Best New Anime of 2024 (So Far)

02/05/2024

Days keep getting crossed off the calendar and the 2024 anime rollout continues to impress. For every returning favorite keeping its loyal fanbase engaged — from One Piece to My Hero Academia’s upcoming seventh season — a crop of hotly anticipated debuting and new, surprise sleeper hit series have risen to meet them.

Not only is there an abundance of fresh quality anime, fans of all genres each seem to have something new to enjoy. Audiences abuzz over a newly aired slice-of-life romance are happy listening to another share their enthusiasm for an explosive mecha anime in its rookie season. Whether it be the gory otherworldly adventures in Solo Leveling or the Tolkien-flavored fantasies of Frieren: Beyond Journeys End, 2024’s spoiled anime fans with an amuse bouche of fresh anime greatness.

Collage of the anime My Dress-Up Darling, Spy x Family, and Jujutsu Kaisen

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A Sign of Affection Makes Cheesy Love Convincing

Streaming on Crunchyroll

YÅ«ta Murano, the director of How Not To Summon a Demon Lord, surprises and delights with his new romantic comedy A Sign of Affection. Though Murano abandons their predecessor’s fantastical action, A Sign of Affection has plenty of love-at-first-sight magic, securing Murano’s position as a rising star in anime.

Told through the lens of sugary-sweet protagonist Yuki Itose, A Sign of Affection follows Yuki’s blossoming relationship with Rin, a polyglot who doesn’t know sign language – a problem considering Yuki’s hearing-impaired. Affection never hesitates to give into its melodramatic undertow, keeping Yuki’s stream-of-consciousness narration lyrical, flowery and lovely on the ear. Audiences open to being wooed by A Sign of Affection’s poetic, painfully earnest will swoon the whole season through.

A Sign of Affection anime poster

A Sign of Affection

Yuki Itoseis a college student who’s into friends and fashion. She’s also deaf. A chance meeting on a train leads to a serious crush… But can it grow into something more?

Brave Bang Bravern Mechs a Mark

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Brave Bang Bravern! starts with a pulse-pounding war sequence, foot firmly down on its gas pedal and never relents. Following a futuristic joint American-Japanese military effort, Brave Bang Bravern! entrenches its audience in one of the most fully realized mecha anime worlds of the decade so far.

Battles in Brave Bang Bravern! can be grim — one of its coolest features is just how seriously everyone takes its Aliens vs. Robots conflict — but the new series distinguishes itself by not bogging its aesthetic in unsaturated tones, instead keeping things rich, sleek and colorful. Viewers witness every nut and bolt behind each Bravern blow and are better off for it.

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30 Best Mecha Anime Ever EMAKI

30 Best Mecha Anime Ever

Mecha is a staple genre of manga and anime. From Gundam to Evangelion, the best mecha series of all time finds clever ways to reinvent the genre.

7th Time Loop Is a Can’t-Miss Genre-Bending Shoujo

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Erased, 7th Loop, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

7th Time Loop And 9 Other Amazing Time Loop Anime

7th Time Loop isn’t the only great time loop anime series on offer; titles like Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Re:Zero are also amazing.

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! is here to satiate 2024’s fantasy romance anime appetites. After being shamed by her husband and killed by a prince for the sixth time, protagonist Rishe hopes to finally nail her life in her titular 7th Time Loop, the anime following the chaos that ensues upon reincarnation.

By exhausting its protagonist with repeated misfortunes and prejudices, 7th Time Loop clears the path for Rishe to be a more empowered, vocal female protagonist than its isekai-adjacent counterparts. Rishe enters each life more brilliantly and self-actualized than the last, setting the stage for an extremely capable main character’s addition to the shoujo pantheon. Couple that with its surprisingly well-rendered socio-political fantasy conflict backdrop and suddenly 7th Time Loop has plenty going for it.

7th Time Loop anime poster

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

Rishe is already on her seventh time around being reborn and has had all kinds of excitement in her previous lives. But to savor the high life, she first has to marry the handsome prince, the same one who happens to be her murderer.

