---
title: 'My Extremely Bias Crunchyroll Anime Awards Picks'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=fosty6VlmRs'
video_id: 'fosty6VlmRs'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 1490
---

# My Extremely Bias Crunchyroll Anime Awards Picks

> Source: [My Extremely Bias Crunchyroll Anime Awards Picks](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fosty6VlmRs)

## Summary

A longtime anime fan shares his personal, openly biased ballot for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, covering every major category from Anime of the Year to voice acting. He explains why he's voting for shows like The Apothecary Diaries and Demon Slayer, while calling out snubs like Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle's absence from animation awards. The video is a casual, opinionated walkthrough of one fan's picks, with room for debate.

### Key Points

- **Video premise and eligibility** [00:16] — The creator is sharing his personal votes for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. All anime with new content from January 1 to December 31, 2025 are eligible, and he emphasizes these are 100% his biased opinions.
- **Anime of the Year: Apothecary Diaries** [01:35] — Solo Leveling won last year but is absent from this year's nominees. The creator thinks winners should not be eligible the following year, and he votes for The Apothecary Diaries.
- **Apothecary Diaries is top three** [03:41] — The Apothecary Diaries has climbed to his third-favorite anime; he has read through light novel volume eight and loves the story.
- **Best Film pick: Demon Slayer** [04:11] — Despite enjoying Chainsaw Man, he votes for Demon Slayer, admitting he is biased. He argues Demon Slayer being the first part of a trilogy is not a fair criticism.
- **Best Continuing Series: My Hero Academia** [05:30] — He gives the vote to My Hero Academia's final season, which he enjoyed, though he felt it was slightly overhyped in the anime-of-the-year discussion.
- **Best New Series: Fragrant Flower** [06:11] — He picks The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity despite online discourse about recent manga arcs, because he's voting on the anime itself.
- **Best Animation: Solo Leveling** [07:04] — He says Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle should have been nominated, but since it wasn't, he votes Solo Leveling for its strong action sequences and animation.
- **Best Background Art snub** [08:57] — He calls Demon Slayer's absence from Best Background Art a robbery — the Infinity Castle should clearly win over the nominees.
- **Romance and comedy confusion** [09:40] — He questions Dandadan being nominated for Best Romance and Best Comedy. He votes Fragrant Flower for romance and Spy x Family for comedy.
- **Best Action: Solo Leveling** [11:03] — Solo Leveling is his pick for Best Action because it's the show he enjoys when he wants to turn off his brain and have fun.
- **Best Main Character: Maomao** [14:10] — He votes Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries, calling her one of the top five anime characters of all time.
- **Best Supporting Character: Loulan** [14:37] — He picks Loulan based on the writing and arc, beating emotional favorites like Jinshi and Bakugo.
- **Best Score: Demon Slayer** [16:29] — Demon Slayer gets his score vote; the Hashira score has been on non-stop repeat, and he loves composer LiSA.
- **Best Japanese Voice Performance: Reina Ueda** [18:39] — He votes for Reina Ueda as Reze in Chainsaw Man, while criticizing the snubs of Hanae Natsuki (Tanjiro) and Saori Hayami.
- **Biggest surprises of the ballot** [21:32] — He was surprised Solo Leveling wasn't up for Anime of the Year and that Demon Slayer missed animation/background art categories because it was a movie.

### Conclusion

The creator's ballot is a reminder that awards are deeply personal and subjective, with snubs like Demon Slayer and Solo Leveling generating as much discussion as the winners. Ultimately, voting every day and letting bias guide you is part of the fun.

