logo
‘Solo Leveling' Crowned Anime of the Year at Crunchyroll Awards 2025

‘Solo Leveling' Crowned Anime of the Year at Crunchyroll Awards 2025

Hypebeast26-05-2025

Summary
Over the weekend, theCrunchyroll's 2025 Anime Awards celebrated anime's global influence with a record-breaking 51 million fan votes and star-studded presentations byKacey Musgraves,Finn Wolfhard,Gaten MatarazzoandJ Balvin. The biggest honor of the night, Anime of the Year, went toSolo Leveling, recognizing its widespread. The series also swept a number of accolades, including Best New Series, Best Action, Best Main Character and Best Score.
Meanwhile, critically acclaimedFrieren: Beyond Journey's Endtook home Best Drama, Best Director and Best Background Art, cementing its status as a favorite among critics and industry insiders.DAN DA DAN, while missing out on its top-category hopes, still claimed Best Character Design, Best Opening Sequence and Best Anime Song. Additionally,Attack on Titan: THE LAST ATTACKreceived the first-ever Global Impact Award, honoring its profound influence on anime culture and storytelling.
Fans were treated to electrifying performances, including Creepy Nuts, who delivered B'ling-Bang-Bang-Born' fromMashle: Magic and Muscles, and FLOW, who commemoratedEureka Seven's 20th anniversary with 'DAYS.' LiSA, one of anime's most celebrated artists, performed a selection of hits, including 'gurenge', the iconic theme fromDemon Slayer. The event, held at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa, reaffirmed anime's presence in mainstream entertainment, with Sony Music Solutions Inc. and Dempsey Productions partnering with Crunchyroll to execute the celebration.
Check out the full list of winners below:
Anime of the YearSolo Leveling
Film of the YearLook Back
Best Original AnimeNinja Kamui
Best Continuing SeriesDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
Best New SeriesSolo Leveling
Best Opening Sequence'Otonoke' – Creepy Nuts –DAN DA DAN
Best Ending Sequence'request' – krage –Solo Leveling
Best ActionSolo Leveling
Best ComedyMASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc
Best DramaFrieren: Beyond Journey's End
Best Isekai AnimeRe:ZERO -Starting Life in Another WorldSeason 3
Best RomanceBlue Box
Best Slice of LifeMakeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!
Best AnimationDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
Best Background ArtFrieren: Beyond Journey's End
Best Character DesignDAN DA DAN
Best DirectorKeiichiro Saito –Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
Best Main CharacterSung Jinwoo –Solo Leveling
Best Supporting CharacterFern –Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
'Must Protect At All Cost' CharacterAnya Forger –SPY × FAMILYSeason 2
Best Anime Song'Otonoke' – Creepy Nuts –DAN DA DAN
Best ScoreSolo Leveling– Hiroyuki Sawano
Best Japanese Voice Artist PerformanceAoi Yuki (Maomao) –The Apothecary Diaries
Best English Voice Artist PerformanceAleks Le (Sung Jinwoo) –Solo Leveling
Best Arabic Voice Artist PerformanceHiba Snobar (Anya Forger) –SPY × FAMILYSeason 2
Best Brazilian Portuguese Voice Artist PerformanceCharles Emmanuel (Sung Jinwoo) –Solo Leveling
Best Castilian Spanish Voice Artist PerformanceMasumi Mutsuda (Sung Jinwoo) –Solo Leveling
Best French Voice Artist PerformanceAdrien Antoine (Kafka Hibino) –Kaiju No. 8
Best German Voice Artist PerformanceDaniel Schlauch (Monkey D. Luffy) –ONE PIECE
Best Hindi Voice Artist PerformanceLohit Sharma (Satoru Gojo) –Jujutsu KaisenSeason 2
Best Italian Voice Artist PerformanceIlaria Pellicone (Kyomoto) –Look Back
Best Latin Spanish Voice Artist PerformanceMiguel Ángel Leal (Eren Jaeger) –Attack on Titan Final Season THE FINAL CHAPTERSSpecial 2

