Hello, Hello and WELCOME my friends to my favorite post of the year: the You Can’t Know anime awards! Today we’re going to be looking into the past that is 2021 and highlighting what Star and I believe are some of the best anime we came across. As some generic notes, breakout anime means something that was pretty original as an anime–aka, an anime without reference material or a large following prior to the anime coming out. We also tried to cover as many different anime as we could, with a whopping 67 anime nominated (though we watched much, much more). Also, this is just a friendly reminder–these are solely our opinions on anime 2021, but remember–your choices are valid and we are HAPPY to hear them! Let us know some of your thoughts in the comment below. So now, without further ado, here are the YCK anime awards, in no less than 40 categories!
2021 Anime Awards
The You Can’t Know Edition
Best Drama
Nominations: Re-Make our Life!, Kageki Shoujo, Blue Period, Fruits Basket season 3, Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-kun
Best Slice of Life
Nominations: Drugstore in Another World, Shiroi Suna no Aquatope, Horimiya, The Saint’s Power is Omnipotent, Odd Taxi
Best Comedy
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
Nominations: The Vampire Dies in no Time, Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan, Kanojo mo Kanojo, The Way of the Househusband, Meikyuu Black Company, Kai Byoui Ramune
Best Action
Nominations: Wonder Egg Priority, Saihate no Paladin, Kemono Jihen, Tokyo Revengers, Cells at Work! Code Black, Seirei Gensouki
Best Romance
Nominations: Horimiya, Fruits Basket: The Final, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! season 2, Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid
Best Sports
Nominations: Sk8: The Infinity, Bakuten, Re-Main, Burning Kabeddi!, 2:43
Best Fantasy
Nominations: Saihate no Paladin, Re:Zero season 2, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation
Best Sci-Fi
Nominations: Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song, SSSS. Dynazenon, Edens Zero, Sakugan, Urasekai Picnic
Best Supernatural/Horror/Psychological
Nominations: Mieruko-chan, The Night Beyond the Tricolored Window, Higurashi: When They Cry Sotsu, Wonder Egg Priority, Mars Red, Shadows House
Best Vampire Anime
Nominations: Vanitas no Carte, Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, Visual Prison, Mars Red, The Vampire Dies in no Time
Best Musical Anime
Nominations: Visual Prison, Mashiro no Oto, Takt Op. Destiny, Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song, Idoly Pride, Heike Monogatari
Best Historical
Nominations: Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, Heike Monogatari, Mars Red, Vantas no Carte, Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood, Higurashi: When They Cry Sotsu, Yuukoku no Moriarty season 2
Most Disappointing Anime
Nominations: Mars Red, Wonder Egg Priority, The Promised Neverland season 2, To Your Eternity, Shiroi Suna no Aquatope, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Fena: The Pirate Princess, The Detective is Already Dead
Worst Anime of the Year
The Promised Neverland season 2
Nominations: The Promised Neverland season 2, Scarlet Nexus, Redo of Healer, Tesla Note
Most Unique Anime
Nominations: Heike Monogatari, Kageki Shoujo, Takt. Op Destiny, Shadows House, Odd Taxi, Sonny Boy
Best Continuing Series
Nominations: Yuukoku no Moriarty season 2, Beastars season 2, Fruits Basket season 3, Higurashi: When They Cry Sotsu, Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Zombieland Saga Revenge, Dr. Stone Stone Wars
Most Deserving of a Second Season
Nominations: Blue Period, Irina The Cosmonaut Vampire, Kageki Shoujo, Re-Main, Mashiro no Oto, Sk8: The Infinity
Breakout Anime of the Year
Nominations: Sk8: The Infinity, Wonder Egg Priority, Vivy Fluorite’s Eye Song, Godzilla Singular Point, Sonny Boy
Best Cross-seasonal Anime
Nominations: Tokyo Revengers, 86, Platinum End, Higurashi: When They Cry Sotsu, To Your Eternity
Best Sound Mixing
Nominations: Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song, SSSS. Dynazenon, Komi Can’t Communicate, Wonder Egg Priority, Mashiro no Oto, Heike Monogatari, Vanitas no Carte
Best Animation
Nominations: Wonder Egg Priority, Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song, Horimiya, Beastars season 2, Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Shiroi Suna no Aquatope
Better than I expected
Nominations: 86, Kai Byoui Ramune, Odd Taxi, Platinum End, Kanojo mo Kanojo, Uramichi Oniisan, The Vampire Dies in No Time, Drugstore in Another World, Saihate no Paladin, Shadows House
Best Duo
Draken & Mikey (Tokyo Revengers)
Nominations: Langa & Reki (Sk8: The Infinity), Noe & Vanitas (Vanitas no Carte), Sarasa & Ai (Kageki Shoujo), Fuuka & Kukuru (Shiroi Suna no Aquatope), Draken & Mikey (Tokyo Revengers), Futaba & Misato (Bakuten), Emilico & Kate (Shadows House)
Best Couple
Nominations: Irina x Lev (Irina The Cosmonaut Vampire), Tohru x Kyo (Fruits Basket: The Final), Hori x Miyamura (Horimiya), Naoya x Saki x Nagisa (Girlfriend, Girlfriend), Snow Witch x Black Dog (86)
