Crunchyroll Awards Recap
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This is what I'm talking about

So in my steed, we got Miles who will be curating today's episode. Miles, why don't you tell the people what we got in store for today's episode? Yes. So one, I think this is a fun little switch from our like end of the year. What do you say? Anime things where you know the answers. Yep.

And I'm, you know, and Pat and Cosette are guessing. But here we get to see your reactions to this is a little fun for me because some of the shows you were salty about getting so many noms. I am, I guess, oddly enough, a huge stand for. So it doesn't really fit my normal profile, but alas, yeah.

So, a few things first. We won't be going over the foreign language categories because, other than English, because we didn't watch any of those dubs and therefore cannot judge them properly. But I did want to give the winners a shout out, you know, just in case anyone was watching this and knew them or whatever, and, you know, not to exclude them entirely, and

And then I'm going to do this and then let's get into how we're going to present this and a little game or two that I've added because I love games. We all love them. But for best, I'm going to butcher these names and I apologize if I do, but I don't know how to pronounce Hindi names, for example.

For Best Hindi Voice Actor, we have Lohit Sharma in the role of Satoru Gojo for JJK. For the Best Latin Spanish, we have Miguel Angel Leal for Aaron Yeager for Attack on Titan. The Best Italian VA, we have Ilaria Pelecon for Kiyomoto from Look Back.

the best German VA. We have Daniel Slosh as Luffy from, or Luffy even from one piece. I'm just like reading. I'm in like read foreign word things. So I just like, yeah, um, caught myself for best French VA. We have Adrian Antone as Kafka. Uh, he Bino from Kaiju number eight, uh,

And best Castilian Spanish VA, we have Masumi Musuda as Sung Jin Woo from Solo Leveling. Okay, so Pete and audience, the way that this is going to work is I will show you, you know, who's on the screen as nominations for the categories. If it is highlighted in a blue square, that is a show that I voted for.

If it is in a red square, that is a show Pete voted for. And if it's purple, that means we both voted for it. Some of these categories you could bet on.

You could bet money. So I went and looked that up and I just took whatever the favorite was like at the morning of the day of the awards. And that only really changed one category, like my arbitrary cutoff because, and I'll talk about that when I get there. But if you see that,

it has a little dollar sign in the corner. Uh, and Pete, I know you're a gambling man. Um, so, you know, so I thought highlighting, uh, that aspect would be, would be kind of fun as well. I've also created three over unders for you for the two shows that you were salty that got so many noms. Yep. And then for freer in, which is, um, one of your favorite shows. It is. So, and I will just say real quick for anyone out there that's listening. If you want to see our visual content, it's on Spotify and YouTube. Um,

So if you are listening to us on another platform outside of those and you want to see visual content, swing over to those two. We have visual content there. Yes. And I will be doing my best to highlight the things that aren't said, like that I have visual cues for. If you're listening, if you're an audio only person. But if I forget, I apologize, but know that there is a video. If you really care for whatever reason, what Pete or I voted for. Yeah.

Okay, so let's get your over-unders in really quick. So I have these three set. I just sort of did it vibes-y. Free Rin I have at 6.5 awards. Okay. I have Kaiju number 8 at 2.5 and solo leveling at 5.5. Would you like to let me know if you want to go over or under these? Yeah, so it's like with Free Rin and the other two, what is based off of my personal opinion and what I actually think

should win and what i actually think will win so i think free run should go but knowing the cruncher rewards i'm gonna go under six and a half wins okay for kaiju number eight i'll go over two and a half and for soul leveling i'll go over five and a half okay i have your answers down and we'll see at the end how you did all right right on i hope i'm wrong but i well you have three chances to be wrong okay

Let's cross. So maybe you'll, you'll be both. All right. Now let's get to our first category. Hell yeah. We have best voice artist performance. And this is the English. So we have six noms here. We have AJ Beckles as Okaroon and Dan to Dan, Alex Lee as Jung Jinwoo from solo leveling. We have Jesse James Grell is Armin from attack on Titan. Mallory Rodak,

as Freerun from Freerun, Sarah Nadochini as Alia from Alia, and Songwon Cho as Shinchi from Dungeon Mashi. Shout out to ProCD. You voted for Songwon Cho as Shinchi, and I voted for Alex Lee as Sungjin Woo. Yep.

Yeah, there's a this one that's super strong on because I watch, I would say, 95% of my seasonal animes in sub. But I did watch the listless and dungeon parts of it in English, and I loved Pro ZD. Like, I thought he was incredible as a century.

So that was my pick. I really I'm a big fan of like Alex Lee in general. So if he won, I'd be cool with that. This is one of those categories where like I don't really have like a strong opinion on just because I don't feel first well enough to have like a strong opinion. I just like those two. So I pick Prozdy. Alex Lee would be cool. I feel like he probably will win because it's so leveling, but you'll have to let me know.

Yeah, I guess what I would say is that if I were to... There was no betting market for this one, but if there was, I would say the two that you highlighted would probably be favorites just because of their strong social media presence. ProZD does talk about his VA performances and stuff sometimes, but Alex Lee sort of has a...

really good like rapport with fans and he does he like loves being uh sungjin right like he does a ton of you know shorts and everything just about that and i think that

That, along with the popularity of solo leveling, would probably give him an advantage. I'm all about it, right? I voted for him. I just like seeing him say erect or whatever, like wakey-wakey instead of arise, which isn't this season, but you're watching those shorts while you're voting for this, right? So it's going to...

affect your perception of it. But we'll drum roll. We'll get to the winner. And that is Alex Lee as Sungjin Woo from solo level. I'm cool with that. Yeah, I think most people are going to be okay with this. Even the people who are anti solo level and getting as many nominations as it did would be fine with this one. But that brings us to our next category. Best voice artist performance in Japanese is our next category.

We have Aoi Yuki as Maomao from Apothecary Diaries, and both me and you voted for her. We have Atsumi Panazaki as Freiren from Freiren. We have Kenichi Suzumura as Bravern from Bravern. Noticing a naming convention for a lot of these shows.

We have Shion Wakayama as Momo from Dan to Dan. We have Sayaka Simbongi as Marcel from Delicious in Dungeon. And we have Natsuki Hanae as Okarun from Dan to Dan. What are your thoughts on this selection here, Pete? Yeah, it sucks that Crunchyroll hates Billy Billy for some reason. They never include their shows for me.

I think that Sayori Hayami from Gigi Harem, who did Rin, should have been in this category. She was my winner for best Japanese voice actress. I thought she, like, nobody was even close to her, in my opinion, this year. So picking somebody from these six, I went with Mao Mao. I think Free Rin was a close second. I did really enjoy her voice.

voice actress but I think Aoyuki does just a phenomenal job as Mao Mao I think she really like hones into that character and adds an element to what makes Apothecary Diaries what it is so that's why I picked her but I would I would have loved to see Sayori Hayami in this category even if it was for a character that wasn't Rin just because I thought she did such a great job because she had a

Technically, she could have been in this with Code White with Yor or Demon Slayer with Shinobu. I think Shinobu is in this season.

I don't know. I don't know either. I'm the wrong person to ask about Demon Slayer. But what I will say is they do include Billy Billy shows, but I think like almost anything, your show has to be like pretty dang popular. Very popular. Yeah. Yeah. So like Billy Billy helps produce Fire Force, for example. Right. And Fire Force has been nominated and won four awards. And there's a couple other shows I can't remember.

I agree with your assessment, though. I think that Ren's voice actress did an amazing job. You have so many different characters that you're playing and being able to go in and out of that is very good. I also agree with your assessment of Mau Mau by Aoyuki. I think Mau Mau's voice actress is great. She has a lot of little modes as well. She has like serious and...

uh, Gremlin and, you know, all of these different things. And she does a good job getting that across. And she even has like an internal dialogue, which sounds slightly different than when she's speaking. I would like to shout out, uh, Kenichi, uh, Suzumura for Bravern, who I think does a good job of bringing the energy in a way that is necessary to play a character like Bravern. So those are the two that I would highlight, uh, from here. Uh,

Uh, and drum roll again, we get to the winner of this category who is in fact, Ali Yuki as Mal Mal from apothecary diary. So yeah, I think it's a good pick. I'm excited. You know, anytime Mal Mal gets any recognition, uh, I'm going to be excited. So I'm pretty happy about that. Okay. So we're off to a decent start. I was, I've, I, I have no idea who's going to be the winners, but based off people's reaction, uh,

They were pretty disappointed, which happens every year. But so far, I'm happy with these two picks. Yeah, I am. You know, so we'll probably differ on some. There is like...

For me, I think only like one or two that I was like, I don't even see the angle in which you're coming. Gotcha. You know what I mean? Like there are some that maybe I disagree, but I get it. But there were a couple where I was like, I don't get it. I don't even understand who is pleased by this decision. Okay. That'll be interesting to get to. Yeah. So for our next category, we have best ed. So yeah,

We have, oh my god, I'm going to have to pronounce. You can just say the names of the shows. Sure. You say the ED for all this show. Yeah, but I can't because things have more than one ED if they're two core. Okay.

So we have one or EDT. I don't know what those are. We have from Ranma one half. We have on Hanate by Riria. I can do this one from Oshino co season two. We have burning by Hitsuji Boone Gaku from the elusive samurai. We have Kamakura style by Bochi Boromaru. This one's the easiest for me from Kaiju number eight. We have nobody by one Republic. Oh, yeah.

We have from Solo Leveling, Request by Krage, and that is what I voted for. And then we have what you voted for, Pete, which is Tai Da Da from Dan to Dan by Zutomayo. What are your thoughts here? Yeah, we had a pretty, I think we, in terms of our anime awards versus Crunchyroll, I think we had two of the six awards.

lineup so this i had to go back and listen to the other uh four songs that i didn't really like listen to that much to get a better understanding of this category i don't like their picks at all um some of the ones like the rama one i think that song is fine but i think that's one of those shows where they want to get like rama involved because it's like the big remake of the year

And I thought like the song was just like, okay, I'm also, I'm kind of low on burning from Oshino co, but I think that's also just comparing it to Mephisto is like night and day.

oh she coat season two op and ed had like a lot to live up to yeah i i like them both but i just also think that it's impossible to not to view them in a vacuum like no for sure and i just i also just thought burning was just like an okay song like i i really didn't have anything like awesome to say about it i picked it up from dot it on i think the song is fun i think it's the best of the six i don't think it's

I don't I'm not as high as it as other people are but like I don't know the eds can get confusing sometimes based off of what people like look for I try to get a mix of like eds that had like like popping visually along with also being a slammer I think some of the Crunchyroll songs are just to include it so I'm just one with Donn to Donn I'm like pretty indifferent on the

This one, I'm not the OP. I have more words to say, but ED, I thought it was just like I didn't really like their picks, but I also don't care enough. No, I got you. I think EDs and let me see if you agree. That's more than OPs are vibe based, you know, where something like I like request from solo leveling because it's like

this sort of slower song, but it has some like depth and punch to it.

And it's like thematic, but it like usually in a show like solo leveling and with like these like hype moments or like some sort of plot twist or big thing happening or whatever, you know, where like the bad guy will stand up and like, oh, here's the next threat or whatever. And then it sort of like goes down. And I think that like falling action was like pretty good for me. I try to take things sort of in context of the show more so than like, what is my favorite song from the show?

this bunch or whatever. Though, we will now get to the winner, which was in fact a request by Krage from Solo Leveling. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. I guess that was based off of what they have listed. Yeah, I, you know, as we discussed, I don't think either of our favorite EDs of the year were on this. I don't know. Yeah.

you know, but we get a list of six and you know, I'm happy with this choice. It was my favorite of the six. So yeah, I mean, I'm pretty just like whatever the OP I'm gonna have way more words to say.

