It was another banner year for theatrical Japanese animation. Of the year’s 10 top-grossing films, half were anime features, according to box-office site PickScene. That includes the year’s top film, “Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram,” the 27th entry in the long-running “Detective Conan” franchise.
“Pentagram” has earned over ¥15.7 billion (nearly $104 million), a new record for the series, and marks the second year in a row “Conan” has vaulted over the high ¥10 billion mark. The only other film to pass ¥10 billion this year was “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” a theatrical sequel to a long-running manga and anime series about high school volleyball players.
The anime industry in general — including film, television, streaming, merchandise and events — is on a roll. In October, the number crunchers at the Association of Japanese Animations revealed that in 2023, industry revenues reached ¥3.3 trillion (nearly $22 billion), a new record. Over half of that ¥3.3 trillion came from outside Japan, demonstrating how popular anime has become overseas.
Established franchises such as “Conan,” “Haikyu!!,” “Mobile Suit Gundam” and “Doraemon” won at the box office in 2024, but the year was also marked by a significant number of innovative films that took big artistic swings.
“More projects with original stories and strong artistic visions are appearing slowly but steadily,” says Ryota Fujitsu, anime critic and programming advisor for the Tokyo International Film Festival, which featured many of 2024’s most interesting anime films in its animation section.
Chief among those films was “Look Back,” an adaptation of a short semi-autobiographical manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto (“Chainsaw Man”). The film, directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama at his own studio, Studio Durian, was the sleeper hit of the year, sticking around in theaters for months and earning over ¥2 billion.
To bring “Look Back” to the screen, Oshiyama relied on a small, trusted team of animators and drew over half the film’s keyframes himself, giving it an idiosyncratic feel compared to larger productions.
“When you make something with a large team, if you don’t set rules, everyone does everything differently and it ends up in disaster. But if I handle a lot of the production myself, I can work with a free hand and still maintain the overall feel of the film,” Oshiyama says.
“A Few Moments of Cheers” is another 2024 anime film made with a small team. Its primary production staff was a three-person unit called Hurray!, known for producing animated music videos and commercials with Blender, a piece of free 3D graphics software. That, along with tools like low-cost motion capture kit Perception Neuron, made animating a feature-length film with just three people possible.
“The tools keep evolving,” says the film’s director, who goes by the handle "Popreq." “The film we made this time wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. There are a lot of possibilities going forward.”
Shigeyoshi Tsukahara is another creator using nontraditional tools. The director’s two companion films released in 2024, “Kurayukaba” and “Kuramerukagari,” take place in a subterranean world that is part steampunk, part old-town shitamachi Tokyo and were largely animated with Adobe Animate (formerly known as Flash), which allows movements to be programmed rather than drawn frame by frame. Tsukahara, who has been posting self-made anime shorts online since he was a university student, turned to crowdfunding to get his first full-length project off the ground.
“I made a deck and storyboards and went around to different studios pitching the project, but it didn’t go well,” he says. “I was told, ‘You’re not a famous director, and it’s not based on an established property.’ But (2016 film) ‘In This Corner of the World’ had been successfully crowdfunded, so I decided to give it a try as my last resort.”
Fans of Tsukahara’s short films came to his aid, pushing the “Kurayukaba” crowdfunding effort to 276% of its ¥2.5 million goal. Studio Twin Engine, which had previously turned down the project, then joined in, convinced of its viability thanks to fan enthusiasm. A second round of crowdfunding led by Twin Engine raised an additional ¥8.8 million.
Nontraditional partners also played a key role in this year’s “Ghost Cat Anzu,” a coming-of-age tale about a young girl who goes on an adventure with a human-sized talking cat. The project, co-directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita and Yoko Kuno, was co-produced by French studio Miyu Productions, which had approached Kuno about creating a project together. Miyu’s involvement was not only financial: The studio also handled the film’s background art and consulted on its story.
“They gave us advice on things we might not be familiar with in Japan, like different religions,” Kuno says. “I think that helped us avoid things that might feel rude to people from other places.”