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The Voices Behind ‘Dan Da Dan' Look Back on the Anime of 2024, and Ahead to What's Next
The Voices Behind ‘Dan Da Dan' Look Back on the Anime of 2024, and Ahead to What's Next

Gizmodo

timea day ago

  • Gizmodo

The Voices Behind ‘Dan Da Dan' Look Back on the Anime of 2024, and Ahead to What's Next

Dan Da Dan is set to make a highly anticipated return to streaming platforms. Ahead of the new season, Science Saru and GKids are collaborating again to release Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye, a theatrical cut featuring the first three episodes of the second season. This release will also include a special behind-the-scenes interview with co-directors Fuga Yamashiro and Abel Gongora. After a special Los Angeles screening of Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye, io9 held a virtual interview with the English voice cast: Abby Trott (who voices Momo Ayase), A.J. Beckles (Okarun), and Aleks Le (Jiji Enjoji). During our conversation, the three cast members reflected on their favorite moments from the previous season and shared their excitement about the scenes they are eager for fans to experience in the upcoming compilation preview film, which will be released June 6, as well as the anime's new season premiering in July. This interview has been edited for brevity. Isaiah Colbert, io9: You've voiced plenty of standout characters in anime, but Dan Da Dan's Momo Ayase is one of my personal favorites. With her being a co-lead in a shonen series—a genre that traditionally puts male protagonists in the spotlight—what about Momo makes her special to you, and how do you think she stands out even more in the shonen landscape this season? Abby Trott: I love voicing Momo. I've been having so much fun with her. And it's interesting that this anime, although maybe if you had to put a label on it, a shonen has a lot of elements from different genres incorporated into it. And I think that helps Momo stand out. We do see a romance element, whereas in a lot of typical shonen, the protagonist will typically not be aware of romantic advances or intentions from a female protagonist. But in this, very early on, there's a relationship there. We can only look forward to seeing how that is going to grow and develop over the course of however many seasons the show goes on. For forever. I think she's very confident, and she cares fiercely about her loved ones; she's willing to do anything to protect them. Those are things about Momo that I love. I think that I read an interview with the mangaka, where he said that Momo is his favorite character, and that he compared her to Superman. She makes everyone else around her want to step up to the plate and do their best, too. And that's one element that I really like about her. She makes everyone want to do their best. io9: In your last interview with io9, you mentioned being a fan of the Dan Da Dan manga and having read it before auditioning. Were there any specific scenes from the manga that you were particularly excited to bring to life in season two ? A.J. Beckles: The whole first interaction with Evil Eye is so cool in the manga. Science Saru, like always, took it and made it so much better; they added so much more content. I went back and read it recently, just to make sure that I was prepared for a recording, and I was like, 'Oh, wow!' when I went in. They added a lot, and they did a great job. I think those interactions are what I most looked forward to. Acro Silky was definitely a cool fight, but it wasn't like a traditional hand-to-hand combat situation that this was with Evil Eye and Okarun. So I was really excited to see what that would look like, and they knocked it out of the park—Evil Eye's ball thing that he uses is really cool. Aleks Le: It's kind of Okarun's first fight fight. He's not just launching himself. Beckles: He has to dodge and punch, or whatever else, which he doesn't really know how to do. You get to see that bit of awkwardness, too, that he clearly doesn't know what he's doing versus Evil Eye, who seems so experienced in comparison. It's interesting, and they did a great job of showing that. io9: First off, congrats on your anime voice acting award for Solo Leveling, Aleks. You've really kept your finger on the pulse of fan engagement—not just by pushing your vocal limits as Sung Jinwoo but also by embracing the memes and sharing behind-the-scenes moments on TikTok. In Dan Da Dan season one, you threw 'Deez Nuts' into the mix, making it an unexpectedly perfect fit for the series' chaotic energy. Can you walk me through how that creative choice came about with the team at Bang Zoom? And are there any other localization line reads you're especially excited to bring to life in season two? Aleks Le: First of all, thank you so much for the congratulations. I appreciate it. And as for that particular line, I made a video about that where I said that the line was actually adapted by our English dub director, Alex Von David, who is wonderfully talented. He put so many funny things into the dub like the usage of the word 'bitch' by almost everybody. Those were always really fun. He had pitched the