Episode 167 – The Second Annual Anime Oscars

1 Comment

1. Ilpalazzo8
   March 1, 2013 @ 1:50 pm

   Best original series

   Tsuritama is indeed a good choice for this category. It may not have been the sort of surprising megahit that Madoka was, but it’s a solid choice.

   Best Action/Adventure

   Sword Art Online is a rather sub-par series overall, but i can sort of see why it would win this category if one were to look solely at the action part, as it has a large quantity of it. Fate/Zero’s second half suffers a little in the action department, with most of the battles being rather short(Rider vs. Gilgamesh wasn’t even a proper fight really), though there’s still some really impressive stuff. It doesn’t qualify that well in the adventure department though, as F/Z is pretty clearly Action/Drama rather than Action/Adventure. The series which IMO most deserved to win this category would be Hunter x Hunter as it covers both the action and adventure parts very well. There’s not a huge amount of action, but what there is is sublimely well done, with a very strong strategic element that really makes it shine. It’s also the best of this year’s series in the adventure department, with quite impressive worldbuilding.

   Best Romance

   I can’t say much about this category, as i haven’t seen many of the nominees. From what i’ve heard of these series, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun sounds like a reasonable pick though.

   Best Drama

   Uchuu Kyoudai is a fine choice here, as the character drama is first rate, and the long running nature of the series allows it to develope it well. Nisemonogatari has no business being nominated for this category and Mirai Nikki is a bit too “out there” to make a compelling drama.

   Best Comedy

   I’m going to have to disagree with this one. Moyashimon Returns is nowhere near as good as the first Moyashimon series.Many of the other nominees aren’t even a good fit for this category IMHO. Of the nomiated series, Jinrui wa suitai shimashita should have been a clear victor. It has a really creative sense of humour, with lots of clever comedy. Very surprised that Yuru Yuri S2 wasn’t nominated at all here, as that show was consistently funny.

   Best Mecha

   Gundam Age is…not particularly good. Muv-Luv is pretty bad as well, honestly. This category should have gone to one of the other nominees.

   Best actress

   Good choice. I would have been fine with most of these nominees actually.

   Best Actor

   Mutta is an excellent choice, so no complaints there. Kurapika was quite good in the new Hunter x Hunter anime, so that would be a runner-up for me.

   Best Musical Score

   Kids on the Slope is a very solid choice here..great soundtrack.

   Best Animation

   This category is honestly the one that’s the most messed up. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s animation is terrible, and i say this as a huge fan of the show. David Production did a good job in making this show as entertaining as it is with what is clearly an extremely low budget. The voice actor’s performances are good, the music is good and the series captures the old-school shonen crazyness well. If anything, the poor quality animation is the one thing holding it back from being all-around great.

   Nisemonogatari’s animation is, well..SHAFT. It’s very very uneven. There’s some excellent cuts here, but also a notable amount of stills and sequences with very basic or minimal animation. There’s a noteworthy improvement on Bakemonogatari, but it is still uneven to the point that it has no business being nominated for best animation.

   Kids on the Slope and Fate/Zero have good, solid animation. They’re well above average overall and they each have a number of sequences with superb sakuga animation. They are however still clearly uneven to an extent, with the truly great animation cuts being restricted to a number of specific scenes. Fate/Zero is the better of the two, but most animation afficionados will recognize that it doesn’t quite make the top-tier of animation occupied by such series as Dennou Coil, Moribito and Bonen no Xamdou.

   Which brings us to the glaring omission of Hyouka. It is easily the best-animated TV anime series from 2012. Great animation throughout, splendid use of creative shots to illustate the protagonist’s thought process and a massive number of outrageously complicated shots. Many scenes that have many characters moving around in the background (most TV anime don’t bother to do this)and subtle movements being animated with a level of detail that is rarely attempted in anime. It is by far and away the most impressive thing that Kyoto Animation has produced to date and should have been a no-brainer for the animation category, which makes it all the more puzzling it wasn’t even nominated here.

   Forum’s Choice 2012

   Fate/Zero and Hyouka are good nominations here, though the lack of Uchuu Kyoudai is lamentable. Robotics;Notes is okay but kinda dull. The presence of Sword Art Online i’ll chalk up to poor taste.

   Best of 2012

   A decent selection of nominees and a worthy winner in Uchuu Kyoudai. I would have dropped SAO and Tari Tari and substituted Jinrui and Hyouka, but otherwise not bad.

   Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Connect with:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *

Name *

Email *

Website