Decoding Anime Accolades: Unpacking the Crunchyroll Awards' Surprises and Oversights

Ever wonder why certain anime sweep award shows while others that tug at your heartstrings get overlooked? Join me as I dissect the Crunchyroll Awards' most unexpected wins and snubs, leaving no stone unturned in the realms of music, comedy, and art direction. From grappling with Jujutsu Kaisen's double take in the opening and ending sequences to questioning Attack on Titan's musical triumph over shows where tunes take center stage, this episode is a rollercoaster ride through the highs and lows of anime accolades. I also give a shout-out to the Lore'd to Death podcast, where we geeked out over the Persona series, and delve into the audience's adoration for Anya from Spy Family – the character that's captured our collective protective instincts.

This week's episode isn't just about the winners; it's about understanding what makes an anime truly remarkable. I lay bare my astonishment at Spy Family's comedic win over the hilarious underdog Mashle and ponder whether Hell's Paradise was robbed of the art direction crown by Demon Slayer. As we close the chapter, we'll also consider the curious distinction between art direction and cinematography, celebrating Jujutsu Kaisen's well-earned praise in the latter while sparking an insightful conversation about the intricate dance between visuals and storytelling in anime. Whether you're an otaku or just anime-curious, this episode promises to leave you with a deeper appreciation for the artform and maybe even a few additions to your must-watch list.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey there and welcome back to rival reviews Right off the rip. I just want to give a shout out to the Lord to Death podcast. They had me on as a guest this week and we were over there talking about persona, which, you know, kind of felt the realm, because persona is very, you know, anime based and I'm an anime podcast. So it kind of worked and it's one of my favorite games of pretty much all time. So I had a really good time. So if you want you know two of me, you know, if you want to listen to me twice in a week, go ahead and go over to Lord to Death podcast, and me and my buddy Brett had a good time talking about persona. Now, apart from that, let's get into this week.

Speaker 1: 0:45

So this week, on Saturday, I guess the following the past weekend that just happened we had our crunchy roll awards. So I thought that I would go over you know the winners and kind of go over what my thoughts were on that. I do I wouldn't say that I have a Crazy strong opinion about a lot of them. I do, however, have a very strong opinion about one, but what I'm gonna try and do is I'll stick to the order that I kind of talked about them the last time. Just you know, in case you want to cross-reference what I said the last time, because I'm gonna be honest, I probably don't remember All of it. I do remember, obviously, the the more important ones that I probably cared about. But Anyway, let's get into it. So, kind of like what we stated last time, I didn't really give any thought or idea to the voice artists, performances, categories, just because I Just felt that like it was really not only weird to give my opinion, but that I didn't really have an opinion like, if anything, I like to say that Kind of like, if you can be a voice actor, props to you, because you know I do this podcast once a week and I kind of feel it in Like my voice and everything else, like just after doing the little bit that I do. Um, so doing that as an actual like career definitely deserves kudos, but yeah, so kind of going to, got him going to where we were before. Sorry about that. My dog decided to take out my table.

Speaker 1: 2:34

We started out with best anime ending sequence. So, again, this one didn't really surprise me. The winner was jiu-jitsu kaizen, season two, which kind of made sense in the grand scheme of things, because I do remember, at least, especially in the first season, everybody really really loved the first season ending. So for them to follow up strong with with the second one is is no surprise. Yeah, so that wasn't a surprise. But what did kind of surprise me is that not only did they win best anime ending sequence, they also won best anime opening sequence, which is interesting because I thought, if anything, like I just felt like there was a lot of like More visually appealing ones, like especially for health, because like hell's paradise with one of them, and as well as idol from Oshinokoi. So so I thought both of those were really strong contenders.

