[Vote] AnimeSuki 2009 Choice Awards

[risingstar3110]

I will describe this year anime as "bubble bursting" as well, but with another meaning: By the time i reach half or even 75% of each series, i still had a dozen of anime that i could give 10/10. But by the time they finished, none maintains that full mark (with the exception of unfinished Bakemonogatari and the 2nd season series)

PS: the use of word "nomination" are kind of misleading. I always expect that it's just to list anime into genre, not 1st round voting like it currently is

[Razziell22]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Spice and Wolf II

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Casshern Sins

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Umineko no Naku Koro ni

-{E} Comedy: Toradora!

-{F} Romance: Bakemonogatari

-{G} Slice of Life: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

-{H} Fanservice: Kämpfer

-{I} Sports/Game: N/A

-{J} Storyline: Higashi no Eden

-{K} Visual/Animation: Bakemonogatari

-{L} Soundtrack: Kara no Kyoukai

-{M} Movie: Kara no Kyoukai

-{N} OVA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

-{O} Male Character: Takizawa Akira (Higashi no Eden)

-{P} Female Character: Senjougahara Hitagi (Bakemonogatari)

-{Q} Villain: Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

-{R} Worst Character: Minase Yuka (11eyes)

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

This award contest should start in February. A lot of anime finish very late December so it's impossible for people who only marathon anime to have seen many series when they vote.

In one of the past years, Wandering Knight suggested that we use "cours" and perhaps have the eligibility period run from October through September of the next year. I think there's a lot to be said for this idea. I don't know about Japan, but the television year in the US traditionally begins in the fall. On that schedule we could run nominations in October and allow voting at the end of December. Would that help?

[WanderingKnight]

In one of the past years, Wandering Knight suggested that we use "cours" and perhaps have the eligibility period run from October through September of the next year. I think there's a lot to be said for this idea. I don't know about Japan, but the television year in the US traditionally begins in the fall. On that schedule we could run nominations in October and allow voting at the end of December. Would that help?

Yeah, I've said it plenty of times before--April makes way more sense for doing this, while just taking series that started in 2009, not also series that aired during it. In this case, 2009 January series would be covered since rarely a series lasts more than 2 cours, and so would April, August and October ones (those are the hotspots of the year). As it stands right now 2-cour October series are completely off the scope of the nominations.

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Yeah, I've said it plenty of times before--April makes way more sense for doing this, while just taking series that started in 2009, not also series that aired during it. In this case, 2009 January series would be covered since rarely a series lasts more than 2 cours, and so would April, August and October ones (those are the hotspots of the year). As it stands right now 2-cour October series are completely off the scope of the nominations.

No matter when you have the awards, there will always be ongoing shows. There may be a few fewer ongoing shows after the January season compared to the October season, but not a ridiculous amount of shows. I can think of less than 10 that would be ended by April that start at/before Autumn, and I can think of at least four shows that started at/before January that won't be done by April. It seems more unnatural to have awards for 3/4th of one year and 1/4 of another for awards that are organized by year, and there are plenty of other reasons not to switch the format. For one thing, if we were to move the date an entire season, there would have to be a year with 5 seasons of shows to make sure none were skipped over.

Two-cours October series are not cut off from nomination. Since nominations are for years when a show ends, they are eligible for the next year. For examples, look no further than Clannad After Story and Toradora. Both started in October 2008 and finished March 2009, thus they are in the 2009 awards.

Organizing nominations by the year a show starts gives just as much an issue as the previous structure of simply "shows that aired during the year." That previous rule gave shows over both the Fall/Winter seasons nominations in two years worth of awards. Organizing shows by the year they start means that there would still be shows up for awards that haven't ended, and can't be properly judged (for example, FMA: Brotherhood started in 2009 but won't be finished by April 2010). Also, very long shows that started years ago would never be able to win an award when they finally end (think One Piece if it ever finishes).

By separating shows by the date they finish airing means that, A: a popular show that happens to air between winter and spring won't be able to take awards two in a row, and B: shows will all have finished airing when they are up for awards, so that they can be properly evaluated.

In other words, I can see a lot of reasons not to have the awards changed in this way, whereas the only reason I could see for making that change would be so a handful of shows would be nominated for the year their first half aired instead of the year their second half aired.

