I just published an article ranking my six favorite TV anime series of 2024 along with shorter assessments of 15 additional shows. In this article, I will dole out category-specific anime awards for 2024. While only one show could take home my anime of the year title, many shows will get to take home minor prizes courtesy of the editor of The New Leaf Journal. In previous years, I combined my anime of the year and category rankings into a single article – so you can see the previous major category winners in my 2023, 2022, and 2021 reviews. I also published additional award posts for 2023 and 2022 – and below, I will award many of those categories again in 2024.
Before we jump into the categories, note that this ranking is only for 2024 TV anime, meaning seasons that ran for at least 10 episodes and concluded in 2024. Seasons which began in 2023 and concluded in 2024 are included in the mix. I go into more detail in my 2024 ranking article, which I recommend reading or skimming first. Moreover, note that I watched all of the shows mentioned below with Japanese audio and English subtitles, which will be relevant for the voice acting categories (also relevant is the fact that I do not know Japanese, so you can take my acting assessments with a grain of salt).
Best Writing
The best writing category is similar to a best script classification. I prefer to use best writing in recognition of the fact that there are many anime that do not fit into the traditional movie box in terms of how their plots are structured – especially true slice of life pieces, sketch comedies, and seasons which end in the middle of something or other. In considering the writing, I will consider the overall quality of the script and dialogue, including its ambition and whether it respects the intelligence of viewers, along with more traditional script concepts where applicable.
| Rank | Anime | Studio | Lead Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dangers in My Heart | Shin-Ei Animation | Jukki Hanada |
| 2 | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master | Pierrot | Yukiko Yamamuro |
| 3 | Sound! Euphonium 3 | Kyoto Animation | Jukki Hanada |
| 4 | Oshi no Ko 2 | Doga Kobo | Jin Tanaka |
| 5 | Girls Band Cry | Toei Animation | Jukki Hanada |
| 6 | A Sign of Affection | Ajia-do Animation Works | Yōko Yonaiyama |
Past Winners
2023: Overtake; 2022: Teasing Master Takagi-san [S3]; 2021: SSSS.Dynazenon (Studio Trigger); 2020: My Teen Romantic SNAFU! Climax (Studio Feel); 2019: Fruits Basket [S1]; 2018: March Comes in like a Lion [S2] (Studio Trigger); 2017: March Comes in like a Lion [S1]; 2016: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju [S1] (Kyoto Animation); 2015: Sound! Euphonium [S1] (Kyoto Animation)
Previously, my choice for best writing had lined up with my anime of the year every year since 2018 – with the last split coming in 2017. The streak continues in 2024, with the best writing award going to my 2024 anime of the year, the second season of The Dangers in My Heart.
I rated the first season The Dangers of My Heart as having the 4th best writing of 2023 despite my reservations with its lack of focus and questionable comedic direction in its first third and the fact that the show as a whole ended up outside my top six. The first season’s strength came in that its view-point character, the shy and self-loathing middle school boy named Kyotaro Ichikawa, made for an intelligent and compelling protagonist after a rough first few episodes. Its script about two middle school kids, the awkward Kyotaro Ichikawa and the goofy youth-model and actress, Anna Yamada, growing closer and helping each other grow up, is not the most ambitious story in our top six shows, but it is the best executed. Kyotaro especially, but Anna and the minor characters are written credibly for their ages while still being interesting. Kyotaro is smart but thinks himself in circles, and Anna is empathetic and has natural charisma to compensate for her own insecurities. The show neatly builds up to mid-season and end-season climaxes. While I can fault it for occasionally indulging in overly convenient scenarios or going a touch heavy on the melodrama, The Dangers in My Heart stands among the best-written school romances, especially at the middle school level, and it is my clear choice for best writing of 2024.
Jukki Hanada was the lead writer for three(!?) of my top-five shows in the writing category. Congratulations to Mr. Hanada on an epic year in writing anime.
Best Aesthetics
The best aesthetics category can be thought of as an artistic merit classification. It encompasses overall design, character acting, animation, cinematography, and use of sound and music. I like the broad-spectrum aesthetics classification because it acknowledges a sort of timeless appeal. For example, my 2006 choice for best aesthetics, Living for the Day After Tomorrow (see my review) holds up well under this metric despite its old school production values.
| Rank | Anime | Studio | Art Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sound! Euphonium 3 | Kyoto Animation | Mutsuo Shinohara |
| 2 | Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End | Madhouse | Sawako Takagi |
| 3 | Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! | A-1 Pictures | Yuuki Hatakeyama |
| 4 | A Sign of Affection | Aja-do Animation Works | Kohei Honda |
| 5 | Days With My Stepsister | Studio Deen | Masatoshi Kai |
| 6 | Oshi no Ko 2 | Doga Kobo | Tetsuya Usami |
I described Sound! Euphonium 3 as the prettiest TV anime I have ever seen in the overall ranking, and for that reason there can be no other choice for the best aesthetics category – which the series claims for the third time after I gave its first two seasons the nod in 2015 and 2016.
