The 12 Best Anime of 2025: The Year in Review

2025 gave anime its biggest commercial year on record and one of its strongest critical ones: a film that outgrossed every Japanese release in history, a flagship shonen finally landing its ending, and a stack of quieter series that critics ranked above both. Below are the twelve titles that mattered most, and why each earned its spot.

The 12 best anime of 2025 at a glance

#	Anime	Studio and 2025 run	Why it is here
1	My Hero Academia Final Season	Bones Film, Oct to Dec	Anime of the Year
2	Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle	ufotable, July (film)	Film of the Year, record gross
3	The Apothecary Diaries S2	OLM and Toho, Jan to July	Best Drama, best written
4	Dandadan S2	Science Saru, July to Sept	Critics' number one
5	Gachiakuta	Bones Film, July to Dec	Best New Series
6	Solo Leveling S2	A-1 Pictures, Jan to Mar	Best Animation and Best Action
7	Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc	MAPPA, Sept (film)	Opened at number one in the US
8	One Piece	Toei, from April	Best Continuing Series
9	My Dress-Up Darling S2	CloverWorks, July to Sept	Ninth on both critics' lists
10	Lord of Mysteries	B.CMAY, June to Sept	The donghua breakthrough
11	Kaiju No. 8 S2	Production I.G, July to Sept	Tight, filler-free sequel
12	Sakamoto Days	TMS, Jan to Sept	The year's biggest recovery

1. My Hero Academia Final Season: the landing stuck

Bones Film had one job in October 2025, and it did not fumble it. Eleven episodes, 4 October to 13 December, adapted chapters 399 to 430 at a brisk clip, with the endgame between Izuku Midoriya and Shigaraki getting the budget it needed; a television special covering the final chapter, 431, followed on 2 May 2026. Crunchyroll voters handed the season Anime of the Year, billed as the first concluding season ever to take the top prize, plus Best Ending Sequence for Bump of Chicken's "I". Katsuki Bakugo won Best Supporting Character for the arc that finally pays off years of him being insufferable. Coming in cold? Our My Hero Academia watch order skips the filler.

2. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle: the film that rewrote the record books

Spoiler warning: this entry names the fights the film adapts.

ufotable's 155-minute opening instalment of a planned trilogy reached Japanese cinemas on 18 July 2025 and simply kept selling. Its first three days took ¥5.52 billion, the biggest opening weekend in Japanese box-office history, and it finished above $800 million worldwide, the largest total any Japanese film has managed. Haruo Sotozaki's direction earns it: Tanjiro and Giyu's rematch with Akaza, Shinobu against Doma and Zenitsu against Kaigaku are the fights manga readers waited years to see moving. It won Best Animation Film at the 49th Japan Academy Film Prize, and Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina took Best Score. Part 2 still had no confirmed release date as of October 2026, and our Infinity Castle guide covers what the trilogy has left to adapt.

3. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2: the one critics kept picking

Twenty-four episodes from 10 January to 4 July 2025 is a long run for a series with no fight scenes, and OLM and Toho Animation Studio used all of them. Season 2 moves Maomao out of the rear palace and into court politics, where the poisonings stop being puzzles of the week and start tying back to one family's grip on the throne. It won Best Drama and Best Director, Maomao took Best Main Character, and the critics agreed: first on the AV Club's year-end list, second on Anime News Network's. Season 3 began airing on 2 October 2026 with a second cour due in April 2027, and a feature film opens in Japan on 11 December 2026.

4. Dandadan Season 2: the critics' number one

Science Saru's second season (12 episodes, 4 July to 19 September 2025) tops Anime News Network's year-end list, and the Cursed House arc is why: a haunting at the childhood home of Momo's old friend Jiji becomes a possession the group cannot punch its way out of, and the Evil Eye that takes him over turns into one of the show's heaviest hitters. The loud material is spectacular, but season 2 pulls ahead in the quiet scenes, where Momo Ayase and Okarun stop being a gag pairing. Best Comedy and Best Opening Sequence (for Aina the End's "On the Way") followed at the Crunchyroll Awards. Season 3 is set for 2027; our Dandadan explainer covers the story so far.

