SOLO LEVELING rises above all, sweeping awards at Anime Awards 2025 including “Anime of the Year”

Solo Leveling is truly THAT anime of 2025.

Crunchyroll has announced the winners of this year’s Anime Awards, and it’s no surprise that Solo Leveling dominated the list, taking home nine awards, including the coveted “Anime of the Year” title. It triumphed over strong contenders like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, DAN DA DAN, Delicious in Dungeon, Kaiju No. 8, and The Apothecary Diaries.

Solo Leveling claimed victories in the following categories:

• Anime of the Year

• Best New Series

• Best Action

• Best Main Character – Sung Jinwoo

• Best Score

• Best Ending Sequence – “request”

• Best Voice Artist Performance (Brazilian Portuguese) – Charles Emmanuel

• Best Voice Artist Performance (Castilian Spanish) – Masumi Mutsuda

• Best Voice Artist Performance (English) – Aleks Le

Originally written as a webnovel by Chugong, Solo Leveling has inspired multiple adaptations, including a wildly popular webcomic series illustrated by DUBU. The webcomic launched on KakaoPage on March 4, 2018, and concluded with 179 chapters on December 29, 2021. Just a year later, the anime adaptation was announced at Anime Expo 2022. After some delays, Season 1 premiered on January 7, 2024, followed by Season 2 on January 5, 2025.

A-1 Pictures produced the anime, with Shunsuke Nakashige directing and Noboru Kimura writing the scripts. Tomoko Sudo designed the characters, while Hiroyuki Sawano composed the score. Krage performed the Season 1 ending theme, “request.”

Solo Leveling captivated audiences worldwide with its gripping story about Sung Jinwoo, an E-Rank Hunter known as the world’s weakest. After a near-death experience, he awakens to discover he’s now a Player in a mysterious System. As he defeats opponents, he levels up, transforming from the weakest Hunter into the strongest.

When the anime adaptation was announced, Chugong expressed disbelief and joy. “Seriously, stop pulling my leg!” he joked. “But these days, I’m feeling excited and thrilled. Since I’m still half-doubting that this is real, I want to see Jinwoo and the other characters get animated soon and feel relieved. I’ll keep working diligently while looking forward to that day. (lol)”

DUBU, who sadly passed away shortly after the announcement, also shared his thoughts at the time: “It feels like only yesterday that we got the offer for the anime adaptation. I feel so overwhelmed when I think that the anime is really being created right now. This is all thanks to you fans who love and support Solo Leveling. I’m filled with gratitude. Thank you very much.” He added, “If this anime gives new enjoyment to the readers, I’ll be very happy.”

You can stream the first two seasons of Solo Leveling now on Crunchyroll.

Source: Crunchyroll