idea of for this joke. He was like, 'Maybe we should put deez nuts in there.' We were discussing it back and forth because it was just two words, but there was so much history behind the meme itself that we wanted to get it just right for the show. I feel like the meaning and the definition of deez nuts have been watered down over the years, and we really needed to hone in on it. What ended up happening was that we performed it once initially, and Alex was like, 'That's good. I think we should put the emphasis on deez, like deez nuts.' And I was like, 'But I want to do it like the original.' So he was like, 'Oh, the original, deez nuts?' and I'm like, 'You've seen the video?' And he's like, 'I've heard it thrown around, but I don't remember the video.' So I was like, 'Okay,' [so] I pulled up the video, and our poor engineer had to just sit there as I showed him the deez nuts and then we were going back and forth on it. He was very insistent on one way and I was like, 'I want to do it exactly like the video.' We did it so many times, and then we finally found one that we were both really happy with. So that was how deez nuts ended up in the show. Alex is a driving force of this adaptation. In terms of improv, it's always the most unnoticeable, subtle moments of comedy, I feel, are where my strong suits come in. There's a lot of Jiji reads where I really want to make it sound as noncommittal as possible, as in it doesn't sound like somebody who's doing a performance. It sounds like you walked by a group of teenagers, and you had your microphone up to them, and you heard what they're saying. 'Oh, my God, blah blah blah blah.' They shout basically drivel. That's my favorite part of the improv that we get to do. We do have a lot of limitations on what we can and can't do. One of my favorite improvs that didn't make it was in episode 11 when Jiji first introduces himself. We had him singing the Dan Da Dan theme song, and it was really really good. But then we looked back on it, and we were just like 'It's too meta. It wouldn't really make sense for the moment.' In the future, though, I hope we can throw it back in there somewhere. io9: Alongside their seiyuus, you've all brought Okarun, Momo, and Jiji to life beautifully, capturing the essence of the anime's low-taper fade occult nerd, outspoken gyaru, and resident himbo. As season two approaches, what aspects of their dynamics are you most excited to explore, and how has your approach to voicing them evolved, especially while recording separately, and the energy each of you is bringing into the booth? Trott: For Momo, this season kicks off with a lot of action. The first three episodes (that hopefully you'll go see in theaters, everyone) is a lot of yelling and a lot of [being] in the action. I'm looking forward to getting back to the elements, such as the relationships between the other characters Momo's relationship with Okarun. I love how Momo has this kind of cute way of speaking to him at times, which is her way of flirting. Just those little moments, I'm looking forward to the development of relationships. Beckles: I'm looking forward to seeing how Okarun reacts to Jiji. Okarun is so polite, and he's very cognizant of thinking about what he says before he says it. He's very mature for his age in terms of how he views relationships and communication and Jiji throws all that out of the window. I'm interested to see how he handles it. It'll be fun to play like him handling those moments where he's trying to be a certain way, trying to be like kosher, and Jiji doesn't care. And how he's gonna handle coming out of his shell more. I think Jiji is gonna bring some of that out of Okarun. But in the meantime, I think where we're at, it's very much Okarun knowing who Jiji is, but they haven't spent a lot of time together. Only just now, at the end of the last season, he's on the train, and they're talking about the magazine Okarun is sharing and Jiji is genuinely interested. Okarun's never had that before—a friend who's not picking on him—and I think that'll be really cool to see Okarun embrace and learn not to see Jiji as a threat to his new feelings he has towards Momo. Or maybe he still will. It'll be cool to see that unfold and watch all those different personalities interact—Momo instigating moments and trying to get them to be friends—and it'll be cool. Le: I think we all know each other pretty well, and our performance styles. We are aware of how each of us would act. We have a good image in our heads of how one person would do a specific read or [how] one person would interpret the scene this way and, ultimately, the nuances of those performances in the final surprise us. But, for the most part, we have a really good idea of what the other person's gonna do. I feel that closeness and understanding has given us the ability to performing these scenes basically in the dark, yet still having them mesh really well with each other. I feel like we all understand each other's sense of humor or acting choices pretty well, for the most part. Dan Da Dan season two premieres this July on Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. Evil Eye hits theaters across the U.S. June 6.