Past Winners
2023: Oshi no Ko [S1] (Doga Kobo); 2022: Dance Dance Danseur (Madhouse); 2021: SSSS.Dynazenon (Studio Trigger); 2020: Keep Your Hands of Eizouken! (Science SARU); 2019: Tsurune (Kyoto Animation); 2018: SSSS.Grindman (Studio Trigger); 2017: Tsuki ga Kirei (Studio Feel); 2016: Sound! Euphonium [S2] (Kyoto Animation); 2015: Sound! Euphonium [S1] (Kyoto Animation)
No show can match Sound! Euphonium’s episode-to-episode level and consistency – it combines an aesthetics of the year baseline with the highest highs of any show in 2024. No show makes better use of lighting or has better character designs or character acting. While Euphonium 3 has less concert music than in the first two seasons, it has the best performance scenes in its later episodes – most notably in episode 11.
While Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End did not make my year-end top-six shows, I single it out for special mention for its overall aesthetic. It had the best backgrounds and world design of any show in 2024 and overall could go toe-to-toe with Euphonium in a few of its episodes. For what is largely a slow-paced piece, Frieren has some of the best action scenes in select episodes, most notably its remarkably dynamic episode 9. I did not love all of the character designs in Frieren (especially in its final arc), but it would have been the best aesthetics pick in more past years than not.
I wrote a full article on the aesthetics of Days With My Stepsister – and I will single out that show as having the best cinematography of 2024. It was ultimately held back by its low budget protection values, but it is a great example of doing more with less. Makeine, which also missed my year-end top-six shows, slots in at third for its spectacular character acting (second only to Euphonium) and its deft portrayal of the seasons. The first season of Oshi no Ko was my best aesthetics pick in 2023, but it second season, save for a few targeted scenes, was not quite on the same level in the audio-visual realm.
Best 2D Anime People of 2024
While I do not follow the award shows for TV shows involving 3D people, I do follow one of their conventions. Much like the Oscars have best actors and actresses, I have best female and male anime character awards. This is not because either one is typically better than the other –in fact, the best overall character on my list in 2021 and 2022 was the best 2D girl and the best 2D guy was in 2023 – but in recognition of the fact that writing male and female characters requires different sensibilities.
In evaluating characters, I consider a list of factors including, but not necessarily limited to, the character’s role in and significance to the show, how well-written the character is, character design and acting (including voice acting), development throughout the show, and balancing overall consistency with stand-out moments. Three of my six-best character winners from 2021-2023 came from second- and third-seasons. Characters from second and third seasons do tend to benefit from prior development, but I try as much as possible to isolate the character’s performance in the season eligible for review (in this case, 2024) and, in some close cases, I may favor characters who do not have the benefit of having developed in previous seasons.
2D Girl of the Year
This year’s shows featured two prior winners of my female character honor: Kumiko Oumae (2016 and 2017 winner) from Sound! Euphonium and the defending champion Kana Arima from Oshi no Ko. Moreover, in the three years I have done full character ranking lists in The New Leaf Journal, two of the three female character winners have come from third-season shows, with Tohru Honda of Fruits Basket and Takagi from Teasing Master Takagi-san winning the honor in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Past Winners
2023 Oshi no Ko (Kana Arima); 2022 Teasing Master Takagi-san [S3] (Takagi); 2021 Fruits Basket: The Final (Tohru Honda); 2020My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU CLIMAX* (Yui Yuigahama); 2019 Fruits Basket (Tohru Honda); 2018 March Comes in like a Lion [S2] (Hinata Kawamoto); 2017 Teasing Master Takagi-san [S1] (Takagi); 2016 Sound! Euphonium 2 (Kumiko Oumae); 2015 Sound! Euphonium (Kumiko Oumae)
Surely with two 2D young ladies with three character of the year awards between them competing for the honor in 2024, one of those fictional young ladies would take home the prize.
