Every Winner and What to Watch

Seventy-three million votes. That is how many fans weighed in on the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, a record number, and a useful reminder that the global appetite for anime has never been bigger or more opinionated. On Saturday, May 23, the winners were announced at a ceremony in Tokyo, and the result is essentially a ready-made watchlist for anyone who wants to know what the best of the medium looks like right now. Whether you are completely new to anime or a longtime viewer wondering what you missed this past year, this is where to start.

The Weeknd, a long-time anime fan, presented the evening’s highest honour, Anime of the Year, to “My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON.” The award was accepted by director Kenji Nagasaki. “My Hero Academia’s” final season beat out “Dan Da Dan” Season 2, “Gachiakuta, Takopi’s Original Sin,” “The Apothecary Diaries” Season 2, and “The Summer Hikaru Died” to claim the title. It was an emotional win. The series ran for a decade. It ends as a champion.

Here is every category winner from the night, and exactly why each one deserves a spot on your watchlist…

My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON (Available on Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video)

If you have never watched “My Hero Academia,” the good news is you have time to fix that. The series ran for eight seasons and concluded properly in 2025, with a special epilogue episode, “More,” arriving on Crunchyroll on May 2, 2026. All seasons are streamable via Crunchyroll, which offers the complete series, including OVA episodes and movies. Early seasons are also available to stream for free on the official Toho Animation YouTube channel through late August 2026.

The premise is straightforward: a world where most people have superpowers, and one boy who does not refuse to give up on becoming a hero. However, the execution isn’t straightforward at all. Over a decade, the series grew from a cheerful shonen adventure into one of the most emotionally ambitious anime of its generation. The final season does not flinch. It earned its Anime of the Year win, and it earned the reaction the room had when the award was announced.

Gachiakuta (Available on Crunchyroll)

From Best New Series, Best Animation, Best Background Art, to Best Character Design, “Gachiakuta” swept the craft categories at the 2026 awards. This is the clearest answer to the question of what to watch if you want to discover something before it becomes universally known. The series follows Rudo, a boy framed for murder and thrown into The Pit, a massive wasteland beneath society where discarded objects take on monstrous forms. The visual world-building is extraordinary. Although the action was executed relentlessly, the art direction is the best in anime this year by a significant margin, and the awards confirmed it.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 (Available on Crunchyroll and Netflix)

“The Apothecary Diaries” won the awards for Best Drama, Best Director, and Best Main Character. According to critics, the series is a careful anime viewers have been quietly recommending to everyone they know, and Season 2 validated that enthusiasm at scale. Set in an imperial Chinese court, it follows Maomao, a pharmacist’s daughter working as a court lady whose sharp intellect constantly pulls her into palace intrigue she never asked for. Aoi Yuki’s voice performance as Maomao won Best Voice Artist Performance in Japanese, and it is every bit as deserving as the award suggests. The series is intelligent, funny, and genuinely tense in ways that most dramas never manage simultaneously.

The Rest of the Watchlist

DAN DA DAN Season 2 — Best Comedy and Best Opening Sequence. If you want something that commits completely to chaos, warmth, and some of the most inventive animation on television, this is it.

Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow — Best Action. The power fantasy done right. The animation that won Best Animation is a significant upgrade on an already visually arresting first season.

SPY x FAMILY Season 3 — Best Slice of Life. Anya Forger also won the “Must Protect At All Costs” character award, which is the most accurate award of the evening.

Re:ZERO Season 3 — Best Isekai. The series that turned the isekai genre’s conventions into a genuine psychological horror story is back, and it is as uncompromising as ever.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity — Best Romance. The most quietly beautiful anime romance of the year, and the category winner that most rewards watching without knowing anything about it in advance.

Lazarus — Best Original Anime. Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop, set to a soundtrack by Flying Lotus. If that combination does not immediately tell you this is essential viewing, nothing will.

ONE PIECE — Best Continuing Series. It is still going. It is still unmissable. The Water Seven and Marineford arcs alone justify the commitment.

Anime Has Never Been Bigger, and the 2026 Crunchyroll Awards Proved It

Seventy-three million votes is not just a record. It is a statement about where anime sits in global culture right now. A decade ago, this was a niche conversation. Today, The Weeknd is presenting Anime of the Year at a ceremony in Tokyo, Winston Duke and RZA are on the presenter list, and a single film, “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle,” is dominating award categories across languages and continents simultaneously. The medium has outgrown every box it was ever placed in.

The full ceremony is available to stream on Crunchyroll and on Crunchyroll’s YouTube channel. Seventy-three million people voted. They were not wrong.

Featured image: Netflix

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