ok this might be a hot take but i kinda wish the Anime Awards had an Academy or something like that. I know the Academy sucks lately and there's still lots of films that go under the radar, but watching the Anime Awards this year felt especially insulting to some of the very incredible and unique pieces that came out this past year.
You'd think it'd be a good chance to spotlight less popular but well-crafted anime, but it's starting to feel like they just have the same couple of series on rotation every year. I know it's probably because of the voting system which has some value, but there were some winners that beat objectively better anime for the category. Not saying that popular anime's artists and directors dont deserve recognition as well (they're supposed to be popular for a reason) but it would be even better if a slightly nicher one won at least one or two categories. I didnt expect anything too out of the box to win, obviously, but my eyes just kinda started to glaze over at the end when I realized nobody actually interesting was going to win.
Congrats to all the great artists who did win, but it feels like the little guys (which, even then are relatively popular and successful..) never stood a chance.
