The Best New Anime You Need To Watch This Winter

The Big Picture

• Winter 2024 anime season offers plenty of action, fantasy, romance, and comedy series for all tastes and preferences.
• Action anime genre is led by Solo Leveling, an intense series about a weak hunter who undergoes training to become respected and feared.
• Fantasy genre presents highly anticipated series like Dungeon Meshi, combining adventure, cooking, and a rescue mission in a dungeon setting.

As the fall anime season comes to a close, it’s time to start looking to the far off future of January 2024 for the winter anime lineup. It might feel too soon, but luckily, the winter anime season is usually a little less packed than the fall, so if you’re still catching up on Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End or want to finally watch something from your miles-long watchlist, don’t worry! You’ll most likely have plenty of time between episodes of Dungeon Meshi and Solo Leveling. However, winter definitely isn’t short on interesting new anime of all genres. Whether you’re an action fan, a romantic, or a fantasy lover, there’s something for everyone, including a number of returning and highly anticipated series. Looking at a long list can be daunting, though, so let’s make it easy! This is your guide to the anime of Winter 2024 split up by genre.

Solo Leveling Leads the Action Anime Genre this Season

There’s plenty of action this season, with Solo Leveling leading the charge. Adapted from a novel of the same name, this series follows Sung Jin-woo (Taito Ban), a 20-year-old Hunter that hunts low-rank monsters in order to pay for his mother’s medical bills. He’s considered the weakest hunter and is left to die when a mission goes awry, but after waking up in a hospital, he’s given an intense training program that may just turn him into a hunter to be respected and feared. This is Jin-woo’s journey from zero to hero! Fans of action, fantasy, and series like Sword Art Online will likely enjoy this series, which premieres in January 2024 on Crunchyroll.

It isn’t an anime season without at least a few action isekai, and this one has a handful. My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! (a real mouthful, I know) is the story of Yogiri Takatou (Kouki Uchiyama), who sleeps through being transported into another world and receiving a special power from a Sage. Abandoned by his classmates and left with only one companion, he jumps in to protect her from a dragon attack and realizes he’s not as powerless as he thought. There’s also The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, another title about an entirely ordinary high schooler named Ken Usato (Shougo Sakata) who is accidentally transported to another world and finds that he can use healing magic, which is incredibly rare. Suddenly put into the spotlight, Ken finds some self-confidence, friends, and enemies. So much for his quiet life!

Of course, if isekai isn’t your thing, there’s plenty of other action anime to choose from. Bucchigiri?! offers some good ol’ shounen fun as two friends battle powerful enemies as they try to figure out why a huge demon shadow has appeared. Metallic Rouge is a sci-fi lover’s dream as it follows an android and a human as they go to Mars to carry out a government mission. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer is great for dark fantasy fans that enjoy plenty of hack and slash action. If supernatural action is what you crave, The Witch and the Beast might be right up your alley, as it follows the odd duo of Guideau, the fanged woman with beastly eyes, and her companion Ashaf, a man who carries a coffin on his back, as they head to a town controlled by a witch. And, of course, if you like your action with a bit of drama, look no further than Sengoku Youko, an anime about a pair of siblings that are joined by a cowardly swordsman as they carry out a vow to stop a group that is experimenting to find a way to change humans into monsters.

Dungeon Meshi is Making the Fantasy Genre Delicious

Next up is the fantasy genre, and in recent seasons, it’s been one of the most stacked genre. Dungeon Meshi is the perhaps the most anticipated fantasy series to premiere this season, combining fantasy, adventure, and cooking as it tells the tale of a guild that is on a quest to save their leader’s sister. With no food or supplies, leader Laios (Kentarou Kumagai) suggests eating the monsters they kill in the dungeon and using them for supplies. As they travel deeper into the dungeon, their adventure becomes both a culinary tour and a rescue mission.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord is another anticipated fantasy title. Eumiella Dolkness (Fairouz Ai) is uninterested in the romance of the otome game she’s in, and instead spends her time training and leveling up her rare dark magic ability. She lays low to avoid becoming a hidden boss, but after people find out her level is at 99, they try to take her on in duels. She always wins, making the heroine of the series suspect that she’s secretly the Demon Lord. Now she must convince the heroine that she’s far from an evil overlord in the hopes that she can return to her normal life.

