The 2024 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards Nominees for Anime

2024 was a landmark year for anime that really started running right out of gate, and has thankfully continued strong right up until the end. It’s one of the strongest years for anime in recent memory, and has finally seen a full bounce back from the rougher start to the 2020s thanks to those working hard behind the scenes in many of these productions. To highlight this banner year, ComicBook has come back around with our annual Golden Issue Awards for 2024 to make sure and shout out some of the best and brightest anime we have gotten to see all year.

The 2024 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards are here to award the best of the best in any given medium or genre, and anime and manga are no exception. This has been a great year for fans of manga as there have not only been big franchises, but then the anime adaptations take it all to the next level. Then we’ve also gotten to see lots of success for anime in theaters around the world as well as there’s been an increase in speed of licensing and distribution. With so many choices, read on below for our nominees for the cream of the crop for the year.

Best Anime Movie

2024 has been a wild new year for anime in the theaters. Not only are fans being treated to special TV anime premieres in theaters with special screenings, but some of the biggest movies in Japan are releasing in the United States and other territories with a much faster turnaround than ever seen in the past. It’s meant that the movies seen this year have also greatly increased in quality and entertainment.

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We got new films helping to end a long running anime, new films bringing back a classic for a new adventure, new films showing off a recent anime standout, new films bringing the heroic blockbuster action, and a new film adapting a quiet hit of a manga in an artistic new way. The nominees are:

• Look Back
• Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle
• My Hero Academia: You’re Next
• Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom
• Spy x Family Code: White

Best Anime Series

Not only have anime fans have lots of fun in the theaters, the fun continued in full on TV screens. It’s been an increasingly impressive year with each new season bringing not one, not two, but multiple juggernaut releases. This trend continued through to the Fall, and that means there are lots of unique series that have gotten attention among fans in various ways. Anime has been hotter than ever, and it’s because we’ve had so many great things to watch.

Big standouts this year included the return of a classic franchise with a brand new story, the latest season of one of Shonen Jump’s now ending series, the second and more intense half of one of the tastiest releases of the 2020s, the second half of one of the most magical fantasy adventures seen in years, and the long awaited debut of one of the wildest anime ever. The nominees are:

• Dandadan
• Delicious in Dungeon
• Dragon Ball Daima
• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
• My Hero Academia Season 7

Best Manga

It might have been a landmark year for anime, but it’s been an even bigger year for manga. Just as many big changes in the manga industry as there have been in the anime world, and just as many major standouts that have come in that time. This year not only included the continued success one of Shonen Jump’s longest running stories, the end of one of its longest running manga in turn, the surprising end of one of its most brutal series, the continuation of a legendary manga following its creator’s passing, and the viral debut of a manga that’s only gotten bigger in its first year. The nominees are:

• Berserk (Kouji Mori, Studio Gaga)
• Jujutsu Kaisen (Gege Akutami)
• Kagurabachi (Takeru Hokazono)
• My Hero Academia (Kohei Horikoshi)
• One Piece (Eiichiro Oda)