Well, there's a simple reason for that. Crunchyroll has announced the nominees for the 3rd annual Anime Awards! Time to celebrate the best of 2018 in anime, wildly speculate about who will win, and complain about who got snubbed!
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| For example, these beautiful children didn't get nominated for anything. |
The Anime Awards have been a frequent target of ridicule in the anime community, and I think it's undeserved. While there is an argument to be had of how including audience participation can taint the integrity of the results, and the runaway success of Yuri on Ice and My Hero Academia in previous years can lend credence to that view, I feel that Crunchyroll is trying to make this the best award show they can. The fact that the award categories haven't been exactly the same year to year, the introduction of judges with a weighted vote last year, and the inclusion of several anime that don't even air on Crunchyroll shows that there is a genuine desire to celebrate anime over the desire to advertise Crunchyroll shows.
But I have no interest in editorializing today. I did enough of that yesterday. Today we're going to have some fun. I'm gonna look at the nominees for each award category, predict the winner, talk about who should win, and name one notable omission or scrub if I feel like there is one. So, without further ado, let's get to it.
Best Protagonist
Starting off we have the nominees for Best Protagonist. Violet Evergarden, Gearless Joe, and Retsuko are all fantastic choices with likable personalities and satisfying character growth, as is Sakuta Azusagawa of Bunny Girl Senpai, who is the lucky recipient of my vote. Rimuru Tempest from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a weird choice for me, but I'm willing to let it pass since there's a much more grievously strange choice.
Now, I've never seen Kakegurui, so I can't say one way or the other if Yumeko Jabami is a good protagonist or not. But it doesn't matter, since Kakegurui aired in 2017! I have no idea why it's being considered for an award show about anime in 2018, but if I had to guess, it'd probably be something to do with Netflix's weirdly delayed release schedule in English language territories. Either way, I don't think Yumeko should be here, and I vote for swapping her out with, I don't know, Deku or Sugimoto.
As for who will win the hearts and minds of the voters and judges as a whole, my money is on Violet Evergarden, though I can see Retsuko or Sakuta pulling out a dark horse victory as well.
Best Antagonist
Where would a protagonist be without an antagonist? Probably in a much happier place, but it wouldn't be very entertaining! So, for our best antagonist list, we have a much better list of characters. Ainz Ooal Gown from Overlord was a pleasant surprise inclusion, since he is the protagonist from the viewers' perspective, but he's a great villain and Overlord 3 cemented his transition from normal guy in over his head to full blown monster. Yuri from Megalo Box and Lieutenant Tsurumi from Golden Kamuy are both fun, charismatic villains, though I think Yuri loses points for being more of an end goal for Joe than a character, and, as much as I love Tsurumi, he just appears too infrequently for me to consider him as anything more than a strong dark horse candidate. And as for Ryo Asuka, well, I still haven't seen Devilman Crybaby, so I can't vote for him in good conscience.
But none of that matters because Akane Shinjo from Gridman was nominated! If you read any of my Fall 2018 Weekly Roundups, then you'd know that I think that Akane is the textbook definition of a great villain and you wouldn't be surprised to hear that I think that everyone should vote for her. Sadly, Gridman flew under a lot of anime fans' radar thanks to the stiff competition from shows like Sword Art Online, Bunny Girl Senpai, Goblin Slayer, and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which all did much better viewership wise, and none of the nominees are going to stand a chancce against the final nominee for this category: All for One from My Hero Academia. Now, don't get me wrong, All for One is a fantastic villain and I would not be too disappointed if he won, but the fact of the matter is that aside from maybe Ainz, he is the only one on this list that the average anime viewer would likely have heard of. Still, this is a fantastic line-up of nominees, and I can't think of anyone that deserves a slot more than these six bad people.
Best Boy
Well, now it's time for the two dumbest categories in the award show. Best Boy and Best Girl are the single most arbitrary things I've ever heard, and this is nothing more than a list of waifus and husbandos. But, whatever, the list here has Kotaro from Zombie Land Saga (who is only here for memes), Honda-san (which I didn't expect at all), Gearless Joe (who is quite good looking), Haida from Aggressive Retsuko (who I'm sure is a furry icon), Sakuta (who I voted for, because of course the best protagonist is best boy), and Deku (who is gonna win). Whatever, vote for your favorite of the bunch, it doesn't matter.
Best Girl
Let me start this off by saying that I'm stunned that none of the girls from My Hero Academia were nominated, especially since two of them were nominated last year. Like, I know that the hero girls didn't have a lot of screen time this year, but with how popular the villainous Himiko Toga is, it's a shock that she didn't make the cut. I guess Nadeshiko from Yuru Camp is that great, but I didn't watch that, so who knows. Lily Hoshikawa is another surprising choice, since out of all the members of Franchouchou, I thought we would be seeing Saki or the LEGENDARY Yamada Tae. Asirpa is an awesome choice simply because it's refreshing to see a girl go all in on the slapstick and gross out humor with the rest of the boys, and Anzu has the best character moments of the bunch. Hinata Miyake is the one who got my vote, thanks to her upbeat personality, her words of wisdom, and her touching character story, though I would have been happier if Tamaki Mari got her spot instead. Though if I had to predict a winner, it'd be Mai Sakurajima from Bunny Girl Senpai, though that's hardly a bad thing.
