#shieldsekai

Fuck knows when all these came out, but hey it’s these awards again. I did this last year because it was fun and even though I don’t use Crunchyroll or anything their awards show interests me more than like any other site’s because Crunchyroll is the biggest, so, yeah. Tbh I forget the format behind actually voting last year, but for the sake of my post I just circled my choice in paint. This time they’ve actually got like, little highlights you can tick, so you’ll be able to see what I chose from there. I did actually vote on all of these, but there’s no fucking way I’m gonna do that daily lmao. Yeah, let’s go.

I made my Top 10 Anime Of 2019 a few days ago so Mob winning number 1 here shouldn’t really be a surprise.  Otherwise fine with most of Crunchy’s selections. I didn’t watch Maidens, but I did watch everything else and they were mostly all solid. Not surprised to see Demon Slayer here since shounenfags would fucking rage otherwise, but I definitely don’t think it’s worth considering even as a nominee so. Yeah. Also I’m just doing this in the order Crunchy presented them on the voting page which is why AotY, typically the most important category, is going first. Also, like I said I would choose Mob regardless, but where the fuck was Beastars for this category? Yeah expect that to be a common theme throughout.

Once again I watched 5 of the 6 shows here so that’s pretty solid. I would’ve went Mob again, I think he was really great and learned a lot in season 2, but Senku would’ve been my third choice so I’m okay picking him here. Kinda fucks with me that Mob’s not an option but Saitama is though, given I think Mob was a way better protagonist in his second season than Saitama was for his own, obviously the nature of Saitama’s character is such that he can’t really “develop” in a traditional sense but even so lots of other characters steal the stage in season 2 so, idk what that’s about. Gotta get One Punch Man in there somehow I guess. Once again by the way, absence of Beastars, and specifically Legoshi for this category, is really noticeable, dude is definitely my second choice this category.

Saying that, I’m cool voting Garou best antagonist, cause he’s actually great and has some really interesting development. His backstory’s is so simple that it’s dumb how he became what he is, but I fucking love that because hey the MC’s strong enough to bust planets and all he really did was a basic, if quite extreme, workout routine. So I’m cool with Garou being what he is. I think even if the choices here were different I’d still pick Garou. That being said I’m, a little mixed with the choices anyway. First of all, I’ve only seen 4 of these shows, shockingly low, I know. But of the 4 I have seen I feel like uh, Garou and Isabella are the only characters I’d really consider antagonists (Isabella’s a good pick too btw). Angela’s not really much of an antagonist, particularly given the story structure, she’s honestly more of a deuteragonist with her mother, Tuesday’s mother, and that Jerry guy being the closest things to antagonists that Carole & Tuesday has. Meanwhile, Askeladd is unquestionably a protagonist for basically the entire show, like yeah the real protagonist hates him but they hardly antagonise each other beyond like 3 duels and Askeladd killing his dad. Otherwise he’s just a protagonist. I feel like thinking of Askeladd as strictly an antagonist is quite reductive. I feel like a better pick would be Daigo or Tahomaru from Dororo, who, although their goals aren’t really evil, you could argue they’re the good guys even if you wanna talk utilitarianism, they at least directly oppose the character that’s unquestionably the protagonist for basically the entire narrative. You know? Toichiri from Mob Psycho would also be a great choice, there are quite a few villains that are sort of like “has the hero’s powers but wants to rule the world with them instead” but Toichiro’s definitely one of the greatest examples of such I can think of. Weird picks from Crunchyroll is the point but hey at least I got to vote someone I want to vote. Also hey it only took until the 3rd category to not see Demon Slayer, that’s surprisingly early. I honestly really liked MJ so I’m surprised to not see him here, he’d actually be great here. Respect that they don’t want to shove Demon Slayer too hard at least.

