Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards nominees were announced back in January. While some of the biggest shows of last year were included, many fans noted that there weren’t any Fall 2022 anime among the Crunchyroll Anime Awards nominees.
This caused quite a stir among fans online, especially given that Fall 2022 featured arguably the biggest hits of the year, including the highly anticipated Chainsaw Man and the surprise hit Bocchi the Rock!
Ahead of the Awards, Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini explained why there were no Fall 2022 shows in the lineup.
Fall 22 Anime Not Excluded, Explains Crunchyroll President
During a recent press conference ahead of the awards ceremony in Japan, Purini shared that the Fall shows weren’t excluded:
The Fall shows have definitely not been excluded. Like with any [awards] show, we had to pick a time period which we select nominees from so that we can then move into the process for fans to [vote on the shows].
So, we decided that the time period was going to be October of 2021 through September of 2022. [Fall 2022 had many] fantastic shows that we know fans are eager to celebrate. But they’ll definitely be included in next year's show.
In the last couple of weeks, year-end awards and fan polls from other organizations have been shared online.
Most of the results have seen Fall 2022 shows such as Bocchi the Rock! and Chainsaw Man win in many categories.
This proves how massive the Fall 2022 anime are, so it's going to be a bit weird that these titles won’t appear at all in Crunchyroll’s massive ceremony.
The awards’ scale might be a reason Crunchyroll went with the aforementioned period. As Purini said, there is some time between picking the nominees and moving to the process of selection.
Because of the show’s scale, it’s likely that including Fall 2022 anime in the mix will make organizing a large-scale event nigh impossible.
For comparison, other recent anime awards are purely online, with no big ceremony.
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Crunchyroll Anime Awards Eligibility Period
To follow up on Purini’s explanation, Crunchyroll Chief Marketing Officer Gita Rebbapragada said that the awards have been running for seven years now and that the previous awards all had October to September time frames.
If Crunchyroll decided to move the eligibility period, it might be seen as unfair to the previous year's Fall shows if they aren’t included.
Though for reference, awards in other industries like the Oscars have eligibility dates between January 1 to December 31. Meanwhile, The Game Awards has a cutoff of mid-November.
It might be difficult to adjust given that Crunchyroll’s Awards have kept the previous eligibility period for seven years now.
But given the negative reception from many anime fans, the hope is that the period is reconsidered in the future, especially for years with strong Fall anime lineups.
Crunchyroll’s 7th Anime Awards is happening on March 4, 2023, beginning at 6:30 PM JST (1:30 AM PT / 4:30 AM ET).
Discover the latest anime news and info by following us on Twitter @epicstreamanime.
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