Welcome to The Avocado’s weekly discussion of Japanese pop culture! あけましておめでとう！ Happy New Year! Thank you all for another wonderful year of hanging out and talking about Japanese pop culture. I always enjoy reading your thoughts about all the things, and I just feel so lucky to have a place where I can talk about all my favorite things with everyone each week. Thank you for letting me run this thread, and I look forward to another year of fun together! 今年もよろしく。

Now that 2024 is over, I’m ready to share the big playlist I make for my friends (and myself) of my favorite songs from the year. Once again, there was a lot of great music to love, so I only managed to edit this list down to 62 songs. I really tried to be reasonable, I promise. All the music is just too good! The playlist includes 35 artists (also featured in the header image!) with songs from a variety of genres, so hopefully everyone can find something to enjoy. Fun fact: there are 14 new-to-me artists this year! And I hope to continue expanding my listening in 2025, so as always, please recommend and share anything you’re listening to!

And, as always…

What have you been watching/reading/playing/eating/listening to lately?

Happy Wednesday! 👹