Crunchyroll, the world’s most popular anime brand, is announcing tonight the winners from the fourth annual Anime Awards — a celebration of the best and brightest in Japanese animation from last year.
Anime’s popularity has continued to soar over the last year, with the industry valued at more than $10 billion. Fans also have more ways to enjoy anime than ever before, through streaming, fan events, theatrical screenings, celebrity and athlete endorsements and video games, just to name a few.
This year, over 11 million global votes were cast across 18 categories from fans celebrating their favorite characters, series, and creators, eclipsing the 5 million votes cast in 2019. The top five countries that voted this year were the United States, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Canada. To increase global participation, Crunchyroll localized awards voting in eight languages, with six watch parties in Sydney, Australia; São Paulo, Brazil; Richmond and Toronto, Canada; and Fort Worth and New York City, U.S.
Winners of the Anime Awards were announced during a live event at the Crunchyroll HQ in San Francisco, hosted by WWE Superstar Xavier Woods (a.k.a. Austin Creed) and streamed on the Crunchyroll homepage and across Crunchyroll social media platforms. Crunchyroll host Tim Lyu and presenters including KING VADER, Gibi, SungWon Cho, Cole Galllian, Miranda Sanchez, Tristan Gallant, Mark Phillips, Geoffrey Thew, Kiera Please, LilyPichu, Anthony Carboni and Connor “CDawgVA” Colquhoun also took the stage.
George Wada, President of WIT STUDIO, was honored with this year’s Industry Icon Award, which recognizes influential figures who have meaningfully contributed to the art and industry of anime.
During the show, Crunchyroll announced four new titles coming to the platform:
- The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? (April 2020) (Trailer): Shingo Ichinomiya, a 25-year-old man working at a firm company, while thinking of tomorrow’s busy working day, goes to sleep. However, when he woke up, he found himself in a room unknown to him and realized that he is inside a 6-years-old body, taking over his body and mind. He soon learns from the memories of the boy that the boy was born as the youngest child of a poor noble family living in a backcountry. Having no administrative skill, he can’t do anything to manage the vast land his family has. Fortunately, he is blessed with a very rare talent, the talent of magic. Unfortunately, while his talent could bring prosperity to his family, in his situation it only brought disaster. This is the story of the boy, Wendelin Von Benno Baumeister, opening his own path in a harsh world.
- My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (April 2020)
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 (Fall 2020)
- So I’m a Spider, So What? (Coming 2020)
Click here for the previously announced list of the nominees.
Crunchyroll Anime Awards Winners
Anime of the Year: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
Best Animation: Mob Psycho 100 II
Best Opening Sequence: Mob Psycho 100 II, ♪ 99.9 – MOB CHOIR feat. sajou no hana
Best Ending Sequence: KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR, ♪ Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡ – Konomi Kohara
Best Boy: Tanjiro Kamado, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
Best Girl: Raphtalia, The Rising of the Shield Hero
Best Score: Mocky, Carole & Tuesday
Best VA Performance (JP): Yuichi Nakamura voices Bruno Bucciarati in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
Best VA Performance (EN): Billy Kametz voices Naofumi in The Rising of the Shield Hero
Best Director: Tetsuro Araki, Chief Director and Masashi Koizuka, Director – Attack on Titan Season 3
Best Character Design: Satoshi Iwataki, Original Character Design by Hiroyuki Asada, Dororo
Best Protagonist: Senku, Dr. STONE
Best Antagonist: Isabella, The Promised Neverland
Best Fight Scene: Tanjiro & Nezuko vs. Rui, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
Best Couple: Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane, KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR
Best Drama: Vinland Saga, WIT STUDIO
Best Fantasy: The Promised Neverland, CloverWorks
Best Comedy: KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR, A-1 Pictures
The Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2020 is sponsored by Bokksu, the leading subscription box and media platform for Japanese snack food discovery and authentic storytelling, and Naruto Slugfest, launching in Spring of 2020 from Mars Games.
Fans participated in two contests during the Anime Awards. Crunchyroll offered a Bokksu giveaway on Twitter during the livestream. Within the livestream chats on Facebook, Twitch and YouTube; U.S.-based fans entered to win one of three custom-made Crunchyroll-Hime skinned Xbox consoles by posting #himexbox.
