Ever wondered why some anime series make waves at award shows and others seem to pass under the radar? Join me, DJ, as we unpack the latest Crunchyroll Anime Awards nominations, examining the hits and misses with the precision of a master swordsman.
As your solo guide through the Crunchyroll Anime Awards landscape, I'll shine a spotlight on "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation," triumphing in the Best Fantasy category like a true underdog in a den of titans. But the celebration doesn't end there; "One Piece" sails to victory for its jaw-dropping action, while "Mashel" has us laughing in the aisles with its spellbinding humor. And let's not forget the heartstrings— "Skip and Loafer" wins our hearts with its authentic take on romance. Prepare to be swept off your feet as I reveal why "Hell's Paradise" deserves the crown for art direction, painting a canvas that outshines even the most visually stunning competitors. Strap in, it's going to be an animated adventure you won't want to miss!
Ever wondered why some anime series make waves at award shows and others seem to pass under the radar? Join me, DJ, as we unpack the latest Crunchyroll Anime Awards nominations, examining the hits and misses with the precision of a master swordsman.
As your solo guide through the Crunchyroll Anime Awards landscape, I'll shine a spotlight on "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation," triumphing in the Best Fantasy category like a true underdog in a den of titans. But the celebration doesn't end there; "One Piece" sails to victory for its jaw-dropping action, while "Mashel" has us laughing in the aisles with its spellbinding humor. And let's not forget the heartstrings— "Skip and Loafer" wins our hearts with its authentic take on romance. Prepare to be swept off your feet as I reveal why "Hell's Paradise" deserves the crown for art direction, painting a canvas that outshines even the most visually stunning competitors. Strap in, it's going to be an animated adventure you won't want to miss!
Hey there and welcome back to rival reviews. As always, I'm your host, dj, and let's just get into it. So it's that time of the year now. You know, award season is upon us. We got, you know, oscars and you know, golden Globe, things happening and everything else like that. But what we're here for and what we care about is the anime awards.
Speaker 1:I do know that there are definitely different sources of awards every year, like I know that there's the anime corner awards and the anime news network and everything else like that, but this one is solely going to be based on the crunchy roll ones, one due to the fact that crunchy roll is my main source of Watching anime. I just find that it's the best kind of source as to watching, I'm not really. You know, there are the ever so often ones that are on like high dive or you know, even now, as of this year, like Disney got into the game, netflix, obviously, and everything else like that, and obviously I do watch sums on those. But, like I said, I found that the majority of my anime watching happens off crunchy roll. So, basically, what I figured the best way that we were gonna do this is is that I'm just gonna go through each nomination, tell you. You know I might not talk about all the nominees on the category, but I'll try to go through as many as I can. Obviously, I know everybody's gonna have their own opinions and, like I said, I would love to talk to you about all of your opinions and how you feel about the nominees. One thing that did confuse me, that I'm going to get right out of the way, is I thought free run was gonna be on this list a lot, and I guess the Understanding that I came to is is that because, one, it's still ongoing and two, it kind of started at the end of the year, it will most likely be incorporated into next year's awards, because if it wasn't for that, I would think that it would take a good majority of these Categories, just because, like, I think it's gonna be that strong Again. Obviously we have a whole year of anime to watch to come, so maybe something will beat it out. But anyway, we're not talking about next year, we're talking about this year. So I Figured that I'm not also gonna go through All of them, like I'm probably gonna stop before we hit the best voice artist performance, mainly due to the fact that, especially because I watched the majority of my stuff subbed as well as, obviously, I don't think it's fair for me to try to make a judgment on, you know, the best Arabic performance, because obviously I'm not watching it that way as well as you know.
Speaker 1:I don't really think that it's fair for me to give judgment on a voice performance just because I'm not a voice actor. So, yeah, so I'll probably go from if you're looking at the nominations and everything as yourself, I'm probably gonna go all the way from anime the year and then probably end up on best ending sequence. So let's get into it. I guess most you know award shows go from you know, I guess I don't want to say least important, but I guess they work their way up to the big bad, best anime of the year. So I'm gonna try and follow suit with that. So we're gonna start first with the best ending sequence. So it looks like the nominees.
