At yesterday’s 10th Annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the prestigious title of Anime of the Year was bestowed upon the eighth and final season of global hit My Hero Academia. In the 10 years since the first season premiered in 2026, this franchise has become a household name in the anime world, joining the ranks of Dragon Ball and Naruto. This is the first time since the Crunchyroll Anime Awards began in 2017 that My Hero Academia took home the grand prize, although Season 2 won Best Action in 2018 and Two Heroes won Best Film in 2019. My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON also earned wins this year in Best Supporting Character for Katsuki Bakugo, Best Ending Sequence, and Best Voice Artist Performance (French) for Bastien Bourlé’s performance as Izuku Midoriya (although the latter category was not available to voters in the United States).
The anime with the most wins this year (excluding the international Voice Artist Performance categories) was fellow Anime of the Year contender The Apothecary Diaries (season 2), which won Best Director, Best Drama, Best Main Character, and Best Voice Artist Performance (Japanese) for Aoi Yuki’s performance as Maomao. It also won Best Voice Artist Performance (Hindi) for Abhishek Sharma’s performance as Jinshi. Tying with My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON for the second highest number of non-Voice Artist Performance wins was Gachiakuta, which took home Best New Series, Best Character Design, and Best Background Art.
The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise continued its unbroken streak of winning multiple categories, with Infinity Castle winning both Film of the Year and Best Score. The movie also dominated in the Best Voice Artist Performance department, winning not only the English category but also four of the eight languages not available for voting in the United States: Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, German, and Latin Spanish. All five of these were awarded to the respective language’s voice actor for the character Akaza.
Despite having the highest number of nominations this year, DAN DA DAN Season 2 ultimately only won two categories: Best Comedy and Best Opening Sequence. Several anime with nominations in at least three different categories—Takopi’s Original Sin, The Summer Hikaru Died, My Dress-Up Darling Season 2, CITY THE ANIMATION, Blue Box, Witch Watch, and Kaiju No. 8—unfortunately failed to bring home a single win. Takopi’s Original Sin and The Summer Hikaru Died were even up for Anime of the Year, making their lack of victories especially surprising.
