We go through all our favorites of the year from 2020 Western TV animation after giving all of our thoughts on the recent Adventure Time Obsidian special, the premiere episodes of Onyx Equinox, Season 1 of the Animaniacs reboot, and Season 3 of Craig of the Creek.

Hosts this week: Dylan Hysen, Michelle Anderer, & April Collins.

Timestamps for the podcast:

• 5:10 – Adventure Time: Distant Lands Obsidian
• 12:30 – Onyx Equinox Episodes 1 & 2
• 22:25 – Animaniacs Reboot
• 33:15 – Craig of the Creek Season 3
• 57:45 – Main topic – Best of 2020 Animation

Dylan Hysen, Michelle Anderer, & Alex Bonilla share their thoughts on the final season including the series finale of BoJack Horseman.

Happy New Year everyone! After years of moving forward with a similar format, we’re switching things up for the podcast.

The headline is: We’re going to stop doing episode recap podcasts, and we’re going to focus on more high-level discussions.

The immediate change you’ll see is no episode recap podcasts which will result in less podcasts. However, we’ll still be covering the same shows, the podcast will still generally be similar, we’ll just be structuring our discussions in different ways. We think this new structure will result in more interesting discussions, and we’ll be better equipped to cover shows with a wide variety of release formats.

Here are the types of podcasts you’ll see instead of episode recaps:

• Season recaps! We’ll still be discussing seasons as a whole when a show we cover wraps up its season. So you’ll see an Infinity Train Season 2 recap podcast but not nightly podcasts this week. When the next season of She-Ra drops we’ll have a podcast on the whole season soon after it comes out like normal (but no proceeding episode recaps).
• Podcasts at regular intervals for certain shows: This is the replacement model for episode recaps for weekly shows (or others) we still want to talk about regularly while they’re airing. We won’t discuss all the shows we cover on a regular basis, but in the short term look out for Miraculous Ladybug every-other-week podcasts starting sometime in the next two months, and Owl House podcasts monthly (after we do a special podcast for the premiere this weekend). These will be high-level discussions on anything about the show. If there are episodes to talk about we’ll talk about them generally, but we can also talk about general topics surrounding the show or any news about the show.
• Show-specific topics: If something is on our mind about a show, even if we’re not podcasting on it regularly, we might do a podcast to discuss a specific topic whenever! Likely something we’re passionate about like Bumbleby with RWBY.
• Cross-show or movie topics: This is the one we’re most excited about and hope to do a lot more: A trend in the industry, a trend in a social issue (we definitely want to do queer rep topics more than once a year), or some theme we notice across a few shows. This could really be anything involving animation.

Some exceptions to no more episode recaps: First, we still could do one if there’s an episode we’re super excited to talk about! Also, Steven Universe Future may or may not continue with episode recaps until its completion (if not we’d have every-other-week podcasts when it comes back). We’ll finish out Volume 7 recaps for RWBY since it’s almost over. We may finish out the She-Ra S4 recaps we almost finished. And we can still do pods on a single movie, whether it’s recently released or not!

We’re excited to continue to talk about a lot of awesome animated shows and movies in a format we think will work better. As always reach out with any feedback you have on the podcast!

Dylan Hysen, Delaney Stovall, Michelle Anderer, & Sarah Potter look back on the good, the bad, and overall trends in the portrayals of queer characters in 2019 animation including in Steven Universe, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes, Young Justice: Outsiders, Craig of the Creek, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, gen:LOCK, Arthur, Rocko’s Modern Life, RWBY, BoJack Horseman, Tuca & Bertie, The Dragon Prince, Twelve Forever, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Miraculous Ladybug, Love Death + Robots, Hazbin Hotel, Big Mouth, Given, Stars Align, Sarazanmai, Carole & Tuesday, & Fruits Basket.

The results are in for our 2019 OVA-ies TV Animation Awards! After 645 votes cast, the winners in seven categories have been determined. Listen to the attached podcast to hear us announce the winners and analyze the results.

Steven Universe was the big winner of the night, taking home four of the seven awards, including the two biggest categories: Best Show and Best Episode. Infinity Train also had a big night with wins for Best New Show and Best Main Character for Tulip. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power won Best Supporting Character for Scorpia.

How the results were calculated: final placement was determined by an averaging of the percentages of the Open Vote and the Internal Vote of our patrons and staff, the latter of which was also weighed by number of shows watched in each category.

Best Animated Show of 2019

Winner: Steven Universe

Show Average% Open Vote Internal Steven Universe 38.27% 38.90% 37.63% She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 22.69% 22.80% 22.58% Tuca & Bertie 13.64% 4.70% 22.58% gen:LOCK 12.03% 9.00% 15.05% Infinity Train 8.03% 13.90% 2.15% BoJack Horseman 5.40% 10.80% 0.00%

Past winners: 2018-Steven Universe; 2017-Rick and Morty; 2016-Steven Universe

Best Animation Episode of 2019

Winner: “Change Your Mind”, Steven Universe

Episode Average% Open Vote Internal “Change Your Mind”, Steven Universe 37.74% 46.90% 28.57% “The Jelly Lakes”, Tuca & Bertie 20.90% 7.10% 34.69% “The Only Me I Know”, gen:LOCK 14.43% 10.50% 18.37% “121045” (Episode 1), The Promised Neverland 12.13% 11.00% 13.27% “Remember”, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 9.95% 14.80% 5.10% “Cleaved”, Star vs. the Forces of Evil 4.85% 9.70% 0.00%

Past winners: 2018-“A Single Pale Rose”, Steven Universe; 2017-”Tales from the Citadel”, Rick and Morty; 2016-“Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls”, Gravity Falls

