Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners takes home surprise win at Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards
The video game tie-in took home Anime Of The Year ahead of Spy X Family and Demon Slayer
The nicest thing anyone can objectively say about the video game Cyberpunk 2077 has always been that the various patches and updates over the years have made it a better game than it was when it first came out, but there’s no need to offer such qualified compliments to the Netflix anime tie-in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Not only does the show have a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it also just pulled off a stunning upset at Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime Awards this weekend by beating out mega-hit Demon Slayer and the ever-delightful Spy X Family for Anime Of The Year.
It was, thankfully, still a pretty good night for Spy X Family, which did take home Best Comedy Anime, Best Supporting Anime Character (Anya Forger, who also won Best “Must Protect At All Costs” Anime Character, which is a fun category that other shows should adopt), Best Anime Ending Sequence, and Best New Anime Series (the winners are voted on by fans, so they’re the ones who have to explain how Spy X Family can be the Best New Anime but not Anime Of The Year, even though Edgerunners is also a new anime).
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners actually only won one other category besides Anime Of The Year, with Zach Aguilar winning Best Voice Performance (English), which supports the argument that this was a surprise upset. Other notable winners: Lycoris Recoil won Best Original Anime (while we’re sharing unsolicited anime opinions, Lycoris Recoil is also cool), Demon Slayer won Best Animation, One Piece won Best Continuing Anime Series (because it will always be continuing forever), Jujutsu Kaisen 0 won Best Anime Film (a win that should have no impact on the Oscars, since no anime films were nominated), and Eren Jaeger from Attack On Titan won Best Main Anime Character. Loid Forger from Spy X Family also could’ve won that, but it’s fine.