Solo Leveling Has Entered the Shnen Chat

Streaming on Crunchyroll

On the other side of its epic conclusion, it’s safe to say Solo Leveling’s debut season was as impressive a rookie effort as ever. Filled with epic moments, the grisly in-another-world anime is already getting mentioned in the same breath as modern shÅnen classics like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Although Solo Leveling’s story may seem like typical fare, the anime is elevated by its protagonist, Sun Jin-woo. His feats of bravery in an attempt to restore Japan’s resources are inspired; the fantasy world he’s mining subverting isekai and larger anime tropes. Even when Sun Jin-woo is out battling monsters, Solo Leveling keeps its conflict firmly in the real world, grounding its story despite its MMORPG power-ups. Solo Leveling also carefully renders its female protagonists, an unfortunately uncommon element in its counterparts.

Jin-Woo Sung and Other Warriors Pose on the Solo Leveling Promo

Solo Leveling

8/10

In a world of gifted hunters and monsters, a weak hunter Sung Jin-Woo gains extraordinary powers through a mysterious program, leading him to become one of the strongest hunters and conquering even the strongest dungeons.

The Grimm Variations Bravely Reimagines Folktalkes

Streaming on Netflix

The Grimm Variations is weird — and that’s great. With each episode showcasing a dark retelling of a Brothers Grimm folktale, The Grimm Variations spins familiar source material on its head. The result is an unpredictable, deliciously dark anime. Like Snow White With The Red Hair and Alice in Borderland before it, The Grimm Variations aims to prove that adapting stories audiences know by heart is much more exciting if done with a twist.

Variations successfully come to this thesis’ defense with macabre episodes inspired by tales of storytime stalwarts like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. It’s an enthralling watch for literature and anime fans alike, keeping both parties on their toes waiting for the next clever, blood-soaked subversion of its story’s classic basis.

The Grimm Variations (2024)

Exploring the shadowy corners of folklore, the film presents a series of interconnected stories inspired by the Brothers Grimm. Set against a modern backdrop, these tales blend the mystical with the mundane, offering a fresh perspective on the struggles between good and evil, and the consequences of our choices.

The Apothecary Diaries Makes Mysteries From Medicine

Streaming on Crunchyroll

The Apothecary Diaries has engaged audiences with its captivating blend of history and deeply-feeling characters. Set in ancient China, the anime follows the quick-witted Maomao, whose apothecary talents take her from an unimportant concubine to a relied-upon mystery-solver inside the imperial court. Her sharp intellect and determined sense of self give her a more richly developed skill set and personality than other 2024 protagonists.

Though many of its mysteries are episodic open-close cases, The Apothecary Diaries is laced with serialized political suspense that keeps both Maomao and its audience on alert, eager to unravel motivations and secrets. From the enigmatic Jinshi to the cunning Empress Dowager, each power player provides a unique imprint on the Apothecary story and highlights its creators’ reverence for its historical setting.

The Apothecary Diaries anime poster.

The Apothecary Diaries (2023)

A young maiden is kidnapped and sold into servitude at the emperor’s palace, where she secretly employs her pharmacist skills with the help of the head eunuch to unravel medical mysteries in the inner court.

Shangri-La Frontier is the Best New Video Game Isekai of the Year (So Far)

Streaming on Crunchyroll

A split image of the devil is a part timer and visions of escaflowne

The Best Isekai Of All Time, Ranked

The best of the best when it comes to Isekai anime have otherworldly stories, epically overpowered protagonists and remarkable adventure.

“It can be fun to lose yourself in something mainstream every once in a while, right?” Shangri-La Frontier protagonist Sunraku gets asked this question in the show’s first episode. The sentiment is a meta-textual invitation for SLF’s audience to embrace it, the umpteenth isekai transporting its hero into an MMORPG. While its premise is well-trodden territory, creator Toshiyuki Kubooka renders its fantasy setting and characters with impressive detail, both with animation and plot deployment.