Best Animation Main Character of 2019

Winner: Tulip, Infinity Train

Character Average% Open Vote Internal Tulip, Infinity Train 28.05% 15.90% 40.21% Steven, Steven Universe 23.11% 28.70% 17.53% Marinette, Miraculous Ladybug 19.55% 25.70% 13.40% Bertie, Tuca & Bertie 13.31% 6.00% 20.62% Ruby, RWBY 11.31% 18.50% 4.12% Glimmer, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 4.66% 5.20% 4.12%

Past winners: 2018-Marinette, Miraculous Ladybug; 2017-Star Butterfly, Star vs. the Forces of Evil; 2016-Pearl, Steven Universe

Best Animation Supporting Character of 2019

Winner: Scorpia, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Character Average% Open Vote Internal Scorpia, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 41.65% 24.20% 59.09% Spinel, Steven Universe 22.71% 35.20% 10.23% Amaya, The Dragon Prince 12.20% 15.30% 9.09% Speckle, Tuca & Bertie 9.74% 4.70% 14.77% Venomous, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes 8.66% 10.50% 6.82% One-One, Infinity Train 5.05% 10.10% 0.00%

Past winners: 2018-Lotor, Voltron: Legendary Defender; 2017-Diana Cavendish, Little Witch Academia; 2016-Peridot, Steven Universe

Best New Animated Show of 2019

Winner: Infinity Train

Show Average% Open Vote Internal Infinity Train 32.28% 40.20% 24.36% Tuca & Bertie 18.13% 11.90% 24.36% gen:LOCK 17.77% 16.30% 19.23% Carmen Sandiego 11.01% 15.60% 6.41% The Promised Neverland 10.99% 13.00% 8.97% Undone 9.83% 3.00% 16.67%

Past winners: 2018-She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Best Visuals for an Animated Show of 2019

Winner: Steven Universe

Show Average% Open Vote Internal Steven Universe 27.14% 35.30% 18.99% Undone 19.95% 3.20% 36.71% Carmen Sandiego 17.81% 14.10% 21.52% Love, Death + Robots 12.15% 12.90% 11.39% Hazbin Hotel 11.91% 17.50% 6.33% RWBY 11.08% 17.10% 5.06%

Past winners: 2017-Little Witch Academia & Samurai Jack

Best Music for an Animated Show of 2019

Winner: Steven Universe

Show Average% Open Vote Internal Steven Universe 44.37% 50.80% 37.93% RWBY 20.92% 22.30% 19.54% Carole & Tuesday 11.65% 7.20% 16.09% The Promised Neverland 8.67% 4.70% 12.64% Infinity Train 8.30% 7.40% 9.20% Hazbin Hotel 6.10% 7.60% 4.60%

Here are the nominees for the 2019 OVA-ies Awards, celebrating the best in television animation from the year. Listen to the nominations announcement podcast accompanying this post and check out the nominations below!

Vote for your favorites in 7 categories. Winners are chosen 50% by an open vote, 50% from our internal community of patrons & staff weighed by shows watched. Nominees were chosen internally by our patrons & staff, and you can see the nominations below! Winners will be revealed in a podcast at the end of December.

Steven Universe leads with 6 nominations, one in every category it was eligible for. Followed by Tuca & Bertie and Infinity Train with 5 nominations, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power with 4 nominations. gen:LOCK, The Promised Neverland, and RWBY had 3 nominations each.

Vote Here Now!

Voting closes at noon on Sunday December 29th. Google sign-in is required for voting. Voting is anonymous, the sign-in is just required to restrict voting to 1 per person.

Best Animated Show of 2019

• BoJack Horseman
• gen:LOCK
• Infinity Train
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Steven Universe
• Tuca & Bertie

Best Animation Episode of 2019

• “121045” (Episode 1), The Promised Neverland
• “Change Your Mind”, Steven Universe
• “Cleaved”, Star vs. the Forces of Evil
• “The Jelly Lakes”, Tuca & Bertie
• “The Only Me I Know”, gen:LOCK
• “Remember”, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Best Animation Main Character of 2019

• Bertie, Tuca & Bertie
• Glimmer, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Marinette, Miraculous Ladybug
• Ruby, RWBY
• Steven, Steven Universe
• Tulip, Infinity Train

Best Animation Supporting Character of 2019

• Amaya, The Dragon Prince
• One-One, Infinity Train
• Scorpia, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Speckle, Tuca & Bertie
• Spinel, Steven Universe
• Venomous, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes

Best New Animated Show of 2019

• Carmen Sandiego
• gen:LOCK
• Infinity Train
• The Promised Neverland
• Tuca & Bertie
• Undone

Best Visuals for an Animated Show of 2019

• Carmen Sandiego
• Hazbin Hotel
• Love, Death + Robots
• RWBY
• Steven Universe
• Undone

Best Music for an Animated Show of 2019

• Carole & Tuesday
• Hazbin Hotel
• Infinity Train
• The Promised Neverland
• RWBY
• Steven Universe

Dylan Hysen, Michelle Anderer, Sam Quattro, & Ally Martin recap the last two episodes of BoJack Horseman Season 6 Part 1, “The Face of Depression” & “A Quick One, While He’s Away”!

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer & Ally Martin discuss the fifth and sixth episodes of the final season of BoJack Horseman: “A Little Uneven, Is All” and “The Kidney Stays in the Picture”.

Alex Bonilla, Sam Quattro & Michelle Anderer discuss the third and fourth episodes of the final season of BoJack Horseman: “Feel-Good Story” and “Surprise!”

Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer, Sarah Potter & April Collins discuss the first two episodes of the final season of BoJack Horseman: “A Horse Walks Into a Rehab” and “The New Client.”

Dylan Hysen, Sam Quattro, & Sarah Potter give their thoughts on all of Part 1 of Season 6 of BoJack Horseman.