Highlights
- Ishura, Metallic Rouge, and Ninja Kamui offered unique action experiences but struggled to match Solo Leveling’s visibility in 2024.
- Shangri-La Frontier season 2 and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer delivered strong fantasy action.
- The series' strengths ranged from sci-fi worldbuilding and political intrigue to VRMMO adventures and revenge-driven combat.
When A-1 Pictures’ Solo Leveling premiered in Winter 2024, it arrived less as an anime and more as a cultural event. The Korean manhwa adaptation became one of the genre-defining works and Crunchyroll’s most viewed title.
Solo Leveling came with a massive, globally scattered fanbase, with a renowned studio. It did not just perform well; it became Anime of the Year in 2025’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards. The only downside of that success was that several other action anime from 2024 received far less attention than they deserved.
Several series aired either during the same Winter 2024 block or within Solo Leveling’s extended cultural wave and brought strong premises, distinctive aesthetics, and real production craft to the table. Here are five action anime from 2024 that were overshadowed by Solo Leveling but remain well worth watching.
1. Ishura
Genre: Action / Fantasy / Isekai | MAL Score: 6.74 | Streaming: Hulu / Disney+
Set in a world fractured after the Demon King’s death, Ishura took a radically different approach to isekai-based storytelling. Instead of centering on a single protagonist, it introduced a roster of legendary warriors, assassins, mages, and monsters competing to claim the title of True Hero.
Unlike Solo Leveling, the series demanded patience from viewers because much of its first season focused on introducing its cast and political landscape. Solo Leveling delivered a singular protagonist and a clean, gratifying power climb. Next to Sung Jinwoo’s effortless dominance, Ishura’s narrative complexity limited its broader audience appeal.
2. Metallic Rouge
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi | MAL Score: 6.20| Streaming: Crunchyroll
Set on a colonized Mars, Metallic Rouge follows Proto-Nean android Rouge Redstar and her human partner as they hunt down nine rogue artificial humans. The Bones studio production blended science fiction, conspiracies, and stylized action while attempting to build an entirely original universe.
Original anime like Metallic Rouge already face a difficult algorithmic battle against adaptations with pre-existing fanbases. Solo Leveling arrived packaged with millions of loyal manhwa readers, but Metallic Rouge had no such runway to build momentum in a crowded season.
3. Shangri-La Frontier Season 2
Genre: Action / VRMMO | MAL Score: 8.26 | Streaming: Crunchyroll
Few anime handle gaming mechanics as naturally as Shangri-La Frontier. The story follows Rakuro Hizutome, a gamer known for clearing broken trash games before diving into the massively popular VR title Shangri-La Frontier, and season 2 only escalated the stakes with more lethal monsters and tighter team dynamics.
It's deliberately comedic, lighthearted, and has a protagonist who raids dungeons in a bird mask. Like Solo Leveling, the series thrives on progression systems, boss battles, and spectacular action. However, Shangri-La Frontier could not replicate Solo Leveling's mainstream pull.
4. Ninja Kamui
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi | MAL Score: 6.53 | Streaming: HBO Max, Adult Swim, Prime Video
The 2024 high-action anime Ninja Kamui was directed by Sunghoo Park, who handled Jujutsu Kaisen season 1. This Adult Swim original follows former ninja Joe Higan as he surfaces from hiding to avenge his family’s deaths. The fight choreography ranks among the sharpest produced in 2024.
Ninja Kamui generated early hype due to its brutal hand-to-hand combat and cinematic action sequences, later won Best Original Anime award at 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards. However, its unavailability on Crunchyroll placed it outside the standard Crunchyroll discovery pipeline that amplified Solo Leveling’s reach. Additionally, it had no manga or light novel fanbase that could fuel its momentum.
5. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer
Genre: Dark Fantasy / Action | MAL Score: 7.43 | Streaming: Crunchyroll
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer shares surprising similarities with 2024’s breakout anime success, Solo Leveling. Both anime’s premises focus on a weak protagonist trapped in a dangerous dungeon who undergoes a life-changing transformation.
The series follows low-tier adventurer Rentt Faina, who is devoured by a dungeon dragon and tries to return to human society after waking up as a skeleton. Its deliberate pacing and lore-focused storytelling made it a compelling fantasy series; however, it fell short alongside Solo Leveling’s power-scaling sequences.
Every anime season produces hidden casualties of a breakout hit, and 2024 was no exception. While Solo Leveling deserved its popularity, series such as Shangri-La Frontier, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Ishura, and Ninja Kamui offered compelling alternatives that never received the same level of mainstream attention.
Not only action-focused anime, but also many other 2024-released anime like Orb: On the Movements of the Earth and The Elusive Samurai, fell short in gaining audience attention due to the hype around Solo Leveling. The 2024 anime lineup demonstrates how a single cultural phenomenon can dominate the conversation, leaving many well-crafted anime series with unique narratives overlooked.
