Crunchyroll Anime Awards
The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the anime streaming service Crunchyroll to recognize the best anime of the previous year. Announced in December 2016, the awards were first presented in January 2017. Crunchyroll describes it as a "global event that recognizes the anime shows, characters, and artists that fans around the world love most."
The Anime Awards were originally held in California in the United States. In 2023, the Awards moved to the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo, Japan for the 7th ceremony and have been held there ever since. The most recent ceremony was the 9th ceremony, held on May 25, 2025, where Solo Leveling won the Anime of the Year award. The 10th ceremony is scheduled to take place on May 23, 2026.
Process
The awards have two rounds of voting. Initially, each judge will submit up to five potential candidates for each category. Six candidates that received the highest amount of nominations from this round will be included in the final list for the next round, which is a one-week public voting. Winners for each category are determined by the most amount of judge and public votes weighted in a 70:30 ratio respectively since at least the 6th edition.For the first six editions of the awards, any anime that was produced primarily in Japan and released legally on television, cinema, or online from January to December of the previous year were eligible for nomination. The eligibility period was changed for the 7th and 8th editions, from October of the previous two years to September of the previous year. However, in December 2024, Crunchyroll announced that starting from the 10th edition onwards, the eligibility period will return to its previous format of eligibility from January to December, with the eligibility period for the 9th edition covering October 2023 to December 2024 to accommodate the change in format. Eligible nominations for non-Japanese VA Performance are based on the initial release of the dub irrespective of when the anime was originally released.
The set of categories that will be presented varies for each edition, with categories added, removed, or otherwise renamed. The 9th edition, for example, featured 32 categories.
Categories
Current
Crunchyroll announced the categories for each edition around December. The following list are the awards featured on its latest edition. Of these, only four awards are currently active in every editions since its inauguration in 2017.Series awards
- Best Continuing Series
- Best New Series
- Best Original Anime
Production awards
Music awards
Voice acting awards
- Japanese (JP)
- English (EN)
- German (DE)
- French (FR)
- Latin American Spanish (LA)
- Castilian Spanish (SP)
- Portuguese (PT)
- Arabic (AR)
- Italian (IT)
- Hindi (HI)
Genre awards
- Best Drama
- Best Comedy
- Best Action
- Best Romance
- Best Slice of Life
- Best Isekai Anime
Character awards
Special
These are awards uniquely given on certain editions, and are not part of the voting process. In 2023, two special awards were announced: Special Achievement Award and Presenter's Choice; however, both were not given during the ceremony.- Industry Icon Award
- Global Impact Award
Retired
- Best Character
- * Best Protagonist
- * Best Antagonist
- * Best Boy
- * Best Girl
- Best Fantasy
- Best Fight Scene
- Most Heartwarming Scene
- Best CGI
- Best Cinematography
- Best Manga
- Best Couple
- Best Voice Artist Performance
- * Russian (RU)
Editions
10th edition
The 10th Crunchyroll Anime Awards will be held on May 23, 2026 at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa in Tokyo, Japan. For the fourth consecutive year, the event will be hosted by Sally Amaki and Jon Kabira. Crunchyroll announced the eligibility period will return to its previous format of eligibility from January to December 2025 for nominations for this edition. This edition will feature 32 categories from the previous ceremony. Nominees will be revealed on April 2, the first day of public voting, which will run until April 15. Yoko Takahashi is set to perform in the ceremony for the 30th anniversary tribute to Neon Genesis Evangelion, featuring its opening theme "A Cruel Angel's Thesis".Records
Series
The following nominees received multiple nominations :The following winners received multiple awards :
Films
The following nominees received multiple nominations :The following winners received multiple awards :
| Awards | Title |
| 3 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train |
| 3 | Jujutsu Kaisen 0 |
| 2 | Look Back |
Criticisms
Bias towards popular shows
Since its inception, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards have been criticized for its process in nominations and awarding. Its inaugural ceremony in 2017, saw allegations of possible voting fraud after the sports series Yuri on Ice won all of its seven nominations including Anime of the Year. The win caused a controversy among Crunchyroll users, who accused fans of the series for rigging the vote in a heavily aggressive campaign. Following this, Crunchyroll responded by adjusting the awards system, introducing a new weighting system favoring jury in an attempt to minimize the effect of popular shows sweeping the awards. This change stopped the extremely popular superhero series My Hero Academia from unexpectedly losing the Anime of the Year to Made in Abyss in the following edition.The bias towards popular shows have been noted by several publications, including those who are part of the jury itself. In a reflection piece after the 8th edition, Animehunch opined that due to its design, the awards favor popularity over merit, noting that Vinland Saga was a far better recipient of Anime of the Year than the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen. This is reflected again in the following edition, where the extremely popular anime adaptation of the manhwa series Solo Leveling won the Anime of the Year over critically-acclaimed series Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and The Apothecary Diaries. The decision led some viewers to question whether the awards were prioritizing hype and recency bias over artistic merit. Meanwhile, despite receiving 16 nominations, Netflix's Delicious in Dungeon did not win a single award. This outcome led to speculation about a potential bias against non-Crunchyroll platforms, with many fans questioning whether the series was deliberately overlooked, though Devilman Crybaby and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, both released on Netflix, won the award in 2019 and 2023 respectively.