The Other Point Brought Up About Dates
Some people have made posts concerning having the voting occur later so that more people would have time to see shows they missed. I can understand the reasoning behind this. However, having the nominations posted 4 weeks later last year (Started Feb 3 in 2008) compared to this year (Jan 7) and the first year (Jan 5) doesn't seem that helpful because people wouldn't be able to see what shows they should watch to know how to vote in the finals without sifting through the nomination thread and counting. Since you can vote at any time during the finals, the way I see it is if someone really wants to catch up on some shows with nominations they missed, they can wait and vote right before final votes end. Right now that gives two weeks of viewing time before they need to vote. Something I think may be reasonable is increasing the length of time that you can vote in the finals from 2 weeks to longer, like 3 weeks, to give a bit more time for the people who wish to catch up on shows before they vote.

[WanderingKnight]

Two-cours October series are not cut off from nomination. Since nominations are for years when a show ends, they are eligible for the next year. For examples, look no further than Clannad After Story and Toradora. Both started in October 2008 and finished March 2009, thus they are in the 2009 awards.

Well, I might have not explained my point well enough but in my opinion, a 2008 series is a series that began airing in 2008 (since a series is conceived and produced long before it starts airing). If we're voting in January of 2010 for a series that began airing in October 2008, there's a really long period of time in which people will have forgotten about it. The natural thing would be to include it in the nominations in April 2009.

(for example, FMA: Brotherhood started in 2009 but won't be finished by April 2010).

By my example, if you do the nominations in April, then it fits just fine. My scheme accounts for up to 4-cour series starting in April (doesn't account for anything that spans more than that, and for some reason 4-cour series seem to be more popular in April than in the rest of the year).

My idea is just to divide the year as it is naturally divided: just two main seasons (April/October) and two midseasons (January/August). You nominate and vote in April for the year that's passed. That, as I said, gives full coverage up to 4-cour April series.

In the end, it doesn't matter much--eventually every series gets covered. But since people's attention span is rather short, I'd prefer to keep it as close to the year they started as possible. I don't know, I guess my brain works that way or something. April seems more "natural" as a start of the year for anime than January, given the low amount of series you get during midseason.

PS: My other reason for that, and perhaps a bit stronger, is that traditionally, you get a lot more 2-cour shows in April/October than in January/August, proportionately and, of course, quantitatively. That trend has slowed down last year, where there was an overabundance of 1-cour series, though hopefully with the one or two 2-cour series of this January's midseason things will get back into shape in April.

[Liddo-kun]

-{A} Action/Fighting: N/A

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Spice and Wolf II

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: N/A

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Umineko no Naku Koro ni

-{E} Comedy: Hayate no Gotoku!!

-{F} Romance: Toradora!

-{G} Slice of Life: K-ON!

-{H} Fanservice: Saki

-{I} Sports/Game: N/A

-{J} Storyline: N/A

-{K} Visual/Animation: N/A

-{L} Soundtrack: K-On!

-{M} Movie: N/A

-{N} OVA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

-{O} Male Character: N/A

-{P} Female Character: Katsura Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku!!)

-{Q} Villain: Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

-{R} Worst Character: N/A

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Well, I might have not explained my point well enough but in my opinion, a 2008 series is a series that began airing in 2008 (since a series is conceived and produced long before it starts airing). If we're voting in January of 2010 for a series that began airing in October 2008, there's a really long period of time in which people will have forgotten about it. The natural thing would be to include it in the nominations in April 2009.

The thing is, a show that starts in October and ends in April isn't any farther from memory than a show that starts in January and ends in April. No show has ended further from nominations than 9 months by the current scheme, and it would be the same with yours.

By my example, if you do the nominations in April, then it [FMA: Brotherhood] fits just fine. My scheme accounts for up to 4-cour series starting in April (doesn't account for anything that spans more than that, and for some reason 4-cour series seem to be more popular in April than in the rest of the year).

Well, there were two points that you mentioned in your idea:
1. Nominations should be moved to April from January
2. Shows should be nominated for the year in which they started, not ended
My main point in mentioning FMA: Brotherhood as an example is that in your scheme (how I understand it anyway), the 2009 awards would be for shows that started in in 2009 rather than ended. Because of this, any show a bit longer than 2 cours like FMA:B, or 2- or 4-cours shows that don't start in April wouldn't be finished yet would still get nominations. One of the reasons the rule changed was to avoid this exact issue, because the end of a show is arguably the most important factor in judging it. I don't see any sense in changing it from ending dates to starting dates because either way it won't have been longer than 9 months since a show stopped airing, and doing it by start date has the strong disadvantage of having shows nominated without being finished.