## Transcript

Just like every year, some of these decisions are really freaking difficult. we're going to be doing something a little bit different. This is only my
second video that I've ever made about the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Last year I did a little recap of who won, but I thought it would be fun this year to kind of go through who I'm going to be voting for for these awards this year.
And of course this is going to include all animes that had new content or came out in 2025. So anything that had anything new from January 1st to December 31st is eligible to be nominated. And I'm honestly really
excited to see who got nominated this year. So we're going to dive right in, one, important to note, what I'm going to be doing in this video is 100% my opinions. If you do not agree with my opinions, that is okay. Just go and vote
for the ones that you want. I probably have different tastes than pretty much all of you when it comes to a wide variety of anime. So keep that in mind as you watch this video. Second thing is don't forget to like this video,
comment your thoughts. I do have memberships available. with fun perks like early release of videos, priority reply in comments, and fun emojis. So if channel that way, make sure you hit the join button. But with that, let's go.
And also I am probably going to rotate some of these. I did that last time >> [music] >> until April 15th. It is very common for me to have a few different categories where I like multiple, so I'll usually
rotate who I vote for. But for the record, this time will be like my main votes. Here we go. All right, so we're starting with the first big one, which is anime of the year. This is the one that got a whole lot of conversation
going last year cuz Solo Leveling won. And Solo Leveling is not even a nominee this year. Okay. I I'm fine with that. Personally, I think when it comes to [music] winning, especially like anime of the year, I believe you shouldn't be
eligible to be nominated the following year. If you win it one year, you should let someone else win the next year. I don't know. I don't really pay attention to award shows [music] that much, so I don't know how it works. But personally,
if I was in charge, I would say, "Hey, you won anime of the year this year, that would be eligible for next year, you're not going to be eligible for anime of the year." Personally, that might be what's happening, too, because
Leveling was way better than the first. And also, wasn't like Jujutsu Kaisen, >> [music] >> Hidden Inventory Arc. No one was wasn't a part of it and then it wasn't nominated. So maybe anime of the year is
one of those like if you win, you can't win the next year. I have only seen three of these, so I have not seen Gachiakuta, Takopi's Original Sin, or those are on my list. I've just been really freaking busy this year, so I
haven't gotten to any of them, but I have seen Dandadan, My Hero Academia, and The Apothecary Diaries. So, Dandadan, I'm not going to lie, this season I wasn't as invested as the first season. I don't
know why. I think honestly it was probably better. I just didn't find myself as excited to see it. My Hero Academia final season, very good, but overhyped in my opinion. [laughter] I really really enjoyed it and I thought
certain stories that I have seen. However, I did not think that it was quite worthy of all the like high nines on IMDb. Just there were some things I very good ending. The Apothecary Diaries season 2 on the other hand, The
Apothecary Diaries is slowly creeping into Well, it's not [music] even slowly. It is in my top three now. It is my third favorite anime. I love this story. gotten all the way through light novel eight. The story's so freaking good and
I really want to make more content on it, so I'm actually going to vote for The Apothecary Diaries. All right. Next one we have Oh. here. I'm kidding. I'm obviously voting for
Demon Slayer. I will say, so I've only seen Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man on this list. I will throw out there, I really enjoyed Chainsaw Man. I really did. The fandom of Chainsaw Man really soured my opinion on it winning
anything. It sounds so silly. It's not that it soured my opinion on the movie itself. I just couldn't stand the fact that Demon Slayer when like the only comparison is that they are two battle
time frame. But Chainsaw Man people were like, "Chainsaw Man was so much better because it was so much more cohesive." Yeah, of course it was more cohesive. You're comparing it to the first part of
a trilogy. Captain Obvious here, Chainsaw Man was more cohesive because Demon Slayer is the first part of a trilogy. That being still way more than Chainsaw Man. I am
biased. I'm going to vote for the thing that I am biased for, but I will say I that I am biased for, but I will say I did very much enjoy Chainsaw Man and I'm tempted to vote for it maybe one of my days. But
days. But Demon Slayer is the clear winner in my heart here. Next. Best Continuing Series. So we have Dandadan, My Hero Academia, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 1, One Piece, and
Spy Family. Wonder why The Apothecary Diaries is not up for this one because I would say, "Oh, well it's up for anime of the year, so it can't be for this." But we have Dandadan and My Hero Academia. For this one, I will give it
