Despite losing the critical last-week charts, Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina manages to hold onto the two weeks it won throughout the Fall 2020 Anime Charts and will be crowned as the 28th Anime of the Season of Anime Trending. It is the first pure fantasy anime to do so since Summer 2016, roughly over four years ago, when Tales of Zestiria the X won. Elaina beats Akudama Drive, which made a phenomenal rise in the anime rankings. Akudama started from #13 and ended up topping the charts four times throughout the whole season. In the end, Akudama’s slow start cost the show the AOTS Title, and, eventually, Elaina had the last laugh, which consistently hovered at #3 in the weekly anime rankings. Elaina also won the title of Best Fantasy or Magical anime. 

Top 10 Anime of Fall 2020

Elaina is adapted from Jougi Shiraishi’s debut novel of the same title, while Akudama is by Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator of the popular multimedia franchise Danganronpa. Elaina’s AOTS victory marks the first win for the animation studio C2C.Meanwhile, Akudama became the highest-ranked anime from Studio Pierrot, surpassing Tokyo Ghoul in Summer 2014, which ranked at #4.

Both Elaina and Akudama together have made an even more phenomenal feat of beating early favorites Jujutsu Kaisen and TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You, which placed third and fourth respectively. Jujutsu Kaisen’s loss further extends the shonen drought to almost six years or 23 seasons. Assassination Classroom remains the only shonen anime to have won an AOTS title in Anime Trending. The creators of Elaina and Akudama have expressed their happiness with the results.

Meanwhile, the titular character of Elaina dominated the best girl race of this season, winning the title by a huge margin of almost a thousand votes over its closest competitor, Tsukasa Yuzaki (TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You). Tsukasa’s husband, Nasa Yuzaki, also finished second, losing to yet another white-haired character, Gojou Satoru (Jujutsu Kaisen). The couple also lost the Couple-Ship of the Season title, as they were defeated by Hougetsu Shimamura and Sakura Adachi (Adachi and Shimamura) — marking the first time that a yuri ship has won the said title. It eases the pain yuri fans experienced two years ago when another yuri pair, Yuu Koito and Touko Nanami (Bloom into You) almost cliched the title. However, they lost to Sakuta Azusagawa and Mai Sakurajima (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai) in both the Fall 2018 Anime Awards and the 5th Anime Trending Awards, placing third and second respectively. The Shimamura and Adachi ship is also the second non-straight pair that is non-straight to have won the title. The first-ever pair to do so was Ash Lynx and Eiji Okumura (Banana Fish) in the Summer 2018 Anime Awards. 

Akudama Drive scored another point against Elaina’ by winning the Favorite Action or Adventure award, which was the most-voted genre. With this award win, Akudama once again beat two shonen anime: Jujutsu Kaisen, and Haikyu!! To The Top. Akudama’s Sister also won the Best Supporting Female Character award, while Nanami Kento (Jujutsu Kaisen)  won the award for Best Supporting Male Character.

Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club provided another surprise upset by winning the Ending Theme Song award with the song, “Neo Sky, Neo Map!”, sung by the titular school idol club. Love Live! beat out Jujutsu Kaisen’s ED, “Lost in Paradise”  by ALI feat. AKLO, illustrating how dominant the popular idol anime franchise is, even after a decade since its creation. “Koi no Uta” by Yunomi feat. Akari Kitou won the opposite award of Best Opening Theme Song for TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You. 

TONIKAWA’s creator  Kenjiro Hata, in a series of tweets, was thankful for each of the award the show won and said he was glad and honored that many people around the world have seen TONIKAWA.  Hata is popularly known for also creating the Hayate the Combat Butler series. The original manga ran for almost 13 years in the Weekly Shonen Sunday, concluding in 2017. 

Road to #ATA2021: 7th Anime Trending Awards:

At least 14 anime from Fall 2020 were able to get a nomination for next year’s Anime Trending Awards. They are:

  • Akudama Drive –  14 nominations
  • Jujutsu Kaisen –   12 nominations
  • Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina – 10 nominations
  • TONIKAWA: Over the Moon –  8 nominations
  • Adachi and Shimamura –  8 nominations
  • Haikyu! To The Top –  7 nominations
  • Moriarty the Patriot –  4 nominations
  • Talentless Nana –  4 nominations
  • Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club –  3 nominations
  • Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle –  2 nominations
  • Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou –  1 nomination
  • D4DJ First Mix –  1 nomination
  • Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear –  1 nomination
  • The Day I Became a God –  1 nominations

You can see the full nominations of the 7th Anime Trending Awards here

The Full Fall 2020 Winners List here

The Full Fall 2020 Results here

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