Welcome to the 2025 /r/anime Awards' first public voting thread!
This is the beginning of a series of posts where the community will vote to decide the best anime of 2025 in a variety of categories over the next few weeks. Every weekend, we will take a look at a specific set of categories encompassing different facets of anime on a storytelling, artistic, and technical level:
* Genre
* Production
* Character
* Main
Each subsequent post will focus on a specific category group so you can space out your votes and share your hot takes in detail. However, the website also allows you to go ahead and vote on any and all categories you would like to. So whether you'd like to pace yourself or finish voting all in one go, both options are available to you. You may also go back and change any of your votes up until final voting is closed on February 17th, as they are auto-saved for your convenience. Additionally, we've included a simplified watch statistics survey, so please fill that out if you have the time!
We are starting this year's post with some general information about the public side of the Awards:
_When are the results going to be revealed?_
**The results will be revealed on our livestream, on March 14th 2025.**
_Which shows were nominated by the public and which by the jury?_
**We will have a nomination chart that separates the nominees in public and juror picks. The public and the jury chose 5 nominees for each category.**
Today's questions:
Which nomination surprised you the most?
Which show deserved a nomination but wasn't nominated?
Also, if you are interested in helping out with proofreading the juror write-ups for the website, please fill out this helper application: https://forms.gle/Ef8VDxvXbyZvyJVu8
---
The short _Tetoris_ was added by mistake. It should have been disqualified due to it being a single looping animation. It has now been disqualified, and the sixth place runner up, _Daidaidaidaidaikirai_, has been added in its place.
AdiMG2026-01-23 21:06
# AotY Nominees Explained
I imagine people are curious about how a group of jurors arrived at *Bisque Doll S2*, *Shoshimin S2*, *Ave Mujica*, *Mirai Days*, and *Idol Land Pripara* as AotY nominees. Consider this a juror's candid account of what actually happens during the jury nomination phase.
When the awards cycle began this year, AotY was a 13-juror category. 5 jurors had to step away for real-life reasons, and we received only 1 replacement before the final shortlisting deadline. That left the category with 9 jurors. 2 of those 9 were unable to meet the eligibility requirement of having fully discussed 13 shortlisted shows, and were therefore unable to participate in the nomination vote. The result was a 7-juror panel for AotY nominations.
That is, by AotY standards, a very small jury. In a group this size, a bloc of 4 voters can effectively force through a predetermined favorite without meaningful opposition.
Whether intentionally or not, in my view, this is exactly what happened with *Ave Mujica*. The show had a bloc of 4 supporters, which meant that despite their responses to criticisms about the show being fairly lackluster by AotY discussion standards. They could nominate the show through shear numerical advantage. I’m not sure there’s a clean solution to counter that within the current structure. Short of hosts actively tracking juror preferences and avoiding stacking multiple fans of the same title (the sole replacement juror was also an *Ave Mujica* supporter), the system remains vulnerable to this kind of inadvertent stacking.
As a host last year, I even floated the idea of abolishing AotY as a jury category altogether, replacing it with a ballot drawing from all jurors across all categories—a kind of constrained popularity vote. It’s a radical proposal that runs counter to the logic of the jury awards, so it’s not surprising it went nowhere, but the underlying problem it was trying to address remains unresolved.
For the sake of transparency, it’s worth noting that *Shoshimin*, which was a show I supported, reached a similarly secure voting bloc, with 5 jurors placing it in their top 5 (though one ultimately became ineligible to vote). The difference is that no one seriously contested its inclusion, unlike *AveMuji*.
Despite the reduced jury size, AotY still ended up with a staggering 28 shortlists. By comparison, Cinematography (an 8-juror category) had only 17. This discrepancy is the result of a long-standing strategy in awards: flooding the zone with as many shortlists as possible. That burden is manageable if you’ve spent the year watching with awards in mind, but it becomes overwhelming if you haven’t (I came into the awards having watched a grand total of one show which I watched to write the application). It’s especially punishing when shortlists involve shows with prerequisite commitments, even though we did succeed last year in lowering the maximum episode threshold for prerequisites to 12 after a lot of advocacy on my end.
This creates an unfortunate and perverse incentive to just coast by on checking out the bare minimum of 3 episodes (alongside any prerequisites) for all the shortlisted shows. Which will subsequently leave you with a shallower impression of many entries compared to shows you have shortlisted yourself and presumably seen a larger sampling of. I, perhaps foolishly, chose to watch 5-6 episodes of every shortlist, often completing shows outright to give everything a fair shot. In hindsight, that was a mistake, as other jurors did take the more pragmatic path and increased their voting power substantially with lower levels of discussion.
I bring this up because while I made a point of withdrawing one of my shortlists that clearly wasn’t gaining traction in discussion, other jurors did not extend the same courtesy to entries that received almost no engagement until the final week, and were largely met with negative reactions when they were discussed at all. The bloated shortlist forced jurors to spend time catching up on entries that would never survive in a fully informed jury, yet still carried the risk of being nominated if left uncontested. *Pripara* and *Mirai Days* both fall into this category, with *Mirai Days* being the more egregious case.
To understand how *Mirai Days* survived, it’s important to explain how shortlisting works. You don’t get to shortlist a show “for free”; you are required to watch and meaningfully discuss 2 other assigned shortlists. In theory, this discourages frivolous shortlists. In practice, it favors jurors who have already done extensive viewing and are thus free to shortlist as much as they want. In this case, the juror who shortlisted *Mirai Days* failed to fulfill their obligation. The AotY hosts initially made the rightful call to remove the shortlist, but ultimately reversed course to avoid unnecessary drama, allowing another juror to “save” the entry. The result was that a show which had received only negative feedback from a single juror and otherwise gone virtually undiscussed from early December until January 10 was suddenly reinstated. At this point the show did receive a lot of genuine supporters, but the whole process left a sour taste in my mouth with how late in the game it was. I should have also recognized this turn in momentum faster and prioritized engaging with the show over other entries purely to mount some resistance. I didn’t, and that’s on me.
*Pripara*’s inclusion is, frankly, amusing as hell. Only 4 jurors were eligible to vote on it, and 3 of them did not place it in their top 5. The only explanation I can arrive at is that the jury was even more divided on other candidates, which suggests a previously unencountered wonkiness in the nomination algorithm itself. As far as I know this is the same system that was brought about due to the *Yama no Susume* win year, when multiple AotY jurors (myself included) raised concerns about *Akebi* receiving a nomination despite being actively disliked by most of the panel, simply because it was the favorite show of two jurors. The hosts responded by adjusting the algorithm to favor middling consensus picks which has been used since then. That *Pripara* is seen as a middling consensus pick is extremely hilarious; and entirely a factor of how insular the awards jury regulars have grown to be.
There is no easy fix here, but I firmly believe voting should not be the final step in nominations. In small juries with asymmetric voting powers, voting alone produces distorted outcomes. A final discussion round after voting would go a long way toward preventing results that feel this unrepresentative of the discussion as it happened in the awards thus far.
This also speaks to a broader attitude that has taken hold on the jury side: an aversion to objectivity and a strict privileging of subjective experience. In principle, this is defensible—no analysis is free of bias, and aiming for objectivity often lead to bad-faith motte-and-bailey arguments where a juror will make a case stemming from their subjective biases, but hide it in a veneer of much more defensible, flexible, and culturally normative metrics of objectivity, thereby creating a frustrating discussion environment. I don't even mind that the ranking stage of the awards are run under this mindset.
However, at the nomination stage, there needs to be some recognition that these nominees are not meant solely for a tight circle of friends with esoteric taste, but rather they are being chosen for a far broader audience and thus should be meaningfully representative for the subreddit as a whole. That doesn’t mean defaulting to the most popular shows and discarding the chosen juries' subjective enjoyment of the show entirely, but nominees should at least have some foothold in the community. *Ave Mujica* does, despite me despising it personally. *Mirai Days* and *Pripara* do not. One ~~fringe~~ curveball pick is tolerable, if not outright encouraged as a result of having a jury system, but all three together makes a mockery of the entire awards process and undermines the genuinely thoughtful work done by other juries.
I served on five additional categories (Animation, Background Art, Cinematography, Character Design, and Soundtrack) and I believe all of them produced strong, defensible nominee slates. Unfortunately, those efforts will be overshadowed by the AotY nominees, which is precisely why I’m writing this.
Finally, the blame partly lies with the public nominations being fairly surprising. I deliberately avoided watching the second seasons of *Kusuriya*, *Dandadan*, and *Bisque* (three shows I liked in their first seasons) in the nomination stage because they were assumed public nominees allowing me to focus on the other 24 shortlists. When Bisque wasn't nominated, I had to abandon checking out *Pripara* and *Mirai Days* to focus on Bisque instead [(while getting cursed by Apollo.)](https://files.catbox.moe/yezc49.png) Not being able to vote on those helped contribute to the current AotY nominee slate instead of a potentially more palatable plate including the likes of *Milky Subway*, *City the Animation*, *Sorairo Utility*, and *Apocalypse Hotel*, given my fairly negative opinion of those two shows (I checked them out after the nomination vote deadline!)
Edit: Rewrote some of the earlier parts because I was being too uncharitable to my fellow AotY jurors, who I am sure were trying their best; just for one reason or another, they didn't hold up to the standards I expect out of AotY.
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 21:28
After reading this, I feel stronger about a position I've had on this subject for the last couple years . . . Get rid of the jury. I don't feel like they are accomplishing the goal that they're intended for.
This is no offense to you, it sounds like you were trying to be a good juror.
Edit: After reviewing the full nominations, I feel as though the jury for most categories handled things pretty well. I sometimes forget that the "jury" is different for every category. Hopefully I can remind everyone else of that fact too so we don't just point fingers at "the jury" as a whole.
collapsedblock62026-01-23 21:35
What do you think is the intended goal of the jury?
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 21:43
To prevent the awards from strictly being a popularity contest.
Rotorscope2026-01-23 21:50
Yeah it should be "hey let's highlight some picks people on this sub really resonated with that aren't necessarily mainstream" instead of "well let me just put in my completely obscure personal favorite".
collapsedblock62026-01-23 22:11
Then? The jury was founded on the principle that *you* could be fan of something unpopular but thought it was a best of the year contender (i.e: not hope for others to do it for you) and apply to awards to discuss at length that you genuinely think it is deserving of the title.
The jury should a place where you're free to express your opinions without being subject to arbitrary measures like popularity or relevance. If we put an arbitrary measure like "sorry people, kids shows piss people off so you can't nom this"', why can't there also be a line for "I think battle shonen are beneath me so they shouldn't be nommed"? So its better to just be open doors.
I have been on the shoes of someone that was the lone fan of something only I had seen in a category of dozens of juror and had to engage with the jury to give it a chance.
If I was told that I couldn't get my nomination because "it isn't representative of the community" or "only 5k people have seen this", I would be severely disappointed and actually question why the jury exists.
I sometimes think of awards as sort of a recommendation list and have discovered many gems thanks to those lone jurors that watched some weird thing. Heck, many times those shows don't even make the cut but I can’t say I regret watching them.
What can I say, I like awards because it can expands the horizons of what I like. I may raise eyebrows from time to time, even with fellow jurors I talk to, but I always engage in a faithful manner and see no need to prejudice other's tastes.
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 22:25
I think in perfect practice, what you said is great. If you can convince a greater jury that your niche selection is deserving of 1 of those 5 slots, that's really powerful. But according to OP, that isn't what happened here.
This is the issue with a jury comprised of only 7 people. You don't have to convince *anyone* as long as 3 people already agree with you.
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 21:42
Yeah was a great read and highlighted some of the issues I have with the jury process.
I don't feel like getting rid of it is the best option but wish there was a way to make it less clique_ish_
Gaporigo2026-01-23 21:58
More people applying 👀
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 22:05
Amewards sadly have a non comepete clause
Gaporigo2026-01-23 22:06
I did hear those are over tho
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 22:07
They give 364 days of PTO
[](#abandonthread)
cppn022026-01-23 22:10
But you said there might be no Ameawards next year. You that would free you up.
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 22:13
Could _maybe_ do a romance juror if that were to happen
[](#hardthink)
Plausible
Lemurians2026-01-23 22:26
I know a good lawyer who can help get you out of that
Psyduckisnotaduck2026-01-24 01:25
I mean, I tried to apply once but got rejected with no real explanation. doesn't help that the application process requires an essay with unclear requirements and an absurdly low character restriction.
BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-23 21:43
I wouldn’t go that far. The entire jury works hard to highlight what we believe are great shows that unfortunately may fall under the general public’s eye. Sometimes, due to how categories are divided and personal circumstances, categories can have uneven distribution as Adi stated. I’m a drama juror and I felt that (for the most part) we had very productive, informative discussions that let us see each other’s perspectives. I of course have disagreement with some of the results (I also don’t like Ave Mujica), but we discussed the shortlists and highlighted the shows we thought were deserving. I don’t think there needs to be an abolishment of the jury system because of this one instance that may be disagreeable.
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 21:52
I certainly don't want to discredit the good work that jurors do. I was involved in the process for a bit last year before having to drop out for personal life reasons. I understand that people put a lot of work into the process and, if utilized properly, it can really showcase deserving shows.
But at the very least, I think there needs to be some kind of reform to the process to shield against things like this happening.
BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-23 22:06
That’s something we try to work on every year. We’re always striving to improve the system.
Liiikkee applying to be a juror!!!!! (Or the feedback section).
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 22:11
Well maybe I'll just have to be the change I want to see in the world.
Dull_Spot_82132026-01-23 21:54
I don’t think watching three episodes is a good metric to judge anything in a meaningful capacity, especially if you’re comparing a short series and a longer one and the same capacity. You should have to complete a show in its entirety to judge anything.
Gaporigo2026-01-23 22:00
While I agree I think forcing 3 episodes is the best that can be realistically done, no one can really watch every episode of every show from the year plus their prerequisites.
