Those who have been following The Otaku’s Study for the last couple of years may recall that my End of Year award events have been direct and to the point – often focusing on the more general awards like “Video Game of the Year” or “Australian Anime Release of the Year”. While I intend on keeping these awards, I would like to introduce a couple of additional awards that I hope will become regular features each year. Others may be rotated in-and-out in response to a number of noteworthy events or releases that would not fall into one of the normal categories, such as “Conundrum of the Year 2013” where I discussed the Australian Classifications Board giving Atelier Totori Plus an R18+ classification for reasons I still cannot fathom.
Personally, one of the biggest surprises in the Australian anime industry this year have been the number of titles that I would go into with low or average expectations of, and then come out pleasantly surprised about how wrong my initial impressions of them were. Therefore, I would like to introduce the first new award that I could see popping up every year from now on: The Otaku’s Study Surprise of the Year 2014. While there were quite a few contenders this year, I have opted to give the inaugural award to Hanabee’s February 2014 release of AKB0048.
With both seasons of AKB0048 walking away with B grades in both of their reviews, neither was good enough to achieve a nomination for Australian Anime Release of the Year 2014. However given AKB0048 was based around the popular Japanese idol group AKB48, I was honestly expecting it to be not more than an average anime that replicated what the group does in real life complimented by a bit of action and a stronger emphasis on drama. My expectations were not completely inaccurate as there was a long of time spent on singing, dancing, training, hand-shaking events and drama; however I was not expecting there to be such an appealing plot and setting which complemented and paired well with all the traditional idol elements. An enticing storyline, interesting characters and some solid action scenes helped make this an anime series that enticed me with season one, kept me waiting for season two and then left me wanting more.
The posts for AKB0048 First Stage and AKB0048 Next Stage will soon be given a 
trophy to highlight it becoming The Otaku’s Study Surprise of the Year 2014. Check back on The Otaku’s Study over the coming days for nominee lists for Video Game of the Year 2014 and Australian Anime Release of the Year 2014, in addition to all award recipients by the end of New Years Eve.
