Earlier today, on May 23, 2026, the Crunchyroll Awards ceremony was held in Tokyo, Japan for the 10th successive year. As is the case each year, the awards cover multiple categories, choosing various winners with both fan and jury votes. This year's Crunchyroll Awards racked in a whopping 73 million votes from all over the world, setting a new record in the process. The voting period for every category ran from April 3, 2026, all the way to April 16, 2026, with the results only being announced today.
Last year, Solo Leveling swept the vast majority of the awards and asserted absolute dominance in just about every category, but this year was very different. Solo Leveling competed in various spheres, but the biggest award that it was nominated for was the Best Continuing Series. In this category, Solo Leveling went up against a behemoth of anime and a legend that has stood strong for nearly 30 years now, and that is Eiichiro Oda's One Piece, animated by none other than Toei Animation and distributed by Fuji TV. Thanks to both fan votes and jury votes, One Piece was officially chosen as the Best Continuing Anime for 2026 over Solo Leveling.
One Piece Is Officially Chosen As Crunchyroll's 2026 Best Continuing Anime Series On May 23
The One Piece anime delivered an absolutely iconic year last year with the continuation of its stellar Egghead arc. This arc began in the anime in January 2024 and lasted for about two years. December 2025 marked the conclusion of the Egghead arc in the anime, successfully delivering a very powerful conclusion with the handling of both the climax and the peak of the arc with Jewelry Bonney’s backstory.
Thanks to a very powerful performance, One Piece was chosen by fans all over the world as the Best Continuing Anime Series, with strong support from the jury as well, by the looks of it. Given the quality that Eiichiro Oda's masterpiece has delivered on a consistent basis over the years and the vast fanbase that it has gathered through a consistent quality output, the series ' win doesn't come as a surprise to us.
What especially stood out to me and many other One Piece fans last year was the immaculate level of production upgrade by Toei Animation. Its production helped it clinch the victory with absolutely incredible directors, such as Nozomu Shishido, Yasunori Koyama, and some other veterans who served to elevate both the storyboard and handle direction at various points in the story, such as Katsumi Ishizuka, among others. In terms of animation, the series might not have been as consistent as the likes of Solo Leveling, but for me, when a series delivers a high-level story and does more than just decent in the animation department, it is the clear favorite, and that appears to be the case for the vast majority of the voters as well. In all fairness, One Piece was the deserved winner of this year's Crunchyroll Anime Awards as the best continuing anime series.
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Solo Leveling Failed To Claim The Award After A Strong Season 2 Last Year
While One Piece certainly went on to deliver a very strong year, so did Solo Leveling after a phenomenal Season 1, which helped it sweep the poll at Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025. I and many other fans were expecting the series to make a strong impression at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 as well. The fact that the series wasn't nominated for the prize of Anime of the Year came as a surprise to millions all over the world, but the fact that it was up there competing for the Best Continuing Anime series was a consolation.
If anything, Solo Leveling upped its production as well as storywriting with its latest season release in 2025. Solo Leveling Season 2 officially began streaming on Crunchyroll on January 4, 2025, and ended on March 29, 2025. The 13 episodes that it delivered were absolutely stellar from beginning to end, and arcs such as Jeju Island served to impress me and millions of others all over the world. In terms of action, Solo Leveling was quite easily one of the very best in the year, but where it was lacking was the storytelling department, which could have become its undoing, especially when going up against a behemoth such as One Piece.
Despite not winning the award for the Best Continuing Anime, Solo Leveling still took home two absolutely massive wins, being voted as the fans' Best Animated Series of 2026 and, at the same time, the Best Action of 2026 as well. This, in itself, is a major victory for Solo Leveling and one that is deserved. Having watched a plethora of anime series in 2026, I was absolutely amazed by the sheer level of quality displayed in Solo Leveling Season 2. In fact, Solo Leveling Season 2 Episode 12, where Sung Jinwoo officially took on Ant King in the climax of the Jeju Island Arc, was itself worthy of both the Best Action and Best Animation Award.
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Why One Piece Deserved The Best Continuing Anime Award Over Solo Leveling
Coming over to One Piece's massive victory at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 on May 23, the series most certainly deserved its victory, largely due to the immaculate story told by Eiichiro Oda. One Piece is a brilliant story still in the making after 29 long years when it comes to the manga, and that certainly carries a lot of weight. Added to that is the fact that Eiichiro Oda is a master of incredible story crafting, character writing, and world building. In these aspects, One Piece is practically unbeatable and Toei Animation brought the best of this series to life last year, making it worthy of a massive victory at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
The new art direction and character designs by the likes of Midori Matsuda, and touch ups by Keisuke Mori served to make the series more beautiful than ever before, and the incredible staff at Toei Animation elevated some of the most important parts of the Egghead arc to a whole new level, with phenomenal adaptations such as episode 1089, 1144, and 1152, to name a few. Delivering consistent quality despite being produced on a yearly basis is incredibly difficult, and the effort of the staff at Toei Animation needs recognition for that. As such, One Piece claiming victory at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards by defeating Solo Leveling for the title of Best Continuing Series makes a lot of sense, and is rightly deserved for me and millions of others all over the world.
Source: Crunchyroll Anime Awards Results 2026
One Piece
- Release Date
- October 20, 1999
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Creator
- Eiichiro Oda
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Pluto TV