Here we have the first category where I’ve actually seen every show. Neato. And these are honestly some pretty solid choices, Machio’s a great sort of joke character while also being genuinely encouraging as a mentor figure, Kanata’s energy is really appealing and he’s definitely the best thing about Kanata no Astra, Hyakkimaru is a fucking badass while also being a brilliant example of a tragic protagonist, and for all I sort of shit on Demon Slayer, mostly just for being overhyped, Tanjiro’s a pretty good boy. But I do gotta give it to my boy Mob here, again he’s just come so far and developed so well and his willingness to forgive others and how far that’s sort of pushed here is amazing, like the Reigen TV arc is a beautiful piece of fiction, god even way before that, at the end of the first episode when he fuckin fixes that manuscript, my boy immediately established himself as best boy of the year. Obvious pick. I do feel like Dr Stone has some characters that could fit in here nicely, namely Senku, Gen and Chrome, but I’m cool with them not being here since hey more variety across the awards, and Senku’s already got best protagonist so. About Bucciarati, I want to take a firm stance against 2018 characters here, even if most of the show aired this year it still started last year so that’s where Bucciarati’s from to me. Also he’s not even best boy of his own squad so. Once again, absence of Legoshi hurts, but otherwise great picks so.

This actually ended up being one of the hardest categories to choose for, because once again I’ve seen every show here, so I actually know all the girls and I think the options are uh, pretty limited. Nezuko fucking sucks you idiots, Raphtalia is exactly as “fine” as she needs to be to be a waifu and that’s pretty boring, Emma’s just a shounen protag really, the only thing that stands out about her is that she’s in that role while being a girl, and Chika’s just, cute I guess. Kohaku and Carole are the only options I’d really say are like, good. And between the two I’m going Carole because while Kohaku’s a total babe and I really liked her, they do that “gorilla” joke with her a bit too often, and she sort of just plays straight man in shounen comedy a lot of the time so like, Carole wins, plus unlike Tuesday she isn’t dragged down by a dumb romance subplot with some superchad that doesn’t relate to the plot in a meaningful way, instead she’s improved by her relationship with her cool dad and Ezekiel and stuff. Great character, I liked her a lot. My pick if I could do anyone is Mya-nee but I totally get why she’s not an option and she doesn’t really deserve to be, I just like her for the meme. Haru from Beastars is also a brilliant pick, but Beastars doesn’t exist I guess.

Okay, this was definitely the hardest category to pick for. I know I’ve picked Mob at every opportunity so far and suggested it for most occasions where I couldn’t pick it, but choosing it here wasn’t something easy to do. Worth mentioning I’ve only seen 4 of these shows, but yeah they’re all really damn well directed. Vinland Saga has exciting action scenes with strikingly well done character motions that are accentuated wonderfully in the closer shots, Carole & Tuesday does a great job at making a beautiful setting with beautiful character designs feel beautiful in how it’s presented to us as well, with particular shoutouts to all the performance scenes as well, and Sarazanmai has a visual identity unlike any other I’ve seen, and manages to make the process of a bunch of kappa entering someone’s asshole a pleasant sight to the eyes. But I think more than anything, Mob Pyscho’s direction left the biggest impact on me of the 4 shows total. There’s not a single scene that’s not perfectly crafted to make you feel as much of the intended emotion as possible, Reigen’s loneliness in the TV arc is painful and pitiable, Mob’s immediate overwhelming fury at the flames of his house is terrifying to behold, and the fight against Shimazaki is quite possibly the most beautiful action sequence I’ve ever seen shot, and specifically the way they choose to convey teleportation, it seems so simple but the impact blew me away. Every show I’ve seen here is a phenomenal piece of direction but Mob Pyscho just, did the most for me. It’d definitely be my first pick and I can’t even pretend to have any problems with the choices Crunchyroll gave us. If I could swap out the 2 I’ve not seen for 2 shows I have seen though, I’d for sure go Given and, you guessed it, Beastars! Yo The Promised Neverland’s visuals are its greatest strength imo and the horror direction is some of the best I’ve ever seen so that’s actually also a great choice.

No surprise here. Also only seen 4 shows but Vinland Saga just wasn’t quite consistent enough for me to feel it earns the win, and while Sarazanmai’s plenty beautiful from start to finish I feel like that the first 5 or so episodes look basically identical should be a point against the animation since uh, reused animation bad. Demon Slayer meanwhile, yeah the show does actually look beautiful in motion, all of Tanjiro’s kills tend to be feasts for the eyes, episode 19 especially obviously really is stunning, and I appreciate that they also typically went to the effort of properly animating the texture on his coat rather than doing that one texture overlay thing I think it’s called? But uh, I think Demon Slayer is more like a show that has a lot of sakuga moments throughout, specifically during action scenes, but mostly the show just looks pretty good, also has eh 3D sometimes, whereas Mob is like, 100% sakuga all the time from start to finish for like every single scene. So like, it wins. As you’d expect, I’m saddened by the lack of Beastars, even if it wouldn’t be my first pick.

