It’s that time again – the voice, music, and animation awards – or as I like to think of them: the set of awards that are completely subjective and some of the most difficult awards to pick as a result. And this season was no different.

Best Male Seiyuu

Winner: Hiroshi Kamiya as Izaya Orihara from  Durarara!!, Hiroomi Souma from Working!!, Otonashi Yuzuru from Angel Beats, Kou Ichinomiya from Arakawa Under the Bridge and I think I missed some

The Overall 2008 Best Male Seiyuu and Summer 2009 Seasonal Best Male Seiyuu makes it a hat trick. Then again, it was essentially impossible for any other guy to win this time since so many shows featured Hiroshi Kamiya in leading roles and he continues to do a great job.

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Best Female Seiyuu

Winner: Maaya Sakamoto as Nino from Arakawa Under the Bridge and Akashi from The Tatami Galaxy

Runner-up: Yukari Tamura as Yamada from B Gata H Kei and Togame from Katanagatari, Aki Toyosaki as Yui from K-ON!! and Kena Soga from Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou and Satsuki Hyoudou from Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Picking the best female seiyuu was a much different experience with a bevy of strong performances from many different women. In the end I had to decide on a tie-breaking criteria so I chose to pick the seiyuu with the best characters to win. And that was, Maaya Sakamoto, for voicing two female characters that came off as slightly odd at times but were really deep, interesting characters.

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Best OP

Winner: Working!!

Runner-up: Rainbow, House of Five Leaves, Durarara, B Gata H Kei, Arakawa Under the Bridge

There were a lot of openings I liked this season but no one single opening was able to break from the pack to be the easy pick, at least initially, because I remembered the old argument about picking the MVP in a sport. Do you pick the best player in the league or the person that contributed the most to a team even if the team didn’t do well? In this case, I’m picking the opening to Working!! because I loved it and it was the sole reason that I didn’t drop the show. Working!! eventually got watchable, barely, in the last 3-4 episodes but before then, it was the desire to see the opening one more time that kept me watching.

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Best ED

Winner: B Gata H Kei

Runner-up: The Tatami Galaxy, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

And I’m picking the ending to B Gata H Kei because it was by-far-and-away the best ending and it was always like the cherry that one leaves to eat last from a piece of awesome cake.

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Best Background Music

Winner: K-On!!

This award is one of the awards that I almost never feel real comfortable picking the winner because I often don’t remember the background music to most of the shows I watch. There are exceptions, in the case of K-On, the BGM is light and airy and it perfectly compliments the show which is what the BGM is supposed to do.

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Best Dressed Characters

Winner: K-On!!

Much like the award for best action going to Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood was completely apparent and needed no justification, this award going to K-On is also completely apparent and needs no justification.

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Best Animation Style

Winner: The Tatami Galaxy

Runner-up: House of Five Leaves, Katanagatari

I fell in love with the animation style of Masaaki Yuasa in Kaiba so it shouldn’t be a big surprise that I’m picking The Tatami Galaxy with it’s similar style to Kaiba. What kinda surprised me was the number shows that were more stylized in nature this season. When I see animators willing to experiment and these shows actually given air time, I relax when thinking about the future of anime.

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Best Animation

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Runner-up: Angel Beats, K-On!!, Durarara

There were several very well animated shows this season but Full Metal had this award in-the-bag when it took it’s already great animation and bumped it up even higher this season for the final arc of episodes. Durarara was it’s closest competitor and might have pulled it out if there had been more cool action scenes.

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Top Animation Studio

Winner: Madhouse

The Fall 2008 Seasonal Top Animation Studio and Overall 2008 Top Animation Studio makes it a hat trick this season as well by producing two of the best anime of the season – The Tatami Galaxy and Rainbow. Both were very original works that showcased the best anime has to offer viewers. Both works also turned out to be, surprisingly, heart-warming series that always left me impatiently waiting for the next episode. And it’s possible that Madhouse could win this award again in the summer season because Rainbow continues on which puts them in a strong position.

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That’s it for part 3 of my spring 2010 anime awards. Stay tuned for my top overall picks of the season.

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Spring 2010 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Spring 2010 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

I’m too lazy to create my own season preview on short notice after coming back, so I’ll just be using THAT’s preview information instead.

Angel Beats – It’s an interesting synopsis, anyway.  And given that it’s based off of a Key visual novel (Air, Kanon, CLANNAD) makes this one even more promising.  Add to that the studio who did True Tears and CANAAN, and the fact that it has girls with guns, and it’s hard to see where this one can go wrong.  Judgment: Blogging

Arakawa Under the Bridge – The synopsis of this makes no sense.  If the pair hooked up, why would the rich guy go to live with the girl under a bridge and not vice versa? Who knows.  Judgment: Not Watching

B Gata H Kei – Oh for the love of all that is holy, who came up with this concept? No, No, and No! Judgment: Do I even need to say it? NOT WATCHING

Giant Killing – If I were into sports anime, this would sound interesting. But I’m not. Judgment: Not Watching

Hakuouki - That’s a lot of bishis. Judgment: Not Watching

Heroman – If I were into superhear stuff, this might sound interesting. But I’m not. Judgment: Not Watching

House of Five Leaves – I’m not really into samurai anime very much, but the synopsis part of this sounds really interesting. Judgment: Watching

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou – This sounds like every anime ever done x 10. Judgment: Not Watching

Iron Man – Shouldn’t people be making movies from anime, not the other way around? And I haven’t even seen the movie. Judgment: Not Watching

Kaichou wa Maid Sama – Yet another “Perfect Proper Girl with a sexy/naughty/nerdy/dorky/magical/alien/other secret” show.  On the plus side, J.C. Staff is doing it, who I would probably hold as my highest regarded anime producer.  Even then, it seems like this theme has been run into the ground. Judgment: Not Watching

Kiss X Sis – Shows about incest (even if only step-siblings) only really work well as dramas.  Once they’re turned into comedies, they just get weird. Judgment: Not Watching

K-ON season 2 – Are things so bad this season that I may watch the could-have-been-much-better K-ON? Yes they are. Judgment: Watching

Mayoi Neko Overrun – It’s AIC. Enough said. Judgment: Not Watching

RAINBOW – Haven’t I seen this on preview lists 2 or 3 times already only to be pushed back? In any case, I’m not sure…sounds too depressing right off the bat. Judgment: Not Watching

Senko no Night Raid – I sometimes like shows like this one, but this one doesn’t quite…feel right. Judgment: Not Watching

Uragiri no Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – This might sound interesting if the guy didn’t have such a lame ability. Judgment: Not Watching

Working – This one sounds like it might have some potential. Judgment: Watching

Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei - I’m trying to figure out the point of this show based on it’s synopsis.  Judgment: Not Watching

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So here is the round-up:

Blogging
Angel Beats

I decided I should pick something up, and this was easily the most appealing looking series to me to blog this season.

Watching
House of Five Leaves
K-ON season 2
Working