The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards Overview

Celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, fans across the globe voted for their favorite Japanese animated series and movies. These awards focused only on seasons Anime that released and finished in 2025, despite being called the 2026 awards. As always, Crunchyroll pulled out all the stops to make this award show professional enough to rival other award shows. Unfortunately, the show still sparked controversy especially from its Japanese audience. So before getting into the winners of each award, here is the controversy.

In many fans’ minds, 2025 was a pretty weak year for Anime series, and the movies were actually very successful in comparison. This is not to say there were no good Anime series (there were), but the movies were most successful by most metrics. One huge problem is that the Crunchyroll Anime Awards are heavily geared toward Anime series and exclude any movies from most awards, even if the movies are part of ongoing series. Some people believe that if the movies were included in most of the awards, they likely would have beaten out most of the Anime series. Instead, Anime series that may not have deserved these awards got them, even though many of these series could not hold a candle past winners of the same awards. This issue is bad enough that Anime studios in Japan are calling for a Japanese company to host their own award shows in future years so this cannot happen again.

For example, the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle movie and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc both came out in 2025 and sold hundreds of millions of dollars in box offices around the world. A massive achievement for any Anime movie, but for two to achieve this feat in one year is unheard of in recent decades. However, the format of the awards made it so that the combined awards for these movies was only a handful. Of that handful, most were not for the actual content of the movie but for the Anime song attached or the voice performance of a voice actor/actress for a specific character. These are things that many fans do not care about as much as the overall story of the movie, but these movies were excluded from the story-based awards. Thus, the potential recognition via awards these movies deserve is now lost forever.

To contextualize the issue explained above, any award with “Series” in the name are awards where movies were excluded. With the controversy explained, here are the winners of each award from the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards:

Anime (Series) of the Year: My Hero Academia Final Season

Film of the Year: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

Best Original Anime Series: Lazarus

Best Continuing Series: One Piece (as always)

Best New Series: Gachiakuta

Best Action Series: Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Best Comedy Series: Dan Da Dan Season 2

Best Drama Series: The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Best Isekai Series: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Season 3

For those who do not know, Isekai is a popular Anime genre where the main character is taken to or reincarnated into a new world with all their memories of their previous world intact.

Best Romance Series: The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity

Best Slice of Life Series: Spy x Family Season 3

Best Animation in a Series: Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Best Background Art in a Series: Gachiakuta

Best Character Design in a Series: Gachiakuta

Best Opening Sequence in a Series (i.e. Intro Song): “On The Way” by Aina the End for Dan Da Dan Season 2

Best Ending Sequence in a Series (i.e. End Song): “I” by Bump of Chicken for My Hero Academia Final Season

Best Anime Song: “Iris Out” by Kenshi Yonezu for Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

Best Score: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle – Yuki Kajiura, Go Shiina

Best Director of a Series: The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 – Akinori Fudesaka, Norihiro Naganuma

Best Main Character in a Series: The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 – Maomao

Best Supporting Character in Series: My Hero Academia Final Season – Katsuki Bakugo

“Must Protect at All Cost” Character in a Series: Spy x Family Season 3 – Anya Forger (as always)

Best Voice Artist Performance (English): Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, Lucien Dodge for “Akaza”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Japanese): The Apothecary Diaries Season 2, Aoi Yuki for “Maomao”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Arabic): Sakamoto Days, Tariq Obaid for “Taro Sakamoto”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Brazilian Portuguese): Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, Charles Emmanuel for “Akaza”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Castilian Spanish): Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, Carles Teruel for “Akaza”

Best Voice Artist Performance (French): My Hero Academia Final Season, Bastien Bourlé for “Izuku Midoriya”

Best Voice Artist Performance (German): Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, Gerrit Schmidt and Foß for “Akaza”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Hindi): The Apothecary Diaries Season 2, Abhishek Sharma for “Jinshi”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Italian): Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, Mosè Singh for “Denji”

Best Voice Artist Performance (Latin Spanish): Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, Jose Antonio Toledano for “Akaza”