The Crunchyroll Anime Awards are one of the most anticipated awards outside of Japan, and every year fans are thrilled to see nominees competing for top spot. this year, solo levelingOne major animated series has been ignored. This comes as a surprise to most anime fans around the world, especially since the series has had a very strong year with season 2 enjoying unprecedented popularity. solo leveling was not nominated for the 2026 Animation of the Year award, and needless to say, for many, this is an injustice to the series.
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A-1 Picture Masterpiece has officially been removed from the Animation of the Year nominations.
The 2026 Crunchyroll Awards recently announced nominees for each category, and as always, there are plenty of categories fans are excited to see. But the most prestigious award among them has always been the Animation of the Year Award. Solo Leveling Season 1 was the big winner at the 2025 Crunchyroll Awards. In that sense, Solo Leveling is eligible for awards this year as well by releasing a new season in 2025.
Despite enjoying a much more successful season than the first, to the shock of many, Solo Leveling was not nominated for the 2026 Animation of the Year award. Instead, the candidates consisted of: Apothecary Diaries Season 2, DAN DA DAN Season 2, Gachi Akuta, My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON, Summer Hikaru Dies, and Tacopi's original sin. Many people think it's very unfair and a grave injustice to the series. Solo Leveling has proven to be Crunchyroll's biggest series and the most reviewed on the entire platform. The second season also crashed the streaming giant's servers and was more than just a standard success. There's a lot of dissatisfaction among fans about Crunchyroll's decision. Especially since it ruined the franchise's chances of becoming the first anime in history to win Animation of the Year title twice in a row.
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Analysis of why comic giants were rejected
Solo Leveling's failure to be nominated for Animation of the Year is a shock that raises questions about why it was not nominated in the first place. Crunchyroll Awards nominees are determined by a panel of judges who examine all of the year's biggest animated series. So the reason you weren't nominated is simply because you didn't get enough support from the panel of judges. Clearly they believed there were better candidates for Animation of the Year title.
The streaming giant may have been worried about another landslide win for Solo Leveling after its huge success in 2025. Solo Leveling's massive success last year was such that other series went home without titles, even in other categories. That success may work against them at this year's awards ceremony.
Who is that character?

Check out the silhouette before time runs out.
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Check out the silhouette before time runs out.
Easy (7.5 seconds) Medium (5.0 seconds) Hard (2.5 seconds) Eternal Death (2.5 seconds)
How franchises can still win big at the Crunchyroll Awards
Solo Leveling was undoubtedly snubbed when it took home the Animation of the Year title at the Crunchyroll 2026 Awards. That said, the franchise still received nominations elsewhere. This means that even if the series has a lower reputation, it still has a chance to win other titles. The biggest award Solo Leveling was actually nominated for was Best Continuing Series. In this division, they will compete against MHA, One Piece, etc. Solo Leveling has also been nominated for the following titles:
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Best Animation
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best action
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best protagonist
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best anime songs
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highest score
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best opening sequence
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best ending sequence
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Best Voice Artist Performance (Hindi)
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Best Voice Artist Performance (Latin Spanish)
Fans of the series have a great opportunity to support their favorite series and hopefully there will be another opportunity to win Animation of the Year whenever the next season of Solo Leveling is released. For now, all they can do is express their support for Sung Jin-Woo and his story, and hope that he, despite his disgrace, takes first place and takes home most of the other awards.
Both seasons of the Solo Leveling anime are available to stream on Crunchyroll.
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