Let's get these words going as our next category is best opening sequence where we have Abyss by Youngblood for Kaiju number eight. That should not be there. I just got to say that that song is not. I don't remember it. We have. Will you please save my life?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't sound like an anime OP. It just sounds like a pop punk song. I mean, yeah, I don't. I'll let you finish and I'll get my word. I wouldn't put it on the list either. But now I do remember it. We have Bling Bang Bang Born by Creepy Nuts from Mashal Season 2. We have Fatal by Jim. Mm hmm.

I don't know how to pronounce that. G-E-M-N. Yeah, I just don't know how you're supposed to do it. So my apologies to them. From Okunoko Season 2, we have Level from Solo Leveling by... Okay, here's the name of the band. Sawabi Hiroyuki Okunoko.

Open brackets in ZK close brackets colon tomorrow together. Yep. Which I didn't vote for that. But if I had, I would somehow take it away because I had to type it and it was hard. Okay. We have a talk. Oh, no. Okay. By creepy nuts again for Dan to Dan and then by Hiroshi. It Adani one piece. Yep.

Let's hear your words. Okay. We both voted for a token. Okay. Yeah. And I, I think out of these six at a hundred percent deserves, I think it's the best song I can see bling, bling, bang, born just because it was so popular being the winner. So like popularity, I get that missing girls band cry on this was a huge blunder. Like,

In terms of maybe not my taste, but just like the overall sphere of anime, I think it was the best OP of 2024. I just thought what that OP did to showcase what the show was doing and like about to do in that OP was next level. So the fact that they missed that I thought was huge level from soul leveling. That song is not good either. That is a very it reminds me of like a generic shield hero OP.

Like it reminds me of was, I think mad kid does the OPs for shield hero. Like I love both shield here. It's like, it matches the tone of the show. It's not top six of the year. Like it's not like you're telling me that song is better than like

One of the ones that we did that left off the go go loser ranger preview of me. The dangers of my heart. Just with that one was like the dance scene in the OP was so fun that like that's why we included it. We're like it matches with the OP. I for me, the OP should set the tone for what's previewing of what the show is and what's to come. And when you don't do that in OPs, I don't enjoy them as much, even if the song is like an Omega banger.

which why is why like i think idol is just like insane like what that show what that op presents to what the show is it's like perfect so yeah it's very good so when we which is why i love the girls band cry wrong world op it was missing so with like the quirkiness and fun that goes into that op and the show that's why i went with otanoke from uh donna don

Yeah, similar thoughts here. So Wrong World was my favorite OP of the year. It was my most played song of the year. Spittin'. Yeah, I'm a big fan of it. I agree it should be on here. I also, as someone who loves Girls Van Cry, am happy that we got invited to any of the parties.

You know, it would be great if it was on here, but I'm also just excited that it got a nomination anywhere. Period. Yeah. Yeah. You know, because they don't always do things like that. As some foreshadowing, Bling Bang Bang Born is the odds-on favorite for Anime Song of the Year. So... Understandable.

Yeah, I think that one definitely belongs on here. I like Fatal for O and K. Like, I'm not upset about that. I don't know anything about the One Piece song. I think the only one that I'm like, generally, like, why is this even here? And this will happen with a lot of categories. I'm sorry, Kaiju number eight. I enjoy your show is the Kaiju number eight one. You know, I don't think it's the best five out of that, but it's not like.

a five that I could see is what the hell. Anyways, that being said, I realized we haven't been doing this. What do you think is going to win? I think bling bang bang born is going to win. Okay. Well, almost correct because the winner is Otonoke by Creepy Nuts. I went with the more popular Creepy Nuts song versus the Creepy Nuts song I like the best. Yeah, no. And you know, that's, you got to do that, right? You got to,

You got to go for it. So next we have best score. Okay. Okay. Now we're going to get to some, some things where I'll have very strong opinions of different shows. When,

Oh, yeah, I bet. But let me talk about our nominees first. And if there is not a dedicated composer that is credited, I will just say the name of the studio. But for Bleach, the Thousand Year Blood War, we have Shiro Sagusu. We have Dan to Dan as Kinsuke Ushio. We did the composition there. For Demon Slayer, we have two people. We have Yuki Kajira and Go Shina. We have

Evan call who did free run. We have studio Durian for look back and then studio a one for solo leveling. I voted for solo leveling. You voted for free red. I did. Yes. I listened to a lot of OSTs last year just to get a better grasp of this category.

My favorite, which isn't listed here, is Dungeon Meshi. I thought how they handled the score for like their fantasy world was incredible. But my number two is on this list and that was Freeran. I believe that's what I chose to win.

or at least that's why i picked to win that is what you voted for okay i don't know if that's picking to win or not uh yeah so i guess that's what i that's why i selected to win for what i think will win it was probably demon slayer like demon slayer always wins i listened to some of the soundtrack for the training arc i didn't think it was that good so

something like day in the dance ost i think it has like two really good standout songs outside of that i thought the soundtrack was like okay i yeah i to me i thought evan colin freeran was just the second best score from last year so that's what i hope wins but i think demon slayer is winning okay yeah uh i'll give my show a shout out really quickly as the president solo leveling stan of yes you are cast

So bizarre. Not sure how we got here, but we did. To me, a lot of the scenes had a high impact, and I think they did a very good job with the score on those. I definitely did not dive as deeply as Pete did. My thing for score is usually like,

do I notice the score while I'm watching it? Am I like, this is hype. I like that it's doing this. And I definitely had that for solo leveling and freer and out of these, but I decided to go with solo leveling because I,

I guess it's my first time consuming it. And so these scenes are more implanted with the score in my head is probably what I would, I would say, but I don't know. It just resonated with me a little bit longer. And I think it's, I also like up tempo things a bit more for music and solo leveling is all gas, no brakes. And free run has,

a lot of breaks and that's great and amazing um but regardless yeah yeah and so the winner of best score is solo leveling okay uh yeah i mean like it's better than i mean i picked demon slayer winning just because it's demon slayer okay i'm just glad it didn't win uh soul leveling in this case probably would have been like my third choice i think from this list okay i'm all right with it

i'll take it i was i was a bit surprised just because of like evan call and other shows like exist you know but i will keep it like with most people when it comes to score they'll listen to the op and the ed which by the way are not included in the score and base it off of that so sometimes they're included sometimes but i would say most of the time but they're not like most of the time evan call is not doing the op like

incorrect yeah so i tried to base it around the you know the songs that aren't that are included in the score i'll just put it that way and yeah i didn't listen to soul leveling but like you said if you notice it in the show it normally means it's at least

I mean, as long as it's not like the air horn noises or something like that. If you know it's either good or bad, right? It's usually one extreme. It's either the worst score or the best. So yeah, I'm okay with this. Okay. My favorite score from last year was Witch from Mercury, which was not nominated, but I am wearing my Witch from Mercury shirt. Next is best anime song. Okay. Okay, bud. I remember having issues with this because they included like four songs from like OP and ED and just like this. Oh,

This should be the time where you showcase the other songs, but they didn't do that. So let's hear it. Yeah. So they actually just include. So all of these five of these are from OPN ED. Four of them are from Opie and the fifth one that wasn't included is an Opie that for whatever reason is

was not included in best op anyways uh the one that i'm sure we both agree is a little outlier here is abyss young blood kaiju number eight should not be included on this song at all or we have we have bling bang bang born by creepy nuts for mutual and this is the betting favorite okay um this was the the favorite on the uh internet if you wanted to make bets on the anime awards by crunchyroll um

We have Fatal by Jim, O and K season two. We have Level by the same group. Yeah. That one group. Yeah. We have Otonoke, Creepy Nuts, Dan to Dan. And then we have The Brave by Yasabi for Freerun, which is OP number one, I believe. Yes. Yes, it is. And...

We both voted for that. What are your thoughts, Pete? Yeah, I think maybe we voted for it because it was like the outlier to the other ones. Blink, Blink, Bang, Born, I think makes sense for winning this. That's what I think is going to win. I still think with the list, the free Renope one should win. Though I wish we could have gotten...

This is where I wish we could have gotten like Zoltrak from Free Wren. Bye Bye Earth had a banger. My Hero Academia had a banger. Insert song. There's a couple like insert songs from shows. Wistoria. Wistoria, I think. I think it was like episode 10 or 11, the fight scene. That was my favorite part of the fight scene was the song. Like,

I these are this is where I wish they really should have incorporated some insert songs or some songs outside of that really would have loved to see some representation but I'm just I'll go with the free one free one I think that was my pick but I think bling bling bang bang born wins there we go well we'll get to the winner here and I agree with your your assessment there just really quickly I don't even necessarily know if it should only be that like

But just recycling the same things. It's lazy. Yeah, I guess I would rather have like a best friend

you know i don't know how to do just like make sure that these insert songs and stuff can have their time to shine maybe one of them shows up in like this like best of what we just did for music but currently it feels like a bit redundant this is just five ops yeah right it's a lazy category in one ed yeah well i think it would yeah it's i think sorry it's a lazy nomination it's a good category it's lazy nominations

And the winner is Otonoke by Creepy Nuts. So it won OP and best song? Yep. Sure. I think that's kind of lame and boring. It's not the best song from the year. I would even say it's not even the best song from Dawn to Dawn. I think the chase scene song is the best overall song from Dandedan. I think that song elevated the chase scene a ton.

I wish we could have gotten that song in this. I just don't think there's a world where we get like a score song on this. No, I agree. But I think if you are going to do best song and include Opie and Edie's, they should be excluded from this category. This could be. And if you don't want it to be like, like,

How many people listen to soundtracks? Like 1% of anime listeners have this be like a category on the side where it's at least like recognized by the industry and you don't have to have it on your main show because I do think it's an important category. I just think these nominations are lazy.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I liked them last year because I let Idol win something because Idol didn't win Best OP. Which is insane. Because they're smoking crack. Smoking big crack, yeah. But that made me think that the whole point of this was to have like two different things. You know what I mean? Yeah. But they didn't do that in this case. And they could have just done the other Creepy Nuts song. So I'm not exactly sure exactly. I mean...

there's like a panel and stuff. Right. So it's just how it gets voted. And like a third of it is fan vote. So I would also say just from like a viewer standpoint and like entertainment, like if you're watching this live and you see this winner, like I would probably want to turn it off. Like, I think it's not only is it bad for like the, the awards itself. I think it's boring content to like have this repeating winner for a very similar category. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. I would just try to avoid. I think what the intent is, you have best OP, best ED, and it's like out of this group of songs, which one's the best? Yeah, but I don't know. You don't need to do that. That's my thought. Okay, we move on to the next one. Next, we have what is my least favorite category because of who they have chosen. Oh, fun. And this is the must protect at all costs. I hate this category. So boring.

It's it's I don't even think it's boring. I just think they picked maybe the dumbest possible. She is a mass killer. She does not need to be protected. Anya Forger from Spy Family Season 2. Pro needs to be protective is like seven years old. Khan is psychic. We have Freeran from Freeran.

