Brief Summary
This video critiques the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, particularly the "Best Score" category, arguing that the judging panel often lacks musical expertise, leading to predictable and uninspired nominations and wins. The author reviews past awards, highlighting discrepancies between scores and soundtracks, and points out overlooked deserving soundtracks from 2023. They propose solutions such as industry-only judging or fan-favorite awards to improve the credibility and relevance of the awards.
- The Crunchyroll Anime Awards have grown into a prestigious event but suffer from a lack of musical expertise in the judging panel.
- The "Best Score" category is often misjudged, with soundtracks being confused for scores.
- Several deserving soundtracks from 2023 were snubbed, while predictable choices like Attack on Titan continue to win.
- Proposed solutions include industry-only judging, fan-favorite awards, or allowing judges to select categories they are knowledgeable in.
The Crunchyroll Anime Awards
The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, which started around 2016, allow fans to vote on their favorite anime across various categories. Initially, it was a fun way for fans to engage with anime, but by 2024, it has evolved into a large-scale red carpet event held in Tokyo, featuring industry veterans, professionals, and celebrities. The author expresses their discontent with the awards, particularly concerning the music categories.
Crunchyroll Doesn't Know Anything About Music
The author argues that the Crunchyroll Awards' judging panel lacks musical expertise, leading to poor nominations in music-related categories. While Crunchyroll selects judges from industry veterans, professionals, and content creators, the music selections are often lackluster. The author suggests shifting towards an Oscar-like approach, where industry professionals do the judging, or implementing fan-favorite awards to separate professional and fan choices. Currently, fans hold about 30% of the voting power, which the author believes is too much influence.
Anime Awards 2017 – Getting a Foothold
In 2016, there was no music category. The author notes that in 2017, the nominations and winner for best soundtrack were all excellent. The winner was "Made in Abyss" by Kevin Penkin, and it was up against great shows like "AKA" (Takahashi Yo), "Land of the Lustrous" (Fuwa Yoshiaki), "Little Witch Academia" (Oshima Michiru), "Recreators" (Sawano Hiroyuki), and "The Ancient Magus' Bride" (Matoto Junichi).
Anime Awards 2018 – Peak
In 2018, the soundtrack category was removed, which the author found nonsensical, especially since 2018 was a fantastic year for anime soundtracks. The author lists several snubbed shows with amazing soundtracks, including "Violet Evergarden," "A Place Further Than the Universe," "Gridman," "Golden Kamuy," "Revue Starlight," "Yuru Camp," "Planet With," "Megalobox," "HeroAca Season 3," and "Liz and the Blue Bird."
Anime Awards 2019 – Oopsie
In 2019, the winner was "Carole & Tuesday" soundtrack by Mocky. The author criticizes Crunchyroll for listing the category as "Best Score" instead of "Best Soundtrack," noting the difference between a score (background music) and a soundtrack (all music in the film or series). "Carole & Tuesday" had an amazing soundtrack but not a great score. Other shows nominated that year were "Kakegurui," "Shin Godzilla," "Demon Slayer," "Attack on Titan Season 3," "The Rising of the Shield Hero," "Dr. Stone," and "JoJo Golden Wind," which the author believes should have won.
Anime Awards 2020 – Scores vs. Soundtracks
In 2020, the winner was Kevin Penkin for "Tower of God." Other nominees included "God of High School" by Arisa Okehazama, "Japan Sinks 2020" by Ushio Kensuke, "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" by Oorutaichi, "B Stars" by Kosaki Satoru, and "Great Pretender" by Yamada Yutaka. The author notes that regular audiences don't typically connect with jazz, which may have impacted "Great Pretender's" chances of winning, even though it was a bigger show that year.
Anime Awards 2021 – You Like Jazz? No.
In 2021, the winner was Kajiura Yuki for "Demon Slayer the Mugen Train Arc." The author didn't like the picks that year. Nominees included "Wonder Egg Priority," "Vivy," "Megalobox 2 Nomad," "Odd Taxi," and "86." The author believes "Vivy" should have won, praising its amazing soundtrack.
Anime Awards 2022 – Who Cares?
