The Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 Delivered a Night to Remember
The Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 just wrapped in Tokyo, and if you weren’t glued to the livestream, you missed one of the most emotionally charged ceremonies in the award show’s decade-long run. This year marked the 10th anniversary of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and the anime community responded in kind — you can see the full list of winners on Crunchyroll’s official awards page — a staggering 73 million votes were cast across every category, obliterating previous records and proving that anime’s global fanbase is only getting louder.
Hosted by the ever-energetic Sally Amaki and Jon Kabira, the ceremony brought together creators, voice actors, and fans from around the world. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra opened the show with a breathtaking 10-year medley of every previous Anime of the Year winner’s theme — from Attack on Titan to Jujutsu Kaisen — and honestly, if you didn’t get chills during that, check your pulse. Presenters ranged from The Weeknd (yes, that Weeknd) to Winston Duke, BamBam, and our boy Gigguk, making this the most globally recognized Crunchyroll Anime Awards ceremony yet.
But the real story? The winners. My Hero Academia Final Season walked away with Anime of the Year, Gachiakuta pulled off a stunning triple-crown, and Solo Leveling Season 2 reminded everyone why Sung Jinwoo is the most unstoppable protagonist on screen right now. Let’s break down every major win, every surprise, and what it all means for anime in 2026.
The Big Winner: MHA Final Season Takes Anime of the Year
My Hero Academia Final Season just cemented its legacy. Kohei Horikoshi’s superhero epic has been part of the anime conversation for nearly a decade, and winning Anime of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 feels like the perfect capstone to a series that defined a generation. This wasn’t just a win — it was a statement. The final season delivered on every emotional beat Deku’s story promised, and the fandom came through with the votes to prove it.
What makes this victory particularly satisfying is how MHA Final Season earned it. This wasn’t nostalgia carrying a fading franchise across the finish line. The final season was genuinely phenomenal — tighter pacing, jaw-dropping animation during the final confrontation arcs, and character payoffs that had the entire community in tears. Bakugo’s arc alone (more on his Best Supporting Character win below) was worth the price of admission. For anyone who’s been following MHA’s evolution over the years, this Anime of the Year win feels earned in a way that few awards do.
The competition at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 was brutal this year. Going up against heavy-hitters across every genre, MHA Final Season had to convince voters that a superhero shonen finale could still outrank the freshest new IP and the most visually stunning productions of 2026. The fact that it did — with 73 million total votes in the pool — speaks volumes about the emotional investment fans have in Deku’s journey. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 will be remembered as the year the anime community said goodbye to one of its biggest icons the right way.
Gachiakuta’s Dominant Night: Three Major Awards for the Newcomer
If there’s one story that’ll define the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026, it’s Gachiakuta walking out with three major awards: Best New Series, Best Character Design, and Best Background Art. Three. For a debut anime. That’s not just impressive — it’s unprecedented.
Let’s talk about why this matters. Gachiakuta’s art style is unlike anything else in anime right now. The character designs are gritty, expressive, and carry this raw energy that makes every single frame feel alive. Best Character Design was one of the most competitive categories this year, and Gachiakuta took it over studios with way more established IPs. That’s not an accident — that’s a recognition that the team behind this adaptation understood exactly what made Kei Urana’s manga so visually distinctive and refused to sand down the edges.
And Best Background Art? If you’ve watched Gachiakuta, you know. The world-building through environmental design alone tells half the story. The Jinki-infected wastelands, the towering trash heaps that somehow feel both desolate and teeming with life, the oppressive atmosphere that hangs over every scene — this is background art as narrative, not decoration. As we discussed in our deep dive on Gachiakuta as the next big shonen, the production team didn’t just adapt the manga — they elevated it.
Best New Series was the cherry on top. In a year stacked with strong debuts, Gachiakuta winning proves that anime fans are hungry for something different. We’ve been cycling through the same shonen formulas for years, and here comes a show about a kid fighting monsters in a world made of literal garbage, and it resonates more than anything with a safe, tested formula. The Anime Awards 2026 winners list will be remembered for giving Gachiakuta its rightful spotlight.
Solo Leveling Season 2 Steals Best Animation and Best Action
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- took home both Best Animation and Best Action, and honestly, who’s surprised? A-1 Pictures went absolutely feral on this season’s production. Every fight sequence felt like it was animated by people who genuinely love what they do, and the result is some of the most visually stunning combat choreography we’ve seen in years.
Let’s be real — when the Arise from the Shadow arc hits the screen and Sung Jinwoo goes full Shadow Monarch, the animation quality needs to match that power fantasy. Season 2 delivered in spades. The lighting effects during the Red Gate arc alone deserved an award. The way shadows move, the weight behind every strike, the environmental destruction that actually feels consequential — this is what peak action anime looks like in 2026.
