Board 8 > Anime of the Year 2020 - Results [AotY]

(+) Yeah! (+)

I didn't even consider nominating the ReZero OP because the show forgot it existed <_<

Very shocked to see no Eizouken!

Best Opening/Ending
+8 Daddy! Daddy! Do! (Kaguya OP)

+5 Easy Breezy (Eizouken OP)
https://youtu.be/8-91y7BJ8QA

+3 Lost in Paradise (Jujutsu Kaisen ED)

+2 Steal!! (Akudama Drive OP)
https://youtu.be/SJ8iRrphkQo

+1 Shoujo no Route wa Hitotsu Janai! (Villainous OP)
https://youtu.be/eBmYQpT0Mk4


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Best Opening/Ending
+8 Jujutsu Kaisen ED
+5 God of High School OP
+3 Eizouken OP
+2 Kaguya OP
+1 Great Pretender OP

JJK ED is both animation and song equally for me, love them both

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+8 Realize (Re:Zero OP)
+5 Kaikai Kitan (Jujutsu Kaisen OP)
+3 LOST IN PARADISE (Jujutsu Kaisen ED)
+2 Gomakashi (Magia Record OP)
+1 Megumi no Ame (Oregairu OP)

I dunno, Realize is... a good song? The OP's cool? I mostly vote based on the song I like the best, unless the style really grabs me. And Lost in Paradise is good for that. Never got Easy Breezy, I'm afraid.

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Most Anticipated Show
+5 Log Horizon S3
+3 Beastars S2
+1 Zombieland Saga: Revenge

I'm... fine enough with Re:Zero winning, but like LtM, it didn't really feel like a new show, so I didn't even think about putting it on the list.

Best Opening/Ending
+8 God Of High School OP
+5 Akudama Drive OP
+3 Kaguya S2 OP
+2 Eizouken OP
+1 Tonikaku Cawaii OP

This, I am quite disappointed in. Oh well.

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+8 Re:Zero S2 OP
+5 Major 2nd S2 OP1
+3 Tonikaku Kawaii OP
+2 Fire Force S2 OP1
+1 Eizouken ED

absolute banger of a song, the parts with Subaru walking past the moments in season 1 and the chorus stuff were just real good to me.

how much i like the song is like 75% of my reasoning for voting at least (which is why I have Eizouken ED instead of OP). Major 2nd had some great moments in it though around the chorus. Tonikaku was great all around but the moment in the Major OP where Daigo catches Mutsuko put it over. top 3 are all songs i've played countless times since they came out though

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I'm with you on Akudama!

God of Highschool's OP is good in a vaccum, but it commits the unforgivable sin of all the major shots being clips from the show, Ancient Magus Bride style, which completely disqualifies it from consideration for me.

Everyone leaving Chainsaw Man off their list for most anticipated has a big storm coming.

https://youtu.be/dgZtRAKfcgI

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Oh, I overlooked Most Anticipated got posted too.

+5 Machikado Mazoku 2nd Season!!!
+3 TWEWY
+1 SSSS.Dynazenon

Re:Zero might have edged out Dynazenon if I had considered it, but those top two are real heavy hitters.

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Best Drama

Runner-Up TIE: Akudama Drive/Re:Zero S2

Winner: My Teen Romcom SNAFU: Climax

Odd results here (not the winners). The above three pretty much dominated the category, with nothing else coming at all close. Only one other show even had three voters, and they were all low votes (ToG). Akudama and RZ had more first place votes than SNAFU did, but SNAFU got votes from almost everyone who submitted nominations. SNAFU was a real cool season, concluding the LNs and having some great episodes finishing off the main plotline and making the romance happen. It wasn't my favorite season, but it had some of my favorite episodes of the whole series, particularly the romance-y ones. Good times.
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Obvs can't complain here!

Best Drama
+8 Akudama Drive
+5 SNAFU Climax
+3 Talentless Nana
+2 Re:Zero
+1 Tower of God

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Best Drama
+8 Oregairu S3
+5 Adachi And Shimamura
+3 Akudama Drive
+2 Re:Zero S2
+1 Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Well it could have been better, but that's pretty damn good.

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Best Comedy

5. My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
4. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle
3. Bofuri
2. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War S2

Winner: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Bit of a funny category here. It got more voters than drama, and while Drama only had three shows that got more than a couple votes, comedy had five. It did share the fact that the top couple shows were way above the rest, though. Nothing else came close to Kaguya or Eizouken. Both of them got a whole lot of first place votes, and had a wide support base in general. Kaguya's the sequel to last year's most popular comedy, while Eizouken had a bit more to it than just the comedy elements, and of course, had some stunning animation as well.
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Best Comedy
+8 Kaguya S2
+5 Sleepy Princess In A Demon Castle
+3 Tonikaku Cawaii
+2 Hamefura
+1 Eizouken

I mean I guess I can't complain too much.
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At least Bakarina ranked!