Speaker 1: 3:33

I even thought, like kickback by chainsaw man, like the whole like coverage of like the, the different Movie aspects and everything else like that, like I was so sure that it was gonna win because it was a lot of fun to watch. But hey, I guess what do I know? Best anime score, again this one very surprising. I was pretty sure that either Oshinoko or Bachi the Rock were gonna win this, because you know their whole idea was that like it's based around music, or idol music or even a band music. So I thought for sure that out of like a whole anime score that it would win, and not to say that the score for attack on Titan wasn't cool, like it, like it, obviously, like I love all the music that come from that and everything else. But To beat to animes that their primary focus is music, that is impressive. I would be interested to see because it's funny because, like you know, at the end of the day you get these winners and you don't really get to be there for the thought process of it all. You only get the outcome. And I feel like that's gonna be a lot of arguments for a lot of these. Because, to try and argue, I would love to see the argument of why the score from attack on Titan, which again was this dramatic, you know, background to a very dramatic sequence of events and everything else like that. But to solely beat literally to enemies where their sole purpose is music, I would like to know the argument that was made against Bachi and Oshi to to allow Attack on Titan to win, which then kind of goes to my confusion to the next one. So when it goes to best anime song, you got Idol from Oshi no Ko and again, how are you gonna argue that an anime that had the best anime song for the season isn't in the running for the best anime score. It just I don't know the two and two, because I wouldn't say that they're. You know, they're completely, like, separate from one another. Like, obviously, if you're going to count one thing as the best anime song and then you're trying to argue what the best anime score is and it ends up being beaten, it just I don't know. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Because again, for best anime song, I was pretty positive that Bachi or Oshi was going to win, and I guess Oshi did win. But yeah, it just goes to show. Like I said, I would like to know the argument.

Speaker 1: 6:29

This one, the next one, must protect to all-cost anime character. This one should be a surprise to no one that Anya won from Spy Family. You know she's cute, she's adorable, she's hilarious, she's innocent, she's really the whole point of us watching the whole anime or reading it in the first place. So this really isn't surprising. The only one that I thought might be able to beat him but our beat her rather was Pochita from Chainsaw man, just because, again, the adorableness was there and everything else like that, but I do feel that Anya was definitely well deserved, so it made sense. Again, not really another surprising one best supporting anime character went to Gojo Again. Pretty much anytime the Jiu Jitsu Kaizen comes up in a conversation or you see it in a anything that that important that happens with him, with his character development, or or if he's even a part of the art over overarching story of that season, it is everywhere on the internet. So this isn't surprising to me at all, especially because everybody you know talks about that. He's husbando number one. So not really too surprising there.

Speaker 1: 7:46

What this one was, however, the next one, the best main anime character. I'm happy with a decision, but I am surprised. So Luffy winning best main anime character, I don't disagree by any means, but I really did not see that coming just because of the fact that you had both Eren, yeager and Denji and Bochi from Bochi the Rock all going against them. So I I thought you're for sure, just because of the sheer popularity of the other three, that movie Luffy might be overlooked, but it just goes to show that. You know, I guess he had enough of a splash and, to be fair, like obviously in this year and everything else in this season we got the outcome of. You know we got to secure five and you know he was a really big. He had the really big phylocator going on the whole time and everything else like that throughout a good chunk of this year. So it's not surprising and, like I said, I'm happy about it. It's just against the other ones that were against the thing I, like I said I would. I would love to hear the conversation and I'm glad that it swung that way again.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Not really huge surprise here. I could have seen it going either way and it wasn't my personal pick. But best lesson of it, life, anime went to Bochi the Rock again when this came out. It was huge and it was like kind of a sleeper for a good part of the season too, like. So I'm not sure if any of you do this, but the myanime list comm runs a like a fantasy we type of aspect with like all the users that want to play, where you can pick your team and then every week you get points based on different merits, whether it's, like you know, people watching, people commenting, people rating what, whatever it is. It's different every week and you can make up the team and I did not choose this one because I did not. I like I said it was a sleeper, I didn't think anything of it and I did terribly that seasonal fantasy league because I was missing Bochi the Rock on my team and I guess other people saw what I didn't when it got announced. I should have known, because I do know that K-On was also really big, so I probably should have made the assumption that this would do as what good as well, but I didn't see it and it blew a lot of anima's out of the water again.

