Anime UK News Review of 2024 Part 1: Anime
The moment we learned that the original One Piece anime was going to be streamed on BBC iPlayer was also the moment that we realized that anime really is no longer the niche interest we’ve grown up with. It’s not yet mainstream, but it’s in cinemas, on Disney+ and Netflix, and you can buy merch in your local HMV and Waterstones. Whether this is any good for anime in the long run remains to be seen. And then there’s been the Sony/Kadokawa situation with the announcement on the 19th December that ‘A strategic capital and business alliance will see Sony acquire a ~10% stake in Kadokawa for ~50 billion yen, making them the company’s largest shareholder as they aim “to maximize both companies’ IP value globally.”‘ (Anime Corner). We shall see in due course in 2025 what this means in real terms for anime fans worldwide…
It’s been a good year for anime in the UK on the whole though, with a ton of new series on streaming platforms, exciting cinema screenings, and some interesting titles being released by Anime Limited, MVM and Crunchyroll. The Anime UK News writers have been looking back over the last twelve months and are here to share their top picks of 2024 – drop us a line in the comments below and let us know what you’ve enjoyed too!
Streaming/Simulcast
Darkstorm
There were some truly great releases that I got very attached to this year: Cherry Magic: Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! compelled me to watch it twice (for sub and dub) and the live action drama on Crunchyroll, which was a highly enjoyable watch too. 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! I enjoyed so much that I actually started reading the light novel it’s based on, the very first one I ever read! Then there was the return of Black Butler with the Public School Arc, and I’m so excited for more anime to come with the Emerald Witch Arc. But my winner for this year goes to one I was super excited for since 2023: A Sign of Affection. Not only did it look beautiful, but it was a fantastic adaptation of the manga, expanding on the themes and ideas to really bring the world of a deaf person to life on screen, with a heart-warming romance that kept me hooked each week. I even found myself liking the secondary couple Shin and Ema, more than I did in the manga at that part of the story. It doesn’t look like they plan to continue the series, but what we got was fantastic and stands out amongst the romance anime that came out this year. The manga is also highly recommended (and ongoing) if you want to spend more time with these wonderful characters.
Demelza
2024 has been an excellent year for streaming. Not only did favourites like DanMachi, Konosuba, Re:Zero and Spice and Wolf return to our screens but a host of new favourites appeared. Like Darkstorm above, I also adored A Sign of Affection as well as seeing Cherry Magic, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic and Wind Breaker brought to life in animation. However, the two shows that I keep going back to are My Hero Academia and Oblivion Battery.
It has been a big year for My Hero Academia with the manga finally reaching its conclusion. Meanwhile, the anime had its seventh season which is in the final battle. The adaptation has faced plenty of criticism over the years (some due to the source material, it has to be said), but I think this season is something all MHA fans should be watching even if they’ve fallen off somewhere along the way. The animation, music and voice acting have taken a real step up as all involved prepare themselves to bring this beloved franchise to an end (Deku’s VA Daiki Yamashita doesn’t even know how it ends as he wants to record each episode without knowing spoilers!). Honestly, watching Season 7 week to week as it aired was a truly incredible experience, even knowing all the twists and turns from having read the manga, I found myself eagerly awaiting the next instalment just to see how the anime would build on the material. The final season is set to air next year and I highly encourage you all to catch up before then!
Oblivion Battery meanwhile is a series that I had no prior connection to, which is unusual for me as when something’s based on a manga or light novel I have usually read it beforehand. I knew this show would charm me just from having Mamoru Miyano and Yuuki Kaji in the cast, but I wasn’t prepared for how captivating it proved to be. What looks like a simple sports series went on to tell the story of five teenagers wrestling with their mental health and (often traumatic) difficulties playing the sport and that left a meaningful impression on me, ensuring that I kept thinking about the show for the rest of the year. With 20 volumes of manga (and ongoing but sadly unlicensed), there’s still plenty of material to adapt and thankfully a Season 2 was recently announced, so I look forward to this returning to our screens in the future.
Sarah
2024 has turned out to be something of a curate’s egg for me, with a few (too few?) absolutely must-watch series, like Delicious in Dungeon (Netflix) almost swamped by a vast tide of forgettable titles. I used to try to give a new series the benefit of the doubt over three episodes but in many cases I’ve had to give up in the first episode because it just wasn’t catching my attention. However, my favourite watch this year has been fantasy series Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose its Master from NHK (Crunchyroll) which was engrossing from start to finish, creating a convincing fantasy hidden country, Yamauchi, whose inhabitants are shape-shifting three-legged ravens. The court politics and scheming, seen through the eyes of a rebellious young man/raven sent to serve the crown prince, made each episode a tense watch.
And my runner-up? Twilight Out of Focus (Crunchyroll) a faithful adaptation in art and story, of the Boys’ Love manga by Jyanome, set around the members of the film club in an all-boys high school as second and third years compete to make a winning film for the culture festival. Woven around the main characters’ love for the medium of film and delivered with sensitivity and humour, it’s another of the new generation of Boys’ Love anime (Given, Cherry Magic! ) that have moved away from the awkward old clichés that earned many early series a bad rep. A late-comer is Autumn’s Negative Positive Angler which I love for all kinds of reasons – but that hasn’t finished yet, so I can only say: Watch it! (On Crunchyroll.)
