Every Crunchyroll Anime Awards Anime Of The Year Winner, Ranked From Worst To Best

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Feature header showing characters from My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Solo Leveling

Published May 30, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT

Joshua Edward Ryan Fox is a freelance writer for Screen Rant with a passion for pop culture. Joshua grew up in Connecticut where he developed an appreciation for writing and entertainment and has earned a Master's degree in professional writing and technical writing. His writing has been quoted by both the anime streaming site Crunchyroll and the anime YouTuber Gigguk.

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards have swiftly become one of the biggest anime awards in the world, and it’s easy to see why. Not only does it play off Crunchyroll’s reputation as the biggest anime streaming service around, but it’s also the only notable award show for anime outside of Asia, so as controversial as the awards may be, they still serve as a great means of giving anime recognition year after year.

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards are always great for putting anime in the spotlight, and nowhere is that more apparent than with their signature Anime of the Year category. As the title would imply, any anime that wins Anime of the Year is always among the best anime a person can watch in its debut year and beyond, and with Crunchyroll having just completed its tenth award show, there are plenty of Anime of the Year winners for old and new fans alike to enjoy at their leisure.

10 Solo Leveling Season 1 (2023/2024)

A-1 Pictures’ Solo Leveling is easily the most controversial Anime of the Year winner, and it’s easy to see why. 2024 was filled with amazing new anime like Dandadan, Delicious in Dungeon, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End that all pushed the visual and narrative boundaries of what anime was capable of, yet the prize still went to a generic action story that hardly pushed the mold, and people are still upset about it a year after the fact.

As controversial a pick as Solo Leveling was, though, between its gorgeous animation and incredible direction and fight choreography, it’s one of the best anime to watch when you’re just looking for a lot of spectacle and over-the-top action. In that regard, it makes sense why Solo Leveling became so popular, and hopefully, Solo Leveling season 3 will become a reality.

9 Made In Abyss (2017)

Nanachi, Reg, and Riko looking excited for adventures ahead in the Abyss.

Kinema Citrus Made in Abyss is another Anime of the Year winner that might be controversial to some. Despite many of the characters being children, the series regularly engages in gore and fanservice, and while things like that can always be uncomfortable, seeing such young people subjected to it on a weekly basis can be especially off-putting, and it’s been a major source of criticism for years now.

That being said, while the fanservice is hard to excuse, the gore is mostly an extension of Made in Abyss’ dark and thorough storytelling, and when combined with its stunning artwork and worldbuilding, the result is a fantastic adventure series unlike any other. Made in Abyss more than deserved its win, and fortunately, there’s plenty more of the series left for fans to enjoy.

8 Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1, Part 1 (2020)

Five years after its premiere, there’s little else that can be said about MAPPA’s Jujutsu Kaisen. Between its fun characters, gorgeous animation, and dark storytelling, Jujutsu Kaisen is an action series unlike any other, and it’s easy to see how it’s become a global phenomenon with no signs of slowing down.

What’s especially noteworthy about Jujutsu Kaisen’s first Anime of the Year win, though, is that it was arguably for the weakest part of the series; not only had the narrative not shown its full depth in season 1, but the animation, as gorgeous as it was, was incredibly basic compared to the visual masterpiece of the later seasons. It says a lot that even Jujutsu Kaisen’s weakest content was still amazing, and it’s only gotten better with time.

7 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Season 1 (2019)

Most people didn’t expect much from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, even with the legendary Ufotable at the helm, but the finished product more than exceeded expectations. Not only did it feature some of Ufotable’s best animation and direction to date, but it was all in service of enhancing a surprisingly emotional and charming story, and from start to finish, it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

Kimetsu no Yaiba · Final Selection How Well Do You Know Demon Slayer? “Set your heart ablaze.”

