Honestly, I was not surprised at all that Attack on Titan got the first ever Global Impact Award at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. In my experience, I have basically seen people talking about this show nonstop, even friends who don’t watch much anime. It’s everywhere – memes, TikTok, YouTube, you name it. I think the award made sense since AOT really did change anime for a lot of people and brought in a ton of new fans worldwide.

Some people online were saying maybe it’s kinda obvious or boring to pick Attack on Titan, like it got so much hype already. But honestly, I can't really think of a show in the last ten years that’s done more to get people into anime or make it as huge as it is now. When the final season hit, everyone was losing their minds.

So, yeah, maybe it’s not a surprising pick, but I feel like it actually deserves it. Attack on Titan getting the award just sort of confirmed how huge its impact really is, not just in Japan but basically everywhere. In my friend group, even people who don't usually care about awards thought it was cool.