| Rank | Show | Character | Voice Actress |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! | Anna Yanami | Hikaru Tohno |
| 2 | Sound! Euphonium 3 | Kumiko Oumae | Tomoyo Kurosawa |
| 3 | Girls Band Cry | Nina Iseri | Rina |
| 4 | The Dangers in My Heart | Anna Yamada | Hina Yomiya |
| 5 | Oshi no Ko 2 | Kana Arima | Megumi Han |
| 6 | Girls Band Cry | Subaru Awa | Mirei |
There is no doubt that Kumiko is the best overall character to appear in 2024, but in considering this category – I took into account that Kumiko’s story in the third season of Sound! Euphonium is the culmination of a three-season, two-movie journey – that is, to understand why season 3 Kumiko is great (I dare say it is her best season), one must consider where she began all the way back in 2015. All of Kumiko’s good baggage created a small opening for another 2D girl to take the nod for 2024, and after careful consideration – I decided to go with the upset. For the first time going back to at least 2015 (and probably ever), the female character of the year comes from a show outside my top-six shows of the year.
Anna Yanami is the first losing heroine of Too Many Losing Heroines. She is a first-year high school student coming off being rejected by her childhood friend. Anna latches on to the nondescript view-point character of Makeine, Kazuhiko Nukumizu, who had the misfortune of seeing her anguished confession of love and concession of defeat in a diner. Anna turns out to be a ridiculous young woman, using the fact that she owed Nukumizu money after crashing his table and ordering food and drinks without realizing she forgot her wallet as a set-up to turn him into her confidant. Anna runs hot and cold, swinging rapidly from confident and optimistic in one moment to downtrodden in the next. She loves to eat, which causes her to have some concern about her weight. She is popular because she is viewed as attractive and has a charming personality, but she does not care about that or any rumors that may ensue from her haunting Nukumizu. What sets Anna apart and ultimately makes her the character of the year is her stage presence. Behind Anna on my ranking we have the president of a nationally competitive high school concert band, the lead singer of a punk band, a teen model and actress, a top teenage actress, and a drummer who goes to acting school. Anna Yamina is but a simple high school student, but no character in 2024, not least the dramatic characters behind her on this ranking, command the viewer’s attention like she does. Anna’s great writing (she is a character one could imagine being a good friend in school), expressions, dynamic character acting, and even her overall design and fashion sense steal the show – I dare say Makeine would have been a much better show if it was more tightly centered on Anna. Upon finishing the show, my comparisons for Anna in the stage presence category included Yukino Miyazawa from His and Her Circumstances (1998-99), Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006), Hitagi Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari (2009), and Takagi from Teasing Master Takagi-san (2017, 19, and 23). Rest assured those are high compliments – Anna transcended her otherwise mediocre production and is the 2024 female character of the year.
2D Boy of the Year
The 2D guys, like the 2D girls, had a two-2D person race for top honors this year. However, I will submit that while two 2D guys had a colorable case, the identity of the winner was never much in doubt.
| Rank | Show | Character | Voice Actor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dangers in My Heart | Kyotaro Ichikawa | Shun Horie |
| 2 | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master | Yukiya | Mutsumi Tamura |
| 3 | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master | Nazukihiko | Miyu Irino |
| 4 | Oshi no Ko 2 | Aqua Hoshino | Takeo Outsuka |
| 5 | Kaiju No. 8 | Kafka Hibino | Masaya Fukunishi/Megumi Han* |
| 6 | MF Ghost | Kanata Katagiri | Yuuma Uchida |
Kyotaro was my 4th place finisher last year for the first season of The Dangers in My Heart, and he was much stronger in the second season this year – benefiting from growing out of his difficult phase early in the first season and credibly and compellingly grappling with changing circumstances and feelings in the second.
Yukiya made a credible case for himself in Yatagarasu. Here we have a teenage boy from a powerful regional family who is thrust into the capital where he is forced to work as an assistant to Wakamiya, the presumptive next ruler, whose life is in danger. Moreover, Nazukihiko is odd – separate and apart from his life being in danger. Yukiya proves to be competent – which is somewhat unfortunate for him in that he just wants to go home. He gains the trust of Wakamiya and warms up to him, all while understandably finding the royal exasperating. I am loath to delve into the second half of Yatagarasu, but the show ultimately ends with Yukiya making a significant decision which marks his personal journey. He would have been the male character of the year in 2021-2023, but not 2024.