to My Hero Academia. Again, I really enjoyed this season. I just like The my only reasoning here. >> [laughter] >> So we'll give this one to My Hero Academia. Best New Series. We got
Clavitas. I've never heard of that. Sakamoto Days, The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. What such a name. Gachiakuta, Takopi's Original Sin, and The Summer Hikaru Died. So I've only seen two of these,
Sakamoto Days and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. I really enjoy Sakamoto Days. There was something about Fragrant Flower that got much. It's been getting a lot of hate on the internet, too. I think it's more it
has to do with like a recent arc in the manga, but I really enjoyed the anime and this of course we are voting for the anime itself, so I'm going to go for I don't know why there's so much discourse about it. It's very average
so that's what we're going with. Best Original Anime. I haven't seen any of these. Let's vote for
Moonrise. I don't know what it's about, but I just picked one. Best Animation.
So I have this thing and I noticed this about a lot of other like random anime award stuff for the year. Because Demon Slayer was a movie and not a season, it missed out on a lot of categories like best character, which I
was like, "Just because it's a movie, it should be eligible for everything except Because even though it's a continuing series, it's only a movie. I understand not having it in there, but why on earth would Demon Slayer not be eligible for
best animation when that movie was like the Giyu versus Akaza with Giyu marked was some of the best animation I have seen in my life. I also am aware that I shouldn't be eligible to win the next year. I agree. I would still say like I
it's one of the last few years. So I still think that technically I agree opportunity. That hasn't been the case for best animation, so maybe it's a new for best animation, so maybe it's a new rule. I guess that could be it. So I'm
actually hot take maybe. I'm going to go for Solo Leveling. I think that's one of Solo Leveling's biggest strengths is like the animation, the action sequences. I think it's
really well done. So I would say that's probably one of the things that's definitely like worthy of winning. So we're going to do Solo Leveling. All right. Best Character Design. Dandadan or Apothecary Diaries. Mhm.
think I should give Dandadan at least something. Its character design is very really love them in The Apothecary Diaries, too, but I am I'm going to give Dandadan this one because I've been voting for The Apothecary Diaries a lot
give this one to Dandadan. Best I'm just going to go with The Apothecary Diaries. Best Background Art. See, Demon Slayer should 100 I'm I'm going to
sound like a broken record. Demon Slayer should 100% be a nominee for Best Background Art. You mean to tell me the Infinity Castle is not up for an award here? Are we are we for real right now? That, even more
than animation, it should be winning Best Background Art. Because you cannot tell me that any of these are better than that. >> I feel like I'm exposing myself. I didn't have a ton of time this year to
watch a whole lot of new anime, so last year I feel like I had more options, but Diaries. But Demon Slayer should have absolutely been there. I'll die on that hill. Best Romance.
Why is Dandadan in I mean, I understand that romance is a pretty big plot of Dandadan. I wouldn't call it a romance, though. Like surely there's some other romance animes like The Summer Hikaru Died, I would say is
more of a romance than Dandadan is, even though I haven't seen The Summer Hikaru most part. Like, I'm going to watch it soon. But, Blue Box was cute. I wasn't as impressed by it as I thought I would be. It was
cute, but it's like I haven't even thought about it since it came out or since it ended. So, we're going with Fragrant Flower. Why is Dandadan also in Fragrant Flower. Why is Dandadan also in best
with these nominations? I want to know. I don't understand this at all. >> Why is Dandadan in best romance and best comedy? I don't I don't really understand where we're coming up with this, but I'm
enjoyed Spy x Family, and even Spy x Family this season was not super comedic. Like, the stakes of Spy x Family this season were way higher than they've been. It had way less of its like silly moments and way more of like
high-intensity moments. I feel like I'm mad crap-talking Dandadan. I do really sense for Dandadan. >> [laughter] Um okay, so we got Dandadan, I've seen Kaiju No. 8, My Hero, and Solo Leveling.
Best action. Am I going to get hate if I say Solo Leveling? Again, like, that's what it's good for. Like, it's just really good I want to turn off my brain and just have fun. That's what Solo Leveling is to me. I'm I'm going to pick
Again, some of these will probably rotate. Like, I'll probably pick Kaiju Dandadan one of those times. Isekai. All right, I have seen two isekais in my life cuz it's not really for me, and that is Twisted Wonderland
and Moonlight Fantasy. So, we're going with Twisted Wonderland. Even though I haven't really openly talked about this, I've known Twisted Wonderland for like 3 years. The reason I found out about Twisted Wonderland was because my first
year going to Anime Expo in Los Angeles, there was a Demon Slayer panel at like 4:30 p.m. in the main events hall. We wanted good seats, and the way they have
