Since at least 2001 I’ve deliberately tried to sample as many of the new anime TV and web titles released in Japan each year as I could access. I like knowing about anime. And I find that first-hand experience is useful because occasionally new series surprise me by being vastly different from my expectations. A case in point is 2024’s Duel Masters Lost: Tsuioku no Suishou, a show that exhibits almost no similarity at all to the prior 22 years’ worth of Duel Masters anime. I consider “new” anime titles ones with literal title changes or new seasons that re-start their official episode numbering from one. By those criteria, I counted 228 “new” anime and web series that premiered in 2024. Doubtlessly my count misses a few obscure titles. My count also excludes non-Japanese productions aired on Japanese television during 2024 including Hyakuyoufu (Bai Yao Pu), Rekka Gyoushuu (Liehuo Jiao Chou), and Shita no Kai ni wa Mio ga Iru (Aishang Ta de Liyou), to name a few. Of those 228 “new” titles, I was able to sample at least one episode each of 225 of them during 2024 (plus about three hours into 2025). The three “new” 2024 shows that I didn’t watch any of were Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen season 2, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha 20th Anniversary Selection, and Sylvanian Families: Flare no Piece of Secret.
In my observation, 2024 was an anime year comparable to 2016 through 2018 and 2023, years with a lot of new titles yet few brilliant breakthroughs. Across the web, many critics have acclaimed Kusuriya no Hitorigoto and Sousou no Frieren among the best anime series of 2024. Both titles are excellent, but neither of them premiered in 2024.
I’m fond of spotlighting new anime that were unique, creative, and exceptional. Natsume Yuujincho was great in 2024, but it was also the seventh season of a show that’s been consistently great. Hibike Euphonium may have been beautiful in 2024, but it’s also the third season of a show that’s always been gorgeous, so it’s hardly unique. Using my subjective standards, four new 2024 series deserve mention, along with two runners-up.
Dandadan from acclaimed, eclectic production studio Science Saru, falls just short of being a home run due to its frustrating cliffhanger non-ending. (A second season is coming.) Dandadan manages to be wildly stylized yet simultaneously grounded. The characters are clearly scripted, artificial creations yet still feel like fully rounded, dynamic humans. The show is zany and ultra-kinetic nearly to a fault, yet it also has a heart, an emotional and affecting undercurrent that’s predictable yet still effective at hitting viewers’ heartstrings. From characterization to story development to action to animation quality Dandadan delivers everything that viewers instinctively expect from the wild and crazy foreign art form known as anime.
Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru seems to be one of 2024’s overlooked little gems. This heartfelt and charming modern folktale is rooted in the traditional Japanese Momotaro myth and is steeped in modern Japanese culture and social philosophy. A show that could have very easily been a redundant one-trick pony is uplifting and rewarding, consistently delivering a sense of loving joy and respectful nostalgia for family loyalty, loving devotion, the rewards of hard work, and living life to the fullest.
NegaPosi Angler takes a vastly different modernist approach to similar themes. The series uses fishing as a symbol for whatever singular passion gets us through the stresses and anxieties of our daily lives. When all looks bleak, there’s still something to live for, no matter how simple, mundane, or personal that rationale is. And the show serves as an illustration that even though every human is broken or inadequate in some way, we all have a support system that’s willing to pick us up off the ground, even if that support system is total strangers or (in the case of NegaPosi Angler, literal) ships passing in the night. At a more technical level, NegaPosi Angler is populated by a great, dynamic cast of characters, beautiful art design, and a strong sense that series director Yutaka Uemura is personally an avid fisherman.
I’m personally very fond of anime that enlighten niche aspects of Japanese culture. Japan has previously produced anime starring VTubers such as Virtual-san wa Miteiru, Stars*Collection, and Holo no Graffiti, and at least one series about a VTuber-in-training, Kizuna no Allele, but 2024’s VTuber Nanda ga Haishin Kiri Wasuretara Densetsu ni Natteta is unique in anime history for providing such an incisive look inside the sub-culture of Japanese VTuber fandom. While the show is filled with anime references and in-jokes, the show is equally rife with examples and instances of exclusive VTuber fandom slang, perspective, and personality. The show gives “normie” anime viewers a window into a niche culture within an already niche fandom. Moreover, the VTuber Legend anime was clearly a labor of love for its production staff. The show exhibits unusually strong animation quality and art design, and even each episode’s ending credits scenes and music are entirely exclusive.
The first of two 2024 anime series that didn’t quite reach the pinnacle of my selection but still warrant mention is Yubisaki to Renren. Although not especially common, anime about handicapped characters aren’t especially rare. Most of them, like Hurdle, 5-tou ni Naritai, and Momoko, Kaeru no Uta ga Kikoeru yo, are formal educational anime productions. The beloved feature film Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) and the two Ousama Ranking television series are examples of better-known, more mainstream productions. Yubisaki to Renren takes the traditional approach of shoujo romance anime like Kimi ni Todoke and Ao Haru Ride and applies it to college students, adding the unique twist that the protagonist is deaf. The 2004 Makasete Iruka! OVA was heavily touted for featuring authentic sign language, but the use of sign in the OVA was actually minor and sidelined. Signing is a prominent, central conceit of A Sign of Affection, making the show somewhat unique. But like so many shoujo romance anime, Yubisaki to Renren develops its story so slowly that it feels non-committal even when it does depict concrete relationship developments.
Shoushimin Series capably treads a fine line between pretentious and satirical. The show, and particularly its two primary characters, seem terribly self-serious, yet they also know that they’re being conceited. The series is ostensibly about solving mysteries, yet the mysteries are almost always trivial or insignificant. The characters challenge each other and themselves to unravel mysteries as a form of friendly teasing and an idiosyncratic, peevish way of amusing themselves. In addition, the show has a lovely, vivid art design featuring highly cinematic editing. And once again demonstrating the show’s own pretentious bias, the show isn’t shy about making its editing over-obvious. In effect, the show is a dry, witty, and cynical joke, one that puts a wry smile on the viewers’ face when the viewer understands the fundamental absurdity and silliness of the show’s concept.
