Without a doubt, this article is the most stressful part of running this website every year (well that, and the fact that nobody reads and I’m just bleeding cash at this point).

The reason is obvious, and it’s that I love anime with my whole heart. Every year, there are dozens of new entries that warrant inclusion, but alas, listicles work best in 10s, so I have to painstakingly narrow things down.

I could, in theory, boost the number to 20, but I’ll still run into the same issue, and then feel sad that I couldn’t find room for 21 onward. In any event, 2024 was another landmark year for all things anime, and at long last, here are the ones that had me glued to my screen.

10. BARTENDER Glass of God

This was an anime that may have slipped under my radar, had it not been for the recommendation of Kristina Ebanez when she ranked her most anticipated anime of 2024. And I am truly grateful that I didn’t miss out.

There is such a genuine warmth that emanates from Glass of God, as if every episode legitimately takes you through the doors of some humble hole-in-the-wall tucked away in the backstreets of Ginza. It is tranquil and magnetic, with entire episodes seeming to fly by.

The introspective storytelling is loaded with proverbs and cocktail history, creating a down-to-earth experience that is fresh and yet nostalgic all at once. There are lots of anime about workplaces, but few truly celebrate them with such reverence as this. Best paired with aged cognac and a cheese platter… or if you’re me, a cheap cask wine and some leftover McDonald’s.

9. My Hero Academia Season 7

I cannot believe that My Hero Academia is nearly at an end. After years of meticulously building these heroes and villains up, we are now seeing an unprecedented level of payoff. The final showdown against All For One and the League of Villains has taken no shortage of lives on both sides, and there is only one season left for them to settle the score.

Obviously, the demise of the good guys is always going to sting, starting with one dramatic sacrifice at the beginning of the season. But I really have to give credit for how invested MHA has made me in its antagonists. The League of Villains has gone from pesky band of misfits to a tortured smattering of lost souls clinging desperately to one another, and the shared ideals that brought them here.

Seeing them fall after getting to know them for so many years has created a tangible sense of loss, and I’m stunned to say that MHA made me cry more than any other anime this season. That’s quite an achievement for a show that’s supposed to be your standard shonen adventure.

8. Kaiju No. 8

As far as your shonen staples go, this is about as solid as it gets. It’s a thrilling adaptation of one of the most visually impressive manga I’ve had the pleasure of reading — seriously, if you haven’t checked out the source material, you should. That line work really pops.

Kaiju No. 8 presents a lot of your standard genre tropes, but even this adherence to convention doesn’t prove a shortcoming. A great deal of this comes from the fact that its main character, Kafka Hibino, is truly exceptional as a motivator. He’s a likeable goofball, past his prime — an unspectacular prime at that — who toes the line between downtrodden and determined.

Kafka is truly a hero for us 30-somethings who have had to watch our dreams and ambitions slip away right before our very eyes. He’s not the best of the bunch; far from it, he typically finds himself amongst the worst. But he’s in there with a chance, and while that window of opportunity just barely remains open, he won’t ever let it shut him out.

7. Girls Band Cry

Sometimes, the greatest ability is availability. When Girls Band Cry first dropped in April this year, its distribution was curiously limited to platforms like Amazon Prime and Hoopla. For someone like me, whose streaming services consist solely of Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Disney+, it felt like something of a lost cause.

Admittedly, I’m not able to see every anime out there, but based on the buzz alone, I had a severe sense of FOMO when it came to Girls Band Cry. Thankfully, it eventually reached Crunchyroll in November, and I was at last able to see what all the fuss was about.

From its lively visuals to its energetic performances, you just can’t help but feel uplifted. Even so, watching those same tools being utilised to highlight the negative aspects of Nina Iseri’s life — such as when she begins to spiral into despair, punctuated by a series of harsh lines emanating from her body — showcases exactly why this anime was such an underground hit: it goes to great length to contrast the whimsy of youth against the harsh realities of life. Nina really is a fabulously layered lead character, possessing similarities to Hitori Gotoh while setting herself apart with her fiery stubbornness. And still, that intensity doesn’t detract from her relatability.

It’s a story about friendship, about redemption, and about music. It’s not to be missed, even if a lot of us very nearly did.

6. The Apothecary Diaries

Foolishly, I overlooked this one when it premiered back in October of last year. It came into my periphery some months later when I noticed its universally high scores on aggregate websites (as well as a certain memeworthy screenshot), and I figured I should rectify my mistake.

And I am so damned glad I did, because this is such a unique, wonderful anime. It has clear and obvious parallels to historical Chinese soap operas, set apart by the distinctive wildcard that is its main character. Maomao doesn’t glorify the decadent, incestuous nature of the royal palace, instead treating it with indifference bordering on disdain.

As a commoner, she is viewed as lesser, and yet her strength of character shows that she is truly above all of this foolishness. It resonated with me on a personal level, as someone who has toiled away in countless workplaces that failed to value their employees.

This is just one of those anime that feels like a big deal, handled masterfully.