Dull_Spot_82132026-01-23 22:13
Maybe allocate jurors on a seasonal basis rather than an entire year? I feel like watching the show should be the minimum entry for someone judging something.
Lemurians2026-01-24 00:54
Unfortunately, this being a volunteer project, the moderators of the sub and the host team, let alone the jurors, just don't have the free time in our lives to have this be a year-round endeavor.
static_shock122026-01-23 22:07
Non-aoty juror here, so for this topic I'm going with the perspective of another voter who has seen how the whole process works. I can see your point because for a jury, I would expect something that would have more of a strong appeal even if it wasn't as popular. It can be many things, an engaging character story, astonishing visuals, creative storytelling, you name it. The thing is that I as a voter would look for entries that bring more of an added value to the list of nominees and for this year, I just don't see it in AOTY.
I still think there's a bunch of more interesting jury picks in most if not all of the other categories. I see for these that they managed to grasp that feeling of picking up very strong shows that weren't as popular as the big hitters, or even some hidden gems that I wouldn't have been aware of if it wasn't for them. I hope you got the same feeling from some of these other jury picks, and let's see if the whole process can be improved next year, as I think the way things have been working for AOTY should be reconsidered
Aztecopi2026-01-23 22:08
Other juries consistently do a good job (especially the production ones), but AotY has been a clownshow for years now
Theleux2026-01-23 22:24
Feeling slightly reassured in not partaking this time around (and that is with looking at most of the categories). Still seems like some tweaking needs to be done.
AdiMG2026-01-23 22:21
This is the opposite of the takeaway I wanted you to have fwiw. I am incredibly proud of the work I did in all the production categories. Lenticulars was nominated in Cine in large part because of me. I'm not going to go into the why of it all (I don't even think I'm allowed to yet) but [Fede's post on the sakugabowl today is a good argument](https://blog.sakugabooru.com/2026/01/23/sakugabooru-animation-awards-2025/#section2) of how minimizing the animation allowed the show to maximise its storyboarding and composite processing prowess to create an incredibly unique and powerful package despite its bite-sized nature. That's not a nomination that could ever happen in a public vote, but it does recognize an extremely cool anime project that is going off-the-beaten path in interesting ways which are worth celebrating. That's the beauty of the jury side of awards.
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 22:37
I made an edit to my comment that you may or may not have seen before typing yours.
I only looked at the AOTY award noms before commenting and kinda made a misguided blanket statement. It does look like some great work was done in other categories. As I said in my edit, sometimes I forget that there isn't one jury. Every category has one. My issue really relates only to the AOTY category (this year at least). I just feel as though there has been some questionable things happening there for a couple years now.
Psyduckisnotaduck2026-01-24 01:23
imo every juror in every category should be eligible for AotY voting, and they should vote as a broader pool with no strings attached. they shouldn't need to see a ridiculous number of episodes to vote.
cppn022026-01-23 21:30
Thanks for the insight. Btw for me the site shows 11 AotY nominees. Is this a bug?
Gaporigo2026-01-23 21:31
Yes, Wonderful Precure is not supposed to be in there if you do see it there.
MapoTofuMan2026-01-23 22:00
> Wonderful Precure is not supposed to be in there
[](#bigthink)
Who are you and what have you done to the real r/anime awards juries
Durinthal2026-01-23 22:41
They had to replace it with the more niche Precure that's a sequel to an older one.
[](#hikariactually)
Zale13x2026-01-23 23:13
Still can't believe I came here to laugh at people getting mad at Precure being nommed for AOTY again only for me to get mad that they picked the wrong one.
...Like I came here to post smug Yuki's and now I'm stuck with this [this](https://files.catbox.moe/03cyah.png) instead.
Try refreshing the page. If you still see 11, please let me know, as we thought we fixed that bug within a minute or two of the site opening.
cppn022026-01-23 21:41
Yeah it's fixed now.
Durinthal2026-01-23 22:04
> That is, by AotY standards, a very small jury.
What's the average size? What do you think a reasonable jury size would be? How many people applied and wanted to be in that category?
AdiMG2026-01-23 22:24
Now I haven't been a host/juror in every year. But I have been involved in 8 of the past 10 years (and directly in AotY for 5 of them), and from what I remember AotY usually has 13-ish jurors, with one outlier year having 17.
zairaner2026-01-23 22:15
Is it bad that when I looked at the nominees, the only thing that even remotely surprised me to see was... sono bisque among the jury nominees?
~~Also the absence of medalist of course~~
zambonijesus2026-01-23 22:28
I wonder how much of this would be solved by just having a longer shortlist for anime of the year in particular. 15 entries instead of 10 would mean that one or two broadly unpopular personal favorites matter a lot less because it makes the particular snubs less egregious.
Tetraika2026-01-23 22:29
I swear AOTY always has some weird jury shitshow. I think it's also because it's the category that potentially work the juror the most because of how much shows can get shortlisted and therefore swamp juror in the way you mentioned.
I'll just add my own bit of notes when I was a juror and just observing how things were run, in that these results from what I can tell is also very much not what the juror would want. I think jurors like and want their pet picks to go through, but even from experience this is hardly the sort of nomination results they would want. I remember instances of jurors being sometimes surprised by their own nomination outcomes.
I don't remember if it's like this, but from what I remember, the fact that everyone votes blind in respect to others can cause this. It would be interesting to see a sort of 2nd round of voting after the revealing the nominations that would occur from the first round of nomination voting.
Lemurians2026-01-23 23:01
> It would be interesting to see a sort of 2nd round of voting after the revealing the nominations that would occur from the first round of nomination voting.
This is definitely an idea to consider for future years.
minnieboss2026-01-23 22:36
I've been too self-conscious to apply to the jury for years but this gives me some confidence in applying this upcoming year. How many juries can someone be on, and what are the requirements to be an AOTY juror?
For the record, I'm a massive Precure fan (hoping Wonderful Precure wins Slice of Life!) and an even bigger Mahoutsukai Precure fan--the original one, from 2016. I was super hyped for Mirai Days, watched it in its entirety, and left vaguely disappointed. I might place it in my personal top 10 sequels of the year with mild enjoyment for huge fans of the original, but in no way is it AOTY material. It wasn't even the best Precure series of the year. I could've at least seen where a Wonderful Precure AOTY nom was coming from, not that I'd place it as AOTY material personally either (more like top 20).
Lemurians2026-01-23 23:04
It can differ by year depending on how next year's host/mod team want awards to look like, but this year to get into AOTY (or Movie of the Year and Short of the Year, the "Main" categories), you had to pass an application that consisted of two essay prompts with a certain score.
Right now, as to how many juries somebody can be on, we allowed people to be on as many as 10 during the opening phases of awards, that then has to be cut down to 5 after nominees are finalized.
minnieboss2026-01-23 23:17
Thank you for the info!
Lemurians2026-01-24 00:08
No problem! Hope you decide to join next year! Would love to have ya.
minnieboss2026-01-24 00:11
Yes, I think I will! :D
riishan_saki2026-01-24 00:27
Ave Mujica was 4th place on 5ch's AOTY list and won Bilibili's. How is it a fringe pick? If anything, western awards are overly shounen focused for it to be considered a weird pick.
AdiMG2026-01-24 00:58
You are barking down the wrong guy's tree for the shounen stuff. My favorite shows this year are Milky Subway, Sorairo Utility, Lenticulars, Kusuriya, Shoshimin, Bisque, GQX, Uma, City, and Hikaru. I just hate AveMuji man, sorry I called it fringe, but it's an honest hatred borne out of its gimmicky boarding directly undercutting its characters and the writing being soapy schlock. All enjoyment I get out of that show is Umiri being owned for being a dweeb, what a girl.
riishan_saki2026-01-24 01:05
It wasn't meant to be a post about your tastes, but more about its status as a show that is at least worth considering for something like this. Your take is fair considering how this show is controversial love-or-hate-it everywhere, even in Japan and China. lol
Xatu442026-01-24 04:18
Wow, the shortlist meta sounds absurdly obnoxious.
changshiyixia2026-01-24 05:30
> The show had a bloc of 4 supporters
Does it mean we could congratulate ave mujica win r/anime's 2025 AOTY jury award beforehand? I'm sure the news will get thousands of upvotes and comments on bilibili
Time-Ladder47532026-01-24 12:42
Not a big fan of Ave Mujica compared to MyGO, but still surprised that juries pushed it for AotY, but not for best OP/ED, which actually pushed me to give a try to MyGO.
manquistador2026-01-25 23:18
My thoughts are that AotY jury shouldn't be able to have nominations. Full 10 public noms and then have the jury work off those. It will be a bit rushed, but that category has been a joke for far too long. Something needs to be changed.
Emi_Ibarazakiii2026-01-26 10:26
Every year I swear to myself that it's gonna be the last year I talk about juror vote, but
>The show had a bloc of 4 supporters, which meant that despite their responses to criticisms about the show being fairly lackluster by AotY discussion standards.
Yeah that's exactly what I say every single year.
And I've never actually BEEN on the jury; This is just what I said every year because in my opinion ***it is obvious*** even just from an outsider's perspective.
cheesechimp2026-01-26 11:28
> That burden is manageable if you’ve spent the year watching with awards in mind, but it becomes overwhelming if you haven’t (I came into the awards having watched a grand total of one show which I watched to write the application).
No offense, but why isn't having spent the year watching with awards (or at least what is "good") in mind considered a prerequisite for being on AotY jury? I see as much an issue in your comment with a jury selection process that allows jurors who only have seen one show on the AotY panel as I see in your other process complaints.
AdiMG2026-01-26 12:06
The awards applications are anonymous and jurors are only picked on your app writing skills in AotY, the hosts don't know how many anime someone has seen or what their favourites are when picking AotY jurors at the start.
Personally I use the awards as a motivation to watch anime. I have found not going there with a horse in the race is more enjoyable than going with a mindset to shill something specific (Last time I joined AotY was to shill YnS S4 and DIY in specific in 2022, and it was hell with the amount of bashing of other contenders I had to do for persuading the rest of the jury. This year I could just provide pertinent commentary without overly focusing on the results as I would've been fine with like 15 of our shortlists ending up as nominees).
I ended up watching around 56 shows for all my categories this year. I think that's enough of a sample to judge what's the best of the year.
You can have a greater watch time prior to awards as a requirement but that would filter for even worse encampment from jurors looking to shill their favorites rather than discussing the merits of shows with an open mind.
cheesechimp2026-01-26 16:26
I expect the jurors to have strong opinions about the anime of the year, so I guess I just don't see the value in them forming all those opinions after they have formally been placed on the jury. Do you feel like being on the jury made you feel differently about those 56 shows than you would if you had watched some of them on your own free time?
To be clear, I do think it's reasonable to pick jurors who haven't seen everything discussed. I think it's okay to want jurors who are willing to dedicate more time on top of what they did on their own, and maybe expecting only the maniacs who give a 3 episode test to every seasonal is asking too much and curtailing the jury's ability to choose members with sufficient rhetorical prowess. Still, you yourself describe the process as leading to an undue burden on a person such as yourself and maybe it's better to have jurors who aren't blank slates than it is to narrow the pool of shows considered.
And also, it seems to me that you told a story where you assumed that Bisque Doll S2 should be nominated and then you watched it so it could be nominated and then you worked to get it nominated and then it was nominated. Sounds kind of like you were less of a blank slate than you thought. I don't see how you having not watched the most recent season made your choice any less predetermined than judges who came into it knowing they were going to nominate Ave Mujika.
AdiMG2026-01-26 17:05
Any sequel is going to have predetermined favoritism built in. Further, I read a bunch of the Bisque manga after s1, and knew a lot of what was going to be adapted. I am also extremely familiar with the quirks of the core staff involved with the production, so there was no real doubt in my mind I'd dislike this season. I was just banking on it to make it via public to be able to catch up to everything, it's just a pragmatic choice.
I have no issues with people coming into the awards to shill a specific thing. I literally told you I did that back in 2022, it just personally works better for me to not do that. Since I can confidently say I wouldn't be as big of a fan of Milky Subway or Lenticulars, if I had come into the awards with the mindset of shilling specific things and was looking to dismiss contenders that opposed it.
Anyways I'm not advocating for a narrowing of the pool of shows to be considered, I just think jurors and hosts should be more mindful of frivolous shortlists, in my mind there were like 5-6 shows shortlisted in AotY this time which were purely padding, maybe they weren't intended as such but it was relatively clear early on that they weren't going to be nominated yet they coasted along till the nomination vote, which means someone who wants to vote on every potential shortlist has to do more work in terms of watching and discussion. My point was more that the process needs more earlier check-ins for what's viable so people can focus on those shows, instead of the current process of having one vote and that's the final thing, regardless of disproportionate voting powers, regardless of it actually reflecting the overall jury opinion well or not.
Someone who came into the awards having seen all 27 shortlists has more power than someone who comes into it having seen 10 or 1, there's no way to bridge that entirely but there should be more steps in the process to make the final votes as level of a playing field as possible. Like if I knew beforehand Pripara and Mirai Days had more of a shot of getting nominated than Blue Box and Anne, I wouldn't have spent the day before the nomination vote watching 10 eps of those two shows. Instead I'd watch Pripara and Mirai Days so I could have a reasonable opinion on them before the final vote.
Witn2026-01-26 11:42
I do not understand how milky subway, apocalypse hotel, city the animation did not get nominated. These are the kind of shows the jury category was made for.
How did we go from early anime award years where we had good jury picks like Rakugo Shinjuu and sangatsu no lion, to wherever the hell this is.
Durinthal2026-01-23 21:08
[](#protest)
Bring back Wancure AOTY!
Gaporigo2026-01-23 21:08
Genre, lets see.
Action: Watched 5/10 shows, my worst category, voting MHA Final Season.
Adventure: Watched 6/10, voting Dr Stone.
Comedy: Watched 10/10, voting City.
Drama: Watched 10/10, voting Medalist.
Romance: Watched 8/10, voting My Dress Up Darling.
