Get Your Tomatoes Ready Because Here We Have the Worst Anime of the Summer 2018 Season

ragnarok10e2

If you missed it, earlier today the best of the season came out so if you would rather celebrate the successes of the season than wallow in, or jeer at, the misfires I recommend you check it out. In the meantime, a reminder that worst anime of the season is still an anime good enough to be watched through. Voters are asked not to vote for shows they haven’t watched. So while the anime in the list below and as the voters choice are problematic, there are most definitely worse anime out there.

Without any further ado, let’s get into the list.

Worst Story – 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

I almost gave this to The Master of Ragnarok, but then I realised there was a show that did even worse with its premise. Despite the set up being that the Princess has to wake up the princes, other than the very first prince, none of the princes are actually sleeping. Couple this with the fact that I got to the end of this and still have no idea what the overall goal is given the characters just seem to wander around and react to stuff, and basically the story is all but missing in action. A thin excuse to encounter various ‘prince’ types so that fans of the game can get all excited to see their favourite character for the two seconds of screen time they get before the main characters move on.

Worst Visuals – Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion

Angolmois Episode 10 Teruhi

The filter is hideous. There’s no way to sugar coat it. When you have ugly character designs, a bland colour palette and then over the top of the lot you put that filter that just makes everything look like we’re watching it through smudged glasses that keep moving, this anime well and truly deserves the label of worst visuals for the season. While there are some good moments in the story, you do have to accept it is just going to be truly disgusting to look at.

Worst Opening – 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

100 Sleeping Princes Episode 4

Seriously, this one is a thin excuse to pan over the cast of various princes we’ll encounter. The music is dull and borderline put me to sleep and the slow pan with almost zero animation over various characters, most of which we’ll encounter once at best throughout the season and then never hear from again, and to be honest I skipped this opening more often than I watched it.

Worst Character – The Cast of the Master of Ragnarok tied with Mineta (My Hero Academia)

Mineta had to be here. Seriously, if someone could just go through every episode of My Hero Academia and erase the bug from existence, I’d be really, really happy. There isn’t one scene he is in that is actually necessary and he contributes nothing. However, he does eat screen time on what I’m guessing someone thought were comedic moments but mostly I’m just left disgusted with his presence and he’s becoming increasingly annoying as the franchise continues. That said, it would be a mistake not to mention the incredibly bland and undeveloped cast from The Master of Ragnarok. And yes, I know that is two seasons in a row where I’ve given the title of worst character to an entire cast, but trust me, they earned it.

And now…

Worst Anime of the Spring 2018 Season – The Master of Ragnarok

Ragnarok9d

Yep, there were plenty of shows I liked less than this one, however I dropped them and didn’t finish watching. That just left this one on my list to leave as the worst of the season. Angels of Death got an early drop, Holmes of Kyoto hung in a bit longer but bored me to tears and so I gave up. Other early drops include Island and Lord of Vermillion (which definitely deserves a mention). Still, Ragnarok set up what could have been an interesting enough story, did absolutely nothing with it, and then totally flubbed its ending. It really deserves this placement.

Finally, Reader’s Choice

With 103 votes, making it the most votes ever for a worst of the season, the competition was pretty much won early on, but a last minute rally behind a show that really stuffed its ending brought us to a tie (won’t they be so proud). Anyway, the results of the readers poll:

worst-of.jpg

And so we have a tie between Angels of Death and The Master of Ragnarok.

Angels of Death took a very early lead in the poll. I think the disappointment factor may have played a role given how hyped up the show was before it began airing. Then, after the final episode of Master of Ragnarok, its votes took off and it caught up. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that I’d held out hoping the show would get better only for the final episode to kick me in the teeth.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.

Summer 2018 was definitely not the highlight of the anime year, but we still had some fun titles to watch. As we move into Autumn, let’s keep our fingers crossed for something amazing, and if not, we can always vote for it being the worst of the season.


Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

avatar

Consider supporting the blog by:

Patreon2
Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com
x click but21

Or use one of my affiliate product links:


	ANIMATION KEY FRAME ARTS OF YOSHIHIKO UMAKOSHI VOL.1 - PICTURE BOOK Media Pal

Drum Roll For The Best of Summer 2018 Anime Announcement

Cells at Work Episode 12 - Platelet

Summer has indeed had its ups and downs and to be honest, it is probably the weakest of the seasons 2018 has offered us so far. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a whole lot of fun to follow, review, and discuss. However, I did find if a lot harder than normal to narrow down my choices for best of the season given there was a lot that was kind of okay but nothing that really demanded I pay attention to it. (Banana Fish and Attack on Titan Season 3 are missing from my own awards as they are both going to continue on to the next season).

As always, thanks to people who voted in the poll for best of the season. After I get through my picks, I’ll announce the winners of the reader’s poll.

To my awards…

Best Story from Summer 2018 – Steins;Gate 0

Steins23d

While there’s some questionable execution and pacing issues with this story, in terms of the story I was most interested in following, Steins;Gate 0 wins hands down. Angolmois is too straight forward, How Not To Summon a Demon Lord was entertaining but not exactly a riveting narrative. There just hasn’t been much that I’ve watched this season with an overly interesting plot so Steins;Gate 0 remained my favourite story of the season even if I did criticise it, a lot.

Best Visuals from Summer 2018 – My Hero Academia Season 3

Hero61a

Bones continues to deliver some quality visuals and animation in My Hero Academia this season. While I felt the characters and the plot were a fair bit weaker than season 2, the visuals did not drop the ball and whatever scene we were watching was delivered with impressive or interesting visuals.

The fight between Midoriya and Bakugou is probably the stand out from the second half, but realistically the action in My Hero Academia is always exciting to watch. It would be nice to see the kids get into a wider variety of settings from time to time, but this is still my visual pick for the season.

Best Opening from Summer 2018 – Cells at Work

Cells at Work - Episode 2 - Platelets

Am I coming up with excuses to include platelets? Definitely. But because I took Attack on Titan out of the running, I had to choose the opening to Cells at Work as my favourite. It is good fun with a lot of energy and I loved that for one episode we even had different characters singing the opening. It was a surprise and a bit of fun. This one really suits the show and just gets you excited for the adorableness to follow.

Advertisements

Best Character from Summer 2018 – Diablo (How Not To Summon a Demon Lord)

How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Episode 4

Right, so it is kind of rare for an isekai protagonist to make it into my favourite character list, but I really like Diablo. He’s great fun to spend time with and a lot of the draw for the show is his character. I would love to see more of him in a follow up season and just see if he learns to balance out his inner insecurities with his external demon lord persona. One thing I know for sure is that it will be fun.

And of course, cutest character from Summer 2018 goes to the the Platelets

And now…

Best Anime of the Summer 2018 Season – Cells at Work

Cells at Work Episode 8

Having taken out Attack on Titan and Banana Fish from the running, I was pretty much left with Cells at Work, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord or Phantom in the Twilight as shows I genuinely enjoyed this season. Phantom in the Twilight fell short with its ending. How Not To Summon a Demon Lord is fun and all, but it isn’t without its issues. So the anime that was most consistently entertaining this season was Cells at Work.

I’m actually fairly surprised that this is my best of the season, but it kind of speaks of how hit and miss the season has been. That said, this one is a fairly solid piece of entertainment. It isn’t going to change the world, but it is a great way to spend a Sunday morning and it certainly kept me entertained this season. I even learned a couple of things from it.



Finally, Reader’s Choice – Best Anime From Summer 2018

Voting was incredibly close and also pretty scattered this season. By the final days the top two were deadlocked and remained that way until the final hours of the vote. With 178 votes this is the most participated in vote to date so hopefully we can continue to grow this number and make the data more reflective of the community as a whole. Still, here are the results.

Best of

And the winner is… Banana Fish.

