Solo Leveling won big at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, taking home four accolades including Anime of the Year and Best New Anime Series – but fans think another series was robbed.
Taking place on Sunday, May 25, live from Tokyo, the annual awards ceremony was hosted by Sally Amaki and Jon Kabira, honoring the best anime series of the past year in more than 25 categories, from talent and creators to score and subgenre.
Since its debut in 2017, the ceremony works by first having a panel of judges from the anime industry select the final nominees in each category. Then, both the panel and fans are given the opportunity to vote for the winners, with a 70:30 split in favor of the judges.
The streaming service previously said this ratio was determined to prevent the “awards from being a popularity contest”. However, many believe this has had the opposite effect after Solo Leveling’s wipeout.
2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards face backlash over Solo Leveling wins
While many have congratulated the 2024 anime, others believe that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and other titles were robbed of the Anime of the Year title.
Taking to Reddit, one wrote, “This is a popularity vote right? Then no surprise that Solo Leveling won, but all the other nominated shows are way better, like not even close, especially The Apothecary Diaries and Frieren.”
Another said, “Yup, fully agreed. You could maybe make an argument that Kaiju No 8 isn’t really better than Solo Leveling, but all the other nominees in that category easily are and would have deserved to win way more than Solo Leveling.”
“Solo leveling stealing AOTY over Apothecary Diaries, Dandadan, and Frieren is wild,” a third agreed, while a fourth added, “I would give it to Frieren and Dan Da Dan way before I would give it to Solo Leveling.”
A fifth chimed in, “I’ll never understand the hype for Solo Leveling. It has some incredibly animated fights, but literally everything else about it is painfully average.”
Of the more diplomatic comments, one anime fan stated, “Solo Levelling was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it. It scratches a nice itch. That being said, Freiren and Delicious in Dungeon were outstanding to me.
“The worlds and characters they created had so much depth and richness. They can really be broken down and analyzed on a lot of levels. Solo Leveling is a lot of tropes all taped together and given a really nice sheen.”
While much of the criticism has been aimed at the Anime of the Year accolade, others felt strongly about the other categories Solo Leveling won in – including Sung Jinwoo being named Best Main Character.
“Best Main Character going to the boring husk that is JinWoo when we had two of the BEST protagonists in recent anime PERIOD with MaoMao and Frieren is infuriating,” said one.
“Something has GOT to change with the Crunchyroll awards in the future because it just feels like a completely pure popularity contest without a hint of merit.”
Others are simply urging fans to give the lesser celebrated titles a watch. “Apothecary Diaries is also magical but yes you can’t go wrong with Frieren,” said one.
Another commented, “I’d recommend Delicious in Dungeon and Apothecary Diaries as well. DanDaDan is bonkers and wonderful, but you have to have a high tolerance for anime nonsense.”
To make up your own mind, all of these titles can be watched on Crunchyroll. For more, check out the best shows to watch like Solo Leveling, the best anime on Crunchyroll, and the best action anime of all time.
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