Slice of Life: Watched 9/10 (started the other but never finished), voting Kimi no Iro.
Suspense: Watched 7/10, voting Call of the Night
Edit: [You can see here which were public and which were jury picks.](https://x.com/ranime_awards/status/2014799161229468070)
GondolaMedia2026-01-23 21:45
Okay *See You Tomorrow at the Food Court* being a public pick wasn't in my bingo card.
Also *Sorairo Utility* was a jury darling.
CosmicPenguin_OV1032026-01-24 00:17
>Also *Sorairo Utility* was a jury darling.
It's a really 100% sweet and soothing slice-of-life show, nothing that would really surprise you, but one anime that you definitely want to spend a lazy weekend afternoon to watch. So much that I even nominated it for Best Character Design (and got it in).
I am confused why MC Minami's VA is nominated for Voice Acting Performance though, I don't recall any particularly notable scenes of voice acting performance across the whole show.
CosmicPenguin_OV1032026-01-23 21:11
Time to start my # AveMujicaAOTY2025 campaign! I’ll probably write a review of it here before the voting closes. 😉
*EDIT: No Medalist or Ruri Rocks or Apocalypse Hotel or Cinderella Gray or CITY in AOTY finalists is…certainly a choice. Though I guess I really need to get into Precure/Aikatsu/PriPra sooner or later I guess…*
qscdefb2026-01-23 21:12
There were so many good songs missed, my brain refuses to count them
Also as a side note I really wish there was a way to praise new shows in particular. Another random point I'm surprised Watatabe got nominated for romance but not drama
Gaporigo2026-01-23 21:13
Don't let whatever is going on with AOTY stop you from seeing Action nommed GQuacks and Romance nommed My Happy Marriage.
[](#sakuraconcern)
Edit: Ok, Public nommed MHM in romance, public now can't complain about anything.
Edit 2: Can't believe I forgot the actual worst nom of all, Public nommed the Chainsaw Man Movie ED, basically a black screen lmao.
Shimmering-Sky2026-01-23 21:14
G-Quacks is peak though.
[](#mechablush)
Raiking022026-01-23 21:28
> Action nommed GQuacks
I can forgive this if only because Yaiba got there [](#utahapraises "Although yeah, screw G-Duck lmao.")
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 21:42
Dang those 2 were certainly...shows
[](#shatteredsaten)
VoidEmbracedWitch2026-01-23 22:25
> Public nommed the Chainsaw Man Movie ED, basically a black screen lmao
Didn't even choose a cool credits scroll [like this (not 2025 btw)](https://v.animethemes.moe/ShoujoKagekiRevueStarlightRondoRondoRondo-ED1.webm). No, just one with an underwater backdrop that stays the same throughout.
Gaporigo2026-01-23 22:35
Haha, I used that as an example when talking this somewhere else. [The Madoka one is also great.](https://v.animethemes.moe/MadokaMagicaHangyaku-ED1.webm)
OmegaVirgin942026-01-23 22:58
> Public nommed the Chainsaw Man Movie ED, basically a black screen lmao.
and the song isn't even very good.
Shimmering-Sky2026-01-23 21:14
Damn, KiLLKiSS got robbed of not even being nominated for OP of the year. [](#toradorasalute)
Overall a decent selection of stuff to vote for, though. Only category I'm not voting for anything in is Slice of Life because I watched literally zero of the nominations there. [](#cantbehelped)
Edit: Wait, no Apocalypse Hotel in AOTY? Okay I think that's an even bigger rob than the KiLLKiSS thing. [](#foldedarms)
BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-23 21:25
I think KillKiss, while certainly has some visual flair and a great song, feels kind of random visually and the depictions of the characters don’t exactly line up with how they’re portrayed in the show.
Also, it’s just really edgy, which I’m personally not huge on.
ARES_GOD2026-01-23 21:14
I am preparing my popcorn.
Already had my own awards but I always love seeing r/anime votes and awards so I am curious how its going to go this time.
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 21:17
Gotta say, I think it's pretty wild that **Apocalypse Hotel** and **The Summer Hikaru Died** weren't nominated for AOTY.
But you just have to leave room for the yearly Precure entry! This sub definitely really cares about it!
Durinthal2026-01-23 21:20
Not the jury's fault the public went for things like Dandadan and Fragrant Flower instead of those.
[](#abandonthread)
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 21:30
No, but I feel like the jury exists so that shows like that *do* get nominated. But 4 people said Precure and PriPara were more deserving, so here we are.
Rotorscope2026-01-23 21:39
Uh that's exactly what a jury is supposed to account for haha
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 21:51
Fragrant Flower is good tho
[](#schemingsaten)
ComfortablyRotten2026-01-23 22:07
Public proving itself worse than Jury yet again that's some dedication [](#modsalute)
tripleaamin2026-01-23 21:20
Add that cygames pictures also did Cinderella gray and they had an outstanding year. Probably my studio of the year.
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 21:43
Dang didn't even realize the ApocHotel snub, that feels criminal...
Dull_Spot_82132026-01-23 21:47
I couldn’t believe what the Jury put up.
_Ridley2026-01-23 22:34
We all knew Hikaru wasn't going to make it. My personal AOTY never gets nominated.
[](#lifeishard)
UMP45isnotflat2026-01-25 00:10
Make precure your personal AOTY next time please. Your sacrifice wont be forgotten.
Psyduckisnotaduck2026-01-24 01:19
whoever in the jury keeps nominating Precure year after year genuinely needs to resign and let other people do the job better. modern Precure is pretty inoffensively mid, there's like, four great seasons and none of them are post 2020.
Chukonoku2026-01-24 02:37
Wonder if it's the same small group of jurors who apply each year to keep the tradition going on.
dream_wielder2026-01-24 11:36
Unfortunately, there's only 7 juror this year for AoTY. [According to](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1ql18ey/comment/o1at0pr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) u/AdiMG, the Pripara and Mirai Days nomination process is a shitshow.
LurkingMcLurk2026-01-23 21:20
Animation: CITY
Background Art: CITY
Character Design: CITY
Cinematography: CITY
Ensemble Cast: CITY
Kooky-Library-84642026-01-23 22:19
City should win at least in Animation category. Animation is jaw-dropping
Nyapan2026-01-23 21:20
Tsukasa being in lead character makes me so happy! It's the first time my favorite character of the year made it into the nominations. I thought Inori would be the Medalist representative for sure.
It's also the first time I'm not voting in anime of the year since I haven't seen enough of the nominees and none of my clear favorites made it in.
The only ones I watched were The Apothecary Diaries Season 2, Dandadan Season 2 and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. I also started Orb but since I'm watching it with someone else I haven't had time to finish it yet.
I wish my favorite of the year The Summer Hikaru Died made it but at least I could vote for it in the suspense category.
Overall I can't say I'm too mad since while TSHD will surely get appreciation elsewhere as it's a popular show, Tsukasa definitely won't be in other character nominations.
PromotionNo69372026-01-23 21:21
Who's going to tell them that it's 2026? They need to do it in December like every other award show.
aniMayor2026-01-23 21:30
> like every other award show
* Crunchyroll 2025 Awards come out in April/May of 2026
* Sakugabooru 2025 awards are in January 2026
* Mainichi Film Awards 2025 will be in July 2026
* Oscars happen in March
* Golden Globes happen in January or February
* and a million more such examples
....so what the heck are you talking about???
PromotionNo69372026-01-23 21:56
The gaming industry generally does it the end of the year (The Game Awards, The Golden Joystick Awards). I would say most film awards do it at the end of the year. Golden Globes starts voting in December, which makes sense if it the show leaks over. Crunchyroll is especially egregious, trying to remember anime from a year and a half ago is ridiculous. Starting the voting the NEXT year is silly.
PromotionNo69372026-01-23 21:57
12/1: Gotham Award Winners
12/2: New York Film Critics Circle Winners
12/3: National Board of Review Winners
12/3: Independent Spirit Award Nominations
12/3: Atlanta Film Critics Circle Winners
12/4: American Film Institute Top 10
12/5: Critics Choice Award Nominations
12/5: Michigan Movie Critics Guild Nominations
12/5: Seattle Film Critics Society Nominations
12/6: International Documentary Association Winners
12/6: Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Nominations
12/7: Los Angeles Film Critics Association Winners
12/7: Toronto Film Critics Association Winners
12/7: Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Winners
12/7: St. Louis Film Critics Association Nominations
12/8: Golden Globe Award Nominations
12/8: Michigan Movie Critics Guild Winners
12/8: New York Film Critics Online Nominations
12/8: Oscar Shortlist Voting Begins At 12pm ET
12/8: Indiana Film Journalists Association Nominations
12/9: African American Film Critics Association Winners
12/9: Chicago Film Critics Association Nominations
PromotionNo69372026-01-23 21:57
12/9: Producers Guild Of America Award Documentary Nominations
12/9: Phoenix Critics Circle Nominations
12/10: Austin Film Critics Association Nominations
12/11: Chicago Film Critics Association Winners
12/11: Hollywood Creative Alliance Astra Creative Arts Award Winners
12/11: Phoenix Critics Circle Winners
12/12: Costume Designers Guild Nominations
12/12: San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/12: San Diego Film Critics Society Nominations
12/12: Oscar Shortlist Voting Ends At 8pm ET
12/14: St. Louis Film Critics Association Winners
12/14: Boston Society of Film Critics Winners
12/14: San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Winners
12/15: Southeastern Film Critics Association Winners
12/15: New York Film Critics Online Winners
12/15: Seattle Film Critics Society Winners
12/15: San Diego Film Critics Society Winners
12/15: Phoenix Film Critics Society Winners
12/15: Indiana Film Journalists Association Winners
12/15: USC Scripter Nominations
12/15: London Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/15: Florida Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/15: Las Vegas Film Critics Society Nominations
12/15: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/15: Actor Nomination Voting Begins
12/15: Directors Guild Of America Nomination Voting Begins
12/16: Oscar Shortlists
12/16: Satellite Award Nominations
12/16: American Cinematheque Tribute To The Crafts Honorees
12/17: Dallas Fort-Worth Film Critics Association Winners
12/17: Society Of Composers And Lyricists Nominations
12/17: Online Association Of Female Film Critics Nominations
12/18: Austin Film Critics Association Winners
12/18: Dublin Film Critics Circle Winners
PromotionNo69372026-01-23 21:57
12/18: Black Film Critics Circle Winners
12/18: Australian Academy Of Cinema & Television Arts International Award Nominations
12/18: Black Reel Award Nominations
12/18: Producers Guild Of America Nomination Voting Begins
12/19: Golden Globe Winner Voting Begins
12/19: Florida Film Critics Circle Winners
12/19: Las Vegas Film Critics Society Winners
12/19: Online Association Of Female Film Critics Winners
12/19: Georgia Film Critics Association Nominations
12/20: Boston Online Film Critics Association Winners
12/20: Philadelphia Film Critics Circle Winners
12/21: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Winners
12/21: Women Film Critics Circle Winners
12/21: Utah Film Critics Association Nominations
12/22: North Texas Film Critics Association Nominations
12/22: Alliance Of Women Film Journalists EDA Award Nominations
12/23: New Jersey Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/24: Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Nominations
12/25: Puerto Rico Critics Association Nominations
12/26: Portland Critics Association Nominations
12/26: Minnesota Film Critics Association Nominations
12/27: Georgia Film Critics Association Winners
12/28: Iowa Film Critics Association Winners
12/29: North Texas Film Critics Association Winners
12/29: Makeup And Hair Stylists Guild Nominations
12/31: Alliance Of Women Film Journalists EDA Award Winners
12/31: Portland Critics Association Winners
12/31: New Jersey Film Critics Circle Winners
12/31: UK Film Critics Association Winners
BaytaCosmico2026-01-23 21:21
Your Reddit account is too young to participate in the awards. Your account must be at least 180 days old to access the full system.
😔
Can someone maybe screenshot the nominees so I can at least see what I'm missing out on, please? 🥺
Vaxivop2026-01-23 21:28
We'll be posting a full nominee list in the coming days
- [Ao to Kirameki from My Dress-Up Darling S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sono_bisque_doll_wa_koi_wo_suru_season_2/OP1)
- [Hyakka Ryouran from Apothecary Diaries](https://animethemes.moe/anime/kusuriya_no_hitorigoto_2nd_season/OP1)
- [IRIS OUT from Chainsaw Man: Reze-hen](https://animethemes.moe/anime/chainsaw_man_rezehen/OP1-800)
- [Kakumei Douchuu from Dandadan S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/dandadan_2nd_season/OP1)
- [Kaseijin from Shoushimin S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/shoushimin_series_2nd_season/OP1)
- [Method from Sakamoto Days Part 2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sakamoto_days_part_2/OP1)
- [Mirage from Yofukashi no Uta S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/yofukashi_no_uta_season_2/OP1)
- [skirt from Apocalypse Hotel](https://animethemes.moe/anime/apocalypse_hotel/OP1)
- [Watch Me! from Witch Watch](https://animethemes.moe/anime/witch_watch/OP1)
- [Shujinkou ni Narou! from Sorairo Utility](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sorairo_utility_tv/OP1)
And the ED nominees:
- [Aimai Graffiti from Mikadono Sisters](https://animethemes.moe/anime/mikadono_sanshimai_wa_angai_choroi/ED1)
- [Anata wa Kaibutsu from Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu](https://animethemes.moe/anime/hikaru_ga_shinda_natsu/ED1)
- [Ban from Gachiakuta](https://animethemes.moe/anime/gachiakuta/ED2)
- [Contrast from Blue Box](https://animethemes.moe/anime/ao_no_hako/ED2)
- [Doukashiteru from Dandadan S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/dandadan_2nd_season/ED1)
- [I from My Hero Academia Final Season](https://animethemes.moe/anime/boku_no_hero_academia_final_season/ED1)
- [JANE DOE from Chainsaw Man: Reze-hen](https://animethemes.moe/anime/chainsaw_man_rezehen/ED1-800)
- [Kagerou from Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle](https://animethemes.moe/anime/chitosekun_wa_ramune_bin_no_naka/ED1)
- [Kawaii Kaiwai from My Dress-Up Darling S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sono_bisque_doll_wa_koi_wo_suru_season_2/ED1)
- [Nemure from Yofukashi no Uta S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/yofukashi_no_uta_season_2/ED1)
NintendoMasterNo12026-01-23 23:48
Not enough people watched Ave Mujica
Madpotator2026-01-24 04:20
I was expecting it more in these categories than the nominations it actually got (even those were through jury).
