Crunchyroll Anime Awards Once More A Popularity Contest with Solo Leveling’s Dominance
Solo Leveling’s win in the Crunchyroll Awards have once again reminded fans of the award show’s nature as a popularity contest.
On May 25, 2025, during the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards hosted at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa in Tokyo Japan, Solo Leveling won the “Anime of the Year” award.
Alongside this, Solo Leveling also won 9 awards, including
- Anime of the Year
- Best New Series
- Best Action
- Best Main Character
- Best Voice Performance (English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese)
- Best Ending Sequence
- Best Score.
Here is a list of all the other winners:
- Film of the Year — Look Back
- Best Animation — Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc
- Best Anime Song — “Otonoke” – Creepy Nuts (Dandadan)
- Best Background Art — Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
- Best Character Design — Dandadan
- Best Comedy — Mashle: Magic and Muscles – The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc
- Best Continuing Series — Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc
- Best Director — Keiichiro Saito (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)
- Best Drama — Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
- Best Isekai Anime — Re:ZERO – Starting Life in Another World – Season 3
- Best Opening Sequence — “Otonoke” – Creepy Nuts (Dandadan)
- Best Original Anime — Ninja Kamui
- Best Romance — Blue Box
- Best Slice of Life — Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!
- Best Supporting Character — Fern (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)
- ‘Must Protect At All Costs’ Character — Anya Forger (SPY × FAMILY Season 2)
- Japanese Voice Performance — Aoi Yuki (Maomao – The Apothecary Diaries)
- Arabic Voice Performance — Hiba Snobar (Anya Forger – SPY × FAMILY Season 2)
- Latin Spanish Voice Performance — Miguel Ángel Leal (Eren Jaeger – Attack on Titan Final Season: The Final Chapters – Special 2)
- French Voice Performance — Adrien Antoine (Kafka Hibino – Kaiju No. 8)
- German Voice Performance — Daniel Schlauch (Monkey D. Luffy – One Piece)
- Hindi Voice Performance — Lohit Sharma (Satoru Gojo – Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2)
- Italian Voice Performance — Ilaria Pellicone (Kyomoto – Look Back)
Demon Slayer won the Best Animation Award for the 4th time in a row since the 2021 Awards.
Otonoke, the opening for Dandadan Season 1, won in two categories, and with the Best Character Design award, Dandadan Season 1 won 3 of its 22 nominated categories, making it the most nominated series in the bunch.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War (Cour 3) was nominated for three categories: Best Continuing Series, Best Action, and Best Score (Shirō Sagisu) yet won nothing.
With these results, fans continue to express their disappointment in the, particular the overwhelming wins Solo Leveling received, as many fans expected Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End to come out as the Anime of the Year.
Some fans have attributed the voting pattern to the success of Solo Leveling: Arise (Season 2) instead of Season 1, which is what is counted in the current awards.
In spite of this, Frieren snagged 5 awards out of its 20 nominations.
Another upset was the way Ninja Kamui won Best Original Anime but others have not been as critical since this was the first anime made by Sunghoo Park after leaving the production team of Jujutsu Kaisen to form his own studio, E&H Production.
On the other side, Attack on Titan was honored with the inaugural Global Impact Award in honor of its incredible cultural impact in the 21st century.
Source: Crunchyroll and Twitter
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