Crunchyroll’s 2025 Anime Awards took place over the weekend, and the biggest series, movies and voices earned recognition as the best in their class.
But not all fans agreed with some of the choices.
However, this piece is not another article or twitter think-piece. Let’s talk “wholesome” anime at the 2025 Anime Awards.
The 2025 Anime Awards
Each year, anime-streaming giant Crunchyroll hosts the Anime Awards in Tokyo, Japan. Recognizing the best series, actors and movies in Japanese animation, industry leaders and fans come together to vote on their favorite titles.
As with previous years, the 2025 Anime Awards seemed to continue the saga of controversy as the South Korean web novel Solo Leveling, produced by A-1 Pictures, won Anime of the Year.
In contrast, the 2025 Tokyo Anime Awards that took place during the festival of the same name awarded Frieren Beyond Journey’s End its top recognition in television. These awards are selected by a pool of nearly 100 judges, comprised of anime studio staff, professors, producers and chief editors of different magazines.
Where’s the Love?
While the 2025 Anime Awards highlighted the success of different shows based on 51 million fan votes, one genre and overall demographic continued to dominate over any other. This is the negative side of fan-voted award shows.
So, I ask again: where is the love for wholesome series?
For lack of better term, I have categorized Slice of Life, Isekai, Shojo, Romance, Josei, and many others of the sort under “Wholesome” for the purpose of this article.
NOTE: Not all content fits easily into this term, so I will use this for the sake of simplicity for now.
In recent years, the Anime Awards added recognition categories for Romance, Slice of Life and Isekai. However, given the nature of fan voting, the difference in marketing behind some series, and overall scale of the fandom for big Shonen titles, the smaller anime and their actors will remain overlooked.
A Fresh Idea
It is time for the excellence in “wholesome” anime to be recognized at its own anime awards.
While the categories need to remain at the main shows like the 2025 Anime Awards, it appears that another platform of recognition would be healthy for the overall industry.
Here’s my pitch:
- Location: Online
- Time: At an hour that appeals to a global audience.
- Crunchyroll technically is not available in Japan – unless on a VPN. While I appreciate hosting the show in Japan because Japanese media is being highlighted, the time of the show should be reconsidered.
- Judging: A panel of judges vote comprises 80% of the final decision, and fan voting counts for 20%. There will also be one sole fan-voted award.
- Categories:
- Anime of the Year
- Film of the Year
- Fan Voted – Anime of the Year
- Best Female Main Character
- Best Male Main Character
- Best Female Supporting Character
- Best Male Supporting Character
- Best Opening Sequence
- Best Ending Sequence
- Best Original Song
- Best Original Score
- Best Voice Artist Performance
- Separate categories per language
- Best Director
- Best Background Art
- Best Animation
- Best New Series
- Best Character Design
- Best Drama
- Best Comedy
- Best Romance
- Best Slice of Life
- Best Isekai Anime
- Best Boy Love
Holding multiple award shows takes place in many other industries like music, film and sports, so anime has room for the same structure.
Historically, Spy x Family earned 10 awards at the Anime Awards. According to that system, it would be the most successful “Wholesome” title at the Anime Awards, followed by Yuri on Ice and Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
Award shows in general – including the 2025 Anime Awards – are far from perfect, but seeing the same flashy, action anime win over unique originals becomes disheartening.
As a hopeful fangirl, maybe one day THF will host the best show for romance fandom.
- xoxo Jourdy 💕
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