Also known as Freerun the Slayer. The Slayer, yes. Also known as the strongest mage alive who's a thousand years old. I think this... They just didn't want to use the word Moe. Okaroon. Also known as someone who's possessed by a devil. Yeah. Or a demon of some sort. Spirit, yeah. Whatever it is. And can kill us both. Insanely strong. Crazy strong. So strong. Anyways, he's from Dandadan. I get it. He's kind of like...

You know what would have been good for him? His testicles. His testicles should have been on the nomination list. We want to protect Okrun's testicles. Yes, that at least makes sense in the show. He loses them. If we protect them, he won't lose them.

we have senshi from delicious and not even close this is silly the primary person who keeps the group alive he is a dungeon he is like a master class at adventuring the dungeon he has knows like every nook and cranny he knows how to top tier survival skills he knows how to grow vegetables in a dungeon like this dude does not need to be protected he needs to be studied

We have Toki Yukiojo from the elusive samurai. I'm pretty sure he kills people in that show is a samurai. Yes, or adjacent. At least I haven't seen it. I'm pretty sure he decapitates somebody in a fight scene like I'm. Yeah, I think he's OK.

Then we have Yuki Itose from A Sign of Affection. She's deaf, so we have to protect her. The major theme of that show is that she doesn't need to be protected. That she's her own person and is capable of living her life without babying her. We both voted for Anya. I think it's just like you had to. I think she should and will win. I can see there's a world where you vote for Yuki.

if you like just sort of didn't think very hard and was like everyone else here is like a warrior of some sort and she's just a college student and you weren't like thinking about what the message of the show was when you click your buttons and I think on your last year so that's kind of why I did that okay just to back to back back to back winners it makes sense back to back well Anya one we have Anya as the winner back to back yo someone called Drake we're going back to back yep sure

He has a distraught. It's not necessarily a category that I inherently hate. And I get the vibe of the character they were going for. It's like people who are like kind of cuddly in some way or what. I don't know exactly how to word it, but there is like a vibe that ties those characters together. Like even Freer and the Slayer, like it's stuck in the mimics and stuff, right? Like there's stuff there.

they could i don't know there's something that they needed to word out better but don't hire me because i don't know this category just seems like hey we have 26 categories and then crunchyroll corporate's like we need 27 it's like but we already have all the ones that we need do another one and then that's when they came up with this it's just like who cares like yeah and they have categories they like drop and stuff like they didn't we don't best we do it too it's just like maybe one year is prevalent and it makes sense in the next year yeah true

Well, like this is like what? Like it's forcing. Would you force people into a category? Just remove it. Like it's fine. Yeah, I agree. Best supporting character. We have Fern from Freerun. She is the odds on favorite on the betting markets. We have Himmel from Freerun who I voted for with no, I no thoughts that he would win. I just love that he's on here. It makes me happy. Um,

We have Genshi from the Apothecary Diaries. We have Seiko from Dan to Dan. We have Senshi, who you voted for from Delicious in Dungeon. Then we have Turbo Granny, also from Dan to Dan. What are your thoughts on this list? I think it's a pretty good list, all things considered. And I would not have included Turbo Granny. She doesn't do anything in the first season as a supporting character. She doesn't really support them.

Like, even if she does, it's not enough to be a top six supporting character of the year. I would agree with that. She is funny, though. She is funny. But so is Seiko, the grandma, which I'm fine with that being here. I wouldn't have put her, but like...

It seems forced to have both those Dondodon characters in here. It doesn't make any sense. Fern and Himmel make more sense of having both. I think they both play two different supporting roles in the story of Freerun. I pick Senshi. I think he's just vital to the storyline of Delicious and Dungeon. Like without him, they would probably, if not already, be dead. So like he plays a very massive and vital point in their, not only the story, but the party itself.

and uh he's just a great character i think he's super funny i think he's lovable and he is the glue of delicious and dungeons so that's why i picked them i picked himmel because one i think there's like an argument to be made that fern is just sort of the main character of the series at least at this point like or at least a main character yeah i'll be a character there's like a lot

that she does. It's like her growth. And so I don't know. She, she does things. She's taken the major exam. Um, it's, it's for her to take, uh, more so than for your end. We already know what for your end can do, but I voted for him because I think he plays like a pretty unique role in the story. Uh, in so far that is mostly just like the memory of him that is supportive. And we see how he's developed a character that is already fully developed when we meet her.

And I think that's neat. I like that. I think Genji is a good character. I think all of us besides Turbo Granny, who is probably just here for the memes, makes the most sense. Like I would say since she also probably a main character, I don't necessarily know if I would put him

on this list because of that. But I do understand that there's like this in between thing between like a side supporting character and a main character. Sometimes when your cast is large enough where you have like a B tier of main character. So I'm not particularly upset that that, do you have what you think, who you think, who you think is going to win? I think I, I,

I think you said Fern was the betting odd favorite. She was the betting favorite. Yeah, I think Fern makes sense. I'll pick Fern. Okay. And in fact, Fern is the winner. Yay. So I'm happy with that. Yeah, I'm cool with that pick. Yeah. And they have her doing the Fern walk as the image. Yeah. Fern walk, my beloved. Next, we have best main character. Okay.

And I forgot to highlight who you voted for, but I know who you voted for. You voted for... It's Freerun, if I'm not mistaken. Yep, you are correct. It is Freerun from Freerun, who is also the odds-on favorite in the betting market. This was the one where it was pretty interesting. Her and Sungjinwoo went back and forth like a lot. So most of them were pretty static, but Freerun and Sungjinwoo...

changed who the favorite was almost daily. And like, just because of the time that I cut it off, like,

uh freer and one because i did on the first one of the morning of but like later that day sung jingwu was and on earlier like on the previous day like the last one and he was it and then freerun takes it back going in so they were really close okay um for the betting favorite which was interesting because mostly there was just a major favorite and it would only collapse if like something got leaked sure or whatever you would just see go like bam there wasn't like a lot of back and forth so what were the other nominations

Yeah, there were other people who were nominated, including who I voted for. Not Kafka from Kaiju number eight, but he was nominated. Momo from Dan to Dan, Okaroon from Dan to Dan, Mahal Mahal from Apothecary Diaries. That's who I voted for. And then Sungjin Woo from Solo Leveling. So you're saying Sungjin Woo was the betting favorite with Free Rin?

So it basically, so from the cutoff, it was free rent, but it was more or less a co one, depending on the time you looked at it between Sungjin Wu and free rent. This is, that's crazy. Uh, considering that we're in these awards, it's only season one of soul leveling and Sungjin Wu doesn't really, I feel like he matures a lot more in the second season to like actually have a developed character.

I think maybe at the end of season one where he becomes a necromancer, I was like, oh my God, he's so cool. I wouldn't even put him even remotely close to someone like Mau Mau or free Ren or anybody else in this category. I feel like ultra rune and mobile both seem like very, I mean, it's a popular show, but I would not have included them at all. I think such a woo out of these six would be my third choice. Like I'm not going to lie out of these six shows.

Let's see. I like Momo better than Sanjin Wu. I like Sanjin Wu more than Okaroon. Who was the other one that we're missing? Oh, Kafka. Kafka would be dead last. I don't even dislike Kafka. Kafka's fun. Kafka's a fun character. He's not a good character, at least in my opinion. Okay, so I think Freerun wins, and I think Freerun should win. Okay. I'll put it that way. Or MauMau. One of the two should win.

Okay. The winner of this category is Sungjin Woo. No. If you want to know my thoughts on this, you can come into our Discord and you can find my dissertation on why Sungjin Woo and Free Rin are very similar characters.

it was a lot of fun to write i don't necessarily know if i meant it but but you wrote it i did i did write it this is crazy he's he should not even be in the top six like my my thought here is that when this is getting made and voted for etc season two is airing yep and people love season two and that's just a thing that has always affected awards like this do you know what else was airing that was season two during voting

Apothecary Diaries. And Free Red. Oh, yes. Oh, no, no. Free Red. I think Mao Mao should win this. I also think that, you know, I have a lot of friends who, like, voted for the Crunchyroll Awards, but aren't huge anime fans. And they were choosing between Sung Jing Lu and Free Red.

and they have not watched apothecary diaries gotcha i just want to say i know that this is like subjective and it's like opinion and stuff that's wrong um that your friends are incorrect as well they haven't watched the show with the clearly the best care they're still wrong they're wrong because they haven't watched apothecary diaries yet um and i'm getting them too slowly okay what a good friend

It's hard to push things on people that don't have action, you know? Yeah. Like, I can get some, like, not shonen-y stuff in there, but, like, it needs something. Sure. And, like, you know, you gotta slowly drip feed it. This, oh, man. Maybe I'll save it for the end, but I have words for just the Crunchyroll Awards in general, just, like, their structure. So this will just add to that.

Yeah, let's do that at the end. One thing I'll say is I have a friend who normally skips through dialogue scenes of anime to watch fight scenes. That's just going to YouTube. He has said Apothecary Diaries is, and I quote, pretty good. And I will take that as a huge W. That's a huge W. Anyways, our next category is Best Slice of Life. My second favorite category.

Yep. So we're on Pete's favorite category and...

Join the discord. I have words about this category because I think like four of the six, I would not classify a slice of life. I have worked for this category too, because I voted for Mockanine and I hate that. Yes, you do. You give it like a four. Yeah, I don't like it. Okay. What were the other two that I had seen? Anyways, laid back camp season three. You have voted for this.

Where's my girl? There's my girl Nadeshko. Woo! Mock me. Too many losing heroines. I voted for this show. Yep. We'll get to why in a second. Okay. Third, Mr. Villain's Day Off. Honestly, not gonna front. Never heard of it. I dropped it. Okay.

Looks like a slice of life, though, if I were to look at it. It's 100% a slice of life. Yeah. Number four, My Dear Friend No Catan. Not a slice of life. There's an argument to be made, but I agree. Maybe because it's not funny, they have to categorize it as a slice of life because it's not a comedy. Oh, wait until you get to the comedy. Oh, it's in the comedy category. Oh, it is. It shouldn't, but it's there. Oh, shit.

I'm glad that you finally come full circle here. You're willing, like we're enough past the show that there's no sunk cost fallacy on the time you had spent watching it anymore. I gave the show a four! What are you talking about? There was like a long period of time where you were like...

It's kind of funny. There are two good episodes in Noctua. There are two. I will fight you for that. We'll get there eventually. Number five is Sound Euphonium Season 3. Not even remotely close to a slice of life. I think it's a slice of life. I do. Not the last season, especially not the last season. No chance in hell. Life is stressful and people saying, oh, it's about competition and stuff are fucking losers who didn't compete in their life. No.

This is a drama. This is a clear drama. Life is dramatic. Yes. Why should be included in the best drama category? Not slice of life. They play instruments. The dangers of my heart. Not a slice of life. I'll agree with you on that one. It's a romance. It is. And also, I don't like it. Anyways, all of those things led to me voting for Mockanine, a show I don't like.

What do you think, Pete? So some of the big messes, even though I haven't seen the show, but it's like it's such a highly rated property. And I believe is one of, if not the highest season that's ranked was not to me. His book of friends seventh season probably should be included in this. I really wish we saw Pokemon concierge in this. I really don't like.

shows like sound euphonium in this i don't classify it as a slice of life too many losing heroines i i think that's adjacent enough where i'm fine with it but some big misses i i think pokemon concierge and nasi's book of friends should have 100 get here i get like not including shows like mushroom pup like i get that i'm the only one who really likes that show that much i but i

That's like seven of you on the discord. There's like 12 Mushroom Pop fans out in the world and seven of them are in our discord. But I think Pokemon Concierge is the big miss on this one.