Hey, another one where I’ve seen all the shows! And there are some really solid picks here but uh, excuse me, Kaguya-sama? In best character design? Are you fucking serious? Where the MC looks like shit, Kaguya looks like shit, they look terrible together, and then every other character just sort of looks fine, sans Chika being particularly cute? That’s fucking laughable, I can’t believe they seriously chose Kaguya-sama for this category. If I could replace it I would pick uh, literally anything else from this year. How about maybe... Beastars? Nah the character designs are actually the least impressive thing about that show, genuinely think a way better choice would be Demon Slayer. I’m sure they just didn’t want Demon Slayer to be in every category for fear of being lambasted again but this is one of the categories where Demon Slayer really is at its best so like, let it be here? I wouldn’t pick it obviously but like, it’s still good. Anyway yeah Carole & Tuesday, my actual first pick, one that’d be my first choice even if it wasn’t here tbh. Carole & Tuesday does a great job of having some massively distinctive character designs, pretty much everyone in the show being a different, shape, size, colour, all having fully unique fashion senses that speak to their personalities etc. Also helps that it’s a show that has way more characters than many of the other options and yet the quality across the board is remarkably consistent anyway. Yeah, first choice easy.

This one wasn’t actually too hard. Once again I’ve only seen 5 of the shows, and I’m choosing to avoid JoJo because 2018, also many of its more iconic songs (Il Vento D’oro) appear in the first 12 episodes anyway which is super before 2019 so that really shouldn’t count imo. So of the remaining 4, it was kind of just a choice between Carole & Tuesday and Dr Stone, since I don’t really remember like any of the Demon Slayer soundtrack and while I think Kevin Penkin’s work on Shield Hero’s soundtrack is probably that show’s greatest strength, it’s not really memorable in the same way some of the dude’s earlier works are, or in the same way Carole & Tuesday and Dr Stone’s are. From there it’s a simple fact of Carole & Tuesday’s soundtrack mostly consisting of insert songs, of which a lot of the ones not by the titular pair or Angela were kinda lame, versus Dr Stone’s catchy, almost video-game sounding soundtrack which I loved to listen to as I was watching and I actually remember the songs afterwards too, so, yeah. It wins. No complaints about choices, and I don’t really have any alternate suggestions either, though I gotta admit I’m surprised The Promised Neverland isn’t here given how popular Isabelle’s Lullaby specifically ended up being. Hey I don’t really care though. Hope you don’ think this post is crazy long or anything because we’re only halfway done.

Okay this one annoyed me quite a bit right? Cause no JoJo rule I’ve set for myself aside, “Emperor Crimson vs Metallic” (if your localised title isn’t Blueford or Flaccid Pancake you’re bad) isn’t even the best fight in the episodes from part 5 that aired in 2019, like where’s fuckin White Album or Green Day? Those fights were way fuckin better! And then we get Thorfinn vs Thorkell, but they fight like 2 or 3 times, and they’re all pretty different in quality, so what are you referring to? I can’t even feel right voting that specifically because I don’t know which fight they’re on about, that affects things you know. I’d probably give it to Mob regardless but why choose Mob vs Toichiro which, like yeah it’s a great fight, but the Mob vs Mogami fight and the everyone vs Shimazaki fights are way better, why not nominate those? Also not surprised to see that Demon Slayer fight here, it looks clean as hell so it’s easy to ignore that the villain is lame as shit and the gratification is only good in so far as it puts an end to a really dragged out conflict in flashy way, except it doesn’t actually do that because oh Rui lived to tell his backstory first! Salt about these choices is the point, I’d probably have chosen the two Mob Psycho fights I suggested had I the choice, this was sort of just a process of elimination pick from the 4 shows I’d seen here. Also, how about uhhh, Legoshi vs Bill? Or vs Louis? Or vs the Shishigami boss? Beastars has great fights, why not go those? Or fuck, where’s Hibiki arm-wrestling Machio in Dumbbell? You had some pretty saucy fights in last year’s awards so you can’t tell me that doesn’t count. Yeah that’s all.

