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For a strong 2024 anime shortlist, start with Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End for a reflective fantasy series and Look Back for a self-contained film. Both received major recognition in awards announced in 2025. Dandadan is another notable series pick. These are recommendations, not an objective ranking: awards offer one measure of recognition, while format, genre and mood are better guides to what you might enjoy.
Here, “of 2024” refers to titles that aired, premiered or had a relevant release during the calendar year. Award years do not necessarily match release years, and some awards use eligibility periods that cross calendar years.
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Best anime film of 2024: Look Back
If you want a complete story without committing to a series, choose Look Back. It won the feature-film award at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival’s 2025 event and Crunchyroll’s 2025 Film of the Year award. Those honors make it the clearest film recommendation in this shortlist, though no award can guarantee that its tone or story will suit every viewer.
The Tokyo festival’s 2025 awards considered 416 commercial films broadcast or screened in Japan between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. That eligibility window includes part of 2023 and excludes the final months of 2024, so the result is a useful signal about the period, not a strict ranking of every film released in the 2024 calendar year. See the Tokyo Anime Award Festival archive.
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Best anime series of 2024
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End — for reflective fantasy
Choose Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End if you want fantasy centered on reflection and the passage of time rather than a film-length story. It won the TV-series award in the Tokyo Anime Award Festival’s 2025 results. The festival’s award supports its place among the standout series of the covered period; it does not mean every viewer will prefer it to other genres or styles.
The series also received recognition in Crunchyroll’s 2025 Anime Awards. For physical-media information, the official anime site lists a Blu-ray/DVD page: Frieren Blu-ray and DVD information.
Rank #2
Dandadan — another award-recognized series
Add Dandadan to your shortlist if you want an alternative to the quieter fantasy recommendation. Crunchyroll recognized it in its 2025 Anime Awards, including category honors. That makes it a credible series to consider alongside Frieren, but the awards do not establish a universal ranking between them.
What the awards say—and what they don’t
The Tokyo Anime Award Festival and Crunchyroll provide different kinds of recognition. The Tokyo festival’s results distinguish feature films from TV series and publish an eligibility window. Crunchyroll’s 2025 awards span many categories and reflect that organization’s awards process, rather than a universal critical consensus.
The scale of the Crunchyroll vote is notable but should be read narrowly: Sony Group reported 51 million votes in the 2025 Anime Awards, about 1.5 times the previous year’s public voting turnout. Those figures describe the awards’ voting process; they are not a count of all anime viewers or a measure of overall quality. Sony Group’s account of the 2025 Anime Awards.
How to choose what to watch
- Want a shorter commitment? Start with Look Back, the film pick.
- Want a series? Consider Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, the Tokyo festival’s TV-series winner, or Dandadan, which received Crunchyroll category recognition.
- Choosing by mood or genre? Use the descriptions above as a starting point, then check a trailer or synopsis before committing; award results alone cannot tell you which tone you will enjoy.
- Checking where to watch? Streaming catalogs vary by country and change over time. Verify the title’s current availability in your region rather than assuming it is on a particular service.
Why the award year is not the release year
A title labeled “2024” can be recognized by awards announced later, and the awards may assess a different eligibility period. The Tokyo Anime Award Festival’s 2025 archive covers works broadcast or screened in Japan from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024, while Crunchyroll’s winners are also from its 2025 awards. Treat those results as later recognition of eligible work, not as awards presented during the 2024 calendar year.
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