Yeah, I can agree with that. I think my argument for something like my dear friend Novotan is though it is insane. They do nothing. Yeah, which is like that is like a pretty big hallmark of slice of life where they're just chilling. You know what I mean? This is where it comes down to like where I view the drama in something like Oshino Ko like incredible and it's not just the intense scenes. It's

the interactions with their classmates at school and their interactions with cast members behind the scenes like that's what sound euphonium season three was where it's fine yeah yeah i get that it was like defending my dear friend no no for sure but it's like it's like it's no see it's like those shows where it's like okay maybe season one where they're learning you know

the freaking euphonium and that can be I think I think that's a little bit more in the slice of life category season three they're competing for nationals is the most stressful competition of their

of their entire life and like so it's like if you are going to put sound euphonium in slice of life then you better include blue box you better include haikyuu you better include like anything with a competition should be slice of life then i think sports anime are more or less just slice of life anime most of the time that's my take i'm the exact opposite i i consider them like action because i remember um the first or second year

I did our awards. The best fight category had a high Q match. And so like, I do remember that. I like that. I think it's more in like the drama action side than like slice of life just because they're not throwing punches. Doesn't mean they're not like fighting or battling. Yeah, I agree. But like, I guess I, to me, such a, such a big portion of like high school life, which is what so many of these things focus on. Yeah. Athletic competition. And like,

So to me, it's just like, okay, what fundamentally, what is the difference between a photography club and volleyball club? You know what I mean? Conflict. You can enter a photography competition. You could, but do they? Yeah, the girl in mono did. She won for taking pictures of her senpai taking pictures.

I see you've been watching mono. All right. I had, which is something that I think we both would agree is slice of life. A hundred percent. Mal doesn't classify it as slice of life. And it's by the person who made fricking laid back camp. Oh, okay. So we're going back to the whatever laid back camp is for me, my favorite slice of life ever. I don't think season three is winning the award, even though I would have picked it out of these six. I don't think it was. What do you think is of these six?

I'm gonna go too many losing heroines. Okay. Good guess, man. The winner is too many losing heroines. I'm okay with that. I'm not. I'm okay. I hate this show. I explained the situation with like the shy girl to my friends today where he just like does a soft coup of the club. Yeah, you hate and like

yeah because the guy is awful he's an awful human he's just a monster with but he comes off like so uh shucksie um if you want to hear our thoughts on too many losing heroines go check out the summer 2024 review me and miles are both on that episode if you like it you'll like my take if you hate it you'll love miles's take

And reverse that for Alia. Yep. Straight bugs. Show was like Machinae, but surprisingly enough, the main character was less of a psychopath. That's true. He was. I will agree with that. Our next category, Best Drama.

So for best drama, we had A Sign of Affection, Dead Dead Demons Destruction, Free Rin, Oshino Ko Season 2, Pluto, and The Apothecary Diaries. I remember when this came out and this was like one of the categories I was like, damn, they got like five of six right. Like, I like what they chose for this. I would have rather had Sound Euphonium in this in drama instead of Slice of Life.

but I did really enjoy their picks for best drama. I think it makes sense. Shout out to them actually including Pluto. Like I just assumed that they were going to forget that show. I think I picked Oshinoko to win. I think it should win. I think season two, the Tokyo Blade arc was incredible. It was the best directing of 2024. In my opinion, I thought they just killed it this year. So my pick and what should win and what I picked is Oshinoko.

Okay. I picked the Apothecary Diaries as one of my favorite shows of all time. As actually, several of these nominations are. There's a world where I vote for Dead Dead Demons, but unfortunately, Apothecary Diaries exists. And then I would do probably, I guess for Drama, O and K, and then Free Ren. But it's a pretty stacked list.

list here yep um i like this one i like a sign of affection i don't necessarily think it's punching at its weight and i don't i don't think it should be included in drama i like it but i don't think it's top six there is good drama in it but yeah i would think it yeah i just don't think it's a top six thing like mostly because it gets resolved pretty quickly and

there's never any like concern about who like yuki's gonna end up with her you know what i mean like which sort of lowers the the stakes there a bit yep i would really like to see i mentioned sound euphonium i really would have liked to see girls band cry here i also would have really liked to see for representation yata grasu but i am happy they did throw in shows like pluto which i think deserve to be in this category and should have been in more categories

Yeah, I was surprised you didn't vote for this, but you did explain it pretty well that you like the drama in O&K. I think Pluto is a better show than Ocean Oco. I think Ocean Oco does drama better than Pluto. Yeah, it's a really good O&K arc. Anyways, the winner of this is...

free run okay sure yeah i mean free runs like the caliber of show where when it wins you're just like i guess yeah whatever yeah yeah like i don't think it's the best drama i think the drama in it is like relatively limited to be perfect i think it's like in the beginning of the story and then it's kind of pushed to the side

There's some other stuff. I don't know. I also, I don't really like the category. And this is like all of society drama. Almost everything has trauma. Yeah. Everything ever. Yep. That's why theater is also called drama. Anyway. So yeah, I get this for as much as I love free run fantasy style shows. I really don't like in best drama, unless it's like, I can't think of maybe something like

shinsukai yori since that was brought up like i think the drama in that like fantasy style show is like incredible but for the most part i love like the actual human interactions in like a normal world with this category which is why like to me like i think normal world like oshinoko well oshinoko for yeah yeah that's a that's normal world well i was joking a bit because uh there is definitely light fantasy elements to oshinoko yeah but you can't prove people haven't been reincarnated so boom

What about like the, you know what? It doesn't matter. There's like a Raven God, but you know, that's okay. I can't prove that there aren't any Raven. Okay. It has fancy elements, but it's not. Yes. It's very light on them. Yeah. A hundred percent. I do agree with you. I just wanted to be a little fun. That's like call it when like Demon Slayer won like best fantasy in these awards. It's like, yeah, technically it's a fantasy, but like, come on.

I would say, I mean, there's demons. Yeah, but like, would you think of best fantasy...

I mean, I don't think about do you think Demon Slayer is in the top 10 shows? What do you think of best fantasy? What I would say if you ask me, what is the top 10 shows that the Crunchyroll Awards would think is top fantasy? I would say Demon Slayer. Okay. If that is for the crunch. Yes. For the context of the Crunchyroll Awards. Absolutely. I wouldn't do it, but I think Demon Slayer is fine. It's a very okay show. Yeah. Would you put something like fate into fantasy?

Yes. Okay. Best Isekai, huh? Is that a category? It is. All right, let's talk about it. We're talking about it. Let's do it. And we both voted for Konosuba Season 3. It's also the odds-on favorite. I don't know why this one had it. It's like mostly big awards and then also Best Isekai. We had Jobless Reincarnation Season 2, ReZero, Starting Life in Another World Season 3, Shangri-La Frontier. Yep. Love that Isekai.

I would argue it is an isekai, though I don't like the show. Suicide Squad isekai. And that time I got reincarnated as a slime season three. This is a bunch of shows I don't really like. And then Konosuba. So that those are my thoughts. And this isn't even an arc of Konosuba that I particularly enjoy. I think Kazuma is like a little creepier than the fairy in the Iris arc.

But I still think the show is funny because it is Konosuba. Pete, your thoughts here? Yeah, I thought this was a pretty weak year of Isekai in general. As you can tell by Suicide Isekai Squad or whatever is nominated in the top six. So I think I'll give you along with Shangri-La Frontier, which is not an Isekai. I think they should just relabel this to like fantasy, just general. Well, then you get.

I mean, then this entire cast changes, right? Yeah. But like in free rent and yeah, I did free rent should win. Um,

but like hoshino ko is we just i don't know i like it's one of those things we're like yeah we know what you mean by isekai but like i don't i have when you are the cultural awards you should i don't know have a better i don't know so my argument would be shangri-la frontier is an isekai because a large amount of the show is spent in a different world that is living and breathing despite the fact that it is a video game yeah they're playing a video game

Yeah, but there are, but it's a world that's, it's, you know what I mean? Like the bunny is an NPC in that video game. She's a living, breathing character, right? There are, the world is living. It is his own world, despite the fact that it is a video game. Um, and they go there for the majority of the show. Okay. I understand what you're trying to say. I just, I don't, I'm not a purist about it. You know what I mean? Like SAO, I think it's an Isakai. Um,

Yeah, I guess this is where we sort of agree to disagree. Yeah, we can do that. I don't think that you're incorrect. There's definitely an argument to be made, but I think Isekai are generally stupid and dumb anyway, and so we shouldn't be too strict with them. Is there anything you think that they're missing from this list? There was quite a... I think there was quite a few Isekai this year, but there weren't good ones. What I think should have been included in this one...

Maybe something like the Moonlight Fantasy one should have been nominated. I'm happy with ReZero making it. I think it absolutely deserved to be here. Isekai Suicide Squad does not deserve to be here. I think you could pick any random generic Isekai that got released.

in 2024 and pick that one instead slime i also don't agree should be on this list for as much as i do enjoy slime uh the third season was ass like i'm sorry it was just bad like i i don't care that the console arc where it was like eight episodes of talking is supposed to build up the world and whatever it was really boring and terribly paced

Winners, yeah, we picked Konosuba. I think this is the best season of Konosuba since the movie. I guess it's the only season since it, but I think the movie is the funniest. And if you take all the seasons, I think the third season that we got this year was the funniest so far. So that's why I picked it. I think it's going to be either between Konosuba or ReZero.

Yeah, I think that is a good assessment. I kind of enjoyed Suicide Squad East Sky. It's bad. I'm not going to say that it was good. There was a charm to it, and the charm was the characters were fun. The lack of charm was that the world they went to was stupid and everything was stupid around it. And everything was bad. The ED was also amazing. Yes, it was. The ED was so good. I think they tried. That's what I'll say. Um,

And the winner is... ReZero Season 3. Best Action Show. Okay, let's get to it. We got Bleach Thousand Year Blood War, Dan to Dan, Demon Slayer, Kaiju No. 8,

Solo leveling, which is what I voted for and windbreaker, which is what you voted for. Love. First of all, can't believe free rent is not on this list. It had two of my favorite two of like my top five fights in like anime history. Like the action in free rent is incredible.

incredible the fact that it's not listed here and something like Demon Slayer the training arc is where I believe if I'm not mistaken one fight in the entire 10 episode season that they had of it if you consider that you photo bolded that fight though they did do that fight but that that Demon Slayer does not deserve to be on this list it shouldn't be on any list this year the training arc is a it's canon but I will put this in like a quotation marks it's a filler arc and

it's literally there to, if you ever seen log horizon season three, it's literally there to set up the next season of it. Show, uh, should not be included. Uh, I voted for whatever for windbreaker. I think the choreography and windbreaker is just next level. I think that's what separates it from other action shows where you see such a detail of,

to the choreography that I haven't really seen in anime. Like the only other anime I've seen this level of choreography to is Link Click. So and I'm guessing other like martial arts shows have really good choreography. I just haven't seen them. But I mean, in the last couple of years, the best choreography to me has been Windbreaker and Link Click. So that's why I included or that's why I picked Windbreaker to win.