Yeah extremely easy pick. I’ve actually only seen 3 of the shows here which is the least so far, not bad. Kaguya and Shirogane is a lame ship tbh, they look bad together, their bits aren’t often really all that cute or funny, and it’s annoying seeing them make no progress in their relationship because they’re both stupid but then have the finale frame that as a tragic thing rather than something comedic. Reo and Mabu are pretty great buuuut their relationship stuck with me a lot less than other elements of that show as well as Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s relationship so, clear winner. Really glad Given’s a choice in this, it’s one of my favourites of the year and it deserves the rep, great show, great ship. They’d be my first choice and I’ve not really got any other suggestions. Well, except for uh, Legoshi and Haru. 

If not for best director, this’d be the hardest category right here. I’ve seen all but 1 of the shows, and I’m excluding JoJo again because yeah 2018, even if Nakamura’s performance as Bucciarati really is great, especially when he’s like dead at the steering wheel that stuck with me. But of what’s left, well, we’ve got Isabella, whose performance I remember being good but uh, not much else, maybe a problem or recency bias but like, eh. Mamoru Miyano is of course a delightfully legendary guy but I don’t actually remember much about the Reo performance other than him having good energy and singing well, but tbh it didn’t stick with me enough to make me consider picking him. So what’s left, and what made this so hard, is Saori Hayami with Shinobu vs Yusuke Kobayashi with Senku. That’s right, I seriously considered giving Demon Slayer the win in a category! Can’t say I’m biased now, can you? See, Saori Hayami is one of my favourite seiyuu, I really love her voice and I think it fits the character of Shinobu really well, she’s got that mature, friendly, almost healing feel to it when she’s being nice, and when she’s being uh, well, a Demon Slayer, there’s this sort of, cockiness, bordering on sadism, that comes from her, and Hayami captures that really well as well, it’s a really great performance from her. But, I think Yusuke Kobayashi’s Senku edges it out a really tiny bit, because while Shinobu really does sound great, I guess I know the seiyuu fairly well, and I’ve seen her do that little bit better in some other shows, whereas Yusuke Kobayashi is a bit more new to me, so I got to be really blown away by just how great the energy he gives Senku is. Dude capture’s Senku’s over the top excitement about all things science, makes his sense of humour way more enjoyable, does a great job showing those tiny little bits of vulnerability Senku shows on rare occasions, just fuckin, slays everything about the character and sells me on him so damn well. This was a tough choice, it really was, on another day I might even have picked Shinobu, but for now, Senku. Fine with choices, though honestly Legoshi and Thorfinn and their respective seiyuu would be pretty great additions. Also, where’s Sakura Hibiki at? Ai Fairouz’ debut role as her is one of the best performances I’ve heard in a cute girl show! Tbh she might actually be my first choice pick so, yeah, great for her.

I don’t watch dubs lol. But I did want to be able to give an honest vote here, so I checked out some dub clips for the 3 shows here I have seen (tied for lowest again) and Aqua definitely wins. Wasn’t really a fan of Naofumi’s voice, sounded a bit, I guess tryhard teen when he was being edgy? And like young teen when he wasn’t which gave me whiplash since Naofumi’s like 21 or something. Mob meanwhile sounded, just off to me, I guess like he was trying too hard to be soft spoken, but also talking much more, I wanna say smoothly, than regular Mob? So it’s like too natural and too unnatural at the same time, whereas JP Mob sounds great. But dub Aqua’s brilliant, she sounds like as funny as Sora Amamiya does in JP, cries like just as much of a whiny fucking bitch too, which is perfect for her, great job. Also, in the middle of writing that sentence, I realised something. If I’m not letting 2018′s JoJo Golden Wind take home anything for me, I shouldn’t be letting the dub for a 2016 and 2017 show win anything either. Sincere apologies for my hypocrisy in that regard, I was just too stupid to realise beforehand, and tbh I can’t change now so. I mean I can, I doubt I’d struggle to just shop the dots a bit, but like, nah we committing. Y’all deserve to know my mistakes. Don’t watch dubs so no comment about preferred choices or alternate suggestions or anything, all I can really say is that like yeah their dubs might be from 2019 but I wouldn’t count KonoSuba or Eva in here so I’m not big on Crunchyroll doing it either.

