Here are the five best anime of Q1, 2024

If you know anything about me, you’ll be aware that I’m a huge anime fan.

MobileSyrup is one of the go-to sites for streaming in Canada, so to even out our streaming coverage, it’s time for our ‘Best Anime of Winter 2024’ listicle. After extensive research, this is our list of what you might have missed since the beginning of 2024. It’s worth mentioning that I won’t be including recurring shows, like season two of Jujustu Kaisen, despite my love for the series.

If you want to know about some of the best anime of 2023, click here. For the best anime of Q1, 2024, check out my list below:

Ninja Kamui

Ninja Kamui is pretty much the most anime version of John Wick. Joe Logan, formerly an elite ninja named Higan, was hiding in rural America when he was ambushed by assassins who killed him and his family for betraying the ninja way. Higan’s mysterious ninjutsu allows him to return to life and exact his revenge on those who killed his family.

This high-action anime has some pretty base animation until you get to the amazingly choreographed fight scenes. It reminds me of the random anime-like fight scenes you’d see on an episode of Boondocks, which means it’s bloody and awesome.

The series was directed by Sunghoo Park, known for The God of High School, and the first season of my favourite show, Jujutsu Kaisen.

Ninja Kamui is available on Adult Swim via Prime Video’s StackTV channel.

Undead Unluck

Undead Unluck is about a young woman named Fuuko Izumo’s power causes bad luck (or unluck) whenever she touches anyone. Because of this, she’s lived her life in seclusion after accidentally killing more than 200 people, including her powers, when she was a kid. Izumo meets another person named Andy, who can’t die but has been trying to for who knows how long. Andy befriends Fuuko because he sees her as a way to die finally, and the two get hunted by a mysterious organization that hunts people with powers. After some clashes and friend-making, the two joined this organization and worked together with the team to prevent the eventual apocalypse.

This is a fan-service Shonen anime where the power of friendship saves the day, but I’ve found it enjoyable so far. The first few episodes were rough, but it seems to have found its rhythm, and from my understanding, the show will get even wilder.

Undead Unluck is available on Disney+.

Delicious in Dungeon

What happens when you combine a cooking show with a fantasy adventure anime? You get Delicious in Dungeon. Delicious in Dungeon is fantasy anime where different guilds and parties explore dungeons; it’s very Dungeon and Dragons-like.

At the beginning of the series, a party is in the middle of a losing battle against a red dragon. The team is forced to escape, but while this happens, the character Falin gets eaten by the beast. Laios Touden, the brother of Falin, is determined to get his sister back, who can be revived with magic. A halfling named Chilchuck and an elf named Marcille journey into the dungeon to save Falin and to lighten. Due to a lack of funds, they decide instead of purchasing food before venturing into the dungeon, they’ll just cook whatever monster they come across. With the help of Senshi, a dwarf who has spent the last ten years in a dungeon, they decide to cook their way down to the floor that houses the red dragon.

Delicious in Dungeon is funny, full of adventure and action, offers some honest and true cooking insight and has beautiful animation. Watching this aime is the highlight of my week and is really a great time — and I despise cooking shows.

Delicious in Dungeon is available on Netflix.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is probably my favourite anime of the season. Technically, it started last year, but the first season didn’t end until recently, so I’m including it in the list.

The series follows a 1000-year-old Elven mage who was formerly a member of a party of heroes who killed the Demon King about 80 years ago.

Frieren decides to travel to a magical land where she can talk with her old companions who have passed away. Frieren meets friends on the way, apprentices of her old companions, and they travel together to the land.

While the show is a lot slower than anything else on the list and has a bit of slice-of-life moments, the series also has some really thrilling and beautiful fight scenes. Occasionally, I’ll rewatch episodes because I love watching the animation of the various spells. It’s hard to explain why this anime is so good, but everyone I’ve shown it to also really enjoys it.

If you’re in the mood for a bit of a slower anime with some gorgeous animation, look no further than Frieren.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is available on Crunchyroll.

Solo Leveling

Of course, I had to end this list with the anime Solo Leveling. Solo Leveling is based on a South Korean web novel made into anime this year. The series follows hunters who have supernatural abilities and who have to protect mankind from deadly monsters that emerge from dungeons. However, they are sorted to S-E rank whenever someone ‘awakens’ and gets their supernatural abilities. There’s no changing this unless you awaken again — a super rare phenomenon in this world.

In this world, the main character Sung Jinwoo, an E-rank hunter, ends up in the double dungeon that nearly kills him; but after surviving, a mysterious program called the ‘System’ chooses him as the sole player. Now that he’s the player, it allows him to level up, something unheard of in this world.

So far, Jinwoo is keeping this ability secret, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult as an E-rank character who’s suddenly defeating C-rank dungeons by himself and even killing a B-rank assassin.

Solo Leveling has some nice animation (not on the level of Frieren or Delicious in Dungeon), but how dark the premise is, and watching Jinwoo evolve into this super powerful character with darkness to him is really intriguing.

Even though I love Frieren, Solo Leveling is definitely the hit anime from the past three months.

Solo Leveling is available on Crunchyroll.

Special recommendations: There are many other anime worth watching, but these are the top five I’ve been watching lately. The Witch and the Beast, available on Crunchyroll, is pretty cool and tells the story of a duo hunting witches. It’s awesome and might be better than Undead Unluck, but I don’t think the wider audience will like it.

I recently started Sengoku Youko, The Fire Hunter, and Shangri-La Frontier on Crunchyroll, which are also worth trying.