17 TV And Movie Scenes That Went Way Too Far
17 TV And Movie Scenes That Went Way Too Far

Buzz Feed

time2 days ago

  • Buzz Feed

17 TV And Movie Scenes That Went Way Too Far

I'm no stranger to an uncomfy, controversial, or gory on-screen moment. Sometimes you gotta cross the line to get a point across — and that might mean including a scene that makes people squirm. As someone who worships Breaking Bad and Seven, I can understand and respect that — sometimes you just gotta put a severed head on a turtle, or in a box. WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOOX??? But I'm sure you can also agree that there IS a line. There's certainly such thing as being too inappropriate, too gory, or too problematic, especially when the storyline appears to lack a real purpose. And today, we're gonna highlight my picks — the TV shows and movies that went TOO. FREAKIN'. FAR. In addition to BrBa and Seven, I'll also mention that I gave super-high ratings to toThe Silence of the Lambs and Fight Club (my fave movie of all time). If you're looking for credibility, there it is. I ain't no snowflake. I'll start with a more recent one. We're all aware Another Simple Favor starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick just came out. Well, there's a totally senseless plotline in it where Blake's character Emily has a few romantic encounters with her twin sister. Yeah, I'm serious. In the movie, the twins kiss in more than one scene. As if the first kissing scene isn't enough, later on, one sister also drugs the other, then gets on top of her and kisses her. And speaking of incest (not a phrase I ever thought I'd write on the internet), we can't NOT talk about Saxon and Lochlan from The White Lotus. I refused to jump on the bandwagon of this show solely to avoid this my mother described it to me as "the most disgusting thing" she's ever seen on TV. ICYMI, we're talking about Season 3. Saxon and Lochlan are brothers, and their relationship quickly starts becoming uncomfortably close. Their first kiss is in Episode 5, and that quickly develops into a full-blown sexual relationship. AND THEY'RE BROTHERS. Mike White, I loved you on Survivor, but can I just Perhaps the most upsetting scene I've ever seen on TV was the bathtub scene in 13 Reasons Why. The whole first season of the show is about Hannah Baker's suicide, and her "reasons why." But in a now-deleted scene, they depicted her actual suicide in way, way, way too much detail. The show, which is based on a young-adult novel, appeared to have extremely negative consequences for teens as a whole. 13 Reasons Why was actually "associated with [an] increase in youth suicide rates," which is so beyond tragic. Thankfully, they deleted the scene from the show, but I really wish younger me never saw it. Virtually every single millennial watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But perhaps you don't remember that scene in Season 6 where Spike sexually assaults Buffy. She ends up defending herself, but the whole thing is extremely uncomfortable and difficult to watch. And it's not just viewers who hate the scene. James Marsters, who plays Spike, said the show "sent [him] into therapy," and this scene is a big reason for that. "It's a problematic scene for a lot of people who like the show. And it's the darkest professional day of my life," he said. I could name so many scenes from Euphoria that I felt crossed the line, but as someone who 100% has emetophobia, that hot tub vomiting scene in Season 2 was just too much. This one is pretty self-explanatory — in the scene, Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, vomits all over the hot tub. And it's pretty revolting. I guess you could make arguments for why this was important, but I argue it was way too much to ever justify. Sydney Sweeney herself even said the director "just wanted vomit everywhere," and she dubbed it "the most disgusting thing [she's] ever experienced." I'll defend Glee forever and always, but I can't deny that several of those storylines were problematic. The one that consistently rubs me the wrong way is in Season 4, when Marley develops an eating disorder, largely thanks to manipulative cheerleader-slash-mean-girl Kitty. Marley ends up fainting onstage during a competition, and the whole club basically blames her for the team's disqualification. Part of the reason why this storyline bothers me so much is we don't really get any closure — and with such a serious topic, that's a massive shame. Kitty ends up revealing she essentially caused Marley's eating disorder, and because they're in a super tense situation when Kitty spills this secret, Marley basically just forgives her, and we don't hear about the situation again. Season 7 of The Walking Dead opens with a couple of excessively bloody kills, one being a fan-fave character since the show started. I won't name the characters just in case you're extremely behind on this show, but it definitely pushed boundaries in how brutal the kills were — almost to an unnecessary degree. Some fans even said these deaths were some of the bloodiest ones in the history of TV, which is a LOT to say for this show and TV in general. I get that the premise of The Walking Dead means blood and gore, but at some point, it's just excessive. Especially when it's a character we all adored so low-key felt personal. Can I be brutally honest for a sec? Virtually everything in the Fifty Shades movies can be classified as "too far" in my books. But there's perhaps one collection of scenes most people can probably agree are too much: anything that happens in the Red Room (AKA basically Christian's BDSM room). Not only are these scenes uncomfy for the audience to witness — for seemingly no reason at all — but it was also not fun for the actors themselves. "Some of the Red Room stuff was uncomfortable," Jamie Dornan admitted. "There were times when Dakota [Johnson] was not wearing much, and I had to do stuff to her that I'd never choose to do to a woman." IDK about you, but that makes me shudder. This one's an unpopular opinion, so brace yourself: The Substance. I get that this movie is a body horror, but the entire last portion, where Sue and Elizabeth "fight," ruined the entire movie for me. