The 7th Bernel Zone Awards for Big Screen & Small Screen

It’s once again time to tie up with the awards season – most specifically, the recently finished Oscars – with this own blog’s set of random, informal awards.  For this edition, since I made separate lists for last year’s anime instead of lumping them with TV shows in general, I also made separate awards for them.  So now, for the awards…

Best Movie Hero: Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible – Fallout)

A big reason why the character won the award is because Tom Cruise had been awesome in playing the role.

Best TV Hero: Jack Ryan (Jack Ryan)

John Krasinski’s incarnation perfectly encapsulates the characteristics that made the fictional CIA analyst interesting.

Best Anime Hero: Rimuru Tempest (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)

The main character of the best anime of fall season 2018 has proven to be an outstanding, endearingly benevolent isekai hero.   And even though his arc inhibits some qualities of the typical isekai power fantasy, it’s nevertheless by and large packaged uniquely.

Best Movie Heroine: Riley North (Peppermint)

Seeing Jennifer Garner do action again made me forget of any other female movie characters that I might have found remarkable (seriously).

Best TV Heroine: Allura (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Gotta give her props for her powerful sacrifice.

                                                  

Best Anime Heroine: Violet Evergarden (Violet Evergarden)

The best of Best Girls in a year overflowing with great Best Girls.

Best Movie Antihero: Joe (You Were Never Really Here)

In a year that had Deadpool and Venom on the big screen, the antihero that stood out for me is this brutal, psychologically troubled hired gun who rescues trafficked girls for a living.

 

Best TV Antihero: Barry (Barry)

A contract killer who begins dreaming of becoming an actor makes for some great black comedy.

Best Anime Antihero: Devilman (Devilman Crybaby)

Demonic powers and constant sniveling are traits you don’t usually attribute to heroes.  But that’s who the MC of Devilman Crybaby is. Just one of the many reasons why to watch that brilliant anime.

Best Movie Antiheroine: The Operator (The Night Comes for Us)

I badly want a spin-off movie centered on this character.

Best TV Antiheroine: Bean (Disenchantment)

The alcoholic, foolhardy princess of Dreamland possesses a lot of undesirable traits which make her endearingly unique and funny.

Best Anime Antiheroine: Ayano Hanesaki (Hanebado!)

Almost all sports anime main protagonists adhere to familiar and established character archetypes.  Hanesaki started off being seemingly one of them.  Then her surprising turn into becoming nigh sociopathic proved that she isn’t.

Best Movie Villain: Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War)

Infinity War was basically the Thanos movie.  (It’s also worth mentioning that the CGI work to render Josh Brolin into the Mad Titan is strikingly smooth.)

Best TV Villain:  Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin (Daredevil)

Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk was already terrific during season one, but he lost out to a fellow Marvel Netflix villain, David Tennant’s Killgrave, back then.  But now, nobody ever came close of challenging him for his season three outing for this award.

Best Anime Villain: Kenny Ackerman (Attack on Titan)

Director Ton is the anime villain that amused me the most in 2018, but the astounding badassery of Kenny can’t be overlooked.

Best Movie Villainess: Emily Nelson (A Simple Favor)

Oops.  This is a spoiler to those who haven’t watched the film yet.  But, yeah, Blake Lively’s Gone Girl knockoff was the most compelling female antagonist I encountered from 2018 cinema.

Best TV Villainess: Nadia Ali (Bodyguard)

For almost throughout the show, David Budd – as well as we, the audience – thought that Nadia was just a helpless, cowed Moslem wife coerced into becoming a suicide bomber by her terrorist husband.  Then, in a shocking plot twist in the end, it was revealed that she was the mastermind all along!  Her quick shift from a scared, fragile personality into an unremorseful, hubristic one was chilling to behold.  Anjli Mohindra deserves to be praised for pulling it off with her amazing acting.

Best Anime Villainess: Himiko Toga (My Hero Academia)

I almost gave this to SSSS.Gridman’s Akane Shinjo, but I remembered Toga had made a bigger impression on me earlier in the year.

Best Movie Duo: Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga and Dr. Don Shirley (Green Book)

Screw the haters.  I’m happy a legitimate, optimistic, enjoyable film like Green Book won the Oscar, and not just some other propaganda piece pretending to be art.   Anyway, a huge part of what made the movie great is the endearing “buddy” dynamic of its two protagonists, and the thoughtful character journey they undergo.

