Board 8 > Anime of the Year 2019 - Ballot phase

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's that time of year again, well actually a little later than usual. Wanted to see if giving more time would help people watch those last few remaining shows they wanted.

Last year A Place Further Than the Universe dominated with only Rascal putting up a fight in some of the character oriented awards.
This year, well I haven't seen as many shows as last year, so looking forward to seeing some of the arguments made for shows/characters in some categories.
But as ever, this is just a fun thing.

Oh and next month gotta do Anime of the Decade too, but will probably tweak some of the categories for that!

We're going to be using the same format as last year but with two new awards.

Quick Rules:

• Voting is open until until Sunday 5th January.
• PM your ballot and I will tally the results.
• On each ballot vote for what you thought was best in a category, with 1st place getting the most points and so on.
• We're splitting between A Categories and B Categories. The Major awards (A Category) allow you to vote for up to 5 shows, B cats are restricted to 3 shows.

The awards:

Category A (The traditional 6 most popular awards)

Anime of the Year
Your favourite anime series this year. The show must have had the majority of its episodes aired in 2019

Best Character Male/Female
For the top male/female character of the year.

Best Drama/Comedy
This is for the best shows of their respective genres.

Best Opening-Ending
The best Opening/Ending of the year. Please take into account that for this award you are voting for what was used in the broadcast version of the show.

Category B (The best of the rest)

Most Anticipated Show
Which upcoming show has you most hyped?

Fight of the Year
As ever, this is for the best showdown between two parties. It can be a traditional 1 vs 1, team battle or sports match.

Best Couple
This is for the 2 characters who had the most onscreen chemistry together.

Best Story
The show which you felt had the most compelling story

Studio of the Year
This one boils down to which studio produced the most content you enjoyed for the year.

Best Cast
The series that had the best overall ensemble this year

Best Visuals
Which show's visuals wowed you the most this year?

Best Supporting Character
This is to show appreciation for some of the characters with a little less screentime.

Best Villain
New award, rewarding the best antagonist of the year. For this award please select characters, not organisations.

Best Recurring Character
People really like voting for the same characters every year in various categories because hey.they're good.
Others have voiced an opinion against this, so this award is for characters from shows in their 2nd, 3rd or beyond season that people like most. Can serve as a most improved of sorts as well as characters who suck in Season 1 can sometimes become the best part of a new season.

Ballots:

Category A Awards

Anime of the Year
+8
+5
+3
+2
+1

Best Male Character

+8
+5
+3
+2
+1

Best Female Character
+8
+5
+3
+2
+1

Best Drama
+8
+5
+3
+2
+1

Best Comedy
+8
+5
+3
+2
+1

Best Opening-Ending
+8
+5
+3
+2
+1

Category B Awards

Most Anticipated Show
+5
+3
+1

Fight of the Year
+5
+3
+1

Best Couple
+5
+3
+1

Best Story
+5
+3
+1

Studio of the Year
+5
+3
+1

Best Cast
+5
+3
+1

Best Visuals
+5
+3
+1

Best Supporting Character
+5
+3
+1

Best Villain
+5
+3
+1

Best Recurring Character
+5
+3
+1

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Hmm, what was there for outstanding OPs and EDs? Stars Align had a good ED, and the Chika ED from Kaguya was great, but nothing else comes to mind immediately.
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Tag. I suspect I won't really participate but I guess we will see.
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Gonna be boring, but will say that for action shows. Demon Slayer did good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmanD_s7G3U
But I'm a little biased towards LiSA songs.

Though as Mac brought up, the Chika ED sticks out a looot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdZrFtIGzfU

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Tag
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Tag

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Just to get us started on a few points.

While OP/ED's one that's easy to vote for even if you haven't seen the shows as they're under 2mins, I think Fights can also enter that category.

Last few years has been heavy on the HeroAca for top fight, but this year, is anyone else feeling that Demon Slayer should get some representation?

Haven't yet caught up on HeroAca, so maybe the newest season's also got good stuff, but having read the manga, the arcs it covers while good shouldn't be in that All Might/One For All tier.
(Actually same applies for Attack on Titan stuff)

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Are movies eligible for any category?

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Is there a list somewhere for upcoming anime for Most Anticipated Show?
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Movies are not eligible for any category.
They will be for decade though.

For most anticipated shows I use MAL to get a quick overview of what hasn't aired:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/season

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I think I only actually finished three shows this year, though I watched large parts of a few others, at least. Certainly can't fill out five ballot slots in many categories, but I'll try to fill a ballot out.

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On OPs/EDs, some highlights to me are

Boogiepop and a lot of other winter ones for OPs, plus stuff like Cop Craft and Wasteful Days since

On EDs... That's a harder question, but not because there haven't been good ones. Winter had the Chika dance, but also stuff like Kemurikusa's, Kemono Friends 2's second ED, all the ones in Ekoda-chan and Endro's. Spring had RobiHachi's, Summer had Symphogear XV's range of EDs, there was that one in the Cop Craft recap episode, and Business Fish's one... existed. https://youtu.be/LK64W7e75zA
Also beastars ED2 top tier and i will be sad when it doesn't place while wild side probably wins
There's a lot of competition in EDs for sure.

everybody getting excited to bring Chika dance back up and completely forgetting/ignoring that both the OP and the regular ED for that show were both top tier smh

Are there any shows this year in which people are going to be iffy about which of the genres they fall into?