Also, Gachiakuta OP1 should definitely be here.
Lokhlass2026-01-24 01:21
Very surprised one of the One Piece opening from this year isn't here! Was gonna be my pick tbh
dream_wielder2026-01-24 10:15
If the Chainsawman Reze arc ED gets more than 7th in either public or jury, I'm gonna make a rant roasting everyone voted for this.
Gaporigo2026-01-24 17:36
> If the Chainsawman Reze arc ED gets more than 7th in either public or jury
Well, to make it here it already had to be top 5 amongst every ED in the year for the public
cppn022026-01-23 21:24
Going through the nominations and comparing to my nominations I feel the biggest miss for me is Anne Shirley in Best Drama.
I had several categories where all my noms made it in but between those I'd say SoL has the best line-up. Of course that means the jury will disappoint and pick Precure which shouldn't be in this category to beging with.
And speaking of the jury some nominations are so freaking out of pocked that this time I am certain they are trolling.
Like I watched The Lenticulars and it was good for what it was trying to be but Best Romance and Best Cinematogrophy for an 8 episode voice comic? Also the last episode alone should disqualify it from any nomination for everyone but the most pretentious douchebag. When 40% of your show's entire runtime is noise over a black screen that's just silly.
And the less said about the AotY nomination the better. The awards are becoming a parody of themselves. If the actual voting is close to the jury noms this might actually for once be a year where I prefer the public winners overall.
collapsedblock62026-01-23 21:31
> Of course that means the jury will disappoint and pick Precure which shouldn't be in this category to beging with.
Where should Precure be allocated then?
cppn022026-01-23 21:41
Precure is pretty hard to allocate in general and I must admit I have not watched this particularly entry.
Based on what I know about Precure in general and and looking at the synopsis and trailers having no reason to believe this is fundamently different the best pick would probably be action but depending on how the show swings adventure and comedy might also be better fits than SoL.
collapsedblock62026-01-23 21:45
You formed an opinion of a 50 episode show from a synopsis and minutes of trailers and decided that wasn't worthy of being a nomination?
Dunno man. In all Precures the structure is 15 minutes of SoL and 5 minutes of action. Ofc trailers will be action, that's what gets eyes.
As a juror I watched all 23 shortlists of SoL. I would have preferred something else to make the cut instead of Precure (No Mangaka or Pripara, sad) but I still a top half nominee over the rest of what we had.
cppn022026-01-23 21:57
5 minutes of action pretty much each episode would absolutely put this in the action category for me. And most certainly disqualify it from SoL.
BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-23 21:46
I personally was an advocate for Anne Shirley, but some people had enough issues with the pacing to rank it low and so it didn’t end up getting nominated.
zairaner2026-01-23 22:23
Watatabe is now in romance, which is...pretty ridiculous lol.
I am pretty sure it wasn't nominated for romance (I certainly would have complained about that) (Edit: Yes it was in suspense), so that would mean it wasn't taken by its original jury and the romance jury picked it up. Go romance jury I guess!
> Of course that means the jury will disappoint and pick Precure which shouldn't be in this category to beging with.
The year Hugttoo won, it placed 6th for the jury in its genre category (which was adventure/fantasy for some reason) WHICH WAS LITERALLY **LOWER** THAN IT WAS FOR THE PUBLIC at 5th, so you can always hope for that!
qef152026-01-25 23:15
>I had several categories where all my noms made it in but between those I'd say SoL has the best line-up. Of course that means the jury will disappoint and pick Precure which shouldn't be in this category to beging with.
I will rage if that legit happens.
Like, between Ruri Rocks, Hibimeshi, Mono and Food Court, no way Precure can sneak up on to that. It has been a once-in-a-blue-moon year for slice of life and they'd pick fucking Precure.
*please no.*
tripleaamin2026-01-23 21:41
100 meters is not an option for anime film of the year?
Shimmering-Sky2026-01-23 21:42
It didn't get a streaming release until the very end of December, would've needed to get it earlier in the month to qualify. That's also why the Demon Slayer movie wasn't able to be nominated this year but CSM Reze Arc *was*, for that matter.
tripleaamin2026-01-23 21:49
Ah, now that makes more sense. I figured it was based on theater release.
Shimmering-Sky2026-01-23 21:54
Nah, these awards are always based on when a movie is made available to a wide audience (whether that's a streaming release or a BD release), otherwise it would completely fuck over the jury half of the awards. They'd basically have to live somewhere that gets *every* movie that could potentially be nominated in that category *and* have those movies show at a time when they can actually go to the theaters or else they wouldn't be able to be part of that category, and that is absolutely unfair.
aniMayor2026-01-23 21:43
It was not even eligible for nomination, as it came out too late in the year to meet the awards cut-off. It'll be eligible for nomination in the 2026 awards.
Raiking022026-01-23 21:41
Have a lot of mixed feelings towards some of these nominees, especially towards the big categories, but at the very least glad that Honoka Inoue managed to sneak in with the best VA category.
Usodearu0072026-01-23 21:43
only 1 male seiyuu for best voice acting performance ? seriously ?
Shimmering-Sky2026-01-23 21:47
He's the one I'm rooting for, at any rate. TsudaKen did such a great job as Nowak.
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 21:52
I do a lot of hating on Orb but he was not part of it, did a great job there
Xatu442026-01-23 23:55
Just like last year, lol.
syrokiler2026-01-23 21:44
Anne Shirley really deserves best background art, but it sadly didn't get as much recognition as it should've when it was airing. I guess I can still hope the jury does what it should
AmethystItalian2026-01-23 21:45
Will be interesting to compare it to my [2025 Amewards](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1q3v2i8/2025_amewards_best_anime_of_the_year/) as always but definitely some big hitters I missed this time around.
City, Hikaru and Takopi being the biggest I should have maybe got to.
No Hotel in AotY is very surprising, sad to see, beautiful show.
SLEPTWITHMEMES2026-01-23 21:46
WHO the FUCK programmed this hot mess of a site
Vaxivop2026-01-23 22:00
What are the issues with it?
SLEPTWITHMEMES2026-01-23 22:02
There is literally nothing loading for me , there are only 6 options per page, half of them are cut in half for some reason and the way it loads is gross
aniMayor2026-01-23 21:48
Here's a handy dandy list of links for the short films and music videos categories:
 
**Short Films:**
* **Bottled Insects:** https://youtu.be/CCbKm14_zuE?si=NFVEE7WHzyLvSEue
* **Fire Craft:** https://youtu.be/-wL0TZzcKWE?si=lbxMcrfwamfFC7G2
* **First Line:** *no link, sorry*
* **Mamiko's Poop:** https://youtu.be/nEAFgHtuOIk?si=9Onai-EIeku8FLju
* **Red Memory (Aka no Kioku):** https://youtu.be/MAsy0QkeTpw?si=SYqyRongrgcP38JN
* **Bâan: Otona no Kyoukai:** https://youtu.be/V-P3HWXGYm4?si=sZeRVgoUQ3X9OtEI
* **Fate/Grand Order - 10th Anniversary Movie:** https://youtu.be/11vAh33_2eI?si=vYi1sd9pCPpe5MVJ
* **Run Run Lantern:** https://youtu.be/1iLnz2ZuJNE?si=mHjH71QJOBzEDIZK
* **Ruri Dragon PV:** https://youtu.be/80islLpIrLs?si=IOhrSyJLSgx9TG0y
* **We're the main characters... but we didn't hear about this!:** https://youtu.be/0GWcEp67jAo?si=D7y6WyFG3iWZGiO6
Also, I find it odd to call Osanai a side character. Since I consider her a co-lead.
mekerpan2026-01-24 04:45
Definitely a lead character.
tripleaamin2026-01-23 21:56
Also surprising is that there isn't a supernatural or fantasy category for genre.
Vaxivop2026-01-23 21:59
Adventure did use to be Adventure/Fantasy
Durinthal2026-01-23 22:24
Those are more setting aspects than genres to me. Konosuba and Re:Zero are both fantasy but are otherwise wildly different in the kind of stories they're trying to tell so it's harder to compare them in my opinion.
tripleaamin2026-01-24 17:26
While I do agree that there is more than just genre. The thing is, when I see a category like "best x genre," I think, oh, which show did this genre the best? Rather, what is the best show in this category? I voted SLF as the best adventure, not because it is the best series in that list, but because it truly executed an adventure story the best out of the list.
Comparing Re:Zero and Konosuba no doubt the former would be a big favorite over the latter. As in terms of what you look for in fantasy, it simply does things better. Konosuba's biggest factors are in its comedy of being a parody of the genre. But again, we have a comedy category to highlight these types of series.
You could argue that fantasy is more of a setting. But what stories make the best use of that setting? That is what people could be interested in the results of.
I feel in the case of shows like Dark Gathering and "The Summer Hikaru Died," they don't fit too well in the categories that are listed. As both are outstanding supernatural horror series. I just feel like both series will be snubbed because neither really fits well in any other categories besides suspense.
I guess one could combine fantasy & supernatural since the ideas about both are similar. Supernatural is a subgenre of fantasy.
While I don't think there should be a massive number of categories where the winner doesn't highlight anything. I still think the number is too limiting, as so much stuff in fantasy and sci-fi could be overlooked. Since those two genres are massive.
theangryeditor2026-01-23 21:57
Time to vote for all the stuff I haven't seen
[](#glasses-push)
bandannadann2026-01-23 22:07
My AOTY Cinderella Gray isn't even nominated ...
_Ridley2026-01-23 22:07
I give up on the AOTY jury. I watch 100+ anime every year from a wide variety of genres and demographics, and it's like they're either too locked into their own niche taste to try other things, or they're just straight up trolling. I don't know which is worse, but unlike previous years, I'm not even going to bother trying to watch the AOTY nominations this year. That jury is doing its own thing, and it has nothing to do with me. My own pick for AOTY is The Summer Hikaru Died, and I'm confident in that pick, so that's that.
I'll rave about the other snubs and surprises when I'm not on a tablet.
All right. Back at my PC. Other than AOTY, not too many surprises.
* Romance is suffering from a severe lack of Yano-kun's Ordinary Days, which should have replaced Watatabe (which isn't a romance) or Pass the Monster Meat, Milady (which was cute, but kinda mediocre). I'd replace Fragrant Flower with KimiKoe myself, but I can probably count on one hand the people who'd support me.
* Slice of life gives me an eye twitch like it does every year with a hodgepodge of cute girl shows, Precure, and a romcom that wandered into the wrong room. The lack of With You and the Rain is a damn shame. I'd have liked to see Captivated, by You here, but that's not the kind of niche this jury is into.
* Suspense is my best category, where I've seen everything but Re: Zero, which I don't watch.
* No Nukitashi in OP this year is like no Bravern in ED last year. You've gotta give points for an OP/ED that understands the assignment for its particular show. That's their purpose, after all.
* Next year, we've got to do something about the voice actor category so there's a better gender balance. I can't believe I'm saying this because *there aren't enough guys.* Look what you've made me do.
BaytaCosmico2026-01-23 22:36
The Summer Hikaru Died not even being nominated for AOTY is just straight up bullshit. Ditto for both of its VAs (and Shiori's from Watatabe) getting the cold shoulder. Like what??
Dull_Spot_82132026-01-23 22:41
>Which show deserved a nomination but wasn’t nominated?
The Summer Hikaru Died. Not even getting a nomination for AOTY is a snub. Horror has to be one of the most difficult things to get right in anime, and this actually did it.
Ham_PhD2026-01-23 22:48
At the same time, MASSIVE shoutout to the lead character jury for nominating Yoshiki.
I didn't think that would happen at all.
_Ridley2026-01-23 22:57
A small mercy.
Wanderingjoke2026-01-24 00:18
How do you tell which are jury or public picks? Is it just what (unlabeled) rows they are in?
CosmicPenguin_OV1032026-01-24 00:20
Looks like if there are 10 choices, the upper 5 are public picks and the lower 5 are jury picks.
Lemurians2026-01-24 00:56
Not always the case from what I can tell. I think on the site they're just in the order that somebody entered them in. We'll be putting out a graphic in the coming days that'll highlight which picks were public and which were jury. In meantime, it was [posted to our twitter account](https://x.com/ranime_awards/status/2014799161229468070).
_Ridley2026-01-24 00:23
I don't know, but the AOTY jury picks were kinda obvious, lol.
zambonijesus2026-01-24 00:24
There being weird, specific niche picks is fine, even good, but it being the exact same one every year is not.
LittleIslander2026-01-24 02:35
> Romance is suffering from a severe lack of Yano-kun's Ordinary Days
Yano-kun did have some strong supporters (and Kimi to Koete definitely got discussion), but ultimately it was divisive and couldn't quite get as high as some of the other divisive shows that had very passionate supporters. Some jurors also described concerns over Watatabe being accepted as a romance secondary, but overall people were willing to play ball with the idea that romantically coded concepts were baked into the series (whether they personally liked that choice or not).
> I'd have liked to see Captivated, by You here, but that's not the kind of niche this jury is into.
We *did* discuss this in Ensemble, for what it's worth, though ultimately we decided we liked our five nominations better than it despite some interesting offerings.
_Ridley2026-01-24 03:04
> ultimately it was divisive and couldn't quite get as high as some of the other divisive shows that had very passionate supporters.