Dumbbell easily, because it’s funny. Sarazanmai’s comedy isn’t really enough of its main appeal for me to consider it, Kaguya is unfunny a lot of the time, Isekai Quartet likewise, even if I like it a bit more, and My Roommate is a Cat is not only really unfunny, but the first show out of any of these so far that I dropped, so that should give an idea of my opinion on it. I think Mob is good enough as a comedy to be a solid choice here though, likewise with Given, and I think Winter’s Endro is also a solid pick. Though to be honest the funniest anime of 2019 for me was Re:Stage Dream Days so that’d definitely be my number 1 pick. Yeah.

Fantasy = Sci-fi? Fuck off with Kanata no Astra dude, Jesus. Even Sarazanmai doesn’t feel like the best pick for fantasy, since in a lot of ways it’s kinda just, Japan, but a bit weirder, and with a kappa dimension, so like, idk. Demon Slayer’s set in just an actual historical era of Japan, not big on that as a choice, and then The Promised Neverland is probably the closest to fantasy of the options but like, it’s mostly set in the orphanage and its normal ass forest so lot of the fantasy is a bit beyond us, so idk how much that counts either. Pretty miffed with this category tbh. Surprised that Shield Hero’s not here, that’s actually a conventional fantasy and popular enough to be a worth a shot. My number 1 pick is probably Endro though since like, I like it.

Another category I’ve only seen 3 shows in, that’s a 3 way tie now. Vinland Saga takes this home easily with high stakes, a cast of characters I was actually invested in, and one fucking hell of an exciting plot, where every twist and turn was as riveting as the last. Wasn’t big on The Promised Neverland if you haven’t gathered, and Carole & Tuesday’s best moments are where it’s closer to a sort of inspirational slice of life music comedy with an overarching plot. That’s uh, a lot, I mean tl;dr I wasn’t huge on any of the show’s truly dramatic moments. Alternate recommendations include Given which is damn good, and my number one pick for this category if I could is obviously Beastars.

Frankly, I’m amazed it took this long for Fire Force to appear. Now I dropped that show because I stopped liking it pretty quickly and eventually just got really bored but still like, it was popular right? I’d just expect it to show up in more places in these awards. Not that I’m complaining to be fair. I’d like to pretend this was a tough choice, but 99.9 fucking dominates this for me, like of everything this year not just of these specific shows. Musically and visually it’s completely top tier for me, honestly I’d put it above 99. That’s it, can you tell I’m getting tired of writing?

And last but not least, I give Kaguya-sama something. Its 2nd ED, only used in episode 3, is my favourite ED of the year, out of all of them, not just the ones here. It’s just, it’s so cute, no point pretending there’s any other factor here or like I have any alternate recommendations, this song and music video are just really nice. Also Not Afraid is better than Hold Me Now so they should’ve gone with that.

I liked the last 4 minutes quite a bit though as well as the entire second episode, which has a test that’s just a basic survival game so I’m way more behind the mechanics, also it was an excuse to introduce a wider cast of characters that all seem to bounce off of everyone pretty well. I’m glad they didn’t spend too much time on Rak being determined to fight Bam and he can be chill because if Inosuke in Demon Slayer wasn’t evidentce enough, I fucking can’t stand characters solely defined by their drive to fight the main character. Also, they’re cutting between the present day stuff and flashbacks between Bam and Rachel which helps contextualise his character motive a lot, so retroactively I can appreciate that first episode stuff a little bit more, neat. I also appreciate that they’ve introduced a Ranker already, establishes the goal of reaching the top of the tower as a genuine possibility which is always nice to do, helps the narrative avoid this uncertainty. There are benefits to keeping it a mystery obviously, Made in Abyss is plenty proof of that, but hey I like the change of pace.

Speaking of Made in Abyss, this show’s already promising to have the best soundtrack this season, which is no fucking surprise since it’s Kevin Penkin. It’s not quite Made in Abyss soundtrack just yet but he’s already surpassed his somewhat underwhelming work on Shield Hero so hey that’s cool.

And then visually this show just looks super good, great art, great backgrounds, nice settings in general, I like a lot of the character designs and everything animates super well. Hopefully it’s able to keep this quality up.