Banana6b

Totally not surprised, though I am amazed at how close the vote was between Cells at Work and Banana Fish with Attack on Titan dropping off early on. Still, all three of these will go on to the best of the year poll joining the best from the last two seasons and whatever wins the Autumn poll. I’m also throwing My Hero Academia into the best of the year poll because amazingly I totally left it out of this vote (whoops).

Anyway, Banana Fish has kind of taken over my twitter timeline most weeks after the episode airs so I’ve really enjoyed it and there are some really excellent blog posts being written about the series so I can tell there are some really big fans out there. Hopefully the second half is as entertaining as the first was.

Thanks everyone who participated in the vote. We say farewell to another season of anime but enter a new one with all new possibilities laid out before us. Check back later for my worst of the season poll.


Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James



And Now… The Results of the Worst of Spring Reader’s Poll Are Here!

defense11b

If you missed it, the best of the Spring 2018 season reader poll results can be found here.

For those who are new to my end of season awards, I’ll just remind you that worst of the season is a slightly misleading term given I ask people to vote for a show they didn’t drop but was the worst thing they actually watched. That means there are plenty of anime out there that never get voted for that are significantly worse because people have simply dropped them without completing them.

First up, my choices for worst of the season.

Worst Story – Tokyo Ghoul: Re

Tokyo2b

It seemed mean to give it to Record of Grancrest War considering it already won this ‘honour’ at the end of the Winter season, and Tokyo Ghoul Re has it coming. No explanations, no attempt to link the previous anime season to this, and just abandoning the anime fans to muddle their way through was a really poor move. Worse, even when you look up all the things you need to look up, we essentially spend 12 episodes gaining very little ground and it is hard to see much point to most of this. There’s the ongoing issue of Haise finding his memories but that’s about three episodes worth of content stretched out and then there’s a bunch of stuff with side characters I was never made to care about. Basically, this one was a bit of a mess but if you just want some ghoul fight sequences, it might deliver that for you.

Worst Visuals – Devils’ Line

Devil6c

There was never any question on this category. Devils’ Line is ugly to watch whether it is the weird filter they put over scenes, the terrible effect used to make the vampires seem faster or whatever, or just the drab looking everything, it is hideous. While I appreciate not every vampire needs to be an Adonis existing only to draw the female eye, this show is just bad to look at.

Worst Opening – My Hero Academia Season 3

Hero47c

Yes, I hear your complaints and yet I’m standing by this choice. After some truly thrilling OP’s, My Hero Academia has delivered one that neither gets me fired up, nor visually interests me, outside of the final image of Midoriya standing with All Might. Basically I’ve taken to skipping the OP and am hoping for a mid-season change.

Worst Character – The Cast of Caligula

Caligula10b

This was probably a cheap call, and yet I knew my least favourite characters existed in this series and yet when looking at each one I can barely remember their names let alone distinguish one from the other in terms of which was a more poorly introduced, fleshed out or developed character. This cast is way oversized and not one of the characters pictured above does a single thing of consequence in the entire series (watch it, remove each of these characters, note how that makes no difference to the plot at all). So yeah, it is an entire cast but this is my choice for worst character this season (they even beat some of the choices I had from Grancrest).

And now…

Worst Anime of the Spring 2018 Season – Doreiku The Animation

Doreiku8e

I was really torn on this one. Caligula was a great contender for worst of the season as was Devils’ Line. But ultimately both of those had some redeeming qualities hiding deeply beneath layers of poor choices whereas Doreiku is just a concept thrown out there and then used by someone who doesn’t have a clue what to do with it. The first episode presents what could be a rich world of exploration about human desire and morality and ultimately the story barely manages to remain coherent and certainly doesn’t explore anything. It routinely shows us that the characters are horrible but that isn’t really exploration so much as just piling more mud onto what is already a mess. So despite having what arguably could have been one of the more interesting concepts this season, Doreiku has managed to be the anime I really wish I hadn’t stuck with.

Finally, Reader’s Choice

There was some tight competition for worst anime of the season that people actually watched and we ended up with a tie for third place. See the results for yourself.