Juries sound wild. I genuinely can't imagine passionately defending Monster Meat, and it's made for me.
qwertyqwerty45672026-01-23 22:17
Can we restart the process? Everything has clearly gone wrong here.
actuallyrndthoughts2026-01-23 22:20
I don't care what anyone says, movies should never share categories with tv shows.
Dull_Spot_82132026-01-23 22:31
I agree.
Lemurians2026-01-23 23:05
We do at least bar movies from production categories, where we feel they have too unfair an advantage over TV series.
OmegaVirgin942026-01-23 22:23
I didn't watch anything from last year so I'm just going to vote against what I think is going to be popular public opinion.
[](#kukuku)
StardustGogeta2026-01-23 23:18
Ooh, interesting stuff!
Seeing as I had only seen one eligible short (*Baan*) and one movie (*Chainsaw Man*), I have no complaints there.
Glad to see we didn't forget *Orb* (my top pick) or miss *Shoshimin* S2 (my #2). As for the rest, *Takopi* and *Apothecary Diaries* were also in my top 10, and there are none there that I watched and didn't enjoy. Never quite understood the awards appeal of *Precure* though (even after being forced to watch it last year for awards), so I'd probably have dropped that for something like *100 Girlfriends*, *Watanare*, *Ninkoro*, *Silent Witch*, or *Solo Leveling*.
Unlucky that *Wind Breaker* got snubbed for action once again, but at least my top 3 made it in.
Adventure seems like it was a bit rough this year. Glad *Clevatess* and SLF made it (and that *Touring* didn't!), but I was really hoping *Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses* would get some love.
All of my top 5 comedy except for *Let's Go Karaoke* made it in, and those picks generally look really good to me from both the public and jury.
Drama's stacked, as expected. All of my top 5 made it in (*Orb*, *Silent Witch*, *Rascal*, *Medalist*, *Ave Mujica*), which is nice.
Romance is a tad disappointing; only my top 2 (*Watanare*, *MDUD*) made it. I was hoping for *Amagami Sister*, *I Have a Crush at Work*, and *Shiunji Family*, but it looks like they nominated four shows I haven't seen instead. Maybe I should check those out at some point...
All five of my top picks made it, so quite happy with the slice of life shows.
Too bad *Ameku M.D.* didn't make it for suspense, but my top 3 got in, so that's fine.
noam_good_name2026-01-23 23:47
short: i would find the best pick later
music video: same
movie: kimi no iro was a movie that i watched at a con right before i started university and it connected with me so hard. my favourite anime expirience of the year period
aot: takopi and it's not even close. it's sad how terrible the selection for this years main award is, because the rest of the nominees for the other categories are so good this year. no hikaru, no city and no apocalyse hotel, no call of the night but there are 3 cute girls doing drama shows (also my friend watched mahotsukai precure this year and he didn't even like it). i understanding the system exists to reward less mainstream shows that are equally good, but if the system fails reward unique shows and rewards the same "r-anime awards bait" shows each the system is failing to a degree
action: i love chainsaw man. but more importently, i need solo leveling to lose
adventure: i feel like i should vote for yaiba but i didn't watch any other show from the category so i don't vote for anything
comedy: i loved spy x family this year but not for the comedy, milky subway was great and a lovable underdog but very short. city is incredibly impresive, but not too funny. i ultimatly voted for ninkoro because it's so funny and so creative.
drama: medalist was the best written show, but apocalyse hotel is was the so much better in any other aspect
romace: as always, i miss most romace. dress up darling had basicly zero romantic progress this year, it was more of a slice of life than romance. the leniculats was the best thing here. there is also a great lack of yano kun
sol: kimi no iro
suspense: most years it feels kind of weird to have this category, this year it was so stacked that barely knew what to vote for. except for the fact that takopi was so good that i had to vote for it
production: city was so impresive that it's not even funny
background art: always the hardest category to vote for because there is no sakuga blog to find background art and searching x anime backgrounds doesn;t actually help. i remebered takopi, hikaru and apocalyse hotel and city had great bg, but i remember being impressed by ruri rocks the most
character design: i voted city but i wanted to vote for ruri rocks, did you look at nagi?!
cinematography: takopi
ost: the soundtrack i remeber the best from this year is sanda, but the best one of the nominees was takopi.
va: i positivly remeber shizuka in takopi, inori in medalist and maomao from kusuriya. the one performance that genuinly made a character for me was miyuki sawashiro's anko from call of the night
op: as always, super stacked category. there are two headliners for me: watch me that the best visually and a show that a yoasabi song feels right for. mirage was a song with above average visuals and a song so good that it got me to try playing guitar again. in the end i voted for mirage but it was the closest
ed: dress up darling was an s tier ed in both music and visuals. also i have no idea how call of the night got the jury vote, i remeber them usally hating creepy nuts
lead: all great, voted for yoshiki
supporting: shiori
ensamble: city
Noobu_assassin2026-01-23 23:58
Site doesn't work for me, just says I have limited access and need to ask an administrator
Queue_Jumping_Quack2026-01-24 00:18
Made my votes... some interesting choices from the jury, but I suppose it reflects the sub's tastes so I'm fine with it. Mostly voted for what I presume were the audience nominations though, lol.
Bajington2026-01-24 00:56
Precure and BangDream in AOTY jury picks, welcome back guys, good process. Thought it might at least be a little more varied with the anilist people added in the mix.
Psyduckisnotaduck2026-01-24 01:39
Apocalypse Hotel not making it into AotY is probably something I should have anticipated, but I always forget that the AotY process is completely broken and y'all have no desire to fix it. coolcoolcool. look, if you subbed out the idol and mahou shoujo for Apocalypse Hotel and Medalist it'd look normal. or Milky Subway. or Hibimeshi. or anything else. it's not that the jury shouldn't highlight obscure things - it's that, consistently, what does get highlighted is the same exact things, over and over, which leaves no room for more interesting and varied choices. it is actually getting in the way of the reason the Jury exists. it makes the whole exercise a joke because we can anticipate that if the process remains the same, Idol PreCure is guaranteed a nomination. of course, it's both mahou shoujo and idol, the little clique must looooooove it.
Neat_Duck_86422026-01-24 01:40
Did Kingdom S6 at least get a mention in action? 🥀
Chukonoku2026-01-24 02:56
Haven't got to watch Kingdom yet, but Kingdom S6 Ending was fire.
CosmicPenguin_OV1032026-01-24 06:35
As someone who like it and actually made it in one of my 5 personal nominations ~~not that there were many other choices that I have watched anyway~~, an action-oriented anime with middle-of-the-range animations is always going to struggle getting into the finalists here unfortunately.
oedipusrex3762026-01-24 01:48
I would have liked the Ensemble Cast selection a bit more if Maebashi Witches had been nominated. It has the most likable cast since Bocchi the Rock.
Infodump_Ibis2026-01-24 01:53
I'm happy the Adventure jury remembered The Land of Nomo (Nomo no Kuni) as it's the only shortlisted Adventure I've watched. Btw, [it's got a free official sub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2puErJ6wnmU) (the translation style is idol=pop star).
I was wondering if [500000000 years button](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhGamQZtJ7K8VezOKZTbeLNPVzVrOM5nl) was going to end up a jury choice for suspense (it's super unpopular). Looks like a no.
Main awards I'd like to spoil my AOTY ballot. It's a shame I didn't get the glitched ballot with Wonderful Precure on it as that would be a fitting way to do it. No vote recorded doesn't send the same message (e.g. I've not voted on lead character because I've watched on episode of one of the shortlisted shows).
Movie I like Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 but movie feels like an odd place although I guess the production level is above that of 8 episodes. If it was 8 short films instead the public side would be baan+4 of those (also no good) and that's already split music video off to provide more room.
rebeccadarking2026-01-24 02:08
summer hikaru died not in AOTY :(
CoolVidsFTW2026-01-24 02:23
Most-nominated titles for this year's awards
*Note: The jury cannot nominate an entry if it was already among the public’s top five selections during the nomination voting phase.*
|Nominee|Total Nominations|Public Nominations|Jury Selections (after Public nomination vote)|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|[Dandadan (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/60543/Dandadan_2nd_Season)|10|10|0|
|[The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58514/Kusuriya_no_Hitorigoto_2nd_Season)|10|10|0|
|[My Dress-Up Darling (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/53065/Sono_Bisque_Doll_wa_Koi_wo_Suru_Season_2)|9|6|3|
|[Takopi's Original Sin](https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai)|9|8|1|
|[Call of the Night (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58390/Yofukashi_no_Uta_Season_2)|6|3|3|
|[Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc](https://myanimelist.net/anime/57555/Chainsaw_Man_Movie__Reze-hen)|6|6|0|
|[CITY the Animation](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59898/City_The_Animation)|6|4|2|
|[Orb: On the Movements of the Earth](https://myanimelist.net/anime/52215/Chi_Chikyuu_no_Undou_ni_Tsuite)|6|6|0|
|[The Summer Hikaru Died](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58913/Hikaru_ga_Shinda_Natsu)|6|3|3|
|[Apocalypse Hotel](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59675/Apocalypse_Hotel)|5|0|5|
|[Gachiakuta](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59062/Gachiakuta)|5|4|1|
|[Sorairo Utility](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58066/Sorairo_Utility_TV)|5|0|5|
AUAAUH2026-01-24 02:35
Does animation not factor into ED nominations? Jane Doe and Nemure are great songs, but IMO the ED sequences do not belong on a best of the year list.
Schinco2026-01-24 02:51
while i would say they matter for me a lot personally and also tend to matter for OP and ED jurors historically, there's not any official guidelines we use, and half the picks are from the public.
AUAAUH2026-01-24 03:15
Thanks for the clarification! I just want to say, despite my disagreements (quite a lot for this year especially), I appreciate the work you all do. I look forward to the write-ups once the awards are out!
Time_Fracture2026-01-24 04:14
Shame Apocalypse Hotel didn't make it to AOTY.
But happy that Kagerou made it.
mrsirgrape2026-01-24 07:20
God these awards suck sometimes.
Apocalypse Hotel and Hikaru missing out for a show with a 7.27 and 500 ratings on MAL.
MetaSoshi92026-01-24 07:59
Under ED the "JANE DOE (Chainsaw Man: Reze-hen) ED1" should not be eligible and should be removed. Movie OP and EDs are eligible, however, only if they actually contain visuals and are not just a scrolling credit roll. This is a rule that has been in the awards for quite a while and seemingly missed. OP and ED are categories that are meant to be judging visuals and song. However, if there are no visuals to go by then it is deemed ineligible. This ED has a looping underwater effect and just the credit roll screening, it does not have enough visual information to be eligible. I know the host team has already decided to double down on this mistake but I believe it would be better for the awards if instead of doing that they take efforts to fix any mistakes. Otherwise this is a permanent blemish on the awards in the archive and the livestream. A completely wasted spot as it will inevitably be placed in last by the Jury.
Similarly in short, tetoris should also not be eligible. It is a single looping animation, it would fall under not being animated enough to pass. It's odd to me it got added in manually without going through this, but there is a reason (what I stated) as to why it isn't an entry on anilist for example. For a manual entry there are tests it should pass to be added into the list.
commandopro962026-01-24 08:14
No Georgette Me, Georgette You is crazy
DJBay1232026-01-24 13:37
Happy with most of the nominations except some thing about AOTY.
CITY did get which makes me happy. Sad to not see the Ninkoro ED there.
Out of the 10 comedy nominees, I liked to loved 7, had 1 as average, dropped 1 and didn't watch Milky Subway, so I'd say again it was a great year for comedy.
On AOTY, I must be going crazy, but I'm not seeing anywhere that says Idolland Pripara came out last year. Did it get a delayed final episode of something? But I pretty much agree with a comment I saw earlier. Nothing wrong with different non-popular shows getting nominated (I've heard good things about Ave before today). It's that its the same magical girls and idol picks for the last few years, and sometimes the same franchises.
Just checking back:
* 2025: Idol- Bang Dream Magical Girl- PriPara and Precure Mirai Days
* 2024: Magical Girl: Soaring Sky! Precure
* 2023: Idol: Bang Dream Mygo, Idolish7
Bang winning the jury in 2023 feels like it started this feeling. I don't think it would've bothered me that much, since most years the jury pick a show I liked, but PriPara this year feel just so incredibly niche it feels pre-planned (Yes, I know it wasn't, just from the outside it's like the same people picking some type of shows each year. It's like Jury are doing what the public do, but instead of popular sequels and action shows, its idol and magical girls.
NormalGrinn2026-01-24 13:55
Idol Land only got fully subbed in English in 2025 and that is why it is eligible.
KitKat17212026-01-24 19:14
As bummed I am about The Summer Hikaru Died not making it in AOTY, I am so perplexed about the Chainsaw Man Reze ED making it in. I haven't been a juror or host since 2020 and I figured for sure in the five years since then someone implemented a rule against scrolling black credit EDs with essentially zero visuals haha
Commentaires
This is the beginning of a series of posts where the community will vote to decide the best anime of 2025 in a variety of categories over the next few weeks. Every weekend, we will take a look at a specific set of categories encompassing different facets of anime on a storytelling, artistic, and technical level:
* Genre
* Production
* Character
* Main
Each subsequent post will focus on a specific category group so you can space out your votes and share your hot takes in detail. However, the website also allows you to go ahead and vote on any and all categories you would like to. So whether you'd like to pace yourself or finish voting all in one go, both options are available to you. You may also go back and change any of your votes up until final voting is closed on February 17th, as they are auto-saved for your convenience. Additionally, we've included a simplified watch statistics survey, so please fill that out if you have the time!
We are starting this year's post with some general information about the public side of the Awards:
_When are the results going to be revealed?_
**The results will be revealed on our livestream, on March 14th 2025.**
_Which shows were nominated by the public and which by the jury?_
**We will have a nomination chart that separates the nominees in public and juror picks. The public and the jury chose 5 nominees for each category.**
Today's questions:
Which nomination surprised you the most?
Which show deserved a nomination but wasn't nominated?
