The Best Anime Movies of 2024
by The ANN Editorial Team,
Of the anime films that made it to North America this year, one movie managed to pull off in an hour what some of the best dramas can only manage in twice the length. Kiyotaka Oshiyama and Studio Durian's Look Back, based on acclaimed manga creator Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga, reinvigorated the medium with emotional authenticity and a focus on human artistry during a time when more and more headlines discuss automating the creative process.
Below you'll find Look Back in good company alongside the newest film in the Mononoke anime franchise, the long-awaited North American premiere of Gridman Universe, and more.
Note: Entries below may contain spoilers for series and plot developments!
Look Back
At this point, I think I've read the entirety of Tatsuki Fujimoto's bibliography or, at the very least, what is legally available in the U.S. While Look Back isn't my favorite of his works, it captures what is valuable about dedicating yourself to a creative pursuit and the fulfillment you can find in it better than just about any other medium I can think of.
Avex Picture's hour-or-so anime adaptation of the Look Back manga is both an uplifting delight and a tearjerker! I also found myself pointing to the screen a la Leonardo DiCaprio whenever the Avex staff snuck a reference to one of Fujimoto's other incredible works into this movie. (I see you Goodbye, Eri movie clip, and I'm championing your anime adaptation!) The messiness of the animation direction also matched Fujimoto's more humble draftsmanship, and I found that deeply endearing.
For my money, Look Back was easily the best anime movie of 2024!
Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain
I knew from the moment I left the theater this summer that Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain would be my pick for the best movie of the year.
Continuing the 2007 Mononoke horror anthology series, the story follows a mysterious man known only as “The Medicine Seller,” whose true job is to exorcise unnatural monsters called “Mononoke.” Due to this, however, he needs to know three things about the Mononoke: its form, the truth behind its existence, and the reason it came into being. This serves as the framework for both the series and the film, making The Medicine Seller a kind of supernatural detective uncovering secrets and crimes many have worked to hide.
This mystery is set in the imperial palace's harem and follows two women, Asa and Kame, who form a sisterly bond despite their different upbringings and personalities. Through them, the film explores the toxic nature of groupthink and how it forces people to discard key parts of themselves or face ostracization by those around them.
While even the solid mystery or the excellent thematic exploration alone would make this a great film, the visual presentation takes it to a whole new level. From looking like it's been animated on parchment rather than paper to its pastel color palate to the over-detailed environments that only add to the surreal nature of the film, it's a unique visual experience you can't find anywhere else. Even if horror or Japanese court drama aren't your thing, it really is a must-watch.
Look Back
Tatsuki Fujimoto's original one-shot was already a masterpiece and felt pretty cinematic in its own right, so if that was the only version we ever got, I'd have been pretty content with that. However, Kiyotaka Oshiyama and the team at Studio Duran managed to put together an adaptation that not only stands side by side with its source material but stands as a testament to what the medium of animation is capable of. From its detailed character animation to its sweeping visual direction, this movie is gorgeous from top to bottom. Even just judging it on the strength of its production alone, it's easily one of the best anime to come out this year.
What truly makes this film special is how all that presentation comes together in service of a story that dives into the mix of emotions that drive people to create art. The relationship between the film's protagonists Fujino and Kyomoto drives the emotional core of this movie as they go from having a one-sided rivalry over drawing manga, to carving out a career together, and eventually having a falling out before one of them falls victim to a senseless tragedy. Through it all, the two of them remain connected through their art, and while it certainly doesn't make for a happy film, it's hard not to get caught up in the beauty of watching these girls draw and seeing the ways drawing transforms their lives both for the better and the worse. This film is nothing less than a celebration of everything that goes into making art, and the same kind of passion expressed in the story can be seen through how it's animated, as everything about its presentation makes it clear that this movie was a true labor of love for the staff that worked on it. Even in a year with some other strong animated films, this one feels truly exceptional, and not only is it one of my favorite movies of the year, it might just be one of my favorite movies, period.
