AnimeSuki Choice Award Winners 2019

[Dextro]

Miru Tights? Really folks? Is it some sort of amazing show that completely subverts expectations or were people mostly trolling in voting for that?

[Nachtwandler]

Originally Posted by Dextro

Miru Tights? Really folks? Is it some sort of amazing show that completely subverts expectations or were people mostly trolling in voting for that?

"I didn't like the series — everyone who voted for it was trolling"

Sorry, but nope. Yes, it is a goddamn fetishist anime but it was good in what it was doing.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Dextro

Miru Tights? Really folks? Is it some sort of amazing show that completely subverts expectations or were people mostly trolling in voting for that?

I think it's more just down to the fact that OVAs were particularly weak this year. In all honesty, I actually screwed up the OVA nominations in hindsight. Hi Score Girl shouldn't have been there since its basically a part of the TV series and neither should Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 and Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These since they're basically TV series. So if anything Miru Tights should have had even less competition. XP

[Dextro]

Makes sense. Last time I checked the numbers, the OVA format seemed to be dying out completely in favor of an ever growing number of tv shows.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Haak

I think it's more just down to the fact that OVAs were particularly weak this year. In all honesty, I actually screwed up the OVA nominations in hindsight. Hi Score Girl shouldn't have been there since its basically a part of the TV series and neither should Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 and Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These since they're basically TV series. So if anything Miru Tights should have had even less competition. XP

I think I disagree here. If we're going to make thematic (rather than distributional) exclusions for OVAs we may as well drop the category, because original ones are practically extinct. The HSG OVAs may have been canon material, but they were released as specials. I mean, you'd have to exclude the Haikyuu OVAs for sure, just off the top of my head.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I think I disagree here. If we're going to make thematic (rather than distributional) exclusions for OVAs we may as well drop the category, because original ones are practically extinct. The HSG OVAs may have been canon material, but they were released as specials. I mean, you'd have to exclude the Haikyuu OVAs for sure, just off the top of my head.

I mean that may be the ultimate result if the "genuine" OVAs turn out to be extinct as you say. I can't say I see much point in having a category that's basically gonna be a combination of "which popular TV series had an OVA" and "what kind of porn do you watch?"

And to a certain extent this was what we were already doing in the first place anyway. We excluded BD and manga specials because we didn't want the OVA category to turn into a rerun of last years TV series category. Now studios are making OVAs to promote a TV series or just making them when it won't fit into the restrictive TV cour lengths so it's become even more complicated. I not familiar with Haikyuu but from what I can see the OVAs airing this year kinda would fall foul because there's a TV series already airing this year. If there wasn't then I would've counted them.

But I'm sure there's also going to be a few "genuine" OVAs every year even if we miss them. Looking back at the list this year, I wonder if Modest Heroes would have made the cut if there was more fanfare (I still need to watch it).

[Dextro]

I re-ran my script to check statistics and yeah, the OVA format seems pretty much dead.

[Guardian Enzo]

Obviously whatever you guys who put in the hard work decide is fine. But to me, rather than dump the category I'd dump the idea that OVAs which are extensions of a TV anime are ineligible. Just make a simple line in the sand like "if you had to watch it on a disc, it's eligible".

What about theatrical movies? Would the new Made in Abyss film be ineligible because it depicts the manga arc directly after the TV series stopped? And if not, what's the difference between that and the HSG OVAs which did the same thing?

[Haak]

Made in Abyss TV (2017)
Made in Abyss film (2020 - according to BD rules)

Hi Score Girl Season 1: Jul, 2018 to Sep, 2018
Hi Score Girl OVA: Mar, 2019
Hi Score Girl Season 2: Oct 2019 to Dec 2019

If Hi Score Girl never had a Season 2 then I would have considered it but with the OVA and Season 2 airing in the same year (and with both collectively making 12 episodes - the exact length of a typical TV cour) leaves me little doubt that they were always intended to be one of the same when they were under production. I just can't see it the same way with Made in Abyss. There are some theatrical movies that are basically compiled TV series (and in fact I think Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These was exactly that) but as far I'm aware, the Made in Abyss Film was clearly made for the theatres.

[felix]

From experience filtering though everything (yes we actually have to take half of it out; porn is automatically filtered) OVA category is sadly a bit of a "dump" category. I feel like it would be simpler to just do "Best Episodic Series" and "Best Movie", since I don't know how much "TV" matters, especially today and for this forum. I mean you have services like netflix who deliver all-at-once, where as far as I'm concerned when watching anything it's either "lots of small parts (ie. stops)" or "one big loooong [high quality] chunk". I never care if it was on TV or not. Would be interested in hearing from someone who does care for the format of origin and why its important. The OVA category is mostly a carry-over since 10 years ago and the original version of this contest.

But that's just my gut instinct on it.

-

On the note of OVAs going away, (from experience) short format shows are on the steady rise year after year. Both in number and quality. But dont think we need to distinguish them. Some of them already feel like their 10min are 30min (by comparison to regular shows). Sadly shows under 5min feels like it's never enough time to get anything good out of it.

[Dawnstorm]

Originally Posted by felix

Sadly shows under 5min feels like it's never enough time to get anything good out of it.

Hm, I'm unsure. Skit-based slice-of-life comedies tend to work for me (say, Morita-san wa Mukuchi or Komori san wa Kotowarenai).


Some anime would need more time for their mood to work; there was this CGDCT show whose name I've forgotten; it had a really weird opening that for some reason included lots of crabs and Steve Jobs? I thought that one was really pretty but definitely needed more time to work.


And then there are outliers; shows that shouldn't work but somehow do, like Kagewani.


Last year had some pretty good ones, too: Hulaing Babies, Jingai-san no Yome and Rinshi Ekoda chan were all interesting, but weird in a way that might have gotten on your nerves were the show longer (or not, who knows?).


This season, I'm quite fond of Natsunagu and Room Camp.


I'm trying to remember what the first under-5-minutes anime was I've seen. Double J? There's enough good stuff in that format, I'd say, to make it worth while. Though when it fails...


Vampire Holmes, anyone? (That probably wouldn't have been any better were it longer, though.)

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

Some anime would need more time for their mood to work; there was this CGDCT show whose name I've forgotten; it had a really weird opening that for some reason included lots of crabs and Steve Jobs? I thought that one was really pretty but definitely needed more time to work.

Aiura. Each episode was very short, like 5 minutes?

[Dawnstorm]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Aiura. Each episode was very short, like 5 minutes?

Yes, that's the one. Thanks. I really thought this show needed a longer run time for its atmosphere to unfold.