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. So much blood and gore, so long, and all while lacking a true point or moral, it truly feels. My disdain with this part is about more than just gore. What could've been a poignant ending that makes a profound statement about aging and feminism ended up being a blood-fight, a mockery, women's battles with aging and societal sexism reduced to a bloody outburst. And I found that even more disgusting than the blood itself. Sorry for getting all heated!!! I still love you, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. This is just my opinion. OK, now let's talk about Game of Thrones. You all knew this was coming, didn't you? I literally couldn't get past the first episode of this show because of all the sexual assault — not just the volume, but those scenes just seemed to last forever. Never mind all the incest, too. Again, I understand these scenes serve a purpose, but it's the excess that bothers a lot of people. There are just so many violent sexual assault and incest scenes in this show, at a certain point, you have to consider whether it's even worth watching the show as a whole. Game of Thrones is perhaps the most well-known show for its brutal sexual assault scenes, but not enough people talk about Outlander. There are a few sexual assault scenes in this show that fans think went too far — in particular, the scenes at the end of Season 1 were called "the most graphic and disturbing rape scenes ever to air in the history of television." Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie Fraser, talked about how uncomfy it was for him to shoot that part in Season 1. "The cock shot was unnecessary and did betray my trust in the creative team a bit," he said. He also noted that he didn't think the nudity added much substance to the plot: "This wasn't a moment where I felt that being naked would add to the horror of what Jamie undergoes." And as a viewer, I have to sympathize. All the sexualization of Angela in American Beauty is just awful to watch now, not least because her character is underage. Angela is supposed to be 17, a friend of protagonist Lester's (Kevin Spacey) daughter. People agree the entire movie has aged like milk, but it's especially difficult to watch Lester's dream sequence, where he fantasizes about touching Angela in ways we can all agree are extremely gross. Can I say it again? ANGELA IS UNDERAGE. Plus, it's his daughter's friend. That's not hot, it's CREEPY. The plot of the entire movie feels problematic to many of us now, but I'd like to think we should've known better when this came out in 1999. You is seriously one of my favourite shows of the past few years, so there's not much I can critique about it. But one part was a bit too gross for me: the montage in Season 2 that flips between Joe (Penn Badgley) putting a body in a meat grinder and Love (Victoria Pedretti) cooking a meal (yes, with meat in it). See what they did there? Filmography-wise, I get it, and I can appreciate it. But as a viewer, I physically couldn't watch it. Like, did we really have to see the intricate process of Joe putting a literal dead body in a meat grinder? And the connotations of Love cooking a meal at the same time hard to ignore. Several of the most renowned sitcoms of all time have pulled scenes since they first aired because of characters appearing in blackface. Namely, The Office, Scrubs, and Community — but you might not know that 30 Rock pulled a whopping FOUR episodes in 2020 because of blackface, one with John Hamm as a guest star. Tina Fey, who created the series (duh), issued an apology when the episodes were taken down. "I understand now that 'intent' is not a free pass for white people to use these images. I apologise for pain they have caused," she wrote. "Going forward, no comedy-loving kid needs to stumble on these tropes and be stung by their ugliness." I've said it before and I'll say it again: I can appreciate a raunchy joke. But I can't justify the one scene in Sausage Party that seemingly makes a sexual assault joke — with a juice box, of all things. In the scene, the bottom of an injured juice box starts leaking, and the antagonist drinks from the hole. Then he says, "If you tell anyone about this, I'm gonna deny it, bro." This is another one that deeply offends me. Who thought it was a good idea to include a (I'm assuming) sexual assault joke in an animated comedy movie? Here's the truth: it's just not funny. That line of dialogue feels disgusting and triggering, and takes the "joke" way, way, way over the edge. This one is kinda controversial, but I don't think I've ever been as passionate as when this came out. Years before "gaslighting" was a term everyone knew, we heard it on Season 17 of The Bachelorette. Yes, I'm talking about contestant Greg Grippo, who Katie Thurston accused of gaslighting. The reason I feel this went "too far" is, yeah, that's someone's (ahem, Katie's) actual trauma displayed on live TV. Greg's actions hit way too close to home for many viewers. And seeing how many people were #TeamGreg after the fact was…really disheartening. TBH, this was the reason I stopped watching The Bachelor franchise. Greg later admitted he "came off like an ass," but for me, it's too little, too late. Finally, let's chat about that absurd scene in the 2006 movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, where Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to kidnap Pamela Anderson. The whole thing is staged, but the audience doesn't know that, so they essentially fight to try and save Pam — which "accidentally injured" her in real life. This scene is supposed to be light, and all in good fun, but clearly there were deeper consequences we didn't see at the time. In 2019, Sacha also revealed that controversy surrounding this scene might have contributed to Pamela's divorce to Kid Rock. So yeah, this one's got a lotttt of lore. Which TV or movie scene do you think crossed the line? Maybe it was too inappropriate, gross, or problematic? Tell me in the comments below, or fill out this form to stay anonymous! And make sure to follow BuzzFeed Canada on TikTok and Instagram for more!