Best Boy
Nominations: John (The Vampire Dies in No Time) William G. Maryblood (Saihate no Paladin), Reiji (Drugstore in Another World), Yuki Sohma (Fruits Basket: The Final), Lev (Irina The Vampire Cosmonaut), Chifuyu (Tokyo Revengers), Undertaker (86), Tadano (Komi Can’t Communicate), Matsumoto (Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song)
Best Girl
Nominations: Biwa (Heike Monogatari), Vivy (Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song), Jeanne (Vanitas no Carte), Major (86), Emilico (Shadows House), Fuuka (Shiroi Suna no Aquatope), Hina (Tokyo Revengers), Komi (Komi Can’t Communicate)
Best Character
Best Group
Nominations: Rhymthic Gymnastics team (Bakuten), Water Polo team (Re-Main), Acting Troupe (Kageki Shoujo), The 86 (86), Oz (Visual Prison), Together with Maman cast (Uramichi Oniisan)
Best Antagonist
Nominations: Riz (Beastars season 2), Adam (Sk8: The Infinity), Frill (Wonder Egg Priority), Hijiri (Kageki Shoujo), Edward (Shadows House)
Best Protagonist
Nominations: Vivy (Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song), Undertaker (86), Biwa (Heike Monogatari), Sarasa (Kageki Shoujo), Yatora (Blue Period), Mikey (Tokyo Revengers), Irina (Irina The Vampire Cosmonaut), Setsu (Mashiro no Oto), Minato (Re-Main), Komi (Komi Can’t Communicate)
Best OST
Shiroi Suna no Aquatope
Nominations: 86, Heike Monogatari, Shiroi Suna no Aquatope, Fruits Basket The Final, Mars Red, Takt Op. Destiny
Best Fight
Maeda vs. Kurusu (Mars Red)
Nominations: Riz vs. Legosi (Beastars season 2), Draken vs. Hanma (Tokyo Revengers), Maeda vs. Kurusu (Mars Red), Ai vs. Gymnast Teacher (Wonder Egg Priority)
Most Heartbreaking Scene
Fido’s Memories (86)
Nominations: Panic’s death (Wonder Egg Priority), The end of the Heike (Heike Monogatari), Gugu’s Death (To Your Eternity), Irina running into the sun (Irina The Vampire Cosmonaut), Fido’s Memories (86), Tohru’s tumble off the hill (Fruits Basket: The Final)
Our Guilty Pleasure Anime
Nominations: Sk8: The Infinity, Blue Period, Uramichi Oniisan, Remake our Life, Vanitas no Carte, Bakuten
Star’s Personal Favorite
Luna’s Personal Favorite
Best Opening
“in case…” by BiSH from Godzilla Singular Point
Best Ending
“Koko de Iki o Shite” by eill from Tokyo Revengers
Proudest Moment:
Ushimado’s goal from episode 12 of Re-Main
Most Shocking Moment
Adam hitting Cherry during their beef from episode 9 of Sk8: The Infinity
Funniest Moment
The Clothes Eating Vampire from The Vampire Dies in No Time
Most Relatable Character
Uramichi Oniisan from Life Lesson with Uramichi Oniisan
Most Tears Shed over an Anime
86
Most Tears Shed by a Character
Takemichi from Tokyo Revengers
Most Surprising Hero
Baji from Tokyo Revengers
Most Supportive Supporting Characters
Yatora’s Friends from Blue Period
This Could’ve Been Really Cool if it was Written Better
Peach Boy Riverside
Most annoyingly catchy soundtrack
Visual Prison
The Anime for if You’re Down Bad
Vanitas no Carte
In Memorium:
Mukaido-san, Daiya, Kaie, Kujo, Haruto, Kino, Touma, Anju, Shin, Theo, Chise, Myna, Mikuri, Tohzan, Lecca, Kuroto, Mina, Kariya, Shuri, Ochi, Io, Kurena, Kanade, Hajime, Blood, Mary, Ibuki, the new Minato, the poor cells in Cells at Work! Code Black, Rengoku, Uramichi Oniisan’s Will to Live, those poor dogs from Irina, Captain Maeda, Setsu’s father, March, Fugu, The Unnamed Boy, Parona, Tonari’s friends, Pioran, Osamu Matsumoto, Matsumoto, Vivy, Nana Matsumoto, Luna Matsumoto, Estella, all the pet companions in Wonder Egg Priority, Baji, and many, many more characters.
Studio of the Year
Best Anime of Winter 2021
Best Anime of Spring 2021
Best Anime of Summer 2021
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
Best Anime of Fall 2021
Best Anime of the year
For anime of the year, we took all of our seasonal anime and then nominated four extra anime that stood out amongst the rest–but that we didn’t watch during the seasons they came out. We carefully reviewed each–looking at animation, music, character, story, and originality. The nominations for this year are:
To Your Eternity Horimiya Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan Heike Monogatari
Irina The Vampire Cosmonaut Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song 86 Tokyo Revengers
And the winner is…
Well, there you have it! These are our picks for the best anime of 2021! It was a wild year with a lot of good anime and a lot of pleasant surprises. We had some great second seasons for anime, some amazing newcomers, some really great original stories, and really great adaptions! It was a good year for anime, despite all else. As a last note, we want to give a shoutout to Fruits Basket that finally wrapped up on the small screen after over 10 years of waiting. Like 2021, Fruits Basket was a wild ride!
Thank you again for joining us for the 2021 Anime Awards, the You Can’t Know edition! Here’s to looking forward to all the great anime in 2022 (that we are already enjoying). And don’t forget to join us shortly for our Doki Doki Days, leading up to Valentine’s!
Stay weebtastic,
AishteLOVEru,
Luna & Star
We be bloggin' 