Gachiakuta's Popularity Marks The End Of An Era For Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll has had a generally great year in 2025, with even Spring’s duds being outshined both by returning favorites like Fire Force and Wind Breaker. Although the prevailing popularity of Solo Leveling led to an incredible second season, only one anime boasting two cours has led the charts across two seasons. This year,that honor goes to Gachiakuta.

Gachiakuta is the most exciting new property on the platform. It subverts classic anime tropes while itself not feeling like a departure from shonen concepts. It’s another excellent offering from Bones Film, and has even regularly outpaced the favored contender for Crunchyroll’s Fall 2025 crown, My Hero Academia season 8, ushering in a new era.

Gachiakuta Is the Latest New-Era Smash Anime

Beyond the explosion of anime’s popularity during the lockdowns of 2020 and beyond, anime viewership has stayed strong and thriving even beyond those times. While Jujutsu Kaisen still remains highly relevant in today’s circles, shows like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, The Apothecary Diaries, Solo Leveling, and now Gachiakuta are the shiny new toys of the fandom.

In an era where anime has become increasingly mainstream, with hits like Demon Slayer even leading at the international box office, this has meant greater competition for the most popular anime on streaming. Crunchyroll’s Popular tab, while somewhat arcane, provides an accurate glimpse at what’s dominating the trends. All of Fall and throughout much of Summer, Gachiakuta led the pack.

Gachiakuta’s Success Does Not Mean My Hero Academia’s Failure

While My Hero Academia currently stands close at #2 on Crunchyroll’s charts, despite itself being a dominant and popular anime since its 2016 debut, its falling short of Gachiakuta shouldn’t be a signal of poor quality. In fact, it’s currently being lauded by the public, with monumental audience ratings on IMDb constituting a swan song of a final season.

That said, it doesn’t help that My Hero Academia’s final season rollout had a bumpy execution at Crunchyroll. But for audiences in the United States, it helps that season 8 is additionally available to stream on Hulu, and its trending presence on the high seas, alongside other hits like One Piece, shows it still dominant in other arenas where Gachiakuta lacks.

But more importantly, My Hero Academia no longer needs to compete; it’s retaining a loyal fandom who will eagerly consume each new installment. It’s being practically universally praised for new installments due to its stellar quality, yet still highlighting how much better the manga’s art by Kohei Horikoshi truly is.

If anything, My Hero Academia’s mildly faltering presence on Crunchyroll’s charts, at least for Crunchyroll users, signifies a passing of the torch. As fans certainly know, both anime come from the same studios, with MHA’s final season sharing the newly-formed Bones Film umbrella with Gachiakuta. If anything, a great new Bones anime is a strong signal of a new era.

Each New Era Brings Great Bones Anime

While Gachiakuta joins the ranks of other popular anime of the latest excellent wave, Bones has a strong track record across the past several decades. This includes generational favorites of the 2000s into the 2010s like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, recent all-timers like Mob Psycho 100, anime auteur productions like Space Dandy, and underrated hits like Darker Than Black or RahXephon.

Generally speaking, since 2000, every couple of years brings a new smash hit for different types of audiences. This includes Ouran High School Host Club for the shoujo fans, while Noragami remains a distinct favorite for shonen fans. Gachiakuta is the latest memorable Bones anime after underrated gems like SK8 the Infinity, so its success comes at the perfect time.

For My Hero Academia to bow out while another solid new anime comes from Bones appears to be a pattern, with Gachiakuta among the studio’s greatest shots at widespread appeal. It’s a subversive shonen anime, with its esoteric Watchman Series of Vital Instruments being the latest fascinating introduction in its power system, while remaining accessible like an older 2000s series.

Gachiakuta’s Success Signals Less Dependency on Shonen Jump

Gachiakuta Vital Instrument Hands — Vital Instrument Hands in Gachiakuta

What Gachiakuta, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and The Apothecary Diaries each hold in common is that none come from Weekly Shonen Jump or indeed even Shueisha. While WSJ is undoubtedly still the medium’s most recognized brand, the era of its anime headlining the medium are long gone.

Instead of the Shonen Big Three from Shonen Jump, the new hottest anime of today come from Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Shufunotomo. Solo Leveling, arguably the most highly-anticipated new anime on Crunchyroll, comes from a manhwa and novel series published by D&C Media out of Korea. Gachiakuta, the most battle shonen-coded of them all, proves the genre still has juice.

Gachiakuta, the most battle shonen-coded of them all, proves the genre still has juice.

This hardly means Gachiakuta is out to replace Shonen Jump properties, though. Spy x Family continues to have an excellent anime, Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 is enormously highly-anticipated, and upcoming newcomers are sure to be fan-favorites, like Akane-banashi or Marriagetoxin. While not crucial, it’s fun to point out that Marriagetoxin is another upcoming Bones anime, likely signaling a strong future.

But old Shonen Jump favorites still have a place at the table. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is a phenomenal way to close to books of a manga that was far more hastily concluded. Naruto’s remade episodes remain an anticipated event, while Boruto’s return is high in demand. Black Clover’s return was coveted for four years before this summer’s announcement.

Gachiakuta’s Popularity Is a Triumph of Crunchyroll’s Selection

Gachiakuta Jabber fight — Jabber brandishing his Mankira against Zanka in Gachiakuta

While My Hero Academia’s popularity may falter compared to this trendy new series, this is an indicator that Crunchyroll’s broad selection constitutes a dense library of series able to gain greater visibility. Gachiakuta is a subversive hit, pulling guns to a fistfight and drawing viral attention, but other anime take darker approaches while amassing viewership, like Summer’s Clevatess.

While these allow anime to climb near or to the very top of Crunchyroll’s charts, it’s worthwhile to note the other runners-up. Currently, One Piece still ranks third, while Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill comes in at #5. Despite months passing since their season finales, My Dress-Up Darling and Clevatess remain strongly relevant.

This means Gachiakuta’s success will keep its viewership strong into the next seasons and, ideally, leading into the next new and hot anime to join Crunchyroll’s library. With more new series and even non-traditional options like donghua like To Be Hero X picking up steam, the new era of anime is vibrant, if bearing unfortunate problems like questionable industry practices.

Gachiakuta’s currently leading Crunchyroll’s new anime era, but this time period is in a constant state of flux, with new challengers emerging all the time. While it’s fun to see which series holds the most attention for the longest, the true winners in this are the viewers who are eager to see more content.

Release Date: July 6, 2025
Network: TBS, MBS, CBC, Tulip Television, BSN, tys, NBC, HBC, RKK, i-Television, SBS, IBC, BSS, MRO, OBS, TUF, RSK, TUY, tbc, RKB, SBC, KUTV, RBC, UTY, RCC, MRT, atv, MBC
Directors: Satoshi Nakagawa
Writers: Ikuro Sato