J Balvin & Kacey Musgraves to Present at 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards

Latin music superstar (and anime collaborator) J Balvin, country singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves and screenwriter Zak Penn are set to present at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, which will be held at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Tokyo on Sunday, May 25.

These bookings demonstrate the increasing global reach of anime. J Balvin is from Colombia; Musgraves and Penn are both American. Previously announced presenters, who also underscore the form’s global appeal, include Italian rocker Damiano David, Japanese and British musician-actor Rina Sawayama, Brazilian pop star Pabllo Vittar, Japanese actor-musician Dean Fujioka and American-Chilean singer Paloma Mami.

Penn’s screenwriting credits include The Incredible Hulk, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Avengers.

In addition, Japanese singer-songwriter LiSA, rock band FLOW and hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts are set to perform.

FLOW, the rock band featured in the openings for Naruto and Code Geass, will perform “DAYS” in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Eureka Seven. LiSA is the singer of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s opening theme “Gurenge.” Creepy Nuts is the 2025 Anime Award nominated hip-hop duo behind the viral hits “Otonoke” and “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” which are the opening themes for Dan Da Dan and Mashle: Magic and Muscles, respectively.

The live ceremony will be hosted by voice actress Sally Amaki and entertainer Jon Kabira. Beginning with the pre-show at 5:00 p.m. JST and main show at 6:00 p.m. JST, the livestream will be available for global tune-in on Crunchyroll’s Twitch and YouTube channels as well as SONY PICTURES CORE and the Sony Group Corp Global YouTube Channel. The 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards will be available in nine languages.

The main show will be available in Japanese on SONY PICTURES CORE and the Sony Group Corp Japan YouTube Channel for viewing in Japan from 6:00 p.m. JST.

More than 51 million votes have been cast from fans across the globe for the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, according to the organizers, marking a nearly 50% increase over last year’s 34 million. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards is a yearly awards program honoring the creators, musicians and performances powering the global love of anime. Sony Music Solutions Inc., part of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., and Dempsey Productions will support Crunchyroll in the execution of the event.

Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.

More information can be found on the Crunchyroll Anime Awards official website.