Best of 2021, Not from 2021

The second childhood of parenting is already corrupting my taste through secondary joy, contrasting with my conventionally mature picks of board games, comics, adventure gamebooks and fighting robot cartoons.

Here is The Best Entertainment That I Happened to Experience Within The Past Year!!!!!!!

Ready, set, come on, let's go!

~ Best TV of 2021, Not from 2021 ~

Babylon 5 (1993–99)

Too wilfully unapproachable for me to get into back in the day, I got around to the economical sci-fi epic in the end, and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–96) can represent all the arcane, angsty anime I missed out on at the appropriate age. New levels of entertainment awaited in completing childhood favourite Knightmare (1987–94) and Happy Families (1985) was an obscure comedy gem. Meanwhile, in the 21st century, Ghosts (2019–21) and Stath Lets Flats (2018–21) were enjoyable newish sitcoms, Taskmaster's homegrown (2021) and New Zealand runs (2020–21) felt like the best in several years, and new Inside No. 9 (2021) was predictably, forgettably dependable.

~ Best Film of 2021, Not from 2021 ~

My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

Studio Ghibli's whimsical fables didn't feature in my own monocultural childhood, but as the first films approved for my daughter's magical future nostalgia, her enthusiastic commentary and roleplaying rubbed off. Now grow up quickly so we can get to the scary ones. Notable stops on my own belated anime odyssey included Ji-fi anthologies Neo-Tokyo (1987) and Memories (1995), arty Angel's Egg (1985), pervy climax The End of Evangelion (1997) and fascinatingly incomprehensible The Transformers: The Movie (1986).

~ Best Book of 2021, Not from 2021 ~

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Original Illustrated Strand Sherlock Holmes (1887–1927)

Serialising obese anthologies to get the best value out of this category, this semi-reread's consistent cases and Gary Larson's daily doses of surreality in The Complete Far Side (1979–2003) proved to be timeless archives for the ages, while The World Treasury of Science Fiction (1937–88) made some more dubious selections. Al Ewing and Henry Flint's Zombo (2009–13) and Kris Straub's Broodhollow (2012–14) were differently insane comic sagas, Horace Walpole's gloomy The Castle of Otranto (1764) and Arthur C. Clarke's grandiose The City and the Stars (1956) were my favourite stand-alone novels, A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) was the most charming children's book.

~ Best Album of 2021, Not from 2021 ~

Deep & Chilled Euphoria (2001 compilation)

The spoils of another year's ceaseless search for nice background music. After coming down from the non-existent rave, I filled up on a Ray Lynch Deep Breakfast (1984) while browsing Kraftwerk's 3-D Der Katalog (2017) before nervously wandering Harold Budd's Abandoned Cities (1984), crawling through Massive Attack's Mezzanine (1998), stepping into Windows 96's Glass Prism (2020), getting invasively scanned by Filmmaker's Screening Plexus (2021) and emerging in Hawkwind's Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974) to experience Still Corners' Strange Pleasures (2013) with Jim Kirkwood's Master of Dragons (1991). That's the last time I take etc.

~ Best Game of 2021, Not from 2021 ~

Carcassonne (2000)

This multiplayer multiple-choice medieval jigsaw will make a worthy addition to the family board game canon in the future, with enough ridiculous expansions to keep things interesting in the meantime. Splendor (2014) proved similarly satisfying in its strategic tedium to the slightly older Backgammon (~3000 BC), expanding Star Realms based on arbitrary discounts (2014–18) gave me the belated juvenile joy of trading card collecting without the risk, and children's gamebook classics Deathtrap Dungeon and House of Hell (1984) were retro delights I'm looking forward to trying to pass down too. Something's bound to stick. Or maybe she'd prefer a console?

As seen on

Best of 1985–2021