Top Picks – Winter 2009 Anime, Part 3: VMA Awards
Time to shine the spotlight on those components that can elevate an anime from good to memorable. That’s not to say that perfection is required from the voice actors, music, and the animation to make a show memorable but it certainly helps. For example, if I say the words Paranoia Agent, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Is it the creepy, yet awesome, opening song or maybe the surreal ending song – for me, that’s what I immediately think of and I bet it’s the same for a lot of other people.
Best Seiyuu
Male: Yuuichi Nakamura as Tomoya from Clannad
Female: Yu Kobayashi as Mariya from Maria+holic
One of the big reasons why I felt Clannad was successful came from Tomoya looking and sounding genuine during the crushing lows and exuberant highs of his life. KyoAni gets the credit on the looking but Yuuichi Nakamura gets the well deserved credit for making Tomoya sound real. I really felt like I was listening to someone experiencing everything that Tomoya went through.
For all the issues that hindered Maria+holic from becoming a hit, Yu Kobayashi voicing the crossdressing Mariya was not one of those hindrances. She was perfect in this role. When Mariya was playing the lovable, feminine role, Yu Kobayashi gave him a voice that matched the role – one that could never be confused as a boy. Then when Mariya drops the pretense and speaks in his normal male voice, she gives him a voice that perfectly matches his disposition – angry at having been forced to crossdress since early childhood and looking for ways to relieve his anger by manipulating those around him.
Best OP
Winner: Rideback
Runner-ups: Birdy the Mighty Decode 2
This award turned out to be a tough one to pick. From the first episode I really liked the opening song and animation to Rideback and figured I’d be giving it this category. As the season wore on, though, I slowly developed an equal liking towards Birdy’s opening song. Rideback still had the edge in the video side of the opening and in the end, that was what got Rideback picked.
Best ED
Winner: Maria+holic
Runner-ups: Rideback
When picking the best opening and closing, one has to balance the animation during the song and the song itself. In this category, Rideback’s closing song is my favorite closing song of the season with Maria+holic’s being second. What made me pick Maria+holic was the animation sequence or more specifically, how the closing animation is changed for every episode. Some of the changes come from highlights of that episode and some are just random changes. It’s probably a little odd to say this but finding the changes in the ending was my favorite part of Maria+holic.
Best Overall Music
Winner: Clannad ~After Story~
Normally, I don’t really pay all that much attention to the music during the show; it either has to be really bad or really good to make an impression. As a result when I get to this category, I normally just have to look over the listing of the shows I’ve watched and try to recall if any show left an impression on me. Clannad not only left an impression on me but I can actually remember many of the different songs used so it deserves this award.
Best Animation Style
Winner: Michiko to Hatchin
Runner-ups: Kemono no Souja Erin
One of the ways that Michiko to Hatchin was made to feel different was with it’s animation style. It was colorful, vibrant, and lush which made the show look pretty and also helped make the desolate countryside and drabness of the poor all the more apparent. If the show hadn’t been drawn like it was then chances are, this show wouldn’t have felt as real as it did and thusly wouldn’t have been as good.
Best Animation
Winner: Rideback
Runner-ups: Clannad ~After Story~
For the second season in a row, a Madhouse animated show wins best animation after squeaking past Clannad. This time it’s Rideback, last time it was Mouryou no Hako (it’s shocking that this show still has not been fully subbed by any group). The animation to both Clannad and Rideback is fluid, beautiful, and the shots are well constructed; adding to the enjoyment and impact of the show. Rideback eeks past Clannad in part because the animators behind Rideback did a really good job of getting the CG mech-motorcycles to look like they belong in the world.
Top Animation Studio
Winner: Kyoto Animation
This award is separate from best animation because it’s to go to a studio that’s doing more then one good show at a time. Up until this season, Kyoto Animation has never worked on more then one thing at once and thus, has never been in the running. This season they’re doing Clannad, Munto TV, and the micro-series Melancholy of Haruhi-chan, Nyoron Churuya-san. The argument could be made that Munto shouldn’t count since much of it was recycled and I might agree with that so I’m not really including Munto as a reason to give KyoAni this award. However, KyoAni earns this award with the success of the micro-series, being both hilarious and a great way to remind us of the Haruhi franchise.
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Read Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Read Part 2: Genre Awards
Read Part 4: Top 7 Anime of the season
I probably would have given the music award to Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou because the tracks are just heartfelt and beautiful for the most part in addition to throwing some new pieces for the viewer/listener. Clannad ~AS~, while good, doesn’t really bring new tracks to the table, which is why I’m not too keen on rewarding it quite as high as ZNYC.
Am I on of the few people who is most dissappointed that Mouryou no Hako still has been subbed? It was one of if not my favorite show of the season, and yet after aero stopped subbing it no one picked it up. Such Misfortune!
I also agree with zzero, Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou would have gotten my pick, but I also do not watch Clannad and you may not have seen Natsume. In any case, I prefer going with the full OP/ED song to choose which was the best, but you are right in that the animation for RideBack’s OP and ED is well fitting for both songs.
I still far prefer the actual original Korean version of RideBack’s ED though. For animation, I still wonder if Erin’s studio (TransArt doing under IG’s name is what I heard) is deliberately doing a sketchy background or was just sloppy work. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt and choose the former, but RideBack’s animation still blows it away. Style-wise, indeed, Michiko & Hatchin was very unique and great, something out of the normal.
That’s a good point about Natsume adding tracks vs. Clannad not doing so. I do try to include points like that but in regards to Natsume when I was picking the winner, I only had a vaguely positive impression of the music to Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou. In hindsight, it’s probably best if the music to a slice-of-life show is more subdued. I’ll give the rest of the series a closer listening too and maybe listen to the soundtrack.
Shameless plug, but you might find the little review I did of the soundtrack over at my blog to be helpful. I did cobble together a few excerpts from the soundtrack and you can give those a listen to see if those are up your alley (if you haven’t done so already).