Best Comedy
+8 Eizouken
+5 Kaguya
+3 My Life as a Villainous
+2 Bofuri
+1 Wave, Listen to Me

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Best Comedy
+8 Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
+5 Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Season 2
+3 Aggretsuko Season 3
+2 Great Pretender
+1 Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Yay my #1 and #2 happened

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Best Male Character

3. Rak (Tower of God)
2. Hoodlum (Akudama Drive)

Winner: Brawler (Akudama Drive)
http://www.surrealresolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Reservoir-Dogs-Hoodlum-and-Brawler-2.png

Wow, this category got a ton of different nominations. More than best female character, amusingly enough! Other than the three winners, every single first place character was only ranked by the nominator. There were a few others that got multiple rankings, but most of them were low (Kaburagi got three fifth place rankings, for example). Jujutsu Kaisen had the most characters nominated, so it could've done well, except that no one agreed on which of them was best (or even really liked more than one of them). Rak wasn't the only Tower of God character nominated, but Khun only had one person supporting him. And then we had the Akudama duo at the top, eternally together. They were the heart of the show, bringing the entertainment to all of their scenes together, and reminding all of us of what Kodaka could accomplish at his best.
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Wow, did not expect all this Akudama support! I didn't even vote Brawler (limited myself to 1 per series) and he still won!

Best Male Character
+8 Kento Nanami (Jujutsu Kaisen)
+5 Hoodlum (Akudama Drive)
+3 Kyouya Onodera (Talentless Nana)
+2 Kaimen (Dorohedoro)
+1 Kaburagi (Deca-Dence)

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Best Male Character
+8 Khun (Tower of God)
+5 Sukuna (Jujutsu Kaisen)
+3 Anos Voldigoad (Misfit of Demon King Academy)
+2 Rak (Tower of God)
+1 Nasa (Tonikaku Kawaii)

probably could have pushed anos down but meh didnt think too much about it

Best Comedy
+8 Kaguya S2
+5 My Next Life as a Villainess
+3 BOFURI
+2 Eizouken
+1 Isekai Quartet 2

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Rak really?

I think I can remember one or two good scenes with Rak in the entire webtoon and none of them would have been in season 1. He has gotten better later on in the series but he's still probably my least favorite major character.
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Best Male Character
+8 Brawler (Akudama Drive)
+5 Garfiel (Re:Zero)
+3 Hoodlum (Akudama Drive)
+2 Nanami (Jujutsu Kaisen)
+1 Shin (Dorohedoro)

Fuck yeah Akudama Drive.

Fucking watch it if you haven't.
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I couldn't come up with any new male characters I really cared about except Nanami, so I skipped. Not a great year for dudes, I guess. Until I watch Akudama Drive, at least.

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I didn't realize that Attack on Titan was eligible for Most Anticipated since it had already started before the voting period begain. I'm not sure if I would have voted for it, though. The three I voted for were Go-toubun, Bleach and TWEWY. Re:Zero 2 is a good choice, though.

After rewatching the Re:Zero 2 OP, I liked it more than I remember. I'm not really a fan of the Jujutsu Kaisen ED or Kaguya 2 OP. The Tonikaku Kawaii does look interesting, though.

Origairu was my second place pick for best Drama. I didn't like the most recent season as much as the previous ones but it's still a good winner. I have no idea what Akudama Drive is but if it ranked highly in Best Drama it is probably something I should check out.

I haven't seen Eizouken so I say much about the winner of Best Comedy. Kaguya-sama was my number 1=one pick. My second was the Konosuba movie. I remember Konosuba being really popular here so I wonder if being a movie was what held it back.

I pretty much had nothing for Best Male Character this time. My top pick was Yuuki from Priconne. >_> I guess I can interpret these results as more hype for Akudama Drive.
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was the konosuba movie this year? thought i watched it last year

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Japanese theatre date was Aug 2019. BD release was March 2020. I don't know if there was any US theatre showings in between.
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yea i watched it around november of 2019 in theaters myself but fair enough. would definitely be on my list if i considered it

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Id have given points to Konosuba movie if I watched enough of anything to bother with this. Incredible movie

Team Rocket Elite posted...

