Japan Reveals Its Top 5 New Anime of 2024 in Official Streaming Ranking

Japan's ABEMA streaming service, self-dubbed the "television of the future," has released its list of the top five new anime of the first half of 2024, with major wins going to some globally popular fantasy titles.

Per PR Times, ABEMA, sometimes referred to as "the Netflix of Japan," announced in a press release its top five newly-airing anime series of the first half of 2024 by view count. The ranking was calculated by number of live and on-demand views per series from January to June 2024, with the top five shows seen below.

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The Apothecary Diaries Is Japan's Favorite Anime of 2024 So Far

1. The Apothecary Diaries
2. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
3. Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 2 (The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc)
4. Delicious in Dungeon
5. Classroom of the Elite Season 3

While the exact view count for each series was not disclosed, OLM and Toho Animation's The Apothecary Diaries came out on top, also snagging second place within the overall top-ranking anime series (by views) within the first half of 2024 as provided by ABEMA. The Apothecary Diaries follows the story of Maomao, a poison taster in the imperial palace who solves mysteries of the royal court. The series debuted as a light novel in 2014, before receiving a manga adaptation in 2017 and eventually, the popular anime in October 2023. The latter has also received critical acclaim domestically and internationally for its humorous themes and art style.

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Non-Isekai Fantasy Dominates Japan's Top Streaming Anime in 2024's First Half

Madhouse Studio’s Frieren: Beyond Journey's End claimed second place in the top five new anime within the first half of 2024, as well as third place in the overall category of top-ranking anime series within the first half of 2024. Frierenfollows the story of its titular character, an elven mage with an extremely long lifespan, and her stories in various parties of adventurers over the years. The series debuted as a manga in 2020 in Weekly Shonen Sunday, where it quickly became (and has remained) a best-selling franchise. It received an anime adaptation in September 2023 that received commercial and critical acclaim, currently sitting at first place on MyAnimeList’s top anime series list with a score of 9.33.

Mashle: Magic and Muscles Season 2, Delicious in Dungeonand Classroom of the EliteSeason 3 made up the remainder of the list. Some clear commonalities among these three series include male protagonists and themes of comedy mixed with mystery. However, across all five shows, elements of fantasy and the supernatural were very present, although interestingly, isekai was not represented in any of the above top-ranked series.

Source: PR Times