HWR
This has been a year of big returns for continuing series and as the anime seasons get more crowded, and certain companies continue their (definitely not) monopolies on the anime industry, it’s easy for certain titles to slip through the cracks, and Ooi, Tonbo! is no such exception.
This golf-themed sports anime first caught my attention during the Spring Season though I suspect it being stuck on Prime Video and not being advertised well by Amazon likely obscured its presence for many seasonal viewers, who either didn’t know it was airing or don’t use Prime Video for their anime viewing. It’s a shame, too, as Ooi, Tonbo! managed to distinguish itself amongst the many heavy-hitters of 2024 through how its narrative, though familiar, evolved nicely. It starts as a relatively simple and low-key story of a former professional golfer Kazuyoshi Igarashi (Hiroki Touchi) rediscovering his passion through a young protégée Tonbo (Rika Hayashi), a young girl whom he meets on the Japanese island of Kagoshima which has become home to a variety of man-made golf courses. It then evolves to focus on a more independent Tonbo finding her place amongst other similarly talented young people while keeping true to her teachings back home.
Although the narrative is perhaps a bit typical of the genre with Tonbo possessing a natural talent and a sad past to boot (loss of parents), her true hard work at the sport and narrative push away from the island setting allows Tonbo and her newfound friends/rivals to grow older, which has resulted in a strong Season 2 so far. It continues to shine, more so, I find this year, than some other sports anime like the latest Prince of Tennis season, which has underwhelmed in areas. Hopefully reading this will inspire others to check this anime out, at least whilst Amazon remembers to put episodes out!
Ian Wolf
Streaming anime this year has been a bit of a mixed bag. Let’s just say that the less that can be said about the way Uzumaki was handled, the better. But there were plenty of other, more pleasurable highlights.
The start of this article mentions the BBC streaming One Piece on iPlayer, but it wasn’t the only series they started showing. Somehow they got the rights to show the new Pokémon Horizons series before it was released in the USA. While there were no doubt worries about how the series would continue in the post-Ash era, the adventures of Liko and her Sprigatito were as delight. The BBC is continuing to show the series, with the start of Season 2 being made available in the New Year.
My other streaming selections are split between Crunchyroll and Netflix. In the former, we had the Black Butler: Public School Arc which was not only entertaining, but presumably exposed a fair number of viewers in Japan and elsewhere to cricket for the first time, even if the way Ciel Phantomhive plays the game is somewhat underhanded. In this current season, I’ve been mainly following two series. Negative Positive Angler has been an entertaining watch, whether you take pleasure in the actual action of fishing, or are taken in by the drama that surrounds its main character – a drop-out student riddled with debt and diagnosed with a terminal illness, finding salvation among a new group of friends. The other series is Demon Lord 2099, which was a show I was already familiar with having reviewed the original light novels for AUKN. I know that many viewers are sick to the back teeth of isekai, as evidenced by the number of people who complained when Crunchyroll announced in this year’s annual anime awards there would now be a “Best Isekai” category, or one meme I came across showing a bunch of almost identical isekai protagonists: male, short black hair etc. 2099 does stand out however in certain way, and it is not just the fact that its protagonist Veltol has long hair. A mixture of reverse isekai, science fantasy and cyberpunk, it’s an interesting mixture of genres which make it different from the rest of the usual isekai you see. The series has already completely adapted the first novel and is currently airing the second.
As for Netflix, this season they have been showing the new adaptation of Ranma ½. Again, any worries people might have had about the way this new version would handle the source material seem to have gone away. In fact, in certain aspects it has dealt with it better (no need to worry about English voice-over actors doing dodgy Chinese accents for one thing). The series is still ongoing and hopefully a new generation have been introduced to this classic show. As a CLAMP fan I also have to mention their work on the character design for The Grimm Variations, an anthology of fairy tale reworkings. While some stories are better than others, some of these tales are certainly worthy of attention. I particularly recommend their version of Hansel and Gretel.
Cold Cobra
Looking back, it’s been an odd year as there haven’t been a lot of brand new shows I enjoyed enough to shout about, and most of my fondest 2024 moments from anime all come from adaptations of Shonen Jump! properties, which has and no doubt forever will appeal to me, but I didn’t really want to come across so one-note! New adaptation Kaiju No. 8 and new seasons of My Hero Academia and Bleach have all given me the fun spectacle and crazy characters but even though it’s only half (possibly) finished, one thing will stick in my mind this year and that’s Dragon Ball DAIMA.
