And The Winner Is...

The results are in folks! The winners of the 2020 Anime Awards have been announced. So, was I right? Was I off the mark? Either way, you're about to find out!

Warning: This is a continuation or response to another article I have previously written, titled "Who Will Win?". If you have not read the previous post, please do so now. Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution.

Before we fully dive in, I feel like I need to rip this band aid off at the get-go. Fruits Basket did not win any of its [3] categories. Before you send your condolences though, I do want to say that everyone they lost to made sense to me, I don't necessarily agree with them all, but they made sense. I am extremely proud of the entire team that was apart of Fruits Basket's first season and hope that the nominations they received bring them even more attention, even if they didn't win. I am still so excited for season two and hope to see them nominated again in 2021.

With the sad news out of the way, lets move on to the results and find out if my predictions held any substance. For consistencies sake I will be laying out the results the same way I laid out the predictions. I am going to start by listing all the categories and their winners with the exception of the five specific categories I made predictions on. Those I will go over individually in the same order as before. Understood? Alright, let's begin!

The categories for this year's awards are:

Anime of the Year

Best Animation- Mob Psycho 100 II

Best Boy- Tanjiro Kamado from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Best Girl- Raphtalia from The Rising of the Shield Hero

Best Score- Mocky from Carole & Tuesday

Best Director- Tetsuro Araki & Masashi Koizuka for Attack on Titan Season 3

Best Character Design- Satoshi Iwataki from Dororo [Original Character Design by Hiroyuki Asada]

Best Protagonist

Best Antagonist- Isabella from The Promised Neverland

Best Fight Scene- Tanjiro & Nezuko vs. Rui from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Best Couple- Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane from Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

Best Comedy- Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

Best Drama

Best Fantasy- The Promised Neverland

Best Opening Sequence

Best Ending Sequence

Best Performance by a Voice Actor (English)- Billy Kametz playing Naofumi in The Rising of the Shield Hero

Best Performance by a Voice Actor (Japanese)- Yuichi Nakamura playing Bruno Bucciarati in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

*BONUS Category: Industry Icon- George Wada President of WIT Studio*

Phew, that was a lot! Looking at that list makes me notice a lot of repeat names. If you will remember back to my first article on this, I noted that there were quite a few titles that were nominated for multiple categories. For example: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba who was nominated for 9 different categories did end up walking away 2 wins. This number is, of course, not counting the 5 remaining categories I have yet to reveal. Either way, it turns out none of these anime's with multiple nominations were "all talk" because they walked away with a hand full of awards to make each of their respective teams proud. With that being said, congratulations to all of the winners of this years awards. But now it is time to find out the winners of the categories that I predicted and commented on. Let's see how I did.

Best Protagonist & Best Drama

To start us off lets look at Best Protagonist. Ugh, it hurts to see Tohru's face up there and know that she is not the winner. NOW, is when you send your condolences. It's alright, I'm okay, lets move on and refresh your memory of the nominees.

The nominees for Best Protagonist are:

Emma in The Promised Neverland (Top Left)

Hyakkimaru in Dororo (Top Right)

Saitama in One-Punch Man Season 2 (Middle Left)

Senku in Dr. STONE (Middle Right)

Tanjiro Kamado in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Bottom Left)

Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket (Bottom Right)

Now, I am just noticing for this category and the next one [Best Drama] that I did not make a formal prediction of the winner but expressed great hope for Fruits Basket. I also stand by the fact that they deserved to win these categories. Obviously, I was wrong on these two since I already admitted that Fruits Basket did not win. But there is a winner, and that winner is:

Senku in Dr. STONE

This did not surprise me at all. I have heard great things about Dr. Stone and was expecting to see them win something. Though I have to say I was disappointed because neither of my top two picks won this category [Tohru and Emma]. This was a category that meant a lot to me since I have very strong opinions [and emotions] regarding having good, strong lead characters. Knowing that about myself though, and seeing Senku win, makes me move Dr. Stone right up the priority list to watch and see what all the fuss is about.

Best Drama, ahh, you all know that I have a particular affinity of looking at genres individually and analyzing them. I like that with both anime and comics, genre has become more than just a tool to organize interests but has made its way to being extenders on branches of a bigger tree. What I mean is, genre focus in anime and comics has helped to broaden the audience pool. By making the genre a focus, this has allowed creators to really narrow in and get into greater details in their story telling because they aren't trying to appeal to everyone, just genre hungry fans. If you don't know what I mean just look back 10 years. Manga and anime looked very black and white: shonen or shojo. Boys or girls. By making genre important, it added to the tree. Instead of there only being two branches, now we have many. Its more colorful and vibrant that way, don't cha think?

But we have gotten horribly off track. Back to the drama, the Best Drama that is. Let us refresh our memories on the nominees!

The nominees for Best Drama are:

Stars Align (Left Top)

Carole & Tuesday (Middle Top)

The Promised Neverland (Right Top)

Fruits Basket (Left Bottom)

Vinland Saga (Middle Bottom)

Babylon (Right Bottom)

Without further ado, the winner for Best Drama is:

Vinland Saga

Alas, my top two again did not make it [Fruits Basket and The Promised Neverland]. BUT, this was my third choice. I greatly enjoyed the first episode which I watched when reviewing the nominees for Anime of the Year and plan on continuing to watch it with James, who is also very interested in it. The animation is out of this world with a more hyper realistic style. The story line was able to draw me in on the first episode and it definitely gives me the impression that it is going to make me cry. A lot. This win was well deserved and I cannot wait to continue the adventure of watching it.