Speaker 1:Here are the ending sequences for Jutsu Kaisen, season 2, zom 100, chain saw, man demons layer, oshinoko and spy family. Personally, if I want to give my opinion, I think that Oshinoko Wins this, solely based on the fact that I just liked the song the best. I don't really have any other way of describing it. I find that interesting about most ending sequences. I Don't know about most, but I would generally, I generally watch the ending sequence after, like the second episode, the full way through once, and then, you know, I Don't watch it again. I know that sounds terrible, but I'm not one to watch the credits every time and I usually only Generally do it once, just so I can actually hear the song from start to finish as well. As you know. See the ending, that's probably gonna be the same ending for the whole season. Again, I do fully aware that this probably means that I'm missing out a lot, because I do know that there are some animes that make Like a different ending or, like you know, add little Easter eggs after every episode and stuff like that, but I've just been never one to sit there. Usually I'm either, you know, moving on to the next show, because usually I have a queue of things that I'm trying to catch up on, you know, or I'm, you know, no life in a series and just going to the next episode. So yeah, so I will give the best ending sequence to Mephisto by Queen B Oshino Cole, I Guess. So that moves us on to best opening sequence. So again, it looks like Oshino Koi is up.
Speaker 1:Heavenly delusion, chainsaw man, zom 100, jujitsu Kaizen and Hell's Paradise. This one was kind of difficult for me because I thought that there they were, like actually every single one On here was a very strong contender. There were a couple that I hadn't Actually watched like I haven't watched heavenly delusion, but I made sure to listen to all the openings so I could actually give Of an opinion and I would have to say the one that I thought was the best opening sequence I really enjoyed. Chainsaw man, based on Again, I'm sure that you can probably, you've probably seen this a million times, but it it does shout out to different movies and stuff like that in its opening. And I've seen I'm not sure you can see it on YouTube or something like that, where they make a video of like Chain saw man and then the scene from the movie that it's trying to replicate and it's just it's perfect and it's Perfection. So, yeah, so if I had to give it to an opening sequence, I would definitely give it to kickback Kenchi Yenazuu, chain saw man.
Speaker 1:So next up is best score. So looks like we got attack on Titan. Bochi, the rock. Chain saw man demons layer Oshinoko and Suzumi. I'm personally going to give this one to Oshinoko once again, mainly based on the fact that well one, I guess you can make the argument for bochi the rock as well. They're both very Music based, I guess, like they have like the background, like one. Oshinoko, if you don't know, is kind of more based on the idol lifestyle when bochi the rock is literally about you know, a school band and like a guitarist and stuff. I Just enjoyed the music and Oshinoko better. If I had to hazard a guess, I'm going to assume that bochi the rock will probably End up winning this award. But if we're giving my personal opinion, oshinoko was my favorite score, probably out of all of them.
Speaker 1:Now, this one I found extremely hard. So this one is best anime song. So you got the opening to Oshinoko chain saw man, bochi the rock, suzumi, jiu jitsu, kaizen and hell's paradise. Now, funny enough, I know that I just talked about the best score being Oshinoko, but in terms of the actual anime song, I'm going to give it to sessin complex bochi the rock. I found that the actual opening song was a lot more fun in this one and I just I just enjoyed it better, not to say that any like. Honestly, I Enjoyed all of these openings or these anime songs rather, but I would have to give it to bochi the rock at this point.
Speaker 1:Now, this one I found Interesting for a couple different reasons. So this category is the must protect at all costs character. I found this one extremely funny, just because I Don't know. I just the category just seemed very silly to me. But yeah, so you got Anya from spy family, bochi from bochi the rock I'd never actually watched this one. So it's bochi from ranking of kings I'm assuming it's the actual king dude Murray, unisaka, buddy daddies, pochita from Chain saw man and sulita mercury from mobile suit, gundam the witch from mercury In this one I give it to Anya just because she's adorable.
Speaker 1:And if anybody who's a fan of the bochi the rock In this one, I give it to Anya just because she's adorable. And if anybody who's a fan of spy family has watched it or read it or whatever, I think you all agree with me. It was very hard because I also wanted to give it to pochita, but then at the same time, you know he's not really, I Guess, the best way that I could explain. I don't really see him as a character Anymore, because now that he is kind of one with denji, I don't see him as like a separate entity anymore and, realistically, without him there would be no chains I'm in, so I guess you can look at it from that point of view. And yeah, that's really all I have to say about that.