Back in January, the show was announced as a celebration of 40 years of Dragon Ball penned by Akira Toriyama himself, but by the time it launched it was instead the final work of the legendary creator and that has added so much to the experience. While the show is beautifully animated and has a good soundtrack, the highlight is a return to the kind of wacky adventure storytelling that Toriyama always loved beyond anything else, and so as a final sign-off you couldn’t ask for more. You can almost feel how much more fun he’s having here, and the extra added lore he’s thrown in has been fun to keep up with as well. Like I said, the show won’t end until next year, but 2024 is the year we lost the creator of the series that’s inarguably the reason I got into anime in the first place, and his swan song has been a joy to watch every week.
Onosume
This year’s streaming slate has been pretty wild, as it’s ranged from absolute standout shows to ones that fell off the cart and got completely trampled on. My favourites though have largely been returning mainstays, alongside some interesting newcomers that have really impressed.
[Oshi no Ko] returning to be my top show of the year for the second year running isn’t much of a surprise as it pulled through a pretty gripping arc that really put Aqua through his paces and get to use those acting chops. While I was a little disappointed in the lack of actual idol content after it got it so right at the end of Season 1, this season’s focus on theatre was actually really interesting and offered a different perspective on that slice of entertainment before it really got back onto poking at the central mystery of Ai’s killer. Aqua’s inevitable breakdown and loss of his shine was the main focus here, but I also loved the battle both on and off stage between Kana and Akane.
I’ve not got round to the manga just yet, but the anime is filling its boots really well, and I can’t wait to see what happens next after Season 2 ended by really piling up the layers in the plot.
This year also saw the conclusion of The Duke of Death and His Maid, which has been a very fun series to follow. With so many shows these days being adaptations of long-running light novels or manga series, it was also just refreshing to have a clean ending where everything wraps up nicely. Each of these characters that we have slowly fallen in love with over the past two seasons each gets their own good ending, and that even includes Sade, the main antagonist, who gets her own touching redemption arc. The core romance between the Duke and Alice remains very sweet, and this gradually expands out to other characters too, which sets up some surprising pairings.
I think sweet is just the perfect word to describe this series though, as even though it has its mysteries, the touch of the supernatural, and some odd characters, it’s ultimately about this sweet push and pull romance between our two main characters that is mesmerising to follow from start to finish. If you haven’t got round to watching this yet I’d highly recommend it!
Those are just two of my favourites though, which don’t really tell the tale of just how much variety we have had this year, and while yes there have been shows I have hated as I initially mentioned, I’d say the majority have ranged from either good to excellent.
DAN DA DAN, for example, might have a simple shonen core of two unsuspecting teenagers fighting ghosts and aliens, but it manages to show a lot of depth within that, producing not only fascinating characters in the stuff they have going on in their personal lives, but also giving us one of the most tragic anime episodes of the entire year. Stay tuned for our Autumn Season review for more on this after the final episode has gone out, but I do think Science Saru have knocked it out the park with this adaptation!
Villainess stories are still going strong with sleeper hits like Villainess Level 99, which takes the idea of an overpowered protagonist, pushes the idea to over 9000, and completely pulls it off with dark magic black holes. We’ve had a fantastic supernatural comedy in Mayonaka Punch, which blew everyone’s expectations out of the water with its comeback of a cancelled YouTuber story. Then we’ve had more comfy vibes with the third season of Laid Back Camp, which took us on a heartening journey across trains, bridges, and both girls and dogs goofing off in delightful ways!
I could go on, but I think we can say that 2024 has been a great success for anime in general, and as you can read below I’m definitely looking forward for what 2025 has to offer.
Noemi10
There were quite a few series that hooked me this year and kept me entrapped from start to finish, which is not an easy feat as I get bored easily. Other than Solo Leveling, which I cannot stop praising, Kaiju no 8 was quite a nice surprise. While I wasn’t familiar with the series before I saw the advertising on Crunchyroll, I gave it a try, and I’m so glad I wasn’t disappointed! We see Kafka Hibino accidentally swallowing a creature that turns him into a Kaiju—a monster. He needs to keep this secret while he fights for a spot in the Japanese Anti-Kaiju Defence Force tasked with defeating the Kaijus. Think about the shonen series Bleach, but targeted to a slightly older audience as the characters are in their late twenties. Another huge hit for me was Yakuza Fiancé, which released this Autumn. Yoshino is a high school student but also happens to be the granddaughter of a Kansai Yakuza family. Her grandfather arranges a (possible) marriage with Kirishima, another yakuza heir from Tokyo. It’s the story of their ‘love story’, but if you expect it to be a light romance, you’re wrong. It’s dark and twisted and the characters have so many red flags that if it were real life you’d run away and change your name so they couldn’t find you. It’s intriguing though because it’s a different, seinen take on the shojo/josei genre, if I can actually categorise it as such.
Josh A. Stevens
Recently, Crunchyroll released their “2024 Arc” summary – their equivalent of Spotify Wrapped, because seemingly every company now feels the need to do one. The round-up of all the anime I’ve watched (at least on their service) was a reminder of how few anime series I watch these days – I probably average about 4-5 shows per season? According to the algorithms behind Crunchyroll’s 2024 arc, my top show this year was Spice & Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, which I previously wrote about in our Summer Season round-up feature. I must confess that my Mondays still feel empty without Ami Koshimizu’s teasing voice as Holo. However, I also made a bold claim back in August that Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines could be an Anime of the Year contender. With the year almost over, I should look back on my earlier statements and decide if they still hold true.
