• Award Shows
• Entertainment

2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards Odds: Best Bets for Every Category

The 10th Crunchyroll Anime Awards take place on May 23, 2026, in Tokyo, and BetUS has posted real-money odds across five categories, making this one of the only entertainment futures markets currently available to US bettors. My Hero Academia: Final is sitting at -450 in Anime of the Year, but the chalk there is brutal, and the value on this board is hiding in places most bettors won’t look.

On this page, I’m breaking down every market BetUS has up for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, making a case for the best bet on the board, and telling you where to skip the juice entirely.

How the Crunchyroll Anime Awards Work

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards recognize the best anime, films, songs, and performances of the past year, with fan voting playing a major role in determining winners. Fan voting for the 2026 ceremony closed on April 15, so the ballots are already locked. What happens next is a combination of those fan votes and judge scores, though Crunchyroll stopped publishing the exact weighting breakdown in 2023, which makes predicting the outcome difficult.

That matters for how you bet this board. Markets like Polymarket have been trading these categories since April, with My Hero Academia: Final at around 79% implied probability for Anime of the Year. BetUS is pricing that at -450, which implies roughly 81.8%. The consensus is very clear. The question is whether the price is worth it.

Anime of the Year: Is -450 Worth Playing?

Nominee	Odds
My Hero Academia: Final	-450
Gachiakuta	+1000
Takopi’s Original Sin	+2000

My Hero Academia: Final is the correct favorite, and the market is right to price it short. The final season of one of the most popular long-running shonen series in history landed with 15 nominations and generated massive fan mobilization during the April voting window. All 11 episodes of the final season scored above a 9 on IMDb. This is a sentimental, era-ending vote, and public voting rewards that kind of cultural moment.

The problem is -450. At that price, you’re risking $450 to win $100. The implied probability is 81.8%, and the market consensus on Polymarket has been tracking in a roughly similar range. You’re paying a significant premium to be right about something most people already agree on.

If you want MHA exposure, the better play is in the English Voice Acting category, which I’ll get to below. For Anime of the Year, the only bet worth considering is Gachiakuta at +1000 as a small-stakes upset play. Gachiakuta pulled 16 nominations at this ceremony, holds a 4.9 out of 5 on Crunchyroll across more than 200,000 reviews, and scored an 8.22 on MyAnimeList. Studio Bones’ animation on the show drew comparisons to their best work. If the judge component of the scoring breaks against the crowd-favorite narrative, Gachiakuta is the most legitimate challenger. That said, I’d keep any Gachiakuta bet to a half unit at most.

Skip Takopi’s Original Sin at +2000. It’s an emotionally resonant show with a strong critical reception, but it ran only six episodes, which historically hasn’t been enough to carry an Anime of the Year vote against a cultural juggernaut like MHA’s final season.

The Best Bet on the Board: Chainsaw Man Film of the Year at +150

Nominee	Odds
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc	+150
100 Meters	+3500

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc at +150 is the best line on this entire board, and it’s not close. Positive odds on what the market treats as a heavy favorite is an unusual pricing inefficiency, and it’s the kind of bet you take.

The Chainsaw Man movie is one of the highest-grossing Japanese films ever made. It grossed $174.7 million worldwide, screened in over 100 countries, and pulled nearly 3 billion yen in its first 10 days in Japan alone. It holds an 8.3 on IMDb and has received positive reviews from critics worldwide. There are only two nominees in this category on BetUS, and the only other option is 100 Meters at +3500. This is a two-horse race, with the clear favorite listed at plus money.

To be fair, this is Film of the Year, not Anime of the Year. Theatrical anime films have a mixed track record at the Crunchyroll Awards, and there’s a risk that Chainsaw Man’s dark, violent tone could work against it in a fan-voted ceremony. That said, Chainsaw Man has one of the most dedicated fanbases in anime right now, and this film gave them exactly what they wanted.

At +150, Chainsaw Man Movie is my top bet on the board.

Best Anime Song: JANE DOE at +1500

Nominee	Odds
Kenshi Yonezu & Hikaru Utada: JANE DOE (Chainsaw Man Movie)	+1500
LISA: ReawakeR feat. Felix of Stray Kids	+1500
YOASOBI: Watch Me! (WITCH WATCH)	+2500

All three nominees in the Best Anime Song category are listed as long shots, which tells you this category is genuinely competitive. I’d lean toward JANE DOE by Kenshi Yonezu and Hikaru Utada at +1500.

JANE DOE went mainstream. The track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 and #32 on the Billboard Global 200, with over 15.5 million Spotify streams as of late 2025. Kenshi Yonezu wrote and composed it, with vocals from Hikaru Utada, two of the most acclaimed artists in Japanese music. LISA’s ReawakeR feat. Felix of Stray Kids is also at +1500 and pulls in both anime and K-pop fanbases, which is real voting power. YOASOBI at +2500 for WITCH WATCH is the weakest case of the three, given that the show’s profile relative to Chainsaw Man.

This is a category where I’d put a small half-unit on JANE DOE and accept that all three have a real shot.

Best English Voice Performance: Skip MHA, Take Alexis Tipton at +600

Nominee	Odds
Justin Briner as Izuku Midoriya (My Hero Academia)	Even
Alexis Tipton as Reze (Chainsaw Man Movie)	+600
Paul Castro Jr. as Hikaru Indou (The Summer Hikaru Died)	+1300

Justin Briner as Izuku Midoriya at Even is the safest bet on the board if you trust the MHA wave to carry through every category. Given MHA’s dominant position in Anime of the Year, there’s logic to it.

But Alexis Tipton as Reze in the Chainsaw Man movie at +600 is the more interesting play. Her performance in the Reze Arc generated significant critical attention, and if Chainsaw Man overperforms relative to expectations across the ceremony, Tipton at 6-to-1 looks very good in hindsight. The Chainsaw Man fanbase votes hard, and they have a particular fondness for the Reze Arc.

I’d take a half unit on Tipton at +600 rather than locking juice into Briner at Even.

Best New Series: The Summer Hikaru Died at +1500

Nominee	Odds
The Summer Hikaru Died	+1500
Clevatess	+1600
The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity	+2000

The Summer Hikaru Died at +1500 is the pick in the Best New Series category. It earned a 100% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, hit #1 on Netflix Japan for multiple consecutive weeks after launch, and already has a second season greenlit. It’s a supernatural horror story that connected with far more than the typical anime audience, which matters for a fan-voted ceremony.

Clevatess at +1600 and The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity at +2000 are both in the conversation, but neither generated the cultural moment that Summer Hikaru Died did. At +1500, this is worth a half unit.

Where to Bet the Crunchyroll Anime Awards

BetUS is currently the main offshore sportsbook offering real-money lines on the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. The site accepts deposits as low as $10, processes crypto payouts quickly, and offers a welcome bonus of up to $2,625. Prediction market platforms like Polymarket also have these categories live, but Polymarket is not regulated by the CFTC, and US bettors face access restrictions.

BetUS is the better option for US-based players looking to get action down before the May 23 ceremony.

The Bottom Line

Chainsaw Man Movie at +150 for Film of the Year is the best bet on this board, MHA at -450 in Anime of the Year is priced too short to be worth the juice, and the most underrated value in the entire market is Alexis Tipton at +600 for Best English Voice Performance if Chainsaw Man has a strong night.

The ceremony is still a few days away, which means lines could shift or close quickly as the event approaches. Head to BetUS now to lock in your positions before the market closes.