Kaguya is squarely in Comedy for everyone, right?

Just want to avoid something losing because people didn't vote for it in the same place.

Dr STONE's first ED

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People are throwing some OPs out for consideration, and since Kaguya has already been brought up...

https://youtu.be/JBqxVX_LXvk

https://youtu.be/epZaT8B31-g

Would appreciate any ED recs people want to bring up, as there are multiple occasions where I have finished and loved a show but never once sat through the ED.

Like, to put it into perspective, I have watched the Chika ED for Kaguya like two dozen times. It's one of my favorite shows of the year. I've never seen the regular ED.

Which one.

I really liked the OP's for We Never Learn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZws4MC3N6E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbenj-jnkQ0
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Looking at the chart, looks like the only show of note that is throttling the year line is Golden Wind, which falls into 2019.

Actually I guess some people liked the running show.

I like Karakuri Circus, but nobody else watched it and it's probably not gonna make any cuts.

Also for major consideration.

https://youtu.be/jsNm1LQUrXM

Will also need confirmation of Beastars eligibility. Would prefer it not be as many people who wish to watch it have not been able to, but I don't remember how this was handled in years prior.

Reg posted...

everybody getting excited to bring Chika dance back up and completely forgetting/ignoring that both the OP and the regular ED for that show were both top tier smh

I specifically did that because the OP and regular ED are bad.
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The OP and ED are both up there yes, but they're just not quite up there enough to make my top 5 and are directly lost causes when you-know-what exists

Anyway I'm going to add links for my recs besides lol business fish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipXehesfNYI
best myth and roid, quality visuals

https://animethemes.moe/video/JoshikouseiNoMudazukai-OP1.webm
unique opening, quality lyrics. i wish this show got more attention, def putting it on comedy ballot and probably more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mggRt6PGLw
maybe the best hidekazu tanaka op

https://animethemes.moe/video/Kemurikusa-ED1.webm
special mention to the version in episode 11 too. That was a real highlight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4qfB2uT4o
Another best dance memesong candidate. Also Yang is totally in contention for best villain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE9KqfVRH2E
Latina is cute

https://animethemes.moe/video/CopCraftRecap-ED1.webm
Why does the regular ED even exist

The better symphogear EDs are spoiler filled so oh well, can't post those

Looking at the shows I've seen more closely this year.

I think Kaguya is one of my early frontrunners to dominate the Character awards, be it male/female/cast/Couple/supporting.

Maybe not #1 in each, but should be a strong contender.

I run SMFAS as well every year and Kaguya/The Promised Neverland were two new shows that did really well.

We had a buunch of new Jump animes this year from Promised Neverland to We Never Learn. So it's possible one of their shows ranks highly in the eventual AOTY list.

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Fire Force OP
Promised Neverland OP
Domestic Kanojo OP
Kaguya OP
Chika ED


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bit confused about the character categories
are supporting characters allowed in the male/female award?
how do you define supporting characters?
Are only characters that first appeared this year eligible for the all the awards except recurring? So I can't vote for a show that had say, season 1 last year and season 2 this year?

It was mentioned but I don't think linked, so I'll submit the Beastars OP for consideration if you haven't seen it yet. Only category it's safe to be eligible for this year really.

https://youtu.be/bgo9dJB_icw

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I'll probably be factoring in Beastars for OP/ED as well since that that lives on YouTube, but as far as all the other awards go I'm not gonna consider it viable until next year for my own nominations.

Wow, I can't beleive neither Fire Force OP1 or the Boogiepop OP made my cut. I went into sorting this stuff thinking Fire Force would be my +8, lol.

Beastars S1 counts for this year.
If there's a season 2 next year, then that'll count for next year.

handsomeboy2012 posted...

bit confused about the character categories
are supporting characters allowed in the male/female award?
how do you define supporting characters?
Are only characters that first appeared this year eligible for the all the awards except recurring? So I can't vote for a show that had say, season 1 last year and season 2 this year?

Any non-recurring character can be nominated for the male/female ones. It's just that even though they've placed before, the vast majority of the votes end up going to a show's star.
For supporting characters, think about other award shows like the Emmys which is mostly for TV shows. Peter Dinklage/Aaron Paul got a lot of nominations for supporting, but it was Walter White collecting the Leading Actor noms.

Yeah, characters who made their debut this year are eligible for everything except for recurring.
Although there can be special circumstances if say a show has been rebooted, it's a spinoff or has some other major element to distance it from the original series.

As for shows, if you like My Hero Academy Season 4 a lot, you can vote for it as AOTY or best drama or even best cast. Long running shows like this tend to add a bunch of new characters who will take a lot of focus for the season which makes it ok for me.


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voltch posted...

Beastars S1 counts for this year.
If there's a season 2 next year, then that'll count for next year.