I still adore Makeine and the adorable gremlin that is Anna Yanami. The series premiere left such a strong impression with me that I couldn’t help be worried that it would falter… but it didn’t. The insane level of detail continued throughout, as did the comedic writing of these dorks. Even having had the time away from the series since it ended in September, I still think about the series regularly, and over the Christmas break, I hope to finally make a start on the light novels that have been sat on my shelves.
The biggest breakout hit of this year has undoubtedly been DAN DA DAN, which Onosume previously touched upon. I should disclose that I worked alongside Anime Limited to promote the series’ theatrical premiere event, before the wider world knew just how explosive this supernatural comedy would be. However, I haven’t been professionally involved in the series since – and my love for it is all my own.
As a child I was obsessed with the paranormal and as an adult I’ve grown to love romance manga, so of course a mash-up of the two would feel like it was made for me. The alien-obsessed Okarun and the spiritual gyaru Momo are such fun compliments for each other, and it was fun seeing the Flatwoods Monster that used to haunt my older brother’s nightmares be reimagined as a sumo-wrestling alien. DAN DA DAN is just absurd fun, and I love it. I also agree 100% with Onosume’s praise for Science SARU’s adaptation – one of my highlights of 2024 was having the opportunity to tell Kensuke Ushio to his face that the use of William’s Tell Overture in Episode 4 was an absolute stroke of genius.
Anime on Home Video
Onosume
I’ve really pulled back on buying home video releases this year, particularly opting out of collector’s editions due to both lack of space and the feeling that, as costs have gone up, they don’t really offer good value for money anymore. As much as it’s nice to have something shiny on a shelf, a poster or a bunch of art cards just doesn’t really cut it when some of them can be £10 or £20 extra compared to the standard editions. Plus, quality control and issues on discs have been a big bugbear over the last couple of years, and I don’t really want to grab something that is going to be worse than what’s available on streaming services.
That said, I did pick up some titles this year, from the steelbook versions of Suzume and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, to standard releases of favourites such as The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 and Bofuri Season 2, while also continuing to pick up Anime Limited’s Gundam releases, as well as shows like Rent-a-Girlfriend, Akiba Maid War, and A Place Further than the Universe.
I’ve not got round to watching all these yet, but rewatching Suzume surprised me as it has grown on me despite my not being the biggest fan of Shinkai’s works in general. I think it’s a stronger film than a lot of people make it out to be, as it’s often seen as the weakest of Shinkai’s more recent trilogy of films if you want to group them together, but I think it’s actually underrated, and has moved past Weathering With You in my standings. I tend to prefer how the characters in Suzume are portrayed and that we’ve got a headstrong female lead here who doesn’t have to be rescued by the male lead at the end of the film, and I like the fact it has a strong sense of adventure as this teenage girl romps around the country after a mischievous cat and a walking, talking chair. Yes, some of the chair stuff can seem a bit weird, and references to the March 11th earthquake and tsunami can be a bit too on the nose, but this is a film I’d happily re-watch over its slightly ham-fisted predecessor.
HWR
This has been a solid year for home video in general, with many great releases across the various boutique labels still releasing cult classics and mainstream movies. The realm of anime releases in no such exception for the most part, with certain companies have been pulling their weight with must-buy titles, whilst with others you wait for a sale – only so much money (and shelf-space) after all!
I must once again use this opportunity to champion Discotek Media, whose output this year has been typically varied, high quality (though I wish there was a tad more warning on the OOP titles front), and also very affordable compared to other companies and their output. The continued enthusiasm for the SDBD format is also a win in my books – they’ve even gone rogue with releases for MXC, the American equivalent of Takeshi’s Castle, and if they released the UK version, I’d be over the moon (less likely though, I know).
Some of their best releases from 2024 include the massive seller US Blu-ray debut of Berserk, continued support for the Lupin the 3rd franchise with The Secret Page of Marco Polo and Princess of the Breeze (still hoping for a Part 2 BD or SDBD release), classics like Chie the Brat, Great Teacher Onizuka, and Space Captain Harlock resurfacing on Blu-ray, and even going above and beyond for a special Fan Disc for the Reborn! franchise, featuring a dub for mega fans. Looking ahead at their confirmed 2025 releases, I’m already confident that we’re in for a strong year, with more Digimon (The films just saw a BD release too), the return of the original Cutie Honey series, and more Toku Time releases to boot.
It’s also worth discussing that MediaOCD owner and frequent Discotek-collaborator Justin Sevakis also purchased AnimEigo this year, and they’ve been giving previous Kickstarter projects like Megazone 23, Riding Bean and Time of Eve re-authored releases too, with nice exclusive slips and still at an affordable price. I’m keen to see how AnimEigo grows under this new direction, and thank Robert Woodhead and Nasume Ueki for their hard work over the last 35 years, and everyone else involved in the AnimEigo projects spanning that time also.
