Correspondence From Limbo

Here we are again, the end of the year. It’s time for the annual look back at 2024 before we move forward to 2025. I wrote something like this last year, and I honestly find it to be an entertaining exercise in looking back at the year and what I watched, played and listened to. It’s also good from a critical perspective, helping me to flex my (likely long atrophied) critical muscles and forcing me to confront the things I liked, for better and worse.

This year, I actually managed to find ten things to rave about, so we have a top ten. Instead of putting them into any particular order, I’ve instead decided to give them all awards to mark their impact on me. Without further ado, let me introduce the Limbo Awards; it’s like the Oscars except with less money, glamour, comedy moments, style, celebrities, etc. There also aren’t any actual awards for this prestigious event; perhaps the winners can print themselves off a certificate or something? 

If I’m sounding somewhat glib, it’s because this has been a long, difficult year. Then again, isn’t that the same every year? Nevertheless, I’ve survived, and here are some of the things that have made that survival worthwhile.

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Dandadan – The “Kiss Them You Fool” Award for Best Romance

“Listen, I’m an awkward guy.”

If I’m being honest, I didn’t really think much of Dandadan when I first saw trailers for it. It seemed like generic anime fare: teenagers teaming up to defeat aliens and spirits with the power of friendship, lots of awkward fanservice, and maybe some well-animated fight scenes that would end up kicking ass and be passed around social media for months. While Dandadan does contain all of those (especially fanservice; considering her overall design, cigarette smoking and baseball bat, I’m pretty sure Seiko Ayase will soon be the dictionary definition for Freud’s “Phallic woman” concept), it also centres on a surprisingly charming romance between the main characters Momo Ayase (voiced in the English dub by Abby Trott) and Ken “Okarun” Takakura (A.J. Beckles).

It’s hard to overstate how much the central romance makes the show. The awkward, teenage feelings that Momo and Okarun display are incredibly charming, whether it’s Momo telling Okarun that “it’s his turn to say ‘Goodbye’” or Okarun slowly realising that he can’t focus on his studies because he wants to talk about the occult with “Miss Ayase”. The scene where they spend their entire lunch break trying to meet up, barely missing each other until they bump into each other, is a real highlight, as is their first accidental kiss while fighting Nessie. The realistic road bumps the pair face in their relationship when Aira (Lisa Reimold) and Jiji (Aleks Le) enter the picture get played incredibly well, and the show makes all of the main characters fun to be around.

Combining the charming central relationship with some incredibly strong writing, beautiful animation (the episode highlighting the backstory of the Acrobatic Silky was rightly praised on social media after its release) and fantastic music, Dandadan has quickly become a must-watch for me; I find myself eagerly awaiting the release of new episodes every week, counting down the days until I can be reunited with this goofy bunch. Not bad for a show about trying to reunite a teenager with his balls…

The Fall Guy – The “Most Generically Handsome Man Alive” Award for Best Use of Ryan Gosling

“Is it Mo-moa or Ma-moa?”

This was a fun one. Similar to Dandadan, it is easy to write off The Fall Guy from the trailer alone. It’s a vehicle for Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, based on a TV show from the 80s, and proudly wears on its sleeve that it’s directed by David Leitch, the director behind the first John Wick and Bullet Train. The trailer itself looks like something Netflix would dump out, part of its strategy of “content” that feels like it’s been conceived by throwing darts at a board, or even worse, generated by ChatGPT.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this in the cinema and came away raving about it. The Fall Guy is one of those movies which has been let down by its marketing, a beautifully fun romp that has a pleasant sprinkling of meta elements. Between Barbie and The Nice Guys, Gosling has made somewhat of a name for himself as a surprisingly comedic actor to go along with his status as the most generically handsome man alive (fine, he’s actually very attractive, please don’t attack me in the comments). While there isn’t anything in The Fall Guy that reaches the comedic heights of the bathroom scene in The Nice Guys (the physical comedy chops that Gosling displays in that moment is top-tier), the film still has some great comedic moments. From its meta-commentary on the art of filmmaking (including asking if it is a cop-out for a film with a weak third act to comment on its weak third act?) to an always-game Winston Duke yelling the name of movie stars as he copies their fighting moves there was a lot that made me laugh out loud in the cinema. Both Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Duke steal the show as an egotistical movie star who is obsessed with the idea that he does his own stunts and an absolute bro of a stunt coordinator respectively, and the central relationship between Gosling’s and Blunt’s characters is incredibly sweet.