Ahhhhhh I dunno about this, I feel like that's just killing its chances to place in anything other than OP/ED since those are easily available on Youtube

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I will not be voting for any Beastars content this year other than for the OP. No legal way to watch the show. If we don't include movies because of the difficulty for the masses to access them, this should be no different.

The two biggest Beastars stans here both disagree with it's inclusion, just saying!

-I was not able to come up with couples, and one of them I don't even know if it's real. The other hasn't actually happened yet in the show.

-racking my brain for best fight because arguabley Kaguya is gonna sweep this if it counts. I mean it literally has a winner and loser announced for each.

-Golden Wind is majority this year, but Bucci was introduced last year. Bucci doesn't count for new character, I assume.

-This is the year where the largest number of shows in my top 5s didn't directly translate to all the other categories. Two of my best story noms weren't even in my main top 5.

-Finally, FINALLY, I can vote for Bones in Studio again and actually feel good about doing so. Also, Lerche is on here. Me. LERCHE.

-Only barely starting Babylon and not starting Psycho-Pass 3 are likely gonna be biting me kn the ass in these villain and character awards, I can feel it.

Was looking up what non-shounen battles I could include.

Not gonna put anything Chihayafuru related, but FGO did catch the eye with the Gorgon fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ForOrtRZz2Y

Though this is specific to the Ushiwakamaru portion and other characters were involved in the fight, this section has been praised a good by those watching the show and I gotta agree. Babylonia's not yet covered the sections that made the singularity so popular, but if future fights top this then fans like myself will be very pleased.

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I'm kind of shocked by how underrepresented The Promised Neverland is here on my lists....

Think I'll have Promised Neverland in show, story, drama, male character, maybe female character. Could even add it in couple...

MichelBollinger posted...

-I was not able to come up with couples, and one of them I don't even know if it's real. The other hasn't actually happened yet in the show.

I think voltch has said that pairs work too. They don't necessarily have to be romantic.
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I mean that does open up the obvious Promised Neverland entry if it doesn't have to be romantic. Guess I'll slip that in.

I'm pretty much done except for battles. Will let it stew for a bit just in case. Was surprised by some of my choices, especially since this year had the smallest short list of shows to reference of any year since we've started doing this, and even then 2 of those didn't actually end up with any entries. The highs were real high this year, but looking back it was severely lacking in mid tier stuff. Not to mention it was INCREDIBLY front loaded. Holy shit Winter 2019.

For reference, this is every single show I jotted down for consideration to pull from for categories, in that there was some factor in them that had any possibility of ranking:

Kaguya
Neverland
Mob
Dororo
Shield Hero
Boogiepop
JoJo
Carole & Tuesday
Fire Force
Vinland Saga
Dumbells
O Maidens
Astra
Wasteful High School Girls
Overcautious Hero

Mac gets it.

Emma's aight, but every year Best Female Character ends up being the more competitive of the two because waifus.
I think even when I split it into Best FeMC & Waifu, people still put a lot of stock into their waifus.

If people wanna vote for Tanjiro x Nezuko they can feel free to do so.


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what are the rules on shows that started in 2019 (fall) but are continuing into 2020?

If Chihayafuru counts for the battle category I'm going to strongly advocate for the Taichi/Chihaya match.
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.... How did I just fucking forget about Demon Slayer in its entirety for all of this....

In previous years Haikyuu won Fight of the Year so yeah sports or matches in a competitive environment can count too.

Haven't caught up on Ace of Diamond to know if anything super hype's ongoingon that front.

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Some of my favorite OP/ED's that haven't been mentioned much:

SAO - War of the Underworld ED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGUroMhu1M0

Domestic Girlfriend OP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdCT7wH_4-c

Some notable fights:

Levi vs Beast Titan (AoT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQJyCtELWaU

Banned Word Game (Kaguya-sama) - Does this even count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhxzVP94GGc


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voltch posted...

In previous years Haikyuu won Fight of the Year so yeah sports or matches in a competitive environment can count too.

Haven't caught up on Ace of Diamond to know if anything super hype's ongoingon that front.

i mean the entire season was basically a fight so :/

As far as Ace goes, the only games really worth mentioning imo are the one at the very start (Seidou vs Komadai Fujimaki, probably better nominated as Satoru Furuya vs Hongou Masamune honestly) and around the 1/3 mark (Seidou vs Ichidai). The back half has had several games, but I wouldn't say any of them are worth bringing up here. The manga has an Ichidai vs Yakushi game that I will absolutely tell people to watch and nominate once the anime covers it, but that's probably not until late 2020 assuming the anime doesn't take any breaks.

If you're looking at sports series in general, I'd look towards the Hakone Ekiden (Run With The Wind) before looking at either of the Ace matches I mentioned, though. That was entirely in the second half of the anime, so it should be valid unless you dispute it being a fight/match. If it counts though, I'd say it deserves top billing overall.

who've people got for villains? I feel like I didn't care about any villains this year other than Isabella. Honestly a bunch of shows were kinda ruined by their shit villains (like every LN adaptation).
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I'm guessing we haven't seen the best yet that Overhaul has to offer

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I've got Isabella on there with Cybell from C&T and Askeladd from Vinland. Askeladd is probably the easiest #1 I've ever had for this category.