Cold Cobra
Not a lot to add to here again this year. The big one would be Anime Limited getting the rights to both Bleach and Naruto and giving them their usual nice boxset treatment, especially the former which has some really nice, simplistic box-art (the Naruto overall box is a little too bright and busy for my eyes…) I’m looking forward to finally taking those large DVD boxsets off the shelf and replacing them with… equally large but nicer looking (and not as tall!) boxsets in the year/s to come.
I’ll also add that the streak of matching Gundam boxsets being broken by some admittedly nice Witch from Mercury steelbooks was the definition of “what the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away” in my world…
Josh A. Stevens
As space has become a precious commodity in my home, as well as the general growing costs of living, I have also been a lot more conservative in how many new releases I’ve been buying. A few months ago, I re-organised my shelves and once I decided to group them all together, I gained a new appreciation for the uniformity of the spine format on Anime Limited standard editions (although I know this topic can be divisive). However, I did treat myself to a brand new release of a series very close to my heart.
Although I had watched anime years before on the likes of Toonami and CNX, it was Naruto that really brought me into the anime fandom. I was always an outcast at school (liking Pokémon may be cool again now but in the mid-00s it was a social death sentence). I saw a part of myself in that ninja brat, and the series quickly became my obsession as a teenager. I have fond memories of meeting up with friends at weekends to play Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4 on the Gamecube, and wearing a replica of Kakashi’s mask as part of my costume for my GCSE drama play (okay, I just wanted an excuse to wear one – he was always my favourite character). So, now that I’m in my 30s, my soul weathered by the bitter winds of adulthood, a bit of the ol’ nostalgia just hits the spot.
I had a couple of Manga Entertainment’s releases from what now feels like a lifetime ago, but I had never completed the entire series. Well, the storage box included with the Part 1 Collector’s Edition will kick off my completionist bug and make sure that I do! Although, I dread to think of how much money owning all of Naruto Shippuden will set me back…
Anime Film/Theatrical Screening
Darkstorm
Sailor Moon Cosmos Parts 1 & 2 were a long wait for Moonies, and we all rejoiced when they finally dropped on Netflix in the summer, and luckily they did not disappoint. Concluding the Crystal arc with a movie about growing up and accepting that life may have friends and family move away from you, but they still love and support you no matter what. It’s an emotionally satisfying end to one of the most beloved Magical Girl anime of all time.
Demelza
There have been many new anime films hitting cinemas over the year, particularly as Crunchyroll rolled out more franchise films. It’s the big shonen franchises that stand out from the crowd for me as we saw the long-awaited Haikyu!! sequel in the form of The Dumpster Battle and My Hero Academia returned with its fourth film: You’re Next. Both films captured the best of their respective series, showing us tender character moments and plenty of tense action scenes that looked great on the big screen. I do worry we’re beginning to hit oversaturation of the market here as there are so many films I didn’t see due to being franchises I dislike, recap films or special showings of upcoming TV anime like DAN DA DAN, so it will be interesting to see what happens next year. Will there be as much put on the big screen or will they return to only putting on the best of the best?
Onosume
My favourite anime films this year have largely been those that stood on the Scotland Loves Anime stage, with Totto-chan and The Colors Within taking my best nods there, as you can read in our SLA roundup.
Outside of Scotland Loves Anime though, theatrical anime this year has been a mixed bag, focusing mainly on franchise films with a narrower appeal. While I skipped out on things like Blue Lock, Solo Levelling and Overlord, having not watched any of their parent series, and didn’t think much of My Hero Academia: You’re Next, I did enjoy Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle and Detective Conan: The Million Dollar Pentagram.
Detective Conan was definitely something different, as it’s a franchise that doesn’t quite get as much love in the west as it should considering how long it has been going for. The Million Dollar Pentagram turned out to be a fun caper as it slowly unravels the mystery of the Onoe Zaibatsu treasure which has everyone and their dog scampering around after these bunch of swords that are supposed to lead them to it. I remember a lot of the chase and action sequences in this being pretty fun, and I think it made use of its setting really well, taking place in Hokkaido which has been getting greater focus in entertainment over the past five years or so.
What I do like about the Detective Conan films is that they are largely standalone entries, so even if you don’t know the full cast you can still really get into it. Having seen a couple of them now, I would say they are generally a fun time, hitting similar vibes to some of the Pokémon films in that they are an easy watch. As such, I hope that we do get more of them over here and if CineAsia (who have done a really good job in getting this film out despite being new to anime) or any other distributor wants to pick up more, I’d gladly take it.
Ian Wolf
While clearly there are many anime films being covered and worth talking about, there is very clearly one that stood out above the rest. We must not forget that 2024 was the year in which an anime won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.
I watched Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and The Heron in the early months of this year in my local independent cinema, and it was great to see that not just the studio, but Hayao Miyazaki as well, still have the ability to make great movies. Seeing the visuals on the big screen certainly made it a more impactful performance. While it looks like no anime films will be nominated for any big awards this year, it is still good to see that the industry can make a global impact. Whether it can do so outside of Ghibli and Miyazaki remains to be seen.
