🏆 The ballots are counted — a record-smashing 73 million of them. After ten years on screen, My Hero Academia has taken Anime of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Tokyo. But the louder conversation back in Japan isn't really about the winner. It's about the show that walked in with the most nominations of the night — and walked out with almost nothing.

A ten-year run ends with the night's biggest trophy

On May 23, 2026, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards held its tenth ceremony at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo, streamed live to fans around the world. The headline result: My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON was named Anime of the Year, and the trophy was handed over by The Weeknd, a longtime anime fan who flew in specifically for the moment.

The timing carried real weight. Kohei Horikoshi's original manga ended in August 2024, and the TV anime aired its final episode in December 2025 — closing a story that had run for roughly a decade. Accepting the award, chief director Kenji Nagasaki — who directed the first three seasons and oversaw the series from season four onward — spoke about reaching the ten-year mark and finishing the project intact. He described the past decade as building, in his words, the best possible relationship with fans: the team drew energy from viewers, made the show, and watched those same viewers enjoy it back.

For the Crunchyroll awards — decided by a mix of an industry jury that picks the nominees and a global fan vote that decides the winners — a long-running shonen franchise reaching its finale is exactly the kind of story the ceremony likes to celebrate.

The full slate: Demon Slayer, Gachiakuta and The Apothecary Diaries clean up

Across 32 categories, a handful of titles did most of the winning.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc Chapter 1 — Akaza Returns took Film of the Year and Best Score (for composers Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina). It also dominated the dubbing categories, picking up Best Voice Actor honors in English, Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, German and Latin American Spanish — all five for the character Akaza.

Gachiakuta, a newcomer adapted by studio Bones Film, was the breakout of the night, winning Best New Series, Best Character Design and Best Background Art. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 was the other heavy hitter, claiming Best Drama, Best Director, Best Main Character for the apothecary Maomao, and Best Voice Actor (Japanese) for Aoi Yuki, who voices her.

Other notable wins: Solo Leveling Season 2 took Best Action and Best Animation, ONE PIECE won Best Continuing Series, LAZARUS — Shinichiro Watanabe's original series — took Best Original Anime, and SPY×FAMILY Season 3 picked up Best Slice of Life plus the "Must Protect at All Costs" Character award for Anya Forger. From the night's big winner, Katsuki Bakugo was named Best Supporting Character.

"Deserved" or "didn't see that coming"? Japan is split

Here is the part that lit up Japanese social media. Dandadan Season 2 walked into the ceremony with 20 nominations — more than any other title. It left with two wins: Best Comedy and Best Opening, for Aina the End's "Kakumei Dochu." The most-nominated show of the year did not take Anime of the Year.

That gap split fans into two camps. One side calls the result fair enough. A franchise that ran for ten years and stuck the landing, they argue, has earned a send-off, and Anime of the Year doubles nicely as a thank-you for the whole journey rather than a verdict on a single season. The other side was genuinely surprised. Dandadan had the buzz, the nomination count and arguably the stronger single year — so seeing it edged out felt off to viewers who expected momentum to carry it through.

Underneath both reactions sits a familiar debate about how these awards work. Because winners are decided largely by an open global vote, a title with a massive, long-established international fanbase has a structural advantage over a newer show, however acclaimed. To some Japanese fans that makes the result a popularity headcount as much as a quality ranking. To others, that is simply the point — the Crunchyroll awards have always measured what the world is watching, not what a small jury thinks it should be watching.

Yonezu Kenshi's "IRIS OUT" wins Best Anime Song

The music categories produced one of the least controversial results of the night. "IRIS OUT," the theme Yonezu Kenshi wrote for the film Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, won Best Anime Song. Since its September 2025 release the track has rewritten chart records at home and abroad, including the highest global chart placement ever for a Japanese-language song. Yonezu's other Chainsaw Man contribution, "JANE DOE" with Hikaru Utada, was nominated in the same category.

The rest of the music slate leaned on familiar names too. BUMP OF CHICKEN's "I" — the ending theme for My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON — won Best Ending, while Aina the End's "Kakumei Dochu" took Best Opening for Dandadan. The ceremony also reserved a quieter moment for the Global Impact Award, given to the late director Tatsuya Nagamine, who passed away in August 2025 after shaping titles loved worldwide, from Ojamajo Doremi to ONE PIECE. Animator Masayuki Sato, a longtime collaborator and friend, accepted on his behalf.

What 73 million votes say about anime's world map

The single biggest number from the night had nothing to do with any one show. Crunchyroll said fans cast a record 73 million votes this year. The countries that voted most, listed alphabetically, were Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico and the United States.

That list is worth sitting with. The center of gravity for anime fandom now clearly runs through Latin America and South Asia as much as North America — Brazil and India turning out in force is not a footnote, it is the story. When people in Japan debate whether a fan-voted award "really" reflects the best anime of the year, this is the electorate doing the voting. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards have quietly become one of the clearest snapshots of where Japanese animation actually lives now: everywhere.

In Japan, fans are still arguing over whether the right show won. Where you are, did My Hero Academia feel like the obvious choice — or were you rooting for Dandadan, Gachiakuta, or something that didn't even make the list?

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