Great. I picked solo leveling because deep within me, Pete, I know you don't realize that's what's going to win, by the way. So level is going to win. Good guess. I can't remember, but I remember enough to not be surprised if solo leveling wins. The new Doom game just came out. In all of us, there is the desire to just slay thousands of demons, rip and tear and all of that. And this provided it to me. I thought that especially the last fight against Doom,

egress was very good and they just went like really fucking hard on that and um unlike some other shows where they go really hard on one thing um the rest of the show didn't particularly suffer for it which is nice i must say though i did not watch windbreaker because the concept seems sort of stupid to me and i'm in the same boat which is when a show that has a terrible concept blows me away like windbreaker you should check it out

what's weird to me a bit is kaiju number eight being on here there are some good fights and stuff but like it also is one of those animes that the fights are padded by a lot of standing yeah i don't yeah i guess i don't hate that i don't mind it being on this list because we also had it because it does have a ton of action and i think i think i disagreed with it when it was on our list yeah so i think kaiju number eight he is here for quantity not quality

I think some of the fights are good even and have great moments, but yeah, I just also think that to me, when you're standing around in a fight for too long and like talking, but like the fight's still happening, it just loses me eventually. Sure. And that's a lot of anime. So, you know, take that for what you will. Like, it's just my opinion. I understand it's probably not the world's most popular one, but those were my thoughts anyways to the winner.

solo leveling yeah um i'm fine with this like yeah i think it it does action well it needs to in fact it does yes um as that is a large amount of the show yeah i'm fine with this wedding i just can't believe free rinse i nominated it's crazy

That is a little crazy. Again, I think it's because of said audience that I was talking about before where something like free run is much slower paced than what they're used to. And it doesn't matter that there are amazing fights in it because it's not a fight show in brain, you know, which is like if I was taking every conflict in the show is resolved by fighting. It's like,

There are like early conflicts they resolve through like talking and stuff. But yeah, a lot of them are in fact resolved. You know, like anything with demons. Yeah. Go track the demons, Aura, Linne, Lunger, the dragon. Yes. The dragon they fight. The magic exam arc. Yes. It's just like there's so much action in the show. The fact that it's not nominated. It's like high production, high value stuff. Yes. Huge miss by French roll on this one. Okay. Best comedy.

We have delicious and dungeon, which is what I voted for. We have Kono Suba season three, which is what you voted for. Yes. We have the national season two. We have my dear friend, no Catan. We have Ronma one half or one out of two or one half. And then we have spy family.

I think we can keep this quick just because comedy is subjective. I am a 12 year old boy living in a man's body. I think fart jokes are hilarious. That's why I picked Konosuba. However, this is the Crunchyroll Wars. I'm going to assume Mashal wins. Okay. I just Mashal is a funny show. Everything else besides Mashal, and this isn't fair for comedy, is written bad.

Kind of. Yeah. The characters are bad. The plot is bad. It's a lot of it is bad. And so even though I enjoy it because it is funny, I wasn't going to vote for it. So I picked delicious dungeon, which was just sort of like,

a very good and solid show. I think we all don't know what my dear friend No Katan is doing here. Nope. Because as you said, comedy is subjective, except for this one, except for that one. Yeah, because I don't think I've met anyone who likes it. I agree. And I am online all the time. Yeah. Like what a disappointment of a show for everyone who likes viral marketing. Anyways, the best winner of this is national. Good call. I would not have called that.

I think season one won best comedy, so I think that's why I picked the national. I will say, it is a funny show. They have a couple of jokes, and they make me laugh when I watch them. But I don't know. I think a lot of it is bad, and it sort of hurts how funny it is to me. Because, anyways. Best romance. Best. Let's go. Here we go.

Yeah, we have a sign of affection. That is what you voted for. We have blue box. We have Machinae, too many losing heroines. We have Ranma, one half. We have Scott Pilgrim takes off and we have the dangers in my heart. Okay. I'll just, I'll start with this. Dangers in my heart is winning. Why? This one's tough. Blue box. If we are supposed to be looking at

The run times of when voting, this should only be the first half of Blue Box, which had 1% romance in it. It was all building. The romance of Blue Box comes in the second half way more than the first half. It should not even be. It should not be on this list. I'm fine with it being on the list next year. Side of Affection was my pick. I think it is the best romance of that year.

Well, personally, it's not my favorite. I think it was my second favorite behind Kibun Itadoke, which I think should have been nominated. This season was incredible in terms of the romance. But yeah, I mean, for like the popularity award, it's got to be Dangerous in My Heart. Like, I don't know. Like, everyone's going to vote for that. So I picked I picked Sign of Affection, but Dangerous in My Heart is winning. Yeah, there's an argument to be made that Makane isn't really a romance. I'm fine with that winning, too, just because that was super popular as well.

Yeah, I'm not fine with that winning. I think it fucking sucks. When did we bring that up? I voted for Scott Pilgrim takes off because I love Scott Pilgrim. And I think this was like a fun sort of remix of that story that sort of examined the faults of the original one and like gave the characters good growth moments and everything like that and sort of drove home some messaging that was maybe not clear in the first one.

Which is good. I do like A Sign of Affection, though. I think that's a good choice as well. I think as far as a pure romance goes, a show that is very clearly focused on romance first and most, and arguably it's one of only two shows on this list that did that, I think it's the best choice. But Pete, the winner of Best Romance. Mm-hmm.

is oh you can't see my slides so you won't get this joke but it's solo leveling i did that oh the sister and the brother yeah they had a good romance going on that i do think that seems very funny um is blue box what um yep blue box why i don't know that's it okay i think this is the first i think this is the first one where i'm like this is like a hundred percent incorrect like this is so wrong the first 12 episodes of blue you're telling me

The best romance of the year were the first 12 episodes of Blue Box. You gotta be out your goddamn mind. That's terrible. It should not even be on this list, let alone win. This is a terrible pick. I love to hear it. I don't know anything about Blue Box other than

people have told me it's not great so i will say the anime is much as me and is it better okay because that both read the manga and when we reviewed the anime we were both surprised by how much more we enjoyed the anime versus the manga okay i'll check it out then i think we both gave them we both have the manga like a six i think we both gave the anime an eight

um i i thoroughly enjoyed the anime more but the the first 12 episodes of blue box no it's no it's not even like it's like one girl the side loser girl sort of figuring herself out before anybody else this should not be on the list this is a this is a genuine terrible pick

Okay, terrible pick. It's a sports anime in the first 12 episodes. It's not a romance. It's just... Yeah, you're right. It should have been in Best Slicer Life. Oh, what? They're opposite gender? Oh, it's a romance. It's like, no, that shit's still developing. This is a terrible pick.

If you vote for, I was gonna say, if you vote for a blue box, you're wrong. This is a terrible, terrible thing. Okay. I liked, I love this. This is great. Terrible. Um, we have best background art. I'm sorry. One more thing. Like, like I don't have anything. There are shows that were like, I get where it's like, okay, it's super popular. Not my alley. I get why it won. I don't get why this one, I don't get it. It makes no sense. Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. Miles. No, I love it.

Best. If you want to come back to it at any point, just let me know. We're doing best background art. Okay. We can go quick on this one. Okay. Dan to Dan. Delicious and Dungeon. Demon Slayer. Free Rin. Pluto. Apothecary Diaries. You voted Delicious and Dungeon. I voted Apothecary Diaries.

This feels like something that's going to be pretty subjective, to be perfectly honest, because all of these shows have, well, I haven't seen Demon Slayer. All of these shows, except for maybe Demon Slayer, have great attention to detail and background sets, and it's all good and consistent and all that.

I'm guessing you like the different aesthetics of the layers of the dungeon and how those play into the background. Yeah, how that was played out in Delicious Dungeon, I really enjoyed. Shows I think should have been included in this. Sound Euphonium should have made it. And even with the change in studio, Laidback Camp Season 3 still had incredible background art. So I would have liked those two included. I would have had Sound Euphonium win this category if it was nominated. But my runner up would be

Delicious Dungeon. As in terms of who else won this, where were the nominees again? I'm going to pick the most popular. That's either going to be Dan to Dan, Freerun, or Demon Slayer. The other options are Pluto and Apothecary Diaries. I'll pick... I'll say Freerun wins. Okay. And the winner of this award is Freerun. Okay, cool. Yeah. I'm fine with that. I love the art and design that goes into...

freerun in terms of background art though not as much there's like one scene in particular where i think the background art shines and that's when freerun binds fern her birthday present i think it's in like the earlier literally the scene i was thinking that well it's iconic it's like people remember that scene and remember the background and but like a lot of times in terms of background art for this it's like they're just traveling on a wagon and the background art is trees it's like

Okay, who did trees better? Freerun or laid-back camp? And shockingly, I think it's laid-back camp. So, um... I think there are background scenes in Freerun. Yeah. Yeah, like, okay, like, think about, like, when she's hovering... The mage exam and stuff. Well, like, was this included in season one of Freerun? It's the whole thing. Yeah, it includes the entire thing. Yeah, so, like...

You know, like again, the scene where she's hovering in the background is the moon and the stars and stuff like that is just such a powerful scene. And partially because of that, that whole castle and everything has like good decor when they do the dancing arc with Stark and Fern. Like, I think that is well decorated. I didn't vote for it, but I think it's I think it's worthy.

No, it's worthy 100%, but like I, dude, I like sound euphonium. Just they killed it. They absolutely. I mean, yeah, it's a studio that's going to kill it. So yeah, I'm cool with free run winning. Yeah, that's not like crazy take or anything. So

better you know it's better than it's better than blue box with best romance fuck that shit bring it that back up so far what's your biggest l sung jing lu winning best main character that's like a popularity pick so like i i can cut like i that's one of those ones where like they're a hundred percent wrong but i get it you get it okay blue box winning with stuff like like if dangers in my heart wasn't included i

and makine wasn't included i can see people maybe voting for blue box because like that's kind of in like the similar vein i can't believe blue box one that's the biggest l and it's i think it's not even close okay i love it i love to hear it i love these opinions that's that that one that one i think that one is it's like legit terrible

Okay. What's that? Best director. Oh, okay. This should be... We're home stretching. This is a slam dunk. There's two options and one wasn't nominated. Okay. That's interesting that you've decided that you were wrong and that who I voted for should be the winner. Did you vote for soul leveling because you're a Crunchyroll shill?

Not on the list. I voted for Apothecary Diaries. But let me go through the noms. We have Fuga Yamashiro from Dan to Dan. We have Haru Sotsuzaki, Demon Slayer. We have Keiichiro Saito from Free Rin. We have Megumi Ishitani from the One Piece fan letter. I don't know what that is. People loved it. It was like a one episode One Piece thing. People loved it.

People loved a one piece thing. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Norihiro Naganuma, Apothecary Diaries, who I voted for. You voted for Freerun. And then Yoshihiro Miyajima from Delicious and Dungeon.

Okay, my winner, if he was included, is Daisuke Hiramaki from Ocean Elko Season 2. But since that wasn't nominated, I think this is a slam dunk for Free Ren. I don't even think anything comes close to those two in terms of direction this year. And since Ocean Elko is not on the list, I'm going to pick Free Ren as my winner. And I also think it will win and should win.

Okay. I would like to shout out Tomoyuki Kurakawa from Dead Dead Demons. That's a great one. Because I think the direction in that was absolutely phenomenal. That's also, for one, for background art, Dead Dead Demons had incredible background art. Incredible background art. As a massive Dead Dead Demons fan, I'm just happy to be here. Yeah, we got one, Dom. No one watched that show. And they should have, but they didn't. And so, you know, I understand how these things work. On my first rodeo.