Noemi10
I haven’t watched many movies this year, but the one that captured me completely was Solo Leveling: Reawakening. In this movie, Crunchyroll and Sony delighted the fans with a recap of Season 1 and the first two episodes of Season 2, which will premiere in the new year. This theatrical preview of what is to come gives fans great hopes for the new season to be as good, if not even better, than the first one. We can clearly see the main protagonist, Sung Jinwoo, evolving to become the strongest hunter. I appreciate how the anime has shown the intricated relationship between the characters setting the bases on how they will develop, compared to the manhwa where this web of relationship happens later. Moreover, the fighting scenes are amazing, so I’d recommend it just for that (unless you’re squeamish, then don’t look!).
Josh A. Stevens
I typically avoid talking too much about theatrical anime releases because I end up working on a lot of them, but with the explosive growth of anime in pop culture, we’ve seen more companies than ever throwing their hats into the ring. Who would have thought that a major studio like Warner Bros. would be investing so much into an anime with Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. The first major positive of that is it means more anime for us to watch, but the other, is that there’s more that I can talk about freely!
However, while we’re getting more anime films than ever, that also means not every one will get the theatrical release that they deserve. Maboroshi was my most highly anticipated films for the longest time – I’ve made no secret of the special place that Mari Okada and her directorial debut Maquia hold in my heart. I was really hoping that the film would have at least made an appearance at Scotland Loves Anime last year, but alas, I was not meant to see it on the big screen. Netflix acquired the film, and released it internationally on their streaming service back in January.
If Maquia was her attempt at a more mainstream film, then Maboroshi is Mari Okada unrestrained – all of the teenage melodrama, the feeling of being trapped in one place, and even the questionable sexual connotations. I imagine that the film will prove divisive for the average viewer, but it stands out to me as one of the more fascinating anime films of this year – and with so much time having passed since its release, I feel the need to remind everyone of it once more.
Of course, this year also had the surprise success of Look Back, the adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot manga. I don’t think anyone could have predicted how wild the praise for this film would be over in America that saw it join the ranks of Letterboxd’s Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films list.
This success coming as a surprise to everyone is perhaps evidenced by how unfocused the international rollout appeared to be. Here in the UK, what was supposed to be a premiere at Scotland Loves Anime proved so popular that overflow screenings were required in all three cities, only for K-Movies to announce a wide theatrical release scheduled ahead of the event – as was the announcement of its Amazon Prime release. I’m not sure who is to blame for that kerfuffle, but the film absolutely deserved a focused international strategy, and it’s a real shame that Look Back has thus far been left out of contention for the major awards. Although, I wonder how much of that is down to its surprise success, or just how packed 2024 has been for animation in general.
Look Back is a beautiful yet painful film. Told through the narrative of two young budding manga creators, it is a reflection on life, grief, and the creative process. Although the film certainly spoke to me and my role in the creative industries, its message is universal. To say too much about Look Back risks spoiling its impact, but you can read my full review here.
Live Action Adaptation
Demelza
This last year, I’ve taken to watching a lot more live-action dramas thanks to my increasing Japanese language proficiency, which is proving an interesting experiment. Many turn out far better than I expected, and some are lacklustre, to say the least. My absolute favourite for the year is Usotoki Rhetoric, which has sadly still yet to be licensed by anyone. So instead I’ll talk about my second favourite – I Hear the Sunspot, which is streaming on iQIYI. Having only read Volume 1 of the manga, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, particularly as BL dramas often get off-track and don’t focus on what made the manga so special. Thankfully that wasn’t the case here, as lead actors Motoki Nakazawa and Toranosuke Kobayashi showed us the heartfelt relationship Kohei and Taichi develop throughout the series (the drama seems to adapt the first three volumes).
Much like how A Sign of Affection’s anime showed us heroine Yuki’s world beginning to change after she met Itsuomi, Taichi’s world begins to turn anew after meeting Kohei. The show isn’t just about their relationship as friends and potential lovers, but also sensitively explores Kohei’s feelings about his partial hearing loss and the fear of it declining further. Having seen the I Cannot Reach You adaptation not long before this, which was honestly not great in my opinion, I was surprised that despite the short 24-minute episode runtime, it came out so well. I definitely highly recommend checking this one out if you’re a fan of the manga or simply looking for a charming Boy’s Love series.
Looking Forward to 2025…
Darkstorm
Anime Bluray UK reported that Crunchyroll UK had plans to release Sailor Moon in the UK in 2025 on Blu-ray and DVD but Crunchyroll have yet to officially announce its dates, if it’s just the original series, or includes Crystal as well. Either way, I really hope this is true because it would be a wonderful feeling to finally OWN Sailor Moon, uncut, in full, on any form of physical media, so it can’t be ripped away (sadly, a constant risk with digital media). The UK has long been overdue to see the complete story of this Magical Girl classic.