As far as the move from January to April, I can see some logic. However, the complications of moving it and having it a season into the next year would I think cause more confusion among forum-goers than any benefit it would provide. In the end, it would make a handful of shows line up better, but there would still be shows that don't fit that scheme any better than the current one. Especially with the move to one-cours over two-cours shows in anime in general, there aren't much more carry-overs in Fall-Winter than Winter-Spring.

As you say, in the end the time doesn't matter that much since shows will end up in awards one year at any case. I just don't see enough of a reason for the change of dates to April. However, it would be moving backwards to change the rule from nominations at the end of a show to the beginning of a show. That was changed on purpose for the reasons I already outlined, and changing it back wouldn't be a good idea.

[Free]

-{F} Romance: Clannad After Story

-{G} Slice of Life: K-ON!

-{I} Sports/Game: Saki

-{J} Storyline: Clannad After Story

-{M} Movie: Summer Wars

People seriously have no taste...

[Autumn Demon]

Originally Posted by Ansalem

Some people have made posts concerning having the voting occur later so that more people would have time to see shows they missed. I can understand the reasoning behind this. However, having the nominations posted 4 weeks later last year (Started Feb 3 in 2008) compared to this year (Jan 7) and the first year (Jan 5) doesn't seem that helpful because people wouldn't be able to see what shows they should watch to know how to vote in the finals without sifting through the nomination thread and counting. Since you can vote at any time during the finals, the way I see it is if someone really wants to catch up on some shows with nominations they missed, they can wait and vote right before final votes end. Right now that gives two weeks of viewing time before they need to vote. Something I think may be reasonable is increasing the length of time that you can vote in the finals from 2 weeks to longer, like 3 weeks, to give a bit more time for the people who wish to catch up on shows before they vote.

I don't think many people are deciding which shows to watch based on the nomination results. But there's a better chance more people will have seen more series from the previous year on February 20 than on January 20, regardless of when the contest starts.

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

I don't think many people are deciding which shows to watch based on the nomination results. But there's a better chance more people will have seen more series from the previous year on February 20 than on January 20, regardless of when the contest starts.

I don't think many people are either. But I don't think that making it a month later will significantly increase the number of shows people have watched, since most people (AnimeSuki posters anyway, since they want to discuss shows) watch as shows air and watch some older shows as they go along. Obviously the more time passes, the more shows a person will have seen. I don't think that a month of extra waiting would result in a significant increase in the amount of nominated shows people have seen unless people are specifically watching the nominees. I mean, only five shows that ended in fall even have nominations. And delaying it a month means older shows are yet a month further removed from memory.

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

A lot of anime finish very late December so it's impossible for people who only marathon anime to have seen many series when they vote. I will probably watch a few of Canaan, Phantom ~RftP~, Tears to Tiara, Eve no Jikan, Bakemonogatari, Seitokai no Ichizon, and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 in the next few weeks, but can't vote on any of them now.

All but one of those ended months ago. If you were just waiting for them to end to marathon them, the fact that the awards are in January instead of February shouldn't make a difference except with shows that ended last season, and I think there's plenty of time to have watched the ones a person would have interest in in the three weeks since they ended.

[Echoes]

Here goes. There are a few notable shows that I haven't had time to watch yet that'll hamper my voting ability, like Umineko, but no one's perfect.

-{A} Action/Fighting: Kara no Kyoukai (Close call between this and DtB)

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Spice and Wolf II (Hands down!)

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Darker than Black

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Kara no Kyoukai (So close between this and Bakemonogatari)

-{E} Comedy: Seitoaki no Ichizon (Looking purely at the comedy, this wins)

-{F} Romance: Clannad After Story (Strong contenders, but easy decision)

-{G} Slice of Life: K-On

-{H} Fanservice: Queen's Blade II (It might suck, but they actually deliver the goods, rather than just hint at them, so in this category, it wins.)

