Best Song: “Burning” by Hitsujibungaku – (Oshi no Ko 2nd Season ED)
There were a lot of beautiful EDs in the traditional Japanese range this year (overall EDs trounced OPs). But this track from Oshi no Ko was a banger. It suited the mood of the material perfectly and stood on its own as a terrific song.
Honorable Mention: “Yuuyami no Uta ” by KEIKO (Sengoku Youko ED1), “Tokoshie” by Akiko Shikata (Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai ED1)
Best Soundtrack: Sengoku Youko
Californian Evan Call provided the soundtrack for Sengoku Youko, and it wins here for seamlessly blending with the setting and providing a consistently powerful emotional backdrop for the story. I could always choose Natsume Yuujinchou here but since the soundtrack is mostly the same music that the series has used every season, it just doesn’t feel quite right.
Honorable Mention: Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season, Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi
Best Original Screenplay: Negaposi Angler
This is almost never a strong category in recent years but the decision was never easier. Negaposi Angler was a very good series, exploring the problems of young adults in a pretty original way. But honestly, there wasn’t much in the way of competition (for the second straight year I can’t in good conscience name two honorable mentions).
Honorable Mention: Astro Note
Best Adapted Screenplay: Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai
This is always an interesting and highly competitive category and 2024 was no exception. I went with Yamamuro Yukiko (in her anime debut as far as I can tell) for her adaptation of Yatagarasu because it offered some significant challenges as a source material. Novels usually do, and she took an inventive (and successful) approach by combining the sequential first two novels into one concurrent narrative.
Honorable Mention: Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season, Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san, Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!
Best Art Direction: Kojima Ayumi (Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi)
I don’t have a “Best Adaptation” category but if I did Nige Jouzu would win it. And Kojima’s art direction is a big reason. The adaptation did a remarkably job transitioning Yuusei Matsui’s beautiful not not especially dynamic aesthetic to the screen. At time classically beautiful, terrifying, and psychedelic, The Elusive Samurai was an incredibly beautiful show to watch.
Honorable Mention: Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!, Dungeon Meshi
Best Animation: Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi
Last year Tengoku Daimakyou won this in a walk, but for 2024 it’s complicated. We have a choice between a show that offered probably the best but also some also worst in the category vs. a couple of series that were just consistently good (one of them from the same studio, ironically). I’m going with the former because at its best Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi offered the most sublime visuals of the season, and the stinkers (like the CGI horse-riding) were actually very rare.
Honorable Mention: Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!, Boku no Hero Academia Season 7, Kuroshitsuji Kishuku Gakkou-hen
Best Character Design: Taniguchi Hiromi (Negaposi Angler)
A bit of an unpopular choice, I expect. But Negaposi Angler’s uber-eclectic character designs totally worked for me. They (quite intentiomally I believe) looked like they came from several different series, and that was part of the charm. Really expressive and really diverse, it was a fun cast to watch interact.
Honorable Mention: Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san, Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi
Best Supporting Actress: Murase Michiyo as Sabu (Ramen Akaneko)
There was no single standout performance in this category for me. And it’s probably debatable whether this is a supporting performance (I’ll take the “yes” side). But I’m going with the underrated Murase’s spin on the delight that is the void. I love black cats and I loved this cast of characters, Sabu most of all.
Honorable Mention: Sawashiro Miyuki as Satou Youko (The Fable), Kombe Mitsuho as Izutsumi (Dungeon Meshi)
Best Supporting Actor: Inoue Kazuhiko as Nyanko-sensei (Natsume Yuujinchou Shichi)
I’m conscious of this being a “usual suspects” category, peopled by actors who could win every year (sometimes for the same role). But what can you do when these are some of the greatest seiyuu anime has ever seen? I’m not sure there’s an anime performance I rank higher than Inoue as Madara, and this season it was definitely a supporting one. And yes, I just noticed that both supporting categories went to seiyuu playing cats…
Honorable Mention: Ohtsuka Akio as All For One (Boku no Hero Academia Season 7), Kirimoto Takuya as Lakan (The Apothecary Diaries)
Best Actress: Nanami Hiroki as Senya (Sengoku Youko)
An absolutely loaded category in 2024, full of performances I could easily have singled out as the best. I’m going with Nanami here, as Senya is a character who’s integral to everything that happens in the final two-thirds of Sengoku Youko, and she plays him as an innocent babe, a young man, and a terrifying demon (sometimes all in the same scene)
Honorable Mention: Yuuki Aoi as Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Sakamoto Maaya as Ciel Phantomhive (Kuroshitsuji Kishuku Gakkou-hen), Tamura Mutsumi as Yukiya (Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai)
Best Actor: Horie Shun as Ichikawa Kyoutarou (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season)
Horie Shun was great as Ichi in the first season, but everything about the performance – and the role – leveled up in the second. Kyoutarou is the most complex and interesting protagonist in romance anime, and he went through so much that Horie had to portray this season (including a voice change). Simply a great performance with huge range.
