I just watched the video for the any% glitchless world record on normal and it looked like he cheated several times or he glitched it. Firstly he jumped into the sinkhole and didn't land in the water but still took no fall damage. And second the boss wasn't moving at all and he was just able to throw his spear and pick ot up instantly until it died. Was he cheating or did he glitch it?

I'm definitely not the best person to explain this as I mainly run any%, so if I'm wrong or someone else better wants to explain it go ahead. Starting off, I can tell you Ayaka definitely didn't cheat nor glitch the game, as the moderators in place would have found it immediately. However, to answer your questions I'll start with the sinkhole jump. This is a pretty minor exploiting of the game's mechanics, as hitting a slope while falling simply stops the fall damage; compare this to the glitches used in any% and you will see a massive difference in what the community determines as a glitch. The term glitch is not easily definable. To reflect this, consider a bridge with a lever that has to be pushed to cross it. However, if you jump at the last pixel, you can make it over barely. Would you consider this a glitch? Sure it wasn't intended by the developers, but you didn't do anything wrong perse. Either way, it's up the community to decide that. To move onto the boss fight, the boss was throwing out attacks and that's why it was standing in place. Akaya was simply standing in a spot slightly out of range of the hitbox of the attack. The spear pickup is just a mechanic in the game, and it includes arrows as well. Hope this helps, and have a good one! (edited for correctness, and clarity.)