-{I} Sports/Game: Saki

-{J} Storyline: Higashi no Eden

-{K} Visual/Animation: Kara no Kyoukai (Plain gorgeous)

-{L} Soundtrack: Kara no Kyoukai (No competition here)

-{M} Movie: Kara no Kyoukai (Sort of cheating, it's the only one I watched..)

-{N} OVA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

-{O} Male Character: Okazaki Tomoya (A real class act.)

-{P} Female Character: Horo (hardest one, between her and Senjougahara there's really no choosing, but I feel like Horo was a bit more fleshed out.)

-{Q} Villain: Pass (None of the ones I've seen deserve it)

-{R} Worst Character: Pass (Two I've not seen, one I love and one I'm quite alright with)

[Amaya no Hime]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Kara no Kyoukai

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Eve no Jikan

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Kara no Kyoukai

-{E} Comedy: Toradora!

-{F} Romance: Toradora!

-{G} Slice of Life: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

-{H} Fanservice:

-{I} Sports/Game:

-{J} Storyline: Clannad After Story

-{K} Visual/Animation: Kara no Kyoukai

-{L} Soundtrack: Kara no Kyoukai

-{M} Movie: Kara no Kyoukai

-{N} OVA: Eve no Jikan

-{O} Male Character: Okazaki Tomoya (Clannad After Story)

-{P} Female Character: Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

-{Q} Villain: Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

-{R} Worst Character:

Overall, Kara no Kyoukai, Eve no Jikan and Toradora were easily some of my favourite shows last year.

[AnymX]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Kara no Kyoukai

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Tears to Tiara

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Umineko no Naku Koro ni

-{E} Comedy: Seitokai no Ichizon

-{F} Romance: Bakemonogatari

-{G} Slice of Life: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

-{H} Fanservice: Kampfer

-{I} Sports/Game: N/A

-{J} Storyline: Bakemonogatari

-{K} Visual/Animation: Kara no Kyoukai

-{L} Soundtrack: Needless

-{M} Movie: Kara no Kyoukai

-{N} OVA: Seto no Hanayome OVA

-{O} Male Character: Araragi Koyomi (Bakemonogatari)

-{P} Female Character: Senjougahara Hitagi

-{Q} Villain: Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

-{R} Worst Character: Minase Yuka (11eyes)

[Kadrias]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Kara no Kyoukai

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Eve no Jikan

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Kara no Kyoukai

-{E} Comedy: Seitokai no Ichizon

-{F} Romance: --

-{G} Slice of Life: Zoku Nastume Yuujinchou

-{H} Fanservice: --

-{I} Sports/Game: --

-{J} Storyline: Bakemonogatari

-{K} Visual/Animation:Kara no Kyoukai

-{L} Soundtrack: Kara no Kyoukai

-{M} Movie: Kara no Kyoukai

-{N} OVA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

-{O} Male Character: --

-{P} Female Character: Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

-{Q} Villain: Oda Nobunaga (Sengoku Basara)

-{R} Worst Character: Minase Yuka (11eyes)

[erejnion]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Spice and Wolf II

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Eve no Jikan

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Higashi no Eden

-{E} Comedy: Seitokai no Ichizon

-{F} Romance: Bakemonogatari

-{G} Slice of Life: K-ON!

-{H} Fanservice: Sora no Otoshimono

-{I} Sports/Game: n/a

-{J} Storyline: Bakemonogatari

-{K} Visual/Animation: Bakemonogatari

-{L} Soundtrack: Bakemonogatari

-{M} Movie: n/a

-{N} OVA: n/a

-{O} Male Character: Araragi Koyomi (Bakemonogatari)

-{P} Female Character: Senjougahara Hitagi (Bakemonogatari)

-{Q} Villain: Alphard (Canaan)

-{R} Worst Character: n/a

general comments: Ken Sugisaki is the obvious choice for best male, and also Natsu no Arashi for comedy and Seitokai for slice of life. on the other hand, story is a close call between Bakemonogatari and Higashi no Eden, but... oh well

[LifeAspect]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Kara no Kyoukai

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Kemono no Souja Erin

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Eve no Jikan

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Kara no Kyoukai

-{E} Comedy: Hayate no Gotoku!!

-{F} Romance: Clannad After Story

-{G} Slice of Life: K-ON!