Yeah, I agree with the O and K. I think the direction is super good there. What I won't agree with is I think Apothecary's direction sort of blows the Freerun direction out of the water. But they're both good. The winner of this is Freerun. So you get your dub there because you're the Crunchyroll shill.

And I'm sorry, that deserves to win. That direction is mind bogged. How good is solid fourth place for me on the year for the year? I'll take that for the year. Sure. Whatever. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I named three that I liked more of the year. Right. And then that was that was four. I'll take four overall. Yeah, that's good. Okay. Best character design. I know you have an issue with.

one of these kaiju number you want the biggest l of this entire thing is kaiju number eight being nominated for this category it it's not and if there was a worst uh character design of the year not only should kaiju number eight should be nominated it should win i okay i don't i don't know if this is going to be a hot take or not i like the dan to dan demon forms

Much less than I like any of the character design in Kaiju number eight. I think that the people in the spirits and stuff in Dan to Dan are great. I, the way they look when they like power. Sure. With that being said, Dan to Dan is our first nomination. Okay.

Then we have delicious and dungeon. This is what you voted for. Yeah. A hundred percent. We have demon Slayer. That makes sense. Another one that should absolutely not be nominated in this category. I, I think demon Slayer has pretty good character design from year over year though. It does nothing. It changes nothing. It like, yeah,

The character designs are the same year over year. That's why I would not include it. That's fair. That butterfly girl exists. And I think that design is fantastic. There's another sequel that I will, that was left off that I will mention, which I think should be deserved here. Okay. We have free rent from the free rent show. We have Kaiju number eight, which I think we both agree should not be on here. Nope. And then we have the apothecary diaries, which I voted for right on. I think, I guess they are, it's a lot less fantastical than a,

A lot of, aka all of these noms, but I think the actual costume designs and stuff are great in that show. I think they do a lot to tell you about the characters and...

other aspects of characters, like other than just like physical design, like the personality designs and stuff, I think are super deep in that show, which is why I voted for it also because I'm a Stan. Pete, what are your thoughts here? Yeah. So this one, the one that I think should have been included that was missed and I'm, it did technically come out in 2023, but like it aired here in 2024. So I think when they have stuff like that, they include it. And that's Uma Musume wrote to the top and,

I think Uemusume's character designs are absolutely just fucking insane. And I think it should be included. But what Delicious and Dungeon did for their character design in this fantasy world that was so unique and so fun, this is including stuff like the frog suits when they get into like the poison tentacles. I include as part of his character design. Like I think like wardrobes and uniforms and stuff like that, what they wear are included in like the character design themselves. So,

So when they include stuff like that in the show, for me, this is a clear front runner winner. It's not going to win, but I think that this is like out of these six, I think it is the best. But what I think will win, I'll riot if it's Kaiju number eight, but I'll say I'll say Freeran wins this one again. No, wait, no. Donda Don hasn't won yet. I'm gonna pick Donda Don. You're gonna pick Donda Don is one. It hasn't won any like it won like OPs and songs and stuff, but it hasn't won a character or show. So I'm gonna go with Donda Don on this one.

Okay, great. The winner of this is Dawn to Dawn. Oh, wow, I got it right. Let's fucking go. Yep, you did. And I just disagree. It's fine. I get it, because I think the humans are well-designed. I think Okurun and Momo and everyone is well-designed when they're just people. Yeah. But I do not like the things that all look like stain from

My hero academia. Yeah, I just it makes me uncomfy and not even in a way where I'm like, well, that's what it's supposed to be doing. Like, I'm sure it is, but I don't care. Yeah, I mean, over delicious and even like not even just like the main cast, but like we saw so much included with like the side characters, the monsters that they're battling.

I just think it's so much more than Dondon, but more people probably want. I think Dondon character designs are cool. I wouldn't say they're good. I think they're cool. I'm fine with it being on this list. I just think it's a if we're doing a tier list. I think this is a C compared to delicious and dungeon, which would be an S.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I, you know, I picked the only show that wasn't a fantasy show. So, okay, if that tells you what you need to know about me, that is. But I, the episode where they do the character swaps in Deliciousness Dungeon is, I think, a great highlight of how well they understand the design of their characters because they're able to switch the characters like who they are and make them look like both characters at the same time in a very cool way. Yes. So something to highlight. Yeah, there's a lot of cool character elements within this.

delicious in dungeon that i i love okay best animation i'm gonna stop you right here if anything other than freerun wins it is wrong it freerun should win by a massive landslide go ahead okay i didn't vote for freerun um we have dan to dan delicious in dungeon demon slayer let me know if you've heard these before

Kaiju number eight and solo level. Yeah, it's free run. It's not even close. Nothing even comes remotely close to free run in this. I voted for solo. If it wins, I'm okay with it. I do think I do think so leveling animation is good.

And I think compared to other shows on this list, it is better than a lot of these other shows. Freerun blows it out of the water. Like you look at scenes in Freerun with like the, the start, the stern, I just combined them Stark and Fern dancing. We have like the scenes with like Stark putting on his jacket, Fern adjusting her dress to sit down. It's like little scenes like that, that stand out more than,

to me than say like a big fight scene because a lot of people can do really good fights.

Freerun does the fight scenes not only like incredibly well, but the other scenes. And that's what sets it apart. Like the dragon scene. Incredible in terms of animation. The Lina and Luger versus Fern and Stark scene. Crazy. Mage exam arc where we had like Freerun versus Clone Freerun. Mind blowing. Like those moments. There's nothing that those other five shows do in terms of animation that even comes close to what Freerun did.

I think that what really sold it for me on solo leveling is you can see Jenna become horny. You motherfucker. And it's just so well animated on her face. And then you see the shock when she realizes it's her brother. And then they drop that, which is not animated related, but props to the show. They did the bit and then they dropped it. What do you think is going to win? Do you think it's going to be free? I think it's going to be soul leveling, but

This is man. So if Demon Slayer wins, that's that's a massive L like huge L of Demon Slayer wins. If Kaiju number eight wins, that's a huge L delicious and dungeons good. I'd be OK with that. Don's good. I don't think I'd be OK with that one. I'd be OK with delicious and

freer and solo really good animation yeah it's just like that we're encapsulating the entire series like there's so many shows that have like great moments of sakuga like there there are slice of life shows that have some of the best sakuga i've ever seen but consistently through the entire show nothing comes even close to freer and nothing i am ready to reveal the winner run it

It's Demon Slayer. That's terrible. That is on par with, okay, this is number two for biggest L so far. This is number two. Okay. Blue Box is still the biggest L. Yeah, because at least the one fight in Demon Slayer, this thing probably went hard because you photobulted it. I'm sorry. Demon Slayer uses so many flashing layers where people think it's incredible animation when you realize it's just Photoshop layering flashing light. It's like it.

It is good. U foldable is an S tier studio when it comes to this stuff, but it's, it's not what free rent did this year. It's not, I'm sorry. It's just not. Well, I can't disagree. You can't, you're not allowed to, it's in your contract. I, I've been doing a bad job for the last five years or whatever. Then you have a lot of unpaid fines. Oh God.

you should check your work email by the way you have by the way you have a work yeah i have a work email oh my god by the way i never give you your login info for your work email oh my god that's yeah we're just accruing interest okay best original anime okay try oh you want to listen okay

I'm going to list them. I do have something to ask you about. We have Bucciari. We have Girls' Band Cry, which we both voted for. As it should win. And it is, in fact, the odds-on betting favorite. We have Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night, which I thought you liked more than Girls' Band Cry. So this is one of the things where I think Girls' Band Cry is a better show, but I like Jellyfish better. More. Okay, you just resonated with Jellyfish like a bit more, but you...

agree with like different okay yes girls might cry is a structurally better show okay they have the map of please don't hate us metallic rouge is up here see come on please ass um we have ninja kamui ass um and then i forgot to change the name so i have written solo leveling um but it is actually trained to the end of the world sure it might be leveling uh yeah and the winner is

um we i mean we have a whole episode on girls band cry if you want to go listen to that we both really liked it spoiler alert we do um what are your thoughts here pete uh missing bravern was a massive l uh uh including something like ninja kamui and metallic rouge which were critically panned critically panned like

nobody likes these shows and they got included and something like Bravern which was a huge sleeper hit and a cult classic and everything like that should absolutely be included as one of the best originals of last year uh Girls May Cry I mean should mop the floor like it should win what were the other what would be a nomination I was good uh Trending Out of the World was fun but like it was not even close to being popular enough like it did not have the same traction as Girls May Cry

and i think buchigiri i also think was critically panned okay yes um so there's three shows in here that should not be in here i mean i guess i have to like run through but like i think mecca uday came out last year that was probably should have been included bravern should have been included i'm trying to think if there's any other i'm sure there's an original out there that should have been included over this but like it doesn't matter because girls man cry should win and will win my pick is girls man cry

When we first started this, I said there was a category where I was like, what the absolute fuck? Yep. This is the category. Oh, okay. The winner of this is Ninja Kamu. What the fuck? Yep. That show dropped two full points on Mal after episode four. Do you know how hard that is to do? Two points. That point to two points. I get it.

I know this is a, I don't know how this happened. I saw like a thing that was basically talking about because I think it's aired on Netflix. This was a adult swim. Oh, okay. So it was basically talking about how, because it had this large viewership base and fan voting is such a large part of this. Yeah. That if there's any sort of dissension within the expert panel, it just ends up being a popularity contest.

the way that it's structured, I guess. And so they were just basically explaining like there was actually never a chance Girls' Friend Cry could win because not enough people have watched it. Yeah. This is one of those ones that like you need to have no fan votes. Like, I'm sorry. Like,

or have your fan vote be significantly reduced and i just don't think there should be fan anyways um i like hey guess what you should do like how we structure it and have both you should have a community we can do that too yeah yeah that would be fun and then like industry people industry yes hell even reddit gets it right reddit gets it right yes it should be two different things you should you should capture what the people of your community are voting for but

But then you should also have, you know, whatever, I guess for us, it's me, but like you should have like a,

a staple for yeah or like a whatever your content is because people are people are coming here for us they don't want to be like well the population vote was 39 they want to hear what we're talking about so you need to have that with your with your community this is a bigger l than blue box like not at least blue box eventually becomes a room it does eventually um yeah ninja comedy first of all should not even be on

the nominations, let alone even being consideration to win and then actually winning. So this is the biggest L of the, the entire award so far. This was my biggest L. This was like, it was,

The only things I have heard about Ninja Kamui was that this show sucks. Yeah. I get why Metallic Rouge is on there, even though it's bad, because you have to play nice with Mappa. I get it. But like our Bones or whoever did it. Bones did Metallic Rouge. Yeah, that's whatever. The studio that shit the bed on that. You know, I didn't need Girls Van Cryder when I think it's the best of this options. But like, if it wasn't just something that I only knew for being bad.

it would have stung less. Yeah, 100%. Just for reference, Ninja Kamui on Mal 6.62, Girls' Band Cry 8.38. So yeah, 6.62 is legitimately hard to do. 1.75 points better. Like that is that is very bad. That's very bad. Yes, that is like being in the sixes is hard. It just sort of means no one really liked your show. Yep. Best new anime. Okay.

This is going to be weird for us because a lot of these, like, because of the timing on this, it's like a lot of these shows have had like 48 episodes or whatever now.

