15 Anime Series to Look Forward to in 2024

There’s a lot of anime out there. It’s too much to follow all series week to week, especially if you’re also trying to catch up on old classics (welcome to my world). 

So, as we head into 2024, as anime series start-up, renew, or soldier on airing new episodes, we’re narrowing down the ones that stand out the most. Anime series like Blue Exorcist, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, and Moonrise are among the ones we think should be on your radar.

In order of release date, with unconfirmed dates listed last, here are the 15 anime to look forward to in 2024:

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (January 5th)

If you’ve read The Lord of the Rings, you might remember Appendix B, “The Tale of Years,” where J.R.R. Tolkien lays out a full timeline of the world he’s built and reveals his Fellowship’s fate years, even centuries, after the titular tale. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End takes the premise of this postscript and spins a whole new tale out of it.

In a fantasy realm, a group of friends went on an adventure together, defeated the tyrannical Demon King, and became great heroes. But what happens next? One of their number, Frieren, is an immortal elf who must contend with outliving all her companions.

Adapted by the famous studio Madhouse from a manga by writer Kanehito Yamada and artist Tsukasa Abe, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is scheduled for 28 episodes. The first half premiered in 2023 and the season will conclude in the new year, resuming on Friday, January 5, 2024.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End simulcasts in the USA on Crunchyroll every Friday.

2. Blue Exorcist Season 3 (January 6)

Rin Okumura was never an average Japanese teenager; he was raised in a Catholic monastery for one, alongside his twin brother Yukio.

One day, he starts seeing demons and discovers a horrible truth: his birth father is the Devil himself. Rin decides to become an exorcist, fighting demons invading the material world with his inherited Satanic powers (from super strength to blue flames).

Originally a manga created by Kazue Kato, Blue Exorcist has been adapted slowly. Season 1 premiered in 2011, with Season 2, Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga, coming in 2017. After another long wait, Season 3 (Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga) will see Rin face off with the Illuminati — led by his half-brother Lucifer.

The season premieres in Japan on Saturday, January 6, 2024. Details of Western distribution have not been confirmed yet, but the first two Blue Exorcist seasons are streaming on Crunchyroll.

3. Solo Leveling (January 6)

Unlike most of the series on this list, Solo Leveling is not a Japanese work, but a South Korean one. It began as a web novel written by author Chugong. However, its story, soon to be rendered onscreen, is very much at home among its Shōnen (boys) fantasy peers.

Solo Leveling is set in a world where “Gates” to another dimension have opened, with monsters pouring out and humans coming to possess supernatural powers. Those with such powers are Hunters; the weakest of them, Jinwoo Sung, decides to “level up” his strength.

Produced by studio A-1 Pictures, Solo Leveling premieres on Crunchyroll on Saturday, January 6, 2024.

4. Metallic Rouge (January 10)

Studio Bones is an illustrious name in the anime industry, having produced titles including Fullmetal Alchemist, Mob Psycho 100, and My Hero Academia. Director Yutaka Izubuchi has now spearheaded the creation of Metallic Rouge, a treat for Bones’ 25th anniversary.

In 2128, human-looking androids called “Neans” exist alongside humans. One such android, a girl named Rouge Redstar, journeys to Mars with her friend Naomi Orthmann. Their mission? To hunt down rebellious Neans called the Immortal Nine.

Based on the trailers, Neans can ditch their human appearances for armored/robotic ones (Rouge’s, true to her name, is red). The android-on-android action and Mars setting call to mind the classic manga Battle Angel Alita too.

Metallic Rouge debuts on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, and will stream on Crunchyroll.

5. The Witch and the Beast (January 11)

Based on the manga by Kousuke Satake, The Witch and the Beast promises a fantasy setting mixing art deco, steampunk, and black magic.

As the series’ trailer explains, there are two witch-hunter partners. The first is the blonde and feral Guideau, who was once cursed by a witch to be bound to her current human form. She wants the spell broken, and so travels to find the witch with Ashaf, a raven-haired mage.

This anime is the latest project of Yokohama Animation Laboratory, a fairly new studio (it was founded in 2015). Fans will soon know if they’ll do this story justice.