The Fall Guy is a seriously fun time, and I recommend everyone check it out.

The Sex Was Good Until It Wasn’t – The “Julien Baker Didn’t Release Any New Music This Year Award” for Best Album

“Find myself looking back a bit more than I should/It wasn’t all bad, it wasn’t that good”

Looking at this, I’m kind of surprised that I rated this album so highly. There are a couple of reasons why it’s on my end-of-year list though. Part of it is I haven’t been listening to a lot of new releases this year. I’ve mostly been listening to old favourites, such as the aforementioned Julien Baker (Who I am begging to release the country-music album she is writing with Torres now, please and thank you) and really getting into the Mountain Goats, who haven’t released any new music this year. As good as The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess is, it was released last year and therefore makes it ineligible for the awards due to my own, self-imposed rules (which I should really adjust at some point, especially due to some of the other winners on this list). Lauren Mayberry’s debut album Vicious Creature would have been a contender, aside from the fact that I didn’t think the final product was great; some of the songs were good, but after listening to it for the first time there wasn’t anything I felt like I needed to hear again. I could have nominated the Persona 3 Reload soundtrack for the awards, but that seemed unfair since the game as a whole will be discussed later in this piece.

So, that leaves us with The Sex Was Good Until It Wasn’t by Xana. I’ll have to admit that I’m not a massive Xana fan. While her work is catchy, I mostly like it in small doses. This album reflected a slight shift for her, focusing on slower songs with more serious subject matter (although her prior effort, 2022’s Tantrums, wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs either). Despite my apathy towards this album, it would be remiss of me not to discuss that it has some great songs with two in particular staying in my regular rotation since the album was released in May; the sex was good and sick joke.

I find both songs incredibly catchy, with the final verse of the sex was good having permanent residence in the back of my mind; I’ve found myself quietly singing it under my breath on too many occasions to count. Meanwhile, sick joke is the sort of song that would have destroyed me if it had been released a few years earlier; a battlecry for all the people who have been dumped without the other person ever really explaining why.

Next year, my favourite album will probably be whatever Julien Baker is working on. But this year, the crown can go to Xana.

Fields of Mistria – The “It Was This or Hades II” Award for Best Early Access Game

“You feel compelled to talk to Caldarus’ Statue”

I’ve already written about Fields of Mistria, so I’ll keep this brief. As someone who has played Stardew Valley for hundreds of hours, and who has issues with mods making it too big, this game scratches the itch of wanting to find new things to do in this sort of genre. Fields of Mistria does a lot of things right and I find myself falling in love with it and the world it has created, and this is before the game has even hit its 1.0 release.

From the beautiful art to the wonderful characters and amazing music, the game feels like the complete package, and I can’t wait to see where the developers take it from here.

Elden Ring: Shadow of The Erdtree – The “Fucking Hell, This Is Difficult” Award for Best From Software Release

“Will you walk with us?”

From Software releases getting awards happens about as frequently as morons on the internet working themselves into an obscene, childish, frothing mess because a game has the “audacity” to feature a black woman as a main character, but sometimes From Soft does manage to make me sit up and remember why they are receiving all that praise.

Shadow of the Erdtree was one of those times.

An expansion to an already expansive game, Shadow of the Erdtree transported players to one of the most imaginative fantasy worlds ever put in a video game. Everywhere you go in the Land of Shadows, you are greeted by something unique, unlike anything in any other work or the Lands Between. The DLC answers questions laid out in the main game, filling in the backstories of Marika and introducing players to Miquella and his plans for his own age, one of compassion instead of bloodshed. As is the case with From Software DLCs, there are a range of new areas, from the horrific Finger Ruins to the beautiful Cerulian Coast, to the ominous Shadow Keep, all of which offer incredible level design alongside the awe they inspire. One area saw me travelling down, down, down, deep into the earth where I fought a knight made of rotten sludge, while another saw me traverse a ruined castle to fight a dragon dancer that could summon storms. These areas and enemies felt like a culmination of everything From Soft has been working on since Demons Souls, something that shows that fantasy can be more than knights and dragons and Lord of the Rings rip-offs. The DLC also introduced a slew of new weapons, which I hope will be implemented in future titles (especially the Milady, my beloved).