In 2022, Sawano Hiroyuki and Yamamoto Kohta won for "Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2." The author states that the music was good but didn't do anything different. Other nominees included "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners," "Demon Slayer," "Made in Abyss Season 2," "Spy x Family," and "Ya Boy Kongming!" The author believes "Made in Abyss Season 2" should have won, and it pains them that people pass up on jazz soundtracks like "Spy x Family."
Anime Awards 2023 – How Predictable
In 2023, Sawano Hiroyuki and Yamamoto Kohta won again for "Attack on Titan: The Final Season, The Final Chapters Special 1." The author considers this the worst year for nominations. Other nominees included "Chainsaw Man," "Suzume," "Oshi no Ko," "Bocchi the Rock!," and "Demon Slayer." The author argues that movies shouldn't be in the same category as TV shows. They also note that "Bocchi the Rock!" had great insert songs, but the background music was forgettable.
Anime Awards 2024 – Trash
The author believes that people don't know the difference between a good score, a good soundtrack, and good sound direction. "Attack on Titan" and "Demon Slayer" may deserve recognition for sound direction, but not necessarily for the music itself. Soundtracks should evolve with the show and fit the atmosphere. "Made in Abyss" is a perfect example of this.
The Downfall Timeline
The author summarizes that the 2017 year was amazing, with every soundtrack deserving to be there. In contrast, the past year felt like a popularity contest among judges who don't know anything about music. The author believes that "Attack on Titan" wins every time because people don't know the difference between a good score, a good soundtrack, and good sound direction.
Snubbed 2023 Soundtracks
The author lists several shows from 2023 that deserved at least a nomination for their soundtracks.
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady
"The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady" had a gripping soundtrack by Hugo Kanno that stuck with the author from the start of the year. The author remembers hearing the Overture theme and being impressed.
My Happy Marriage
"My Happy Marriage," with music by Evan Call, was skipped over. The author questions if Evan Call has ever been nominated for any of these categories. They skipped him on the "Violet Evergarden" year.
Trigun Stampede
"Trigun Stampede" by Kato Tatsuya should have swept the awards. The author believes it is undeniably his best soundtrack of all time and that it blew everything else out of the water.
Dr. Stone New World
"Dr. Stone" has been upping its music game every season and changing every season. The author feels it in the atmosphere even if they don't necessarily hear the music or understand what's changing.
Revenger
"Revenger," with music by Tamayama Jun, brought in many fresh things that you would never hear in any other anime soundtrack. This is exactly what an awards show should be celebrating: fresh developments of new ideas.
Spy×Family
"Spy x Family" deserves more recognition for its music, which has been changing and adapting to fit the narrative changes of the show. The author notes that people hate jazz, which may be why it is overlooked.
In/Spectre Season 2
"In/Spectre Season 2" has such good music, so much amazing atmosphere, recurring themes, and recurring motifs that are used as thematic elements throughout the soundtrack to great effect. Its main theme is in 5/4.
BokuAi & KimiAi
The "BokuAi" and "KimiAi" movies should have been included. The author thinks the way that they utilized a lot of the music, made a lot of themes memorable, and made you feel certain ways just by hearing the same theme set to different instruments or different tempos was amazing.
Insomniacs After School
"Insomniacs After School" was not included. The author is seeing a pattern that similar low-key, chill vibe soundtracks don't get put into these things. The author didn't realize that Hiroyuki Sawano, who everyone knows from "My Hero Academia," was behind the soundtrack.
Vinland Saga Season 2
"Vinland Saga Season 2" was not nominated for music. The author states that Yamada Yutaka is one of these composers that they will actually go out of their way to watch a show for just because of the music.
The Anime Awards' Flawed Prestige
With the growing popularity of anime and Crunchyroll being the main distributor, it's impossible to ignore the prestige of these awards. What these awards need is more curated judging by people who actually know what they're talking about.
How to Fix the Nominating Process
The author suggests judges pick things based on what they know about or a system where judges can choose what things they're nominating so that they can choose things that they actually know about or they feel strongly about and they have reasons to back up what they do. The author would volunteer to be a judge and specifically only do the best score category if they knew that other people who were picking for that also knew what they were talking about for music.