(Aside: Ms. Megumi Han voiced the child version of fifth-place finisher Kafka Hibino, giving her the rare distinction of playing a role in voicing one of the top-six female and male characters in 2024. Surely this is the last we will see that name in this article…)
Best Overall Cast of the Year
For the first time since I began publishing these lists in 2021, I am adding a new major award category. I was inspired to add a best cast category byreading Takafumi of Pls no Hate (see it in his 2024 year-end review). Whereas my best character awards focus on individual characters, the best cast award rewards shows which can juggle a many interesting characters.
- Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
- Sound! Euphonium 3
- The Dangers in My Heart
- Oshi no Ko
- Girls Band Cry
- A Sign of Affection
My top-six shows of the year claim all six spots, albeit not in the same order as my overall ranking. While Yatagarasu did not claim either of my best character prizes, it is the clear winner of the best cast category in my book. The first 13 episodes of Yatagarasu manage to juggle multiple story-lines which seldom intersect with one another, meaning each line depends on its own dramatic personae. All of these separate-but-related stories are compelling thanks to Yatagarasu’s ability to write many intricate characters. Its episode 14-20 arc does away with some of the best characters from its first 13 episodes while introducing new ones. While episodes 14-20 were not as good as 1-13, they remained good television and served as another example of the show’s ability to successfully manage many characters.
Because this is a new major category for my year-end rankings, I present the 2021-2023 winners:
- 2023: Oshi no Ko
- 2022: Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Ultra Romantic
- 2021: SSSS.Dynazenon
This is the third consecutive year that my best cast nod goes to the anime of the year runner-up, with SSSS.Dynazenon being the most recent show to unify the anime of the year and best cast titles.
Episode of the Year
This category, unlike the previous categories, requires no explanation.
| Rank | Show | Ep Title | Ep No. | Aired | Ep Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sound! Euphonium 3 | The Last Soloist | 12/13 | 6.30 | Yamamura Takuya |
| 2 | Girls Band Cry | The Center of the World | 11/13 | 6.15 | Miho Hirayama |
| 3 | The Dangers in My Heart | Yamada Likes Me | 6/13 | 2.11 | Takahiro Enokita |
| 4 | The Dangers in My Heart | I, We, Fell in Love | 13/13 | 3.31 | D. Eguchi & Y. Shirahata |
| 5 | The Apothecary Diaries | The Threat | 4/24 | 10.29.23 | China |
| 6 | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master | Ravens Shouldn’t Wear Kimono | 13/20 | 6.29 | Naoki Kotani |
For the first time this decade – the anime of the year does not have the episode of the year. While we have had some close award races – I had no doubt regarding the episode of the year. The penultimate episode of the final season of Sound! Euphonium was one of the finest aesthetic and dramatic achievements of TV anime, and that it brought the entire series full circle only adds to its individual greatness.
Even granting that it was a touch heavy-handed, this was an episode of the decade caliber 23 minutes. But for Sound! Euphonium, Girls Band Cry, which made my top-six but was not in the anime of the year mix, would have had the episode of the year for what was the true season climax in episode 11. Fifth place presented an interesting conundrum: Can an episode that aired in 2023 be one of the best episodes of 2024? While I ended up being disappointed with The Apothecary Diaries, its fourth episode was an anime of the year caliber piece. But that episode aired in October 2023. I decided that since the first season of The Apothecary Diaries qualifies as a 2024 show, all of its episodes, including those in its 2023 cour, qualify for consideration here.
OP/ED of the Year
This award is for the best opening and ending songs. Here I take into account the song itself, the accompanying animation or visuals, and how well the completed product fits the show it goes with.
| Rank | Show | Song | OP/ED | Singer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines | LOVE2000 | ED (1-4, 12) (Full video link) | Hikaru Tohno |
| 2 | Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines | feel my soul | ED (8-11) (Full video link) | Momoka Terasawa |
| 3 | Days With My Stepsister | Aquarium Swing | ED (Full video link) | Kitri |
| 4 | Monogatari Series Off & Monster Season | caramel ribbon curestard | OP (2-5) (Full video link) | Kana Hanazawa & Saori Hayami |
| 5 | Girls Band Cry | Wrong World | OP (Full video link) | Togenashi Togeari* |
| 6 | A Sign of Affection | Snowspring | ED (Full video link) | ChoQMay |
Makeine has already snagged one major category award without being a top-six show, and now we can make it two. It is genuinely impressive that Makeine looked as good as it did while also devoting a good amount of resources to three character endings dynamic opening songs. Makeine sweeps the top two positions on my ranking.