Speaker 1: 10:15

I loved I love reading Hormia and saw me at after school. My love story with Yamada, k-on and Skip and Lover were all really strong in my opinion and I enjoyed a lot of them. I believe when I did this conversation and if I've changed my mind since I apologize, but if I had to choose a favorite out of these ones, it obviously would have been my love story with Yamada K-On at level 999. But again, that's the gamer in me, that's the RPG player in me. So you try to mix like a romance with video games and everything else that I'm there, so it hits my niche. Maybe it doesn't hit everybody else's niche and yeah. So, like I said, it wasn't really much of a surprise because of how big this ended up blowing up again. Not really a big surprise here.

Speaker 1: 11:07

The best drama anime was Attack on Titan, the final chapters again, obviously for obvious reasons I don't want to get too into it, just in case you haven't seen it, because I know that you know maybe you haven't had time, but if you haven't had time I would make the time. The final chapter wasn't the same. It was such a crazy ending to such a phenomenal anime story the only one that I could see that maybe had an argument. But again, because of how far it didn't get into the story, ocean O'Code probably didn't even have a shot, because I would argue that maybe where it is now in the manga it could compete. But with the first like 12 episodes or whatever, or the content that you're going to get from that, not a chance. And then again, maybe the same thing with Two Year Eternity, season 2. Again, it probably fit the bill for drama, but the conclusion to this anime was just crazy. So it really was in a league of its own.

Speaker 1: 12:12

So this one for best fantasy anime again, this was kind of surprising to me, but not really surprising because it's also again I've said it on this podcast before I don't understand the popularity of Demon Slayer. I don't, it's lost on me, it's pretty I'll give you that Very colorful and the first time I watched the fights it was like cool, but then I lost all interest. But that being said, demon Slayer, based on sheer popularity, winning, I suppose I can see. But especially when it was against Jobless Reincarnation, I honestly thought that it was going to have enough popularity to to go over Demon Slayer. But I guess I was solely mistaken. Again, in my personal preference, because there was. There was Hell's Paradise, mashel, jobless Reincarnation and even the Ancient Magnus's Bride. I enjoyed all of those more than Demon Slayer, but there is something to be said about the popularity of it. So I guess you can't be too mad about it. Let's see Next up again this one.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Not too surprising. I could make argument with other ones being win errors. But Jujutsu Kaisen, season two. Obviously the fight sequences in this anime are crazy. I personally thought that the fights in Chain Saw man definitely could have won these. One it out from Jujutsu Kaisen, because the fights in Chain Saw man, at least in my opinion, were insane. But you know I don't disagree that the fights in Jujutsu Kaisen and the action and everything else wasn't there. I'm not going to argue that because it's just it's not accurate. But, like again, I could definitely argue. I feel like Chain Saw man was really strong. I talked on Titan, had crazy action at the end. One piece, like I said before, it had all the pretty much the fight with Kato and everything else like that. So I felt like that would even be strong enough. But again, I think this is another example of the popularity backing it, because I do know that Jujutsu Kaisen is huge and it has a huge online presence and a huge fanbase. So that could have been the thing, that kind of put it above everything else. But I do think there were stronger ones. But at the end of the day, I'm not mad that Jujutsu Kaisen got it.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Now going from that, the exact opposite. Mashel got snubbed so bad. I cannot believe that best comedy anime went to Spy Family. Don't get me wrong. I love Spy Family. It's a great anime, it's a great manga, it is funny in its own right, for sure. But if you're going to try and argue with me that Spy Family is funnier than Mashel, magic and muscles, you're delusional. Mashel is probably the funniest anime I've seen ever. Like period, and I feel like the mixture of the fantasy meets comedy is just. It's done so well that when I first reviewed this, after knowing that I was going to do this episode and everything else, this was probably the.