🗡TanjiroThe kind-hearted blade

🎋NezukoThe sleeping demon

🔥HashiraNine pillars

👹MuzanProgenitor of demons

🌊BreathingTotal concentration

BEGIN FINAL SELECTION →

The series follows a young charcoal seller whose family is slaughtered by a demon. Only his sister Nezuko survives — turned into a demon herself. What is the protagonist’s full family name?

ATanjiro Agatsuma BTanjiro Kamado CTanjiro Tomioka DTanjiro Hashibira

✓ Correct! Tanjiro Kamado is the eldest son of the Kamado family of charcoal-makers. The Kamado name, written with characters meaning “furnace,” is a subtle nod to the family’s ancient connection to fire and Sun Breathing — the original breathing style all others descend from.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Kamado. Agatsuma is Zenitsu’s surname, Tomioka is the Water Hashira Giyu’s, and Hashibira belongs to the boar-headed Inosuke. Tanjiro Kamado’s family lived high in the mountains as charcoal-burners — a lineage that secretly carried the art of Sun Breathing.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba began as a serialized manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016 before becoming a global anime phenomenon. Which mangaka created it?

AHajime Isayama BKoyoharu Gotouge CEiichiro Oda DMasashi Kishimoto

✓ Correct! Koyoharu Gotouge is famously private — the pen name gives no indication of gender, and the author has consistently declined interviews and public appearances. The manga ran for 205 chapters from 2016 to 2020 and sold over 150 million copies, making it one of the best-selling manga of all time.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Koyoharu Gotouge. Hajime Isayama created Attack on Titan, Eiichiro Oda writes One Piece, and Masashi Kishimoto created Naruto. Gotouge wrapped Demon Slayer’s main story in 2020 after just four years — a surprisingly short run for a series of that scale.

Before the Final Selection, Tanjiro trains for two years on Mount Sagiri under former Hashira Sakonji Urokodaki. Which breathing style does Urokodaki teach him?

AWater Breathing BThunder Breathing CFlame Breathing DStone Breathing

✓ Correct! Water Breathing has ten forms plus the Eleventh Form (Dead Calm), the last of which was created by Urokodaki’s finest student, Giyu Tomioka. Tanjiro later combines Water Breathing with his family’s ancestral Hinokami Kagura (Sun Breathing), which proves far more powerful against high-ranking demons.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Water Breathing. Thunder Breathing is Zenitsu’s style, Flame Breathing is the Rengoku family’s specialty, and Stone Breathing belongs to Gyomei Himejima. Urokodaki was the Water Hashira decades before Giyu, and his pupil Tanjiro eventually surpasses him by unlocking Sun Breathing.

Nezuko Kamado is the only known demon allowed to travel with the Demon Slayer Corps — she wears a bamboo muzzle and is carried in a sealed wooden box by day. What makes her so uniquely valuable to her brother’s cause?

AShe can shift her size at will BShe’s immune to sunlight from the start CShe sleeps for nourishment instead of eating humans DShe can speak with other demons telepathically

✓ Correct! Nezuko restores her body and power by sleeping, bypassing the need to consume humans that defines every other demon. Her unbroken love for her brother — and her implanted suggestion from Urokodaki that all humans are her family — anchors her humanity. She does eventually gain sunlight immunity, but that’s a much later plot twist.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is that she sleeps instead of feeding on humans. Nezuko can change her size (true but minor) and eventually gains immunity to sunlight (near the end of the series), but her defining trait is that she refuses to eat humans — sustaining herself through long periods of sleep instead.

The series’ ultimate antagonist is the original demon — a creature who has walked the earth for over a thousand years, creating every other demon from his own blood. What is his name?

AAkaza BDouma CKokushibo DMuzan Kibutsuji

✓ Correct! Muzan Kibutsuji is the Demon King — created accidentally by a Heian-era doctor whose medicine overcame his terminal illness but turned him into an immortal monster. His lifelong obsession is curing his sunlight weakness. Akaza, Douma, and Kokushibo are all Upper Moon demons under his command — terrifying but all creations of Muzan himself.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Muzan Kibutsuji. Akaza (Upper Moon 3), Douma (Upper Moon 2), and Kokushibo (Upper Moon 1) are all fearsome Twelve Kizuki, but they’re Muzan’s creations — not the original demon. Muzan is the source of every demon in the story, and destroying him ends the demon curse forever.

