FEATURE: Strutting the 2023 Anime Awards Orange Carpet with Finn Wolfhard, Valkyrae and More
All photos by Daryl Harding
For the first time, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards was hosted in the heart of anime – Tokyo, Japan. With industry both in Japan and abroad in attendance, the show was the biggest event on the anime industry calender that bridged the gap between Western and Japanese anime lovers.
The night was filled with an outpouring of love for the medium of anime, with live performances from some of the top anime composers and artists and big-name fans from across the world.
Brightly accenting the foyer of the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa was the infamous Orange Carpet, where industry guests, hosts, celebrity anime fans, performers and more strutted their stuff as they headed into the main hall. We got the chance to have a lovely chat which a bunch of them about anime and their time in Japan, as they were whisked away to get prepared for the night ahead.
First up, co-presenter of the Anime of the Year Award, the ever-energetic Valkyrae said that she was having a great time in Tokyo, shopping in Cat Street in Harajuku as well as eating some great food. Over the past year, Valkyrae has been utterly consumed with watching One Piece (and is yet to be caught up!) and has loved Chainsaw Man – a theme might emerge here!
Syukkuno followed up next, who was “nervous” about presenting Anime of the Year but was delighted to be up there. He happily spoke about the curry he enjoyed on his trip and that his favorite anime of the last year is SPY x FAMILY. He said he loves how cute and funny the series is, making it “easy to watch.” Syukkuno was hoping for SPY x FAMILY to win the Anime of the Year award but “realistically” thought it would go to Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2.
Next up was WWE Superstar Zelina Vega repping Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc with a Daki-inspired outfit. Vega had a massive list of what she planned to do while in Japan and, as of when we spoke to her, she only had one more place to tick off – a temple run, something that should be on everyone’s list when they come to Japan.
As the “First Hokage” of WWE, Vega finally got to visit her fellow Hokage brethren at Shinobi-zato, an experience she said was “insane.” Vega said her favorite anime that she watched last year was Entertainment District Arc (and she’d already seen the first episode of the upcoming Swordsmith Village Arc while on her trip!), telling us she rang her brother in tears as soon as the last episode finished due to the bond shared between Daki and Gyutaro.
We got a brief moment to chat with Japanese superstar composer Yuki Kajiura about how she updates the compositions of the music in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba to fit the atmosphere of the story, as well as how she brings a maturity to the soundtrack of later parts of Sword Art Online as Kirito and the rest of the characters have gotten older. Kajiura explained that she doesn’t get the chance to watch much anime but enjoyed the parts of SPY x FAMILY that she saw.
Aidan Hutchinson followed up, and even though he’s usually on the defense for his NFL team, he was more than happy to be on the attack to talk about how much he loves Tokyo. This was his first time in Japan and he said he wants to “come back every year.”Eating all the different kinds of foods was his favorite pastime while in the country, with the sushi being “fire.”
Hutchinson said he really enjoyed going to the famous Kyoto Starbucks and exploring Kiyomizu Dera. Over the past year, Hutchinson has loved binging One-Punch Man and coming across B: The Beginning randomly on Netflix.
Alita: Battle Angel director Robert Rodriguez followed suit in a Jotaro-inspired outfit (with a pose to boot!). Over the past year, Rodriguez has caught up with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, with Part 3 being his favorite, along with iconic series Soul Eater and One Piece. He mentioned he’s been going back to older anime to watch in his newly built screening room–jealous! Though, unlike the rest of the celebrity anime fans, Rodriguez was hoping Cyberpunk: Edgerunners would take the Anime of the Year award – in fact, if he was able to choose an award himself, he would have given it to Cyberpunk. Luckily he didn’t need to!
Finn and Nick Wolfhard capped off a great orange carpet experience by talking about the lesser-known places to go in Tokyo they’ve enjoyed. Finn said he loved the drinking culture of Tokyo’s bars, while Nick was enjoying traveling around, especially exploring the “vibe of Kamakura” down by Yokohama and more of rural Japan. As huge anime fans, they both enjoyed exploring Nakano Broadway, with Finn saying it’s his favorite spot as well as Akihabara’s Super Potato. Both agreed, though, that the parks in Tokyo, especially those in the Bunkyo Ward, were just a treat to walk through and some of their favorite experiences.
Finn was revved up for Chainsaw Man over the past year and also said he’s been rewatching clips from FLCL. Nick exclaimed that Attack on Titan has been incredible over the last decade, raising the bar for the recognition of anime worldwide.
The rest of the night–as you can rewatch in the live stream–was a celebration of the culture of anime and the last year in the medium, filled with heart-rumbling moments like KOHTA YAMAMOTO’s “Ashes on the Fire” performance, Yuki Kajiura’s off-the-rails “Homura” production and, of course, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners taking the surprising, yet 100% deserved Anime of the Year win that got the press room jumping in excitement!
Photos from the Press Room of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2023 Winners
Lycoris Recoil Director Shingo Adachi
One Piece Series Director Tatsuya Nagamine
Kaguya-sama: Love is War Kaguya voice actor Aoi Koga
Attack on Titan composers KOHTA YAMAMOTO and Hiroyuki Sawano
JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 Toho producer Hiroaki Matsutani and MAPPA CEO Manabu Otsuka
Aniplex Producer Yuma Takahashi and Demon Slayer’s Uzui Tengen voice actor Katsuyuki Konishi
President of Studio Trigger Masahiro Otsuka
Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram. Burst out in joy when Cyberpunk was announced as the winner!
