2021 is in the rear view, but let’s take one last look back with the LiA “Oscars”.  And the winners are:

Best Song: “ALAPU UPALA” by Annette Phillips  – Godzilla Singular Point

No mere, insert song, “Alapu Upala” is intrinsic to the plot in Godzilla S.P..  But that’s not the reason it’s here – that’s because it’s an absolutely gorgeous song, in all the many incarnations in which it appears.  It’s no exaggeration to say it’s one of my favorite anisongs of all time, and it has to be to beat out the runner-up.
Honorable Mention: “Two Brothers”  by Yoshida Brothers (Mashiro no Oto), “El canto del Colibrí” by mabanua (Nomad: Megalo Box 2)

Best Soundtrack: Mashiro no Oto

This is a photo finish with Godzilla Singular Point, and it almost seems like an unfair advantage that Mashiro no Oto was a music series.  But I have to give it the nod, just by a little.  The music was the best part of this series to be sure, and if the narrative side stumbled badly at times the music was always superb – not just in terms of virtuosity, but in portraying the varying skill levels and personalities of the characters.
Honorable Mention: Godzilla Singular Point, Nomad: Megalo Box 2

Best Original Screenplay: Nomad: Megalo Box 2

This category has become more competitive as original anime have become a bigger slice of the pie – not necessarily increasing in overall quality but certainly quantity.  And in what was a mediocre anime year at best, it was a decent group.  I give the nod to Nomad over Dynazenon (though it’s close) based on just how great the first cour was, and how daring it was for them to take on immigration as an issue.  And of course, for doing so with intelligence and insight.
Honorable Mention: SSSS Dynazenon, Godzilla Singular Point, Odd Taxi

Best Adapted Screenplay: Kai Byoui Ramune

This much more packed category was closer than you might expect, given that Kai Byoui Ramune was my anime of the year.  Mars Red gives it a run for its money because it had to totally reinvent the series in taking it from a staged reading to anime.  Still, Dr. Ramune was just so damn good – and it performed the miracle of making an adaptation of an ongoing manga feel wholly complete as well as any series since Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari.
Honorable Mention: Mars Red, Blue Period

Best Art Direction: Katou Hiroshi (Mars Red)

Katou Hiroshi is one of anime’s stealth giants.  Over a three-decade career he’s been art director on classics like Kyousougiga and Evangelion (all it’s incarnations – TV series, 90’s films, 2010’s films).  With Mars Red his importance is impossible to overstate, because this was a series that managed a beautiful and memorable look despite a severely limited budget.
Honorable Mention: Nomad: Megalo Box 2, Kai Byoui Ramune, Tenchi Souzou Design-bu

Best Animation: Godzilla Singular Point

In looking back at 2021, it’s striking how few series with really stunning animation there were.  You could choose Kimetsu no Yaiba’s “Mugen Train”, but that’s mostly recycled theatrical footage (and it’s pretty CGI-heavy to boot).  In the end I think Godzilla S.P. wins the day for managing to combine the impressive hand-drawn work of Bones with Orange’s industry-standard CG.
Honorable Mention: Kaizoku Oujo, Beastars 2nd Season

Best Character Design: Ootsu Nao, (Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi)

The magic of Idaten was mostly in it’s authentically old-school visual style, and the character designs had a lot to do with that.  They didn’t look like anything else in anime this year, and Ootsu’s take on Cool-kyou Shinja’s original designs were a big part of the series success.
Honorable Mention: Kai Byoui Ramune, SSSS.Dynazenon, Mars Red

Best Supporting Actress: Kuno Misaki as Pelops II (Godzilla Singular Point)

For a series that didn’t make the top 10, Godzilla Singular Point sure is prominent in these awards.  There were a number of good performances in this show, but I especially enjoyed Kuno’s hilarious take on a mischievous canine A.I..
Honorable Mention: Sawashiro Miyuki as Defrott (Mars Red), Asai Ayaka as Valac Clara – and various other Valacs (Mairimashita! Iruma-kun Season 2), Kazu Yuuki as Ooba-sensei (Blue Period)

Best Supporting Actor: Kimura Ryouhei as Kikaku Hanbee (Uramichi Oniisan)

This is kind of  like Judi Dench winning for The Queen – Kimura wasn’t on-screen all that much in Uramichi Oniisan.  But damn, did he make the most of his time as the unhinged marketing dude Hanbee-san.  Kimura is flat-out one of the best seiyuu in the business – he handles everything from hard drama to screwball comedy with equal aplomb.  Uramichi Oniisan grew on me quite a bit over the course of its run, and Kimura was the funniest thing about it.
Honorable Mention: Yamadera Kouichi as Yamagami Tokuichi (Mars Red), Murase Ayumu as Aona Shun (Kai Byoui Ramune), Tanaka Miou as Chief (Nomad: Megalo Box 2)

Best Actress: Fujiwara Natsumi as Kusaka Kabane (Kemono Jihen)

