#Zero finally wins Anime of the Season for Winter 2021

Third time’s the charm as Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- finally won the Anime of the Season title and snapped its losing streak. Previously, Re:Zero finished as a runner-up in its previous attempts, losing to Kiznaiver in Spring 2016 and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU in Summer 2020. 

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- also set the record for most awards won in a single season at six total. Along with AOTS, the anime also picked up awards for its lead characters, Subaru Natsuki and Emilia, who won Favorite Male Character and Female Character respectively. Otto Suwen took the win for Favorite Supporting Male Character — mere months after he was crowned as Supporting Boy of the Year during the 7th Anime Trending Awards. nonoc’s “Believe in You” secured a second victory for both the artist and the Favorite Ending Theme Song award. Lastly, Re:Zero won the genre award for Favorite Mystery or Psychological anime. Winning the Anime of the Season is a remarkable feat, as the anime did this in what many dubbed as “the most stacked anime season in history” which included powerhouses like Attack On Titan Final Season – which surprisingly only placed 4th in the final overall rankings. 

🏆 Winter 2021 Anime Awards 🏆
Anime of the Season:
Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World

Finally, the losing streak has ended! Re:Zero finally won an Anime of the Season title at Anime Trending on its 3rd Attempt! Third time’s a charm indeed! pic.twitter.com/uj5WYekUxB
— Anime Trending (@AniTrendz) April 11, 2021

With its leads sweeping the two seasonal major character awards — a first in ATA history — alongside Suwen’s win, Re:Zero also set the record for the most character awards won within a single season. Re:Zero also set the same record after the recently concluded 7th ATAs when Suwen and Echnida won Supporting Boy of the Year and Supporting Girl of the Year respectively. 

Natsuki’s win as this season’s best boy makes it his second time winning the same title, which he previously won in Spring 2016. He only took the number 1 spot on the Winter 2021 Top Male Character charts during the final week, which makes this win all the more impressive. Meanwhile, Emilia’s rank improved greatly compared to her performance during the previous seasons of Re:Zero. She ranked #1 for four non-consecutive weeks this season compared to her limited success in previous Top Female Character charts. 

The Other Winners

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation was crowned as the New Anime of the Season. With the win, the anime seems to have withstood and risen above all the controversies that surrounded it during its broadcast. Ghislaine Dedoldia won another award for Mushoku Tensei as this season’s Favorite Supporting Female Character after edging out Hange Zoe (Attack on Titan Final Season) and Ram (Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-), who placed second and third respectively. Mushoku Tensei also won the genre award for Favorite Fantasy Anime, which seems like the perfect award for what many describe as “the grandfather of isekai anime.” The series will return this Summer 2021 for its second part, and it is reported to have additional seasons aside from the one slated this year.

🏆 Winter 2021 Anime Awards 🏆
New Anime of the Season
Mushoku Tensei
(2nd Place for General Rankings) pic.twitter.com/8ERPADjd5r

— Anime Trending (@AniTrendz) April 11, 2021

The Quintessential Quintuplets showed off its dominance once again in the Couple/Ship polls this season. The show took the first and second spots in the Final Couple/Ship Rankings of the season with Fuutarou Uesugi’s pairings with Miku Nakano and Nino Nakano. This win marks the first time that the anime won a seasonal top couple/ship award. Previously, the two ships placed second and third behind Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya (Kaguya-sama: Love is War) during Winter 2019. The Quintessential Quintuplets beat the pairing of Izumi Miyamura and Kyouko Hori of Horimiya, which was one of the most-awaited romantic comedy anime of the year, and also won the genre award for Favorite Romance Anime. 

Other winners include Attack on Titan Final Season, Wonder Egg Priority, SK8 the Infinity, Horimiya, Idoly Pride, Dr. STONE: STONE WARS, Laid-Back Camp, and Kimono Jihen. The specific awards they won can be found on Anime Trending’s Winter 2021 Anime Awards Winners Portal while the full results are available on the Results Portal. 

Nominations for the 8th Anime Trending Awards

15 anime earned at least one nomination for the next annual Anime Trending Awards, which were based on the votes cast overall this season. Some adjustments were made for the Anime of the Year nominations as many broadcast delays since last year were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since two out of four anime nominated for Anime of the Year were not originally scheduled to air this season, Anime Trending has decided to add two more direct nomination slots for Anime of the Year. Additionally, two spots have been added to the Wildcard Round, which will serve as a second chance for any anime to clinch a nomination spot for the Anime of the Year award. 

That Time That I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki received the direct nomination spots while Kemono Jihen and The Quintessential Quintuplets took the spots for the Wildcard Round. The selection was based on AT’s Last Week Advantage Chart Rankings, not on the Final Seasonal Tally. Visit Anime Trending’s Charter Page for more details on how AT conducts its polls, awards, and charts. 

Here are the 15 anime that have a nomination for the 8th Anime Trending Awards, arranged by the number of nominations received:

• Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- — 10 nominations
• Wonder Egg Priority — 9  nominations
• Attack on Titan — 9 nominations
• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation — 7 nominations
• Horimiya — 7 nominations
• The Quintessential Quintuplets — 7 nominations
• SK8 the Infinity — 4 nominations
• Dr. STONE — 3 nominations
• Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki — 2 nominations
• Laid-Back Camp — 2 nominations
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime — 1 nomination
• BEASTARS — 1 nomination
• Gekidol — 1 nomination
• Idoly Pride — 1 nomination
• Kemono Jihen — 1 nomination

The awards that each of these anime were nominated for are available on the 8th Anime Trending Awards Nomination Portal.

The Spring 2021 Weekly Anime Polls have started. To vote, visit the Top Anime Polling Page.