Anime Awards 2014

Best Anime Series - Nagi no Asukara
As I noted in my show summary, this is my new benchmark for what makes a great anime. It never really put a foot wrong across 26 episodes.
 

Best Movie - Tamako Love Story
While not my favorite KyoAni show (that would be Hyōka), this is my favorite KyoAni movie. And as an original work (both series and movie), I believe it is current pinnacle of their craft.
 

Best Action / Adventure - Knights of Sidonia
The manga has developed in an…unexpected…direction, but the second season focusing on the Battle for Planet Nine should mean it remains similar in tone to the first series. 


Best Comedy - Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun
A great romantic comedy with a great cast.


Best Slice of Life - HaNaMaYaTa
The second season of Silver Spoon put up a good fight, but this show could make a Vulcan belly-laugh with mirth and that gives it the win.


Favorite Character - Nike Remercier (The World is Still Beautiful)
My new anime waifu.
 

Best Anime Opening Theme – “Ebb and Flow” by Ray from Nagi no Asukara
I can’t think of a year that was as chock full of awesome music as 2014 was. I had a heck of a time choosing a winner from a field of strong nominations. I almost just rolled an 8-sided die, but in the end, I went with the first great OP of the year as it is the one I listen to the most.



Best Anime Opening Animation – “Natsuiro no Present” by Ray from Yama no Susume Second Climb
Visual dopamine.



 

Best Anime Closing Theme - "Blue Topaz" by Rui Tanabe from Wizard Barristers
A great song and a great visual.




Hall of Fame (Shows that secured an A grade)
 

Blue Spring Ride
Forms the Triple Alliance of great anime love stories with Kimi ni Todoke and Say, I Love You.

Celestial Method (Sora no Method)
Didn’t hit me as emotionally hard as Kanon did, but overall I think it was a better-structured show and shows Naoki Hisaya’s maturation as a storyteller.

Kill la Kill (Season 2)
One of the most bat-crap crazy anime I have seen, which is why I enjoyed it so much.

Space☆Dandy (Season 2)
Built on the foundation and momentum of the first season to deliver an even better and more entertaining viewing experience.

The World is Still Beautiful (Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii)
A fantastic show with a phenomenal lead and a great supporting cast.

When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace (Inō-Battle wa Nichijō-kei no Naka de)
Didn’t expect this to become my #1 pick of the Fall season, but the strength of the story and, especially, the characters made it the winner.

Yama no Susume Second Climb
If you could freebase happiness, I expect it would feel much like watching this franchise.

Yūki Yūna is a Hero (Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru)

While influenced by PMMM, it successfully told it’s own story and said story was quite entertaining. Also had better character development, IMO.

Here are my picks.

Anime of the Year -Rage of Bahamut: Genesis

If you didn't know this was based on an online card game, you'd probably think it was an anime original.  It's fun, it's creative, and it's awesome.  To paraphrase another fan's description of the series, it's like a cross between Cowboy Bebop and Lupin the 3rd in a crazy fantasy mash up setting.  I'm not entirely satisfied with the ending, but if the finale's end card is any indication the biggest problem I have with it may be resolved (and even form the plot of) a sequel in the future.




Best Comedy -Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun

Ultimately the big test of a comedy is whether or not it delivers the laughs, and this series about a girl who finds out that the guy she has a crush on is a popular shoujo manga artist (who is denser than depleted uranium when it comes to real life romance) does that in spades.  Much of its humor comes from gender flipping shoujo manga stereotypes -the main heroine in Nozaki-kun's manga is based on one of the guys at his and Chiyo's school.  Also, Chiyo is super cute.



Best Drama -Shirobako

It may be a bit of a stretch to call this one a drama, especially if you think drama requires that a show be really heavy and depressing.  I suppose the best way to describe it would be as a drama/slice of life show about working in the anime industry.  I was a bit worried that the show was going to be a cute girls doing cute things show due to its focus on a group of girls who made an amateur anime production in high school, but in the show proper they're adults, and the show mostly follows the one who is working as a production assistant (meaning she gets to interact with lots of different people in the industry as she runs around trying to keep things running smoothly) with occasional focus on her friends who were are working elsewhere in the industry.



Honorable Mention -Akatsuki no Yona

I'm not normally a big fan of shoujo manga, but this series about a spoilt princess who takes a level in badass after her father is deposed on her sixteenth birthday has cross demographic appeal as long as you can tolerate the large number of bishounen characters. It's somewhat old school and the pacing is not the fastest, but it has good action and really good character development.

I can't understand what my husband is saying.

Its the only 2014 anime I know