-{H} Fanservice: Saki

-{I} Sports/Game: Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting - New Challenger

-{J} Storyline: Clannad After Story

-{K} Visual/Animation: Clannad After Story

-{L} Soundtrack: Kara no Kyoukai

-{M} Movie: Kara no Kyoukai

-{N} OVA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

-{O} Male Character: Araragi Koyomi (Bakemonogatari)

-{P} Female Character: Senjougahara Hitagi (Bakemonogatari)

-{Q} Villain: Liang Qi (Canaan)

-{R} Worst Character: Fuwa Shoutarou (Skip Beat)

[Sinestra]

-{A} Action/Fighting:
Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy:
Tears to Tiara

-{C} Mecha/SciFi:
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2

-{D} Mystery/Horror:
Kara no Kyoukai

-{E} Comedy:
Seitokai no Ichizon

-{F} Romance:
Toradora!

-{G} Slice of Life:
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

-{H} Fanservice:
Kämpfer

-{I} Sports/Game:
Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting - New Challenger

-{J} Storyline:
Bakemonogatari

-{K} Visual/Animation:
Bakemonogatari

-{L} Soundtrack:
Clannad After Story

-{M} Movie:
Kara no Kyoukai

-{N} OVA:
Seto no Hanayome OVA

-{O} Male Character:
Okazaki Tomoya (Clannad After Story)

-{P} Female Character:
Katsura Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku!!)

-{Q} Villain:
Alphard (Canaan)

-{R} Worst Character:
Minase Yuka (11eyes)

[Bri]

-{A} Action/Fighting: Canaan
P.A. Works did some amazing work on a TV series in terms of action and animation quality. Would have put it first in Visual/Animation if it had been nominated.

-{B} Adventure/Fantasy: Kemono no Souja Erin
A rare gem.

-{C} Mecha/SciFi: Eve no Jikan
No competition given the other nominees. Surprising that Mazinger didn't get nominated.

-{D} Mystery/Horror: Higashi no Eden
Not a horror fan so that leaves Eden's mystery.

-{E} Comedy: Seitokai no Ichizon
The only real comedy of the bunch.

-{F} Romance: Bakemonogatari
Tough one between Clannad and Bakemonogatari. The romantic plot is more developed in Clannad but the chemistry between Senjougahara and Araragi wins the day.

-{G} Slice of Life: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Just solid.

-{H} Fanservice: Kämpfer
So bad that it's good. Worrysome that this show is funnier then the comedy category.

-{I} Sports/Game: N/A

-{J} Storyline:Higashi no Eden
Hard to compare adaptions to original anime. Maybe two categories? Best script - Best adaption

-{K} Visual/Animation: Clannad After Story
Hard to compare tv anime versus a movie. Clannad kept up a high level of animation over 2 cours. Kara no Kyoukai looks great but Eva would top it anyway.

-{L} Soundtrack: Bakemonogatari
The soundtrack is so essential to this show, completely sets the atmosphere and guides the pace. Amazing work.

-{M} Movie: Summer Wars
Not as good as the girl who leapt through time but still amazing.

-{N} OVA: Eve no Jikan
One of the best sci-fi shows in a while

-{O} Male Character: Okazaki Tomoya (Clannad After Story)
Working class hero.

-{P} Female Character: Horo (Spice and Wolf II)
No contest, the wolf god outfoxes the tsunderes.

-{Q} Villain: Liang Qi (Canaan)
Psychos have more fun.

-{R} Worst Character: N/A

[WanderingKnight]

My main point in mentioning FMA: Brotherhood as an example is that in your scheme (how I understand it anyway), the 2009 awards would be for shows that started in in 2009 rather than ended. Because of this, any show a bit longer than 2 cours like FMA:B, or 2- or 4-cours shows that don't start in April wouldn't be finished yet would still get nominations. One of the reasons the rule changed was to avoid this exact issue, because the end of a show is arguably the most important factor in judging it. I don't see any sense in changing it from ending dates to starting dates because either way it won't have been longer than 9 months since a show stopped airing, and doing it by start date has the strong disadvantage of having shows nominated without being finished.

Well, in this I agree with you--a series that hasn't ended by the time the nominations are up shouldn't be considered. But part of the reason why I proposed that is that 4-cour series, being as rare as they are, are more popular in April than in October.

The main point of it is that most series longer than 1 cour air in either April or October, and when you do it in January statistics play against you, I guess. You could still play it by the year the series ends but do it in April, and take April as the start of the year instead of January, and I'd be happier