The Mugen Train arc features Tanjiro being mentored by the cheerfully boisterous Flame Hashira — a man whose final words (“set your heart ablaze”) became a fandom rallying cry. What is his name?

AKyojuro Rengoku BGiyu Tomioka CTengen Uzui DGyomei Himejima

✓ Correct! Kyojuro Rengoku — the Flame Hashira with the iconic yellow-and-red flame-haori and the signature “UMAI!” catchphrase — battles Upper Moon 3 Akaza in one of the series’ most devastating fights. His death and final speech to Tanjiro became one of the most emotionally impactful moments in modern anime.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Kyojuro Rengoku. Giyu Tomioka is the Water Hashira (the stoic one who saves Tanjiro and Nezuko in episode 1), Tengen Uzui is the flamboyant Sound Hashira from the Entertainment District arc, and Gyomei Himejima is the gentle-giant Stone Hashira — the Corps’ strongest.

Demon Slayers wield Nichirin Blades — color-changing katanas forged from sun-infused ore. When a slayer first draws theirs, the blade takes on a color reflecting their breathing style. What color does Tanjiro’s blade turn?

ABlue BGreen CRed DBlack

✓ Correct! Tanjiro’s blade turns black — an extremely rare color associated in-universe with bad omens and the superstition that black-blade wielders don’t live long. The real reason, revealed later, is that black blades resonate with Sun Breathing, the original breathing style from which all others descend.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is black. Water Breathing typically produces blue (like Giyu’s), Mist Breathing produces a pale greenish-white, and Flame Breathing a vivid red-orange. Tanjiro’s pitch-black blade is considered unlucky — but it’s actually the mark of a Sun Breathing user, the rarest and most powerful style of all.

The 2020 anime film Demon Slayer: Mugen Train became a worldwide box-office phenomenon despite releasing in the middle of the pandemic. What record did it famously break in Japan?

AIt won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature BIt became the highest-grossing Japanese film ever, surpassing Spirited Away CIt was the first anime to win the Cannes Palme d’Or DIt was the first anime film to surpass $1 billion globally

✓ Correct! Mugen Train dethroned Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, which had held the Japanese box-office record for 19 years. Ufotable’s breathtaking animation of the Tanjiro-versus-Akaza battle, paired with Rengoku’s emotional farewell, turned a theatrical arc of the anime into the highest-grossing film in Japanese history.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is that it surpassed Spirited Away as Japan’s highest-grossing film ever. Mugen Train didn’t win an Oscar (though it was eligible) and hasn’t crossed $1 billion globally. But in Japan, it dethroned Miyazaki’s 2001 classic — a record many thought would stand forever.

REVEAL MY SCORE →

Mission Complete · Scroll Sealed Your Corps Rank

🗡

/ 8

Hashira-level expert — or still at Mizunoto?

⤴ BEGIN AGAIN

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s first season was an amazing anime in every regard, and surprisingly, the anime only got better with subsequent seasons and movies upping the quality at every turn. To this day, Demon Slayer is still the biggest anime of the decade by a wide margin, and overall, it’s nothing if not deserved.

6 Attack On Titan: The Final Season Part 1 (2021)

Characters of Attack On Titan season 4 featuring Levi, Armin, Jean, Sasha and Hange.

Attack on Titan’s fourth and final season, appropriately titled Attack on Titan: The Final Season, saw MAPPA take over production from Wit Studio, and calling it divisive would be an understatement. Not only was there a change in art style, including an uptick in CGI for the Titans, but even the iconic soundtrack had been changed for something with an entirely different style, and people were critical to an incredibly toxic degree.