Despite putting dozens of hours into Shadow of the Erdtree, I’m still yet to finish it; I got trapped in the roadblock that is the fire knights ahead of Messmer in the Shadow Keep. I’m hoping to return to it though, to fight through the Land of Shadows and see if I can uncover the forgotten history of Marika and her line. I’m looking forward to when I can try, try, die again.

The Bear Season 3 – The “Justified Season 5” Award for Most Mid Season Presumably Setting up Something Cool

“I think about you too much”

I was torn on whether to include The Bear again. The show’s second season was an absolute triumph, but the third season seemed to be missing something. While I disagree with all the headlines saying that “The show is dead”, I have to admit that there were problems. Plot lines seemed to go nowhere, the Faks went from being occasional comic relief to overused, and the show seemed to just be spinning its wheels. Following the stand-out episodes of season two, such as “Fishes” or “Forks”, the third season felt that it didn’t have as much to offer. It had a mix of highs and lows, but the highs that are there are triumphant. A big shout-out should go to Napkins, the sixth episode that delves into Tina’s (Liza Colón-Zayas) background and what her life was like before she joined the staff at The Beef. The episode is a real showcase for Colón-Zayas, allowing her to flex her muscles in a way that prior episodes hadn’t. Ebon Moss-Bachrach also continued to stun in this season, showing Ritchie’s growth, and I loved the confrontation between Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Chief Fields (Joel McHale) as Ever closed its doors for the last time.

While season three might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, I am looking forward to where it goes next.

Perfect Days – The “Friends at The Table” Award for Hardest Sell of a Great Show/Movie/Game

“If nothing ever changed, wouldn’t it be absurd?”

Perfect Days was the first film that I saw in the cinema at the beginning of the year, and it hasn’t left me since then. A simple film, it follows the day-to-day life of Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo as he goes about his life, going to work, taking care of his plants and listening to music. The film follows the same basic plot beats, repeated ad nauseam, with different complications and scenarios changing each day on an individual level. It is an ode to simple living; I’m not lying when I say that there was part of me that found Hirayama’s life quite attractive. Despite this, the film ends on an ambiguous note, leaving us uncertain how much our protagonist likes his simple life – it has stayed with me, as I try to work out Hirayama’s feelings as the movie comes to an end.

Despite being one of the best films I’ve seen this year, I find Perfect Days an incredibly tricky thing to sell to others. It is difficult to make a film about a toilet cleaner, following his day-to-day life, sound interesting, but the film is really incredible. It is beautifully acted, amazingly shot and has some great heart-warming and funny moments. Do give it a watch if you get the chance. I promise it won’t disappoint.

Persona 3 Reload – The “When is Persona 4 Being Remade” Award for Best Persona Game

“I am thou… Thou art I…”

I’ve been a fan of the Persona games since the release of Persona 5 back in 2017. I have fond memories of spending a week off college playing the game almost non-stop, getting all the way through Okamura’s palace before other things took my attention. Since then, I’ve played Persona 5 Royal, the updated re-release that came out in 2020, as well as Persona 4 Golden, my personal favourite, from 2012. I’ve never played any of the games to conclusion for one reason or another, they’re all massive experiences and I haven’t had the patience to get all the way through. Despite this, I love the series dearly, and I’m hoping I’ll one day have the time to play through them all.

I’ve been wanting to play Persona 3 for many years, but it’s always been out of reach. The original game is difficult to come by, even with emulators, and has a reputation for being really difficult. Even with the re-release of Persona 3 Portable, I haven’t felt the need to return to the original game; especially considering the allegations that have been made against some members of the original cast. So, when the remake was announced, with an all-new cast, new gameplay mechanics and more, I jumped at the chance to finally properly try the game.

