Anime of the Year 2025 goes to Solo Leveling at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025

On Sunday, May 25, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025 announced Solo Leveling anime as the Anime of the Year. After the series's win for the Best New Series, fans speculated it would also win the Anime of the Year Award. Notably so, the A-1 Pictures anime won the award.

Solo Leveling, written by Chugong, is a web novel first published on KakaoPage and later under the Papyrus label. The web novel later received a webtoon adaptation by Dubu and was picked up by A-1 Pictures for an anime adaptation. The anime first aired in Winter 2024 and later released its sequel season in Winter 2025.

Crunchyroll Anime Awards crowns Solo Leveling as the Anime of the Year 2025

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On Sunday, May 25, 2025, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards announced the Anime of the Year 2025 winner. For this award, Crunchyroll hosts Jon Kabira and Sally Amaki brought out the GRAMMY award-winning singer, songwriter, & musician Kacey Musgraves as the final celebrity presenter for the evening.

As voted by fans, Kacey Musgraves announced Solo Leveling as the Anime of the Year 2025 at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025.

The A-1 Pictures anime won the award over the same nominees from the Best New Series category, namely Dandadan, Delicious in Dungeon, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Kaiju No. 8, and The Apothecary Diaries.

Frieren as seen in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End anime (Imaeg via Madhouse)

Director Shunsuke Nakashige accepted the award on behalf of the Solo Leveling anime team. He thanked the fans for voting for the anime. As per him, the anime won because the crew poured their heart and soul into the project, and the fans watched and appreciated the work.

Anime fans react to Solo Leveling's Anime of the Year win

Solo Leveling fans were elated to learn that their favorite anime was named the Anime of the Year 2025. They praised the staff members' work and efforts and wished for its sequel seasons to drop soon.

Maomao as seen in The Apothecary Diaries (Image via OLM, TOHO animation STUDIO)

Meanwhile, other fans were left rattled after seeing the A-1 Pictures anime edge out as the Anime of the Year against titles such as Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and The Apothecary Diaries.

"So DESERVED. All their efforts have paid off. We sure ate, and we're still eating good," one fan said.

"Frieren robbed. We don’t care about this," another fan said.

"And of course it does. Frieren and Apothecary Diaries deserve more, in my opinion, but I can't fight against all this Aura hype," another fan added.

"Shame that literal children can vote. That's how this mid won," other fan said.

Other fans criticized Crunchyroll for its Anime Awards format. As per them, the entire award program was merely a popularity contest. Hence, they wanted the company to work on ways to improve its voting process to determine winners based on quality and merit.

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About the author

Gokul has been an anime writer in Pop Culture division at Sportskeeda since 2022. His love for watching anime and his interest in the ever-growing anime industry inspire Gokul to produce insightful content about the genre on a daily basis. He holds a Master's degree in Communication & Journalism, and has worked for close to 3.5 years in the field.

Gokul likes to thoroughly research about the anime he is writing about and only credits a source after verifying its credibility. He loves the popular Shonen anime, Black Clover, for its memorable characters and their development throughout the story.

When not racking his brain behind his next anime story, Gokul likes to play video games, read manga, and play football.

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Edited by Gokul Chettiyar