Anime of 2011: People in Anime

These awards were created to celebrate the people behind some of the best anime we've seen this year. Hanazawa Kana's appearance at AFA last year wowed me and made me an instant fan, solidifying her position as best seiyuu of 2010.



Best Female Seiyuu
Nominations

Saito Chiwa (Akemi Homura - Madoka Magica)
She's also the voice of Senjougahara Hitagi from Bakemonogatari.

Honda Mariko (Aioi Yuuko - Nichijou)
Great comedy voice.

Hanazawa Kana (Shiina Mayuri - Steins;Gate)
Tu-tu-ru~!

Oogame Asuka (Touwa Erio - Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko)
Does weird and cute really well.

Ogura Yui (Shionji Yuuko/Alice - Kamisama no Memo-chou)
Up-and-coming young voice talent and talented dancer. She does the motion capture performance for Hatsune Miku and choreographed the dance for Ro-Kyu-Bu's OP.

Yuuki Aoi (Oshiroi Hana - Ben-To)
19-year-old Aoi-chan has been a seiyuu since 2004, making her a veteran, and it shows in her unique performance as Oshiroi.

Winner!

Yuuki Aoi (Oshiroi Hana - Ben-To)
Just couldn't help loving her voice here!


Best Male Seiyuu
Nominations

Miyano Mamoru (Okabe Rintarou - Steins;Gate)
Miyano excels whenever he plays slightly crazy characters.

Koizumi Yutaka (Sanetoshi - Mawaru Penguindrum)
Koizumi performance as a myserious evil bishounen is, for a lack of a better term, shibireru nee~

Shiraishi Minoru (Sakamoto - Nichijou)
This guy is ALWAYS bullied. LOL. He does comedy well.

Winner!

Koizumi Yutaka (Sanetoshi - Mawaru Penguindrum)
Koizumi appears infrequently in anime, but this is his best performance yet. He also played Satou in Welcome to the NHK. Hope to see him get more work!


Best Debut
Nominations

Hatakeyama Kousuke (Nitori Shuichi - Hourou Musuko)
An emotionally difficult role.

Matsuura Ayu (Kaga Rin - Usagi Drop)
Daikichi~!

Sudou Nanako (Maeda Reina - Usagi Drop)
Already sounding like a veteran.

Winner!

Matsuura Ayu (Kaga Rin - Usagi Drop)
She pulls off Rin's range of emotions really really well.


Writers

Okada Mari (AnoHana, Hourou Musuko, Hanasaku Iroha)
She has been writing for a lot of shows this year, some good, some bad. Can't deny her influence on the anime industry though. She has a good knack of writing very anime-like scripts and stories, injecting some humour and ecchi into almost any kind of show. Her best writing this year would probably be Hourou Musuko, with AnoHana being a close second.

Urobochi Gen (Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero)
This is the year for Urobochi Gen. This isn't his first time writing for anime, but it was with Madoka Magica that his notoriety went mainstream. Seeing various blogs, 2ch and 4ch call each episode of Madoka "THE BEST EVER" each week since episode 6 was amazing. I would have listed episodes 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the Best Episode nominations, but decided to narrow it down to the 2 most important episodes. Gen proved he can do more than just plot twists with Rider's dialogue in episode 11 of Fate/Zero. He did not write the anime, but as the original author of the light novel, he has crafted a great setting and dialogue.


Directors

Ikuhara Kunihiko (Mawaru Penguindrum)
Whenever he was directly involved in directing or doing the storyboards for that episode, it ends up exceptionally good. He is the guy who created Sailor Moon and, later on, Revolutionary Girl Utena. With each series, Ikuhara manages to turn heads and create something very different from the rest of the anime landscape.

Nagai Tatsuyuki (AnoHana)
With directorial credits for AnoHana, Honey and Clover 2, and Toradora, this guy is a personal favourite of mine. Nagai's involvement in AnoHana's story formation probably saved the series and gave it a very focused direction. He certainly knows how to pace the series for a good ending.

Asaka Morio (Chihayafuru)
I have no idea why I haven't took notice of Asaka Morio's name till now. Aoi Bungaku (episodes 1 to 4), Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, Nana, and many more! He is able to handle a variety of genres with hardly any problems. I'll definitely start keeping an eye out for the next time his name pops up.

Aoki Ei (Hourou Musuko, Fate/Zero)
Another weird pedigree. Aoki Ei directed both Hourou Musuko and Fate/Zero this year, 2 series that are really quite different. Both shows are rather slowly paced, but never boring. Not a lot of shows in his credits yet, but I hope he gets to do more stuff in the near future.