5. Gachiakuta: the best new series of the year

Bones Film ran Gachiakuta for two straight cours, 6 July to 21 December 2025, 24 episodes, and the graffiti-soaked art direction never settled into a routine. Rudo is framed for murder and thrown off the floating Sphere into the Pit, where the city above dumps its rubbish, then learns he is a Giver: someone who can charge discarded objects with emotion and swing them as Vital Instruments. Fumihiko Suganuma's direction treats the junk as texture rather than set dressing, which is how a debut won Best Character Design and Best Background Art alongside Best New Series. Season 2 was confirmed as the finale aired, still undated as of October 2026. Our Gachiakuta explainer breaks down the power system.

6. Solo Leveling Season 2: the best-looking action of the year

A-1 Pictures put out 13 episodes, numbered 13 to 25, between 5 January and 30 March 2025. They take Jinwoo through the Red Gate, his S-rank reassessment and the Demon's Castle, then give roughly the last five to the Jeju Island raid, the arc web-novel readers always point to. Shunsuke Nakashige's team won Best Animation and Best Action for it, and Jinwoo against the Ant King in episode 24 is the argument: the camera stays legible even when the choreography turns absurd. It is the shallowest show here, and that is fine: catharsis is the product, and Solo Leveling delivers it. What comes next is a film rather than a season: Solo Leveling: Beyond the System was revealed at Anime Expo in July 2026, is in production at A-1 Pictures and had no release date as of October 2026.

7. Chainsaw Man: The Movie Reze Arc: the theatrical boom was no fluke

MAPPA sent Chainsaw Man's Bomb Girl arc to cinemas rather than making a second television season, and the gamble paid off. Released in Japan on 19 September 2025 and directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, it took roughly $191 million worldwide and opened at number one in the United States with about $18 million from just over 3,000 screens, which almost never happens for a subtitled animated film. The arc suits one sitting, since Reze exists to show Denji what being wanted feels like before the bill arrives. Kenshi Yonezu's "Iris Out" won Best Anime Song, and the film took a 49th Japan Academy Film Prize nomination for Best Animation Film, losing to Infinity Castle.

8. One Piece: the comeback that justified the break

Toei pulled One Piece off air after episode 1122 in October 2024 and spent six months rebuilding its production pipeline. It returned on 5 and 6 April 2025 with a recap special and a two-episode weekend, then settled into a Sunday late-night slot, 11:15 pm in Japan, far less restrictive about what Toei can show than the morning berth it had held for years. The second half of Egghead looks like a different series: consistent art, fights that keep their shape, and Luffy's Gear Five set pieces animated at the level the joke deserves. Crunchyroll voters gave it Best Continuing Series. Egghead is no place to start, but it is the arc worth catching up for.

9. My Dress-Up Darling Season 2: the quiet overachiever

CloverWorks brought My Dress-Up Darling back on 6 July 2025 for a twelve-week run ending 21 September, and it improves where it matters. The cosplay sequences are still gorgeous, but more screen time goes to what Wakana Gojo is actually frightened of, and Marin Kitagawa stays one of the few anime love interests written as a person with her own insecurities rather than a prize. Anime News Network and the AV Club both placed it ninth, which almost never happens to a romantic comedy sequel.

10. Lord of Mysteries: the donghua breakthrough

B.CMAY Pictures released 13 episodes from 28 June to 13 September 2025 on WeTV and Crunchyroll, and Lord of Mysteries became the first Chinese production in years that Western fans argued about on equal terms. Klein Moretti wakes in a gaslit pastiche of late-Victorian England where Beyonders climb numbered Sequences by drinking potions tied to Tarot-styled pathways, and the adaptation takes its own rules seriously instead of hand-waving them. The acting and character animation are heavier and more deliberate than anything else here, which suits a mystery. Season 2, subtitled Faceless, is planned for 2027 and adapts the novel's second volume.

11. Kaiju No. 8 Season 2: short, and better for it

Production I.G gave this 11 episodes, 19 July to 27 September 2025, and the compression suits the material. Kafka Hibino starts the season with his secret out, so the story opens on a trial by combat against Director General Isao Shinomiya, parks him in the First Division under the insufferably gifted Gen Narumi, and lets Kaiju No. 9 escalate from there. A season 1 compilation with a new episode, Hoshina's Day Off, also ran in Japanese cinemas from 28 March 2025 and reached international screens as Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon. A conclusion arc was announced in December 2025, so this one is heading for an ending rather than sprawling.

