The Best Anime Sequels Of 2024, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End part 2 is a masterpiece, with amazing battles and visuals.
• Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War season 3 excels as top-quality Shonen.
• My Hero Academia season 7 delivers an emotional journey and top-notch quality.

Anime in 2024 has reached new heights, with series like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War leading the race to become the top-rated of the season. Every anime season has its ups and downs, and this one has surely been full of pleasant surprises. So, let’s take a look at those series sequels that left the bar high for the rest of the releases, taking into account the quality of animation, post-production, audience and critic scores, but most importantly, dedication to improving the show and bringing a pleasant experience to the fans.

8 Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Part 2)

A Masterpiece Filled With Emotion, Action, Drama, And Cool Visuals

Part 2 of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has proven to be by far the best of the best this year, with incredibly well-designed animations, massive combat scenes, and an action-packed adventure setting. The culmination of the First Rate Mage Exam during episode 26, The Height of Magic is the top-rated (9.4 according to IMDb) episode. It depicts an incredible battle between the candidates and a clone of Frieren, in what came to be one of the coolest battle scenes of the season.

The dedication the producers put into this season showcases the full potential of this series as one of the best fantasy animations of all time. Analyzing this season specifically, there’s a notorious increase in the overall quality. Both animations, VFX, and the designs of its characters are second to none. The production team might be perfectionist, but in this second season, they blew their hats off.

7 Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War (Season 3)

Proving That Ichigo’s Story Still Holds The Title Of Best Shonen

The third season of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War has been going on strong for quite a while, but during the latest episode, Don’t Chase A Shadow (aired on Nov 30, 2024) the quality of the series hit an all-time peak. Being highly rated by both the audience and critics, this season is proving to be the epitome of Shonen, with incredible battle scenes and high-quality narrative content. Shunsui unleashed the full power of his Bankai, almost breaking the screen with a tremendous visual effect.

Tite Kubo’s flagship series was always among the audience’s favorites, but with Thousand-Year Blood War it has reached new heights. Since this release window contains other heavyweight Shonen titles like My Hero Academia S7 and Arifureta S3, it is good to see Bleach still occupying the highest ratings among that demographic.

6 My Hero Academia (Season 7)

Heartbreaking, Action-Packed, The Best Season So Far

Season 7 of My Hero Academia has proven that this series is still going strong among all the competition, though it didn’t go as well as other seasons, the quality is still top-notch. The battle against Tomura Shigaraki and All For One is depicted as brutal and costly for Deku and his allies, and as the story progresses, the action turns into tragedy as heroes fall during the fray.

From episode nº 19 – I Am Here to episode nº 21 – Battle Without a Quirk, the series reaches a conclusive pinnacle, with new friendships forged on the battlefield, a heartbreaking tragedy brews when Ochako finally reaches out to Toga, and the latter is finally able to express her feelings one last time before dying. In this season, both animation and narrative quality have spiked considerably. Despite the inevitable ending approaching fast, fans are quite pleased with the show.

5 Re: Zero (Season 3)

One Of The Best Fantasy Series So Far

Re: Zero season 3 is far from over, with a pause starting on episode 8 (The One I’ll Love Someday) it will resume on February 4, 2025. But before that happens, let’s talk about the overall quality of the series so far. With incredible panoramic views of the destruction occasioned by the Witch Cult in the City, Subaru and the crew desperately try to keep their hopes up, and devise a plan to face the Sin Archbishops and stop them in their tracks.

This episode relays all the narrative power of this Isekai Fantasy series, with a Main Character who is quickly maturing despite all odds, proving that he is indeed a great protagonist. The first part of season 3 has been quite the eye candy for fans of this series, and it promises to get even better when it comes back next year.

4 Oshi No Ko (Season 2)

Glitter And Darkness, Like Saffron With Rice

Oshi No Ko has never been about Idols and the sparkly and luxurious entertainment industry, but about the Darkness that lies underneath the stages. In season 2, the series takes a darker twist, finally becoming the dramatic tragedy it was meant to be. For those who were following this story through the Manga and LN, the impact wasn’t as harsh, but for the fans of the anime seeing it really close and personal has caused quite a stir.

The use of color contrasted with gruesome dark scenes, the soundtracks, the scenario designs, and the background designs are appalling. The quality of the show has done nothing but improve since its initial release back in April 2023. Oshi No Ko season 2 has surpassed the expectations of the audience (and the critics): if its quality keeps improving in the next seasons, then this Idol Drama/Reincarnation story is set to become one of the finest expressions of the genre in the next years.

3 Monogatari Series – Off & Monster Season

Beautiful And Heartwarming, Though A Little Bit Vexing

Monogatari Series has always been about visual impact, and in Off & Monster Season, Aniplex/Kôdansha took this to a whole new level. With beautiful scenery, a great use of color, and incredible designs. The story of the young Araragi Sisters and how their relationship with the mystical world (triggered around Koyomi) shifts is splendid.

The narrative focus in this season reveals quite a lot of interesting details about Yotsugi Ononoki, one of the most mysterious characters that has the fans split between love and hate. This has been one of the best seasons for Monogatari, perhaps even better than Kizumonogatari, but the world created by Nishio Ishin has still lots to offer, so we will see how the power ranking ends up when producers keep drawing from Ikusamonogatari to the rejoice of their fans.

2 DanMachi – Freya Saga (Season 5)

Visually Polished, But Heavy On Fanservice

There has been quite some turmoil going around DanMachi’s fifth season, especially about the ending theme (and the animations implicated in its production), but mostly about its overall quality. While there haven’t been too many dissenting voices regarding the adaptation of Freya’s Saga, since many concessions (cuts) had to be made to see it animated.

Though many believe Bell Cranell is a lousy main character, the emotional drama depicted in season 5 has generated an upheaval among its fans, causing a division between those who rejoice in the story finally taking a more mature tone, and those who consider the change an excuse for extreme fanservice. Be it as it may, the quality of the production in general is undeniable, and this Sequel is ranked among the best of the best of 2024.

1 Arifureta: From Commonplace To World’s Strongest (Season 3)

A Jump In Quality From The Previous Season, But Careful With The CGI

Arifureta season 3 has surprised fans, despite all odds (and the excessive fan service), and presented an overall decently ordered narrative flow, without too many cuts from the Novels and Manga. Needless to say, it’s not the best of the best, but remains at a comfortable middle place among all the sequels of this season. It has improved considerably both in animation and visual effects since season 2 but still relies heavily on CGI, and that can be a problem (remember Failure Frame‘s fiasco).

Previously, the fans had expressed certain distrust for the production of the show, and considering the fierce competition against other Shonen series, it is doing quite well. On that note, the producers have nailed the release window (late 2024), and with other shows already closed for the season, Arifureta still has plenty of time to prove its worth.