Honorable Mention: Miyu Irino as Wakamiya (Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai), Asanuma Shintaro as Warumono-san (Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san), Okitsu Kazuyuki as Satou Akira (The Fable)
Best Director: Yamazaki Yuuta, Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi
It’s not too often a relative unknown wins in the director category. But Yamazaki – a veteran animator but little-tested as a director – richly deserves the statue. For reasons described above this was a tough series to get right, and the subtle changes Yamazaki and his staff at CloverWorks made were almost all positive. When an adaptation is better than the source material, that’s a sure sign of great direction.
Honorable Mention: Akagi Hiroaki (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season), Kyougoku Yosiaki (Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai)
Best Romance: Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season
Coming off anime’s best-ever romcom year, BokuYaba repeats in a much weaker one. But it wouldn’t have mattered. The second season was solidly better than the first, and this is a romcom for the ages – already in serious conversation for the best anime romcom ever. There’s never been an easier choice in a category than this.
Honorable Mention: Kekkon Suru tte, Hontou desu ka?, Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!
Best Comedy: Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season
While I have no rule against shows winning multiple genre categories, I did think hard about whether Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu should compete as a comedy. But in the it comes down to the fact that it was the funniest series of 2024 in addition to being the most romantic, and that made the decision pretty easy.
Honoroable Mention: Kyuushitsu no Warumono-san, Dungeon Meshi, Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!
Best Drama: Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai
This is the first time in a good while that the winner here was not also the LiA top series of the year (and winner of the category below). But that’s no slight against Yatagarasu, which would have accomplished both in some years – merely a credit to the romcom which edged it out this time. This was a tremendous adaptation, and clearly for me the best drama of the year – not much to add to that.
Honorable Mention: Sengoku Youko, Boku no Hero Academia Season 7, The Fable
Best Series:Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season
This is a bit of history made, as The Dangers in My Heart is the first romcom ever to win the “Best Series” category”. And it wasn’t all that close, as great as Karasu wa Aruji was. If and when we get a third season that will go in as a heavy favorite to be the second.
Honorable Mention: Karasu wa Aruji wo Eraabanai, Sengoku Youko, Dungeon Meshi
Best Picture: Suki demo Kirai na Amanojaku
Honesty compels me to admit that I almost decided to skip this category for 2024. I only saw a few anime films last year (I will see several more 2024 releases as they’re streamed this year). And really, My Oni Girl is the only one I considered worth calling out here. It’s not a great film – I’m a big fan of Studio Colorado, and it doesn’t rank among the best in their small catalogue. But based on the reviews my expectations were pretty low, and it exceeded them – I thought it was a pretty solid road picture with a cute first love storyline.
On the whole a pretty balanced year. Not surprisingly Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu took the most statues with four, along with three honorable mentions. Leapfrogging into second was Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi with three wins and two honorable mentions, reflecting its status as an outstanding adaptation and visual feast. Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai, Sengoku Youko, and Negaposi Angler each had two category wins (unusually so for a series like Negaposi that missed the top 10, but it had the original lane pretty much to itself). Yatagarasu, Makeine, and Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san each had four honorable mentions. Dungeon Meshi only had two honorable mentions to its name, despite finishing as the#4 series of the year (and winning the reader poll).
One more time, let me thank everyone for supporting LiA in 2024 by reading, commenting, and subscribing to the YouTube site. And obviously to those of you who stepped up financially a very special thank you – I’m humbled by your generosity and will do my best to repay it. The fight for financial survival goes on – I’m looking at a huge rise in hosting costs this year – but LiA is still here thanks to you.
Stay frosty, and have a wonderful 2025!
Enzo
The post Best of the Best – 2024 appeared first on Lost in Anime.
