When talking about the Anime Awards, the one that comes to most fans, at least for international anime fans, is The Crunchyroll Awards. The Crunchyroll Awards have been running for years now, and what makes them stand out from the crowd is the variety of categories and the opportunity for fan input through voting. However, the Crunchyroll Awards are not without problems. Coincidentally, a new awards show is coming up and it's about to compete with Crunchyroll in Japan.
Wit Studios president, George Wada, has revealed that they are working on a brand new Award Show that is about to center Japan in the picture, something that Crunchyroll has failed to do. This new award show is called “Tokyo Anime Next”, and it will start in October.
WIT Studio Unveils “Tokyo Anime Next” as the Biggest Upcoming Anime Award Show in Japan
The anime industry in Japan has only grown, and its fame has gone global. With each passing year, anime is becoming more mainstream, and its reach is only increasing. The anime medium has gathered fans from all over the world. That being said, the focus of anime is, first and foremost, Japanese consumers. To that end, a new Anime Award show is currently underway, and it's expected to be the biggest yet in all of Japan.
This new award show was revealed on July 4, 2026, during Anime Expo 2026, specifically during the IG x Wit Studio Industry Panel. To be precise, this new anime award show is by WIT Studio, a famous Japanese anime studio founded on June 1, 2012 by George Wada and Tetsuya Nakatake. The studio has been at the forefront of anime's rise in popularity over the past decade, and they are particularly known for hit series such as Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, Spy x Family, Ranking of Kings and, more recently, The One Piece remake.
This new announcement is exciting and comes directly from George Wada, who currently serves as the Studio's President. According to George Wada, this new award show, known as Tokyo Anime Next, will make its grand debut on October 30, 2026, and it will run until November 2, making it quite an exciting event for all of us to enjoy.
More information about this award show is yet to be revealed. Things like how the voting would work, the jury involved, and the basis for choosing nominees are still unclear, but for now we know the gist of it, and the goal of this new Award Show is to allow Japanese people to be at the forefront of the anime discussion. George Wada made the following comment about his goal and why the new award is important:
“We want to judge, recognize and award anime in Japan, by the Japanese people.” —George Wada
Of course, many fans took this comment negatively, as it seems to specifically cater and focus exclusively on Japanese fans, completely excluding international viewers from the conversation. Still, this new project doesn't exactly come as a surprise. After all, George Wada floated the idea of a new awards show a while ago, on April 14th. He had declared that Japan needs its own awards show, by Japanese anime professionals, for Japanese audiences.
WIT Studio's new awards shows will compete with the Crunchyroll Awards
Of course, WIT Studios' Tokyo Anime Next isn't the first Japanese-centric anime awards show. Aside from this one, there are quite a few other big ones that have been held annually for a while now. There are Anime Grand Prix, Tokyo Anime Awards, Japan Academy Film Prize, Animation Kobe and quite a few more. Some of these even take viewer votes into account, meaning that Tokyo Anime Next isn't exactly breaking new ground in that regard.
What Tokyo Anime Next, on the other hand, is aiming for is global attention with their Award Show, something the others lack outside of Japan. In that sense, Tokyo Anime Next will go toe-to-toe with the Crunchyroll Awards to become the most enticing anime awards show, and become something that fans tune into even from overseas. WIT studio is at the forefront of this project, but it is not the only animation studio involved. This project is created with a coalition of Studios, which means that there is a big push behind the whole project from many Japan-based companies.
The Crunchyroll Awards 2026 drew a reported 73 million votes in total, which is something never before achieved by a Japanese Award Show. With so much support behind it, we could see Tokyo Anime Next achieve similar numbers next year if the show keeps up.
Why fans are unhappy with the Crunchyroll Awards
Crunchyroll's award show first started on January 11, 2017, which is 9 years ago. The Crunchyroll Awards are extremely popular outside of Japan and are by far the biggest anime awards show in the world. But in Japan, the Crunchyroll Awards are basically unheard of, and for a variety of reasons. Firstly, Crunchyroll is not available as a streaming service in Japan, as they have their own local streaming services.
Additionally, the Crunchyroll Awards as a whole are not available or advertised to Japanese fans, and they cannot vote in them. This may be shocking to some, as Crunchyroll holds its award ceremonies in Tokyo, and yet almost no Japanese fans have heard of them. This is a huge issue that Tokyo Anime Next wants to address, as George Wada believes that this type of event should involve Japan. Ideally, a better balance should be achieved, with both Japanese and international fans able to participate in a single anime award.
There are other issues with the Crunchyroll Awards that leave many fans feeling let down by them. For example, some fans are not happy with the nomination process for Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll Award nominees are selected by an unknown set of jurors, whose credentials fans don't even know. This leads to dissatisfaction with many of the nominations, some of which are believed to consist of repetitive series. At other times, some nominees are undeserved but trendy. As such, some good shows may be snubbed at the Crunchyroll Awards.
With Tokyo Anime Next, we're likely to see the involvement of big industry names, including anime directors and animators, storyboard artists, and others who are at the forefront of the industry itself and who more than definitely deserve a say in what gets nominated and what wins. This is a major bug in Crunchyroll that WIT Studio can fix. We can't wait for more information to be revealed about the new award, and we're definitely curious to compare it to the Crunchyroll Awards as it eventually develops.