Speaker 1:Next one we got here again. Personally for me, I didn't find this a hard choice, but this one is the best supporting character Again there were. The one thing that I will say is that For our ataka Reagan From mob psycho I haven't watched mob psycho so I wasn't able to give like a full, I guess, opinion on this one. But you got hot Hanj Zoe from Attack on Titan, kana Arima from Oshinokoi Power from chainsaw man, satura gojo from Jujutsu kaizen and sugeru geto from Jujutsu kaizen. I got to give it to gojo. Just he makes jujutsu kaizen, he really does, and I feel like he Was a very important character when it came to the season 2 of jujutsu kaizen. So I would definitely have to give it to him.
Speaker 1:This one I loved and this one I might get some slack for and I apologize in advance, but the next category is best main character. So you got bochi from Bochi the Rock, denji from chainsaw man, aaron Yager from attack on Titan mob, from mob psycho 100, monkey D Luffy from one piece and Thorfinn from Vinland Saga. As it is no surprise To anybody listening to this podcast and people who have listened to past episodes, I'm gonna give it to monkey D Luffy. You know, after all these years I still find his character enjoyable, and especially the arc that just went by this year for the anime and everything else like that was, I Don't know personally outstanding for me as well as, I think, very important to the character of Luffy himself. Um, so yeah, that's what I give. Like I said I, I I almost went denji because it was a Really big year, especially in terms for chainsaw man and everything else like that. But I just I liked I Always got to go with my boy Luffy. Um, all right, so best slice of life. So Again, we got bochi the rock. Do it yourself.
Speaker 1:Hori, mia, insomniacs after school, my love story with yamada, come at level 999 and skip and loafer. This one was really tough for me because a lot of these I actually read, I didn't watch, but if I have to give my opinion, I would definitely probably give it more so to my love story with yamada couldn't at level 999. It's a really enjoyable read, um, as well as my favorite probably out of all of these. Um, I do know that that kind of does a disservice to do it yourself because it was a like uh, made for anime, like it wasn't, like, like there is no source material, um, so I know that that kind of puts a disservice to that. But, yeah, I'm gonna give it to my love story with yamada couldn't at level 999, because it kind of has that aspect of yes, it's a slice of life, but it also has a fun like uh, you know, video game gamer lifestyle aspect to it, um, which obviously, as a fellow gamer, I can appreciate.
Speaker 1:Um, next up, we got best drama, so we got attack on titan, the final chapters, uh, heavenly delusion, my happy marriage. Oshinoko, two-year eternity, season two and venlon saga, season two Um, I'm personally giving it to oshinoko again, um, especially if you know where the story is going from, where it Ended up in the anime. Um, not only would I find that this is this wins best drama, but I think this is gonna win best drama, uh, for a long time to come, especially depending on how you know long. They end up, uh, putting breaks in between seasons for the show and stuff like that, because there's a still quite a bit of source material left for it to Continue on to. And I do know that the manga Not that it's ending, but you can definitely see that it is the direction it's going. It's getting closer to the conclusion, or at least what we're hoping the conclusion will be um, and it's a very strong read and, especially if you know Deeper into the story from what is happening in the anime, it's a phenomenal drama piece. So If you haven't, if, if you, if you've only ever watched the anime, I like, I like. I said the, the source material it is from is very strong, and if you are impatient, I Would definitely give reading it a shot because it's, like I said, it's really good.
Speaker 1:Um, all right, so that goes to best fantasy. So this is again. It was a no-brainer for me. I know that this could be Argued and I understand that there will probably be argument. But this, so this one is between demon slayer, hell's paradise, mashel, musho Koten Sai, ranking of Kings and the ancient Magnus Bride. I'm giving it to Mushoko Tensai, a jobless reading carnation, this anime as a whole, as well as the manga, is probably one of my favorite fantasies, probably of all time. So giving this the best fantasy award for the anime adaptation was a no-brainer for me, not to say that a lot of these are really strong. I really Did enjoy hell's paradise Obviously, I've talked about my love for Mashel as well, as I really actually quite enjoy the ancient mag Magus's Bride as well, but jobless reincarnation is like I think it will go down in history as one of the strongest isekai's in my opinion, and rightfully so. So, yeah, that's why I give it best fantasy, next up on the list.