Also, if you are interested in helping out with proofreading the juror write-ups for the website, please fill out this helper application: https://forms.gle/Ef8VDxvXbyZvyJVu8
---
The short _Tetoris_ was added by mistake. It should have been disqualified due to it being a single looping animation. It has now been disqualified, and the sixth place runner up, _Daidaidaidaidaikirai_, has been added in its place.
I imagine people are curious about how a group of jurors arrived at *Bisque Doll S2*, *Shoshimin S2*, *Ave Mujica*, *Mirai Days*, and *Idol Land Pripara* as AotY nominees. Consider this a juror's candid account of what actually happens during the jury nomination phase.
When the awards cycle began this year, AotY was a 13-juror category. 5 jurors had to step away for real-life reasons, and we received only 1 replacement before the final shortlisting deadline. That left the category with 9 jurors. 2 of those 9 were unable to meet the eligibility requirement of having fully discussed 13 shortlisted shows, and were therefore unable to participate in the nomination vote. The result was a 7-juror panel for AotY nominations.
That is, by AotY standards, a very small jury. In a group this size, a bloc of 4 voters can effectively force through a predetermined favorite without meaningful opposition.
Whether intentionally or not, in my view, this is exactly what happened with *Ave Mujica*. The show had a bloc of 4 supporters, which meant that despite their responses to criticisms about the show being fairly lackluster by AotY discussion standards. They could nominate the show through shear numerical advantage. I’m not sure there’s a clean solution to counter that within the current structure. Short of hosts actively tracking juror preferences and avoiding stacking multiple fans of the same title (the sole replacement juror was also an *Ave Mujica* supporter), the system remains vulnerable to this kind of inadvertent stacking.
As a host last year, I even floated the idea of abolishing AotY as a jury category altogether, replacing it with a ballot drawing from all jurors across all categories—a kind of constrained popularity vote. It’s a radical proposal that runs counter to the logic of the jury awards, so it’s not surprising it went nowhere, but the underlying problem it was trying to address remains unresolved.
For the sake of transparency, it’s worth noting that *Shoshimin*, which was a show I supported, reached a similarly secure voting bloc, with 5 jurors placing it in their top 5 (though one ultimately became ineligible to vote). The difference is that no one seriously contested its inclusion, unlike *AveMuji*.
Despite the reduced jury size, AotY still ended up with a staggering 28 shortlists. By comparison, Cinematography (an 8-juror category) had only 17. This discrepancy is the result of a long-standing strategy in awards: flooding the zone with as many shortlists as possible. That burden is manageable if you’ve spent the year watching with awards in mind, but it becomes overwhelming if you haven’t (I came into the awards having watched a grand total of one show which I watched to write the application). It’s especially punishing when shortlists involve shows with prerequisite commitments, even though we did succeed last year in lowering the maximum episode threshold for prerequisites to 12 after a lot of advocacy on my end.
This creates an unfortunate and perverse incentive to just coast by on checking out the bare minimum of 3 episodes (alongside any prerequisites) for all the shortlisted shows. Which will subsequently leave you with a shallower impression of many entries compared to shows you have shortlisted yourself and presumably seen a larger sampling of. I, perhaps foolishly, chose to watch 5-6 episodes of every shortlist, often completing shows outright to give everything a fair shot. In hindsight, that was a mistake, as other jurors did take the more pragmatic path and increased their voting power substantially with lower levels of discussion.
I bring this up because while I made a point of withdrawing one of my shortlists that clearly wasn’t gaining traction in discussion, other jurors did not extend the same courtesy to entries that received almost no engagement until the final week, and were largely met with negative reactions when they were discussed at all. The bloated shortlist forced jurors to spend time catching up on entries that would never survive in a fully informed jury, yet still carried the risk of being nominated if left uncontested. *Pripara* and *Mirai Days* both fall into this category, with *Mirai Days* being the more egregious case.
To understand how *Mirai Days* survived, it’s important to explain how shortlisting works. You don’t get to shortlist a show “for free”; you are required to watch and meaningfully discuss 2 other assigned shortlists. In theory, this discourages frivolous shortlists. In practice, it favors jurors who have already done extensive viewing and are thus free to shortlist as much as they want. In this case, the juror who shortlisted *Mirai Days* failed to fulfill their obligation. The AotY hosts initially made the rightful call to remove the shortlist, but ultimately reversed course to avoid unnecessary drama, allowing another juror to “save” the entry. The result was that a show which had received only negative feedback from a single juror and otherwise gone virtually undiscussed from early December until January 10 was suddenly reinstated. At this point the show did receive a lot of genuine supporters, but the whole process left a sour taste in my mouth with how late in the game it was. I should have also recognized this turn in momentum faster and prioritized engaging with the show over other entries purely to mount some resistance. I didn’t, and that’s on me.
*Pripara*’s inclusion is, frankly, amusing as hell. Only 4 jurors were eligible to vote on it, and 3 of them did not place it in their top 5. The only explanation I can arrive at is that the jury was even more divided on other candidates, which suggests a previously unencountered wonkiness in the nomination algorithm itself. As far as I know this is the same system that was brought about due to the *Yama no Susume* win year, when multiple AotY jurors (myself included) raised concerns about *Akebi* receiving a nomination despite being actively disliked by most of the panel, simply because it was the favorite show of two jurors. The hosts responded by adjusting the algorithm to favor middling consensus picks which has been used since then. That *Pripara* is seen as a middling consensus pick is extremely hilarious; and entirely a factor of how insular the awards jury regulars have grown to be.
There is no easy fix here, but I firmly believe voting should not be the final step in nominations. In small juries with asymmetric voting powers, voting alone produces distorted outcomes. A final discussion round after voting would go a long way toward preventing results that feel this unrepresentative of the discussion as it happened in the awards thus far.
This also speaks to a broader attitude that has taken hold on the jury side: an aversion to objectivity and a strict privileging of subjective experience. In principle, this is defensible—no analysis is free of bias, and aiming for objectivity often lead to bad-faith motte-and-bailey arguments where a juror will make a case stemming from their subjective biases, but hide it in a veneer of much more defensible, flexible, and culturally normative metrics of objectivity, thereby creating a frustrating discussion environment. I don't even mind that the ranking stage of the awards are run under this mindset.
However, at the nomination stage, there needs to be some recognition that these nominees are not meant solely for a tight circle of friends with esoteric taste, but rather they are being chosen for a far broader audience and thus should be meaningfully representative for the subreddit as a whole. That doesn’t mean defaulting to the most popular shows and discarding the chosen juries' subjective enjoyment of the show entirely, but nominees should at least have some foothold in the community. *Ave Mujica* does, despite me despising it personally. *Mirai Days* and *Pripara* do not. One ~~fringe~~ curveball pick is tolerable, if not outright encouraged as a result of having a jury system, but all three together makes a mockery of the entire awards process and undermines the genuinely thoughtful work done by other juries.
I served on five additional categories (Animation, Background Art, Cinematography, Character Design, and Soundtrack) and I believe all of them produced strong, defensible nominee slates. Unfortunately, those efforts will be overshadowed by the AotY nominees, which is precisely why I’m writing this.
Finally, the blame partly lies with the public nominations being fairly surprising. I deliberately avoided watching the second seasons of *Kusuriya*, *Dandadan*, and *Bisque* (three shows I liked in their first seasons) in the nomination stage because they were assumed public nominees allowing me to focus on the other 24 shortlists. When Bisque wasn't nominated, I had to abandon checking out *Pripara* and *Mirai Days* to focus on Bisque instead [(while getting cursed by Apollo.)](https://files.catbox.moe/yezc49.png) Not being able to vote on those helped contribute to the current AotY nominee slate instead of a potentially more palatable plate including the likes of *Milky Subway*, *City the Animation*, *Sorairo Utility*, and *Apocalypse Hotel*, given my fairly negative opinion of those two shows (I checked them out after the nomination vote deadline!)
Edit: Rewrote some of the earlier parts because I was being too uncharitable to my fellow AotY jurors, who I am sure were trying their best; just for one reason or another, they didn't hold up to the standards I expect out of AotY.
This is no offense to you, it sounds like you were trying to be a good juror.
Edit: After reviewing the full nominations, I feel as though the jury for most categories handled things pretty well. I sometimes forget that the "jury" is different for every category. Hopefully I can remind everyone else of that fact too so we don't just point fingers at "the jury" as a whole.
The jury should a place where you're free to express your opinions without being subject to arbitrary measures like popularity or relevance. If we put an arbitrary measure like "sorry people, kids shows piss people off so you can't nom this"', why can't there also be a line for "I think battle shonen are beneath me so they shouldn't be nommed"? So its better to just be open doors.
I have been on the shoes of someone that was the lone fan of something only I had seen in a category of dozens of juror and had to engage with the jury to give it a chance.
If I was told that I couldn't get my nomination because "it isn't representative of the community" or "only 5k people have seen this", I would be severely disappointed and actually question why the jury exists.
I sometimes think of awards as sort of a recommendation list and have discovered many gems thanks to those lone jurors that watched some weird thing. Heck, many times those shows don't even make the cut but I can’t say I regret watching them.
What can I say, I like awards because it can expands the horizons of what I like. I may raise eyebrows from time to time, even with fellow jurors I talk to, but I always engage in a faithful manner and see no need to prejudice other's tastes.
This is the issue with a jury comprised of only 7 people. You don't have to convince *anyone* as long as 3 people already agree with you.
I don't feel like getting rid of it is the best option but wish there was a way to make it less clique_ish_
[](#abandonthread)
[](#hardthink)
Plausible
I wouldn’t go that far. The entire jury works hard to highlight what we believe are great shows that unfortunately may fall under the general public’s eye. Sometimes, due to how categories are divided and personal circumstances, categories can have uneven distribution as Adi stated. I’m a drama juror and I felt that (for the most part) we had very productive, informative discussions that let us see each other’s perspectives. I of course have disagreement with some of the results (I also don’t like Ave Mujica), but we discussed the shortlists and highlighted the shows we thought were deserving. I don’t think there needs to be an abolishment of the jury system because of this one instance that may be disagreeable.
But at the very least, I think there needs to be some kind of reform to the process to shield against things like this happening.
Liiikkee applying to be a juror!!!!! (Or the feedback section).
I still think there's a bunch of more interesting jury picks in most if not all of the other categories. I see for these that they managed to grasp that feeling of picking up very strong shows that weren't as popular as the big hitters, or even some hidden gems that I wouldn't have been aware of if it wasn't for them. I hope you got the same feeling from some of these other jury picks, and let's see if the whole process can be improved next year, as I think the way things have been working for AOTY should be reconsidered
I only looked at the AOTY award noms before commenting and kinda made a misguided blanket statement. It does look like some great work was done in other categories. As I said in my edit, sometimes I forget that there isn't one jury. Every category has one. My issue really relates only to the AOTY category (this year at least). I just feel as though there has been some questionable things happening there for a couple years now.
[](#bigthink)
Who are you and what have you done to the real r/anime awards juries
[](#hikariactually)
...Like I came here to post smug Yuki's and now I'm stuck with this [this](https://files.catbox.moe/03cyah.png) instead.
[wtf jury.](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQi31Bn27_rriKTDPl3fL2BOCiwdCeD069LZQ&s)
[](#angrypout)
What's the average size? What do you think a reasonable jury size would be? How many people applied and wanted to be in that category?
~~Also the absence of medalist of course~~
I'll just add my own bit of notes when I was a juror and just observing how things were run, in that these results from what I can tell is also very much not what the juror would want. I think jurors like and want their pet picks to go through, but even from experience this is hardly the sort of nomination results they would want. I remember instances of jurors being sometimes surprised by their own nomination outcomes.
I don't remember if it's like this, but from what I remember, the fact that everyone votes blind in respect to others can cause this. It would be interesting to see a sort of 2nd round of voting after the revealing the nominations that would occur from the first round of nomination voting.
This is definitely an idea to consider for future years.
For the record, I'm a massive Precure fan (hoping Wonderful Precure wins Slice of Life!) and an even bigger Mahoutsukai Precure fan--the original one, from 2016. I was super hyped for Mirai Days, watched it in its entirety, and left vaguely disappointed. I might place it in my personal top 10 sequels of the year with mild enjoyment for huge fans of the original, but in no way is it AOTY material. It wasn't even the best Precure series of the year. I could've at least seen where a Wonderful Precure AOTY nom was coming from, not that I'd place it as AOTY material personally either (more like top 20).
Right now, as to how many juries somebody can be on, we allowed people to be on as many as 10 during the opening phases of awards, that then has to be cut down to 5 after nominees are finalized.
Does it mean we could congratulate ave mujica win r/anime's 2025 AOTY jury award beforehand? I'm sure the news will get thousands of upvotes and comments on bilibili
>The show had a bloc of 4 supporters, which meant that despite their responses to criticisms about the show being fairly lackluster by AotY discussion standards.
Yeah that's exactly what I say every single year.
And I've never actually BEEN on the jury; This is just what I said every year because in my opinion ***it is obvious*** even just from an outsider's perspective.
No offense, but why isn't having spent the year watching with awards (or at least what is "good") in mind considered a prerequisite for being on AotY jury? I see as much an issue in your comment with a jury selection process that allows jurors who only have seen one show on the AotY panel as I see in your other process complaints.
Personally I use the awards as a motivation to watch anime. I have found not going there with a horse in the race is more enjoyable than going with a mindset to shill something specific (Last time I joined AotY was to shill YnS S4 and DIY in specific in 2022, and it was hell with the amount of bashing of other contenders I had to do for persuading the rest of the jury. This year I could just provide pertinent commentary without overly focusing on the results as I would've been fine with like 15 of our shortlists ending up as nominees).
I ended up watching around 56 shows for all my categories this year. I think that's enough of a sample to judge what's the best of the year.
You can have a greater watch time prior to awards as a requirement but that would filter for even worse encampment from jurors looking to shill their favorites rather than discussing the merits of shows with an open mind.