I suppose one could question whether women playing males should fall under this category, but it seems pretty clear-cut to me.  Fujiwara is one of anime’s greatest female seiyuu in the art of convincingly playing boys, and she really nails it with Kemono Jihen.  Kabane is the emotional center of the series and a deceptively difficult role – Fujiwara must convey his childlike vulnerability and emotional range within the confines of his impassive and even somewhat alien demeanor.
Honorable Mention: Wakayama Shion as Minami Yume (SSSS.Dynazenon), Aikawa Rikako as Pyoran (Fumetsu no Anata e)

Best Actor: Hosoya Yoshimasa as Joe  (Nomad: Megalo Box 2), 

Honestly, there was no lights-out performance in this category as there often is.  Like the series itself Hosoya was better in the first half, simply because the material gave him a lot more to work with.  But it was always a great, understated performance – much as I could say about the runners-up in this category.
Honorable Mention: Nagatsuka Takuma as Kuro (Kai Byoui Ramune), Enoki Junya as Asanaka Yomogi (SSSS.Dynazenon)

Best Director: Amemiya Akira, SSSS.Dynazenon

In the Academy Awards, this statue almost always goes to the “Best Picture” winner. That sometimes happens here too – obviously whoever directed that show did a hell of a job.  But the impact a director has on a series’ success isn’t universally the same, which is why the two categories don’t always line up.  In particular I think Hatano Kouhei did a notable job with Mars Red, a show with a limited budget adapted from a thoroughly non-telegenic source material.  But I have to give the nod to Amemiya, because more than any other series on this list I think Dynazenon (as was Gridman) is a reflection of its director’s artistic sensibility.  As well, Amemiya bravely took Dynazenon in some very different directions from its very popular predecessor.
Honorable Mention: Hatano Kouhei (Mard Red), Oba Hideakii (Kai Byoui Ramune)

Best Romance: Horimiya

If I’m honest with myself I probably need to revise these genre categories starting next year, because romance and comedy (and romantic comedy) generally leave me pretty thin pickings these days.  Horimiya did a lot of things wrong as an adaptation (that’s reflected in the fact that it should have been a top-5 series and ended up in the mid-teens).  But it did mostly get the romance between the titular characters right, and a very compelling romance it is.
Honorable Mention: SSSS.Dynazenon, Senpai ga Uzai no Hanashi, Mairimashita! Iruma-kun Season 2

Best Comedy: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun Season 2

See above.  The relatively barren shelves force me to choose the best show that’s funny or the best of the ones that’s strictly fits the genre definition.  I’m going with the former and that’s Iruma-kun 2, but if I was limiting myself to literal comedies and not very funny battle shounen I’d have picked Senpai ga Uzai.  It’s a testament to Iruma-kun’s magic formula that it could (and does) appear in so many genre categories – the ones I award here and others besides.
Honoroable Mention: Senpai ga Uzai no Hanashi, Uramichi Oniisan, Tenchi Souzou Design-bu

Best Drama: Nomad: Megalo Box 2

In this case I’m going with a stricter genre definition, for the simple reason that the race for the top was so close (and on some levels Nomad was certainly the best series of 2021).  Nomad is a drama in the classic literary and cinematic sense – it’s anime, but it really could have appeared in almost any narrative medium and any language.  It’s first half was the best six-episode run of any anime last year, and it’s not particularly close.
Honorable Mention: Kai Byoui Ramune, Mars Red

Best Series: Kai Byoui Ramune

I have to go back to Kai Byoui Ramune, which is the series I would have voted for if this were the Academy and I was a member.  I can make the case for Nomad but Dr. Ramune was my favorite anime of 2021, so it would be disingenuous of me to choose anything else.  It may not rank among the best #1 picks in LiA history, but I love the series unreservedly and unlike most of its rivals, it finished with a much stronger second half than its first.
Honorable Mention: Nomad: Megalo Box 2, SSSS.Dynazenon

Best Picture: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

In truth there were a few 2021 theatrical releases that might have beaten Eva out here.  But for obvious reasons I didn’t see a lot of movies in theaters last year (just this one, I think), so I’m limited in my scope in this category.  I did think the prologue section of 3.0+1.0 was truly great, but the rest of it – as most of the new tetralogy  – was a very mixed bag.  The second film was fantastic, but on the whole every time Anno has rejiggered the ending of Evangelion he’s made it worse as far as I’m concerned.
Honorable Mention: Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru, Star Wars: Visions

So this time around it’s actually Nomad: Megalo Box 2 and Godzilla Singular Point which take home the most statues, with three apiece.  Factoring in honorable mentions it was basically the top shows dominating as expected – Kai Byoui Ramune, SSSS.Dynazenon, Nomad – though Mars Red and Godzilla S.P. both had a stronger presence than their respective year-end rankings might have predicted.

As always, my sincere thanks to everyone for visiting LiA and being part of the community.  Yes, I am going to talk about supporting the site financially – my need for it certainly gets more urgent every year.  I have some thoughts on new ways to do that which I’ll be sharing in the coming weeks but as always, Patreon patrons, Paypal subscribers or one-time contributors – you all have my everlasting gratitude.

Stay frosty, and have a wonderful 2022!

Enzo