The Witch and the Beast premieres on Crunchyroll on Thursday, January 11, 2024

6. The Fire Hunter Season 2 (January 14)

The Fire Hunter is based on a fantasy novel series written by Rieko Hinata (with illustrations provided by Akihiro Yamada). In a post-apocalyptic future, humans combust in the presence of fire. The Industrial Revolution was undone — until humankind discovered the blood of demons called Fire Fiends could be a new source of power and light.

The Fire Hunter Season 1 aired 10 episodes from January to March 2023, spearheaded by veteran anime director Junji Nishimura and the studio Signal.MD. The series’ beautiful animation is immediately eye-catching. Compared to contemporary anime, The Fire Hunter has earthier color shading and art that looks like a storybook drawing in motion.

The Fire Hunter Season 2 premieres on Sunday, January 14, 2024, on Crunchyroll.

7. Meiji Gekken: 1874 (January 14)

The Meiji period (1868-1912) was the birth of modern Japan; the country industrialized and ended its centuries-long isolationism. Meiji Gekken: 1874, a new anime from studio Tsumugi Akita Anime Lab, is set in this period and follows two displaced-by-modernity swordsmen.

Former samurai Shizuma Orikasa, who is in search of his missing lover, is recruited into Tokyo’s burgeoning police force after he foils the assassination of a government official. Another (one-eyed) swordsman, Kyōshirō Shuragami, joins a local Yakuza gang, who are the culprits behind that assassination attempt.

The series’ trailer promises an exciting showdown full of political intrigue and swordplay as these two soon-to-be-foes clash.

Meiji Gekken: 1874 premieres on Sunday, January 14, 2024 on Crunchyroll.

8. Kaiju No. 8 (April, TBA)

2023 was a good year for kaiju (giant monster) cinema, from Godzilla Minus One being just as big a hit in America as its homeland and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters furthering the U.S. “MonsterVerse.”

A kaiju story could be the next big anime of 2024, too. Kaiju No. 8 (based on a manga by Naoya Matsumoto) is being produced by the legendary studio Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell).

The story follows a world where kaiju attacks are a regular disaster, necessitating the creation of an anti-kaiju Defense Force. Our hero, Kafka Hibino, is not one of them; he’s part of the Kaiju Clean-Up Crew. At least until a parasite gives him the ability to become a kaiju.

If this mash-up of Pacific Rim and Attack on Titan sounds up your alley, Kaiju No. 8 premieres in April 2024 on Crunchyroll.

9. Black Butler Season 4 (April, TBA)

Black Butler is set in Victorian England, following industrial heir Ciel Phantomhive and his demonic servant Sebastian Michaelis. The series has had an on-off production schedule, debuting in 2008, followed by a second season in 2010 then a third in 2014.

Season 4, Black Butler: Public School Arc, will be the latest animated installment since the 2017 movie Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. The season will adapt volumes 14-18 of the manga, featuring Ciel enrolling at Weston College as part of an investigation.

The season is being produced by a new studio, CloverWorks, with previous director Noriyuki Abe replaced by Kenjirou Okada as well. Maaya Sakamoto and Daisuke Ono reprise their roles as Ciel and Sebastian, though.

Black Butler Season 4 premieres on Crunchyroll in April 2024.

1o. Demon Slayer Season 4 (Spring, TBA)

Demon Slayer is arguably the most popular ongoing anime series; its first movie, 2020’s Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, is currently the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.

So, what’s all the fuss about? Set in the early 20th century (Japan’s Taishō period), Tanjiro Kamado becomes a demon slayer after his village is ravaged and his sister Nezuko turned into a demon. On Tanjiro’s quest to avenge and restore his sister, he makes friends and enemies like any good hero.

Demon Slayer is renowned for its high-quality animation, courtesy of Studio Ufotable. The original manga (by Koyoharu Gotouge) had a relatively short run of four years/205 chapters too, so the anime is being made with an endpoint in sight.

Demon Slayer Season 4 is scheduled to premiere in April 2024.

11. My Hero Academia Season 7 (May 4)

It’s not just American media that has gotten in on the superhero craze. My Hero Academia, based on the still-ongoing manga by Kōhei Horikoshi, is set in a world where most people are superpowered (powers are called “Quirks”) and divided into the hero/villain dichotomy of Marvel and DC Comics.