To be clear, I do think it's reasonable to pick jurors who haven't seen everything discussed. I think it's okay to want jurors who are willing to dedicate more time on top of what they did on their own, and maybe expecting only the maniacs who give a 3 episode test to every seasonal is asking too much and curtailing the jury's ability to choose members with sufficient rhetorical prowess. Still, you yourself describe the process as leading to an undue burden on a person such as yourself and maybe it's better to have jurors who aren't blank slates than it is to narrow the pool of shows considered.
And also, it seems to me that you told a story where you assumed that Bisque Doll S2 should be nominated and then you watched it so it could be nominated and then you worked to get it nominated and then it was nominated. Sounds kind of like you were less of a blank slate than you thought. I don't see how you having not watched the most recent season made your choice any less predetermined than judges who came into it knowing they were going to nominate Ave Mujika.
I have no issues with people coming into the awards to shill a specific thing. I literally told you I did that back in 2022, it just personally works better for me to not do that. Since I can confidently say I wouldn't be as big of a fan of Milky Subway or Lenticulars, if I had come into the awards with the mindset of shilling specific things and was looking to dismiss contenders that opposed it.
Anyways I'm not advocating for a narrowing of the pool of shows to be considered, I just think jurors and hosts should be more mindful of frivolous shortlists, in my mind there were like 5-6 shows shortlisted in AotY this time which were purely padding, maybe they weren't intended as such but it was relatively clear early on that they weren't going to be nominated yet they coasted along till the nomination vote, which means someone who wants to vote on every potential shortlist has to do more work in terms of watching and discussion. My point was more that the process needs more earlier check-ins for what's viable so people can focus on those shows, instead of the current process of having one vote and that's the final thing, regardless of disproportionate voting powers, regardless of it actually reflecting the overall jury opinion well or not.
Someone who came into the awards having seen all 27 shortlists has more power than someone who comes into it having seen 10 or 1, there's no way to bridge that entirely but there should be more steps in the process to make the final votes as level of a playing field as possible. Like if I knew beforehand Pripara and Mirai Days had more of a shot of getting nominated than Blue Box and Anne, I wouldn't have spent the day before the nomination vote watching 10 eps of those two shows. Instead I'd watch Pripara and Mirai Days so I could have a reasonable opinion on them before the final vote.
How did we go from early anime award years where we had good jury picks like Rakugo Shinjuu and sangatsu no lion, to wherever the hell this is.
Bring back Wancure AOTY!
Action: Watched 5/10 shows, my worst category, voting MHA Final Season.
Adventure: Watched 6/10, voting Dr Stone.
Comedy: Watched 10/10, voting City.
Drama: Watched 10/10, voting Medalist.
Romance: Watched 8/10, voting My Dress Up Darling.
Slice of Life: Watched 9/10 (started the other but never finished), voting Kimi no Iro.
Suspense: Watched 7/10, voting Call of the Night
Edit: [You can see here which were public and which were jury picks.](https://x.com/ranime_awards/status/2014799161229468070)
Also *Sorairo Utility* was a jury darling.
It's a really 100% sweet and soothing slice-of-life show, nothing that would really surprise you, but one anime that you definitely want to spend a lazy weekend afternoon to watch. So much that I even nominated it for Best Character Design (and got it in).
I am confused why MC Minami's VA is nominated for Voice Acting Performance though, I don't recall any particularly notable scenes of voice acting performance across the whole show.
*EDIT: No Medalist or Ruri Rocks or Apocalypse Hotel or Cinderella Gray or CITY in AOTY finalists is…certainly a choice. Though I guess I really need to get into Precure/Aikatsu/PriPra sooner or later I guess…*
Action: **MHA The Final Season**
Comedy: **Spy x Family S3**
Drama: **Bunny Girl S2**
Romance: **My Dress-Up Darling S2**
Slice of Life: **Ruri Rocks**
Suspense: **Re:Zero S3**
Character:
Lead Character: **Marin Kitagawa**
Supporting Character: **Hina Chouno**
Ensemble: **Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace**
Anime of the Year: **My Dress-Up Darling S2**
Also as a side note I really wish there was a way to praise new shows in particular. Another random point I'm surprised Watatabe got nominated for romance but not drama
[](#sakuraconcern)
Edit: Ok, Public nommed MHM in romance, public now can't complain about anything.
Edit 2: Can't believe I forgot the actual worst nom of all, Public nommed the Chainsaw Man Movie ED, basically a black screen lmao.
[](#mechablush)
I can forgive this if only because Yaiba got there [](#utahapraises "Although yeah, screw G-Duck lmao.")
[](#shatteredsaten)
Didn't even choose a cool credits scroll [like this (not 2025 btw)](https://v.animethemes.moe/ShoujoKagekiRevueStarlightRondoRondoRondo-ED1.webm). No, just one with an underwater backdrop that stays the same throughout.
and the song isn't even very good.
Overall a decent selection of stuff to vote for, though. Only category I'm not voting for anything in is Slice of Life because I watched literally zero of the nominations there. [](#cantbehelped)
Edit: Wait, no Apocalypse Hotel in AOTY? Okay I think that's an even bigger rob than the KiLLKiSS thing. [](#foldedarms)
Also, it’s just really edgy, which I’m personally not huge on.
Already had my own awards but I always love seeing r/anime votes and awards so I am curious how its going to go this time.
But you just have to leave room for the yearly Precure entry! This sub definitely really cares about it!
[](#abandonthread)
[](#schemingsaten)
[](#lifeishard)
Background Art: CITY
Character Design: CITY
Cinematography: CITY
Ensemble Cast: CITY
It's also the first time I'm not voting in anime of the year since I haven't seen enough of the nominees and none of my clear favorites made it in.
The only ones I watched were The Apothecary Diaries Season 2, Dandadan Season 2 and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. I also started Orb but since I'm watching it with someone else I haven't had time to finish it yet.
I wish my favorite of the year The Summer Hikaru Died made it but at least I could vote for it in the suspense category.
Overall I can't say I'm too mad since while TSHD will surely get appreciation elsewhere as it's a popular show, Tsukasa definitely won't be in other character nominations.
* Crunchyroll 2025 Awards come out in April/May of 2026
* Sakugabooru 2025 awards are in January 2026
* Mainichi Film Awards 2025 will be in July 2026
* Oscars happen in March
* Golden Globes happen in January or February
* and a million more such examples
....so what the heck are you talking about???
12/2: New York Film Critics Circle Winners
12/3: National Board of Review Winners
12/3: Independent Spirit Award Nominations
12/3: Atlanta Film Critics Circle Winners
12/4: American Film Institute Top 10
12/5: Critics Choice Award Nominations
12/5: Michigan Movie Critics Guild Nominations
12/5: Seattle Film Critics Society Nominations
12/6: International Documentary Association Winners
12/6: Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Nominations
12/7: Los Angeles Film Critics Association Winners
12/7: Toronto Film Critics Association Winners
12/7: Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Winners
12/7: St. Louis Film Critics Association Nominations
12/8: Golden Globe Award Nominations
12/8: Michigan Movie Critics Guild Winners
12/8: New York Film Critics Online Nominations
12/8: Oscar Shortlist Voting Begins At 12pm ET
12/8: Indiana Film Journalists Association Nominations
12/9: African American Film Critics Association Winners
12/9: Chicago Film Critics Association Nominations
12/9: Phoenix Critics Circle Nominations
12/10: Austin Film Critics Association Nominations
12/11: Chicago Film Critics Association Winners
12/11: Hollywood Creative Alliance Astra Creative Arts Award Winners
12/11: Phoenix Critics Circle Winners
12/12: Costume Designers Guild Nominations
12/12: San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/12: San Diego Film Critics Society Nominations
12/12: Oscar Shortlist Voting Ends At 8pm ET
12/14: St. Louis Film Critics Association Winners
12/14: Boston Society of Film Critics Winners
12/14: San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Winners
12/15: Southeastern Film Critics Association Winners
12/15: New York Film Critics Online Winners
12/15: Seattle Film Critics Society Winners
12/15: San Diego Film Critics Society Winners
12/15: Phoenix Film Critics Society Winners
12/15: Indiana Film Journalists Association Winners
12/15: USC Scripter Nominations
12/15: London Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/15: Florida Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/15: Las Vegas Film Critics Society Nominations
12/15: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/15: Actor Nomination Voting Begins
12/15: Directors Guild Of America Nomination Voting Begins
12/16: Oscar Shortlists
12/16: Satellite Award Nominations
12/16: American Cinematheque Tribute To The Crafts Honorees
12/17: Dallas Fort-Worth Film Critics Association Winners
12/17: Society Of Composers And Lyricists Nominations
12/17: Online Association Of Female Film Critics Nominations
12/18: Austin Film Critics Association Winners
12/18: Dublin Film Critics Circle Winners
12/18: Australian Academy Of Cinema & Television Arts International Award Nominations
12/18: Black Reel Award Nominations
12/18: Producers Guild Of America Nomination Voting Begins
12/19: Golden Globe Winner Voting Begins
12/19: Florida Film Critics Circle Winners
12/19: Las Vegas Film Critics Society Winners
12/19: Online Association Of Female Film Critics Winners
12/19: Georgia Film Critics Association Nominations
12/20: Boston Online Film Critics Association Winners
12/20: Philadelphia Film Critics Circle Winners
12/21: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Winners
12/21: Women Film Critics Circle Winners
12/21: Utah Film Critics Association Nominations
12/22: North Texas Film Critics Association Nominations
12/22: Alliance Of Women Film Journalists EDA Award Nominations
12/23: New Jersey Film Critics Circle Nominations
12/24: Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Nominations
12/25: Puerto Rico Critics Association Nominations
12/26: Portland Critics Association Nominations
12/26: Minnesota Film Critics Association Nominations
12/27: Georgia Film Critics Association Winners
12/28: Iowa Film Critics Association Winners
12/29: North Texas Film Critics Association Winners
12/29: Makeup And Hair Stylists Guild Nominations
12/31: Alliance Of Women Film Journalists EDA Award Winners
12/31: Portland Critics Association Winners
12/31: New Jersey Film Critics Circle Winners
12/31: UK Film Critics Association Winners
😔
Can someone maybe screenshot the nominees so I can at least see what I'm missing out on, please? 🥺
- [Ao to Kirameki from My Dress-Up Darling S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sono_bisque_doll_wa_koi_wo_suru_season_2/OP1)
- [Hyakka Ryouran from Apothecary Diaries](https://animethemes.moe/anime/kusuriya_no_hitorigoto_2nd_season/OP1)
- [IRIS OUT from Chainsaw Man: Reze-hen](https://animethemes.moe/anime/chainsaw_man_rezehen/OP1-800)
- [Kakumei Douchuu from Dandadan S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/dandadan_2nd_season/OP1)
- [Kaseijin from Shoushimin S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/shoushimin_series_2nd_season/OP1)
- [Method from Sakamoto Days Part 2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sakamoto_days_part_2/OP1)
- [Mirage from Yofukashi no Uta S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/yofukashi_no_uta_season_2/OP1)
- [skirt from Apocalypse Hotel](https://animethemes.moe/anime/apocalypse_hotel/OP1)
- [Watch Me! from Witch Watch](https://animethemes.moe/anime/witch_watch/OP1)
- [Shujinkou ni Narou! from Sorairo Utility](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sorairo_utility_tv/OP1)
And the ED nominees:
- [Aimai Graffiti from Mikadono Sisters](https://animethemes.moe/anime/mikadono_sanshimai_wa_angai_choroi/ED1)
- [Anata wa Kaibutsu from Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu](https://animethemes.moe/anime/hikaru_ga_shinda_natsu/ED1)
- [Ban from Gachiakuta](https://animethemes.moe/anime/gachiakuta/ED2)
- [Contrast from Blue Box](https://animethemes.moe/anime/ao_no_hako/ED2)
- [Doukashiteru from Dandadan S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/dandadan_2nd_season/ED1)
- [I from My Hero Academia Final Season](https://animethemes.moe/anime/boku_no_hero_academia_final_season/ED1)
- [JANE DOE from Chainsaw Man: Reze-hen](https://animethemes.moe/anime/chainsaw_man_rezehen/ED1-800)
- [Kagerou from Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle](https://animethemes.moe/anime/chitosekun_wa_ramune_bin_no_naka/ED1)
- [Kawaii Kaiwai from My Dress-Up Darling S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/sono_bisque_doll_wa_koi_wo_suru_season_2/ED1)
- [Nemure from Yofukashi no Uta S2](https://animethemes.moe/anime/yofukashi_no_uta_season_2/ED1)
Also, Gachiakuta OP1 should definitely be here.
Well, to make it here it already had to be top 5 amongst every ED in the year for the public
I had several categories where all my noms made it in but between those I'd say SoL has the best line-up. Of course that means the jury will disappoint and pick Precure which shouldn't be in this category to beging with.
And speaking of the jury some nominations are so freaking out of pocked that this time I am certain they are trolling.
Like I watched The Lenticulars and it was good for what it was trying to be but Best Romance and Best Cinematogrophy for an 8 episode voice comic? Also the last episode alone should disqualify it from any nomination for everyone but the most pretentious douchebag. When 40% of your show's entire runtime is noise over a black screen that's just silly.
And the less said about the AotY nomination the better. The awards are becoming a parody of themselves. If the actual voting is close to the jury noms this might actually for once be a year where I prefer the public winners overall.
Where should Precure be allocated then?
Based on what I know about Precure in general and and looking at the synopsis and trailers having no reason to believe this is fundamently different the best pick would probably be action but depending on how the show swings adventure and comedy might also be better fits than SoL.
Dunno man. In all Precures the structure is 15 minutes of SoL and 5 minutes of action. Ofc trailers will be action, that's what gets eyes.
As a juror I watched all 23 shortlists of SoL. I would have preferred something else to make the cut instead of Precure (No Mangaka or Pripara, sad) but I still a top half nominee over the rest of what we had.
I personally was an advocate for Anne Shirley, but some people had enough issues with the pacing to rank it low and so it didn’t end up getting nominated.
