For each full 12 months of Crunchyroll content material, it produces its latest dominant hit, dooming itself to fixed comparisons with new challengers. 2025 began sturdy, with Solo Leveling poised to steal the limelight with its superior, clear animation, however it’s sadly not the shiny new toy for followers. In truth, Summer season 2025 noticed Crunchyroll convey its newest unique contender, Gachiakuta.
Basically, these two collection have cheap overlap, catering to typical shōnen audiences whereas being notably edgy with their gore. They’re distinctive motion collection in their very own rights, however past Solo Leveling’s spectacle, it lacks a lot of what makes Gachiakuta special. In truth, Gachiakuta is hard-pressed to discover a actually worthy contender for Crunchyroll’s 2026 Anime of the Yr honor.
Crunchyroll Brings the Final New Challenger to Solo Leveling
Regardless of Solo Leveling’s origins as a Korean internet novel after which a manhwa, its breathtaking motion and energy fantasy parts inevitably draw within the shōnen viewers. So naturally, a equally violent shōnen collection from Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Journal, expertly animated by Bones Movie, creates an ideal Solo Leveling contender with Gachiakuta.
In contrast to different contentious Anime of the Yr debates suggesting titles like Frieren: Past Journey’s Finish and The Apothecary Diaries, respectively a extra relaxed shōnen collection and a seinen thriller, Gachiakuta is a pure match due to its deserved hype. Gachiakuta has stayed on the high of Crunchyroll’s Popular page for weeks now, and this means greater than its trending standing.
Whereas superficial, an Anime of the Yr distinction, corresponding to from Crunchyroll’s personal Anime Awards, is an enormous win for any respective fandom. For Crunchyroll’s particularly, it is primarily nominated by a panel of judges, however the 70:30 judges-to-fans weighted voter ratio is what decides the final word winner. Gachiakuta’s trending standing and basic reputation point out it may take the title.
It is not simply Crunchyroll, both; FlixPatrol constantly exhibits Gachiakuta persevering with to rank extremely in its monitoring, alongside fan-driven shops like MyAnimeList and AniTrendz. Whereas nonetheless not almost as distinguished as Solo Leveling’s mighty 8.63 MAL ranking, it is also not completed its season, so it has time to marinate. However past hype and a voting majority, Gachiakuta has extra occurring.
Solo Leveling’s Dominance Is Challenged by Its New Rival
There is not any denying that Solo Leveling is a superb anime in its personal proper. It is fantastically animated and boasts huge visible aptitude. However beneath this trendy veneer is an amalgamation of manhwa cliches like hunters, towers, gates, methods, time loops, and recreation UIs. That it executes these tropes effectively is a part of why it is nonetheless the perfect manhwa-to-anime adaptation but.
Whereas Solo Leveling is a showcase of manhwa’s widespread formulaic tropes, Gachiakuta is not afraid to go to darkish locations with out veering outright into overly express seinen territory. Whereas it by no means approaches Takopi’s Original Sin-level shock value, it masterfully depicts a damaged world with glimmers of hope and alter that different top-tier anime wrestle to attain.
Gachiakuta, in the meantime, is expertly animated by Bones Movie, the studio behind Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Mob Psycho 100. It exhibits equally glorious dedication to cinematic composition, weighty character motion, and robust implementation of influence frames. It is actually no slouch within the animation division, and boasts an uncommon artwork type in comparison with its contemporaries, alongside bone-crunching motion in its personal proper.
Gachiakuta exhibits its true benefit in its assured world constructing and robust supporting solid from episode #1 onward.
Even when Solo Leveling’s animated constancy have been to win out, it falls flat in different arenas in opposition to Gachiakuta. Whereas Solo Leveling season 3 guarantees hefty ideas like fleshing out the opposite Monarchs, Ashborn’s story, and Sung Jinwoo’s relationship with Nationwide Stage Hunters, Gachiakuta exhibits its true benefit in its assured world constructing and robust supporting solid from episode #1 onward.
Gachiakuta Has A number of Key Benefits as a New Anime
Solo Leveling is a good viewing expertise, however past the facility fantasy of seasons 1 and a pair of, Jinwoo’s journey feels siloed off from a pool of fascinating supporting characters. The anime virtually feels devoid of compelling moments, whereas its finest cases for Yoo Jinho and Cha Hae-in, sadly, will not seem till season 3.
In the meantime, Gachiakuta thrives on distinctive supporting characters, making the collection really feel alive even with out its protagonist, Rudo Surebrec, current. Amo’s disquieting backstory is already a collection spotlight in episode #13, and Zanka’s cliffhanger in opposition to Jabber in episode #16 already has viewers emotionally invested. However in Solo Leveling’s protection, it is adhering to its Jinwoo-centric premise right here, nonetheless flawed which may be.
Amo’s disquieting backstory is already a collection spotlight in episode #13, and Zanka’s cliffhanger in opposition to Jabber in episode #16 already has viewers emotionally invested.
Whereas Solo Leveling takes two seasons of episodic energy fantasies by which Jinwoo grows, assembles his Shadow Military, and attains degree 100, its world constructing feels stagnant. That is true even within the manhwa, with Solo Leveling: Ragnarok arguably handling its concepts more organically from the get-go. Nevertheless, Gachiakuta’s execution of this feels constantly good from episode #1-onward.
Gachiakuta’s world constructing depicts a universe strongly faraway from Solo Leveling’s city fantasy. It exhibits a lofty Sphereite society viewing the Floor world under because the Pit the place it dumps its trash. From the Watchman Sequence, to Rudo and Amo’s respective traumatic upbringings, to the Angel, the Floor’s subsistence on sweets, and extra, Gachiakuta’s world constructing is in one other class above Solo Leveling.
Solo Leveling Faces an Uphill Battle for a Consecutive Title
The excellence of Crunchyroll’s Anime of the Yr, whether or not in its official awards or within the eyes of its followers, is a notoriously troublesome honor to win. Just one anime has ever gained it twice, Jujutsu Kaisen in 2020 and 2023, and none have gained it twice consecutively.
Gachiakuta is a probable contender to no less than give Solo Leveling a run for its cash, alongside beautiful hits like Medalist, The Apothecary Diaries, Takopi’s Unique Sin, and To Be Hero X. Every collection is great, though actually solely To Be Hero X and Gachiakuta have the hype of their goal audiences to drive a major voting presence.
Placing apart whether or not To Be Hero X’s status as a donghua will harm its possibilities to contend or not, it is noticeably nonetheless much less widespread than Gachiakuta. Whereas Solo Leveling actually cannot steal Finest New Anime Sequence from both of those exhibits now, they’re simply essentially the most viable contenders given the fervour and zeal of their fan bases.
However whereas Gachiakuta is no less than worthy of contending as Anime of the Yr for Crunchyroll, it is clearly successful on-line discourse when it comes to the streamer’s new 2025 choices. For now, it is a matter of getting nominated, and whether or not it might preserve the hype practice rolling, or benefit from Solo Leveling’s absence of a season 3 confirmation.