The winner, LOVE2000, is character of the year Anna Yanami’s ending. It is one of the most genuinely creative opening or ending sequences I have seen. Anna’s voice actress, Hikaru Tohno, covers Namie Amuro’s LOVE2000, which is a catchy pop song from 2000 (surprise!). The visuals strikingly combine live action footage of a school with a cell-shaded Anna running through it. The live action part of the ending reminded me of the iconic ending of His and Her Circumstances, which aired in 1998-99, and combined with the music – the whole aesthetic would have made it the best OP/ED in more years than not. The runner-up is the third ending from Makeine, featuring the third losing heroine, Chika Komari. Her voice actress, Momoka Terasawa, covers another 2000s love song, feel my soul – and the song is accompanied by a series of pastel story book-style scenes. I will note that I slightly prefer the song in Komari’s opening, but Anna’s gets the nod for the more memorable overall production. Rounding out the top three is Days With My Stepsister’s very (unsurprisingly) artsy ending sequence. The song for Days With My Stepsister’s ending, Aquarium Swing, was performed by Kitri, who was responsible for my opening/ending of the year in 2023. One additional fun note: This is the third time in four years I gave the best OP/ED nod to a show outside my top-six overall anime of the year.
Extra Awards
Below are my minor category awards. As I noted in previous years, most of these were inspired by categories that anime blogger Guardian Enzo uses in his year-end reviews. You can see his 2024 awards here.
Best Soundtrack
Winner: Girls Band Cry
One would hope that Girls Band Cry would claim the best soundtrack category in light of the fact that one of the central purposes of the show is to promote a virtual idol band. To be sure – it delivers, centering the season on several in-show concerts, all of which are well done and produced with enough nuance for viewers to compare their own subjective evaluation of the music to what the in-show characters think. Sound! Euphonium 3 is a close runner-up, making even better use of music in its episode of the year episode 12 than Girls Band Cry, but not delivering quite as much on the musical front.
Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Girls Band Cry
The only original anime in my top six shows was Girls Band Cry, so it unsurprisingly takes the nod for best original screenplay without any drama.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: The Dangers in My Heart
My top five shows of 2024 were all adapted screenplays. One of those shows took the best anime overall and best writing categories. Thus, it should come as no surprise that The Dangers in My Heart season 2 is also the best adapted screenplay.
Best Art Direction
Winner: Days With My Stepsister
I will go for a mild upset pick in the art direction category and tab Days With My Stepsister for its best-in-year cinematography that made for a far more compelling visual production than one would have expected on first glance. Moreover, its use of symbolism and visual cues was always intelligent and on point. Both Sound! Euphonium 3 and A Sign of Affection have credible claims here as well.
Best Animation
Winner: Shangri-La Frontier
There were several strong candidates in the animation category. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End had the best individual scenes in the animation department, Sound! Euphonium’s character animation was superlative even though it was not the most animated show, and Wind Breaker (not previously mentioned in my reviews) had some very dynamic fighting scenes. But here I will give the nod to Shangri-La Frontier – which combined excellent production values and animation with great choreography in its action scenes.
Best Character Acting
Winner: Sound! Euphonium 3
I decided to add a character acting category this year after being inspired by Sakuga Blog’s first review of Sound! Euphonium 3. In this category, we are focusing on how individual characters move and minor details like how much attention is paid to their facial expressions and gestures.
No TV anime paid more careful attention to character acting and gestures than did Sound! Euphonium 3 – even minor characters who largely appear only in the background receive attention. While there was no contest here, A Sign of Affection would have been a strong choice in most other years.
Best Character Design
Winner: Sound! Euphonium 3
| Rank | Show | Character Designer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sound! Euphonium 3 | Kazumi Ikeda & Shoko Ikeda |
| 2 | Girls Band Cry | nari Teshima |
| 3 | A Sign of Affection | Kasumi Sakaki |
| 4 | Negative Positive Angler | Hiromi Taniguchi |
Sound! Euphonium has always had great character designs – but season 3 stands out from the first two seasons in that the main characters were given a slightly more realistic, mature look – in contrast to the first two seasons. It is no small feat to ensure that a very large class of mostly female high school students wearing the same uniform are individually recognizable, but Sound! Euphonium does it.