Best Animation was arguably the most stacked category at this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026. We had Witch Hat Atelier bringing gorgeous fantasy world-building, Gachiakuta pushing raw stylistic boundaries, and Frieren Season 2 maintaining its ethereal beauty. For Solo Leveling Season 2 to win over that field? The voters spoke loud and clear: flashy, high-impact action animation still moves the needle. And if you’re already hyped about where this story goes next, our look ahead to Season 3’s Jeju Island arc breaks down why the best is yet to come.
The double win also confirms something fans have been saying since Season 1: Solo Leveling isn’t just popular — it’s a production powerhouse. The anime industry is paying attention, and these Crunchyroll awards validate what the community already knew. When you pair top-tier source material with a studio willing to go all-out on animation, you get results like this.
Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Claims Film of the Year
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle winning Film of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 was the most predictable win of the night — and that doesn’t make it any less deserved. ufotable continues to operate on a level that almost feels unfair to every other studio, and this Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 win only reinforces that reputation. The Infinity Castle arc is one of the most visually ambitious projects in anime film history, and the results speak for themselves.
But here’s what makes this win interesting: it also took Best Score for Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina’s soundtrack. That’s a dual win that tells you the film succeeded on every front. Kajiura and Shiina’s score for Infinity Castle isn’t just background music — it’s practically a character. The way the compositions shift between hauntingly beautiful and explosively intense mirrors the arc’s emotional whiplash perfectly. From the eerie stillness of the Infinity Castle’s corridors to the thunderous crescendos during the Hashira battles, this soundtrack earned every note of recognition.
The film category at this year’s Anime Awards was competitive — Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Reze Arc was right there, and it took Best Anime Song (more on that below). But Infinity Castle winning Film of the Year feels like the right call. It’s not just a great anime movie; it’s a cinematic experience that demanded to be seen on the biggest screen possible. The fact that it also won Best Score just reinforces that ufotable isn’t cutting corners on any dimension of production. For anyone tracking the best anime 2026 has produced so far, this film sits firmly at the top.
The Apothecary Diaries: Director, Drama, and Maomao’s Crown
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 had an incredible night at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026. Three major wins: Best Director for Akinori Fudesaka and Norihiro Naganuma, Best Drama, and Best Main Character for Maomao. Plus, Aoi Yuki took Best Voice Artist (Japanese) for her portrayal of Maomao. That’s four awards for one show, and every single one is justified.
Let’s start with Best Director, because this one feels like the most significant win of the entire ceremony. Fudesaka and Naganuma took a series that could easily have been a dry historical mystery and turned it into one of the most emotionally resonant shows on air. Season 2’s directing is masterful in its restraint — knowing when to let silence speak, when to let a reaction shot carry the weight of an entire scene, and when to let Maomao’s brilliant mind reveal itself through visual storytelling rather than exposition. This is the kind of directing that doesn’t call attention to itself, which is exactly why it deserved recognition at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026.
Best Drama and Best Main Character for Maomao are self-explanatory if you’ve been watching. Maomao is one of the best-written protagonists in modern anime — pragmatic, fiercely intelligent, and deeply human in her flaws and motivations. She doesn’t need superpowers or a tragic backstory to be compelling; she just needs a puzzle to solve and a reason to care. Season 2 deepened her character in ways that rewarded longtime viewers, and the community clearly agreed. And Aoi Yuki’s voice performance? She is Maomao. The dry wit, the sharp edge, the moments of unexpected warmth — it’s all there in her delivery. Best Voice Artist at the Crunchyroll awards couldn’t have gone to anyone else.
For those keeping score, The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 just proved it’s not a sophomore slump story. It’s a show that’s getting better, which is saying something when Season 1 was already excellent. If you haven’t been watching, you’re missing what might be the most well-rounded anime of 2026 — and our coverage of the year’s best anime has more on why this show belongs in the conversation.
Chainsaw Man Reze Arc’s Kenshi Yonezu Moment
The Best Anime Song award going to “IRIS OUT” by Kenshi Yonezu from Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc is one of those wins that transcends the category. Kenshi Yonezu doing a Chainsaw Man track is the kind of creative collision that sends ripples through the entire industry. Yonezu brings an emotional depth and musical sophistication that elevated “IRIS OUT” beyond a typical anime movie theme — it’s a genuinely great song that happens to be attached to an anime, not the other way around.