Worst of Spring 2018.JPG

And so, with 9 votes, Darling in the Franxx won worst anime that people actually watched this season. I think the show’s popularity worked against it here because as bad as some of the other shows were, more people were watching Franxx. Still, you have to admit it became quite a mess as the series progressed.

Franxx20d

Devils’ Line therefore took a comfortable second place as worst anime closely followed by SAOA: GGO and Doreiku the animation in third place.

It seems like it has been a long season but now we are about to move into the Summer Anime season and begin it all again. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for some amazing stories, and for those anime that disappoint us, there’s always the chance to vote for it in the worst of Summer poll.


Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

avatar

Consider supporting the blog by:

Patreon2
Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com
x click but21

Here It Is! The Results of the Best of Spring 2018 Reader Poll!

hero academia 3 twenty three

Welcome to the Best of Spring 2018 and while we might say there were slightly leaner pickings this time around, as always it has been fun following the shows with others in the blogosphere and discussing from week to week. Whether that is the discussions around Wixoss, the laughing at Devils’ Line, or just being perplexed by what Grancrest planned to do next, there’s certainly been entertainment to be had this season. But now, even though some shows are yet to complete, it is time to reveal our choices for best of the season.

To my awards…

Best Story – Tada Doesn’t Fall in Love

Tada4d

I realise this is a really odd choice, but to be perfectly frank the story is what failed on so many of the shows I watched this season so Tada Doesn’t Fall in Love might be a fairly ordinary story, but it was at least competently handled from beginning to end. I nearly went with Wixoss, but unfortunately that story makes no sense unless you’ve watched the three prior seasons, so Tada it is.

Best Visuals – Darling in the Franxx

Franxx20j

This is another category I struggled with more than I should but this season nothing has really visually grabbed me or made me want to discuss it (outside of the anime that have been pretty terrible). Even Full Metal Panic isn’t exactly a visual masterpiece as it is trying to reconcile a look with its predecessor from 13 years ago. While Franxx may have its issues, it does at least have an interesting and memorable look about it.

Best Opening – Steins;Gate 0

Steins8d

Finally, an easy question. The opening here is distinct and really does set the tone of the story, while also being reminiscent of the original series. I really enjoy this OP each week. The only other one that really grabbed my attention was Space Battleship Tiramisu but that’s mostly because it got stuck in my head for hours after watching.

Best Character – Sousuke (Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory)

FMP4b

Okay, he had the advantage of already being one of my favourite characters from way back when and his return was greatly appreciated. Most so when I realised that the character progress he made during season 2, even if he had to break apart a bit to get there, was going to continue into this season. Sousuke is a dynamic character who might seem static at times but each event he goes through definitely leaves its mark and it is really rewarding seeing those small advances even if they are interspersed with some backsliding at times.

Best Slice of Life (First Time I’ve Ever Included This Category) – Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori

Biyori1d

I don’t normally get to the end of anything that would actually be described as a slice of life and I got to the end of my awards and realised that this consistent sweetness and relaxation in my week had come up dry. Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori isn’t a masterpiece or an unforgettable anything, but the number of times it gave me that moment of pure mental relaxation during the Spring anime season meant it deserved a mention here.

And now…

Best Anime of the Spring 2018 Season – Lostorage Conflated WIXOSS

Wixoss12a

This season there was probably plenty of doubt given so many shows were very hit and miss. But with Full Metal Panic giving us two recap episodes and then not finishing in time because of needlessly dragging out its run, My Hero Academia having another cour to go, and not much else that really made sit up and take note (though plenty of light entertainment shows this season), WIXOSS kind of won by default.

That isn’t to say it doesn’t deserve the victory. The culmination of four seasons of build up is a hard thing to pull off in a manner that satisfies and doesn’t feel anti-climatic and yet WIXOSS more or less accomplishes this with only a handful of minor areas where criticism could be laid. It isn’t the single most exciting thing ever, but nor does it need to be. It is a fairly solid work delivering a compelling conclusion that feels like it is giving the audience some closure.

