Annie Awards 2024 Winners Include a Ton of Anime

This year marked the 51st Annie Awards, and the event put animation center stage. From Nimona to Robot Dreams, the competition was tight this year for animated projects, but some stood out amongst the rest. The results are in, after all, and it seems like anime managed to wow the Annie Awards alongside Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

If you did not know, the Annie Awards put a number of anime projects up for awards this year including Best Studio Feature and Best Voice Acting. Studio Ghibli's The Boy and the Heron stood out as a nominee in many categories, and the same went for Blue Eye Samurai. Now, we know how the awards divvied up, and the Annie Awards gave a whopping seven awards to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

As for the event's anime nominees, only one went home empty handed. Makoto Shinkai's Suzume did not garner any awards from the 51st Annie Awards, but others like The Boy and the Heron were rewarded. The movie not only gifted Hayao Miyazaki the prize for Best Storyboarding, but Takeshi Honda was gifted Best Character Animation, Feature. The award surprised many as it marks the second time in 14 years that a 2D animator won the prize.

As for Star Wars: Visions volume two, the anime-inspired series took home two trophies: Best Direction of TV/Media and Best Music, TV/Media. When it came to Blue Eye Samurai, the Netflix anime took home lots of love. It won a solid six Annies including Best Mature TV/Media, Best FX TV/Media, Best Character Animation TV/Media, Best Production Design, Best Writing TV/Media, and Best Editorial TV/Media.

Finally, the anime industry was awarded with a very important achievement award. Joe Hisaishi, the famed composer of Studio Ghibli's best movies, won the Winsor McCay Lifetime Award. Hisaishi most recently worked on The Boy and the Heron, and they made their name working with Miyazaki on some of the artist's top films. 

What do you think about this year's Annie Awards victors? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!