The 2008 Awards

A bit early this year, but time for some annual awards... For I sure love handing them out.

Music
Best music discovery - Wonder Girls, although this is a bit of a pity vote, since I only listen to 3 of their songs. I'm not sure I made any great music discoveries this year... I guess that's something I need to fix in 2009. I'm interested in finding more good music sung in Chinese
Best music rediscovery - Garbage. I finally gave a re-listen to my long-time favourite band (all my teen years, basically) and remembered how much I love them
Best new group of the year - Buono!. They officially debuted in 2007, but most of their releases have been in 2008, so there. The ultimate chipmunk vocal unit, they are cute and awesome and have cheerful songs

Hello! Project
Best Hello! Project single - Lotta Love Lotta Love (or Rottara Rottara). I instantly fell in love with it. It makes me happy and bouncy
Best new Hello! Project group - High-King, because I already mentioned Buono! above and this unit had another single I loved this year (c/w included). Great choreography that is so rare in H!P. I also liked seeing Yuuka get some spotlight and as a result, more people become interested in her/H!P Eggs. Too bad it was a temporary unit
Best Hello! Project Egg - Sengoku Minami. During the past year her charm has just really won me over. Her smile is irresistible, and I'm not the only one who has noticed her
Best Berryz Kobo member - Tsugunaga Momoko. She is pretty much my favourite member in the entire H!P currently and this year has only strengthened her position. I'm loving her personality, her voice, and the PBs she released. Momo makes me smile even more than before, if that's possible, and I'm not getting tired of her at all. There's just nobody else like her
Best Morning Musume member - Tanaka Reina. While she isn't my favourite member in Morning Musume, she's the one I gained more respect for during the past year. I thought she was really good in High-King and realized that she has always been good and will always be
Best DVD release of the year - BC Concert Tour 2008 Spring - Berryz Kamen vs Cutty Ranger - I don't really remember much of it right now, but I remember liking it at the time and watching certain performances more than once. (Actually I liked the H!P Egg Shiba concert better, but I don't want everything to be about Eggs, kek)

Movies
I actually kept a list of all movies I watched this year and watched more movies than usual. I'm planning on writing about them separately on my LJ, so I don't feel like plunging into them right now.

Television
Best new series (in Finland) - Madmen. It only started a bit more than a month ago, and I skipped last week's episode because I felt I wasn't getting that phroarrr feeling from the show... But watching last night's episode brought my faith back and I think I'll keep watching now. In the end it's surprising how few new shows I've started watching this year.
Best continuing series (in Finland) - Lost. Usually I would avoid naming the same show again for two years in a row, but Lost season 4 was so damn good. If not Lost, Dexter season 2 was also amazing.
Best hospital series - ER, seasons 1 - 3. I started watching this show from the beginning and I was surprised to notice how much I remembered of it (I thought I'd only seen bits and pieces of it since I was so young when it was first aired here) and how funny the show is in addition to all the drama. Witty dialogue
Best new TV actress crush - Yunjin Kim/Sun from Lost. I've been watching Lost since it started, but only this year really got into Sun (probably because her character leveled up during Season 4)
Best new TV actor crush - I can't remember anyone... There's Faraday from Lost, but that was only a temp
Best reality series - Survivor: Micronesia. Best final 3 ever, best winner ever. Parvati <3 This season had so many blindsides, so much entertainment and classic moments that I'll probably watch it again when it's finally aired in Finland
Best Survivor contestant - Parvati. She's a shameless flirt and pwned everyone. Personalitywise not as entertaining as someone like Courtney from China, but I don't think it can be denied that she provided entertainment in Micronesia. (I haven't been watching Survivor Gabon for more than 4-5 episodes so I can't really say if there's someone more likeable there)
Best Big Brother contestant - Brigitte from BBAUS. This girl just cracks me up. I think I have a thing for this type of female characters on reality tv: girls who seem really dumb/have poor common knowledge, but don't feel shame and turn out to be good judges of character (Brigitte could see through Nobbi for one). AND are hilarious in the process. Brigitte would say things like "I hate you" or "break a leg", but instead of finding it offensive I just ended up finding it hilarious. It really is quite strange. I really feel like watching this series of BBAUS again. I think it was really underrated and I'm sad that my first season of BBAUS turned out to be the last
Best America's Next Top Model contestant - Anya. I've actually stopped watching ANTM because it's so ridiculous, and I didn't see all of Anya's cycle... But I did love this girl for as long as I did watch it. She was just so genuinely sweet and funny and.. yes, a bit of an airhead. Other than that, she was fierce in all her pictures. If that show was really about crowning the best model she would've won, but I'm kind of glad she didn't so that she won't have to drag around the embarrasing crown of ANTM in her career

Idols, celebrities
Best gravure discovery - Sato Rika. I'm pretty sure I discovered her earlier, but I re-discovered her again this year thanks to Masa. She is THE cutest little gravure idol
Hottest Korean pretty boy of the year - T.O.P. from Big Bang, he's a pimp and he loves it.
Most beautiful Japanese actress - Shibasaki Kou, and yes, I only made this category for her
Most beautiful western actress - Amy Adams. I'm not sure if she's the most beautiful, but I certainly fell for her in 2008. I love her hair, smile, and cuteness
Best personality in a western actor - James McAvoy. Previously this category was for actresses, which is weird... But anyway, McAvoy is a charming Scottish lad who makes me laugh, even when I don't know what he's saying

Entertainment
Most addictive PC game - The Sims 2. There's no other game that fits my personality better, since it gives me free hands to do what I like
Most addictive PS2 game - Can't say I've been playing it much...
Best novel - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, not that there's much competition because I'm a lazy reader, but it's really a good book, okay...

And that's that. A bit lame. Oh well.