The 10th annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards have come to a thrilling close, serving up several enchanting musical acts, including Yoko Takahashi of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame, alongside surprise guests like The Weeknd and RZA. Spread across 32 categories, the 2026 awards were especially competitive thanks to one of anime’s strongest years in recent memory, making major snubs feel almost unavoidable.
Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards are no stranger to criticism. Nearly every year, fans are quick to dismiss them as a mere popularity contest, jokingly rebranding the ceremony as the “Solo Leveling Awards” — and well before that, the “My Hero Academia Awards,” which is particularly funny considering My Hero Academia took home Anime of the Year this time around. Still, despite the heavy emphasis on mainstream hits, the show delivered a few unexpected victories, with series like The Apothecary Diaries, Gachiakuta, and The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity earning well-deserved recognition.
That said, some notable omissions are impossible to ignore, like Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, 100 Meters, Takopi’s Original Sin, and The Summer Hikaru Died. While there are plenty of disappointing losses across the board, a handful of series stand out as the year’s most baffling snubs. Here are three of the best anime that the Crunchyroll Anime Awards completely overlooked.
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Best Original Anime: Apocalypse Hotel
It’s not too surprising that Shinichiro Watanabe’s Lazarus was this year’s Best Original Anime. Created by the same director behind Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy, Lazarus is certainly worthy of the award, but Apocalypse Hotel deserves it far more for its genuine originality, incredible animation, and insightful themes.
Set in the year 2157, the story of Apocalypse Hotel blends sci-fi and slice of life into a cozy, feel-good anime about purpose and loyalty. Even in the wake of contagion that sends all surviving humans into the stars, the Gingarou Hotel remains alive as ever with a merry band of robot workers continuing their daily tasks as if no one ever left. That’s the beating heart of the show: a wild and loving dynamic shared between the hotel’s ever-enduring artificial staff.
While most post-apocalypse tales are steeped in grim survival and desolation, Apocalypse Hotel flips that script entirely. It’s a rare gem that contrasts the annihilation of the human race with the dysfunctional fun of robots concerned with hospitality standards. Given how its characters are artificial, the series is also unafraid to play with time, pushing the narrative further into the future as the hotel expands and evolves.
It might not have won Best Original Anime in this year’s Crunchyroll Awards, but Apocalypse Hotel is still a must-watch.
Watch Apocalypse Hotel on Crunchyroll.
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Best Comedy Anime: City the Animation
Dandadan won Best Comedy in this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards, which shouldn’t be surprising for long-time anime fans. The series packs some insane hilarity into a narrative loaded with action and horror. But it doesn’t scratch that comedy itch quite like City the Animation, which largely flew under the radar in 2025.
The 13-episode series is adapted from the manga by Keiichi Arawi, whose Nichijou is just as utterly bonkers. However, City the Animation trades the traditional school setting for college life and community chaos, following a group of young women in a fictional city in Japan. Kyoto Animation brought the series to life in stunning vibrancy, especially episode 5, which puts on full display the studio’s craft through a manga gag turned into a visual delight.
The series isn’t without some pain points, of course. Much like Nichijou before it, City the Animation flows in a disjointed and fragmented way. It doesn’t have a conventional plot like other anime; in City the Animation things kind of happen, and you’re just along for the ride. But that’s exactly what makes it such a fun and interesting experience, made all the better thanks to its vibrant animation quality.
Don’t let the Crunchyroll Anime Awards fool you. City the Animation is worth a watch if you’re looking for hilarious anime hijinks, and it’s much shorter than Nichijou, making its vignette-style pacing far more digestible.
Watch City the Animation on Prime Video.
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Best Drama Anime: Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
The second season of Apothecary Diaries took home the win for Best Drama in Crunchyroll’s 2026 Anime Awards, which is fair given its high praise and excellent animation quality. The list of nominees for the award was incredibly stacked this year, including The Summer Hikaru Died, Takopi’s Original Sin, and Blue Box.
But all of them pale in comparison to Orb: On the Movements of Earth. It’s a wonderful, heartbreaking series made especially for history buffs, revolving (pun intended) around the secret history of the heliocentric theory, the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun. Produced by Madhouse — the same studio behind some of the greatest anime of all time, like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Death Note, and Perfect Blue — Orb: On the Movements of Earth is that once-in-a-lifetime series that is inarguably a masterpiece.
Instead of one main character, the series shifts across time periods, featuring a rotating cast of leads set in 15th-century Europe that’s dominated by geocentrism, an astronomical model that places Earth at the center of the universe. The show’s primary antagonist, Novak, becomes one of the most pivotal characters in the series, highlighting how devotion to the wrong cause can have devastating effects on generations in the future.
On a personal level, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is still in my top 10 anime of all time. It’s a powerful show that emphasizes the necessity of science, intellect, and individual thought, and will remain timeless.
Watch Orb: On the Movements of Earth on Netflix.