After rewatching the Re:Zero 2 OP, I liked it more than I remember. I'm not really a fan of the Jujutsu Kaisen ED or Kaguya 2 OP. The Tonikaku Kawaii does look interesting, though.

Tonikawa definitely seems like something you'd like, I think.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Origairu was my second place pick for best Drama. I didn't like the most recent season as much as the previous ones but it's still a good winner. I have no idea what Akudama Drive is but if it ranked highly in Best Drama it is probably something I should check out.

Akudama's a show from the writer of Danganronpa, with kind of a similar feel but in a totally different scenario (no trials or despair or anything). Quite well executed (and animated!).
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Akudama Drive is one of the best looking shows in years and it's from Pierrot. If we still had biggest surprise Akudama Drive would win it just for that alone.

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Best Female Character

4. Katarina Claes (My Next Life As a Villainess)
3. Koharu Hondomachi (ID: Invaded)
2. Sayaka Kanamori (Eizouken)

Winner: Echidna (Re:Zero)

This category had slightly more concentrated votes than the male category, and the top few actually got a ton of votes. Felt like some of the characters here were really well-liked! Katarina was the lovably dumb protagonist of a new style of isekai, Hondomachi got in as a cool psychopath/detective, and Kanamori was the lovably greedy driving force that made things happen in Eizouken. Echidna still dominated the rest of them though, even if they did all manage to get more votes than all the male characters. I haven't seen RZS2 yet, but it seems she's the star of the season, and is beloved by one and all.

Just one more category to go!
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Best Female Character
+8 Echidna (Re:Zero)
+5 Katarina Claes (Villainess)
+3 Sayaka Kanamori (Eizouken)
+2 Midori Asakusa (Eizouken)
+1 Endorsi Jahad (Tower of God)

good results

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Best Female character is always really hard. I liked Echidna a lot and still couldn't find room for her on my submission. My top pick for the year was Shokuhou Misaki from Railgun.
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This one didn't turn out AMAZING for me, but decent enough.

Best Female Character
+8 Katarina Claes (Next Life as a Villaous)
+5 Nana Hiiragi (Talentless Nana)
+3 Echidna (Re:Zero)
+2 Kanamori Sayaka (Eizouken)
+1 Swindler (Akudama Drive).

People need to watch Nana!

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I liked Misaki except for her rivalry with Mikoto. Their reasons for hating each other didn't make any sense and then insulting each other was never a highlight.
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+8 Echidna (Re:Zero)
+5 Alina Gray (Magia Record)
+3 Mizusaki Tsubame (Eizouken)
+2 Mitama Yakumo (Magia Record)
+1 Catarina Claes (My Next Life as a Villainess)

Echidna was great, Maaya Sakamoto is also great.

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Best Female Character
+8 Echidna (Re:Zero S2)
+5 Swindler/Ordinary Person (Akudama Drive)
+3 Sister (Akudama Drive)
+2 Iino (Kaguya S2)
+1 Elaina (Wandering Witch: the Journey of Elaina)

Not enough Akudama Drive love here.
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profDEADPOOL posted...

Not enough Akudama Drive love here.

The dudes got two!

Swindler was robbed.

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LapisLazuli posted...

The dudes got two!

Swindler was robbed.

Yes, "here" was referring to best female character specifically!

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Anime of the Year

5. Akudama Drive
4. My Teen Romcom SNAFU Climax
3. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
2. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken

Winner: Re:Zero Season 2

How nice that we got five series way ahead of the rest, and each of them was only two or three points behind the one ahead of it. It's nice that we got a mix of comedies and dramas as the winners, which I feel doesn't happen that often (though personally I would've had even more comedies, haha). The winners here were all well represented in other categories as well, with several of them showing up in multiple categories, and all except Kaguya winning at least one category. If you want to enjoy what B8 liked this year, these five are the anime to watch!
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Anime of the Year
+8 Re:Zero S2
+5 Haikyu! To The Top
+3 Major 2nd S2
+2 Kaguya S2
+1 Tower of God

cant wait for re:zero season 2 to win AotY in 2021 as well oh ya

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Anime of the Year
+8 Akudama Drive
+5 SNAFU Climax
+3 Eizouken
+2 Kaguya
+1 Talentless Nana

At least Akudama placed!

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i think you mean re:zero season 2 season 2

LapisLazuli posted...

At least Akudama placed!

Your top 4 all placed!
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also thanks for runnin it mac

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Mac Arrowny posted...

i think you mean re:zero season 2 season 2

Your top 4 all placed!

I more meant that I was going into this assuming Akudama would win almost nothing if anything.

