Last Sunday, the 1st of February, our comrades at Anime Trending have just commenced their first Anime Trending Awards 2015. It’s the first time that the “Unofficial Anime Charts” entity will be doing such awards, and some of the results are really unexpected, if not heard of. Here’s my notes on the said occasion.
Analysis
The voting gathered a total of 21,592 votes for the Anime of the Year category and 117,437 votes for the rest of the categories that have been opened throughout the whole duration of the polls. More than 170,000 votes have been recorded for all major and minor categories.
Series Awards
There are four series on the Short Anime of the Year list, namely I Can’t Understand What my Husband is Saying, Himegoto, The Manga Artist and His Assistants and Tonari no Seki-kun. The first-placer Husband got 2,255 votes, bagging the first place. [Image]
Terror in Resonance got the “Original Anime of the Year” 2014 award with 2,930 votes, beating out other titles like Wixoss (Combined), Aldnoah.Zero and Hamatora (Combined). [Image]
For the Adaptation of the Year category, we have Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (2014) on the top (3,159 votes), beating out No Game No Life, Sword Art Online II and Isshukan Friends. [Image]
In the Anime Soundtracks category, Mekaku City Actors topped other OSTs from Aldnoah, Terror, Ao Haru Ride and Isshukan with 2,547 votes. [Image]
Fate has bagged its second win, this time on the Animation Style and Effects category, securing 3,288 votes, followed by April is Your Lie, Terror, Nisekoi, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis and Hanayamata. [Image]
No Game No Life got its first award in the Character Design category with 2,075 votes, beating out those of Noragami, Date A Live II, Isshukan and Hanayamata. [Image]
Sword Art Online II got the Sequel/New Season Anime of the Year with 2,483 votes, beating out nine (9) series in the said category: Psycho-Pass 2, Log Horizon 2, Free!: Eternal Summer, Date a Live II, Love, Chuunibyou and Other Delusions 2, Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus, LoveLive! 2, Selector Spread Wixoss and Silver Spoon 2. [Image]
Barakamon got the Slice-of-Life Anime of the Year award after it went 685 votes higher (3,058 votes) than the second-placer Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (2,373 votes). [Image]
Isshukan got the Drama Anime of the Year Award with 4,018 votes, followed by Shigatsu, Silver Spoon 2, and Inari, Kon Kon, Koi Iroha. [Image]
Otehr winners that are mentioned are Parasyte -the maxim- (Horror or Suspense/Thriller; 3,810 votes), Noragami (Supernatural; 1,951 votes), Terror (Mystery or Psychological; 3,170 votes), Aldnoah (Mecha, 4,997 votes), Haikyuu!! (Sports; 3,728 votes), Ao Haru Ride (Romance; 2,077 votes) and Nozaki-kun (Comedy; 2,373 votes). [Image (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)]
Soundtracks
“Unravel” from Tokyo Ghoul (TK from Ling Tosite Sigure; 1,714 votes) and “Shirushi” from SAO II (LiSA, 1,109 votes) are the best theme songs of 2014. [Images (OP, ED)]
Artist Awards
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (770 votes), Sora Amamiya (1,349 votes) and LiSA (2,304 votes) are on the top of the list for the artist awards (Male, Female Seiyuu of the Year; Anisong Artist of the Year, respectively). [Images (Male, Female, Artist)]
Character Awards
The number 841 is the magic number for the pairing of Kousei Arima and Kaori Miyazono from Shigatsu as they get have obtained the Couple of the Year Award, besting out nineteen (19) other selections including Kanie Seiya — Sento Isuzu (Amagi Brilliant Park) and Inaho Kaizuka — Asseylum Vers Allusia (Aldnoah.Zero). [Image]
As with the pairing of the year, the Man and Girl of the year has twenty (20) choices — Yato (Noragami; 1,800 votes) and Chiyo Sakura (Nozaki-kun; 1,312 votes) bagged the top awards in their respective categories. [Image (Man, Girl)]
Anime of the Year 2014 Category
In a report done by one of its administrators Justin K. (codename “Misaka the Railgun”) on Anime Trending’s partner blog Haruhichan, the demographics for the Anime of 2014 award “consists of 68% of male respondents, while the other 32% are female.”
Surprisingly, Terror in Resonance got the most number of votes in this category — 3,580 votes.
Overall, Nozaki-kun, Noragami, Terror and SAO II got two major awards each, making them the Best Anime of 2014, in terms of Anime Trending’s standards. The most number of votes counted category-wise is the Mecha Category, wherein it got 6,644 votes. 31.95% of the votes compose the winners.
Opinion
I am not expecting that everyone will be on the same page as me, but I still strongly disagree that Terror in Resonance is the Anime of 2014, by Anime Trending’s standards. I just cannot simply accept that this series, which in my honest opinion is such a trainwreck no thanks to the presence of Five, got on the top with the words “Never forget” on it. I dropped the series before it ended. I’ve also felt that Lisa Mishima felt useless in the series, and was added up to simply spice up the two male protagonists’ emotional senses.
The works of Shinichiro Watanabe these days, such as this and Space Dandy, have successfully been hyped and favored in the west, only for me to actually get bored of it as time goes on — thankfully, I’m not the only one who can see through this:
“[…] I found out that this show was directed by the same person that directed Bebop and I was like “How did he go downhill?” Because I’ve seen a lot of shows from him and I never seen one that I thought was just as disappointing to some extent.”
– kill-the-boxtrolls‘ review for Space Dandy on IMDB dated September 7, 2014. [More listed here]
Now, I’m going to share this IMDB review from Ryan K which should cover what I was saying:
“All in all, the anime had a very strong start, but a very bad finish. I wouldn’t consider the ZnT anything special. ”
– Ryan K‘s review on IMDB dated 21 October 2014 [More reviews here]
Noragami should have won this better — and for the right reasons. While it is also being hyped during the time [Anime Festival Asia 2013], it was a well-written adaptation of a Manga series, and its characters contribute to the fullest of the story that makes people remember this exists. Fate/stay night : UBW could have won this too.
What’s the deal with Terror in Resonance? Is it the psychological factor that it has? I can only see Five singing or speaking in English, as if its voice actress Megumi Han was forced to do so in a short span of time. No hard feelings — I’ve just felt that she could have been working her best on HappinessCharge Precure! more instead of being cast in this series.
As much as I’d like to respect the results in this poll, I can’t help to be enraged too much that I have already forgotten my tag line when it comes to dealing with personal preferences as I write this: That “Taste is subjective.”
At the least, I was able to breathe when Yato and Chiyo got their well-deserved recognition — especially Chiyo, considering that she was well-loved in South Korea. Same goes to Tsugu (which I am calling “this Winter’s Harem King” due to the number of harem roles that he is into), Tenchan (taking note of her voice profiles) and Unravel (in which the lyrics somehow make sense to me).
The first Anime Trending Awards was a success — it culminates what the entity has been doing for since its inception: gathering a lot of fans to determine which series is the best. Even if they have other plans for the near future, I could say that they have established their name in the crowdsourcing space.