The bone-crunching brutality of Kubooka’s previous effort, Berserk, returns here, but thanks to the good-humored nature of its protagonist, is made less gruesome and taxing for the audience. The well-executed sum of Shangri-La Frotier’s combined parts should place it at the top of 2024 anime must-watches, particularly for those who prefer cheeky fight-heavy fantasy stories.

Let Delicious in Dungeon Cook

Streaming on Netflix

Marcille from Delicious in Dungeon, Luffy from One Piece and Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

10 Best Anime If You Like Dungeons & Dragons

From recent hits like Frieren to proven classics like One Piece, the vast world of anime is populated with shows perfect for D&D players to enjoy.

2024’s most delightful anime surprise is Delicious in Dungeon’s successful, albeit unlikely marriage of the slice-of-life cooking and dungeon-crawling anime subgenres. A perfect balance is struck with Delicious, with thrilling monster-slaying highs and soothing, cathartic campfire lows. To Delicious in Dungeon’s benefit, its creators at Studio Trigger keep its disparate parts in conversation with one another, each episode’s emotional conflict resolved by dinnertime or allegorized through its preparation.

Delicious in Dungeon’s tight-knit adventuring party protagonists honor fantasy dungeon tradition, each member steeped in familiar Dungeons & Dragons and high-fantasy archetypes. The tropes at play make for an easy anchor for new viewers, who will surely stick around for the family drama and fantastical action at the anime’s core.

The Adventuring Party Runs from Monsters in the Delicious in Dungeon Promo

Delicious in Dungeon

Can sisters be reincarnated from dragon poop? Laios and his friends Marcille and Chilchuck delve into an endless dungeon in search of his fallen sister, fighting monsters, starvation, and corruption.

Kaiju No.8 is a Modern Monster Sci-Fi Adventure

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Split Images of Go Go Loser Ranger, Kaiju No 8, and Unamed Memory

The Most Highly Anticipated Spring 2024 Anime That Aren’t Sequels

With the attention they are receiving, one of these new series could become an even bigger hit than the continuing anime of the Spring.

Kaiju No. 8 has landed at the perfect time, amid monstrous contemporaries like Godzilla and Attack on Titan’s successful revivification of its namesake genre. Like the aforementioned, Kaiju No. 8’s success can be partly chalked up to the creative and refreshing point of view it views its familiar genre.

Kaiju No. 8 follows Kafka Hibino’s rags-to-roaches story about a man who always dreamt of fighting the monsters that plague his world, only to become one himself. By defying his circumstances and fighting the good fight anyway, Kaiju No. 8 cleverly explores themes of trust and the long-reaching consequences of small choices alongside Kafka. An adaptation of the 89-chapter ShÅnen Jump manga of the same name, it appears a solid run of slickly animated, full-hearted giant monster adventures lie ahead.

The Cast of Kaiju No. 8 Stand Together

Kaiju No. 8 (2024)

Kafka Hibino merges with a kaiju and gains powers, leading him to attempt his childhood dream in Kaiju No. 8.

Frieren is the Best New Anime Series of 2024 (So Far)

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Multiple close up shots of Frieren’s face from the Frieren anime

10 Lessons Slice-of-Life Anime Can Learn From Frieren

Though it has many fantasy elements, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a SOL at heart, and its use and mixing of genre tropes is why it’s so popular.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End can feel like a slow burn. After all, its story orbits around its thousand-plus-year-old elf title character, Frieren, and her time insensitivity. Following centuries of adventures and loss, Frieren struggles to build new relationships and finally wrap her head around mortality.

Frieren’s carefully trickles its story through carefully timed flashbacks, paired with poignant and often mesmerizing present-day adventures. The series’ contemplative high-fantasy smacks of Lord of the Rings, pendulum-swinging between epic magical battle sequences and subdued character moments with similar ease. Like Tolkien’s works, Frieren will also leave audiences prone to tearful watches, shipping main characters and fan-theorizing. Such attributes help establish Beyond Journey’s End as the most complete, must-watch anime of the year so far.