Rombaut Unveils New Mortal and Flow Sneaker Silhouettes
Rombaut Unveils New Mortal and Flow Sneaker Silhouettes

Hypebeast

time2 days ago

  • Hypebeast

Rombaut Unveils New Mortal and Flow Sneaker Silhouettes

Name:Rombaut Mortal + Flow CollectionMSRP:$523 – $871 USDRelease Date:Available NowWhere to Buy:Rombaut WithRombaut's latestcampaign, the brand officially unveils two new sneaker silhouettes: Mortal and Flow, each embodying a distinct approach to design and performance. The Mortal sneaker embodies a sculptural, avant-garde aesthetic, merging high-performance functionality with a layered, textured upper crafted from premium vegan materials. Its dynamic visual effect is further enhanced by a chunky, spiky sole unit engineered for superior cushioning, support and durability. The Flow sneaker, in contrast, presents a sleek, streamlined profile. Designed for versatile everyday wear, it features a breathable upper and an ergonomic sole. Its minimalist contour-inspired shape puts emphasis on fluid movement and lightweight construction. Both models are offered in three distinct colorways, spanning Black, Sand and Rose. Sporting a sculpted motif overlay on both sides of the shoe, the design boasts a sun-like flower design. Ribbed rubber panels on the heel and tongue, topped with Rombaut's logo, add further detail. The Black version features a tone-on-tone appearance, while Sand is accented with sage and khaki greens. Rose, on the other hand, highlights bright bubblegum, blush and light pinks against a silvery gray backdrop.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store