Best Opening Sequence & Best Ending Sequence

Though on the previous two categories I only made my hopes and dreams clear, there was no muddled thoughts on these two categories. I made precise decisions on what I thought would win along side of my hopes for the category. We are going to once again, and not for the last time quite yet, refresh our memories on the nominees and what I predicted for this category.

The nominees for Best Opening Sequence are:

Kiss Me in Carole & Tuesday (Left Top)

Touch Off in The Promised Neverland (Middle Top)

99.9 in Mob Psycho 100 II (Right Top)

Kawaki wo Ameku in Domestic Girlfriend (Left Bottom)

Inferno in Fire Force (Middle Bottom)

Mukanjyo in Vinland Saga (Right Bottom)

For Best Opening Sequence, I predicted that Mob Psycho 100 II would win but that I personally felt like Fire Force deserved it. Was I right? The winner for Best Opening Sequence is:

99.9 by MOB CHOIR feat. sajou no hana by Yoshimichi Kameda in Mob Psycho 100 II

I was right on this one. And I stand by everything I said about it in my prediction. This opening sequence was very memorable and I think that is why it would stick out in peoples minds during voting. That was very smart on the creators part. It is a good win but I also stand by the fact that Fire Force also deserved this win. It was wonderfully done. I don't know how close the votes were but I would wager that Fire Force came in second. However, "almost" only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. Sorry Fire Force, maybe next time. Congratulations Mob Psycho 100 II on another win.

Got one right, can I get another? Let's take a look again at our nominees and my prediction.

The nominees for Best Ending Sequence are:

Hold Me Now in Carole & Tuesday (Left Top)

Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡ in Kaguya-sama: Love is War (Middle Top)

Torches in Vinland Saga (Right Top)

Stand By Me in Sarazanmai (Left Bottom)

Veil in Fire Force (Middle Bottom)

Sayonara Gokko in Dororo (Right Bottom)

In my review and predictions for this category, I stated that, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, that Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡ in Kaguya-sama: Love is War would come out on top. This was due to its already known large popularity and internet presence. Did I hit the mark? What do you think? The winner of Best Ending Sequence goes to:

Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡ in Kaguya-sama: Love is War

To be honest, being right about this one doesn't feel as good as maybe it should. I just feel bad. I feel bad for the other nominees because I genuinely don't think anyone stood a chance against this ending sequence. It was immediately popular amongst all social media platforms and with non-anime watchers alike. It got so much attention for its dance being to a tempo and rhythm that you could put it with any song. People loved it and ate it up. I am sorry to the other nominees but congratulations on the team that animated this sequence and those that did the music, you really did something unique here.

Anime of the Year

And finally, we are here. Anime of the Year, who's it going to be? I won't keep you waiting any longer, let's refresh our memories, for the last time today, on our nominees and my predictions for the Anime of the Year award.

The nominees for Anime of the Year are:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Left Top)

Carole & Tuesday (Middle Top)

Mob Psycho 100 II (Left Top)

O Maidens in Your Savage Season (Left Bottom)

Vinland Saga (Middle Bottom)

The Promised Neverland (Right Bottom)

Last Wednesday, I wrote about sports anime and at the end added some thoughts about this category because I had been thinking about it a lot. My prediction hadn't changed just simply strengthened. I predicted that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba would win but that I had large hopes for The Promised Neverland because it had really gripped me. The fact is we saw every single one of these anime's [with the exception of O Maidens in Your Savage Season] win in these awards. But which one came out on top? This is what we were all waiting for, The winner of the Anime of the Year award is:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Being right about this award was bitter sweet. The fact is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a great anime. James, Chase, and I have been slowly but surely making our way through it and enjoying it as we go. I can see why it won, I can see why it has become so popular. But dang, The Promised Neverland took my breath away. So much so that I went out and bought Volume 1 of the manga just days after completing it because I could not shake it. I imagine that I will feel better about this win when I finish the season but for now I will mourn with The Promised Neverland.

Some Bonus Thoughts:

All the anime's nominated this year were really well deserved. Attack on Titan came in and made sure to grab some awards and to be honest I'm surprised they didn't get more. In the end, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Kaguya-sama: Love is War, all walked away with 3 wins each. Which, if you think about it, is quite impressive. While reading the results online I found the "Previous Winners" lists for the past 3 years. I had found it a little strange when I was writing my first article on this that My Hero Academia had not been nominated for really anything (they had one nomination for Best Antagonist). After seeing the results for the past three years though it made more sense. My Hero Academia had swept the boards three years running. Multiple wins every year. It was time to give some of these newer babies some limelight. I'm sure it is also because not everyone is as behind the times as I am.

This has been so much fun to follow and talk about. I am excited to see what next year brings in the world of anime and the nominations we see then. One more big congratulations to both all the nominees and all the winners of this years awards. Also, a big thank you to Crunchyroll for hosting the awards and making more of my nerdom dreams come true. Who knows, maybe we can have a sponsor someday *wink wink nudge nudge*.

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Thank you so much for tuning in, I know this one was a doozy but we made it through together. Continue making your way through your week with your head held high and some new anime's in you queue! I will be back on Sunday with another installment of The Mess here on My Mess. Have an incredible rest of your week and for all that is good remember: stay nerdy and stay messy friends.