AnimeSuki 2009 Choice Award Winners

[Sheba]

The thing is that when Best Anime was suggested, those who did phrased it as "Best Anime Overall". If I read it right, they meant it as "best anime" regardless of the medium, be it movie, oav, net originals and the good old TV series

[gonzo562]

nice kara no kyokai won alot

Time for me to check out Eve no Jikan. It won the Mecha/Sci-fi Category and i have not watched this show yet

[Fahd]

Once again, thanks for taking the time to do this Ansalem .

The only categories I can think of which no one has yet suggested are: "Best OP", and "Best ED". Soundtrack, visual/animation, and storyline are fundamental elements of an anime (hence their categories), but I'm not so sure whether the same can be said for OP's and ED's... In any case I just thought I'd put the suggestion out there so see what everyone thought...

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

I agree: OVA and Movie categories should be dropped. If OVAs and movies can't win in genre categories then they don't deserve to win their own special category.

Yes because clearly a Movie and/or OVA can't be very good and still lose to a good Series in the genre categories.

[fangzhao]

Originally Posted by Ansalem

Comedy:

[24] Bakemonogatari
[21] Seitokai no Ichizon
[21] Toradora!
[18] Hayate no Gotoku!!
[9] Sora no Otoshimono

Bakemonogatari failed at humor.
If you decide to call it humor, that is.

If only more people had watched GA...

[klare]

nice to have particapted in this, my feedback on the winners:

- never thought Kara no Kyoukai is so popular (even it is one of my favourites)

- i dont think Bakemonogatari is a comedy

[DragoonKain3]

Probably the only one I really disagree with is Clannad After Story winning Romance. It's a great show and all, but in terms of actual romance, either Bakemonogatari or Toradora handidly beats it since Clannad pretty much finished its romance in the first season. Second season was almost entirely drama, not romance.

[Haak]

Is it really fair that Kara no Kyoukai is in the Visuals/Animation category? I mean it's a film for crying out loud.

[WanderingKnight]

Is it really fair that Kara no Kyoukai is in the Visuals/Animation category? I mean it's a film for crying out loud.

You can throw any amount of films at 2007 and I'd still tell you Mononoke was the anime with the best visuals.

Animation quality does not make for tasteful style. Kara no Kyoukai was far from the best animated movie ever, but it had one of the best aesthetic styles I've ever seen--and it chose to do it rather subtly, not in a bombastical in-your-face approach like, for example, Mononoke or Trapeze or anything that strongly deviates from the standard way of doing animation.

[Ermes Marana]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

If you're going to keep Best Movie and Best OVA, then the the new category should definitely be Best Series for the reason stated above. But why have three separate categories? If there are only a few good OVAs or movies in a year, then some less than stellar shows could end in winning those categories from lack of competition. Best Movie, Best OVA, and Best Series should be combined into Best Anime.

I think either way is fine. Best Anime Overall, or Best Movie/Series/OVA separately.

But you do need one of those. Right now a tv series may be the best anime of the year, but not fall nicely into the particular genres.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by Haak

Is it really fair that Kara no Kyoukai is in the Visuals/Animation category? I mean it's a film for crying out loud.

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

You can throw any amount of films at 2007 and I'd still tell you Mononoke was the anime with the best visuals.

Animation quality does not make for tasteful style. Kara no Kyoukai was far from the best animated movie ever, but it had one of the best aesthetic styles I've ever seen--and it chose to do it rather subtly, not in a bombastical in-your-face approach like, for example, Mononoke or Trapeze or anything that strongly deviates from the standard way of doing animation.

For whatever reason anime films tend to go under the radar as well. It might be an irrelevancy, but I like to think of awards like these as a chance to increase awareness about good anime people might have missed. (I personally used these awards as an excuse to finish Eve no Jikan, and I'm certainly glad I did). Thinking about it from this point of view, I can't see any reason to exclude movies from a given category, just because they have an advantage. A lot of anime films just don't get the love they deserve anyway.

[SeijiSensei]

I've read the suggestions in this thread a couple of times now and would like to endorse the following practices:

1) A work can qualify for only one genre category and will be assigned to the one for which it received the highest number of nominations. I believe this rule will discourage people from nominating the same show across many categories since it will dilute their votes. It might also help with complaints like those we've heard about whether Bakemonogatari was truly a comedy.