Speaker 1:Best action again. This wasn't really a huge well, not to say so. You'll understand what I'm saying when, when I see this. But so the options were one piece Jujutsu Kaisen, demon slayer, chainsaw man, bleach and attack on Titan, final season. Now, my personal opinion is one piece, but I do feel that it is definitely rightfully deserved, not just because I'm a one-piece fanboy.
Speaker 1:This year had the Kaido arc of fighting and all of those scenes and the fights in animation were phenomenal, and, though I was really tough, because I loved the fighting and chainsaw man as well, and I do know, even though I've said, that I'm not really a huge fan of demons layer. I can respect the action scenes and how pretty it looks and everything else like that same with Jujutsu Kaisen all animation now. Now I can say it for all of them the animation Nowadays, especially for action scenes and everything else, is freaking insane. But I keep going back to over and over again the Kaido fights and the fights that are happening on wano this year, and All of them were phenomenal. All of them were phenomenal and I just I think it would just be unjust to give it to anybody else. Like I said, I do understand that it could definitely flip to either side, but just personally, as someone who is waiting to see those fight scenes animated, the fights and action sequences were phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now best comedy again. This isn't gonna come as surprised anybody who's listening to my past episodes, but the options here were botchy the rock, buddy dads, mashel, spy family, you're a, say yes, sir, and some 100. I have to give it to Mashel Though all the other ones had their funny scenes and everything else like that, literally From start to finish, every episode of Mashel made me laugh. It just it hits the perfect niche for me because, like I said, if, if you are a fan of Harry Potter and you are a fan of one punch man and the ridiculousness that comes with that and you put them together, it is literally the perfect comedy for me and it's it's just so funny and, in my mind, if you can get me to laugh every episode and there isn't like an episode where I go, eh, it wasn't that funny. But I didn't have any of that with Mashel, so I have to give it to Mashel for best comedy for sure.
Speaker 1:So this one was actually kind of more difficult for me because, like I said so, this one is for best romance and, again, every single one of these I've read, so I didn't really necessarily watch them. So it's between horror, mia, insomniacs after school, my happy marriage, my love story with Yamada Koon at level 999, skip in loafer and Tom and Shannon is a girl. All of these like and I I'm not kidding around when I say this every single one of these Could win this award and I would be okay with it. All of them work great it. It took me a while, but if I had to say best romance, so that means, in my mind, the best Romance story. Like you know, the, the couple that I love the most, the one that I found you know had the best growth and everything else like that. I have to give it to Now. Now I'm actually even changing my mind right now.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing. I'm going to then give it a toss up. I would be happy either way If Tom and Shannon is a girl, or skip in loafer one. No, you know what I'm going to give it? To skip in loafer. Skip in loafer Because I find that it's the most Realistic out of all of them. And again, this could be me, because I don't know how Far the anime went. So maybe I'm doing myself a disservice by create, by choosing that one, though I will give Tomochan is a girl a good Like runner-up award, because that's also a 4 coma. Oh, that has like over like 400 of them and I don't actually know. Like I said, I don't know how how far the anime went on each of these, but the source material as to where the story is going in skip and loafer, in my opinion, is just so much stronger, so that's why I'm gonna give it to that final answer.
Speaker 1:I'm not going back, all right, so next, we got best art direction. Now again, full disclosure, I give respect to every single Art, even if I'm not a fan of the anime or anything else like that. Full respect for respect is deserved. So again, the options here chainsaw man, demon slayer, hells paradise, jujutsu kaizen, oshinokoi and Zom 100. Now, I'm personally giving this one to hells paradise solely based on the fact that when I am strictly looking at the art and and everything else like that, I found the, the create, the creativeness of hells paradise and like the, the island and the island inhabitants, and Even like the fighting styles and everything else like that. It was very different. Then other things that I had seen before in like any other one that is in this list, which is why I'm gonna give it to hells paradise.
Speaker 1:Next one is best cinematography. Again, I'm doing this solely based on looks and what I felt looked really good and was really well done. Again, the nominees are attack on Titan, chainsaw man, demon slayer, heavenly delusion, jujutsu kaizen and Vinland saga. I'm gonna give this one to chainsaw man Because just it looked so good and I just think that the way that it was choreographed and everything else, especially the fight scenes in that, in these options and stuff like that, it's definitely the strongest. So next one is best director Again for this one. So the nominees are attack on Titan bochi, the rock chainsaw man, heavenly delusion, jujutsu kaizen and ocean okoy. In terms of story and the way that it was directed and everything else like that, I am going to give it to ocean okoy because, like I said, I think what they did with the source material, the pacing, everything else, I think what they did with it was really well done. So I'm going to give it to and I'm so sorry for butchering this name Daisuke hiro maki for Oshinokoi.
