Anime Crunchyroll Awards are a pretty big deal. They are one of the biggest events of the awards dedicated entirely to the anime and the rare that rewards different aspects of production, despite simply the best show and best film. It is also an event that gives me hope for the future of animation as a mediumWhat seems to be constantly struggling with existential threats on multiple fronts (whether it is a crisis, AI or a lack of animators).

However, at the same time, watching the 2025 Live Anime Awards from Tokyo was a reminder of the biggest disadvantages of the awards show and the reasons that controversy every year. You could feel this on the internet, as fans began to complain that "solo -playing" won every award despite being considered a show that is more foolish than high art anime anime. ("Solo Leveling" made our list of the best anime in the winter 2024 seasonIn case you think we are inclined to hate that.) This can be felt on the ground in Tokyo when the whole seal hall collectively sighed in duet when the same series won anime of the year.

This is not the first time this happened. In fact, it seems that the populist choice ends victory almost every category annually. This, in turn, points to an anime-namely awards problem, that it is in an awkward position to be as much at an event driven by fans as industrial.

First, it is important to know how the prizes work by the cruelchirol anime. It starts by voting to select candidates for each category. This is overseen by judges, who have critics, reporters, influencers, YouTubers and other professionals between their ranks. Then, after the categories are selected and finalized, the fans are left to vote. Fans, however, can vote as many times as they want with several restrictions and without restrictions. As you can expect, this is prone to troubleshooting.

As the movie "Crunchyroll" Chief Operating Officer Gita Rebapadada in an exclusive interview the day before the Anime Crinschirol Anime Awards in 2025, the company and organizers of the awards leave it to fans to gather and impose their favorites. "We have a huge campaign to vote obviously to make people know when they can vote, but many of them are just basic," Rebapadada explained. "Fans only encourage fans to share who they vote for and for that kind."

"Over the years we have seen that little discussions and kind of rivalry have been happening," she continued. "People are like," I want this show, I love this show. " And it's just a kind of grassrost that is spreading. "

Remember, this kind of engagement of fans can, surely, be fun. However, when it comes to prizes, this means that the Anime Awards tend to be quite predictable, with most categories being separated from year to year between The most popular anime shows as "Demon Sleer" Or "Jujutsu Kaisen" in recent years.

It all comes down to an identity problem. The Anime Crunchyroll Awards are also an attempt to be anime on anime and a prestige show show with deep industrial relationships, but they are also a fan -driven reward event, where regular people have the biggest word on winning each individual category. This leads to constant winners of encouragement.

Well, what is the solution? Simple: Start sharing fans and those involved in the industry. Have a unique category of awards for audiences, instead of leaving the fate of each category of the most organized accidental. You can't be the rewards for children's selection and also Emmy. This is how we end up with anime titles like "Ninja Kamui", winning the best original anime, although most of the internet reactions agree to descend quality in the second half.

It's not just the fans' voting, that's the nominations. For the Crunchyroll Anime awards to be free of such controversy, they need appropriate people in the industry familiar with specific parts of the animation craft to be included in nominations. Even seasonal journalists (included this writer) are not necessarily super knowledge to say, for what exactly makes it a great design design. For all many, many, many Oscars, they at least adhere to the perfectly reasonable idea of ​​having peers to vote for their specific categories.