July - September • 158 anime
Summer 2024 was a weirdly adventurous season, with big-name movies rubbing shoulders with experimental ONAs and short films. Look Back stood out for its emotional punch, and Suicide Squad ISEKAI leaned into its chaotic premise and actually worked more often than not.
My take: Summer 2024 came off as a season where studios were willing to try things — lots of originals, a pile of movies, and a healthy number of sequels that mixed nostalgia with new direction. It was the kind of quarter where format choices mattered as much as the shows themselves; runtimes and release types let creators play with tone more often than in a typical season.
Look Back was the emotional anchor: compact, artful, and built around a handful of scenes that landed hard. Suicide Squad ISEKAI surprised by embracing its ensemble chaos and turning isekai tropes into genuine payoff rather than joke fodder. Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture leaned into strategic set pieces and fan-first callbacks — J.C.Staff gave it visual polish, though the dense plotting sometimes slowed momentum. My Hero Academia the Movie 4 aimed for blockbuster spectacle and mostly stuck the landing with crisp action and a focused antagonist thread.
