Winter has come and gone, and while the winter anime season was fairly alright, spring anime seasons are typically stronger. 2024 is no different, with plenty of heavy-hitting titles coming out in long-established series as well as promising new titles. Here are our most anticipated anime of Spring 2024.
As is always the case, while there are plenty of major franchises returning this season, like My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Konosuba, and Reincarnated as a Slime, this list will be looking at the new titles cropping up this season that have me interested. We all know that those returning titles are probably going to be solid bets, but I’m more interested in seeing what the new big franchises could be. Not only that but what are going to be some underrated gems that will most assuredly slip by under people’s radars? For one reason or another, these are the shows I know for a fact I’ll be watching this season.
Train to the End of the World
Recommending an original anime could be playing with fire. Sometimes, you get a hit like with 2022’s Akiba Maid War, but other times, you get disappointments like last season’s Metallic Rouge. I do have some hope for Train to the End of the World, not only because of its premise but because of who is directing it. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Chikura Shizuru is searching for her friends in a world that is almost entirely abandoned. To make traveling a little bit easier, she’s able to commandeer a train, and after picking up a couple of other random girls who are also looking for something important to them, Shizuru is set to ride the rails in search of her friends while maintaining a bright outlook on life.
I love a series that seems to be dead set on providing laid-back vibes, and Train to the End of the World seems set on providing a relaxing and friendly atmosphere. But the real reason I’m excited about this show is that this is the latest brainchild of Tsutomu Mizushima. While that name may not be as familiar as creators like Mamoru Hosoda or Shinichiro Watanabe, Mizushima has a very long pedigree of titles dating back to the ’90s. Plus, he’s the creator of both the Girls Und Panzer series and Shirobako, and if this show can capture even a little bit of that Shirobako energy, we’re in for a good time.
Go, Go, Loser Ranger!
I LOVE Power Rangers. I’ve been a fan of the franchise ever since the Mighty Morphin days, and I’m a sucker for anything having to deal with Super Sentai. In Go, Go, Loser Ranger!, we take on the perspective of one of the nameless goons, known as Footsoldier D, who has to fight against the Dragon Keepers, aka the superhero team of rangers. Unbeknownst to everyone else, the Dragon Keepers defeated the villains years ago and forced the remaining grunts to fight them every Sunday to keep up the Keepers’ public image and sense of self-entitled importance. The goons are effectively enslaved, so D makes it his mission to liberate his comrades and defeat the Dragon Keepers by infiltrating their ranks and revealing to the public how monstrous their heroes are.
This series checks everything I’m a fan of. We have superhero tropes thanks to the Dragon Keepers, who also bring in some Super Sentai representation with their costumes and designs. It’s a subversion of a fair amount of tropes, like making the good guys into the villains and our protagonist being a part of the evil team. There’s also a fair amount of comedy present and, at least according to the previews, some respectable animation courtesy of Yostar Pictures, and we have a title that is right up my alley.
Related: Is Dragon Ball Daima Canon?
Kaiju No. 8
Every season, there’s always one new anime that manages to rise above the rest of its peers, and this spring season, it’s Kaiju No. 8. Based on a Shonen Jump title, the series follows Kafka Hibino, a man who is part of a clean-up crew when Kaiju attack Japan. Kaiju attacks are fairly common in this world, and Kafka wants nothing more than to join the Defense Force and fulfill a childhood promise he made with a friend. However, after a brief encounter with a small kaiju, Kafka gains the ability to turn into one, both increasing his strength and making him a target of the very people he admires so much. He won’t let that stop him from joining the Defense Force, though, and using his new abilities to stop any and all Kaiju that attack Japan.
There’s a lot of anticipation surrounding this series. Not only do we have an ongoing manga that is praised for its art style, which will hopefully translate to a very pretty series, but we also have Production I.G animating it, who are known for some slick and impressive titles like last year’s Heavenly Delusion and Haikyu!!. To add, Crunchyroll is putting all of its effort into promoting the series, with Kaiju No. 8 actually getting a same-day dub alongside its release. There’s a lot of money being poured into this title, so it’s, at the very least, worth giving a few episodes.
Wind Breaker
There’s nothing quite like a show about delinquents beating the tar out of each other. It’s been a staple in anime for as long as I can remember, with famous delinquents like Jotaro Joestar and Yusuke Urameshi being the gold standards for decades. In recent years, we’ve had Tokyo Revengers and last season’s Bucchigiri?! to keep the trend alive, and now it’s Wind Breaker’s time to keep juvenile delinquency afloat this spring anime season.
At Furin High School, all anyone wants to do is to become the top delinquent. It’s the main reason why Sakura Haruka transferred there. He’s not interested in making friends. He just wants to beat anyone who gets in his way of being the number one fighter at Furin, a title that everyone else wants to claim for themselves. If there’s one thing I can say about the series, it’s that it knows exactly what it wants to be. Wind Breaker is a show about watching a bunch of people fighting each other on a week-to-week basis, and it knows it. I’m fairly certain that Wind Breaker can provide some mindless fun, but I’m equally certain that it can provide beautifully animated fun, thanks to the staff at Clover Works animating this series. Sometimes, you want a complex story of friendship and personal development, and other times, you want to watch a bunch of kids beat each other senseless week after week. This is the latter, and I am totally okay with that.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
It’s not very easy trying to describe what Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night is about, but I think that’s intentional. The anime is an original project made by a group called JELEE, following four young girls who live in Shibuya attempting to create a collaborative art group also known as JELEE. Its members are an illustrator, a Vtuber, a former idol, and a composer, all of whom wish to remain anonymous and use each other to better support and perfect their craft. Again, it’s a hard nut to crack, but given that the animation team behind Oshi No Ko is helming this project, it’s at least somewhat curious to me. The slick designs are definitely eye-catching, and I do have a soft spot for shows about creative people defying the odds to make art, so maybe Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night will also be able to defy the odds and become a sleeper hit of the season.
And those are our most anticipated anime of Spring 2024.
The anime on this list will be available to stream on Crunchyroll.
