When the 10th Crunchyroll Anime Awards took place in Tokyo last month, the guest list from around the world offered a useful measure of how far anime has travelled. The annual ceremony, organised by streaming giant Crunchyroll to honour the previous year’s best anime productions, featured presenters ranging from actors Rashmika Mandanna and Winston Duke, to K-pop stars BamBam and Ten, to even The Weeknd. Though Robert Diggs, better known as RZA — the American producer, rapper and founding architect of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan — felt like one of the most inspired invitees among them, whose relationship with Japanese animation predates anime’s arrival in the cultural mainstream by decades.For this generation of fans who discovered anime through social media edits, Comic Con culture and easier accessibility through streaming services like Crunchyroll, RZA occupies a curious position in the medium’s history in the West. Long before anime became a billion-dollar global industry, he was carrying VHS tapes of Japanese animation around New York while building one of the most influential groups in hip-hop history.
RZA presents an award with BamBam at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2026 at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Tokyo
