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The Boy and the Heron, Kaiju No. 8, and more anime nominated for Saturn Awards

On Thursday, December 5, 2024, the Saturn Awards announced the 52nd annual awards show nominations, including The Boy and the Heron, Kaiju No. 8, and more anime. The awards ceremony for the 2024 Saturn Awards will take place at the Hilton Universal City in Universal City, California, on Sunday, February 2, 2024.

Kaiju No. 8 is nominated for the Best Animated Television Series or Special category and competes against stiff competition there, including X-Men ‘97 and Batman: Caped Crusader. Meanwhile, The Boy and the Heron was nominated for the Best Animated Film category, facing equally formidable opposition in Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and The Wild Robot.


2024 Saturn Awards see The Boy and the Heron and Spy x Family compete, Kaiju No. 8 only TV anime nominated

The full nominees for the Best Animated Film category include The Boy and the Heron, Despicable Me 4, Inside Out 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, Spy x Family Code: White, Transformers One, and The Wild Robot. This is also notably the only category for the 2024 Saturn Awards, with two anime productions as nominees. However, neither are the frontrunners for this year, with Inside Out 2 taking that title.

Kaiju No. 8, meanwhile, is competing against non-Japanese animation exclusively in the Best Animated Television Series or Special Category. The full nominees are X-Men ‘97, Batman: Caped Crusader, Gremlins: The Wild Batch, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Frontrunners in this category are likely X-Men ‘97, Batman: Caped Crusader, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which ran its climactic final season in 2024.

Other nominees based on Japanese media include Monarch: Legacy of Monsters in the Best Adventure Television Series category, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in Best Fantasy Film, and Godzilla Minus One in Best Film Visual / Special Effects and Best International Film. Takashi Yamazaki of Godzilla Minus One was also nominated for the Best Film Direction and Best Film Screenwriting categories for his work on the film.

While the anime nominees for the 2024 Saturn Awards are certainly exciting to see, they are not the first anime properties to be nominated. Last year, Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume and Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man were nominated, but neither won an award. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, based on Nintendo’s original video game franchise, was also nominated for an award but did not win one.

The Boy and the Heron is the latest film from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, released in Japan in July 2023. The film was originally slated to be Miyazaki’s last, but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Kaiju No. 8 aired its first season in 2024, serving as the television anime adaptation of mangaka Naoya Matsumoto’s original series of the same name. A second season is coming sometime in 2025.


Related links

  • The Boy and the Heron won't be Hayao Miyazaki's last film, confirms Studio Ghibli's VP
  • Hayao Miyazaki gives an interesting update on an upcoming movie
  • Kaiju No. 8 season 2 confirms 2025 release and more with new PV
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