Crunchyroll Anime Awards Nominees Announced, Voting Now Open

Crunchyroll has announced the nominees for this year’s Anime Awards. 2021’s event is composed of 18 different categories, ranging from Anime of the Year to Best Animation.

Voting for each category is now open and will remain so until Friday, January 22. You’re allowed to vote in each category once per day, so you can vote seven separate times if you log in everyday. The voting period resets each day at 12am PT / 3am ET.

It’s a pretty varied list of nominees this year, so there aren’t too many repetitions. But a few shows do dominate the list. Most notably, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is nominated for 10 of the 18 categories: Anime of the Year, Best Girl, Best Protagonist, Best Animation, Best Score, Best Director, Best Character Design, Best VA Performance (JP), Best Opening Sequence (OP), and Best Comedy. Great Pretender is also quite prominent, being nominated for nine different awards.

You’ll hear no complaints from us about either of those two anime though–both are included in our six favorite anime of 2020. For the rest of the nominees, look below.

Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2021 Category Nominees

Anime of the Year

• APPARE-RANMAN!
• BEASTARS
• Dorohedoro
• Great Pretender
• JUJUTSU KAISEN
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Best Girl

• Abigail Jones – Great Pretender
• Catarina Claes – My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
• Chizuru Mizuhara – Rent-a-Girlfriend
• Kaguya Shinomiya – Kaguya-sama: Love is War?
• Noi – Dorohedoro
• Sayaka Kanamori – Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Best Boy

• Anos Voldigoad – The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History’s Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants
• Caiman – Dorohedoro
• Khun Aguero Agnes – Tower of God
• Legoshi – BEASTARS
• Satoru Gojou – JUJUTSU KAISEN
• Shoyo Hinata – HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP

Best Protagonist

• Anos Voldigoad – The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History’s Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants
• Catarina Claes – My Next Life as a Villainess:
• All Routes Lead to Doom!
• Midori Asakusa – Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Natsume – DECA-DENCE
• Shoyo Hinata – HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP
• Yuuji Itadori – JUJUTSU KAISEN

Best Antagonist

• Akito Soma – Fruits Basket (Season 2)
• Echidna – Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World- (Season 2)
• En – Dorohedoro
• Overhaul – My Hero Academia Season 4
• Rachel – Tower of God
• Ryoumen Sukuna – JUJUTSU KAISEN

Best Animation

• BEASTARS
• Great Pretender
• JUJUTSU KAISEN
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Princess Connect! Re: Dive
• The God of High School

Best Fight Scene

• Bercouli vs. Dark God Vecta – Sword Art Online
• Alicization: War of the Underworld Part 2
• Brawler vs. Master – Akudama Drive
• Deku vs. Overhaul – My Hero Academia Season 4
• Jin Mori vs. Han Daewi – The God of High School
• Jin Mori vs. Jegal Taek – The God of High School
• Satoru Gojou vs. Ryoumen Sukuna – JUJUTSU KAISEN

Best Score

• Alisa Okehazama – The God of High School
• Kensuke Ushio – Japan Sinks: 2020
• Kevin Penkin – Tower of God
• OORUTAICHI – Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Satoru Kousaki – BEASTARS
• Yutaka Yamada – Great Pretender

Best Director

• Hiro Kaburagi – Great Pretender
• Mamoru Hatakeyama – Kaguya-sama: Love is War?
• Masaaki Yuasa – Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Sunghoo Park – JUJUTSU KAISEN
• Takashi Sano – Tower of God
• Yuzuru Tachikawa – DECA-DENCE

Best Character Design

• Genice Chan and Yuusuke Yoshigaki – BNA: Brand New Animal
• Masashi Kudoh and Miho Tanino, Original story by SIU – Tower of God
• Mayuka Itou, Original designs by Iro Aida – Toilet-bound Hanako-kun
• Naoyuki Asano, Original designs by Sumito Oowara – Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihito Hishinuma – Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
• Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Hirotaka Katou – Great Pretender

Best Couple

• Catarina Claes & Maria Campbell – My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
• Chizuru Mizuhara & Kazuya Kinoshita – Rent-a-Girlfriend
• Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane – Kaguya-sama: Love is War?
• Kotoko Iwanaga & Kuro Sakuragawa – In/Spectre
• Legoshi & Haru – BEASTARS
• Nasa Yuzaki & Tsukasa Yuzaki – TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You

Best VA Performance (JP)

• Megumi Ogata as Hanako – Toilet-bound Hanako-kun
• Mutsumi Tamura as Sayaka Kanamori – Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Riho Sugiyama as Minare Koda – Wave, Listen to Me!
• Yuichi Nakamura as Satoru Gojou – JUJUTSU KAISEN
• Yusuke Kobayashi as Natsuki Subaru – Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World- (Season 2)
• Yusuke Onuki as Daisuke Kambe – The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED

Best VA Performance (EN)

• Aaron Phillips as Laurent Thierry – Great Pretender
• Anairis Quiñones as Echidna – Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World- (Season 2)
• Crispin Freeman as Ziusudra – Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia
• Johnny Yong Bosch as Bam – Tower of God
• Jonah Scott as Legoshi – BEASTARS
• Zeno Robinson as Hawks – My Hero Academia Season 4

Best Opening Sequence (OP)

• BEASTARS – Wild Side (ALI)
• Great Pretender – G.P. (Yutaka Yamada)
• HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP – PHOENIX (BURNOUT SYNDROMES)
• JUJUTSU KAISEN – KAIKAI KITAN (Eve)
• Kaguya-sama: Love is War? – DADDY! DADDY!
• DO! feat. Airi Suzuki (Masayuki Suzuki)
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – Easy Breezy (chelmico)

Best Ending Sequence (ED)

• BNA: Brand New Animal – NIGHT RUNNING (Shin Sakura ft AAAMYYY)
• Dorohedoro – D.D.D.D ((K)NoW_NAME)
• Great Pretender – The Great Pretender (Freddie Mercury)
• In/Spectre – LAST DANCE (Mamoru Miyano)
• JUJUTSU KAISEN – LOST IN PARADISE (ALI feat. AKLO)
• The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED-Welcome My Friend (OKAMOTO’S)

Best Fantasy

• Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2
• DECA-DENCE
• Dorohedoro
• Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai
• Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- (Season 2)
• Tower of God

Best Drama

• BEASTARS
• Fruits Basket (Season 2)
• Great Pretender
• Japan Sinks: 2020
• SING “YESTERDAY” FOR ME
• Somali and the Forest Spirit

Best Comedy

• Kaguya-sama: Love is War?
• Kakushigoto
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
• Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle
• The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History’s Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants

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