There are plenty of other fantasy series coming out as well. The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash is an easygoing adventure fantasy that follows a girl who is meant to tame animals but lacks the power to do so as she goes on an adventure with a friendly slime. Fluffy Paradise is a cute slice of life series about a woman who dies and is reincarnated into a new world where she has the ability to be beloved by all nonhuman beings. Ishura hosts a battle royale as a handful of warriors fight to take over the throne of a recently deceased demon king. Delusional Monthly Magazine is a fantastical workplace comedy about a group of magazine editors that love outlandish stories. Sasaki to Pii-chan is about a salaryman that buys a bird as a pet on a whim, only to find that the bird is actually a high-powered sage from another world that grants him the power to move between the two worlds. The season’s fantasy lineup is jam-packed with titles that are sure to put you in the mood for adventure!

Cherry Magic Adds a BL Twist to the Romance Roster

Who doesn’t love a good romance to kick off the new year? Winter 2024 has two highly anticipated romance titles. The first is Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!, a boy’s love title that tells the story of Adachi (Chiaki Kobayashi), a man who reaches his 30th birthday without losing his virginity and gains the power to read the thoughts of anyone he touches. He accidentally touches his coworker Kurosawa (Ryouta Suzuki) and finds that all of Kurosawa’s thoughts are about how cute he thinks Adachi is. Now that he knows Kurosawa’s feelings, Adachi can’t even think straight! How will he handle being around Kurosawa, and is there something blooming between the two?

The second is Yubisaki to Renren. This light romantic comedy centers around a girl named Yuki (Sumire Morohoshi), whose hearing impairment has made it difficult for her to make friends. While on her way to university one day, she meets Itsuomi (Yuu Miyazaki), a boy that is unbothered by her hearing impairment and spends his time studying languages. They begin spending more and more time together and Yuki finds that she likes the world outside of her home…and maybe Itsuomi, too.

While romance isn’t dominating the lineup, there’s still a few to choose from. Doctor Elise is great for fans of historical romance, telling the story of Dr. Song Jihyun (Yui Ishikawa), a renowned surgeon who is sent back in time and put into the body of Elise de Clorance and given a chance to improve her past life. There’s also The Demon Prince of Momochi House for those who like fantasy romance and want to follow the tale of a girl who inherited a mansion that allows her to walk between the human and spirit worlds and tries to help a spirit break the mansion’s curse.

Mr. Villain’s Day Off Corners the Market on Comedy

Comedy can be found in most series in small doses, but sometimes you just want a series to be all laughs. This season, the comedy that has people buzzing is Mr. Villain’s Day Off, a slice of life that sees Warumono (Shintarou Asanuma) — the General of an evil organization — sent to Earth to wipe out humanity. However, he needs a break, and will stop at nothing to make it to the zoo to see the pandas.

Other comedy series include Snack Basue, which is about two women that run a snack shop in Hokkaido, and ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess, which sees a princess held captive by a demon lord with a strange definition of what torture is.

Blue Exorcist Returns for a Long Awaited Third Season

As always, there are many series returning with new seasons. Blue Exorcist is finally returning for a third season, which will adapt its Illuminati arc. The series is relatively short, so the holidays are the perfect time to catch up before the new season airs! Spring 2023’s action-comedy hit Mashle and school romance The Dangers in My Heart will both air their second season. 2022’s reboot of Urusei Yatsura will receive its second season, as well as winter 2023’s action-fantasy High Card.

The winter anime season begins January 3, 2024.

Watch on Crunchyroll