It’s that time of year again! Crunchyroll is asking us, the users and viewers, to choose what anime are worthy of awards in a large span of categories. I thought I’d write up what I’m voting for and why for your amusement.
Hit the jump, and let’s dive right in!
My notes & votes – the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2018
Part I – Part II – Part III
Here’s the categories we’ll get to vote on this week:
So let’s run ’em down category by category:
Best Animation
- Made in Abyss
Little Witch Academia- Land of the Lustrous
- The Ancient Magus’ Bride
ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.- Re:Creators
I’ve seen all of these except Academia, and I stalled and eventually dropped Acca:13. Though both had their moments, I don’t know why Magus Bride or Re:Creators were nominated. Magus Bride has had some great sense-of-wonder moments and Re:Creators had outstanding action sequences… But considered as a whole neither is especially standout in terms of animation. (Plus Magus Bride is still airing.) I’d also have expected Girl’s Last Tour to make the list.
That basically leaves me with one choice:
- Made in Abyss
Week on week, it delivered the best experience and high quality animation.
Honorable mention should go to the first three eps of Just Because… Prior to its meltdown, it really showed just how much the medium can deliver in terms of character acting via animation.
Best Score
- Made in Abyss
Little Witch Academia- Land of the Lustrous
- The Ancient Magus’ Bride
ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.- Re:Creators
I’ve seen all of these except Academia, and I stalled and eventually dropped Acca:13.
I guess I’m a bad fan, as I don’t really pay enough attention to background music as I should. It has to be pretty outstanding to catch my attention. My vote here would go to Girl’s Last Tour, but that’s not an option so:
- no selection
Lustrous vaguely tugs at my memory, but otherwise none of them had a score that particularly stood out. I don’t feel I can vote based on such a vague feeling.
Though Best Score‘s nominees are a repetition of Best Animation, overall the nominees come from a much larger pool than last year’s. This is a Very Good Thing.
Best CGI
- Land of the Lustrous
Kado: The Right Answer- Re:Creators
- Attack on Titan Season 2
Knight’s & Magic- Inuyashiki
Of the nominees, I’ve seen Lustrous, Re:Creators, Attack on Titan, and Inuyashiki.
This award brings up a philosophical question… What is ‘Best CGI’? I can make a case for choosing Re:Creators, as it best blends CGI and conventional animation. (Titan is a close second.) I can also make a case for choosing Lustrous as the best all-CGI production. (Inuyashiki doesn’t even come close.)
In the end, I’m going to go with a third choice – best use of CGI overall:
- Land of the Lustrous
Hands down the winner. I’m still not entirely certain that CGI is ready for ‘prime time’ (widespread use), but it certainly worked for Lustrous.
Much has been made of Dia’s fight against the monster in ep 10, but I think her frantic run in ep 3 is the best sequence in the show.
Best Film
- A Silent Voice
- Your Name
In This Corner of the WorldGirls und Panzer der FilmKizumonogatari III: Reiketsu-henFate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel – I. Presage Flower
Of the nominees, I’ve only seen Silent Voice and Your Name.
Something of an odd mix because it seems to be keyed to US/international release dates rather than domestic release dates. Did the last two even get US releases? They’re not franchises on my radar. I also seem to recall Girls und Panzer der Film making it’s US release in 2016, but I’m probably wrong.
Anyhow, of the two I’ve seen the choice was instinctive:
- Your Name
Which is not to say that A Silent Voice wasn’t outstanding too… I just think Your Name was better.
Best Opening
“Shadow and Truth” by ONE III NOTES – ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.- “Here” by JUNNA – The Ancient Magus’ Bride
- “Shinzou wo Sasageyo! (心臓を捧げよ！)” by Linked Horizon – Attack on Titan Season 2
- “Peace Sign (ピースサイン)” by Kenshi Yonezu – My Hero Academia Season 2
- “The Other Side of the Wall” by Void_Chords feat.MARU – Princess Principal
“Imawa no Shinigami (今際の死神)” by Megumi Hayashibara – Descending Stories: Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū
I’ve seen all of these except for Descending Stories and ACCA: 13.