In terms of streaming, there are lots of manga series I’m currently reading that are getting their anime adaptation next year; Moon on a Rainy Night, This Monster Wants to Eat Me and The Summer Hikaru Died. I’m also excited for Season 2 of My Happy Marriage, as we’ve covered all the manga material I’m familiar with, I’m excited to see new stories with characters I care about.
Demelza
As anime productions continue to increase, I am weary of the overall quality of the TV series getting worse as the years go on. However, there’s plenty to look forward to all the same and 2025 has Wind Breaker and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun returning for second seasons which makes me happy. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the Kowloon Generic Romance adaptation turns out. Then there’s Shinichirou Watanabe’s new show Lazarus at studio Mappa with Mamoru Miyano as the lead, which is a combination of very exciting things for me…
Onosume
As we approach the end of the year we’re starting to get announcements for next year’s anime slate, and one of the shows that I really hope gains traction is Rock is a Lady’s Modesty (Rock wa Shukujo no Tashinami de shite), produced by Bandai Namco Pictures and directed by Shinya Watada (Aikatsu Stars! The Movie, Gundam Build Divers, Hula Fulla Dance). Hopping on the back of shows like BanG Dream! (which I’ll get onto shortly), Bocchi the Rock and Girls Band Cry, this is a girls’ rock band anime, ojou-sama style! Set in a seemingly very posh and rich school, Lilisa Suzunomiya rediscovers her love for rocking out as she forms a band with another girl in the school. The trailer doesn’t show too much but it does look very striking, and I’m really into the character designs which feel like they could have been pulled straight from the Aikatsu! cutting room floor.
Speaking of music shows though, the upcoming winter season sees the return of BanG Dream! with BanG Dream! Ave Mujica. This is the follow-up to It’s MyGO!!!!!, focusing on the rebellious upstarts of the BanG Dream! world, the titular Ave Mujica. After running to the end of the road with the original generation of bands, It’s MyGO!!!!! brought a fresh start to the franchise with a bold story of bringing about success from past failures, as new girl Anon somehow brings together most of a former broken band back together, while also finding a striking rival. This then is the rival band’s turn to show what they’ve got, and I’m looking forward to seeing how their theatrical vibes come out in their music as well as the inevitable drama as the rivalry gets particularly spicy.
Outside of music, we have the recently announced Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX (pronounced G-Quacks, apparently?), which is a collaboration between Sunrise and Khara. Seemingly building off the idea of the student battles in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, GQuuuuuuX’s concept surrounds “clan battles”, an illegal sport where different clans battle it out in mobile suits. Our main character, Amate Yuzuriha, is drawn into these battles, taking on the alias of Machu and piloting the titular GQuuuuuuX, but soon finds a bigger adventure after running into a boy called Shuji who is on the run from the police.
Understandably there is a lot of hype for this with Khara entering the fold, and they’ve already had to step in to downplay Hideaki Anno’s involvement, because a Gundam series with the creator of Evangelion in the mix is a crazy thought. But this is mainly helmed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, one of the directors of the Rebuild of Evangelion films, and director of The Dragon Dentist.
From the trailer this is a visually very different Gundam series, looking quite cartoony but also reminding me a bit of the style of some of Trigger’s works. It’s different from a lot of the mainstream Gundam entries and I really like it as it is carving out its own sense of style. The story also seems quite interesting, and I’m sure there we’ll be more than just the clan battles and plenty of political commentary, as to what we don’t really know yet.
I’d say do temper your expectations as not every Gundam series is a hit (looking at you Reconguista in G), but I’m pretty excited to get stuck into another epic mecha show.
On the movie front there’s nothing really jumping out at me, although there’s not been much announced for next year as yet. That said, will we actually get a release date for the next Puella Magi Madoka Magica film? I can’t say, but with no firm date yet I could see this potentially getting delayed again until 2026, and as much as the trailers make it look pretty finished, there are obviously some production issues which are holding it back.
All that said though, I think 2025 is going to be another great year for anime!
Sarah
Several of the manga I’ve been loudly enthusing about here at Anime UK News since they first appeared in English editions will be appearing in anime TV series in 2025: Witch Hat Atelier; The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter; Medalist; and, of course, Kowloon Generic Romance which is also getting a live-action film version. I hope they give Bean Counter a catchier title; the German short title is Isekai Office Worker and the French Un Comptable à la Cour (An Accountant at Court) are both snappier and less confusing for those of us who don’t use ‘bean counter’ in everyday speech.
A little less expected but no less welcome is the announcement of not one but two adaptations of the manga by Yama Wayama: Captivated, by You and Let’s Go Karaoke!, one of my favourite reads of 2023. So lots to look forward to!
HWR
Looking ahead to 2025, it’s hard to gauge how some of the newer titles will fare as I tend to go into most entries blind, but anime like Anne Shirley have piqued my interest, as the 1979 anime showed potential for the story, whilst amongst the more obvious choices for continuing anime like Spy x Family, Fire Force, and long-awaited sequels like Saga of Tanya the Evil II, I am perhaps most excited to see what Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc, Dr. Stone: Science Future, and Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- Season 3 have to offer when they air.