Speaker 1:Kind of going back to the reason why I went with the art direction, I'm giving best character design to hell's paradise Again, the options being chainsaw man, demon slayer, hell's paradise, jiu Jitsu kaizen, ocean okoi and try gun stampede. The way that the design of the characters and the antagonists in hell's paradise and the you know, the blooming flowers and the the I just it's so hard to explain, but it's just the way that it was portrayed and everything else was just so different and so Pretty in a grotesque way, and that's the best way that I can possibly put it. I have to give it to hell's paradise. Then we got let's see, we got best Again, certain ones I kind of just want to skip over just because it's kind of repeating myself. So, like best animation, again, I'm gonna give it to chainsaw man. I like the way it looked.
Speaker 1:This one I found interesting because I had actually only watched one of these. So best original anime Was between a cuba war, made war, birdie wing, buddy daddies, do it yourself, mobile suit, gundam. In In the marginal service. I actually only watched buddy daddies, so you win it by default. Congratulations. I didn't watch. I didn't want to give this one because I didn't actually watch any of them. So for best film, I'm just gonna give it to black clover because I like black clover. So, yeah, suck it.
Speaker 1:Best new series bochi the rock, chainsaw man, heavily delusion, hell's paradise, ocean, okoy and some 100. I'm gonna give this one to chainsaw man due to the fact that it was phenomenal watching, as well as it's the one that I'm looking the most forward to coming back for season two, and that's just mainly the reason why I'm giving it. Yeah, that's the best. Yeah, yeah, um. Best continuing series. Nobody's gonna come into a shock to my answer, but the nominees are attack on Titan, demon slayer to jutsu, guys in one piece, spy family and vanilla saga, due to the fact that one piece is perpetually in my watch list. I'm gonna have to give it to one piece because it's still going strong, I'm still looking forward to it and it's it's. It's the goat of continuing series, so it not getting it would be a little odd, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Now for the big drumroll anime of the year. Like I said, I was a little surprised. I'm assuming that free run is going to be on next year's list, because if it was supposed to be on this list and it wasn't nominated, that is a bad choice. So yeah, so we got both you, the rock, chain saw man, demon slayer to jutsu kaisen, oshi no koi and vinlan saga. In my opinion, and again, out of these options, if I have to choose anime of the year, I'm gonna give it to chain saw man. I feel it as if it was the Biggest winner out of all of them, like it was the one that everybody was looking the most forward to. It had the most watches.
Speaker 1:I Feel like a lot of people who maybe weren't, aren't even necessarily anime fans, watched this and enjoyed it. I do think. Like I said, I think out of the ones that were the options and everything else, it was the one that I enjoyed the most and I'm I think I'm not the only one with that opinion. So there you go. Those are my option. Those are my opinions on the anime's, the anime awards of 2024. I Think it'll be interesting Come March when this award show actually takes place I believe, yeah, march 2nd. So mark calendars, guys, because at some point during that week I will come back, I'll review my answers and see how close I got to, you know, the anime awards 20, 24 bingo and see if I Got anywhere near close to who's going to win what combination of awards this week.
Speaker 1:We didn't really have any questions come in, which is okay, you know, maybe people just didn't have questions for me, and what I am currently reading is one call. See, I am the step mom, step mother, but my daughter is just too cute. Essentially it's another. Atomi is a guy where you know they got put into a novel. I think it's definitely supposed to be trying to rip off the stepmother and the daughter, kind of like she's supposed to be snow white, but they're not blatantly outwardly going that way. It's a fun read. Like I said, if you're into the, atomi is a Kai genre, I would give it a read. It's fun and yeah, like I said, what do you guys think about my opinions on the 2024 season? I'd love to hear from you guys. Like I said, twitter, instagram, facebook, rival X reviews. Rival X reviews at gmailcom, if you want to give me in, if you want to shoot me an email, and I'll see you guys next week. Bye, bye.