2) I support the notion of removing genre categories in favor of broader categories like "comedy" or "drama," but that flies in the face of years of genre-based categorization for anime. Take a show like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. If we had a drama category, would people generally place it there, or would they place it in slice-of-life? In sci-fi? How about a show like Dennou Coil or Kemono no Sou-ja Erin? Are they, respectively, sci-fi and fantasy, or are they both dramas?

3) If we maintain genre categories then I'd vote for:
Action/Adventure
Fantasy
SciFi
Mystery
Horror
Comedy
Romance
Sports/Game
Personally I'd eliminate all of these in favor of "comedy" and "drama," but they seem too well-established to remove. I'd consolidate action with adventure, mecha with sci-fi, and would split mystery/horror, though Ansalem's concerns about category sizes is a reasonable one here. Sports/game is a difficult one as well. Should Cross Game be placed here or in romance? Is Shion no Ou about Shougi, a drama, or a mystery show?

Drama
Add this category in 2010.

Slice of Life
This style of story-telling seems rather unlike Western models and deserves a category of its own. As an example, Hidamari Sketch might be seen as a comedy, but it's quite dissimilar from most comedies like School Rumble since it incorporates few traditional comic elements like physical comedy or playing story lines for laughs. Hidamari Sketch is essentially a show about cute girls being cute; that's not a common style of comedic presentation in Western media.

Fanservice
I'd eliminate this category and fold these series into their respective genres, but that's probably not a widely-held position.

Storyline
I think we should drop this in favor of "best of 2009" categories. See below.

Visual/Animation
I appreciate james0246's interest in having awards in multiple technical categories, but I don't think that would work in a popularity contest like this one.

Soundtrack
I'd split this category into "Best Song" and "Best Score." They're almost never the same for me. I'd include insert songs as well as OP/ED's in the first category.

Male Character
Female Character
Male Seiyuu
Female Seiyuu
Best New Seiyuu
I have no trouble distinguishing between characters and seiyuu. In 2009 I nominated Erin as best female character and would have nominated her seiyuu in the newcomer category. Nevertheless I would have nominated Paku Romi for Best Female Seiyuu of 2009 given her broad range of excellent performances this year from a samurai-wannabe chick in Higepiyo to a suicidal prostitute in Aoi Bungaku.

Best Television Series of 2009
Best Movie or OVA of 2009
Given the disparity in budgets between television series and movies/OVA, I think it's only fair to let both types of programming compete against other shows of their kind.

Villain
Worst Character
I'd drop both these categories, but I suspect again that my opinion runs counter to the majority.

Finally, I'm concerned about how few members voted in the Awards. From the totals it looks like about 100 people cast ballots. I think we should give some thought to methods for encouraging more participation. As a start, I'd like to see one of those special announcement stickies like we had recently concerning the forum reorganization displayed throughout the nomination and voting periods.

[WanderingKnight]

It might be an irrelevancy, but I like to think of awards like these as a chance to increase awareness about good anime people might have missed.

Yeah, as I posted in the voting thread, I actually watched KnK after seeing how many votes from people whose tastes I respect was getting.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I've read the suggestions in this thread a couple of times now and would like to endorse the following practices:

I think most of these make sense, but there are some little things which I'd tweak.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

2) I support the notion of removing genre categories in favor of broader categories like "comedy" or "drama," but that flies in the face of years of genre-based categorization for anime. Take a show like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. If we had a drama category, would people generally place it there, or would they place it in slice-of-life? In sci-fi? How about a show like Dennou Coil or Kemono no Sou-ja Erin? Are they, respectively, sci-fi and fantasy, or are they both dramas?

3) If we maintain genre categories then I'd vote for:
Action/Adventure
Fantasy
SciFi
Mystery
Horror
Comedy
Romance
Sports/Game
Personally I'd eliminate all of these in favor of "comedy" and "drama," but they seem too well-established to remove. I'd consolidate action with adventure, mecha with sci-fi, and would split mystery/horror, though Ansalem's concerns about category sizes is a reasonable one here. Sports/game is a difficult one as well. Should Cross Game be placed here or in romance? Is Shion no Ou about Shougi, a drama, or a mystery show?

Drama
Add this category in 2010.

Slice of Life
This style of story-telling seems rather unlike Western models and deserves a category of its own. As an example, Hidamari Sketch might be seen as a comedy, but it's quite dissimilar from most comedies like School Rumble since it incorporates few traditional comic elements like physical comedy or playing story lines for laughs. Hidamari Sketch is essentially a show about cute girls being cute; that's not a common style of comedic presentation in Western media.

