The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards Winners: My Hero Academia Takes Anime of the Year
Demon Slayer's Infinity Castle swept the technical categories, Gachiakuta came out of nowhere, and Solo Leveling Season 2 won twice. Here's the full list.
AnimeShinsekai Team · Oct 22, 2026 · 5 min read
Photo: Florian Cordier / Unsplash
My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON took home Anime of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards — closing out one of the decade's defining shounen franchises on its biggest possible note, right as it wraps up for good.
Film of the Year went to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which also picked up Best Anime Score — reinforcing just how dominant that film has been all year, on top of the box-office numbers it was already breaking. (We've written separately about why Part Two's multi-year wait might actually be the right call.)
The rest of the major categories read like a genuinely wide spread rather than one show sweeping everything: Best Continuing Series went to One Piece; Best New Series, Best Character Design, and Best Background Art all went to Gachiakuta, confirming its breakout year wasn't just online hype; Best Animation and Best Action Anime both went to Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-; Best Drama Anime, Best Director (Akinori Fudesaka and Norihiro Naganuma), Best Main Character (Maomao), and Best Japanese Voice Artist Performance (Aoi Yuki as Maomao) all went to The Apothecary Diaries Season 2; Best Comedy Anime and Best Opening Sequence ('On The Way' by AiNA THE END) went to Dandadan Season 2; Best Slice of Life Anime and the 'Must Protect At All Costs' Character award (Anya Forger) went to Spy x Family Season 3; Best Romance Anime went to The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity; Best Isekai Anime went to Re:ZERO Season 3; and Best Original Anime went to Lazarus.
Rounding out the night: Best Anime Song went to 'IRIS OUT' by Kenshi Yonezu, and Best Ending Sequence went to 'I' by BUMP OF CHICKEN, closing out My Hero Academia's win on the music side too.
The actual takeaway from the full list isn't any single surprise — it's that no one franchise ate every category. My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Gachiakuta, Solo Leveling, and The Apothecary Diaries all walked away with real wins, which is a more accurate read of how genuinely varied the last year of anime was than any single 'anime of the year' headline on its own.