Look Back
To be honest, as far as anime movies are concerned, I think 2024 was a bigger year for re-releases of old favorites than it was for new ones—at least in the U.S. Of particular note: the limited but long overdue theatrical release of Advent Children, the 20th-anniversary screenings of Howl's Moving Castle grossing nearly US$2.9 million at the global box office, the news that Angel's Egg would be coming to North American theaters in 2025, the Heaven's Feel trilogy finally becoming streamable, and of course, Discotek's incredible release of the Digimon movie(s). Still, cool as all that is, it's not to say that we've been starved for good new anime movies in 2024. A testament to that is none other than the absolutely beautiful and bittersweet Look Back, which is based on the manga of the same name by Tatsuki Fujimoto, aka the creator of Chainsaw Man.
This brilliant movie has been very widely praised, even right here on ANN, and rightfully so. It's a heart-wrenching, emotional gut punch of a movie bursting at the seams with style and charm—impressively, it achieves all this while being only about an hour long. I don't doubt that I'm far from the only person who wrote about it on this very list. Believe it or not, even now—at the end of 2024—I still haven't watched or read Chainsaw Man. There's no particular reason why; I'm just not usually a huge fan of shonen stuff, so I don't feel particularly motivated to try it. Or at least, that was the case before I watched Look Back, which actually achieved the impossible and made me kind of curious about Chainsaw Man. If I ever do get around to checking Chainsaw Man out, please know that it'll almost certainly be directly thanks to Look Back.
Gridman Universe
That took long enough. Studio Trigger's film follow-up to the duology of SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon came out in Japan in 2023, but Crunchyroll dragged its feet, and it didn't hit our shores until a couple of months ago. One of my gripes when talking about my favorite anime movie last year was that I hadn't gotten to see this movie, so it only feels right that I recognize it now.
After all that hoopla, I'm so happy to report that Gridman Universe was worth both the hype and the wait. Thanks to the structure of the SSSS.Gridman series, the movie has the in-road of being able to explore a "new" character at its center in the "real" version of Yuuta. It makes for a follow-up that feels totally natural, expected even, after the end of the series. The Dynazenon kids complement the structure, as their arcs were more personally complete in their series than Gridman. These personal-level explorations were always the best part of these anime. Gridman Universe puts them together perfectly, even incorporating a fan-pleasing return for previous protagonist antagonist Akane Shinjō that doesn't feel like a betrayal of the end of her story. It's combined with all the robot and kaiju action the franchise exists to extoll the virtues of. Whether it's quietly meditating on questions of personal identity or smashing up the multiverse, Gridman Universe looks great (including, yes, a signature scene from Kai Ikarashi), and serves as a worthy continuation to some of my favorite anime of the current era.
Look Back
I saw Look Back without knowing anything about it, other than that it was a story by Tatsuki Fujimoto about two girls making manga. I saw it in the theaters while visiting my little sister in Denver, along with a friend who was also active in the anime criticism scene. The movie was an incredible work, and I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between Kyomoto and Fujino with all its emotional highs and lows. It's a triumph of a film, short as it may be; director Kiyotaka Oshiyama led almost every aspect of this adaptation, and it's clearly a passion project from start to finish. The humanity and intimacy of Kyomoto and Fujino, the struggles of creating art together, and the triumph of their success all came so clearly to life on screen because of the love everyone involved had for the project.
And then the twist came. You know the one if you've seen the movie. It drew from one of the most shocking tragedies to have ever hit the anime community, the attack on Kyoto Animation that killed and maimed dozens of talented industry members. It also came a few short weeks after the passing of Nick Dupree, when the loss of my friend and collaborator, which still pains me every day, was fresh in my heart. While I've seen quite a few tearjerkers in my time and readily cry at fiction, I don't know if I've ever had my heart ripped out quite so strongly by a movie. I could hear my loved ones sniffling by my sides and knew there was hardly a dry eye in the theater. In so little time, those girls and their relationship had come to feel real to us, whether we had a real person we could connect them to or not.
Look Back was originally scheduled to have limited screenings in the U.S.; because of how scheduling works, all the theaters would be playing them at the same time, albeit within their own time zones. It was meant to play for just two days, with one screening per day per theater. Many of them filled up, with anime fans seizing the opportunity to see such an acclaimed work by a talented artist when they could. As I wept for Kyomoto and Fujino, for the victims of the Kyoto Animation arson, and for my friend, millions of anime fans across the time zone were crying with me. Some for the same reasons, some for others. There's something beautiful about that.
