I have been covering the annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards ever since I started writing for Fandom Spotlite, which means when January rolls around I always know I’ll have something to write about by the end of the month. Therefore, I was surprised and confused when January, February, and March came and went with no announcement of nominations. For at least two years, the ceremony has taken place in early March with voting ending in late January, but Crunchyroll is mixing things up for 2025: voting is open NOW through April 14, and the live show will take place on May 25. The cast of global superstars serving as presenters at the ceremony in May include Stranger Things stars Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo, Yuri!!! On Ice opening singer DEAN FUJIOKA, Eurovision 2021 winner Måneskin’s lead singer Damiano David, and Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama. You can view the full list of presenters here. The link for where to watch the livestream of the show is not yet available.
This year, fans can vote across 24 different categories. Two out of three of the new categories that were introduced last year – Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction – have been scrapped and instead replaced with Best Background Art and Best Isekai Anime. Each category has six nominees, with some anime having multiple nominees within the same category (for example, DAN DA DAN has two characters up for Best Main Character as well as Best Japanese Voice Artist Performance).
We have six clear heavy hitters this year: DAN DA DAN is the frontrunner at 22 nominations, followed by Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End with 20 nominations, Kaiju No. 8 with 18 nominations, Delicious in Dungeon with 16 nominations, Solo Leveling with 14 nominations, and The Apothecary Diaries with 13 nominations. These six titles are the nominees for both Anime of the Year and Best New Series. The lineup for Best Animation is also nearly identical to that of those two categories, except The Apothecary Diaries is replaced with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc – another strong contender with a total of 10 nominations. Ranma1/2 and OSHI NO KO Season 2 both have 6 nominations each (which is exactly half the number of nominations OSHI NO KO Season 1 received last year). SPY X FAMILY Season 2 rounds out the 5+ Nominations Club with exactly 5 nominations (similar to Season 1, which had 7 nominations last year) while BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Conflict and MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc just barely missed the mark at 4 nominations each. A Sign of Affection, ONE PIECE, and the film Look Back all have 3 nominations each; BLUE LOCK 2nd Season also has 3 nominations, but all of them are for categories that are unavailable for voters in the United States (Best Hindi Anime Voice Artist Performance and Best Arabic Anime Voice Artist Performance). There are also over 30 different anime that are nominated for just one or two categories. You can view the full list of nominees here.
Crunchyroll users can vote here once a day every day until April 14. In the meantime, you can read my thoughts on several of the nominated series here. Unfortunately, 3/6 of the anime that I had on my to-watch list for the 2024 but never got around to watching have been nominated for awards, which is a bummer because now I know for sure I missed out on some really great titles!
Will the six frontrunners sweep all the categories they’ve been nominated for? Or will they share the wealth with some dark horses that only have one or two nominations? Let me know your predictions – and hopes – in the comments!
