Attack on Titan studio's new anime awards are not a reaction to the Crunchyroll Awards

Published Jul 6, 2026, 10:39 AM EDT

The answer is no. There is a plethora of awards dedicated to anime in Japan, from the Anime Grand Prix (decided by votes cast by readers of the magazine Animage) to the more famous Tokyo Anime Awards (where judges include industry professionals and university professors). What these awards lack is international visibility, and this seems to be the main goal of Tokyo Anime Next, judging by Wada's statement that this event will lay the foundation for a larger international event launching in 2027.

If international audiences are the target, then, why stress that this is a "Japanese" award? The correlation with the Crunchyroll Anime Awards that many commentators made is partially misleading. Crunchyroll is an American company, but in 2020 it was acquired by Sony — a Japanese conglomerate, for those who need the reminder. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards have been held in Tokyo since 2023. This year's award show, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the event, was presented by Japanese TV personality Jon Kabira and by U.S.-born Japanese singer and voice actress Sally Amaki — in Japanese. Sony president and CEO Hiroki Totoki gave the opening address.

Most of the criticism directed at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards seems to coalesce around the voting system, which is heavily skewed in favor of judges over the public vote (70:30). A look at the 2026 judges list highlights a lack of industry professionals, defined as people who work in the anime industry. Most of the judges are journalists for online outlets, influencers, or social media personalities.

Rather than being a pseudo-nationalist reaction to an award show that's already markedly Japanese, the Tokyo Anime Next awards could thus truly stand out by involving creators, studio executives, and other key figures from the Japanese anime industry. Wada did specify that "a coalition of anime studios" would host the event, which would mark the biggest difference with the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. This initiative seems to be more about studios vs. distributor than Japan vs. the rest of the world.

What about the public vote, however? Will this be limited to Japanese citizens? This would surely be a controversial decision. Starting in 2023, international revenue surpassed domestic revenue for the anime industry. Do awards given "by the Japanese people" make sense in this context? The truth is more complex than what most anime-enthusiast analysts like to present these days. The production market, which tracks studio revenues, is still predominantly relying on domestic business: In 2024, it rose 9.1% year-on-year to 466.2 billion yen ($3.06 billion), while overseas business contributed 118.8 billion yen ($781 million).

Image: Koyoharu Gotoge, SHUEISHA, Aniplex, ufotable

This could explain Wada's attempt to create an industry-focused and "more Japanese" alternative to the Crunchyroll Anime Awards (if this is the intent), while still trying to address the overseas market with the following event. If nothing else, this speaks of a struggle within the anime industry that most commentators choose to ignore. Anime is still a purely Japanese form of entertainment made by Japanese people and mostly for Japanese people, but its industry now has to address the overseas popularity of the medium. Far from being a fait accompli, how the industry chooses to navigate this conundrum will shape the trajectory of anime, creatively and business-wise, in the years to come.