Crunchyroll is one of the biggest anime watching platforms. From anime sub,dubs,movies OVAs etc. Crunchyroll has everything anime. So, when an event such as Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 takes place, it deserves all the hype. The Crunchyroll anime awards 2026 took place on 23rd May,2026 which marked their 10th anniversary. This auspicious event was celebrated with a 30th anniversary tribute to ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ featuring “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” by Yoko Takahashi. With the rise of the 20th Century there has also been an immense rise in the popularity of anime. Anime has reached global recognition, which is growing day by day. 

For Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026, the voting period ran from 2nd April to 14th April with 73 million fan votes reportedly casted worldwide. This was record breaking. The Award ceremony being as special as it was took place at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa in Tokyo Japan. As expected, fans across the globe had divided opinions, with some satisfied with the results while others confused about genre specific and minor categories. 

Here’s everything you should know from the biggest winners to the proud nominees: 

1. Anime Of the Year

Winner: My Hero Academia (Final Season)

Nominees: 

• Dan Da Dan
• Gachiakuta
• Tokopi’s Original Sin
• The Apothecary Diaries
• The Summer Hikaru Died

My Hero Academia winning the Anime of the year award reportedly feels like a ‘legacy award’. Why’s that? The anime has been running for decades. With fans anticipating new seasons year after year. But having finally ended in 2026, with fans worldwide satisfied with the outcome of the finale, winning the anime of the year award truly feels special especially to those who have been a part of their journey from the very beginning. Though MHA had some pretty strong competition for the award such as Dan Da Dan (season 2) and The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2), the final fan votes deemed MHA as the winner honoring its long running legacy. 

Among other awards MHA also won Best Anime Ending Sequence. And of course special mention to our sweet sweet Bakugo Katsuki who won Best Supporting Character, though the support was never visible openly (jk, we love him)

2. Other Big Winners of the night

• Film of the Year: Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 

Nominees:

1. 100 Meters
2. Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc
3.  Demon Slayer Infinity Castle
4. Mononoke The Movie: Chapter II The Ashes of Rage 
5. Scarlet 

I speak for most of us when I say that Akaza has our heart. Demon Slayer is of course well known for its beautiful animation style, but the stories OMG. I’m sure most of us bawled our eyes out when we saw Akaza get down on his knees and cry in the arms of the women he loves so dearly that everything about him from his tattoos to his clothes and even his demon art reflect her without him even having any memories of it.

• Best Continuing Series: One Piece.

Nominees:

1. Dan Da Dan (Season 2)
2. Kaiju No.8
3. My Hero Academia (Final Season)
4. ONE PIECE
5. Solo Leveling (Season 2)
6. Spy X Family (Season 3)

‘I dont wanna watch One Piece cause it’s too long’, well it lives up to its name. One Piece has won this Crunchyroll Award thrice; in 2023, 2024 and now at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026. Eiichiro Oda has been penning this anime for decades, with an insane ability to have hooked fans for generations and more being pulled into the beautiful world of pirate fiction.

• Best New Series: Gachiakuta 

Gachiakuta has been all the buzz in town since it arrived. Along with Best New Series, Gachiakuta also won Best Background Art and Best character design. Being a rookie anime, Gachiakuta left the ceremony as one of the biggest animes of the night. 

• Best Romance Anime: The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity. 

Nominees:

1. Blue Box
2. Dan Da Dan
3. The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity
4. Honey Lemon Soda
5. My Dress-Up Darling
6. Ranma 1/2

• Best Isekai Anime: Re:Zero (starting life in another world)

Nominees:

1. Campfire cooking in another world with my Absurd skills
2. Disney Twisted Wonderland- The animation
3. From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated 
4. KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this wonderful world! 3 
5. Re:Zero – Starting life in another world.

• Best Comedy Anime & Best Anime Opening Sequence: Dan Da Dan 

I know you all have bopped to those sick beats and laughed ever so hard on those “Golden Balls”

• Best Anime Drama & Best Main Character: The Apothecary Dairies 

• Best Original Anime: Lazarus 

Nominees:

1. Apocalypse Hotel
2. DIGIMON BEATBREAK
3. Lazarus
4. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
5. Moonrise
6. ZENSHU

• Best Slice of Life: Spy X Family 

Anya melts all our hearts. Bond and Anya can fix all the problems we have. 

• Best Anime Song: Chainsaw Man the Movie (Reze arc)

IRIS OUT by Kenshi Yonezu 

3.  Why Solo leveling??

One of the most argued about awards online is Solo Leveling winning Best Animation . 

Fans have a lot of mixed opinions online about the outcome of this category, most of which lean towards the negative. Fans believe that the animations of Demon Slayer and JJK easily surpass the animated work of Solo Leveling .  However, there are fans who also believe that this was well deserving and we’re rather disappointed when the anime did not get nominated for Anime of the Year when it did so the year before. With the Crunchyroll Rules preventing an anime from back to back anime of the year nominations, it was sadly not possible.

Now whether you’re a hater or a supporter of these results one thing is for sure that the anime community is grouping day by day. From MHA’s well deserving Legacy win to Gachiakuta’s rookie entry and the overall dominance by the one and only Demon Slayer, Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 was quite the roller-coaster.