The 5th

Crunchyroll Anime Awards The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the anime streaming service Crunchyroll to recognize the best anime of the previous year. Announced in December 2016, the awards were first prese ...

were held on February 19, 2021, honoring excellence in anime from

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

announced the list of categories as well as the judges on December 16, 2020. They noted that the categories used in the previous edition were to be used in this edition as well. They also noted that the number of judges increased. Nominees were announced on January 15, the first day of voting. It ran until January 22. There were 15 million votes cast, with a majority coming from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The awards ceremony was streamed live on February 19 as a digital event. It was virtually hosted by Tim Lyu with Crunchyroll-Hime, the official mascot of Crunchyroll. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Crunchyroll noted that the show "will look different." '' Great Pretender'', ''

Jujutsu Kaisen is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since March 2018, with its chapters collected and published in 21 ''tankōbon'' vo ...

'', and ''

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sumito Ōwara. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Big Comic Spirits'' since 2016 and has been collected in seven ''tankōbon'' volumes as of July ...

'' each received ten nominations, followed by ''

Beastars ''Beastars'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'' from September 2016 to October 2020, with its chapters collected in 22 ''t ...

'' with eight and ''

Tower of God ''Tower of God'' () is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by S.I.U. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since June 2010, with the individual chapters collected and publish ...

'' at seven. Among the nominated were

Mamoru Miyano is a Japanese actor and singer. He is best known for his roles on '' Steins;Gate'', ''Durarara!!'', ''Death Note'', '' Soul Eater'', ''Wolf's Rain'', ''Ouran High School Host Club'', '' Ajin: Demi-Human'', '' Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood'', ' ...

, who received his third nomination in the awards, this time for Best Ending Sequence. Voice actor Yuichi Nakamura received his second nomination in the Best VA Performance (JP) category.

Yutaka Yamada is a Japanese composer, arranger and orchestrator, based in Los Angeles. Biography Yutaka is an alumnus of the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan, where he studied musical composition under Toshiyuki Watanabe and Masataka Matsuo. ...

was nominated in two categories, Best Score and Best Opening Sequence. ''Jujutsu Kaisen'''s opening and ending theme were both nominated in their respective categories. Japanese band

ALI ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

received two nominations, one in Best Opening Sequence and one in Best Ending Sequence. Directors

Masaaki Yuasa is a Japanese director, screenwriter, and animator affiliated with Science SARU, a Japanese animation studio which he co-founded with producer Eunyoung Choi in 2013. Yuasa previously served as president of Science SARU, but stepped down from th ...

and

Yuzuru Tachikawa is a Japanese anime director. Starting his career at Madhouse, he is known for directing the anime series '' Death Parade'', '' Mob Psycho 100'', and ''Deca-Dence''. Biography Tachikawa was born in Iruma District, Saitama on December 2, 1981. H ...

each received their second nomination as Best Director. ''

Fruits Basket , sometimes abbreviated , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. It was serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese manga magazine , published by Hakusensha, from 1998 to 2006. The series' title comes from t ...

'' was again nominated for a second time in the Best Drama category. '' Kaguya-sama: Love is War?'' received its second nomination in Best Comedy. Two fight scenes from ''

The God of High School ''The God of High School'' () is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by Yongje Park. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since April 2011, with the individual chapters colle ...

'' were nominated for the Best Fight Scene award.

Kaguya Shinomiya Kaguya, , or Princess Kaguya may refer to: Fiction Kaguya-hime * (, "Princess Kaguya"), the main character in ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'', thought to be the oldest Japanese folktale ** ''Princess Kaguya'', a 1935 film based on the folktal ...

and

Miyuki Shirogane Miyuki is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings Miyuki can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *, "beautiful fortune" or "beautiful happiness" *, "deep snow" *, "beautiful snow" *, "beautiful reason for history" ...

, winners in the previous edition, was nominated again for Best Couple.

Kevin Penkin Kevin Penkin (born 22 May 1992) is a British-born Australian composer, primarily for video games and anime. He is best known for composing the score of the anime '' Made in Abyss'', which won Best Score at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and t ...

received his third straight nomination for Best Score. ''Jujutsu Kaisen'' won the Anime of the Year award. ''Kaguya-sama: Love is War?'' won Best Comedy for the second time. Masaaki Yuasa won his second Best Director as well; the anime that he directed, ''

'', won Best Animation. Kevin Penkin received his second win for Best Score. ALI both won Best Opening Sequence and Best Ending Sequence for "Wild Side" and "LOST IN PARADISE" respectively. '' Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World'' won Best Fantasy, while ''Fruits Basket'' won Best Drama.

Winners and nominees

Statistics

References

{{Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2021 awards in the United States February 2021 events in the United States Crunchyroll