I was kind of hoping it would win by the end of this with how it was going, lol.

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Most Anticipated Show
+5 Attack on Titan
+3 Re:Zero
+1 Promised Neverland

I'm surprised more ppl didnt vote for AoT. I know it's technically out, but if the OP/ED doesn't count then it should count for anticipated.

Best Male Character
+8 Hanako-kun - Toilet Bound Hanako-kun
+5 Akihito Narihisago - ID: Invaded
+3 Kaiman - Dorohedoro
+ 2 Nasa Yuzaki - TONIKAWA
+1 Kaburagi - Deca-Dence

This was a hard category, mostly because after like the top 3 on my list there were a lot of characters very close together. I've only seen 3 episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen, so I don't have enough of a grasp on anyone in it to vote on them. I was close to giving Hoodlum a vote.

Best Female Character
+8 Echidna - Re: Zero S2
+5 Tsukasa Yuzaki - TONIKAWA
+3 Koharu Hondoumachi - ID: Invaded
+2 Elaina - Wandering Witch
+1 Syalis - Sleepy Princess

I also considered Maple, Sayaka, Katarina, and Swindler.

Best Cast
+5 Akudama Drive
+3 Dorohedoro
+1 My Next Life as a Villainess

I tried to pick 3 shows where I thought the cast as a whole made the show really work and that gave them relatively equal importance throughout the show. I could not really bring myself to vote for Re:zero s2 since I like a lot of it because of how they've developed older characters. That said, if we were going to allow returning shows, Isekai Quartet 100% has the best cast.

Best Comedy
+8 Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!
+5 Aggrestsuko S3
+3 Seton Academy: Join the Pack!
+2 Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun
+1 Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

I thought comedy was pretty stacked overall this year. I haven't even seen Kaguya (which I've been on record to say I didn't really like the first season so I'm probably not going to watch it).

Best Opening/Ending
+8 Re: Zero S2 OP
+5 Tonikawa OP
+3 Re: Zero S2 ED
+2 God of Highschool OP
+1 Toilet Bound Hanako-kun OP

I thought this was a decent category at the top with some more "show mood" style stuff versus simply being catchy mixed with good animation. However, nothing was going to top the RE: zero s2 OP.

Anime of the Year
+8 Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!
+5 Re: Zero S2
+3 Aggrestsuko S3
+2 Haikyuu to the Top S2
+1 Deca-Dence

Shows that almost made it in: ID: Invaded, Dorohedoro, My life as a Villainess, Ascendance of a Bookworm S2, Tonikawa, Sleepy Princess, Golden Kamuy S3.

Anime of the Year
+8 Oregairu S3
+5 Akudama Drive
+3 Kaguya S2
+2 Re:Zero S2
+1 Adachi And Shimamura

I mean can I complain? no. Do I want to complain about the ordering? Yes lol.

Should have left Re:Zero off I guess.

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Anime of the Year
+8 Staying Babies
+5 Gal & Dino
+3 Extra Olympia Kyklos
+2 Watanuki-san Chi to
+1 Anoyo no Subete wa, Obake-gumi!
(just be glad i was forced to drop the other hulaing babies anime from this list. and nocturne boogie (the other vtuber anime))

yes i included that comment in my ballot too

Staying Babies was truly the most 2020 anime, being an anime about social distancing due to covid
(where the footage is actually inserted within other footage of the seiyuus in a skype call live dubbing the anime, thanks also to social distancing)

profDEADPOOL posted...

Should have left Re:Zero off I guess.

Still would've won, haha.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

profDEADPOOL posted...

Should have left Re:Zero off I guess.

Still would've won, haha.

Dammit, guess it was one of the ones that was 3 points ahead.
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I didn't really like Re:Zero season 2 as much as season 1 but it isn't a bad choice for a winner. My AotY pick was Kaguya-sama. From the top finishers, it looks like I need to pick up Akudama Drive and Tonikaku Kawaii
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I didn't watch enough to vote this year (sequels, plus Tonikawa and Eizouken) but this will probably get me to pick up Akudama Drive which wasn't even on my radar.

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Despite my Kodaka love, Akudama was very much not something I hadna ton of faith in. Pierrot is...Pierrot, and prior to release there was a lot of hubub about the downgrade to the art from the original concept image to the studio image. Here's a comparison.





At first I definitely see why people were upset, Doc especially completely changed. However, it all worked out swimmingly.

Without a doubt, the show exceeded even my wildest expectations, short of it pulling a Killer Killer and secretly being a Danganronpa anime all along.

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