clear the room in between, so people will camp. I personally really enjoy the panel room and get to like watch panels all day over having to line up a
few hours beforehand. Their lines for it is outside in the sun, not very pleasant. So, I will always choose to camp in a panel room over waiting in line. But, they did a Twisted Wonderland panel at the beginning of the day, and I
was really excited because the main reason why I wanted to go to Anime Expo is because Hanae Natsuki was there. He goes pretty much every year. He's He's gone every year since I started going for Demon Slayer, and he's Riddle, the
guy with the red hair and the little crown. So, I found out about the game at that point because it was like a little phone game. Started playing, it's fine. It's like an okay game. I don't play it anymore cuz it was fine.
really enjoyed the manga. I found it really interesting. The anime itself really interesting. The anime itself was fine. Like, I would give it a solid seven. The last couple of episodes were pretty good, but the way they paced it
was very slow. I I just felt myself constantly just being a little like, "Oh my gosh, come on. Get to the point." more so than I felt with a lot of other animes. So, was I like, "Okay, this wasn't as
good as I was expecting." Yes, I still really like the the world, and I do really like the manga, and it's the only isekai from this list that I have seen. >> So, that means that I'm still voting for it because
I I still like the story. So, best drama. Oh, this is absolutely going need to look at anything else because that is it should have won last year, and I'm still upset that it didn't.
Best slice of life. Blue Box, Spy x Family, Fragrant Flower are the ones that I have seen. I'm I'm going to go with Part of me to do Spy x
Family, but again, Spy x Family felt way less slice of life this time. But, I do like it better than all my options. So, we're going to go with Spy x Family. Best main character. See, again, Demon Slayer should be allowed to Like,
Tanjiro should be allowed to be nominated. And I think Tanjiro was a really great main character in his movie. But, uh Maomao, absolutely. Maomao is top five anime characters of all time. No one else on that list is,
so best supporting character. Okay, we got some good ones here. We got Jinshi, Loulan. Okay. Loulan. Okay. Gigi, Bakugo, and Turbo Baba. Mm,
Gigi, Bakugo, and Turbo Baba. Mm, okay. So, my heart is telling me Jinshi, okay. So, my heart is telling me Jinshi, but if we're talking just like writing, Loulan or Bakugo feel like the best options here. Loulan
and she's pretty same character. Her arc was really interesting, and Bakugo had a good arc in the final season as well. But, if I'm really comparing it writing to writing, I'm giving it to Loulan.
Her entire arc, which is really interesting. Must protect at all costs character. Okay, this is a silly award to me. to me. We got Oh, Anya.
Love Maomao, but it the must protect at all costs, of course that's Anya. Maomao, Deku, they don't need our protection. They're fine.
It's definitely Anya. Best anime song. Why are there two Chainsaw Man? Iris Out is actually really freaking good, too. I think the first one from Demon Slayer, the
opening song should be here, but again, I'm biased. I do like In Bloom as well. but I'm actually thinking between Iris Out and Re-Awake or this song I've
Both of these have been on repeat quite a bit. None of these other ones have. The rest of these are very good songs. I'm going to go with
I'm going to need to switch off a lot. I'm going to go with Solo Leveling. I have I voted for Solo Leveling three times? I do enjoy Solo Leveling. I'm not >> And this song was really freaking good. I also love LiSA. LiSA's probably my
favorite J-pop artist, so Oh, Demon Slayer. 100% Score is something that is so special to me, so important to me. I love listening to scores. I literally have had Demon Slayer on non-stop because the Hashira
Spotify like a week ago. That's all I've been listening to. >> [laughter] I do like The Apothecary Diaries, Solo
Leveling, and Chainsaw Man. All of them very good, but Demon Slayer, yeah. Definitely the best of this list. Best opening sequence. I think this more has to do with the visuals of the opening
to do with the visuals of the opening over the song itself or it's a like a the combination of both. I will go with Dandadan on this one. It's completely different than the season one Dandadan dandadan dandadan
that went viral, of course. I think this one got overly hated because it had big shoes to fill, and it was never going to fill those shoes. However, it also was the only real comparison is that they're openings for the same show.
I really enjoyed it, though. And that song was stuck in my head a lot, and I really enjoyed the way the opening credits showed that it was like from Okarun's perspective, and when he met Momo, he started seeing color. I thought
that was really beautiful. So, yeah, I'm going for Dandadan all the way here. going for Dandadan all the way here. All right, best ending sequence. I impression on me cuz I'm having a hard time remembering any of them, and I've
time remembering any of them, and I've seen five out of the six. I will say, seen five out of the six. I will say, let's go I I Okay, Kaiju No. 8 I kind of that. It was I liked it, so we're going to go with
