Demon Slayer robbed Bleach and One Piece at Anime Awards 2025, and you can't change my mind

At the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025, Demon Slayer was declared to be the winner under the Best Continuing Anime Series category. At no point would I want to look down on the anime, as I appreciate the creator's work, but it made me confused.

I was confident that One Piece or Bleach would easily take the win. If I am honest, this feels like a robbery. It feels more like a popularity contest than a celebration of storytelling, substance, or legacy.

Because think about it, the nominees in this category were Bleach and One Piece. These are pillars of the anime industry. One’s delivering a swan song of masterfully animated payoff after a decade-long hiatus (Bleach), and the other is giving us a continuous masterclass in long-form storytelling that’s nearing its final arc (One Piece).

I strongly feel that these anime are not just simple animated series that are icons by themselves. Bleach’s return has been nothing short of resurrective. Studio Pierrot leveled up like we’ve never seen before. Reminding us as to why this anime is one of the Big Three.

And then, there’s One Piece. Toei dropped movie-level animation on us almost weekly. Furthermore, the lore dumps that Oda has been teasing for decades are finally being revealed. While watching this series, I feel like we are part of something bigger. One Piece is not just continuing. It’s peaking. After over a thousand episodes, it’s somehow giving its best content yet.

Therefore, when you line these two juggernauts up beside Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc, Demon Slayer walks away with the trophy. I cannot stop and shake off the feeling that something does not add up. While the arc was a beautifully drawn collection of episodes, this arc was not more than a foundation being set for the final battle to come.

I feel like there were no major villains. No major resolutions. The story didn’t really advance in a significant way; it just positioned all the pieces for the final arc. Even the battles were minimal. This felt more like character-building disguised as plot progression.

But to compare this with Bleach, which is out here with soul-rearranging fights, and One Piece is delivering Wano, I just can’t understand how this arc walks away with the “Best Continuing Anime Series” label.

Demon Slayer has other opportunities, and the best continuing anime series was not one

Demon Slayer has been one of my top anime, so when I say that if it could win under any category that has the word animation, I would wholeheartedly agree. But that’s not what this category is about. It's the Best Continuing Series. Not the best visuals. Not the most viral scenes.

It’s about overall storytelling continuity, emotional resonance across episodes, character progression, thematic weight, and cultural relevance. And in that domain, Bleach and One Piece were simply operating at a higher level. Bleach’s TYBW arc was something that fans have been patiently waiting for a decade. And in One Piece, an episode in the Wano climax was an event in itself.

This is where I start having a theory: maybe the problem isn’t Demon Slayer. Maybe the problem is how these awards are structured. Because it’s hard not to feel like this was less a judgment on storytelling and more a vote for who’s trending.

Final Thoughts

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In my opinion, Awards should reward excellence, not just accessibility. And the final issue that has been bothering me about all of this is the fake divide between old-gen and new-gen anime. They should be able to coexist or be judged by the same metric. Great storytelling is timeless. And Bleach and One Piece are still telling stories that punch through the screen.

Meanwhile, Demon Slayer is still relatively early in its journey. Its worldbuilding, while beautiful, doesn’t touch the layered cultures and factions. I know this will sound harsh to Demon Slayer fans, and again, I like Demon Slayer. But this win felt like a miss. You can enjoy the show. You can even think it’s one of your favorites, but not when Bleach and One Piece are in the same league.

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