The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards went down on May 23rd in Tokyo, and anime has not stopped trending since. My Hero Academia took Anime of the Year. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle swept the film side of the night with seven awards. Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries walked away as the best main character in anime. And The Weeknd stood on that stage in Japan and said, out loud, that anime made him who he is. Here is every winner, every take, and every moment the Blerd community needs to know about.

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The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards Just Set a World Record

Seventy three million votes. That is more people than live in the entire United Kingdom. All of them logged on, argued with their group chats, and cast a ballot for their favorite anime. This year’s vote count blew past the 2025 record of 51 million votes by more than 20 million. That is not slow growth. That is a movement.

The 10th annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards were held at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Tokyo. Voice actress Sally Amaki and entertainer Jon Kabira hosted for the fourth year in a row. The ceremony opened with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performing tributes to every past Anime of the Year winner. Japanese singer Yoko Takahashi also performed a 30th anniversary tribute to a 1995 anime. If your brain went straight to Neon Genesis Evangelion, you are correct and you have excellent taste.

The top five countries by fan votes were Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, and the United States. Three of those five are majority non-white countries. Anime is a global, multicultural art form. It always has been. The data is just getting louder about it every year.

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Anime of the Year: My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON

The goat completed the run. After years of watching Izuku Midoriya grow from a kid without a quirk into the greatest hero in anime, My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON walked away with the biggest prize of the night. The show also took home Best Ending Sequence, Best Supporting Character, and Best Voice Artist Performance in French. Four awards in one night. That is a victory lap, not just a win.

Director Kenji Nagasaki accepted Anime of the Year on behalf of the team. And the person who handed him that trophy was The Weeknd. More on that in a moment. First, watch this trailer so you remember exactly what we are celebrating.

My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON — Official Trailer

That quote did not come out of nowhere. The Weeknd has been talking about anime shaping his music and his artistry for years. Having him present the most important award of the night was not just a celebrity moment. It was a statement. We will come back to that.

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Film of the Year: Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Was Not Even Close

Let us be direct. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle did not just win Film of the Year. It swept. Seven total awards across the entire ceremony. Best Film. Best Score for Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina. Best Voice Artist in English for Lucien Dodge as Akaza. Best Voice Artist in Brazilian Portuguese. Best Voice Artist in Castilian Spanish. Akaza won in three languages in one night. The villain was just that good.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle — Official Theatrical Trailer

Now let us talk about Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc. It was nominated for Film of the Year. It lost to Infinity Castle. That was the right outcome. The Reze Arc film is fine. Denji and Reze have chemistry. The action is sharp. But Infinity Castle is operating on a completely different level. The fight choreography, the emotional weight behind every blade, and the score by Kajiura and Shiina all hit like a final boss you have been preparing for your entire life. Reze Arc feels like a side quest in comparison. A decent side quest. But a side quest.

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Best Anime Song: Kenshi Yonezu “IRIS OUT” from the Reze Arc Film

Here is the twist. The best thing to come out of Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc is not actually in the movie. It is the song. Kenshi Yonezu won Best Anime Song for “IRIS OUT,” and the argument ends there. Yonezu is in a class by himself when it comes to anime music. The man gave us “Kick Back” for Chainsaw Man Season 1. He wrote “Pale Blue” for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. “IRIS OUT” carries that same energy where the song feels bigger than the project attached to it.

Chainsaw Man: The Movie Reze Arc — Official Trailer

So yes. The Reze Arc film walked away with the music award. And yes, the film still lost to Infinity Castle in every other category. That is not a contradiction. That is just the truth about a movie that had one elite element and did not quite reach that same height everywhere else.

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Maomao Deserved Every Award She Got and Then Some

Best Drama. Best Director. Best Main Character. Best Voice Artist in Japanese. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 swept every category it was eligible for, and Maomao walked away as the best main character in anime this past year. Not close. Not debatable. Just facts.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 — Official Crunchyroll Trailer

Maomao is not a chosen one. She does not have special powers. She is not trying to save the world. She is a young woman who is very good at noticing things and figuring out how they work. In a medium that loves to hand protagonists god tier abilities, Maomao wins by being the smartest person in every room she walks into. That is a different kind of power. And it is way more satisfying to watch.

