “The Mass Dragoning” when thousands of women suddenly, spontaneously, transformed into dragons and flew away. The story follows Alex Green who was a child during this event. Her aunt transformed. Her mother didn’t. Both of these things have profound impacts on Alex as she grows up, and a woman’s role in society, a woman’s anger, her joy, her desire are all questioned and explored.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Video Game movies are not entirely known for having super deep plots, but that's never the point of a video game movie, a video game movie is supposed to be a fun adventure that the audience can have with their favorite characters... If the plot can be deeper while still giving the Audience that experience, its all the better. But that is also limiting to what these movies can be. Movies, and Video game movies CAN have deep plots with strong emotional beats. Both of these movies do show they can be more than that.
And with that said... I think the answer to this is clear
The thing about the Sonic movies are that, the movies works for both fans and casual movie goers. Does it pay off to know about Sonic before going to watch it? Yes, but will you understand who Sonic is by the end of it? Yes. The Plots for Sonic movies while like the Mario movie boil down to simple plots, Sonic's fills his with more emotionally deep moments that pull the interest of the viewer, and Ironically, have a better pacing. So with all that said.
But what is a Movie if you dont like its characters. The Sonic movie franchise and the Mario movie franchise both have colorful casts of characters.
And I am gonna come out the gate and say it
This one is REALLY HARD to decide.
Mario and Sonic, the main characters are both Likable and develop as the movies go forward. Luigi and Tails are great and caring characters
Eggman and Stone as well as Bowser and Bowser Jr. are fun and incredible characters. Jack black and Jim Carrey do TRANSCENDENT WORK as villains.
Mario and Peach's relationship is beautiful. The complex and lovely dynamic of Stone and Eggman is iconic.
And I can go on about how both movies got me to love characters I would normally have no interest in.
And honestly it is so hard for me to really come down and say which are better. The Mario characters make me laugh more and I enjoy their screen time with me enjoying a total of more characters. On the other gloved hand. sonic characters while fewer characters has them develop more and have more wonderful character moments.
This one is really subjective but if someone had to put a gun to my head. I gotta pick the Sonic movies.
The character writing for Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and Eggman are incredible and Deep moments are always something I cherish more.
But this is where I feel that saying Mario movies have worse characters is incorrect. So I will grant Mario a half point
Look, I love the sonic movie character redesign. And to say the sonic movies do not have great Choreography, great locations and overall wonderful action sequences would have me calling that person a Dirty liar.
But you cant lie and say that Mario doesnt just look better. Its pure animation, from its expressions to the animated details. The movie perfectly captures the appeal of every character, every scene. And while I can say the Sonic movies has Blown me away with some of their live action scenes and moments. The mario movies have me loving the look of every scene. So I gotta give a clear win to Mario.
Look, the Mario movie had some great songs, and Peaches by Jack Black is ICONIC.
But when that Sonic music hits, and all the songs even not sonic relate directly always seemed to fit. And when that Cover of Live and Learn hit in the 3rd movie, I remember the CHEERS.
THEY DAPPED AND WENT SUPER AND CRUSH 40 STARTED PLAYING. The amount of hype that imbued was INSANE
But I wont say its a complete stomp because when it came to the NON lyric tracks they were basically equal with mario even having some better versions. BUT we gotta rate ALL the music and its clear which one rocks the house. But I will grant a half point to mario.
Yea, Mario movies got the power of fanservice in SPADES. And the Mario Galaxy movie is what put them over the top. Cause while Sonic can get us hype with intros of characters from their universe. Mario movies can pull from ANY nintendo franchise. And the references are baked in so thoroughly that there are videos already up cateloging the references and easter eggs. Plus Mareach man (they catered to me and I love it. but if Sonic movie 4 can pull in Sonamy and make it good I might have to change things)
Plus, it is very good at giving Fans what they want to see. BUT even I know how unfair that is, and if we only focused on mario universe and Sonic universe, it would at least be a little closer, so So I will grant sonic a Half a point. But I grant Mario a solid 2 points because this is what these movies want to do. Give things for the fans.
Mario: 4
It's crazy how Xbox can basically kill itself and give Playstation like NO competition and somehow, someway, Sony STILL manages to shoot itself in the foot. For no reason btw. "Pay us $100 for a digital license. You get nothing and you WILL be happy." To say nothing of games routinely coming out and being sorta shitty on launch and all polish coming either after release or through microtransactions. What a fucking travesty dude
