I have a few regrets from 2024, mostly game purchases that I couldn’t play because my PC is too old, and also not avoiding the lovely chest cold I got for Christmas. (Still cherishing that, whoever gave it to me. Bless you.) But the one choice I made that still looks good in hindsight was signing up for Crunchyroll.
In my teens, anime came after many years of reading fantasy and sci-fi, both in books and comics, and I was blown away by how writers on the other side of the world took similar ideas and did some magical origami to make a whole new frontier to explore.
Then of course, work and life started biting away at my time. But with Netflix offering a sampling of new anime, I got curious to see what else was available, and I’ve been delighted to discover that yes, new anime is still just as fun now as it was when I was first discovering it.
Here is my list of top anime for the year from Crunchyroll, along with a few honorable mentions from Netflix:
DD Fist of the North Star
Probably the dumbest anime I saw this year, which is what makes it so brilliant. The apocalypse of the old Hokuto no Ken series never came to pass, so Ken and his brothers have to find work. They end up at a convenience store, all of them competing to become a part-time employee under their master. In a wasteland where skills matter more than brains, these guys would be kings. But in a world where brains matter more, they’re almost too stupid to survive. It’s a premise ripe for laughs, and I sometimes had to pause an episode due to aching ribs. Plus, the show is drawn in a super-deformed style that I haven’t seen in a long time, so it’s just slightly tickling my sense of nostalgia as well. It’s good stuff.
Solo Leveling
These days the genre of normal people falling into a video game and discovering their own quirky skill has a lot of competition. What makes this one stand out is how the world is set up. See, it’s the “real world,” and all over the planet, portals are opening into a monstrous dimension. Most people don’t know they’re entering a game world, but after almost dying in a dungeon Sung Jinwoo sees a pop-up window asking him if he wants to continue. This leads him to access the in-game menus that no one else can see, because no one else has been near death in a dungeon. They either survived, or they didn’t.
The other things that made this first season stand out are seeing Sung use grinding mechanics to overcome the dungeon bosses solo, and in how the other “heroes” react to this supposed E-class fighter suddenly taking on tougher dungeons. Season two should be arriving soon, and I’m very much looking forward to it.
Mashle
This one should come as no surprise. I loved the manga, and the anime manages to take everything that was good in still form and brings them to explosive, hilarious life. Mash Burndead’s rise through the ranks of a magic school despite lacking any magic powers is the best kind of absurd anime. Many of his classmates view him as vermin to be expelled or even exterminated, only to have him hand their ass to them, AND THEN help them out when they need a friend. So somehow, this adorable meathead manages to unify people who would normally despise each other, and even convince his school that he’s “got the juice.”
(Blame NFL Christmas day commentary for this term entering my vocabulary. Every other play, they’d say, “He’s got the juice,” and I would shout, “He’s got the juice! What kind of juice does he have?” And then I’d name a different juice. Luckily I did not turn it into a drinking game, or I might have died from alcohol poisoning.)
Season two is coming, promising a darker turn against much deadlier opponents, but unlike some series that go on forever, this one could be wrapped up sooner rather than later. Which is great because this is a show that makes a perfect introduction to anime for newcomers. When they finish this, they’ll definitely be ready for more.
The Weakest Tamer Began A Journey To Pick Up Trash
The most wholesome anime of the year starts in a dark place, with a young girl on the run from her village after the village elder puts a bounty on her head for having a zero star skill. Posing as a boy and taking the name Ivy, she goes on adventures with a very rare and very fragile slime. This is a perfect show to introduce kids into anime, but even adult fans can probably find some joy in the journey from a scared fugitive slowly becoming a respected heroine. It’s just a pure joy to watch, and it’s another show that I’m eager to get a second season of.
Dead Dead Demons DeDeDe Destruction
Probably one of the harder anime to recommend, and certainly not as a first entry. It starts with a zero episode set years after the events of the rest of the series, and that’s part of what makes it so bleak. You’re walking into a typical slice of life anime about high school girls living under the shadow of a giant UFO. And yeah, they get up to some cute adventures. But first and foremost, the show has already told you, “This will all go badly soon.”
