Anime has never been bigger. What was once a niche concern, relegated to tape traders and Japanophiles in the West, has exploded into a global phenomenon in recent years.
In just one prominent, symbolic example of Japan's animation takeover, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle outgrossed Superman at the 2025 box office. As 2026 wears on, the medium is showing no signs of slowing down.
In fact, quite the opposite: a new generation of famous fans – The Weeknd, Olympic Gold Medalist Alysa Liu, Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan, and Megan Thee Stallion, to name but a few – have only intensified the feeling that anime, suddenly, is in vogue – and it's at Crunchyroll's 10th Anime Awards in Tokyo where that ascension to the mainstream is celebrated.
This year, over 70 million votes were registered across dozens of categories, with fans and expert panelists voicing their opinions on who should be crowned Anime of the Year and Film of the Year, among other categories. Demon Slayer Infinity Castle and The Apothecary Diaries may have taken home the top awards as the likes of The Weeknd and RZA presented, but the show preached platitudes for all, rather than highlighting sweeps and solo winners.
"Our priority here is to highlight the creators, but also connect the creators with their global fans," Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini tells GamesRadar+.
Anime Awards co-host and prolific voice actor Sally Amaki only adds to the swell of feeling that the Anime Awards allows the industry to put the spotlight on oft-obscured animators and voice actors.
"I don't think they get enough recognition in their everyday lives, so I feel like it's a day to really show appreciation to the people that are usually behind the scenes," Amaki explains.
Scott Donaton, SVP global head of brand and community at Crunchyroll, agrees with the creator-first approach – something that is otherwise missing from anime's annual wave of new releases and announcements.
He says, "I think this is really about bringing the creative community together, and I'm not sure there are any other, certainly not many other places on the calendar where the entire creative community behind anime, the storytellers, the creators, the voice talent, the performers can all come together in one room to celebrate the craft and the artistry and the performances. So that's what this is all about for us, is that chance to bring that community together and celebrate, and that feels really unique as a moment in the industry."
From bars to ballrooms
But it's been a long road to get here. Crunchyroll's shaping of the Anime Awards into a must-see event runs in parallel to anime's own rise.
It all began back in 2017 in humble surroundings that were worlds away from anime's larger-than-life reputation: a California bar, complete with a low-maintenance operation that involved a camera being taped to the back wall.
"It was started by fans, for the fans in the back of a bar," Anime Awards executive producer Melissa Hill recalled. "To now see where we are, doing a global scale production in Tokyo – to see that transition and the authenticity, just to keep true to the fandom, it's been quite amazing."
As Hill alludes to, the past few years has seen the ceremony transplanted to Tokyo, not only borne out of a desire to give the Japanese creators their flowers, but also to anchor the awards in their ancestral home – just a few miles from the hustle and bustle of the legendary Akihabara district, famed for its towering, monolithic buildings stacked with anime paraphernalia amid a hazy neon backdrop.
The Anime Awards also holds a mirror up to anime's greatest calling card: its innate ability to capture an audience, regardless of generation, background or nationality.
Where the likes of superhero movies and Star Wars are having a crisis of confidence outside of tentpole territories, anime is soaring and proving to be an essential part of Gen Z's media diet. With India, Brazil, and Mexico providing a bedrock of fandom, however, it's the chance to bring celebrities into the mix to really communicate their genuine love for the medium that sets it apart.
"The beauty of it is when we're talking to The Weeknd, we're talking to RZA, we're talking to Megan Thee Stallion – whether it's at Comic Cons or at the award show – we're talking to them as fans first and foremost, and they're talking to us as fans first and foremost," Donaton says. "Their fandom is so deep and so authentic, and so it means so much to them that I think it's a chance to really reflect how much anime has evolved from what was seen as a niche medium into a truly global mainstream phenomenon."
The chance for anime's biggest celebrity cheerleaders to be able to platform their support for a medium they grew up loving is at odds with Japanese animation's previous reputation as a magnet for weirdos and losers (Amaki herself admits she was bullied growing up in America for her love of anime). Whisper it, but anime might actually be cool.
My own experience of the awards – on the orange carpet instead of the traditional red amid a conveyor belt of international talent striding into sight – only bolsters the belief that anime and Crunchyroll's starry, ballroom-set contribution to the industry is at an exciting crossroads, verging on the cusp of something altogether monumental.
Yet, there are still naysayers surrounding this anniversary event. At a meeting of anime leaders in Japan, Production I.G. president George Wada called for a Japanese Anime Awards, with onlookers also feeling – perhaps fairly – that centring Crunchyroll's Anime Awards in Japan, where the streamer isn't available, rings hollow.
Big in Japan
In an industry so cosplay-adjacent, Crunchyroll could be accused of playing dress-up, using the legitimacy of the awards to promote its own content. After all, the vast majority of nominees most years are available on Crunchyroll, with only 2026's lineup going some way to kowtowing to demand for more Amazon and Netflix offerings.
"The nominations are selected by 100-plus independent, unbiased and unassociated judges," Purini argues. "These are industry experts… and they select the nominations. Nobody at Crunchyroll has any influence, right? [And] it's the global fans voting, and we have a third party that manages the voting controls."
Purini also points to the "law of averages" as to why the Anime Awards feels so top-heavy towards Crunchyroll year after year. "There are about 300 shows made in Japan every year, right? We are getting somewhere between 220 to 240 shows of those."
But, with the bulk of the event being in Japanese – punctuated by English-language pre-shows and other segments – it amounts to a halfway house that tries to appeal to everyone and doesn't always succeed.
Despite that, the speed of the event, complete with genuine show-stealing performances from the likes of Neon Genesis Evangelion's Yoko Takahashi and Asian Kung-Fu Generation, is a welcome salve to the self-important, elongated awards shows found across film, TV, and music.
So, how far can anime – and the Anime Awards itself – go? While it will be some time before it joins the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys as major events, there is plenty of belief – both internally at Crunchyroll and elsewhere – that the medium can only keep expanding. Which begs the question: Today, Japan. Tomorrow, the world?
"Maybe it won't even be in Japan anymore," Amaki offers. Maybe it'll be posted in different countries, because anime is just popular everywhere nowadays."
One day, then, the ceiling might be hit. But it doesn't feel like it's going to be anytime soon, especially with fresh instalments of Crunchyroll's crown jewels Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, and Solo Leveling all mooted to return in the coming years.
While the Anime Awards, admittedly, feel slightly lowkey next to its more prestigious peers, its tighter pacing and creative-led approach (no rushing winners off stage here) is a refreshing antidote to legacy events that feel equal parts unapproachable and impenetrable to those who haven't been following the peaks and troughs of various award seasons.
10 years on, teething issues remain, but Crunchyroll is working towards making the Anime Awards, like anime itself, a global concern fueled by the sort of star power that is turning audience attention away from Superman and towards shonen – and beyond. That's the one prize Crunchyroll and the Anime Awards is keen to firmly grasp within the next decade.
For more, check out the full list of Anime Awards 2026 winners, plus our picks for the best anime on Crunchyroll.