Dan to Dan delicious and dungeon free run. I drew number eight solo leveling and the apothecary diaries. So we're seeing, you know, these shows reappear a lot, which makes sense. You picked free rent. I picked the apothecary diaries. We've, we've had this out a few different times. What are your thoughts here? Pete? Yeah, this is one where it's like, okay, shows are going to be getting multiple seasons going forward out of the six, which ones are either your favorite or best or popular or,

I don't know if I have like an issue with any of these winning because it's sort of just like a number eight. I wouldn't pick it to win, but like if someone picked number eight to win, like this is a whatever category.

like it doesn't say anything about the show like it doesn't say that it is beautifully animated or has good fights or has good dialogue it just it's just the best news it just means it's at least okay and it's a new series it's at least it's okay and it's probably getting multiple seasons i picked freerun i just think in terms of like the juggernaut of that what that franchise is

I think it's there. However, you know, soul leveling is getting pushed out the ass with Crunchyroll being awards. I picked free ring. Soul leveling is going to win. You got to repeat the what? The what? The jugger what? The juggernaut? You said nut. You said the juggernaut. I'm the juggernaut.

Which is really funny. Anyways. Oh, sorry. I missed a vowel. Whatever. Just because you said the word nut, dude. That's why I'm laughing. I wasn't trying to. Yeah, well, you should like the humor. It is funny, but you're making fun of me, so I don't like it. Okay. Okay. The winner of this is.

solo level sure um so good call on that um i mean it would not be my first choice but it's probably my third favorite out of what we had listed so um yeah it'd be three or four i'll take it yeah it's fine yeah whatever okay best continuing anime there's a lot of categories by the way um we got three left right something like that i just remember when i started making this and i finished like

all the music things i was like that's got to be most of them and there was like 20 left yeah there's like 18 there's 24 categories okay we got bleach thousand year blood war we got demon slayer uh the training arc uh we have my hero academia one piece oshino ko and spy family we both voted for oshi no ko uh it's not winning i'll tell you that much i think this is the

The one piece wins it because it's like the only thing it was really nominated for. The, the, the OP got nominated earlier than the fan letter got nominated. But like, this is like the only like one piece show that,

nomination and i think it won it last year so this is like the one piece thank you for existing and making so many people anime fans award yeah it's like it's been running forever it makes sense like i guess if any category to win for one piece to win continuing series makes the most sense to me so though i do think oshino ko is the best pick i'm gonna pick uh one piece that wins it what if i were to tell you

That it wasn't one piece. Bleach, maybe? Demon Slayer. Why? Why? I don't... Dude, these people... They like Demon Slayer. Yo, like, come... I know it's... I know I'm running a little bit on fumes right now. We've been going for, like, an hour, almost two hours. Look, I don't want to say anything bad about people who are voting Demon Slayer in this, but you are legitimately incorrect. Like, straight up. I'm sorry. My understanding, though, is that this arc...

the fans are like whatever on it like people who are big demon slayer fans are just sort of like i'm pretty sure it's the lowest rated demon slayer arc so far it's i i know like the content of it i read the manga so like i know what this arc covers so it's just like it's just it's a setup arc like yes things happen in it but it's

It's not Tokyo blade. Like it's not like, I'm sorry. Whatever happened in one piece. I don't know what happened. One piece. I guarantee you it's more impactful than whatever happened in fricking demon slayer. Like I guarantee it. Uh, this is, this is a bad, I would say this is, is this an L?

you could say it's an L. I think that with the understanding, yeah, like from people I have talked to who love Demon Slayer, they're like, this arc is whatever. Like, it's not bad. We still like it, but like, it's not what you're looking forward to or whatever. Exactly. But I don't know. Maybe, maybe it is good. And also it's just a very popular show, which probably helps. There's multiple people in our discord that like when it was Aaron, it's like,

Demon Slayer. Cool. Cool episode. That was it. Like, that was the end of the conversation. It's like, and when I read it, I was just like, all right, we're just literally setting up for the Infinity Castle. Like, that's what this arc is for. It is to set up the grand finale. So like if Infinity Castle or whatever is called wins, I get it. But this, no, this is this is a lowercase L. Film of the year. Oh, you don't get to see my little joke here. Oh, shucks.

We have Haikyuu, The Dumpster, and I wrote Anime instead of Battle. Miles, you're so fucking funny, bro. I know. Thank you. We have Look Back, which you voted for. It is the favorite on the betting markets. We have Mononoke, The Phantom in the Rain, which I voted for. Loved it. Which is not the betting favorite. I'd be shocked if anybody else watched that movie.

We have My Hero Academia, You're Next, which sort of sounds like a threat. Guess what, bitch? We have Spy Family Code White and The Colors Within.

I have seen five of the six of these movies and kind of like a whatever year for movies, I would say in terms of how many we got not in terms of quality because Haikyuu, Look Back and Monoke I gave tens and Colors Within and Code White I gave nine. So like I really enjoyed the movies that we got. I picked Look Back. I think it should win and will win. I think Look Back was fantastic.

It definitely deserves film of the year, but I'd be okay with, you know, Monoke has no chance, but I'd be okay with it winning. And Haikyuu, I would say, has an outside chance. And I loved the movie. So, okay. I just want to take this moment to air my grievances on Haikyuu. I enjoyed this movie. I think I gave it an eight. You watched the Dungaree Battle? Yes. Oh, I had no idea. I have watched all of Haikyuu that is available so far. Per my legally bonding contract with Galaxy.

You're a legend. Yeah, well, anyways, so I thought these two fighting Hinata and Blonde Hinata was sort of like endgame because Nekoma, that's who they are, right? They've been touted as the big bad this entire series. They have not. They have. I've watched it in the last year. No way. They are not. There's no way they're considered like the top.

And then we just learn about some school we've never heard of. And they're secretly the best once this arc starts. And they have black haired Hinata, who's even shorter. Or does he have white hair? I can't remember. Other Hinata. Yeah, you should. He's going to be the antagonist of the climax of the series. I should rewatch the movie. He's like also very short.

You don't hear my thoughts since I don't remember. We did a movie review of the Haikyuu movie. Okay, I will do that then. Anyways, I was just sad that Haikyuu has done this to me a few times where they fight people we know and then like another school shows up and I've never heard of them and they don't matter. Like when they beat those people to go fight Shirakawa, like I thought that guy was going to be like the main thing to get into nationals, but then they just didn't.

They just they are like, oh, here's the guy who's actually even better that we've not talked about until now. And I was like, that's that's kind of lame. Anyways, it was a good volleyball match. I thought it was fun. I thought the characterization was good. But Haikyuu keeps on rug pulling me on who the actual like best volleyball team is. And it annoys me. That being said, it's a good movie. And that being said, the winner is Look Back.

Woo! As it should. Which I think is, yeah, not surprising. Yep. Okay. Anime of the year. We are finally here. Now, I want to see if you can guess the nominees for this. Well, they already been out. So it's what? Free Run, Apothecary, Kaiju, Solo, Dungeon Meshi, Danadan? That's exactly it. Okay. Yep. These are, you might notice, the exact same nominees from Best New Anime.

What won Best New Anime? Solo Leveling. Okay, Solo Leveling is the only anime of the year then. That's my pick. Not a bad guess. Going off of precedent, I voted Apothecary Diaries, you voted Free Rin. The betting favorite was Free Rin. Yeah, and Free Rin should win. Same thing when I go back to my Best Animation discussion. I think

freerun is a generational anime i think it's something that will be talked about for decades for what the show did i think it's just above everything else that came out last year even though there are stories that i love that came out next year i don't think anything even comes close to touching freerun yeah i think apothecary dives is better than freerun uh i get it

I don't really have it. Look, I'm happy it's here. I'm happy it got nominated for anime of the year because honestly, we have five shows that predominantly feature action and

All of that. And then we have like an historical piece. So I'm just excited to be at the party. That is, you know, my thoughts on it, even though I would love it if it won. And I think it should. I really do love free run. Free run would be my second place vote. And then I would go solo leveling.

And probably Dungeon Mesh-y, and then Dan to Dan, and then I would probably say some anime that aren't on this list. You look so lovely more than Dungeon Mesh-y. I do. That's honestly super surprising. It is super surprising, but it's also not surprising. The reason it's not surprising is because I have said Dungeon Mesh-y would be better if they didn't cook in it. That's true, you did say that. You hate one of the main focal points of that story. Um...

There's a lot of good things in Dungeon Messy, and there's a lot of things that I was personally a little bored with. But I guess to score things out really quick, I gave Apothecary Diaries a free run 10. I gave Solo Leveling a 9. I gave Dungeon Messy an 8. And I like Dungeon Messy. It's just not my particular cup of tea. Before you get to the winners, though, I just got to say, in terms of this...

I would be cool with it next year. If soul leveling season two was on anime of the year, I think this is maybe part of my rant that I want to get to, but I think including something like season one of soul leveling, when you are the crunchy roll awards, uh,

And I understand that you are wanting to promote shows that you are putting a lot of money into it. Like I get it. I get why Kaiju number eight and soul leveling are on everything. I think if you've noticed Kaiju number eight has won nothing so far. It has not. No. Until I don't think it's winning, which would be, it would be very on brand for Kaiju number eight to win anime of the year and nothing else.

um the devil may cry baby yeah right um yeah i just think for i like i like soul leveling like i i think season two is a significant step up from season one so season one being included in a lot of these to me is a slap in the face i think it's really just like there's like a level of like corporate greed where you need to stop

I'm a huge wrestling fan and WWE. They do promotional stuff all the time. Like to get, you know, there's the prime logo in the center of the ring. And then there's like a prime hydration stand on the side to get the, the prime sponsorship. Like, I think it's stupid, but I understand why it is there in terms of that. But if you have 40 prime advertisement somewhere, that's too much. And it's like, you're pushing away, uh,

what makes you know like why we are here and it is a little ironic that crunchyroll started off as like a pirating site and is now just like a corporate whatever it is but when you when you want to show when you want to showcase the year that it was 2023 we had hundreds hundreds of seasonals is season one of solo leveling really a top six show is kaiju number eight really a top six show

And I think even somebody who has watched 30, 20 seasonals would say no. Like it's not even close to the same level in production and in talent and the outcomes of the stories that we've gotten compared to something like free run compared to something like delicious and dungeon. Like, I just don't think that there are, they, these should be left off of like the anime of the year. And we should actually showcase what was, uh,

the top six shows and yeah i think on this list there's three of them that should not be so while i'm cool with a four yeah while i'm cool with soul leveling being on like some of the other ones i think it should absolutely not be on here and it sucks because it's probably going to win like yeah i it shouldn't but i guess like i think it's like a hard thing to do and it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy right they push these shows

So I have friends at work who aren't seasonal watchers who watch a couple of anime at a season, maybe like two or three, right? Like they don't even know what a seasonal is though. That's just happens to be what they're watching. Yeah. And like, they will talk to me about Kaiju number eight. They will talk to me about solo leveling. They will talk to me about free run. In fact, they will talk to me about five of these shows. Yep. Um, now some of these shows are worthy as you, as you've said, um,

you know, I think we have like two Netflix shows on here. Um, and you know, and they're not afraid to put non things, but when stuff gets promoted, um,