Alongside that sense of foreboding, there are several factions pushing towards that apocalyptic tipping point seen in the prologue, and some of the things they do are gut wrenching. Worse, almost everyone involved thinks they are the good guys. Like I said, this is hard to watch, and harder to suggest. But it’s powerful and honest in a way that doesn’t seem possible for a sci-fi anime about cutesy girls being cute. So yeah, if you’re ready for a gut check on the same level as Grave of the Fireflies, try this show out.
My Hero Academia
Given my love of super hero comics from Marvel and DC, an anime about an academy for super heroes is an easy sell. I’m now well into season five, and it’s been one hell of a ride so far. There’s a pendulum of sorts swinging through each season. On one end are the “calmer” school activities, which give the characters time to develop relationships with each other. On the other end are the attacks by the villains, which have only become bolder and more intense as the series plays out. War is coming to this world, and it is not going to be pretty when it happens.
But if they had just started the war without giving us time to get to know the characters, the stakes wouldn’t matter. It’s the time invested in building up everyone that has me worried for that coming war, and that’s great writing mixed with amazing animation. So if you love costumed crime fighters, this one is definitely for you.
From Netflix
I debated putting these on my top Netflix list, but I decided they belong here among their peers. Before I dig in, I just want to say how glad I am that Netflix started buying anime shows because it’s got me back into a cherished pastime that I had almost forgot existed.
Rising Impact
Golf anime. It seems so unlikely that this could work, but it does because of Gawain, or as I call him, Golf Goku. Gawain is discovered by a pro golfer in the mountains living with only his grandpa. Just like Goku. She soon learns that he’s very physically powerful and encourages him to take up golf to hone his skills. From there, he joins a special school full of rivals who at first underestimate him, only to be humbled by his strength and focus. Then they become his friends after he whoops them real good. You know, like Goku.
The end of the second season brought a new threat to Merlin’s two golf academies, so I’m definitely looking forward to the continued adventures of “Squishy Joe” and his Z-team of golfers.
Pluto
I sat on watching this for a while. A darker interpretation of Astro Boy, set in a world where a serial killer is hunting both humans and the most sophisticated robots in the world? Sounds too heavy for me. But once I sat down with it, I couldn’t stop watching.
At its core is an investigation that starts with serial killing, but leads to a government group who had been tasked with finding weapons of robotic destruction in the Middle East after accusations by “the United States of Thraxis.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which war they’re drawing inspiration from, but going from there to who is responsible for the murders and why is a grim but fascinating story. As an added bonus, I didn’t guess who the killer was until just before the moment of truth, and as a lover of mysteries who frequently picks up on foreshadowing and clues, I was happy that this left me guessing almost to the end.
Ranma 1/2
So good, I listed it twice this year. We finished the first twelve episode season already, and that is my only complaint about this returning classic. We really should have been treated to a full, proper season. It’s not like the studio has to wait on new issues to come out.
Anywho, rather than remake the anime frame for frame, this new Ranma 1/2 opted to remain more faithful to the manga. What makes the manga so good is that it takes place in a world where literally everything is a martial art. Gymnastic fighting? Yep. Martial arts figure skating? Yup. They haven’t got there yet, but there’s definitely a martial eating contest in the future. It’s just so goofy and perfect, and I need more people to watch it so Netflix doesn’t pull a Netflix and cancel it early.
That’s the anime of 2024 wrapped up, and given production cycles, I expect some of these might just loop over to a list for 2025. I feel like I should thank all these artists and writers, because getting back into anime has also helped to revive my own creative process. A lot of stuff, including the lockdown, had just burned me out, but now I’m back in the zone, remembering the fun of building worlds and filling them with great characters. So thanks, anime people. You’re going to make 2025 much better for me, I just know it.
Now, let’s see what new stuff this year will add to my to-watch list…