At the 11th Anime Trending Awards, the competition is fiercer than ever before! Due to the lack of sports and music anime this year, only nine categories are available for the taking, which results in a much more dramatic finish with many victories and upsets among the anime titles. Check out the results below!
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End continues to compete with DAN DA DAN well into the awards night, with the titular elf series snatching away Action or Adventure Anime of the Year and later Fantasy Anime of the Year, rounding up the night with a total of six awards won. It’s fitting how the series continues to resonate in fans’ hearts even after it finished airing, and coincidentally, the series’ second season has now been greenlit for January 2026. Perhaps Frieren will win even more awards in 2026.
Being outdone by Frieren in Action or Adventure Anime of the Year by 528 votes, DAN DA DAN settled with Supernatural Anime of the Year and five total awards at the 11th ATA. This is no small feat for the Science SARU animated show, as it stood on its own against bigger anime giants across the year with a total of 6,623 votes. Other series in the running included Kaiju No. 8, BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Conflict –, and MONOGATARI Series OFF & MONSTER Season — all of which had varying ranges of votes.
As the runner-up to Frieren in Fantasy Anime of the Year, the riveting isekai Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 3 managed to bounce back and nab Mystery or Psychological Anime of the Year away from the likes of The Apothecary Diaries and 【OSHI NO KO】Season 2 with a total of 5,648 votes. With such a stupendous upset, the producer of Re:ZERO expresses his gratitude towards the fans for supporting the show.
Moving into the realm of realism and modern day, several anime stand out with multiple awards of their own.【OSHI NO KO】Season 2 goes home with Drama Anime of the Year with merely six more votes than Days with My Stepsister, a startling upset between a series with a second season and a rom-com. The intense murder mystery of an anime continues to reign high throughout Anime Trending history with two other awards tonight at the 11th ATA — Girl of the Year and Ending Theme Song of the Year — and many more in past annual awards.
Similarly with its narrow victory, romantic comedy Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! wins Comedy Anime of the Year. Its colorful cast of popular girls and their favorite background character guy manages to beat KONOSUBA -God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! S3 by just 81 votes, and outstrips other popular series like DAN DA DAN and MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES S2.
This marks two ATA wins for Makeine, with the other award going to the voice actress Hikaru Toono for Best Voice Acting Performance of the Year – Female for her portrayal of Anna Yanami. It may have lost out on Romance Anime of the Year, but like its heroines, Makeine will never stop exploring the complexities of love!
Days with My Stepsister continues to falter throughout the awards night, as The Dangers in My Heart and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian steal away Romance Anime of the Year and Slice of Life Anime of the Year respectively.
Something special lies within The Dangers in My Heart, because its second season also won three more awards tonight — Boy of the Year, Couple/Ship of the Year, and Best in Voice Cast — and continues to mark more milestones. The series previously won the Winter 2024 awards in a landslide and the 10th ATA’s Couple/Ship of the Year. Unfortunately, the show was just shy of winning Anime of the Year in 2024, but perhaps it will fare better in the future as the couple’s chemistry continues to deepen.
Meanwhile, Alya Sometimes Hides her Feelings in Russian fared quite well against its competitors, perhaps a bit confident that its unique story and characters would do well with the fans. With a total of 4,697 votes, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian triumphs in the romance category, along with its other win for Supporting Girl of the Year. Needless to say, there is a lot of potential for the series at future awards, since the second season was recently announced last year.
As a final clincher of the night, Kaiju No. 8 brings home the Sci-fi or Mecha Anime of the Year. This is the series’ only win at the 11th ATA, with a total of 6,223 votes that surpassed the most anticipated Date A Live V series by more than 100 votes and NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Part II by 2,260 votes. Kaiju No. 8 had a good run at the Anime Trending Awards, but with its incoming second season airing in July, it may slay the competition and achieve greater heights.
To see the full results of the 11th Anime Trending Awards, click here.
