2026s Crunchyroll Anime Awards Are All Over the Place

It may be May, but there’s still awards to dole out for 2025. On Friday night, Crunchyroll held its annual anime awards, and the revealed winners were both fitting and kind of chaotic. For the shonen heads, awards went out to the long-running series you’d expect— Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle took “Best Score” and “Film of the Year,” My Hero Academia’s wins included “Best Ending Sequence” and several regional voice acting awards, and so on. Gachiakuta , the current new kid on the block, also took home some gold for “Best New Series,” “Best Background Art,” and “Best Character Design.” Other wins were complete surprises, though. The big one is “Best Original Anime” winner Lazarus , an anime which didn’t actually air on Crunchyroll in 2025; it was an Adult Swim/HBO Max series in North America and played on TV Tokyo in Japan. Some are going to cry foul at its quality, though, since its 60% community rating on Rotten Tomatoes clashes against its 92% critical consensus. However, this particular category feels a bit strange, given fellow nominees like Digimon Beatbreak and Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux are less original works than Lazarus, Moonrise , or Apocalypse Hotel . Here’s some of the Anime Award nominees and bolded winners below, with the full list here . You can decide for yourself whether Crunchyroll was right on the ball or missed the mark. Anime of the Year My Hero Academia (Final Season) Dan Da Dan (Season 2) Gachiakuta The Summer Hikaru Died Takopi’s Original Sin The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2) Film of the Year Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle 100 Meters Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc The Rose of Versailles Scarlet Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage Best Continuing Series One Piece Dan Da Dan (Season 2) Kaiju No. 8 My Hero Academia (Final Season) Spy x Family (Season 3) Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Best New Series Gachiakuta The Summer Hikaru Died Sakamoto Days Takopi’s Original Sin The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity Clevatess Best Original Anime Lazarus Apocalypse Hotel Digimon Beatbreak Moonrise Zenshu Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux Best Animation Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Takopi’s Original Sin Gachiakuta Dan Da Dan (Season 2) My Hero Academia (Final Season) One Piece Best Opening Sequence “On the Way” by Aina the End— Dan Da Dan (Season 2) “HUGs” by Paledusk— Gachiakuta “Mirage” by Creepy Nuts— Call of the Nights (Season 2) “The Revo” by Porno Graffitti— My Hero Academia (Final Season) “Watch me!” by Yoasobi— Witch Watch “ReawakeR” by Lisa— Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Best Ending Sequence “I” by Bump of Chicken— My Hero Academia (Final Season) “Actor” by Lilas— Spy x Family (Season 3) “Beautiful Color