I am pretty sure it wasn't nominated for romance (I certainly would have complained about that) (Edit: Yes it was in suspense), so that would mean it wasn't taken by its original jury and the romance jury picked it up. Go romance jury I guess!
> Of course that means the jury will disappoint and pick Precure which shouldn't be in this category to beging with.
The year Hugttoo won, it placed 6th for the jury in its genre category (which was adventure/fantasy for some reason) WHICH WAS LITERALLY **LOWER** THAN IT WAS FOR THE PUBLIC at 5th, so you can always hope for that!
I will rage if that legit happens.
Like, between Ruri Rocks, Hibimeshi, Mono and Food Court, no way Precure can sneak up on to that. It has been a once-in-a-blue-moon year for slice of life and they'd pick fucking Precure.
*please no.*
City, Hikaru and Takopi being the biggest I should have maybe got to.
No Hotel in AotY is very surprising, sad to see, beautiful show.
 
**Short Films:**
* **Bottled Insects:** https://youtu.be/CCbKm14_zuE?si=NFVEE7WHzyLvSEue
* **Fire Craft:** https://youtu.be/-wL0TZzcKWE?si=lbxMcrfwamfFC7G2
* **First Line:** *no link, sorry*
* **Mamiko's Poop:** https://youtu.be/nEAFgHtuOIk?si=9Onai-EIeku8FLju
* **Red Memory (Aka no Kioku):** https://youtu.be/MAsy0QkeTpw?si=SYqyRongrgcP38JN
* **Bâan: Otona no Kyoukai:** https://youtu.be/V-P3HWXGYm4?si=sZeRVgoUQ3X9OtEI
* **Fate/Grand Order - 10th Anniversary Movie:** https://youtu.be/11vAh33_2eI?si=vYi1sd9pCPpe5MVJ
* **Run Run Lantern:** https://youtu.be/1iLnz2ZuJNE?si=mHjH71QJOBzEDIZK
* **Ruri Dragon PV:** https://youtu.be/80islLpIrLs?si=IOhrSyJLSgx9TG0y
* **We're the main characters... but we didn't hear about this!:** https://youtu.be/0GWcEp67jAo?si=D7y6WyFG3iWZGiO6
 
**Music Videos:**
* **A Horny Money World:** https://youtu.be/2_opjVlYhi4?si=e7uz5ZfcOVkkgt1m
* **Daidaidaidaidaikirai:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klIxS5o65C4
* **Martian:** https://youtu.be/OLRbIc8KZ_8?si=cMMJg5zGc5aeg79D
* **Meteorgirl:** https://youtu.be/jSdeEU-LTwE?si=j_NRecI2Xv76MzOd
* **Monitoring:** https://youtu.be/kbNdx0yqbZE?si=7JyZxUvtTs1n4OvS
* **On Being:** https://youtu.be/dtTdjRB4Q4g?si=vBWXumn6XgSmIdBg
* **Sparkling Band-Aid (Kirameku Bansōkō):** https://youtu.be/rcG1sZILjfc?si=_xtN_b5xXGc1dAg3
* **Sunflower That Wants to Die:** https://youtu.be/staQ0DR6oaY?si=rI0fN3K0zJA--6H9
* **Suki-Suki Diesuki Chou AyeShiteru:** https://youtu.be/aI769CgHfLc?si=nIN02sCYca-Fdfo9
* **Watch Me!:** https://youtu.be/evtoG-4dLM4?si=NcDE8zDl3aK0KUT9
Comparing Re:Zero and Konosuba no doubt the former would be a big favorite over the latter. As in terms of what you look for in fantasy, it simply does things better. Konosuba's biggest factors are in its comedy of being a parody of the genre. But again, we have a comedy category to highlight these types of series.
You could argue that fantasy is more of a setting. But what stories make the best use of that setting? That is what people could be interested in the results of.
I feel in the case of shows like Dark Gathering and "The Summer Hikaru Died," they don't fit too well in the categories that are listed. As both are outstanding supernatural horror series. I just feel like both series will be snubbed because neither really fits well in any other categories besides suspense.
I guess one could combine fantasy & supernatural since the ideas about both are similar. Supernatural is a subgenre of fantasy.
While I don't think there should be a massive number of categories where the winner doesn't highlight anything. I still think the number is too limiting, as so much stuff in fantasy and sci-fi could be overlooked. Since those two genres are massive.
[](#glasses-push)
I'll rave about the other snubs and surprises when I'm not on a tablet.
All right. Back at my PC. Other than AOTY, not too many surprises.
* Romance is suffering from a severe lack of Yano-kun's Ordinary Days, which should have replaced Watatabe (which isn't a romance) or Pass the Monster Meat, Milady (which was cute, but kinda mediocre). I'd replace Fragrant Flower with KimiKoe myself, but I can probably count on one hand the people who'd support me.
* Slice of life gives me an eye twitch like it does every year with a hodgepodge of cute girl shows, Precure, and a romcom that wandered into the wrong room. The lack of With You and the Rain is a damn shame. I'd have liked to see Captivated, by You here, but that's not the kind of niche this jury is into.
* Suspense is my best category, where I've seen everything but Re: Zero, which I don't watch.
* No Nukitashi in OP this year is like no Bravern in ED last year. You've gotta give points for an OP/ED that understands the assignment for its particular show. That's their purpose, after all.
* Next year, we've got to do something about the voice actor category so there's a better gender balance. I can't believe I'm saying this because *there aren't enough guys.* Look what you've made me do.
The Summer Hikaru Died. Not even getting a nomination for AOTY is a snub. Horror has to be one of the most difficult things to get right in anime, and this actually did it.
I didn't think that would happen at all.
Yano-kun did have some strong supporters (and Kimi to Koete definitely got discussion), but ultimately it was divisive and couldn't quite get as high as some of the other divisive shows that had very passionate supporters. Some jurors also described concerns over Watatabe being accepted as a romance secondary, but overall people were willing to play ball with the idea that romantically coded concepts were baked into the series (whether they personally liked that choice or not).
> I'd have liked to see Captivated, by You here, but that's not the kind of niche this jury is into.
We *did* discuss this in Ensemble, for what it's worth, though ultimately we decided we liked our five nominations better than it despite some interesting offerings.
Juries sound wild. I genuinely can't imagine passionately defending Monster Meat, and it's made for me.
[](#kukuku)
Seeing as I had only seen one eligible short (*Baan*) and one movie (*Chainsaw Man*), I have no complaints there.
Glad to see we didn't forget *Orb* (my top pick) or miss *Shoshimin* S2 (my #2). As for the rest, *Takopi* and *Apothecary Diaries* were also in my top 10, and there are none there that I watched and didn't enjoy. Never quite understood the awards appeal of *Precure* though (even after being forced to watch it last year for awards), so I'd probably have dropped that for something like *100 Girlfriends*, *Watanare*, *Ninkoro*, *Silent Witch*, or *Solo Leveling*.
Unlucky that *Wind Breaker* got snubbed for action once again, but at least my top 3 made it in.
Adventure seems like it was a bit rough this year. Glad *Clevatess* and SLF made it (and that *Touring* didn't!), but I was really hoping *Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses* would get some love.
All of my top 5 comedy except for *Let's Go Karaoke* made it in, and those picks generally look really good to me from both the public and jury.
Drama's stacked, as expected. All of my top 5 made it in (*Orb*, *Silent Witch*, *Rascal*, *Medalist*, *Ave Mujica*), which is nice.
Romance is a tad disappointing; only my top 2 (*Watanare*, *MDUD*) made it. I was hoping for *Amagami Sister*, *I Have a Crush at Work*, and *Shiunji Family*, but it looks like they nominated four shows I haven't seen instead. Maybe I should check those out at some point...
All five of my top picks made it, so quite happy with the slice of life shows.
Too bad *Ameku M.D.* didn't make it for suspense, but my top 3 got in, so that's fine.
music video: same
movie: kimi no iro was a movie that i watched at a con right before i started university and it connected with me so hard. my favourite anime expirience of the year period
aot: takopi and it's not even close. it's sad how terrible the selection for this years main award is, because the rest of the nominees for the other categories are so good this year. no hikaru, no city and no apocalyse hotel, no call of the night but there are 3 cute girls doing drama shows (also my friend watched mahotsukai precure this year and he didn't even like it). i understanding the system exists to reward less mainstream shows that are equally good, but if the system fails reward unique shows and rewards the same "r-anime awards bait" shows each the system is failing to a degree
action: i love chainsaw man. but more importently, i need solo leveling to lose
adventure: i feel like i should vote for yaiba but i didn't watch any other show from the category so i don't vote for anything
comedy: i loved spy x family this year but not for the comedy, milky subway was great and a lovable underdog but very short. city is incredibly impresive, but not too funny. i ultimatly voted for ninkoro because it's so funny and so creative.
drama: medalist was the best written show, but apocalyse hotel is was the so much better in any other aspect
romace: as always, i miss most romace. dress up darling had basicly zero romantic progress this year, it was more of a slice of life than romance. the leniculats was the best thing here. there is also a great lack of yano kun
sol: kimi no iro
suspense: most years it feels kind of weird to have this category, this year it was so stacked that barely knew what to vote for. except for the fact that takopi was so good that i had to vote for it
production: city was so impresive that it's not even funny
background art: always the hardest category to vote for because there is no sakuga blog to find background art and searching x anime backgrounds doesn;t actually help. i remebered takopi, hikaru and apocalyse hotel and city had great bg, but i remember being impressed by ruri rocks the most
character design: i voted city but i wanted to vote for ruri rocks, did you look at nagi?!
cinematography: takopi
ost: the soundtrack i remeber the best from this year is sanda, but the best one of the nominees was takopi.
va: i positivly remeber shizuka in takopi, inori in medalist and maomao from kusuriya. the one performance that genuinly made a character for me was miyuki sawashiro's anko from call of the night
op: as always, super stacked category. there are two headliners for me: watch me that the best visually and a show that a yoasabi song feels right for. mirage was a song with above average visuals and a song so good that it got me to try playing guitar again. in the end i voted for mirage but it was the closest
ed: dress up darling was an s tier ed in both music and visuals. also i have no idea how call of the night got the jury vote, i remeber them usally hating creepy nuts
lead: all great, voted for yoshiki
supporting: shiori
ensamble: city
I was wondering if [500000000 years button](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhGamQZtJ7K8VezOKZTbeLNPVzVrOM5nl) was going to end up a jury choice for suspense (it's super unpopular). Looks like a no.
Main awards I'd like to spoil my AOTY ballot. It's a shame I didn't get the glitched ballot with Wonderful Precure on it as that would be a fitting way to do it. No vote recorded doesn't send the same message (e.g. I've not voted on lead character because I've watched on episode of one of the shortlisted shows).
Movie I like Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 but movie feels like an odd place although I guess the production level is above that of 8 episodes. If it was 8 short films instead the public side would be baan+4 of those (also no good) and that's already split music video off to provide more room.
*Note: The jury cannot nominate an entry if it was already among the public’s top five selections during the nomination voting phase.*
|Nominee|Total Nominations|Public Nominations|Jury Selections (after Public nomination vote)|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|[Dandadan (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/60543/Dandadan_2nd_Season)|10|10|0|
|[The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58514/Kusuriya_no_Hitorigoto_2nd_Season)|10|10|0|
|[My Dress-Up Darling (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/53065/Sono_Bisque_Doll_wa_Koi_wo_Suru_Season_2)|9|6|3|
|[Takopi's Original Sin](https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai)|9|8|1|
|[Call of the Night (Season 2)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58390/Yofukashi_no_Uta_Season_2)|6|3|3|
|[Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc](https://myanimelist.net/anime/57555/Chainsaw_Man_Movie__Reze-hen)|6|6|0|
|[CITY the Animation](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59898/City_The_Animation)|6|4|2|
|[Orb: On the Movements of the Earth](https://myanimelist.net/anime/52215/Chi_Chikyuu_no_Undou_ni_Tsuite)|6|6|0|
|[The Summer Hikaru Died](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58913/Hikaru_ga_Shinda_Natsu)|6|3|3|
|[Apocalypse Hotel](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59675/Apocalypse_Hotel)|5|0|5|
|[Gachiakuta](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59062/Gachiakuta)|5|4|1|
|[Sorairo Utility](https://myanimelist.net/anime/58066/Sorairo_Utility_TV)|5|0|5|
But happy that Kagerou made it.
Apocalypse Hotel and Hikaru missing out for a show with a 7.27 and 500 ratings on MAL.
Similarly in short, tetoris should also not be eligible. It is a single looping animation, it would fall under not being animated enough to pass. It's odd to me it got added in manually without going through this, but there is a reason (what I stated) as to why it isn't an entry on anilist for example. For a manual entry there are tests it should pass to be added into the list.
CITY did get which makes me happy. Sad to not see the Ninkoro ED there.
Out of the 10 comedy nominees, I liked to loved 7, had 1 as average, dropped 1 and didn't watch Milky Subway, so I'd say again it was a great year for comedy.
On AOTY, I must be going crazy, but I'm not seeing anywhere that says Idolland Pripara came out last year. Did it get a delayed final episode of something? But I pretty much agree with a comment I saw earlier. Nothing wrong with different non-popular shows getting nominated (I've heard good things about Ave before today). It's that its the same magical girls and idol picks for the last few years, and sometimes the same franchises.
Just checking back:
* 2025: Idol- Bang Dream Magical Girl- PriPara and Precure Mirai Days
* 2024: Magical Girl: Soaring Sky! Precure
* 2023: Idol: Bang Dream Mygo, Idolish7
Bang winning the jury in 2023 feels like it started this feeling. I don't think it would've bothered me that much, since most years the jury pick a show I liked, but PriPara this year feel just so incredibly niche it feels pre-planned (Yes, I know it wasn't, just from the outside it's like the same people picking some type of shows each year. It's like Jury are doing what the public do, but instead of popular sequels and action shows, its idol and magical girls.