Finally, Reader’s Choice

Voting this time round was scattered as it was clear there wasn’t one single title that people were getting behind. However two titles ended up gaining quite the lead and kept it most of the way with My Hero Academia only really gaining ground toward the end of the vote. Interestingly enough, I haven’t seen either of the top voted anime and will have to rectify that for one of them soon as it is available. The other I won’t be able to see unless it gets a DVD release or ends up going onto a different streaming service.

Best of Spring 2018.JPG

And the winner is… Hinamatsuri!

Hinamatsuri

Normally I would write something about the show and what I liked or didn’t about the reader’s choice, but I still haven’t actually seen this one so other than noting that it is on my watch list, I really don’t have a lot to say about it.

Wotakoi narrowly edged out My Hero Academia to take the third spot and Megalo Box is sitting in a comfortable second. These two along with Hinamatsuri will go into the poll in December for anime of the year. Interestingly enough, I watched none of these this season which could account for why I had a pretty slow season.

Thanks to everyone who voted and shared the poll. Be sure to check back for the worst of the season coming out later.


Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

avatar

Consider supporting the blog by:

Patreon2
Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com
x click but21

Best of Winter 2018

mummy10d

Welcome to the Best of Winter 2018 post where we look back on and celebrate everything great about the last season in anime. While we always find things to criticise and nitpick, it is important to remember the great things that anime gives us each season (which would be why we all keep watching season after season). Below are some of my favourites as well as the reader’s choice for the season.

To the awards…

Best Story – Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

Hakata11a

Is it the most original thing ever? Not really. It isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but it is competent. This is a story that knows not to introduce things without a purpose and doesn’t drag out its moments. With great pacing, some interesting developments, and some very cohesive writing, this is definitely my pick for story of the season.

Best Visuals – March Comes in Like a Lion 2

March43c

Do we need another retelling of why I think this show is visually amazing? This show just manages spot on representations of emotions and those intangible ideas that usually elude us when we try to explain them. It is fantastic to watch and always remains interesting.

Best Opening – Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

Hakata4d

Okay, it might just be something with me and jazzy openings but much like ACCA’s opening last year, this one I just genuinely enjoyed listening to week after week and it always put me in the mood to watch the show.

Best Character – Hina (March Comes in Like a Lion 2)

March36f

No doubt about it, Hina underwent the most interesting character arc of the season and even after her moment was done, she kept growing from the incident and interacting with others in a meaningful way. Hina and Rei are definitely amazing together and Hina was my favourite character of the season.

Bonus Category – Cutest Anime Character of the Season – Mii-Kun 

 

And now…

Best Anime of the Winter 2018 Season – March Comes in Like a Lion Season 2

March38g

Was there ever any doubt? Really?

Seriously, I loved this show. I loved everything about this second season. It had such an amazing impact on me and I looked forward to it each and every week. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to fill the space March has left in my line up (given it isn’t just watching the show, it is the processing of the episode that takes the time and then the rewatching, the basking in the screen caps, the discussing it, etc). Thanks everyone who followed along with my reviews of this one and joined in the conversations each week.

Finally, Reader’s Choice

Winter Best Of

Once again, the full graph wouldn’t fit properly, but here are the shows that were voted for. I will point out, that until the last hour, March Comes in Like a Lion was winning. In the final hour, two votes came in and knocked it down. Instead, we give the Reader’s Choice to A Place Further Than the Universe, which is more or less what I expected to see win when the voting started. It just took awhile to get going.

The vote was incredibly tight the whole time. Still, the top 3 titles have been decided and they will all go into the poll at the end of the year for anime of the year. So, I have three more seasons to convince everyone to vote for March Comes in Like a Lion (assuming nothing better comes out).

Again, thanks everyone for participating and hopefully you have had fun finding out what has won. Looking forward to what the Spring season has to offer and hopefully we’ll all do this again in three months to pick the best and worst of Spring.


Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

avatar

Consider supporting the blog by:

Patreon2           Thoughts on Anime            74iz

Worst of Winter 2018

hakata11e

First of all, I am going to re-explain that ‘Worst of’ is probably a misleading title for these given this is the worst of the anime I actually watched and when I ask people to vote for their ‘worst’ anime I ask them to vote for the worst one that they didn’t drop. What that means is, there are a lot of anime out there probably more unwatchable than anything that makes any of the lists here and I’m certain everyone has their own idea of what makes an anime the worst of the season, so I invite you to share your picks for worst anime of the season in the comments below and get a discussion going about how and why they failed for you.

To the awards… (Best of awards coming next post.)

Worst Story – Record of Grancrest War

Grancrest11e

Okay, I know this one isn’t finished yet, but really it is all over the place. It has almost no cohesion, character motives are vague or erratic, and plot points appear and disappear seemingly at random. Even with episode 12 indicating the show is going to pick up, it well and truly deserves the award for the episodes it gave us during the Winter season.

Worst Visuals – Junji Ito Collection

Junji12a

I know I did an article about whether something was atmospheric or poor visuals when I looked at Vatican Miracle Examiners, but Junji Ito Collection seems to have the same idea that just making things dark and ugly will somehow create horror. There’s plenty of other issues with the Collection, but the visuals most definitely made themselves noted for all the wrong reasons.

Worst Opening – The Ancient Magus’ Bride

Magus22d

Probably a controversial choice, but I really didn’t like the change from the first opening to the second. So, while this probably isn’t the technically worst opening, it is the one I resented the most during Winter.

Worst Character – Akira (Devilman Crybaby)

Devilman1a

I genuinely couldn’t stand him as a character. Mostly because he was a stand in for various ideals but not an actual character and while physically he underwent a massive transformation, he really didn’t get very far on a personal or emotional level.

And now…

Worst Anime of the Winter 2018 Season – Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Deathmarch8b

Seriously, I’d have dropped this if I hadn’t set the challenge to myself to watch an anime I’d actually read the source material for. I kind of regret that this was the anime I chose to start that with. It isn’t so much that this is an unwatchable anime. It is more that there is little to no point in watching it. While it does walk us through the events of the source material, fairly faithfully, they haven’t considered how to use the fact that it is an anime now to make it interesting for viewers. What is fun to read isn’t always fun to watch and adaptations need to understand what their audience are actually looking for.

Finally, Reader’s Choice

Winter Worst Of.JPG

I couldn’t include the graph from the poll as there were just too many titles to choose from and they wouldn’t fit in a way that made it possible to still read the graph. Instead, I included only titles that collected votes.

As you can see, we have a tie. People couldn’t decide whether Death March or Ito Junji: Collection deserved the title but both of them gained a respectable 10 votes in favour of them being the worst of the season. At one point, Darling in the Franxx was winning this poll, but after the initial votes, it kind of didn’t move again.

And there we have it, the worst of the season. Thanks everyone who participated in the poll. Be sure to leave a comment sharing your thoughts on the season below and be sure to predict what you think will win the best of poll.


Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

avatar

Consider supporting the blog by:

Patreon2           Thoughts on Anime            74iz

Feature: Popular Vote and the Aftermath of Yuri On Ice’s Winning Almost Everything

yuri6

A while back I wrote a feature on the cycle of love and hate in anime where pretty much anything that gained momentum through hype and popular appeal then became scrutinised to death and soon the negative bandwagon would start rolling down the hill trying to obliterate everything in it’s path (okay, I wasn’t that melodramatic but it kind of feels like that’s where this post needs to go). Because today I want to look at the fallout of Crunchyroll’s recent popular vote.

At the time I was commenting on the sudden popularity of Yuri On Ice and how I hadn’t intended to jump on the hype train but after watching it I was kind of dragged along (and of course we all know what happened next, I fully got on board because it was fun to be there).

yuri7

Anyway, toward the end of the post I said the following wondering what the aftermath for Yuri On Ice would be:

It will be interesting to see where the love/hate split for this anime ends up once the anime has ended. Will the series fail to maintain its standard but still keep those on the hype train sitting there? Will it falter so that those of us who came in out of curiosity (who aren’t totally in the fan category but are really enjoying it) start to pull more of the faults apart? Or will the hate bandwagon gain momentum and eventually win out? Or, will it actually be an incredible anime from start to finish?