Look Back
Writing about Look Back is difficult. It's one of those pie-in-the-sky projects that I still can't believe exists—a film adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's strongest one-shot directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, one of the most talented people currently working in the anime industry. It's a celebration and interrogation of art as both process and production. It's intimately animated. It's hauntingly scored. It's hilarious where it wants to be. It wields the art of cinema to make the devastating parts of the story even more heart-wrenching. It takes exactly as much time as it needs. Look Back is an unequivocal success guaranteed to moisten your handkerchief.
The manga and film's central message about art and creation, however, cuts to the core of me. Through a dash of magical realism, Look Back stares into the existential abyss confronting any artist who thinks seriously about their work. Look at me. I dedicate multiple hours of my life each week to writing these stupid little words about cartoons from Japan. Does this really matter? Am I adding something worthwhile to the world? If I stopped this tomorrow, would everyone, including me, be better off for it?
Look Back doesn't provide any easy answers to those questions, but I agree with its broader conclusion: we write, sculpt, draw, and create because they're the only things worth doing. After thousands of years of civilization, humans have yet to come up with a better way of baring our souls to each other than through art. So that's why I'm still here. I'm going to keep sending these words out there, and I'm going to keep getting better at it, because that's what I want to do. I Look Back to move forward.
Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
Perhaps this choice is a little unfair – most Western anime fans won't have had a chance to see this wonderful film outside of festivals, and I don't believe it's been picked up for wider distribution. I was lucky enough to see Totto-chan at the Scotland Loves Anime 2024 festival in Glasgow for its U.K. premiere in November, though it was first released in Japanese movie theaters back in December 2023.
Based on an autobiographical novel by beloved Japanese TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (at age 91, still hosting the weekday daytime talk show she began in 1976), it follows her childhood during World War II. Known by the affectionate nickname “Totto-chan,” she was a spirited child who was ejected from her public elementary school for being “disruptive.” Seen through modern eyes, it was likely she had some variant of ADHD, explaining her inability to sit still, seemingly boundless energy, distractability, and endlessly tangential patterns of speech.
Enrolled at a “special” school for children with additional needs, Totto-chan flourishes. The school is run by a loving, kindly man whose personality and optimistic ethos infuse the entire establishment, giving an educational home to children rejected by the mainstream. Lessons are free-form, child-led, and full of joy. Totto-chan makes friends with a boy whose limbs have been withered by polio, and their friendship is beautiful as Totto-chan does everything in her power to help him join in with the activities their non-disabled classmates take for granted.
Unfortunately, the shadow of war looms over the school and Totto-chan's life as social attitudes become more conservative, adult men are sent to fight, and food rationing bites. Her formerly blissfully happy school life is shattered by tragedy and sudden change. Totto-chan is a gorgeous, funny, and at times heartbreaking film. There aren't many other movies that made me sob continually throughout their entire closing credits like Totto-chan did. It deserves a wider release, and I hope one day it gets one.
maboroshi
There are fantastic films mentioned on this already; Look Back is one of the most emotionally devastating and honest movies to come out of anime in a long time. It has the unique position of exemplifying the humanity of art while also serving as a vehicle for very real grief. Mononoke The Movie: Phantom in the Rain is an artistic triumph that continues Kenji Nakamura's anthology series focusing on the specific pain and abuses inflicted on women. Either film would be a surefire choice for my favorite of the year, but I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight a film that went under a lot of folks' radar.
Mari Okada and MAPPA's maboroshi premiered on Netflix in January after a run in Japanese theaters in September 2023. This film is strange but in all the ways I love film. Beautifully animated, maboroshi is like Groundhog's Day, except its conceit afflicted an entire town for decades. Within the confines of a city, Okada turns up the heat on the characters' interpersonal relationships as they're regimented into repeating the same roles and relationship binaries. The stifling atmosphere and magical realism lends itself to deeper meanings on fate, authority, and the impermanence of our lives.
Explore more of The Best Anime of 2024
discuss this in the forum (65 posts) |
back to The Best Anime of 2024
Feature homepage / archives