Takopi’s Original Sin Was Nominated for Anime of the Year at Crunchyroll 2026 — Here Is Why It Belongs in That Conversation

Takopi’s Original Sin received a nomination for Anime of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards and it is the nomination that surprised the most people who had not seen it — and confirmed what everyone who had already watched it already knew. This is not a comfortable show. It is not the kind of anime that generates fan excitement through power scaling or romantic tension. It is a story about childhood, cruelty, and the limits of innocent goodwill, told through a premise that looks deceptively simple and then does something genuinely difficult with it.

The premise: Takopi is an alien who comes to Earth with a device called the Happy Stick, designed to make humans smile. He meets a girl named Shizuka whose life is defined by bullying and family collapse, and he tries to use his Happy Stick to fix what is happening to her. The show then does something most anime refuse to do — it shows why simple goodwill is not enough to repair deep structural damage, and what happens when innocence confronts situations that are genuinely beyond its ability to resolve. The result is one of the most emotionally precise anime in years.

Takopi’s Original Sin is three episodes long. It is not a long commitment. What it asks is that you pay full attention for those three episodes and allow yourself to be affected by what you are watching. The ending is not comforting in the conventional sense. It is something more honest than comfort. The Anime of the Year nomination reflects that the jury recognized this as serious work, not genre entertainment that happens to be animated.

For viewers who approach anime primarily through action or comedy, Takopi’s Original Sin is a useful reminder of what the medium can do when it decides to tell a story that is difficult to tell rather than a story that is satisfying to watch. Both types of anime matter. This one is the former and it is exceptional at being what it is.

My take: Takopi’s Original Sin is one of those anime that I think about weeks after finishing it. The Anime of the Year nomination is not surprising to anyone who actually watched it. It is surprising only to people who assumed the category would be dominated by long running genre shows. Three episodes. Difficult to watch. Impossible to forget.