closing sequence for Kaiju No. 8, which was One Republic, which is still so crazy to me. All right, we've only got a couple left.
Hanae Natsuki should get the recognition he deserves for his work as Tanjiro, and it still has not happened. I still think the fact that he did not even get nominated for Swordsmith Village is still one of my greatest villain origin
moments. Because his work in Swordsmith Village, episode that was already super emotional for me and made it like this much more emotional because of how he performed it. And I guess you can kind of argue in
the movie, especially, you you could say there were other voice actors. there were other voice actors. No. That's a robbery right That's a robbery in plain sight right there. Saori Hayami
was I got chills. And she's not here. And we have two Chainsaw Man voice actors, which again, they're very good. Reina Ueda did an amazing job as Reze. But, you mean to
tell me You mean to tell me that Saori Hayami is not here? I'm more mad about that than Hanae Natsuki. And I'm like a Hanae Natsuki fan girl through and through. I'm I'm really into the seiyuu industry,
so when I see robberies in plain sight, it makes me really annoyed. I love Aoi Yuki, but she won for Maomao last year. It should be somebody else. Again, So, no, they're not following the if you won last year, you should you you aren't
eligible the following year. I say this as a huge fan of hers, but it should be someone else. I'm actually mhm okay, I'm single one of them amazing people, amazing people, so talented. Let's go
okay. Like I want to vote for Aoi Yuki because I do really love her and her work as Maomao is quite crazy when you listen to her speak normally. I am going to still give it I'm going to give it to her.
I think she did really incredibly as Res a. I'm not going to lie. So, we're giving it to Reina Ueda, which I believe that means our last one is going to be dub and I don't have any opinions on this cuz I don't watch anime in dub. So,
this cuz I don't watch anime in dub. So, I am going to vote I think this is I am going to vote I think this is Akaza. Does it tell me? Yeah, okay. I'll give it to him. I'm literally just being biased towards
never watched the movie in English and I don't really intend to, but I'll do it. Okay, 24 out of 24. I think that's it. Yep, okay. Those are my votes. Again, some of those are going to change because some of them are really close
and I can vote every day and I'm going to vote every day, but some of the some of the nominations were a little strange this year. I'm not going to lie. I'm very surprised about a couple things. I'm very surprised one that Solo
Leveling's not up for anime of the year, but I do think maybe specifically anime of the year, you are not eligible the year after you win. Maybe. I could be anywhere, but that very well could be at
award, right? Like film of the year and anime of the year are going to be the two main ones that get the most people talking and people excited. That's why last year when Solo Leveling won, like there was so much discourse because
people were so mad or really happy. There was no one in between. >> The other categories that really surprised me was that Demon Slayer's not up for animation cuz just that because
it was a movie like the animation was 10 times better that well, not okay, not 10 times better, but like when I compare Hashira Training Arc, which it did win best animation of the year to the first Infinity Castle movie, I would say if
one deserves it over the other, it would be Infinity Castle. Hashira Training had its great final episode, but the rest of the season was fairly like relaxed didn't have to do like a ton of crazy stuff like they usually do. They save
that for the final episode, which the final episode itself to me when people were complaining about Demon Slayer winning best continuing series and best animation, I was like honestly, this season finale of Hashira Training alone
>> [laughter] [gasps] >> worthy of winning, but I still would say I think Infinity Castle should have been nominated for those. Very surprised by those Don to Don nominations in comedy
and romance. I thought and this might just be me misunderstanding those categories, I guess, but I personally thought that it had to be a part of the genre to be nominated. Like if it's going to be best comedy, it's has to be
a comedy anime. If it's going to be best romance, it has to be a romance anime it wants to win best action, it has to be classified as like an action anime, which I guess doesn't really exist technically, so I can see why. I just
like best romance, best comedy, best action. It's like what are you? >> [laughter] >> that's probably the better one, but that doesn't exist anymore. I know that has existed in the past. I was surprised by
by? Like obviously, I was surprised by Japanese voice performance. Anyway, that's who I voted for this time around. I'll probably vote for different ones next, but I think that's it for today's video. Again, a reminder before you get
mad that I picked something or said something. This is 100% my opinion and I am biased, so if you don't agree with me, you don't need to comment on here me. You can tell me what you disagreed on as long as you keep it respectful and
>> [laughter] >> But that is going to be it for today's channel, leave a comment your thoughts and I will see you all in the next one. and I will see you all in the next one. Bye for now.