Speaker 1: 15:40

I cannot fathom this and I don't know, am I crazy? Tell me if I'm crazy, but personally, for me there isn't an episode of Mashel that doesn't not make me laugh. Like I'm constantly thinking that it's hilarious, like from start to finish. Where Spy Family, like again, it's entertaining, but it's like entertaining in like a acute way, where, like I find Mashall is funny in a comedy way, like in a ridiculous, like you have to laugh because of how ridiculous it is. Where, like Spy Family, you laugh because kind of more sort of like the silly thing that Anya did. You know what I mean? Like it's. It's just, in my opinion, like the comedy between these two are just so vastly different and I just I just felt that Mashall was just such a shoo-in for this one that I am so surprised. So, yeah, so if I took away anything from this because obviously we're gonna go more into a couple different ones, but I would say, out of anything, mashall 100% got snubbed this year and I I will take that point to the grave, like, like, I will fight it to death because it deserved, at the very least, this win. Whew, okay, now that I've calmed down a bit.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Best romance anime Again. So it went to Hormia, the missing pieces. I feel like this could have gone with, honestly any of them, like you could have given it to Insomniacs Happy Marriage, my Love Story, skipper Lover, and Tomoch or Tomochana's A Girl, and I would have been like, yep, it's a good romance, because all of them were, at least in my opinion. I felt that this year a lot of the romance ones were ones that not only that I had read and was caught up with the source material, but like were also all really strong, like in their own rights, like I thought that they were all really good stories. So I'm not really unhappy with this one or happy with this one. I would honestly have been happy with any of them. So again, this one not too surprising Probably could have made an argument with other ones.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Best art direction Went to Demon Slayer. Like I said previously when it came up before, it is pretty, I can't fight that, it just is. I did think that at least creativity wise and everything else like that, I would say that both Hell's Paradise and Zom 100 were both prettier, and I felt like there was a lot more. Like, if I had to define art, I would have given it to Hell's Paradise. Just the creativity and the character designs and the coloring, like the vibrant colors of the fights and everything else like that, and the texturization of certain things, like I just felt like it came off a lot stronger when Demon Slayer, I feel like it always looks the same, like it's not, like it's like raising the bar, it's had its bar and it's just wrote it the whole time. So I feel like I could have made the argument that Hell's Paradise was definitely stronger, but again, not to argue with the fact that Demon Slayer is pretty. I can't argue with that.

Speaker 1: 19:23

And then again, the other interesting part that I found about this is that Demon Slayer was in the best cinematography, like nominee list. And then, I don't know again, this could just be because my understanding is different, but in my opinion, when you're talking about the art direction and the cinematography With anime, like, like, I find like cinematography in art direction. If you're talking like a like a, like a live action, like something or other. They can be vastly different but, like cinematography, in our direction I feel like they have to go hand in hand, so for it to go to one and not the other, which was very interesting to me. Again, telling me that the winner of best in my cinematography Is jujitsu kaizen is not surprising. Like I don't have a problem with that and again, in all honesty, I would, or I would, agree with probably all of them in in the nominee list. Like a taco tank chainsaw man, dean Slayer is always pretty heavenly. Delusion was also really pretty.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Jiu Jitsu kaizen obviously had really bold coloring. Finland saga obviously, especially like the. The background designs and everything else in Finland is is crazy. So None of that is really surprising. Again, I didn't really have too much of an opinion on best director. Jiu jitsu kaizen. Season 2 Won this one as well. So Again, it was a really strong Anime. I guess there is something that you can say that it is the only one that was actually a sequel, like a season 2 and it won. So I guess that does say something, because it beat a whole bunch of other ones that were like Either their own one-offs, like the chapter one of the final season or all new animates for the season. So I I guess there is something to be said about that.

Speaker 1: 21:18

I Next one is a best character design. So this, what did you just some kaizen as well. Man, jiu jitsu kaizen really just Want everything in there. It's not surprising. It was a really strong season. Again, I would argue the same thing with the character design. I felt that that Hells Paradise personally should have won kind of like all the design categories because of the. The way that it looked didn't like. I find that like again like jiu jitsu kaizen, like you're drawing Anime characters, and again like the fight scenes and everything else are crazy and everything else. But that's not about the character design, in my opinion, especially the character design with like all the different things on the island and everything else like that. I thought Hells Paradise was gonna be a shoe in. So that is a little surprising. Best animation again, this isn't really surprising. Even Slayer one, it was pretty Can't really fight it. Honestly, jiu jitsu kaizen is in there. Could have also won because it was pretty tack. And Titan, it was also crazy good-looking about. Chainsaw man was well animated. Yeah, I feel as if, like any of them could have wanted. It would have been like yeah, that's fine.