The Reze Arc movie had a lot riding on it. After the anime’s divisive first season, fans needed proof that MAPPA understood what makes this story work. Partnering with Yonezu for the film’s theme was a statement move, and “IRIS OUT” delivers on every level. The track captures the bittersweet, destructive love story at the heart of the Reze Arc — the tenderness wrapped in tragedy, the connection doomed from the start. It’s the kind of song that hits differently after you’ve seen the film. We broke down why this story hits so hard in our Reze Arc love story analysis, and Yonezu’s theme only amplifies that devastation.
What’s worth noting about this win at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 is the competition. Best Anime Song is always stacked — this year’s nominees included incredible OPs and EDs from across the industry. But “IRIS OUT” winning tells us something important about where anime music is heading. The boundary between “anime song” and “just a really good song by a major artist” has been blurring for years, and Yonezu’s win is another step toward that distinction becoming meaningless. When the music is this good, the category doesn’t matter.
The Rest of the Night: Continuing Series, Romance, Comedy, and More
Let’s rapid-fire through the remaining major wins, because every category at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 tells a story:
Best Continuing Series: One Piece. Of course. The Elbaph Arc has been some of the strongest One Piece content in years, and the anime adaptation is doing it justice. Oda’s world continues to expand in ways that feel fresh even after a thousand episodes. One Piece winning Best Continuing Series at the Anime Awards is practically a tradition at this point, but this year it genuinely earned it — the Elbaph arc has been spectacular.
Best Original Anime: Lazarus. This one’s interesting. In a field dominated by manga adaptations and sequels, Lazarus carved out space for original storytelling. The fact that it won Best Original Anime at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 tells us there’s still an appetite for new IP that isn’t tied to an existing fanbase. Our Lazarus Season 2 review dives deeper into why this show has legs.
Best Romance: The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity. A feel-good win. This show captured hearts with its gentle, deeply felt romance that never resorted to cheap drama or manufactured tension. In a year where anime romance ran the gamut from chaotic to heartbreaking, The Fragrant Flower winning Best Romance is a reminder that sometimes the best love stories are the quiet ones.
Best Comedy: DAN DA DAN Season 2. The aliens-and-ghosts chaos machine continues to deliver, and Season 2 somehow found ways to escalate the absurdity while keeping the emotional core intact. But this win also comes with baggage — we have thoughts about the awards season treatment of DAN DA DAN that go beyond just this category.
Best Isekai: Re:ZERO Season 3. The show that refuses to let the isekai genre stay stale. Re:ZERO’s third season continued to push the boundaries of what isekai can be, blending psychological horror with genuine character growth. Best Isekai at the Anime Awards 2026 was always going to be Re:ZERO’s to lose, and it didn’t.
Best Slice of Life: SPY x FAMILY Season 3. The Forger family remains anime’s most wholesome power unit. Season 3 kept the balance between action and domestic comedy that makes this show so endearing, and Anya’s “Must Protect At All Costs” win is the most correct award of the entire night. Period.
Best Opening Sequence: “On The Way” by AiNA THE END (DAN DA DAN Season 2). Visually inventive, musically addictive, and perfectly matched to the show’s chaotic energy. AiNA THE END’s track is one of those OPs you never skip, and the animation sequence that accompanies it is pure creative joy.
Best Ending Sequence: “I” by BUMP OF CHICKEN (MHA FINAL SEASON). A fitting farewell. BUMP OF CHICKEN’s “I” captures everything that made MHA’s final run so emotionally resonant — the hope, the sacrifice, the belief in something bigger than yourself. As far as EDs go, this one hits like a freight train after an emotional episode.
Global Impact Award: Tatsuya Nagamine. This one deserves special mention. Nagamine’s work on One Piece and Dragon Ball Super has influenced generations of fans and creators. The Global Impact Award at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 recognizes a career that’s shaped how the world experiences anime, and it couldn’t have gone to a more deserving recipient.
The Snubs and Surprises: What Got Left Out
No awards show is complete without controversy, and the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 had its share of surprising snubs and moments that left the community talking — and sometimes yelling.
The biggest conversation? DAN DA DAN Season 2 winning Best Comedy but getting shut out of every other major category. For a show that’s been one of the most talked-about anime of the past year, only walking away with Comedy and Best OP feels like an underrepresentation of its impact. Our full snub analysis breaks down why DAN DA DAN deserved more recognition across the board.
Frieren Season 2 is another name that’s conspicuously absent from the major winner list. After Season 1 was one of the most acclaimed anime of 2024, Season 2 maintained that quality — but the Anime Awards 2026 voters apparently didn’t feel the same urgency. It’s possible that the “sequel penalty” is real: voters gravitate toward new stories over continuing ones, even when the continuing story is better. Our Frieren Season 2 review makes a strong case that it should have been in the Anime of the Year conversation.
