Masaaki Yuasa, ‘Devilman Crybaby’ Take Top Crunchyroll Anime Award Honors

Over 5 million global votes cast for favorite characters, series and creators, with winners announced during exclusive live Twitch stream of third annual event.

Crunchyroll, the world’s most popular anime brand, tonight has announced the winners from the third annual Anime Awards, presented by Devil May Cry 5. The annual Anime Awards celebrate the best and brightest in Japanese animation with categories honoring fan favorite series, characters, moments, and more from anime in 2018.

Devilman Crybaby, the anime series based on Go Nagai's manga, Devilman, took the evening’s Anime of the Year top prize – the show’s director Masaaki Yuasa, noted for helming Lu Over the Wall and Night is Short, Walk on Girl, took home the Best Director award.

Anime as an industry experienced incredible growth over the last year. With widespread celebrity endorsements, inclusion in mainstream cultural events, and a marked interest from Hollywood, anime has been pegged as a $20B industry, with no signs of slowing down.

This year, over 5 million global votes were cast across 15 categories from fans celebrating their favorite characters, series, and creators, up from 2.1 million votes the year before. Winners of the Anime Awards were announced at a live event in San Francisco, and streamed to anime fans around the world exclusively on Twitch.

Winners of this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards include:

Anime of the Year - Devilman Crybaby from Science SARU
Best Protagonist - Rimuru Tempest of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime
Best Antagonist - All for One of My Hero Academia Season 3
Best Boy - Izuku 'Deku' Midoriya of “My Hero Academia” Season 3
Best Girl - Mai Sakurajima of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Best Opening Sequence - DARLING in the FRANXX for the opening sequence “KISS OF DEATH” sung by Mika Nakashima and produced by Hyde, sequence director Toshifumi Akai and storyboards by Atsushi Nishigori
Best Ending Sequence - Attack on Titan Season 3 for the ending sequence “Akatsuki no Requiem” sung by Linked Horizon, sequence director Satoshi Kadowaki
Best VA: Japanese - Mamoru Miyano for his character Kotaro Tatsumi from ZOMBIE LAND SAGA
Best VA: English - Christopher R. Sabat for his character All Might from My Hero Academia Season 3
Best Director - Masaaki Yuasa of Devilman Crybaby
Best Animation - for Violet Evergarden from Kyoto Animation
Best Film - My Hero Academia: Two Heroes from BONES
Best Character Design - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind from Takahiro Kishida with Original Designs by Hirohiko Araki
Best Fight Scene - All for One vs All Might from My Hero Academia Season 3
Best Continuing Series - Dragon Ball Super from Toei Animation

Additional highlights from the Anime Awards:

Masahiko Minami, President. & Producer at BONES INC., was honored with this year’s Industry Icon Award, which recognizes influential figures who have meaningfully contributed to the art and industry of anime.
Crunchyroll unveiled the world premiere trailer for the Made in Abyss theatrical event and premiered an exclusive sneak peek at YU-NO: A girl who
chants love at the bound of the world., an anime from studio feel. and Genco premiering April 2019 in Japan.
Winner of the Best Protagonist award, Rimuru Tempest of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, is currently featured in a special in-game crossover event in Grand Summoners, a multiplayer-based RPG available for download now on iOS and Android.
Two, limited edition Xbox One X’s with custom Crunchyroll Hime/Devil May Cry 5 skins were given away live on stream.
An exclusive interview with the producer of The Island of Giant Insects, a new Crunchyroll co-production coming in 2019.