Persona 3 has developed something of a high reputation among Persona fans, especially due to its tone. Themes of death, suicide, bullying, loss and more are prevalent throughout the game, with the very act of summoning the main cast’s personas involving putting a gun to their heads and pulling the trigger. I was prepared for a dark experience, one that had the potential to even be harrowing depending on how well the game managed to toe the line. What I ended up getting was surprisingly life-affirming. While Persona 3 deals with the inevitability that everyone dies, it also asks how you will spend the time you have, what connections you will make and what you will leave behind. Is it better to face a potentially bleak future, or run away from it? I’ll probably write more about the game at a later date (especially the social links, which I think might be my favourite of the series so far), but Persona 3 Reload is a game that I went into with high expectations that were either met or exceeded. It feels like the perfect way to do a remake.

Retry: Elden Ring Part 2 – The “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” Award for Best Payoff to a Recurring Bit

“The only perfume that for some reason I can detect, like that, anytime, in a heartbeat, even if someone who was wearing it was in a room four days ago I can pretty much smell it, is Britney Spears’ Fantasy.”

I wasn’t too sure if I was going to include this in this year’s list. While we’ve already had some repeated entrants in this year’s Limbo Awards (see; The Bear), I didn’t know if I was going to include the latest series of Retry. The boys Rory, Krupa and Gav are still making their way through Elden Ring, and while I love the show and watch new episodes religiously, there is part of me that feels like there aren’t as many laugh-out-loud moments as there were in previous seasons. The park bench story, the done counter, “That’s big talk from a cauliflower”, putting the napkins on the screen to hide the Twin Princes’ health, the entirety of the Lawrence fight; these are all iconic moments from the first few seasons that haven’t really been matched in later years. The show is still good, but is it top ten good?

Any qualms I might have had about including part two of RKG’s playthrough of Elden Ring were quashed in the final episode of the part; the fight against Morgott and the payoff to a running gag that had been mentioned throughout the latter half of the season.

Early in the boy’s adventures in the Altus Platau, Rory mentions that he can recognise the scent of Britney Spears’ Fantasy more or less on sight (err… sniff?). Gav and Krupa are dubious about this, but the joke is mentioned a few more times before being dropped. Cut to the final episode, with Gav and Krupes spraying the perfume on Rory’s microphone before they record… and Rory recognises the smell instantly. It was the perfect way to start the final episode, a great pay-off to a long-running gag that I wasn’t expecting.

Retry: Elden Ring continues to be one of the best series that RKG has put out, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Sing Sing – The “Film of The Year” Award for… Film of The Year?

“We’re here to become human again.”

The more I think about Sing Sing, the more I find it harder to make snide remarks about it. It is a beautiful film. Shot on film, the movie looks incredible, with jaw-dropping performances from Colman Domingo as John “Divine G” Whitfield and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin as himself. But that isn’t to downplay the rest of the cast; most of whom are former inmates at Sing Sing who play themselves. Focusing on the relationship of two inmates in a Rehabilitation Through The Arts program at the titular prison, Sing Sing is a very gentle film with all of the cast being open and vulnerable with each other.

One of my favourite moments in the film comes at the midway point when Divine G is in a clemency hearing. He’s being asked questions about why he believes he deserves to be released. When asked about the rehabilitation through the arts program, a program he helped start, Domingo’s eyes light up. He’s excited to discuss the program, his role in it, how it’s helped people. It’s a touching scene, seeing the hope and happiness in his eyes. But it all gets smashed down when, as he mentions his role as an actor, the lead interviewer asks him this question: “So, are you acting at all during this interview?”. The smile fades from Domingo’s face as the question hits home; in the screening I saw Sing Sing in, there was an audible gasp from one woman in the audience. The question blindsides Divine G, making it clear that no matter what he does to better himself, he will always be seen as a threat.

Sing Sing is the best film I’ve seen this year. The other entrants on this list I’ve liked a lot, but this is stuck in my brain in a way that the others aren’t. I can’t wait to watch it again, and I hope it gets the awards recognition it deserves.