The film’s production style was also unique: Yamashita shot live scenes with actors, then Kuno’s team painted over those live-action scenes to create the animated film using a method called rotoscoping.
Rotoscoping’s appeal, explains Kuno, is that in traditional animation, “everything comes from the animator’s mind, so you might not get the kind of ideas an actor does while performing their roles.”
Rotoscoping is not a new animation method, but advances in technology have made it much more accessible than in the past.
“You originally needed a special machine, but now you can do it easily thanks to digital technology,” Kuno says. “It’s become much easier in the past 10 years or so.”
“The tools are expanding in 3D computer graphics, traditional drawing and even stop-motion animation because 3D printers have made it easier to create puppets,” adds Fujitsu. “A breadth of tools leads to a breadth of modes of expression.”
Popreq, Tsukahara and Kuno all emerged from outside the traditional Japanese animation industry, gaining a following by posting their self-produced shorts online. With younger people watching more online video than television, it makes sense that producers are funding projects from online creators, posits Fujitsu.
“This year there were a lot of anime films from young directors doing things in their own way,” Kuno adds. “I think it was an epoch-making year. But what will happen going forward?”
If there is a barrier to more independent-minded productions, it may be that while these original films have gained critical notice, they have not seen equivalent financial success.
“Creators using things like crowdfunding to make what they really want is an interesting trend, but it hasn’t led to many big hits yet,” says Tsukahara. “Audiences tend to gravitate toward anime based on famous properties.”
“A large percentage of anime hits are based on novels or manga,” Fujitsu says. “Animation studios and publishers are business partners, so this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but is it all right for the animation industry to be so dependent on the publishing industry? I think finding the balance between anime based on established properties and originals is becoming even more important.”
Anime has dominated the Japanese box office so far this decade — since 2020, the No. 1 film each year has been a domestic animated feature.
2020
Box-office biggie: “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Mugen Train”
Writer’s choice: “Violet Evergarden: The Movie”
The “Demon Slayer” movie isn’t just 2020’s top flick, it remains Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time. Released the same year, “Violet Evergarden: The Movie” is a beautifully animated follow-up to the anime series of the same name by Kyoto Animation. For my money, the latter will better stand the test of time: While slickly animated, “Demon Slayer” feels more like an extended episode of the series rather than a film.
2021
Box-office biggie: “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time”
Writer’s choice: “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time”
“Evangelion: 3.0+1.0” is the fourth and final film in a tetralogy that rebooted the famous psychological mecha series from the 1990s. Far from a straight retelling, “3.0+1.0” is a wild, 155-minute ride full of meditations on fandom, life and, yes, giant fighting robots. The film was delayed many times but ultimately proved worth the wait.
2022
Box-office biggie: “One Piece Film: Red”
Writer’s choice: “Suzume”
“Red” is far and away the most financially successful of the many “One Piece” films, thanks in part to a soundtrack featuring songs by singer-songwriter Ado. But “Suzume,” the Makoto Shinkai-helmed road movie featuring a talking chair, is the more admirable option. “Suzume” expands on the themes in Shinkai’s “Your Name.” and “Weathering With You” and delivers a gut punch of an ending.
2023
Box-office biggie: “The First Slam Dunk”
Writer’s choice: “The Boy and the Heron”
“The First Slam Dunk” is an impressive feat: a pulse-pumping spin-off to the popular ’90s manga “Slam Dunk” helmed by that manga’s author in his directorial debut. Technically released in late 2022, it dominated the box office in 2023. “The Boy and the Heron,” the latest film from legend Hayao Miyazaki, won an Academy Award for best animated feature. Being back in Miyazaki’s world after a decade was the filmgoing experience of the year.
2024
Box-office biggie: “Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram”
Writer’s choice: “Look Back”
The annual “Detective Conan” film franchise kicked off back in 1997 but is more popular than ever, maybe because there are now multiple generations of fans. Thus, “The Million-dollar Pentagram” earned the most money of any “Conan” film yet. “Look Back,” an idiosyncratic adaptation of the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, best known for “Chainsaw Man,” is an affecting tale of rivalry, friendship and loss told in just under an hour.
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