In the blink of an eye, we are already in December and approaching 2024. Feels like only yesterday Chainsaw Man was released, but it was a year ago. Fall 2023 anime will end this December and Winter 2024 anime will come in January 2024. Time flies so fast nowadays as if it was a snowstorm.

To prepare ourselves better, here are the recommended anime that you should watch in Winter 2024. The ruling is based on the acceptance of their manga or their previous season.

You would not believe how highly anticipated this anime is. It was originally a South Korean Manhwa written by Chugong. Webtoon, Manga, Manhwa, Manhua – we are all accepting people. We accept different sources, different platforms, and different countries. As long as the animation delivers.

Solo Levelling was originally scheduled to be premiered in 2023. However, due to some issues, the date has been pushed back to January 2024. Well, it works well despite the delay. It even increased the anticipation.

It tells a story about ‘the Gate’ that connects the real world and the magic world suddenly opens in the middle of the city. This has triggered a new way of life for the humans. Those who got their power awakened will fight the monsters invading their peace – which they are called Hunters. The hunters have ranks as well.

Now to make this story cool, of course, our MC is an underdog who happens to be the weakest hunter. But despite his weakness, he fights and fights to pay his mother’s hospital bills. You got me there, I’m with you, Jin Woo (the MC’s name). So, if the plot is so expected – a weak character becomes strong and defeats everyone and monsters, why do people anticipate it? It’s the journey, my friends. The battles, the actions. Those are what differentiates an action anime from another action anime.

The story is about a deaf girl (Yuki Itose) who fell in love first with a silver-haired guy (Itsuomi Nagi). They met on a train when a random person was asking Yuki for directions but she couldn’t understand him due to her being deaf. A good Samaritan – Nagi, noticed the situation and stepped forward to help the flustered Yuki.

Nagi is an adventurous person who likes to travel by backpacking to less fortunate countries. He feels like he is responsible for helping those less fortunate people. He could speak multiple languages, but not sign language. Hence, when he met Yuki, he felt like he had found something new for him to learn.

Over time, both of them developed a mutual feeling. Yuki, being a deaf person, was over-protected by her family, especially after a bad incident happened to her brother due to her being deaf. The synopsis may sound simple, but you will see people’s acceptance of deaf people and how deaf people want to be seen and treated like normal people. The story portrays the daily life of a Yuki, and how she steers her love life despite being deaf.

After neck-to-neck matches with Inarizaki High in Haikyuu!! To The Top, Karasuno High will finally meet their sworn opponent, Nekoma High for a battle in the All-Japan High School Volleyball Championship Tournament (The Spring Tournament), Karasuno and Nekoma had finally beaten their opponents and got to face each other in the tournament in the quarterfinal qualifier.

The match is an old promise between their former coach, Ikkei Ukai (Karasuno High) and Nekomata (Nekoma High), so you can expect the 2 long episodes will be very emotional. Even though they are a sworn enemy, their bond is very strong. Alas, they never got the opportunity to contest each other in a tournament, only in practice matches – which Nekoma High won most of the time.

The trailer shows a throwback when Hinata asks Kenma whether he likes volleyball when he joined the team and Kenma tells him he joined just to follow a friend and not particularly love volleyball. However, as time goes by, we can see that Kenma is getting more and more passionate about volleyball because he would like to play with Hinata who always pushes him to his limit and makes him think a lot while playing.

For those who never watched Haikyuu!! I suggest you watch it. If Slam Dunk is THE sports anime of the 90s, Haikyuu!! is THE sports anime of the 2010s.

The anime is called “The Battle at The Garbage Dump because Karasuno, who used to be called ‘The Black Crow’ and won a lot of tournaments in their glory days, are no longer as mighty as they were after star players graduated from high school. Then, they were called ‘The Flightless Crow’ or ‘The Fallen Champion’. 

Meanwhile, Nekoma High was dubbed as ‘The Cats because the Japanese word ‘Neko’ in its name translates to ‘Cat’. So, what should you call a fight between flightless crows and cats? It’s the usual ruckus at the back of the alley, right? Hence, the Garbage Dump Battle.

I think this post is getting long, so I’ll explain this anime shorter. But if you would like to see my view on Mashle Season 1, you can read it here. I posted about Mashle before.

I wonder what kind of parody jokes will this anime show us in Season 2. To be honest, Mashle is the anime I watch while I’m eating. We all have that one anime or TV show that we like to watch over and over again. Sometimes only play it as a background noise while we are doing something else. I found that Mashle is the kind of anime where we find comfort and light chuckles here and there. Maybe an escape from the depressing reality once in a while.

I hope Season 2 will not disappoint us; fingers crossed. A bit worried because Season 1 ended with a slightly serious part of the plot (still a parody, though).

It is safe to say that Blue Lock still does not stop pulling people to watch its first season after it was released in October 2022. It does not immediately strike most people as one of the most interesting anime to watch, but as time goes by, word of mouth from those who have watched it circulates its awesomeness.

Being a sports anime while being an interesting anime is not an easy task. However, Blue Lock manages to give both – plus some humour. You don’t need to be a soccer fanatic to enjoy Blue Lock, you just need to be human.

Why did I say so? Imagine Squid Game – the infamous Korean series about the survival of the last man standing, or imagine Hunger Games – the infamous Katniss Everdeen with her fire dress. Blue Lock is them – minus the death part.

Most soccer player dreams of being the world’s best striker. They know it will not be easy. But what if, they have a shortcut? To be assembled in a secret project whose ultimate goal is to be the last striker standing among all Japan’s finest strikers who will ultimately join the Japan World Cup soccer team.

The catch is, you need to do whatever it takes to eliminate the other strikers even if it’s inhumane and unethical. That’s Blue Lock for you. Season 2 will be picking up where it was left off in Season 1. Please watch it, it has one of the best animations by Bandai Namco, Kodansha, and Eight Bit Animation Studio.

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of highly anticipated Winter 2024 anime, but I don’t want to torture you into reading them all. Like, A LOT. From a new series, and new seasons to new OVAs and ONAs. There are also some special animations. Maybe I should opt in for making video posts after this? Hmm… not a bad idea, eh? We’ll see.

Until then, MATA NEE~