More people watch it. And then when you have these awards, which are clearly influenced by popularity to a very large amount, it's self-fulfilling. You know what I mean? Like, I don't even know if it's Crunchyroll's greed because someone is paying the money to promote Kaiju number eight everywhere. Right. So they do that. So a ton of people watch Kaiju number eight and Crunchyroll has pull from

you know if there were a high dive awards um you know one they would somehow be worse than this even though it would be hard yeah um and like they wouldn't work right they would just like have anime from 2007 on there or something um but like that the the brand high dive wouldn't be drawing in as many people as crunchyroll like i know a lot of people who are anime casuals who are

watch Crunchyroll. They have a Crunchyroll account, but they're not going to look for anime anywhere other than Crunchyroll and Netflix. And honestly, that gets you 90% of the way there. You know, and that's not me, like,

I don't know. I'm not trying to like get, keep that, you know what I mean? So if you're trying to, you promoted these shows and some large percentage of your audience, like, like any given audience, a larger percentage of it is going to be casuals than like diehards. Right. You know, we're in a community where out of the people who do seasonal reviews and stuff, I'm watching like somewhere between eight and 12 seasonals a season and

And that is low for our community. Yes. That is very high for your average person who is

interested in this you're in the top one percent i would say exactly we're in the same percentile probably and you watch probably twice as much as me if you're rounding to your nearest one yeah yeah i gotcha yeah um um obviously you know you're probably like 99.9 or whatever but um i guess my thought is like i don't know how much of it is corporate greed because you have shows here where

and shows of one that aren't crunchy roll shows uh yeah but that's like we i think we got there's like a pre-sony era and a post-sony era and we are in a post-sony era and i think we're going to continue to see stuff like this where i mean i agree but delicious and dungeon is a netflix show and dan to dan is a netflix show and they i think that's on both

Was it on both? I think it's on Crunchyroll and Netflix, if I'm not mistaken. Okay, I did. I saw it premiering on Netflix for what it's Science Saru. It was almost certainly Netflix, I think, actually, because they have that deal with Netflix. Yeah, Dada Dada is on Crunchyroll.

Oh, okay. Count it. So Delicious in Dungeon, a show which has won zero awards, but has been nominated for many, you know, was on there. But no, you do raise a good point there. I don't know. I just don't know how much of it is like a chicken or an egg thing, right? Like whoever, like Toho Animation pays them a billion dollars to promote Kaiju No. 8, what are they going to do? Say no? Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, and then everyone knows who Kaiju number eight is now, and they'll be disappointed if it's not on this list. We're on the same wavelength. We're on the same wavelength. But there is a limit that we don't know until we feel it. Where it's like, okay, this is oversaturation of Kaiju number eight. This is oversaturation of Soul Lovelink. I don't think that...

I don't know how many people share this opinion, but I think it's just kind of what it is. And the truth is in the West, this is viewed as our Oscars, whether we like the production value that goes into it. And like, that's what sets it apart from like anime corner, anime trending. What do you say? Anime award? It's like, yeah, well, this is industry people. Yeah. They put this on industry. They put hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to it. And so it's like when you are, I guess, I guess it's like this. It's,

You have a, you have a, like whatever the public thinks about you. And when we come to stuff like this, you get to choose how greedy or how out of the loop you want to be in terms of wanting to push the product. I just think this year it was too much. It reminded me a lot of the, my hero academia awards when that one, everything, it was dominated for everything. And we saw like, I, maybe I thought it might be a little different from the

like changing how we structure things like last year where we saw chainsaw man get nominated for like 25 things in one one and it's just like okay maybe the big shonen properties aren't going to win everything and this year it's like i feel like we're going back a step instead of going forward but i guess we still need to hear what one because if something we do if delicious and dungeon one i i think that's all like cultural is like on brand for like so many different things like

like it's done the thing where it's like the super popular shonen series wins 15 categories but then anime of the year is some random show that like 15 people watched like when apari ranman got nominated for anime of the year it's like who the fuck watched apari ranman i did i dropped it um or we can do the my hero academia awards where it's nominated for 17 things and wins 14 of it i just think of how we're how we're feeling right now man

soul leveling is gonna win i just know it's gonna win just say it yeah solo leveling one son of a bitch um that's what there is i did do a joke and i thought you'd be looking at the slides where i say free you're in and i say lol jk solo leveling one so um i think that's funny you know as someone who um as someone who has been defending solo leveling a good amount because i do enjoy it right like you said is it the top six it's not in my top six anime

um of last year i presume because like off the top of my head i can think of four that i would place higher um yeah so it's not hard to get those other two and you know i just can't think of them like right off the top of my head but you know i do agree like i i think it's it's interesting how it goes like we have

Well, what do we have here? So we have... Is Delicious in Dungeon a shounen or... It's a seinen. A seinen. Okay, so we have, what, two seinen, three shounen, and a manhwa. Which, yeah. I mean, if we had... If we had that, if it was made in Japan, it would probably be shounen. It's a shounen. So...

Yeah. Yeah. That's sort of, I guess the apothecary diaries is a light novel. Yeah. It's, it's manga is a sign in. Yeah. That's a little different, but yeah, it is a sign in. So interesting. Yeah. That, that was it. I wasn't the most upset with it. I think it's wrong mind you, but again, it was like my third favorite show of this list, but I do understand that it's not the correct choice because I think like one, like,

does it should it even be here when it's like an intro arc sort of thing and we have an arc that pretty much everyone agrees is better going on right now and then we have you know shows that we love like girls been cried that the demons etc that aren't on this list like at all you know so yeah i i just remembered something about this year's

awards compared to what does it include yeah yeah and the fact that freaking jjk won anime of the year last year for hidden inventory which is six episodes or whatever and shibuya is not nominated for anything in this award yep jjk was nominated for one thing turkish voice actor or something yes it was hindi voice hindi um yeah man it's just

The structure of this year, like with them doing like the time frames that they're doing, like including shows from 2023. That way they could even they can like flatten it for the years following. Like I get it, but it just seems really clunky this year. Like what I think is weird is that this is a larger selection of shows than we are ever going to see and have ever seen. And.

I don't know. Even though I like a lot, a lot of, well, I think so because like that, that are in the pool, right? Because it's starts at 2023 and it goes through what? Oh, in terms of that. Oh yeah. I thought you meant like number of shows actually nominated. Okay. No, no, no, no. That's what I'm saying. So like that, even though I like a lot of these shows, right? Like I, I love Freer. Should it be nominated for best drama? I don't know. I don't. Yeah. Like, yeah. Like,

you know, like for that aspect of it, unless it's just like, it's tough because you could be like, okay, what's the best show that could reasonably qualify as a genre? And then of course it should be in there. Yeah. But do you want to be like, what shows are the best because of the drama that they have? I would say no. Yeah. Agreed. So,

I mean, that gets, that gets to the end of it. I guess what I would say more than anything is it's, I know it's just, I have a selfish need or want because we have our own awards, but really find a community that you mesh with at least like, I don't know, 60% of the time. It doesn't have to be a hundred percent. You're never going to find that, but find like a community and mesh with that you mesh with and like engage with those people who

And have like your own awards and whatever, because, you know, we see different communities with like anime trending and anime corner where they have like their skews towards different shows that I'm not particularly a fan of. But like, if you are like, that should be your, your like, um, crown jewel. Like that should be like the award show that you, um,

are wanting because like for me as somebody who does this like I take so much time to go not only consume all of these shows but like have an unbiased reasoning of like why these shows should be included and when you when I do it I would love to see it reciprocated within like with these awards and other words when you don't see that when you see like shows that like are so out of left field that

It, to me, it kills like credibility. And it also just, to me, it shows that like you're doing this for different reasons. So I would just say, if you like our awards, I would love if you continue supporting it. But if you love other people's awards, continue to support them and just make the best that you can with like the medium that we love, because I know people show on the Oscars all the time and people show on the crunchy roll award all the time. And I just, I guess to me, I don't want crunchy roll awards to be something that we,

are planning on shitting on every year and that's kind of what it is yeah i you know i i agree with that i think it's interesting because it's almost the opposite problem that the oscars have where the oscars tend to get a bit self-gratulatory yeah 100 because right where they you know there was that whole period where they did a whole bunch of like white savior stuff to like show how much they cared about like minorities and everything and like

and fucking oh my god what is that what is that movie with the cops no it's like there's like a cop and then he like learns to hate black people and then everyone was like oh is it the jake gyllenhaal movie no that's nightcrawler no that's a different jake there's a jake gyllenhaal maybe i've never seen crash

Anyways, that movie fucking sucks. Picture. There's a few movies that fucking suck in one. Fucking Fargo. Not Fargo. Argo. I was going to say, Fargo kicks ass. No, Fargo is great. Argo, which is a movie. Yeah, that was all right. It was okay. Yeah. Best picture? No.

That's what Soul Leveling is to me. Soul Leveling is Argo. That's fair. Ben Affleck wasn't even nominated for Best Director and then it won Best Picture. Anyways, point being, and then the time they were like, fuck it, Leo, here, have an award. The Reverend, yep. There you go. Yeah, which was fine. It was a good movie, but that's it.

And all this to say there's a lot of politics that go into something when it becomes the scale of any of these things, right? Like the Oscars or even smaller, like the Crunchyroll Awards. There's still going to be a lot of politics involved. You want to make people happy that are supporting you. You want to make people happy who are industry...

You know, you don't want to piss people off you're working with. That is inherent. So the benefit of a smaller communities, you know, like Pete has shouted out like Anime Corner, Anime Trainings, us, whoever, you know, your feet, like even fucking Trash Taste or something, right? Like even a podcast that's the biggest anime podcast is so much smaller compared to this. They can do whatever they want because it doesn't really matter. Yeah.

We can talk shit about Kaiju number eight and the people that paid us tens of million dollars to promote it a ton are not going to be upset because they don't care because we have...

a thousand listeners, like, which is nice. So just try to find a community that you jive with. And if you like the country award award winners, like for sure, fuck with it. I don't care. I think that that's good. And I think it shows generally what the most popular shows are in the community, um, from like a grander scale. And so if that is what you want to engage with, please do. If you want to find a more niche community, please do.

unless you voted for blue box. Yeah. If you vote for blue box, get out of every community. Like, uh,

You need to read a book. That wasn't our biggest sell of the day, though. What was your biggest sell? It was Demon Slayer winning best. No, Girls Band Cry. Ninja Kamui winning. Yeah, Ninja Kamui. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Girls Band Cry. But I don't think there's anyone who liked Ninja Kamui. I don't. That's so weird. Yeah, maybe people had just seen it, and that's why it won. Maybe. Because it's like, I've seen the show. Girls Band Cry is on Crunchyroll. Go watch it.

Yeah, it took him a while. It did take him a while, but it's there. Okay. Anyways, I am tired. I'm sure you are tired. This was a long episode, but I had fun, as always, talking anime with you, Pete.

um the only bad thing about long episodes like this is now we're at the point and where it's weather outside where now my room is like 97 degrees because my computer heated my room so i'm sweating my balls off so let's wrap up the show miles thank you for making that sick ass powerpoint uh you didn't have to but you did so i want to say thank you for that i want to say thank you to everybody out there who is watching or listening if you want to support us

Best way to do so is to like, comment, subscribe, leave a review on whatever platform you are either watching or listening to us on. Next week for Watch Club, we are doing Aka 13. Otherwise, if you're here for non-Watch Club stuff, we are bringing back the fan favorite, our eighth edition of the MyAnimeList review game in two weeks. So stay tuned for version eight of MyAnimeList. Other than that, thanks, and we'll see you next time. Peace! Bye-bye! Bye-bye!