12. Sakamoto Days: the year's biggest recovery

We nearly left this off. TMS Entertainment's first cour (11 January to 22 March 2025) buried a very funny manga under a washed-out palette and flat action, and plenty of viewers walked. The second cour, episodes 12 to 22 from 15 July, fixed most of it: the fights turned brutal and fluid, and the assassins' association exam finally gave Taro Sakamoto's crew something to do besides gags. Twenty-two episodes, and the gulf between the halves is the most instructive thing that happened to a shonen adaptation in 2025. Some critics still find the tonal swings uneven. Sakamoto Days season 2 arrives in January 2027 with Daisuke Nakajima directing.

The other big sequels of 2025

Three long-running favourites just missed the twelve. Spy x Family season 3 ran 13 episodes from 4 October to 27 December 2025 at Wit Studio and CloverWorks, with Yukiko Imai taking over as director; it won Best Slice of Life and handed Anya Forger another Must Protect at All Costs award. Dr. Stone: Science Future, the 37-episode final season from TMS Entertainment, spent two of its three cours in 2025 (9 January to 27 March, then 10 July to 25 September) before closing in June 2026, giving Senku's Stone World the complete ending few long shonen get. Fire Force returned on 5 April 2025 for the first half of its final season at David Production, with the second half running from January to early April 2026.

Acclaimed 2025 anime we have not covered yet

Several of the year's best-reviewed shows have no AniCodex guide yet. Takopi's Original Sin (ENISHIYA, six episodes, 28 June to 2 August) is the hardest watch of 2025 and the one that stayed with us longest. The Summer Hikaru Died, 12 episodes from CygamesPictures, turns rural grief into folk horror and placed third on Anime News Network's list and second on the AV Club's. City The Animation is Kyoto Animation's first non-sequel in six years, absurdist comedy set in the same world as Nichijou. Shinichiro Watanabe's Lazarus, at MAPPA, won Best Original Anime. Add The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity (CloverWorks, Best Romance), Paru Itagaki's Sanda at Science Saru, MAPPA's Zenshu and ENGI's figure-skating drama Medalist.

How we ranked these, and what 2025 actually changed

Three things set the order: what the industry voted for at the Crunchyroll Awards, what critics put at the top of their year-end lists, and whether a show still holds up outside its weekly hype cycle. Where those disagreed we split the difference, which is why a palace mystery with no action sits above the year's flashiest fight animation.

Two structural shifts stand out. Cinemas stopped being a victory lap and became the main event: Infinity Castle and the Reze Arc film took around $1 billion between them. And 2025 was a year of endings, with My Hero Academia, Dr. Stone and Fire Force all closing out. Our most anticipated anime of 2026 guide tracks what moved in to replace them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the best anime of 2025?

By the industry's own vote, My Hero Academia Final Season, which won Anime of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards for the January to December 2025 season. Critics disagreed: Anime News Network ranked Dandadan season 2 first and the AV Club led with The Apothecary Diaries season 2. We rank My Hero Academia first for finishing its story cleanly.

What was the biggest anime film of 2025?

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle. It opened in Japan on 18 July 2025 and finished with more than $800 million worldwide, the highest-grossing Japanese film in history and the first of a planned trilogy. Chainsaw Man: The Movie Reze Arc was second at roughly $191 million.

What was the best new anime of 2025?

Gachiakuta. Bones Film's adaptation won Best New Series, Best Character Design and Best Background Art at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and ran 24 episodes across two cours from 6 July to 21 December 2025. Lord of Mysteries, a Chinese donghua, was the other major debut of the year.

Was there a new Frieren season in 2025?

No. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End season 1 aired from 2023 into 2024, and season 2 premiered on 16 January 2026 at Madhouse, running to 27 March 2026. Frieren had no new episodes during 2025, so it does not belong on a 2025 list however often it turns up on one.

Which 2025 anime are getting sequels?

Most of them. Dandadan season 3 is set for 2027, Sakamoto Days season 2 for January 2027, Lord of Mysteries season 2 for 2027, and The Apothecary Diaries season 3 began on 2 October 2026 with a second cour in April 2027. Gachiakuta season 2, the Solo Leveling film Beyond the System and Infinity Castle Part 2 are all in production but undated as of October 2026.

Where should I start if I only watch one 2025 anime?

For the best-made series, The Apothecary Diaries season 2, though you will want season 1 first. The Infinity Castle film works on its own once you have seen the earlier Demon Slayer seasons, and Takopi's Original Sin is only six episodes. For a fresh start with no catching up at all, Gachiakuta.