Best TV Duo: Colleen Wing and Misty Knight (Luke Cage and Iron Fist)

The scenes they shared in the season twos of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, brief they might be, should have made the case for the necessity of a Daughters of the Dragon show.  Hopefully, Marvel’s former Netflix shows get revived in another platform, and in that very same platform, a Daughters of the Dragon show gets made.

Best Anime Duo: Tori Muhyo and Jiro “Roji” Kusano Muhyo (Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation)

To be honest, they only won this award because there weren’t any other true, clear-cut anime duo in 2018 to consider.  Still, Muhyo and Roji are a good albeit derivative duo.

Best Movie Couple: Jackson and Ally (A Star Is Born)

Who else?

Best TV Couple: Lance and Allura (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

The final season saw the two finally becoming a couple.  That’s why the finale was simply heartbreaking.

Best Anime Couple: Romio Inuzuka and Juliet Persia (Boarding School Juliet)

Bunny Girl Senpai’s Sakuta and Mai were also a terrific, adorable couple.  But I give the slight edge to this excellent, amusing anime reinvention of the Shakespearean couple.

Most Adorable Movie Character: Paddington (Paddington 2)

The live-action Pooh in Christopher Robin rivals Paddington on being winsomely adorable.  Paddington only wins here because he was on a superior film.

Most Adorable TV Character: Giant Beebo (Legends of Tomorrow)

The Tickle Me Elmo-inspired toy was an integral element on making season three fantastic.  And it manifesting as a giant, living avatar of good in the finale was pure genius.

Most Adorable Anime Character: Franchouchou (Zombie Land Saga)

This may be cheating a bit since I’m giving the award to a group instead of a single character.  But I really did find each member adorable in her own way.  Also, they are definitely more adorable as a collective.  But if I’m ever forced to pick just one to hand the award to, I guess I’ll have to go with #0, the “legendary” Tae Yamada. 

Best Movie Ensemble: The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy (Avengers: Infinity War)

I hesitated a bit of giving it to them since they never got to assemble together as a complete group in the same place (this is probably reserved to happen in this year’s Endgame).  Nevertheless, all these comic book characters packed in a single movie is still a meaningful, tremendous cinematic occurrence.

Best TV Ensemble: Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Adrian Alucard Tepes (Castlevania)

If I redo my best fictional trios list, they would take a spot.

Best Anime Ensemble: Franchouchou (Zombie Land Saga)

Them again.  Because this idol group is plain awesome!

Worst Movie I Saw: A Wrinkle in Time

An absolute stinker.

Worst TV Show I Saw: Supergirl

I finally dropped it during the current season.  Couldn’t stand anymore how it was primarily focused on pushing its Leftist agendas. 

Worst Anime I Saw: Angels of Death

Intriguing at first, but eventually turned out to be mostly pretentious.

Best Movie Smile: Venom (Venom)

Dazzling.

Best TV Smile: Dawn Granger (Titans)

Also, easily the hottest TV character of 2018

Best Anime Smile: Anzu (Hinamatsuri)

One would need to watch the show to understand fully the emotional might of this ugly cry/smile moment.

Best Movie Fight Scene: Ito vs. Arian (The Night Comes for Us)

One of the most memorable moments of 2018 cinema.

Best TV Fight Scene: Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard vs. Vampires (Castlevania)

One of the most memorable moments of 2018 TV.

Best Anime Fight Scene: Naruto and Sasuke vs. Momoshiki (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)

One of the most memorable moments of 2018 anime.

Best Dance: Almost Every Franchouchou Performance (Zombie Land Saga)

Seriously, their choreography rivals Momoland in entertainment value.

Best “So Bad, It’s Good” Movie: The Predator

As I reviewed.

Best Song: “Shallow” (A Star Is Born)

A powerful love song that unintentionally articulates a universal existential yearning.

Best Musical Number: “Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life” (Teen Titans Go! to the Movies)

A hilarious lampooning/deconstruction of clichéd 80’s movie anthems.

Best Cameo: Brad Pitt as Vanisher (Deadpool 2)

Yep.  Better than Darth Maul’s in Solo.

Best Movie Plot Twist: Abi and the Happy Sunshine Camp Are Just Burn’s Schizophrenia-Induced Fantasy (My Perfect You)

I actually called it while watching.  But that didn’t negate the fact that it was a brilliant twist that totally worked beautifully in the context of its storytelling.

Best TV Plot Twist: Nadia Ali Is a Cold-Hearted Terrorist Mastermind (Bodyguard)

See “Best TV Villainess” above.

Best Movie Poster: A Simple Favor