I was kind of hoping that we’d end up in a happy middle with the major fans enjoying their fan moment, the rest of finding something to enjoy even as we picked at it, and the few haters throwing rocks from the sidelines. And though it may not seem like it, we have kind of ended up there.

After Crunchyroll announced the winners of their anime of the year awards (other than the anime of the year) the results were clear. Yuri won every category it was nominated for. The fans were thrilled, others were a little more guarded in their response, not disliking Yuri so much but also not convinced that it should have taken out so many awards, and some people were pretty annoyed.

What followed on Twitter was an explosion of tweets both positive and negative either supporting the vote or tearing the result apart, though some were fairly level headed.

Before we get to the tweets, I want to put my own thoughts out there. Yuri On Ice was my ‘best’ anime of the year but my selection was entirely based on entertainment value. And while I loved the animation (it was pretty) as a general rule other than something being visually appealing or not I don’t really care or comment on the technical side of anime because I am hopelessly unqualified to do so (I can’t draw stick figures let alone actually animate something).

Yuri On Ice also won my reader’s poll by one vote. As no one had to justify their votes I’m certain most of my readers just voted for what they enjoyed most from the year.

So was I happy that Yuri On Ice won a lot of awards? Absolutely. It shows the fans of the show were active during the voting and that it was loved by a lot of fans. Do I think that from a technical point of view Yuri should have won all of those categories? Probably not, but it wasn’t a technical score but a popular vote so all anyone can do is accept the outcome.

If you made one of the tweets below and want it removed from the post, please contact me and I will remove it. These have been chosen as examples of the range of opinions that were on display and are not intended to pass judgement on any individual’s opinion. Any inappropriate language has been crossed out.

I’m listening to the Yuri on Ice ending and it’s so beautiful it deserved winning best ending award! Thanks! ^^ #yurionice

IF ####### YURI ON ICE COULD WIN BECAUSE IT USED CHOREOGRAPHY WHY COULDNT ALL-OUT WIN THE ANIMATION AWARD FOR THE

yuri on ice is great but like it’s not great enough to win every anime of the year award? it was great but there were other amazing anime –

I’m still really upset that Yuri on Ice won the best animation of the year award instead of Mob Psycho but that won’t change anything

Okay which dumb### voted for Yuri on Ice to won most of the Crunchyroll award,get the #### out from my following list

I still can’t believe that Yuri on Ice has won so many undeserved award on Crunchyroll just because the fangirls are scary human beings

Congrat to Yuri!! On Ice 👏 won almost every anime award!! I’m so happy 😘😘 😂

I think this is reflective of the community at large, the issue being that those negative voice are getting louder and it isn’t the show they are criticising all of the time (which would be fine because there’s always some issues with a show you could point out) but there are a lot of posts attacking the fans of the show (and yes, I didn’t post some of the more offensive tweets I’ve come across because I don’t really want that sort of thing on my blog).

Amazingly enough in a popular vote, something that is popular (not necessarily good/or bad) will win. That’s a basic issue with awards being given through votes rather than some sort of criteria of selection panel (which is also able to become totally disconnected from the fans or just completely corrupt).

The other thing a lot of people haven’t considered is that for most categories people were given four choices that had already been selected (yes there was an other option but the likelihood of enough write in votes to overturn the options given is pretty low).

So the whole thing needs some perspective. These awards simply give the community a place to have their say about what they enjoyed, for whatever reason. Because it is a popular vote, whichever fandom has the most momentum at the time within the anime community is almost guaranteed to win. The only way for the results to be any different  in a popular vote is for a concentrated PR campaign to mobilise other fandoms prior to the voting commencing and getting sufficient voter turn out. And at the end of the day, it’s an online poll of anime shows.

Your thoughts on the awards and the fall out?


Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James