Voice actress Aoi Yuki won Best Voice Artist in Japanese for bringing Maomao to life, and that award is completely deserved. Every moment of curiosity, dry sarcasm, and quiet focus landed perfectly. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 was one of the best anime experiences of the entire year.

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Best New Series: Gachiakuta Was Built for the Blerd Audience

Gachiakuta won Best New Series, Best Background Art, and Best Character Design. Three awards for a show that most people outside of the manga community did not see coming. Here is the setup: a boy named Rudo lives at the bottom of a floating city. The wealthy people above throw their garbage down, including people they want to get rid of. Rudo gets framed for murder and thrown into the abyss. He lands in a world built entirely from discarded things and learns to fight back using the trash society threw away. He literally makes weapons out of garbage. Tell me that is not peak Blerd energy.

Gachiakuta — Official Main Trailer

That story is not just cool. It is a direct metaphor for what happens when a system throws people away. Rudo does not ask to be saved. He builds something new from what he was left with. A second season is already confirmed. If you have not started watching, there is no better time than right now.

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Best Original Anime: Lazarus Brought Cowboy Bebop’s Creator Back

Lazarus winning Best Original Anime is the most interesting result of the night and it is not even debatable. This is Shinichiro Watanabe’s first major anime project in years. Watanabe is the man who made Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Two of the most important anime series ever put to screen. Both changed what people thought anime music could do. Lazarus continues that tradition in a sci fi setting set in 2052, with music by Kamasi Washington and MAPPA handling the animation.

Lazarus — Official Trailer (Adult Swim)

Lazarus aired on Adult Swim and Max. Watanabe helped make anime mainstream in the United States in the late 90s. Now he is back, airing on American streaming platforms, and winning awards voted on by 73 million people worldwide. This is what a legacy looks like when it keeps building instead of coasting.

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Solo Leveling Season 2 Owned Best Action and Best Animation

Solo Leveling Season 2 won Best Action and Best Animation, and A-1 Pictures earned every single vote. Sung Jinwoo went from the weakest hunter on the planet to shadow monarch, and watching his power grow this season delivers the exact kind of satisfaction that the word “leveling up” was invented to describe. The animation quality stayed at a standard that very few shows can maintain week after week across a full season.

Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow — Official Crunchyroll Trailer

Solo Leveling was the big winner at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Coming back in Season 2 and still taking home hardware shows the franchise has not lost a step. Jinwoo is not done yet, and neither is this show.

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One Piece Is 27 Years Old and Still the King: Best Continuing Series

One Piece won Best Continuing Series. The manga is wrapping up after nearly 30 years. The anime is pacing itself to close out properly. This show has been running since 1999. It is older than a lot of the people who voted for it. Winning Best Continuing Series at 27 years old is the exact kind of energy Luffy would approve of. No awards ceremony is complete without Oda getting his flowers.

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Black on the Orange Carpet: The Cultural Crossover Moment Nobody Saw Coming

This section is for the Blerd community specifically. The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards had more Black presenters on that stage in Tokyo than most mainstream American award shows do in a full night. The Weeknd presented Anime of the Year. RZA from Wu-Tang Clan walked that orange carpet. Winston Duke was in the building. Let that land.

RZA has been an anime fan for decades. The Wu-Tang Clan’s entire creative world has always had anime running through its DNA. The samples, the aesthetics, the code of honor that Shaolin built its mythology around. Having RZA in Tokyo at an anime ceremony is not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. It is a confirmation of something that was always true. Black culture and anime culture have been in conversation with each other for a long time. The stages are just bigger now.

The Weeknd saying “I wouldn’t be here without anime” while presenting the top award of the night is a quote that will follow this industry for years. Artists who grew up watching Dragon Ball and Berserk and Naruto, who built their sound around the emotional range those shows gave them, are now standing on the biggest stages of the anime world. This is not a crossover event. This is convergence. Black fans helped build anime’s Western audience, and the culture is finally saying that out loud.

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Full 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards Winners List

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