SPY x FAMILY Season 3 Won Best Slice of Life and Anya Won Must Protect Character — Both Were Inevitable
SPY x FAMILY Season 3 won Best Slice of Life at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and Anya Forger took home the “Must Protect At All Cost” Character award — which is both the most specific category at the entire show and also the most correct one to create. If you have watched even a single episode of SPY x FAMILY you understand immediately why both outcomes were never really in question. Anya Forger is the most beloved character in the show and possibly the most universally beloved character in anime right now.
Season 3 continues the Forger family’s elaborate cover operation while escalating both the spy thriller and the domestic comedy elements. The balance WIT Studio and CloverWorks have maintained across three seasons is genuinely impressive. The show never lets either genre overwhelm the other. When it is funny it is very funny. When it is tense the stakes feel real. Anya’s mind reading ability, which she uses to navigate situations she is absolutely not equipped for, remains the engine that makes both tones work simultaneously.
Best Slice of Life rewards shows that make everyday life feel meaningful and warm without sentimentality or manufactured drama. SPY x FAMILY Season 3 earns that award by being genuinely funny, emotionally generous, and consistently inventive with its premise three seasons in. That is not easy to sustain. Most anime comedies lose momentum by the second season. SPY x FAMILY has not.
For anyone who has not started SPY x FAMILY, the entry point is Season 1 which introduces the entire premise and core cast in four episodes. Three seasons and a theatrical film are all available. Anya will be your favorite character by the end of episode one.
My take: “Must Protect At All Cost” is an award category that was clearly created with Anya Forger in mind and I will not hear otherwise. She is the reason the show works, the reason people stay, and the reason SPY x FAMILY has cultural reach that most anime can only aspire to. Season 3 being rewarded for maintaining that magic is the correct outcome.