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Megumi Han as Moeko Sekine – The Dangers in My Heart 2
| Rank | Actress | Character | Show |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Megumi Han | Moeko Sekine | The Dangers in My Heart |
| 2 | Sora Amamiya | Kanade Hisaishi | Sound! Euphonium 3 |
| 3 | Mai Nakahara | Norah Arendt | Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets Wise Wolf |
I singled out Moeko Sekine as a secondary character I liked in The Dangers in My Heart 2 in my section on it in my anime of the year article. Part of why she works as well as she does is because of the excellent voice acting of Megumi Han, who gives her a playful, slightly raspy voice that fits her character so well you could hardly think of her sounding any different. Ms. Han won my best actress nod last year for voicing Kana Arima in Oshi no Ko.
Best Supporting Actor
| Rank | Actress | Character | Show |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seiji Maeda | Melt Narushima | Oshi no Ko |
| 2 | Hiroshi Shirokuma | Rokon | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master |
| 3 | Kouki Uchiyama | Taki Uehara | Oshi no Ko |
Melt Narushima played a very minor role in the first season of Oshi no Ko, but received more attention in the second season, being the featured character in one episode. Melt’s one-off starring episode was terrific in no small part because of the strong voice acting provided by Mr. Seiji Maeda.
Best Actress
| Rank | Actress | Character | Show |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Megumi Han | Kana Arima | Oshi no Ko |
| 2 | Tomoyo Kurosawa | Kumiko Oumae | Sound! Euphonium 3 |
| 3 | Hikaru Tono | Anna Yamina | Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! |
| 4 | Aoi Yuuki | Maomao | The Apothecary Diaries |
While Kana Arima did not successfully defend her best female character crown, she does defend her secondary title. I chose Ms. Han as the best actress last year for her work as Kana, and I will do so again in 2024, giving her a clean sweep of both actress titles. This category is a close call – and I could make a good case for anyone in the top three, but Ms. Han gets the nod for several reasons. Firstly, Kana is a demanding role – with scenes involving her in normal conversations, acting, and singing, all of which Ms. Han performs at a very high level. Secondly, Ms. Han delivered the single most memorable acting scene in episode 5, wherein Kana uses something she found in her rival’s past to gleefully tease her in an exaggerated voice that caused one New Leaf Journal editor to laugh.
Best Actor
| Rank | Actor | Character | Show |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shun Horie | Kyotaro Ichikawa | The Dangers in My Heart |
| 2 | Miyu Irino | Nazukihiko | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master |
| 3 | Takeo Ōtsuka | Aqua Hoshino | Oshi no Ko |
| 4 | Takeo Ōtsuka | Jinshi | The Apothecary Diaries |
Mr. Horie had a good case in 2023 for his work as Kyotaro Ichikawa in the first season of The Dangers in My Heart. In 2024, he has the best case – bringing the quality we saw in the first season but with some added depth. One of the more memorable moments of the show for me was when I picked up on the fact that Kyotaro’s voice had become just a little bit deeper before the change was acknowledged in the show.
Best Director
Winner: Yuuta Murano – A Sign of Affection
My best director choice in 2022 and 2023 matched my anime of the year pick, but I will take a different path this year and give the nod to Yūta Murano for his excellent work on A Sign of Affection. It would not have been a top-six show without his strong art direction, focus on the importance of communication in the story, and a few well-conceived anime-only scenes.
Best Romance
Winner: The Dangers in My Heart
By best romance, I mean the show with the best romance plot or elements – not necessarily the best show that can be classified as a romance. But my 2024 pick was not complicated. My anime of the year The Dangers in My Heart is very much a romance, and it portrayed the best individual romance of any show in 2024. A Sign of Affection and Psuedo Harem are the runners-up in this category.
Best Comedy
Winner: Pseudo Harem
Similar to my best romance category, I am interpreting this award as the show with the best comedy, not the show that is the best comedy. I noted in my best voice actress discussion that Oshi no Ko had the best comedic scene of 2024. My anime of the year, The Dangers in My Heart, could be classified as a romantic comedy. However, the most consistent comedy in 2024 came from Psuedo Harem – and I give it the narrow nod over The Dangers in My Heart here. Makeine could have been the winner with about 20% more Anna Yanami.
Best Drama
Winner: Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
Again – similar to the romance and comedy categories – I am interpreting best drama as meaning the show with the best dramatic plot elements instead of deciding which show can be classified as a drama. I could make a good case for both Yatagarasu and Euphonium, but I will give the nod to Yatagarasu for its much higher stakes drama.
Conclusion
With my category reviews completed – my review of 2024 in anime comes to a close, although I may have some additional reviews of and commentary on individual shows that aired in 2024. It occurred to me while writing this that some of my extended categories could be more interesting – so I will consider tweaking the format for my 2025 review next year.