There's a lot of overlap between "Horror" and "Mystery", so I wouldn't be adverse to keeping these two categories together. The "Drama" category kinda sticks out like a sore thumb, since drama permeates almost every anime in some form or another. I'm not sure what the solution is, though. As you say, the easiest thing would be to make categories which are much, much broader, but we're still left with this awkwardness of some anime not quite fitting in one category or the other. I've tried to think of a broad rework of the categories, but they still generally decay into the ones that we have at the moment. Here's one:

Action
Horror/Mystery
Drama
Comedy
Romance
Sports/Games
Slice of Life

Both Action and Drama stick out here, but when I try to tweak them, I end up with what we have right now. The difference, I think, is that comedy, slice-of-life, romance, sports, etc, are fairly unambiguous, but drama and action aren't.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Fanservice
I'd eliminate this category and fold these series into their respective genres

Agreed.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Storyline
I think we should drop this in favor of "best of 2009" categories. See below.

Disagree. I like the idea of there being a separate "storyline" categories, because it gets people thinking about the difference between an anime with a good story, and an anime which is good overall.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Soundtrack
I'd split this category into "Best Song" and "Best Score." They're almost never the same for me. I'd include insert songs as well as OP/ED's in the first category.

I like the idea, but I think this would complicate nominations. Soundtracks don't often stand out for people in the same way that story and animation do. It's just as you say about the technical categories... it probably doesn't work in a popularity contest like this.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Male Character
Female Character
Male Seiyuu
Female Seiyuu
Best New Seiyuu
I have no trouble distinguishing between characters and seiyuu. In 2009 I nominated Erin as best female character and would have nominated her seiyuu in the newcomer category. Nevertheless I would have nominated Paku Romi for Best Female Seiyuu of 2009 given her broad range of excellent performances this year from a samurai-wannabe chick in Higepiyo to a suicidal prostitute in Aoi Bungaku.

I'd approve of the male and female seiyuu categories if you could only nominate seiyuu for a particular role. As for best new seiyuu, let the official seiyuu awards decide that one. New seiyuu only tend to get traction among people who are super keen about seiyuu.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Best Television Series of 2009
Best Movie or OVA of 2009
Given the disparity in budgets between television series and movies/OVA, I think it's only fair to let both types of programming compete against other shows of their kind.

If we don't have a "Best Overall" category, then this is the next best thing.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Finally, I'm concerned about how few members voted in the Awards. From the totals it looks like about 100 people cast ballots. I think we should give some thought to methods for encouraging more participation. As a start, I'd like to see one of those special announcement stickies like we had recently concerning the forum reorganization displayed throughout the nomination and voting periods.

I don't think the awards were promoted all that well this time. I think people need to be aware that nominations and voting are going to happen well ahead of time. What's the best way to do this? I'm not sure. Neat little reminders from particularly enthusiastic people in a given series' forum/thread might be a good way to encourage people to vote/nominate, provided these don't become excessive. And, like I've said earlier, I also think voting needs to happen late in January, rather than early-mid. Last year's series are still fresh in everyone's minds, but there's enough time to tie up loose ends and for people to catch the final episodes of series airing in Fall (accounting for slow-subbing, etc) or finish what they might have stalled earlier in the year.

[Autumn Demon]

About Mystery/Horror... Does anyone else think Kara no Kyoukai is neither mystery nor horror? Somehow it's won this category 2 years in a row. : \

[WanderingKnight]

I don't think the awards were promoted all that well this time. I think people need to be aware that nominations and voting are going to happen well ahead of time. What's the best way to do this?

A hueg banner pointing to the voting thread on top of the forums would be my best guess. If that's too obnoxious, then maybe a forum-wide sticky would be good.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by klare

i dont think Bakemonogatari is a comedy

I'd have agree, and disagree sorta of because Bakemonogatari is not comedy, but it definitely had comedy in it (very good at that).

[Eisdrache]

For those who want to remove fanservice, mind telling me where to put a show like Queen's Blade then?

[Haak]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Yeah, as I posted in the voting thread, I actually watched KnK after seeing how many votes it was getting.

Yeah me too. Good point Sorrow-Kun

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Eisdrache

For those who want to remove fanservice, mind telling me where to put a show like Queen's Blade then?

AniDB and ANN both list this show as action and fantasy. What's wrong with listing it in one of those categories?