Ian Wolf
There are a fair number of titles that I am keeping an eye on. Fans of Keiichi Arawi’s surreal comedy Nichijou: My Ordinary Life will no doubt be waiting to see Kyoto Animation’s forthcoming adaptation of City. Having reviewed the manga, the dark fantasy shonen series Gachiakuta, about a boy seeking revenge after being literally dumped into a pile of living trash for a crime he did not commit, will be something to also check out.
Then there are some returning titles. Aside from the BBC continue to show the next series of Pokémon Horizons, and hopefully the possibility of them picking up more titles, one of the most high profile has to be return of anime’s most badly behaved angels, as the Anarchy sisters return in a new series of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. With Gainax finally closing for good earlier this year (to the surprise of some, in the sense that many people thought it had closed down far longer ago), the series is now being taken up by Trigger, with original director Hiroyuki Imaishi once again returning to the helm.
While it has yet to be confirmed if it will air in 2025, the CLAMP fan in me has to mention the new adaptation of Magic Knight Rayearth. Given isekai’s reputation, it will be interesting to see how modern fans will react to one of the series that helped to first kick-off the genre back in the 1990s, when isekai was dominated mostly by female and non-binary creators.
Cold Cobra
Not much here to say that hasn’t already been said, especially as I have a nasty habit of not knowing about things until they’re suddenly released… Obviously my simulcast addition will tell you that my favourite show of this year in Dragon Ball DAIMA will end in the early part of 2025, so that’s exciting and obviously bittersweet, given it will mark the end of Toriyama-penned Dragon Ball. Coincidentally we’re also getting the final season of My Hero Academia and most likely the final cour of the Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War adaptation, both exciting prospects in their own right.
Especially Bleach as the actual manga of this story arc is quite poor and author Tite Kubo’s multiple additional scenes and battles have improved it dramatically so far, so I have my fingers crossed he nails the ending he previously missed. That’s a lot of favourite shonen shows ending at once, though to be fair, Dragon Ball and Bleach already ended in the past and come back, so it feels lucky we got more at all, rather than sad to see them go! As a Gundam fan I’m also looking forward to the already-mentioned Gundam: GQuuuuuuX, though I’m not looking forward to having to type that any time I want to mention it!
Noemi10
Other than the new seasons of Solo Leveling and Kaiju No 8 releasing in 2025, I’m excited for the first release of the anime adaptation of The Beginning After the End. While I enjoy the story, I find the manhwa art a little bit lacking, so I’m curious to see how the anime will be developed. I’m also hoping to hear announcements about the release dates in 2025 (I’m keeping my fingers crossed) for the anime of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, Season 2 of A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special and Season 4 of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. Other than the few titles just mentioned, there is not much else on my 2025 to-watch list because I know that I’ll start watching whatever catches my eye on Crunchyroll (I’m not only a mood reader but apparently a mood watcher as well?!), but I’ll make it my goal for 2025 to check on Netflix and Prime Video more for any new series as well as it seems I keep forgetting about these two platforms when instead they are growing their anime library.
Josh A. Stevens
Although 2025 still largely feels like a blank slate to me, there is one anime that I’m impatient to see the continuation of. The third season of Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- was a long time coming and had a rather unusual broadcast schedule (an 8-episode run, starting with a 90-minute premiere). Announced a split-cour show, the first half of Re:ZERO Season 3 was broadcast as part of the recent Autumn Season, and after ending with that cliffhanger, making me wait until February 2025 for more is a violation of my rights!
If you’re at all interested in a third season of a series, then I suspect that you already know what the deal is. However, if you don’t, then Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- is a dark fantasy isekai series about Natsuki Subaru, a guy who finds himself transported to a fantasy world, where he is cursed with the so-called “Return by Death” – an ability that activates whenever he dies, and forces him to simply snap back to an earlier point in time, as if loading an earlier save state. Through a string of events, Natsuki has become the “Knight” of Emilia, a silver-haired elf and one of five candidates to become the country’s next ruler.
That’s a very brief oversimplification of the general premise, but Re:ZERO has been one of the very few consistently great isekai series out there, and the most recent third season really reminded me of that fact. With the majority of the series’ key players gathered in the watergate city of Priestella, all hell lets loose with the appearance of four Sin Archbishops – especially when just one figurehead of this disturbing cult was enough of a big bad in Season 1. The 90 minute premiere ended with shocking brutality, and the first cour went from bad to worse for the cast – with Emilia even being kidnapped by Regulus Corneas, the Sin Archbishop of Greed, who was intent on making her his latest bride. However, the first cour ending with Subaru and Reinhard kicking down the church door couldn’t leave me any more excited for the next part to come next year.
On the film front, I’m holding out hope that we might see an international release of Fureru, the latest film from the Super Peace Busters collective of director Tatsuyuki Nagai, screenwriter Mari Okada, and Chief Animation Director Masayoshi Tanaka. With Netflix picking up Maboroshi and belatedly acquiring the Super Peace Buster’s previous work Her Blue Sky earlier this year, I suspect that this latest feature might end up with them as well – but we’ll see.
