Animation
‘Solo Leveling’ dominates Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025 with record 51 million global votes
MUMBAI: The Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025 closed on a thunderous note in Tokyo, as Solo Leveling bagged Anime of the Year amid a record-breaking 51 million votes from fans across the globe. Held at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa, the event marked the ninth edition of anime’s biggest global celebration, honouring the studios, creators, and performers driving the genre’s cultural dominance.
Voice actress Sally Amaki and TV personality Jon Kabira returned to host the show for the third consecutive year, setting the tone for an evening filled with fanfare and fervour. Global icons like Kacey Musgraves, Finn Wolfhard, J Balvin, Chloe Kim, and Rina Sawayama presented awards across 30+ categories, joined by anime royalty including Kanata Hongo, Dean Fujioka, and Mayu Matsuoka.
Attack on Titan was conferred the first-ever Global Impact Award, recognising the anime’s decade-long influence on storytelling and fandom. Director Yuichiro Hayashi of MAPPA accepted the honour on behalf of the entire creative team.
Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini said, “Fans form deep emotional connections to anime. These are not just series, films or songs, but rather works of art that help define the identity of anime fans. With an incredible 51 million votes this year, the 2025 Anime Awards are celebrating the creators in Japan who have captured the hearts of fans and are powering anime’s prominence in global pop culture”.
Live performances electrified the show. Creepy Nuts delivered the viral opening theme ‘Bling-Bang-Bang-Born’ from Mashle: Magic and Muscles and ‘Otonoke’ from Dan Da Dan. Rock icons Flow performed ‘Days’ for Eureka Seven’s 20 anniversary. Lisa lit up the stage with fan favourites from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Winners included:
● Anime of the Year: Solo Leveling
● Film of the Year: Look Back
● Best Continuing Series: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
● Best Director: Keiichiro Saito (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)
● Best Main Character: Sung Jinwoo (Solo Leveling)
● Best Japanese Voice Artist: Aoi Yuki (Maomao – The Apothecary Diaries)
● Best Hindi Voice Artist: Lohit Sharma (Satoru Gojo – Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2)
Notably, countries like Canada and Chile broke into the top 10 voting nations for the first time, alongside India, Brazil, and the U.S. Crunchyroll will make the full show available as video-on-demand across Youtube, Twitch, Sony Pictures Core, and Sony Group Corp’s global platforms.
Sony Music Solutions Inc. and Dempsey Productions co-produced the show.
MUMBAI: History is getting a fresh rewrite this time with code, creativity and a longer arc in mind. Lens Vault Studios has announced its first original production, Bal Tanhaji, marking the official entry of the newly launched, tech-driven studio into India’s evolving entertainment landscape.
Arriving six years after the box-office success of Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, the new project expands the universe rather than revisiting familiar ground. Bal Tanhaji explores uncharted narrative territory, signalling a clear shift from one-off cinematic spectacles to long-format, world-building storytelling designed for digital-first audiences.
At the heart of this ambition is Prismix Studios, the in-house generative AI and technology arm powering the creative engine behind the show. The studio’s approach blends storytelling with next-generation tools, aiming to reimagine how Indian IPs are created, scaled and sustained beyond theatrical releases.
For Lens Vault Studios chairman Ajay Devgn the new venture represents a deliberate step beyond traditional cinema. The focus is firmly on building long-form intellectual properties across fiction and non-fiction, tailored to changing viewing habits and platform-led consumption. He said the studio intends to explore formats that remain largely untapped, while drawing on the team’s experience with large-scale cinematic storytelling.
Lens Vault Studios founder and CEO Danish Devgn echoed that sentiment, describing Bal Tanhaji as the studio’s first generative-AI-led IP and the starting point of a broader vision. The aim, he noted, is to carry forward the legacy of the Tanhaji universe while connecting with younger audiences through a blend of powerful narratives and emerging technologies.
With Bal Tanhaji, Lens Vault Studios is planting its flag early not just launching a show, but signalling a larger play for cinematic universes that live, grow and evolve across platforms. If this debut is any indication, the future of Indian storytelling may be as much about imagination as it is about innovation.