In some ways, this is a difficult category… When I think of “Best Opening”, I think of the whole package, the song and the animation sequence. For OP songs, I call that category “Best OP Song”.
Either way, my choice here was easy.
- “The Other Side of the Wall” by Void_Chords feat.MARU – Princess Principal
The song is a very rockin’ tune that both gets the blood going and relates to some of the themes/plot beats in the show. (Particularly the Ange/Princess dynamic.) The animation does a good job of showcasing the characters and the aesthetics of the series.
Though it should have been, I’m very glad that Deep in Abyss was not nominated. Choosing between the two would have been difficult indeed.
Best Ending
“Step Up LOVE (ステップアップLOVE)” by DAOKO x Yasuyuki Okamura – Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond- “Ishukan Communication (イシュカン・コミュニケーション)” by Chorogonzu (ちょろゴンず) – Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
- “Kirameku Hamabe (煌めく浜辺)” by Yuiko Ohara – Land of the Lustruous
- “Hikari, Hikari (ひかり、ひかり)” by Yuuka Aisaka – Recovery of an MMO Junkie
- “behind” by Karin Isobe, Yuna Yoshino, and Lynn – Just Because!
- “Kafune (カフネ)” by Brian the Sun – March comes in like a lion. Season 2
I’ve seen all of these except Blood Blockade.
This is another case of “Derek is a bad fan”. I very rarely watch the ED after the first episode, and so it has to be something very special to catch my eye. None of these ring any bells in my memory, so:
- no selection
So, what anime will you be voting for this week? Tell us and maybe explain a little why down in the comments!
I’ll be back next week with the next set of categories and my notes & votes!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Best Animation:
From those, it’s either Made in Abyss or Little Witch Academia. I suppose, the category really means “best visuals”, and in that case, I’d give Made in Abyss the nod.
Best Score:
Definitely, Land of the Lustrous. These chromatic percussion tracks really fit the crystal theme very well. Also, it’s a very unique score, and underlies the scenes very well. Might be my pick of the year, even out of all the shows not nominated. (Girl’s Last Tour would have been a great choice, too.)
Best CGI:
I don’t like CGI, so it’ll go to the show where I don’t notice it at all (or not very much). Out of those, probably Re:Creators. I don’t remember any CGI, which is basically my criterion.
Best film:
I’ve only seen A Silent Voice.
Best Opening:
Oh dear, that’s hard. I have three-way tie between Rakugo, Ancient Magus Bride and Princess Principal. Those were all great. Rakugo had the best animation, Ancient Magus Bride had the most fitting song, and while PP loses to both, it has the best total package. I’m not sure how to vote, here. Those are such different shows and such different opening styles, too. I think, I’d have to go with Rakugo – it’s opening animation is a really great summary of the show’s themes, and the song isn’t so far behind the others to lose that advantage.
Best Ending:
That’s hard in a different way: none of those endings really impressed me (Princess Principal might have had my favourite ending of the year with that cute cut-out animation and bouncy song). Of those, probably Land of the Lustrous.
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Yah, Best CGI and Best Animation were both categories that took a little figuring as to what they were asking.
I don’t know much about Rakugo, but the anime style was interesting. Can’t say I cared for the music though. Wasn’t the anime set in the 30’s? The song certainly has a 20’s-30’s vibe to it.
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@ Rakugo: The first season started started in the eighties (I think), then went back to the thirties for backstory and was set mostly in the aftermath of world war 2. The second season played in the eighties (?) through to the present. The soundtrack was excellent all-round. They were using mostly a supportive score, except when they were actually playing music to listen to/for the performances. They even made the radio sound like radio, and din’t forget about the static from very old record players. The music style isn’t my thing either (mostly jazz), but the supportive score is very good at supporting the story, and the shamisen/bells for the performances were excellent, too, for what I can tell. Season 1 of Rakugo is, IMO, one of the very few near-flawless masterpiece I have seen. Nearly everything deverse an award. I’m in awe of that show. Season 2, the one that’s relevant here, isn’t that much worse. (Well, so say I, and I’m no expert for the audio-visual aspect of anime, so take that with a grain of salt.)