Fortunately, all of those criticisms were unfounded; not only was the animation and direction as amazing as ever, with the new art and music further enhancing everything, but it all worked to help tell the darker and more political story of the season, and the results more than speak for themselves. Part 1 of Attack on Titan: The Final Season was an amazing reintroduction to the series, and the change in production helped it end on nothing but a high note.

5 Yuri On Ice (2016)

MAPPA’s Yuri on Ice was the Crunchyroll Anime Awards’ inaugural Anime of the Year, and overall, it’s easy to see why. Not only is Yuri on Ice the exact sort of visual masterpiece one would expect from MAPPA, even for one of their older projects, but it being such an unabashedly LGBTQ+ positive story makes it legendary among modern anime, and it’s easy to see why it’s so beloved.

With the cancellation of the Yuri on Ice movie, there isn’t anything else in store for the anime, and as unfortunate as that is, it doesn’t make the series any less amazing when it comes to its writing, visuals, and all-around positive representation. There’s never been an anime like Yuri on Ice, and it more than deserved to be the first-ever Anime of the Year.

4 Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 (2022/2023)

As big as Jujutsu Kaisen was after its first season, season 2 was on an entirely different level. The series received a complete visual overhaul with a new director and character designer, and that came with a new level of fluidity that pushed the animation to creative levels unlike anything MAPPA had ever done before. Add in how much more dramatic and well-developed the story had become, and it’s easy to see why it won Anime of the Year.

The incredible success of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 was when the series truly became a worldwide phenomenon, and it’s easy to say that its success forever changed what’s expected of anime, in general. Somehow, though, Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 was even better, and as of now, it’s probably an easy contender for Anime of the Year at the next Crunchyroll Anime Awards, as well.

3 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2021/2022)

With its massive bugs and glitches and a general lack of content, Cyberpunk 2077 failed to live up to years of hype as it suffered one of the most disastrous launches in modern gaming. Because of that, there wasn’t much excitement for the game’s anime spinoff, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, even if it was being made by Studio Trigger, which makes its massive success all the more surprising.

Not only was Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as gorgeous as one would expect a Studio Trigger anime to be, but with its dark storytelling and the fun cast of characters living it out, it was an instant classic to the point that it revived interest in Cyberpunk 2077 well after its disastrous launch. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is getting a sequel, and with any luck, it will be just as amazing as the original.

2 My Hero Academia: Final Season (2025)

Bones Film’s My Hero Academia had its ups and downs across its run, but there was little not to love about its eighth and final season, appropriately titled My Hero Academia: Final Season. Between having some of the anime’s best visuals in years and perfectly capping off every arc that came before it, My Hero Academia: Final Season was amazing in every regard, and there was no better way for such an iconic anime to end.

Every Winner At Crunchyroll's Anime Awards 2026

The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards are finally here, and these are all the biggest winners and losers to come out of the legendary event.

The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards were stacked with dozens of incredible anime, and while My Hero Academia: Final Season winning Anime of the Year can be seen as a consolation prize for its final season, that doesn’t make it any less great a season of television. My Hero Academia truly changed modern anime for the better, and it’s great that it received so much recognition for its final season.

1 Devilman Crybaby (2018)

The 2010s were the beginning of Netflix’s true expansion into anime, and the best example of such was Science Saru’s Devilman Crybaby. While Devilman’s story might feel removed from the eccentric nature of Science Saru's projects, not only did that lend itself to incredibly creative and gorgeous animation, but, if anything, it also did wonders to enhance the dark and emotional storytelling, especially in its iconic ending.

Devilman is one of the most iconic and influential anime from legendary creator Go Nagai, and whether it was visually or narratively, Devilman Crybaby was a perfect modernization in every regard. Even now, there are few anime on Netflix that are better to watch, and it easily stands as the best anime to win Crunchyroll’s Anime of the Year award.