Best OP
This is the worst list of nominees I have ever seen. Aside from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (shown above, also what I voted for), none of these ops are good enough to be considered for being potentially best of the year. Wotakoi has a great chorus with some cute animations, but the rest of the op is kinda boring. Darling in the Franxx is okay, but okay isn't good enough for me when ops like Lupin III, My Hero Academia, and Golden Kamuy exist. Kakegurui (again, not from 2018) has a terrible opening song, Aggresive Retsuko's song is too short, and Pop Team Epic's op is so mediocre I forgot how it went and had to look it up. This is tough to predict since the nominees are so terrible, but I'd guess that Darling in the Franxx would take it thanks to name recognition alone.
Best ED
The selection for EDs isn't that much better than the OPs. I completely forgot that FLCL Progressive and Alternative aired in 2018, but considering that none of the many many best anime song compilations I watched mentioned either of them and the fact that I couldn't find them on Youtube doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that they are any good. Revue Starlight and Megalo Box have good songs, but there isn't really a lot to look at with them, especially Megalo Box. After the Rain and Attack on Titan are the two best ones here, and Attack on Titan is what got my vote, but none of these EDs hold a candle to the majesty that is Grand Blue or Asobi Asobase, and considering that Crunchyroll has the rights to Asobi Asobase, I'm really surprised that that wasn't nominated.
Best Voice Acting (JP)
Voice acting is tough to judge in another language, especially when I didn't see two of the characters nominated at all (Miki from Devilman Crybaby and Rin from Yuru Camp). Nor did I see Aggressive Retsuko with the Japanese voice cast, so I don't know how well Rareko did at portraying Retsuko. Which leaves me trying to pick the best from three performances left. Now, I mean no disrespect to Soma Saito, but I don't feel that his performance as Honda-san was anything to write home about. And while Mamoru Miyano really brought a lot of energy to his role as Kotaro, and is probably going to win because of it, my vote is going to Reina Ueda for her masterful performance as Akane Shinjo, simply because her performance actually had some real emotion behind it. And speaking of emotion, Nobuhiko Okamoto's performance as Bakugo in My Hero Academia Season 3 was incredible and he got robbed.
Best Voice Acting (EN)
As for English voice actors, I have a similar problem. The anime that I watched with English dubs in 2018 were by and large not considered for these nominations. I did watch clips for all of them though, and honestly, this is really only a contest between two actors for me: Christopher Sabat as All Might (who is going to win) and Erica Mendez as Retsuko (who I voted for). Erika Harlacher did a solid job as Violet Evergarden, Tia Ballard's Zero Two is passable, and I just can't judge the acting for characters in shows I didn't watch (Mr. Tonegawa's Middle Management Blues and FLCL Progressive), but none of them can come close to Sabat's incredible performance during one of the most exciting moments of the year or Mendez's incredibly good comic timing.
Best Film
I didn't watch any of the nominees. The My Hero Academia movie is going to win, but going off of trailers alone, I think that The Night is Short, Walk on Girl looks to be the best of the bunch. NEXT!
Best Character Design
Character design was not a category I expected, but it's pretty cool that it was added. For me, this was a no brainer. Aggressive Retsuko's characters are just animals in clothes, and it doesn't seem like that much thought was put into their appearance. Zombie Land Saga's character design is all right, but aside from Kotaro and the metal fans, none of the characters really stand out to me in a good way. Violet Evergarden's outfits were too complicated for me, and Megalo Box and Devilman Crybaby were only good because of the general art style and not due to anything spectacular about the character designs specifically. But Jojo? The Jojo character designs in general are just some of the best in anime period, with each character being memorable and unique, and Bruno especially is just sexy (why wasn't he nominated for Best Boy?).
Best Animation
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You know this is a good group of nominees when My Hero Academia is the worst of the bunch. I mean, the animation in all of these shows is phenomenal, though My Hero is probably going to take the win simply due to name recognition. But between Bloom Into You's backgrounds, Violet Evergarden's lighting, A Place Further than the Universe's incredible CG vehicles, and Megalo Box and Devilman Crybaby's (which I voted for) everything, I can't imagine how anyone can be disappointed with this selection.
Best Director
About time Planet With got recognized somewhere! Too bad it's in another category with some incredibly stiff competition. While I haven't seen Banana Fish yet (something that a certain someone won't leave me alone about), I can say that everything else on here deserves to be here. If I had to guess, I'd say that Violet Evergarden would take the win, though I could see Devilman Crybaby as a dark horse win. Personally, I voted for Megalo Box, since I was just so impressed that it came from a first time director. If I had to pick an anime that got snubbed, I'd say Gridman, but with such a crowded list of talented directors (and also Banana Fish, but I can't judge), I can't imagine where to fit that in.
Anime of the Year
You already know what my vote was for Anime of the Year. A Place Further than the Universe is one of the greatest anime I've ever seen period. And the other choices are all great, too. Again, while I'm disappointed that Gridman was ignored, Devilman Crybaby, Violet Evergarden, Megalo Box, and Hinamatsuri are all excellent shows that deserve recognition. I'm surprised that Zombie Land Saga got the nomination instead of My Hero Academia Season 3, but I guess that Crunchyroll is afraid of giving too much attention to sequels after the backlash from last year's awards. Either way, this is a tough one to call, since I'm trying to guess what both the audience and the judge's will vote for, but I'm leaning toward Violet Evergarden taking this one, since it's a good crowd pleaser, with A Place Further than the Universe and Zombie Land Saga as my dark horse predictions.
And that's it! You can make your own votes here, so go do the right thing, and vote the same way I did.
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