My 5 Favorite Anime Sites From 2024

Lots of Material for My 5 Favorite Anime Sites From 2024

Friday nights are more than just the end of the work week for me. It’s the night I go through all of the active sites in the Massive List of Anime Sites. I look forward to that every week. So many of you publish entertaining and insightful articles that I honestly think the world’s a better place for it.

At the end of the year, I total the number of favorite posts for each site, and I publish the list of the five sites with the highest count. I’ve been doing that since 2018! Please don’t feel bad if your site’s not on the list. When I say “favorite,” I mean posts that captured my attention or celebrated aspects of anime that are interesting to me. Put another way: I’ve never read a post that I thought was terrible. Not in all the years I’ve been doing this.

Putting the Numbers into Perspective

This year, I celebrated 260 individual posts representing 74 individual websites. That’s close to the numbers from 2024 (260 posts and 80 sites). I like those numbers. It means I’m finding posts from a wide variety of sites!

One bit of a downer: in 2022, I was tracking over 330 active sites. That means sites that have published at least one post in the last six months. In 2023, that number had declined to 275. Today, that number stands at 236. I guess I’ll look on the bright site: the decline seemed less steep this year!

Positions Eleven to Six

There were more ties than usual, so the only way I could figure out how to keep it fair was to start with number eleven.

Eleventh Place

• Hanime on Anime (celebrated 6 times)
• Mechanical Anime Reviews (celebrated 6 times)
• USA Anime (celebrated 6 times)

Eighth Place

• Filthy Casual for Life (celebrated 7 times)

Seventh Place

• DoubleSama (celebrated 9 times)

Sixth Place

• Anime Rants (celebrated 10 times)

My 5 Favorite Anime Sites from 2024

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Fifth Place: Confessions of an Overage Otaku

Number of Appearances: 16

Last Year’s Position: 4

The Overage Otaku’s site Confessions of an Overage Otaku has been in the top five before! In fact, the site placed number 2 in 2019, number 5 in 2022, and number 4 in 2023. The Overage Otaku brings a ton of storytelling experience to the table. So much so that even though I’ve been a writer for over fifty years, I still learn something almost every time I read on his his posts. Sometimes, I learn something new; other times, I learn a new way to think about something I thought I understood. Take, for example, this post called Killer Ending: Your Lie in April. It’s a series I’ve watched way more than once. But The Overage Otaku’s explanation of its ending helped me appreciate it even more! Kinda nice to know I can still learn new tricks!

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Fourth Place: Shallow Dives in Anime

Number of Appearances: 17

Last Year’s Position: Tied for 3

Dewbond’s site, Shallow Dives in Anime, specializes in straight-shooting, authentic reviews of anime. Now, most of the sites I frequent provide honest reviews. Most of the creators producing click-bait have moved to other platforms. But even among that crowd, Dewbond’s candor sticks out in a good way. I never have to wonder how Dewbond really thinks about a series, because he tells it like it is. He’s also deeply versed in anime, and in some genres in particular. The post The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Dewbond Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Loved this Show is a great example of Dewbond’s style and insights.

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Third Place: ARUM JOURNAL

Number of Appearances: 18

Last Year’s Position: Outside the Top 10

ecargmura’s site ARUM JOURNAL debuts in this at number three. She gives us honest seasonal reviews with a good dose of good-natured humor. I love comparing notes about my reaction to a given episode with ecargmura’s reactions. More than that, I enjoy the sense of humor that comes through. That was really clear in this post called Dandadan Episode 3 Review – Granny vs Granny. Maybe your experience differs, but I think it’s hard to write about a show that’s so extreme like this one while maintaining a balanced sense of humor. But ecargmura makes it look easy!

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Second Place: Merlin’s Musings

Number of Appearances: 20

Last Year’s Position: Tied for 10th

Merlin from Merlin’s Musings gives us whole-series reviews, anime lists, and an occasional editorial. While I’ve had a ton of fun reading his lists (and engaging with his editorials), I find myself even more interested in his series reviews. Merlin brings a robust knowledge of anime to every review. I particularly like this enthusiasm and character insights. This post, The Epic of Valvrave the Liberator, is a perfect example. Merlin gets bonus points for reviewing series that, while often being a blast to watch, may not have received much attention from other reviewers. I appreciate details like that.

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First Place: Anime Evo

Number of Appearances: 21

Last Year’s Position: 5

FlareKnight, on the site Anime Evo, focuses on seasonal episodic reviews. That gives me a chance to enjoy anime not only as I watch it, but through the eyes of another reviewer! FlareKnight also brings a deep knowledge of the anime space to his reviews, and he also gives us great character insights. Most of all, I appreciate FlareKnight’s enthusiasm for anime. Want an sample? Check out this post: Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 02. In this series, I try to celebrate anime, and I think in 2024, I can point to FlareKnight’s work as a perfect example of that!

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More Posts from Other Sites to Crow About/My 5 Favorite Sites

• Other Sites to Crow About – My Favorite Sites from 2018
• Other Sites to Crow About – My Favorite Sites from 2019
• Other Sites to Crow About – My 5 Favorite Sites from 2020
• Other Sites to Crow About – My 5 Favorite Sites from 2021
• Other Sites to Crow About – My 5 Favorite Sites from 2022
• Other Sites to Crow About – My 5 Favorite Sites from 2023
• Other Sites to Crow About – My 5 Favorite Sites from 2024

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