The 9th Anime Trending Awards have come to a close. Our latest annual fan-voted awards saw the Fall 2022 smash hit BOCCHI THE ROCK!, a remarkably funny and creatively executed series, taking the title of Anime of the Year. Meanwhile, Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, which took us back to Aincrad with Asuna as the lead character, garnered the votes to win Anime Movie of the Year.

A new Aspect Awards category also debuted in the 9th Anime Trending Awards: Best in Episode Directing and Storyboard. The eighth episode of BOCCHI THE ROCK!, which featured a memorable performance sequence, wowed enough viewers to become the first winner of this category. Coincidentally, the episode (storyboarded by series director Keiichirou Satou with Takeshi Seo as episode director and Yuusuke Kawakami as live performance director) is also titled “Bocchi the Rock,” albeit without the exclamation mark.

One of the reasons we introduced Best in Episode Directing and Storyboard was to further emphasize that we should do more than simply associate the anime we love and vote for with just the name of a single studio — after all, there are numerous individuals, freelancers, different pipelines, subcontracted studios, and sub-studios to take into account. Once again, we are glad to be able to share comments and messages from some of those staff and creators, like Mob Psycho 100 III’s character designer and chief animation director Yoshimichi Kameda, whose contributions helped make the shows they worked on become the winners of this year’s ATA.

BOCCHI THE ROCK! director Keiichirou Satou on the series winning Anime of the Year win and more:

“Knowing the many days that the cast and staff have spent dedicating themselves to loyally create BOCCHI THE ROCK!, it feels special to see that so many fans have come out to appreciate and support the series.”