For almost a decade now, Crunchyroll has revolutionized the anime industry with the annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Every year, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards honor the best anime around in numerous categories, and celebrities in and out of Japan have even started getting involved in recent years, turning it from a small event to something every anime fan can look forward to.

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards are almost always a great time, and 2025 will be no different. The voting period for the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards is officially in full swing, and with the full list of nominees out, the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards have a variety of anime already set up as easy contenders for the biggest winners of the year. With how big many of the top anime among the nominees have been, it’s easy to see why they’re being met with such recognition, and it will be great to see which one ultimately comes out on top.

Crunchyroll Picks The Biggest Anime Around For Anime Of The Year

Crunchyroll's Anime Of The Year Nominees Explained

As with every year, the award category for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards that gets the most attention is Anime Of The Year, and this year’s selection is especially strong. The nominees are always some of the biggest anime of their respective year, if not the biggest, and sure enough, the nominees for Anime Of The Year at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards are Solo Leveling, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Dandadan, Delicious in Dungeon, Kaiju No. 8, and The Apothecary Diaries, all of which were some of the biggest anime to come out of 2024, by far.

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards Have A Clear Winner, And It’s Not Who You Think

Crunchyroll's Biggest Winner Isn't That Cut-And-Dried

Even with voting still underway for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the top contender probably isn’t the show people might think. Solo Leveling has taken the world by storm from the moment it debuted, and that only got bigger with Solo Leveling season 2 and how greatly it expanded on its action, animation, and overall quality. There are few anime that have taken the community by storm to the same extent as Solo Leveling, and as such, Solo Leveling’s immense popularity would, on a surface level, make it the top contender for the biggest winner at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

That being said, Solo Leveling might not be as big a winner as people think. Most anime are nominated for multiple categories relating to their overall quality, and Solo Leveling was nominated for 13 categories, including Anime Of The Year, but that number is tied with The Apothecary Diaries for the lowest among Anime Of The Year nominees. By comparison, Dandadan is nominated for 22 categories, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 29, more than twice as many as Solo Leveling, so Solo Leveling, despite its popularity, likely won’t walk away as the biggest winner at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

As for why Solo Leveling has so few nominations, that’s easy to understand. As popular as Solo Leveling is, it’s very much a power fantasy anime with little to offer beyond that, and that’s earned it just as criticism as it has praise, even before the anime came out. By comparison, anime like Dandadan and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End have far more varied stories, which, in turn, gives them more universal appeal, so ’s overreliance on hype and aura has made it fall short at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards while anime with more to offer are largely thriving.

Which Anime Will Win Big At The 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards?

Who Will Be Anime's Biggest Winners?

With all the discussion surrounding the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, that, of course, begs the question of which anime will be the big winner. Solo Leveling just came off its big second season, so that could give it plenty of extra popularity, but as previously stated, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End have far more nominations, and they’re far less contentious than Solo Leveling, as well. As such, either Dandadan or Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End will likely be the big winner of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, either in number of wins or by simply winning Anime Of The Year.

That doesn’t mean Solo Leveling would walk away with nothing, of course. As contentious as Solo Leveling may be, it’s still one of the most popular anime on Crunchyroll right now, and because of that, Solo Leveling, even if it won’t be the biggest winner at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, still has a chance to earn multiple wins, including Anime Of The Year. Whatever the case, the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards will undoubtedly be the biggest ones yet, and it will be great to see how it all plays out this May.