Dorohedoro Season 2 not picking up any wins is also a tough pill. The show’s mid-season run has been phenomenal — weird, violent, heartfelt, and unlike anything else on air. The mid-season review covers why this adaptation deserves more love, and its absence from the winner’s circle at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 feels like a miss.
On the surprise side, Gachiakuta’s triple win caught a lot of people off guard. Not because it didn’t deserve it — it absolutely did — but because debut anime rarely sweep categories like Character Design and Background Art alongside Best New Series. It’s a sign that voters are paying attention to craft, not just popularity and brand recognition.
The Best Animation category was always going to be controversial regardless of who won. Witch Hat Atelier, Frieren Season 2, Solo Leveling Season 2 — all three had legitimate claims. Solo Leveling taking it makes sense for its sheer spectacle, but you can absolutely make the case that Witch Hat Atelier’s artistry was more impressive on a per-frame basis. Animation is subjective, and this year’s category proved that in spades.
What These Awards Say About Anime in 2026
Stepping back from the individual wins and losses, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 paint a clear picture of where anime is right now — and where it’s heading.
Endings matter. MHA Final Season winning Anime of the Year and Bakugo taking Best Supporting Character isn’t just about quality — it’s about the emotional weight of a story reaching its conclusion. Fans vote for endings that stick the landing, and MHA did exactly that. This is a reminder to the industry: finishing well is worth more than starting strong.
New IP can break through. Gachiakuta’s three wins prove that the anime community isn’t just voting for names they recognize. A debut show beating established franchises in craft categories is a signal that studios should be taking creative risks, not just mining existing IP for safe returns. The fact that Gachiakuta won Best Character Design and Best Background Art — two categories dominated by veteran studios in most years — tells us the voters are watching with their eyes, not just their subscriptions.
Production values are escalating. Solo Leveling Season 2’s double win for Best Animation and Best Action, Demon Slayer Infinity Castle taking Film of the Year and Best Score — the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 winners prove the bar for anime production keeps rising. Studios are investing more in visual quality than ever, and the awards are reflecting that. This is great for fans, but it also raises questions about sustainability. Can every studio afford to produce at this level? Or are we heading toward an industry where only the biggest-budget shows get recognized?
Global fandom is the fandom. 73 million votes. Presenters including The Weeknd and Winston Duke. A livestream in 10+ languages. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 weren’t just celebrating Japanese animation — they were celebrating a global community that’s invested in this medium. The anime industry has been slowly waking up to its international audience for years, but events like this make it undeniable: anime isn’t niche anymore. It hasn’t been for a while, and the awards are finally catching up to that reality.
Genre diversity is healthy. Look at the spread of winners: superhero action (MHA), dark fantasy action (Solo Leveling), mystery drama (Apothecary Diaries), post-apocalyptic shonen (Gachiakuta), romantic drama (Fragrant Flower), absurdist comedy (DAN DA DAN), isekai psychological thriller (Re:ZERO), family comedy-action (SPY x FAMILY). That’s an incredibly diverse set of genres taking top honors, and it speaks to the breadth of what anime can do. There’s no single formula winning right now, and that’s the best possible sign for the medium’s creative future.
Looking ahead, the big question is what happens next. MHA is over. Demon Slayer’s Infinity Castle is wrapping up. We’re entering a transition period where the next generation of flagship anime will need to step up. Based on what we saw at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026, Gachiakuta, Solo Leveling, and The Apothecary Diaries are ready to carry that weight — and our Summer 2026 preview suggests there’s even more on the horizon.
Final Thoughts on the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026
The 10th anniversary of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards delivered exactly what it needed to: memorable wins, well-earned recognition, and enough controversy to keep the community debating for weeks. MHA Final Season’s Anime of the Year win feels like a cultural moment — the anime that defined a generation of fans getting the send-off it deserves. Gachiakuta’s breakout night is the kind of story that makes Anime Awards winners worth debating. And the sheer variety of winners across genres and studios is a clear sign of how vibrant anime is right now.
The 73 million votes cast this year aren’t just a number — they’re proof that anime fandom has grown into something genuinely global, and the Crunchyroll Anime Awards are growing with it — and this Crunchyroll awards analysis shows why the medium is thriving. Whether you agreed with every winner or not, the 2026 ceremony was a celebration of a medium that’s producing some of the best storytelling in the world right now. And if this year’s lineup is any indication, 2027 is going to be even more competitive.
What was your biggest win and worst snub from this year’s Anime Awards? The debate is already live, and we’ll see you in the comments.