The prestigious annual Newtype Anime Awards for the 2024-2025 season took place on Sunday in Japan, and a surprising winner took home the prize for best work, with Solo Upgrade without managing to secure a place in the top 3, contrary to some fan reports.
Coverage of the event was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Newtype’s official social media account. Regarding the prizes for the best work (television broadcast and streaming), Makeine: Too many losing heroines! won first place, with Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX in second and The Apothecary’s Journals (Season 2) completing third place. Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadows- was fourth on the list.
Solo Leveling loses to Makeine: too many heroes lose at the Newtype Anime Awards
THE Solo Upgrade The franchise also failed to win first place in other award categories, including Best Male Character, where MakeinKazuhiko leader Nukumizu defeated once again Solo Upgrade to achieve victory. However, Solo UpgradeA-1 Pictures animation studio won the Best Studio award. The full list of awards and winners can be viewed on the event’s Newtype X feed.
As for the rest of the top 10 best work, Uma Musume as Cinderella Gray (Season 1) was fifth on the list, with Medal (n°6), AND DA AND (n°7), Hotel Apocalypse (n°8), Re: ZERO – Starting life in another world – (Season 3) (#9) and Oshi no Ko (Season 2) (#10) completing the list. Notably, confusion regarding the winners followed shortly after a message from Solo Upgradethe official X account which made it look like the series had won.
Translated from Japanese, the message reads: “Solo Upgrade Season 2 received awards in several categories, including Best Work. To everyone who supported us, thank you very much! ” Several social media users responded by congratulating the series on its win, apparently unaware that it had placed fourth in the Best Work category.
The big winner of the awards ceremony was clearly Makeine: Too many losing heroines!which debuted as an anime in July 2024 and is also animated by Solo Levelings Images A-1. The story revolves around Kazuhiko Nukumizu, a self-described “background character”, who sees a popular girl in his class get rejected by her childhood friend and calls her a “loser hero”. A second season of the series has already been announced.
Solo Upgradethe second season, Emerging from the shadowsaired from January to March 2025 and picked up directly after the events of the first season that propelled the franchise to worldwide fame. It chronicles the rise of Sung Jinwoo as he embraces the new Shadow Monarch powers he acquired during season 1, highlighting his struggles to keep them a secret from those around him.
Despite its enormous worldwide success, a third season of Solo Upgrade has not yet been officially announced at this time. However, given its record-breaking status as the most-watched anime of all time, it’s only a matter of time before season 3 materializes. Fans also have many other projects in the works Solo Upgradeworld to look forward to, including a live-action Netflix series starring Byeon Woo-seok, as well as an upcoming video game from Netmarble titled Solo Leveling: Karma.