Speaker 1: 22:44

Best original anime this went to buddy dies. This isn't surprising. This is the only one that I found that really out of all of them. Well, this was the only one that I actually watched out of all these ones, so you had like, made war birdie wing, do it yourself, yeah. Mobile suit, gundam, marginal service yeah. So like buddy dies was the only one that I actually saw and the only one that I actually kind of heard any Like actual love about. Like everything else, I, after it was announced, I never really heard about it again, so this isn't really a surprise to me.

Speaker 1: 23:23

Next one we got the best anime film again. Susan me won this. Not really surprising. I Thought black over might have more of a chance. Same with the Kaguya. Sama love is war one, because they're both, they were both really popular. But I will also say that Susan me, I think, deserved it probably out of the most of all of them, because all of them weren't based. All the rest of them were based on like an anime that's already kind of like laid the foundation, where Suzuki was actually like its own story to anime film, like very similarly to like you know, like if you're, if you're talking to like, talking about like a studio ghibli kind of film. It's not my studio ghibli, but like that kind of realm of thinking. So, yeah, so that's that's not surprising to me at all. Again, this one I was happy about because I actually 100% agree with it. So the best anime, best right, best new anime series went to chainsaw man. Personally, I think well deserved.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Again, I enjoyed quite a lot of the entries on the nominee list but by far chainsaw man, out of the ones out of the options, was by far, I think, not only the one that blew up the most, the one that had the most popularity but also had them like. It had a lot of popularity going in, obviously because of the source material, but it came out with a bang and it went strong for the whole run of it. And it's actually still kind of surprising to me that we haven't heard about a second season. So Maybe I'm hoping, because it won this, that it might get more shout out and hopefully maybe there will be more of a taco season 2. That would be really cool.

Speaker 1: 25:11

This one I was actually very surprised about, but happy about that one piece actually did win the best continuing enemy series, again in my mind because of how long it's been going, for it absolutely deserves to witness I'm. I am, however, completely surprised that it didn't get beaten out by, you know, jiu-jitsu guys and demon slayer or a tack on Titan. Those are three really big titles and for one piece to it just goes to show like the respect that this anime gets because it was able to beat three of those really big titles for the best continuing series. Yeah, so I I definitely was very happy to see that when it happened. And then, of course Probably no surprise to you know everything else that you've heard about this list and I have the year for 2024.

Speaker 1: 26:02

Jiu-jitsu guys in season 2 Again, especially. I'm not really surprised. I'm still a little confused as to why free run isn't a nominee for anything. I'm the only thing that I can assume is because it's still going and it ran through the beginning of 24, 24. That because it's probably gonna conclude in 2024, that it will be up for the 2025, like, so next year's awards if it is overlooked. That makes zero sense to me, but I have a feeling that that is the thought, thought process that they're going with.

Speaker 1: 26:40

I guess the takeaways that I to kind of, I guess, put a bow on this is Is Jiu-jitsu guys and killed it this year. Like I said, I think there's an argument to be made that if you know you did put free-run into a lot of these Categories that maybe it wouldn't have done as well, but it it. It pretty much took like I definitely took the vast majority, like how many are we looking at? We're looking at one, two, three, four, five, so you got five, oh Sorry, six, seven, so seven of the actual awards. And then it has, and then it had, gojo as the the best like secondary character, like supporting characters. So, and even looking down, even though I wasn't gonna talk about it, it looks like he won, but that character themselves won about three of the voice actor Awards as well. So Take that with what you will, but at the end of the day, they, they, they killed it and they, they, they definitely got the vast majority. And and, like I said, if you're gonna take anything from what I said, this time, please wish for Mashel to get the respect it deserves because it got snubbed so bad. And there you have it. That puts a close down on the Crunchyroll Awards of 2024.

Speaker 1: 28:20

Let me know what you think. What did you guys think of the winners? Do you guys have any Opinions? Do you think, for whatever reason, that Mashel shouldn't have won the Comi award? If you did, you're wrong, but you can let me know. Right, like reviews on all your social medias. Please rate and review if you can and please share. That helps us get out there Again. Like I already said before, check out Lord the Death podcast. I'm on there talking to a persona and I'm sure my buddy, brett, would appreciate it, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye, bye.