The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

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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 California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 2023, the Awards moved to the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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.

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 by 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 Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, , a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an interval b ...

editions, from October of the previous two years (Fall season) to September of the previous year (Summer season). 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.

Editions

Records

Series

The following nominees received multiple nominations (5 or more): The following winners received multiple awards (2 or more):

Films

The following nominees received multiple nominations (2 or more): The following winners received multiple awards (2 or more):

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, however, did not stop the extremely popular superhero series ''

My Hero Academia is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 2014 to August 2024, with its chapters collected in 42 volumes. Set in a wor ...

'' from nearly sweeping the following edition, only unexpectedly losing the Anime of the Year to ''Made in Abyss''. 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 more 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 the critically-acclaimed '' Frieren: Beyond Journey's End''. The decision led some viewers to question whether the awards were prioritizing hype and

recency bias Recency bias is a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historic ones. A type of memory bias, recency bias gives "greater importance to the most recent event", such as the final lawyer's closing argument a jury hears before being dismiss ...

over artistic merit. Meanwhile, despite receiving 16 nominations,

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

'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 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

respectively.

Lack of diversity in nominations

The lack of diversity in the nominations was also criticized: 29 of the 32 award winners were works whose originals were published in ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...

''; of the nine voice acting categories, four went to voice actors who voiced Denji from '' Chainsaw Man'', while only one female voice actress won an award: she voiced Power from the same series. In an article in the ''This Week in Anime'' section on

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

, in which editors Steve Jones and Nicholas Dupree had a sarcastic argument, they concluded that this award show was not for animators or translators, but for the bosses who collect the revenue from the franchises. In this context, the award for the second season of ''

Jujutsu Kaisen is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. It was serialized in Shueisha's Shōnen manga, manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from March 2018 to September 2024, with its chapters collected in 30 volumes. The ...

'' was viewed critically in various categories, as the animation studio had been criticized in the past for its poor working conditions.

References

External links

* * {{Crunchyroll Anime Awards Anime awards Awards established in 2017

Process

Categories

Current

Series awards

Production awards

Music awards

Voice acting awards

Genre awards

Character awards

Special

Retired