
I have titled this article with the preface of “my picks” to avoid any confusion. I am just going to write about the series I thoroughly enjoyed last year through my introductory Crunchyroll subscription. Before 2023 my experience with anime was mainly the series I grew up with back in the 80s and early 90s. Series like Sandy Frank’s Americanized version of Gatchaman – Battle of the Planets, some classic films like Akira, and Ninja Scroll as well as seminal series like Cowboy Bebop. But this past year, I dove headlong back into the anime world thanks to being fascinated by series like Spy x Family, Hunter x Hunter, and Jujustu Kaisen. As you can tell by my picks, I also tend to be more focused on the Shonen and Seinen styles of anime, and have less interest in the other styles, ie- more action-based and less slice-of-life.
That said, I avoided some of the longer-running shows due to the massive amount of time it would take to catch up with these. So sadly, the newer seasons of One Piece and Bleach won’t be on here simply because I haven’t seen them. As someone who’s not a big Dragonball fan, I didn’t watch that new season either. So saying this is far from the best of 2024 would be an understatement. But this is what I loved for the past year through my trusty Crunchyroll subscription. And here we go – in no particular order…
Kaiju No. 8
As a lifelong Godzilla/ Kaiju fan, Naoya Matsumoto’s Kaiju No. 8 was just the perfect blend of minster craziness and plucky underdog heroism. Sure the central story is nothing new – it’s about Kafka Hibino feeling that opportunity passed him by, and he’s too old to realize his dream, buty new friends and a chance encounter lets him become the hero he always dreamed of. The story is set in a world that has been overrun by Kaiju. Kafka’s lifelong dream has been to join the Japanese Defense Force to fight the creatures, but this newfound ability that allows him to do just that is because he has been infected by a Kaiju! Soon he gets labeled as Kaiju No. 8 by the very group he fights with and is one of their main targets before eventually being found out.
Kaiju No. 8‘s biggest advantage comes in its animation, which is one of the best blends of traditional and computer generated effects I’ve seen this year. Combine that with some classic storytelling and some strong voice acting performances, in both sub and dub, and you get a highly enjoyable, blow ’em up style romp. I’m not sure where Season 2 will lead us, or when we will be getting it, but I’m already sold.
Solo Leveling
Another classic tale of the underdog becoming an OP fighter, Solo Leveling is another anime that uses game dynamics to spur on the action. Set in a world where your power as an adventurer is set after birth, and you can not get any stronger over time, we meet Jinwoo Sung. Dubbed the “weakest hunter of all mankind”, Jinwoo struggles through low-level hunting raids to keep paying for his mother’s hospital bills and keep his younger sister in school. But after being trapped and supposedly killed in a mysterious double dungeon, Jinwoo awakens in a hospital bed with something new, a floating video screen that only he can see. Dubbed ‘The System”, this screen directs Jinwoo on activities and missions that allow him to grow stronger through daily hard work practice.
Having to keep his burgeoning strength a secret as it would cause quite a commotion is one of the common cores of the series, along with certain missions that seem designed to threaten Jinwoo’s morality. And it’s these quandaries that keep this series engaging and entertaining throughout as we quickly start to see the seedier side of this new world, with Jinwoo as our guide. Much like everything on this list, the animation is top-notch here in my eyes and the new season which debuted recently is off to a flying start (as referenced in my preview of it earlier on the site).
My Hero Academia: Season 7
Sure MHA fans can be seen as quite toxic, sometimes for very good reasons, but there’s a reason why the fans of the show are devoted as they are – it’s pretty damn good. Season 7 of the show gets into the final battle between All for One, Shigaraki and his band of venomous enemies, the heroes of Japan, and the students of UA Hero Academy. The season is pretty much one long battle sequence divided into sub-battles to further develop the stories of its massive cast. Heroes fall, people switch sides, betrayal and defeat go hand in hand with victory and pain throughout the bloodstained season that sets us up for the epic conclusion of the entire series with Season 8 due later this year.
The strength of storytelling is on full display here as the series manages to juggle dozens of storylines and keep the audience invested in multiple battlefields spread miles apart. Some of the favorites include the saga of Star and Stripe that opens the season, the final stand of Himiko Toga- a fan-favorite villain, the wrenching battles between the Todoroki brothers, and the resolve of Katsuki Bakuguo. And while others will have their picks for favorite subplots of the season, this only goes to prove the strength of the storytelling overall.
Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 2
The series may be better known for its insanely popular music – season one’s outro “Shu Cream Funk” remains extremely addictive, and Season 2’s intro music “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” by Creepy Nuts became a Tik-Tok mainsta – there’s also a lot to be said about the show. For those uninitiated, imagine Harry Potter but one of the muggles has become insanely overpowered just by excessively working out since he was a toddler. Now take that muggle, named Mash, and insert him into a magic school under the false pretense that he is a magic user with the one desire to become the top student. Seems highly implausible of course, until you start to realize that Mash is so overpowered that defeating other students and adult magic users comes easy to him.
The second season of Mashle: Magic and Muscles finds its footing much easier due to the heavy lifting of season one in breaking down the universe. This may have led to a more uneven first season, but the second more than redeems the previous one. And the start of the Divine Visionary arc plus the involvement of Innocent Zero, an overwhelming threat, leads to more knowledge of Mash’s past. Plus the music and aesthetic that permeates the entire series is highly addictive and gives the series an entirely original feel. Season 3 looks to wrap up the story from the original manga, and hopefully will deliver more than just another banging intro/ outro song.
Dan Da Dan
It seems fitting to end this list with yet another anime with a banging song from Creepy Nuts, Otonoke, and perhaps the most bizarre premise of them all, which is saying something, with Dan Da Dan. 2 students, Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura, dubbed Okarun by Momo, clash over their personal beliefs. Momo, granddaughter of a powerful medium, does not believe aliens exist while UFO enthusiast Okarun does not believe in ghosts.
But soon after, Okarun is attacked and possessed by the spirit of an evil granny that wants his genitals and Momo is attacked by aliens desperate to impregnate her. After narrowly escaping, the duo forms a formidable bond all while tackling new encounters along the way, under the watchful eye of Momo’s improbably young-looking Grandmother Seiko. But then Aira enters the scene, after Okarun helps save her, and her feelings toward her savior make Momo start to assess her own growing feelings for Okarun.
Man, Dan Da Dan is a wild one. It took me a while to get into this story, I won’t lie. I didn’t even make it through the first episode in one sitting. But the series really starts to find its mark and hit its stride with the introduction of Seiko in episode three. The cantankerous protagonist is by far my favorite character and her helping to establish the parameters of this universe for both the characters and the audience really is needed. By the end of its run, I was counting down the days until the next episode and can’t wait to see what we get out of season 2 from arguably the year’s most impressive debut.
—
Some honorable mentions include the hyper-fun but criminally underseen Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible (now that’s a whopping title), Shy Season 2 about a superhero with crippling shyness who helps save the world. And finally, Blue Lock Season 2 which I thought would have been an undeniable lock for this list after an excellent first season. Sadly, the second season really struggled through the first episodes, perhaps due to an overambitious timeline, as the animation dipped in quality and the story took a while to get going. But it’s an honorable mention due to its very strong finish.
- Rated: TV-14, TV-MA
- Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Shonen
- Directed by: Fuga Yamashiro, Kenji Nagasaki, Naomi Nakayama, Shigeyuki Miya, Shunsuke Nakashige, Tomomi Kamiya, Tomoya Tanaka
- Starring: A.J. Beckles, Abby Trott, Adam McArthur, Ai Fairouz, Aleks Le, Anjali Kunapaneni, Asami Seto, Ayane Sakura, Barbara Goodson, Ben Diskin, Chiaki Kobayashi, Christopher Sabat, Clifford Chapin, Daiki Yamashita, Daisuke Hirakawa, Emi Lo, Genta Nakamura, Haruna Mikawa, Hiroki Touchi, Ian Sinclair, Jun'ichi Suwabe, Justin Briner, Kaito Ishikawa, Kari Wahlgren, Kengo Kawanishi, Lisa Reimold, Luci Christian, Masaya Fukunishi, Mayumi Tanaka, Michelle Rojas, Miyu Tomita, Nana Mizuki, Natsuki Hanae, Nazeeh Tarsha, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Reiji Kawashima, Reina Ueda, Sayaka Senbongi, Shion Wakayama, Stephen Fu, Taito Ban, Takuya Eguchi, Toshiko Masuda, Wataru Kato, Yuki Kaji
- Written by: Chugong, H-Goon, Hiroshi Seko, Ichiro Okouchi, Kôhei Horikoshi, Naoya Matsumoto, Noboru Kimura, Yôsuke Kuroda
- Studio: A-1 Pictures, Aniplex, BONES, Production I.G., REDICE Studio, Science SARU, TOHO, TOHO animation