So Crunchyroll is doing it's anime awards thing again this year (www.theanimeawards.com). There are some noticeable absences from some of these categories. Going to list them out with my thoughts. Curious to see what others think. There are definitely some difficult ones to pick from, but what makes it honestly really difficult is the overall lack of variety in the picks. I find myself browsing what came out that year to remind myself so that I don't leave something out that deserves it. I'll show what they have as options and then what I picked including whether I did a write in nominee. Anyway, with that being said, here I go:
Anime of the Year: March Lion, Made in Abyss, Land of the Lustrous (just noticed their art spells it "Lustruous" which is totally wrong), My Hero Academia (S2), Rakugo, Little Witch Academia. My pick is Made in Abyss. Little Witch Academia was definitely very good, but Made in Abyss was just ridiculous. Welcome to the Ballroom is also very good. While I also personally loved Classroom of the Elite, RE:CREATORS, and Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, I feel like Made in the Abyss is a cut above.
Best Action: My Hero Academia (S2), Land of the Lustrous, Blood Blockade Battlefront, MSG: IBO S2, AoT S2, and Fate/Apocrypha. Honestly this category I'm completely torn. MHA had some great action, IBO S2 as well, AoT had some great moments and Fate/Apocrypha is almost non-stop action. RE:CREATORS next best attribute after it's music was definitely the action. Voting isn't open yet, but I'd probably write in RE:CREATORS because the concept of various universes colliding in battle is just amazing and I loved it.
Best Animation: Land of the Lustrous, My Hero Academia, Little Witch Academia, March Lion (whut?), A Silent Voice and Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Honestly, I'm rarely aware of "great animation", but definitely notice shitty animation. I put Land of the Lustrous firmly into the CGI category, so I feel awkward voting it in here. No idea what to put here and would welcome some thoughts. I know RE:CREATORS was awesome and cool and MHA had some great scenes, but I don't feel strongly about it.
Best CGI: Land of the Lustrous. I'm just going to stop there. I don't see how anyone else can win.
Best Comedy: Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Mr. Osomatsu (S2), Little Witch Academia, Konosuba S2, Gamers!, Tsuredure Children. For me this is easily Konosuba S2. That show had me laughing non-stop. Gamers! was definitely enjoyable comedy, but nothing beats Konosuba for me this year.
Best Continuing Series: March Lion, MSG: IBO S2, Dragon Ball Super, Case Closed, All Out!! (whut), Naruto: Shippuden. I think you can guess my pick, DB Super. Didn't even have to think about it. I will give March Lion credit for having a much better S2 than S1.
Best Drama: Rakugo, March Lion, Made in Abyss, Ancient Magus' Bridge, Scum's Wish, Acca: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. My pick is Made in Abyss here. Rakugo was good and AMB is too, but Made in Abyss is just amazing. Made in Abyss got my emotions going to an extent the others did not.
Best Boy: Shoto Todoroki, Rei Kiriyama, Kazuma, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, Fafnir (kobayashi), Yakumo Yuurakutei (Bon). This is kind of a weird category. Since I can't figure out how to give props to Welcome to the Ballroom anywhere, I'm going to do it here with Fujita Tatara. Welcome ideas/thoughts.
Best Girl: Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, Ochako Uraraka, Moriko Morioka, Serval, Tsuyu Asui, Chise Hatori. This is another hard category for me. Any of the Konosuba females could make this, Nina from Rage of Bahamut, a few of the RE:CREATORS cast, Fate/Apocrypha, just too many. I'll probably go with Akko because I really enjoyed that character a lot.
Best Film: A Silent Voice, Your Name, In this Corner of the World, Girls und Panzer der Film, Kizumonogatari 3, Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel 1. First I'll state the obvious answer, Your Name. Next I'll state my protest choice, particularly over Girls und Panzer, which is Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale. My 2nd protest choice would be NGNL: Zero. While the Fate/Stay Night movie was very cool, it treaded familiar ground, so it doesn't feel like it's really "new". I kind of wish this category was split into "Stand Alone Film" and "Film based on a series". Since films based on a series are usually garbage/re-hashes, it's nice to see ones that are legitimately good. I will probably write in SAO: Ordinal Scale as a protest vote since it was a surprisingly good film with original content that continued the SAO universe.
Best Manga: Golden Kamui, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (whut!), My Brother's Husband (wtf?), In This Corner of the World, Rakugo, and Delicious in Dungeon. I'll preface this by saying I'm not a big manga reader. I read Skip Beat!, Fairy Tail (ended), and Boruto. That's it. Oh and Fuuka on CR when I remember to. I kind of want to give Rakugo it's props by picking it here. If I was being realistic, I'd probably write in Fairy Tail since I actually read it.
Best Opening: Acca - "Shadow and Truth", AMB - "Here", AoT - "Shinzou wo Sasageyo!", MHA - "Peace Sign", Princpss Principal - "The Other Side of the Wall", Rakugo - "Imawa no Shinigami". I definitely scratch my head at these selections. Peace Sign is certainly good, but you cannot beat Sawano Hiroyuki's OPs for RE:CREATORS. They win hands down.
Best Ending: Blood Blockade - "Step up Love", Kobayashi - "Ishukan Communication", Land of the Lustrous - "Kirameku Hamabe", MMO Junkie - "Hikari, Hikari", Just Because! - "Behind", and March Lion - "Kafune". Another ignored anime, Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, has two of the best endings this year by DAOKO. I couldn't find anything close to either of those, but there are certainly a lot I enjoyed like Food Wars ED.
Best Score: Made in Abyss, Little Witch Academia, Land of the Lustrous, Ancient Magus' Bride, Acca, RE:CREATORS. RE:CREATORS hands down. Made in Abyss definitely has a nice score, but RE:CREATORS score is so in your face and good, I can't think of a better pick.
Best Slice of Life: MMO Junkie, Tsukigakirei, Girl's Last Tour, Kemono Friends, Sakura Quest, Interviews with Monster Girls. I think here I'm going with Tsukigakirei since it's the first romantic anime/slice of life I've seen that actually correlates to real life the most.
Best Hero: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, Gin Minowa, Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, Kukuri, Chise Hatori, Nanachi. I think here I finally give MHA it's due and pick Deku. It is My HERO Academia after all.
Best Villain: Stain, Tanya Degurechaff, Bondrewd, Cartaphilus, Hiro Shishigami, Usagi. Honestly their picks suck. Stain, Tanya, ok those are good. The rest? Pfft. Too bad I can't pick Aizen from Bleach. He's one of the best villains I've ever seen. I'll be writing in Altair from RE:CREATORS I think. She has depth, a reason to kick everyone's ass, and generally does kick everyone's ass. Stain is a little too short-lived as a villain for me to pick him, but he's good. Another nice option would be the Lunarians from Land of the Lustrous. They aren't a singular entity (that we're aware of), but are kind of this mysterious foe throughout the series.