The main hero, Izuku Midoriya/Deku, attends a school for superheroes in training. If you want a comparison, think X-Men (or, alternatively, Naruto but with students learning to be superheroes instead of ninjas).

With six seasons under its belt, the series’ narrative is well underway. The season 6 finale introduced the American hero Stars and Stripes (voiced by the legendary Romi Park) as a promise for the next season.

My Hero Academia Season 7 premieres on Crunchyroll on Saturday, May 4, 2024.

12. Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture (May, TBA)

Code Geass, aired for two seasons in 2006-2008, takes place in an alternate history where Britain stomped the American Revolution but fell to Napoleon. Thus, the Empire made the 13 colonies its new homeland and spread Manifest Destiny to the Pacific under the banner of the Holy Britannian Empire.

Living in Japan, exiled prince Lelouch Vi Britannia meets the witch CC and gains Geass, or the ability to order someone to do anything. With this new power, he leads a revolt as the masked Zero. Code Geass tells a complete story, but the universe is being revisited next year with a new spin-off: Rozé of the Recapture.

The subtitle echoes the original series’ (Lelouch of the Rebellion), but the trailer promises a new cast of characters (and Knightmare mechs). A theatrically released mini-series divided into four parts, the first chapter of Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture is scheduled for Japanese release in May 2024.

13. Suicide Squad Isekai (TBA)

“Isekai” is a Japanese-specific genre. Meaning “different world” in English, it follows (usually) an everyman protagonist being transported to a fantasy realm. It’s kind of like, say, American comic characters being transported to the world of anime.

Suicide Squad Isekai follows the characters of DC Comics’ Suicide Squad being sent on a mission to a magical realm. The cast line-up takes after both Suicide Squad movies: Harley Quinn (Anna Nagase), The Joker (Yūichirō Umehara), Deadshot (Reigo Yamaguchi), Peacemaker (Takehito Koyasu), King Shark (Subaru Kimura), and the wild card Clayface (Jun Fukuyama), who is rocking a pretty boy white suit + fedora human look.

The series is being animated by WIT Studio (Attack On Titan, Vinland Saga). No release date beyond 2024 has been confirmed yet.

14. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Conflict (TBA)

Bleach returned after a 10-year hiatus in 2022, set to complete its adaptation of Tite Kubo’s eponymous manga by animating the final arc: The Thousand-Year Blood War.

Ichigo Kurosaki is a Japanese teenager with a bad attitude and the ability to see ghosts. One day, he meets Rukia Kikuchi, a shinigami/”Soul Reaper,” and borrows her powers to defeat a malevolent spirit (a “Hollow”). With time and many, many battles, Ichigo becomes an accepted part of the Soul Reapers — just in time for their old enemies the Quincies to return.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is divided into four “cours” (segments of a season, usually denoted by new opening/ending title sequences). Two have aired thus far: Part 1, “The Blood Warfare,” from October to December 2022, and Part 2, “The Separation,” from July to September 2023. Each cour has 13 episodes each.

Part 3, “The Conflict,” does not have a confirmed release date yet but will come in 2024. Kubo had to rush the manga’s ending due to health problems, so as Bleach approaches the end of this 52-episode run, expect more changes and additions to the source material.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ outside of it.

15. Moonrise (TBA)

Netflix has become a power player in the anime game. Last year, they spearheaded an adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto. They’re delivering on the sci-fi anime front again in 2024 with Moonrise.

Produced by WIT Studio, the anime looks to have a classic friends-to-enemies story. In a future where humanity has colonized the Moon, a rebellion ferments. After a terrorist bombing, Jack joins the fight against the Moon rebels … and discovers his friend Al on the opposite side.

The dialogue-less teaser only hints at the story but shows promising animation and action. The big draw of Moonrise is that character designs were done by Hiromu Arakawa, the manga artist who created Fullmetal Alchemist. The series’ animation and poster are rendered in her distinctive art style.

Moonrise premieres on Netflix in 2024.

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Which anime series are you most looking forward to in 2024? Let us know in the comments below!

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