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I hate to be a wet blanket, but your “best animation” list is the wrong list. Maybe you copy/pasted the Best Score list by mistake or something. I thought I had remembered seeing A Silent Voice on the animation list (because that was the one I planned to vote for), so I went back and checked, and I was right.
Anyway, I watched very few seasonal anime this year, and even fewer that got any nominations, but out of these categories:
Best Animation: A Silent Voice was the only one on the list that I watched, but the only thing I saw this year (even just in a trailer) that might have topped it was the Heaven’s Feel movie, which wasn’t nominated anyway.
Best Score: Magus Bride by default, again the only one I watched, but I don’t remember much of its soundtrack. I don’t really remember any soundtracks standing out this year, TBH – even for Yuki Yuna the best parts of the soundtrack were recycled from season 1.
Best CGI: Pass. I didn’t watch any of those, although I have put Land of the Lustrous on my list to get to someday. I would’ve considered voting for Love Live Sunshine or Heaven’s Feel if either of those were nominated.
Best Film: The one category I actually know well, as I saw 4 of the 6 movies on this list in theaters (Silent Voice, Your Name, Garupan, and Heaven’s Feel – yes, it came to American theaters a couple of months ago) and loved all four of them. I’m not sure why the Garupan movie is nominated anyway, since it premiered in the US in November of 2016, and in fact was my choice for my favorite anime that I watched in 2016, but the other three movies were all better anyway. Heaven’s Feel was spectacularly animated and the best Fate anime yet, but being clearly the first part of an incomplete trilogy I can’t pick it as the best standalone film. So it comes down to Your Name and A Silent Voice, which is a really, really tough call. I’ve come down a bit on Your Name since I first saw it, and come up a bit on ASV since I first saw it, but I still think Your Name slightly gets the edge. Very slightly.
Best Opening: Pass. Again I only watched Magus Bride, and it’s opening wasn’t memorable to me at all. My favorite OP this year by far was “Jingo Jungle” from Saga of Tanya the Evil, with “Gamers!” (from Gamers!, of course) a distant second. But that’s okay, I’m used to having nothing in common with the general public’s musical tastes.
Best Ending: Pass. I watched none of those shows. Frankly, the only endings from this year I can even remotely recall anyway were for Love Live Sunshine and the Washio Sumi chapter of Yuki Yuna.
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It’s directly from Crunchyroll’s news article….
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/01/17/check-out-the-nominees-for-2018s-anime-awards-presented-by-crunchyroll
But I’ve heard from other sources that there was some kind of miscommunication or mess up. I cut-n-pasted their list. If you look at Best Animation, the anime in the image don’t match those listed below it. Either way, I’m glad I wrote in MiA anyhow.
I’ll be sure and double check when I write the next two parts.
Ah! So my memory was correct. Good to know I haven’t completely lost it. But yeah, the movie category was a mess.
An awful lot of passes, what lead you to not use the write-in option?
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Ah, so it was their screwup. Well if you go to the voting page now that it’s open, you’ll see that the choices are indeed the six anime in the picture in that article. ANN also had the correct list in their announcement last week – that’s where I remembered seeing ASV got nominated.
And “Pass” just means I’m passing on their nominees – it doesn’t mean I’m not going to do any write-ins. I’ll probably write in Heaven’s Feel for CGI and definitely Tanya for OP. Still don’t know what I’m going to do for ED, though – might go back and rewatch some and see if anything sticks out the second time around.
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I’ve already voted, so it won’t let me back in those categories… :)
Ok, that makes sense for “pass”.
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