5. Delicious in Dungeon

To start off, Delicious in Dungeon is a lot of delightful fun. Watching Laios and his beleaguered party repeat the cycle of slaying monsters, cooking monsters, and devouring monsters grows familiar, bolstered by stellar art direction and world-building so extensive you’d swear it was true.

Then at the halfway point, the narrative does a 180, and it is a fantastic twist. Pieces you never even foresaw start falling into place, taking on a more sinister tone. Even then, it is such a character driven anime that this shift maintains that sense of curious spirit that made it so enjoyable to begin with. I lost count of how many times a sudden hilarious moment caught me so off guard, I rewound a minute so that I could watch it over again. My biggest laughs of the year belonged to both this anime and season 2 of Mashle: Magic and Muscles.

Laios is such a wonderfully nuanced protagonist, whose blissful lack of awareness goes from endearing to sympathetic as time goes on, and even when the party seemed complete, the late addition of a certain standoffish ninja put a smile on my face. Everything about Delicious in Dungeon feels balanced and fulfilling, like a nutritious meal prepared by a smelly dwarven chef.

4. Beastars Final Season

My sleazy, sultry little comfort anime of choice. The world of Beastars is so compelling to me, at once stylish and yet so depraved. It has become one of my biggest anime addictions, and though I remain a devout loyalist to traditional animation, I frequently point to Orange as a studio that knows how to make this kind of visual style work: the characters are kinetic, expressive, and altogether gorgeous.

Every arc of Beastars is punctuated with a showdown against the latest antagonist, and I think they really outdid themselves with this season’s particularly nasty customer. The overarching foe is legitimately intimidating, showcasing the sick, twisted reality of this broken animal society. It sets a mirror against all of the values that Legoshi and his friends hold true.

Across the board, there are some absolutely triumphant performances, and over the span of twelve episodes you will be taken on an emotional roller coaster. It’s thrilling, it’s deliberate, and it even has some tearjerkers thrown in for good measure. I’m not ready for this show to end, but it is truly setting itself up to go out with a bang.

3. A Sign of Affection

This was likely my biggest surprise of the year. The love story between a hearing impaired girl and a guy with no personal boundaries had me hooked right from its first episode; never shying away from its premise, but never playing it for laughs, either. Indeed, the direction of that first episode is so strong, it could be a standalone short film all of its own.

A Sign of Affection is a warm, thoughtful anime boasting a universally likeable cast of characters. Yuki is a goofy little treasure, with internal monologues presented through a combination of dialogue and text that make it feel like a romantic novel. You’re never entirely sure how to feel about Itsuomi, and yet I was wooed all the same. Damned pesky bishonen.

The ‘antagonists’, Oushi and Emma, are not villains in any sense of the word, despite the disruption they present to the central love story. They’re merely in love, too, just as validly as Yuki and Itsuomi, equally as deserving of their own happiness. You get invested in all of them in quick succession. This anime really made me feel gooey inside.

2. Dandadan

Surely one of the most unapologetically stylish anime of its era, Dandadan takes all of your shonen expectations, tosses them around with little to no respect, and then flings them back at you while demanding to eat your weenie.

It was always a sure thing that adapting such a bombastic manga would yield positive results, but it has to be highlighted how much the team at Science SARU have made this their own. There are all of the familiar shots that we had been eager to see animated, punctuated by deliberate alterations that translate better to the medium. Rather than a one-to-one, it’s a largely faithful recreation with its own panache.

Because of this, the best way to watch each episode is by reading the prerequisite chapters — or approximately as many as you think there may be — right beforehand. It certainly amplified my experience, as chaotic a choice as that may sound in theory.

Dandadan leapfrogged some very prolific competitors in its genre to rocket towards the upper echelons of these rankings, and I really think that it qualifies as essential viewing for all anime fans (so long as they don’t mind a little bit of crude humour here and there).

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Considering that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End debuted as part of the Fall 2023 season, the competition for 2024’s anime of the year was over before it even really started.

Where my last two lists held somewhat controversial entries at #1, the acclaim for Frieren is universal. In the same manner as its titular protagonist, its narrative is not in any hurry to get from one place to another. It revels in the seemingly banal, giving purpose and introspect to the importance of each moment. As a result, when the action ramps up it carries a real weight to it, because of the meticulous attention to detail that preceded it.

It is wonderfully mature while still remaining boisterous in its own right, punctuated by gorgeous animation and some of the biggest “holy shit” moments of the year. The payoff to each arc, whether it be the showdown against Aura or the battle against doppelgängers in the mage exams, are peerless in their suspense.

This is a generational piece of art, lauded by critics and fans alike, that set a standard for this year’s anime as daunting as going toe-to-toe with the dreaded Frieren Spiegel. Not only does it claim the crown for 2024, I’d wager that it would handily trump the top anime for most other years, as well.

I look forward to seeing how 2025 hopes to compete with this diminutive mage.

Once again, I was also involved in Crunchyroll News Team’s 2024 anime year in review and 2024 gaming year in review, so please give those a read as well! Beyond my suggestions, there’s also a dazzling array of other classics that I didn’t get an opportunity to mention.