The Best Anime of Winter 2025
by The ANN Editorial Team,
The first anime season of 2025 has wrapped! What shook out as some of the best series of the season? Our reviewers piled on the love for the second season of Apothecary Diaries, but one series stood above the rest.
For our long-time readers, the seasonal Best Anime, Worst Anime, and Most Anticipated are now selected via ranked voting by our editorial staff. This will give you more variety in the overall picks to create our top 10. Occasionally, we'll have a "runner-up;" this is for anime that were just shy of making it in the top 10 but were nonetheless included on multiple ranked lists from our team.
Below is the list of the editorial team's favorite anime series from this season.
Runner Up:The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World
Plenty of tokusatsu-themed anime have graced our screens throughout the years, covering many genres from rom-com (Love After World Domination), slice-of-life (Mr. Villain's Day Off), to existing IP spin-offs (SSSS.Gridman and FUUTO PI) with varying quality. The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World stood out for its premise, Super Sentai and isekai. The ingredients aren't original, as almost everything is a common trope in isekai and tokusatsu titles, but they were presented with genuine charm. So far, nothing has overstayed its welcome (except maybe the unnecessary fanservice from Yihdra).
The cast is almost immediately charming. As Super Sentai is an ensemble, every team member has to be as distinct as possible from one another. Togo Asagaki embodies generic red ranger tropes: overly high-spirited, burning passion, and innocence. Lowji Mist embodies a rival black/blue ranger trope: stubborn and hates the red ranger. Teltina embodies the feminine pink ranger trope. I had difficulty pointing out what color Yihdra embodies, so let's go with the ending credit, violet. She might produce a henshin gear based on Togo's in the future, but for now, she is decidedly the isekai representation of the team. Their interactions in and out of battle are delightful.
The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World does a great job of expanding its premise. It never holds back in using its concepts, serving a full Sentai experience by the eighth episode and a full Kamen Rider experience by the ninth episode. Note that the chosen Super Sentai and Kamen Rider concepts weren't classics, but the more modern ones where tokusatsu gears have been increasingly loud and talkative, announcing weapon names, form changes, and attacks. The most notable experience I have with this series is to try pointing out the references like Togo's red dinosaur is from Zyuranger, Amen's medals are from Kamen Rider OZ, or Lowji acts like Black Condor from Jetman. I never got bored watching every episode from start to finish, almost like a PG-13 episode of Akibaranger.
Another noteworthy storytelling aspect is it never tries to melt its tokusatsu and isekai elements together. Instead, they are pitted against each other, each self-contained. The adventurer card didn't try to translate Togo's stats and just displayed them as if they were in Togo's world. The Megazord stays a megazord. Everyone is dumbfounded by his gears not abiding by the law of existing magic. The funny laser gun, swords, and little dolls weren't twisted into fantasy-themed stuff to adapt to Yihdra's world. Amen's powers are also immediately recognized as an otherworld concept by the henshin sequence. Its gears and powers also stand out comparably to Togo's, from the medals to the Rider Kick to the motorcycle, not even once betraying their core concept.
I have to wonder if it will include Metal Hero, Ultraman, or even Kaiju in the future. If it does, I believe it will do the characters justice and masterfully weave those elements into the series, making it even more entertaining.
—Gunawan
10. Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2
The kooky antics of Hanako-kun, Nene, and co. have easily been one of the biggest highlights of the season. And why wouldn't it? Not only is it good to see this show back, in general, but without spoiling too much, I can tell you that this season of Hanako-kun puts the relationships of our protagonists center stage. But of course, it wouldn't be Hanako-kun if there wasn't an unearthly twist. A great deal of this season revolves around the newest school wonder to meet the squad: Number Four, Mei Shijima. One of the more powerful school wonders, Mei's powers prompt our protagonists to ask themselves some big questions and, in the process, learn a lot about themselves and their friends.
Mei Shijima's the main thing this season's got going for it, but she's hardly the limit of the paranormal hijinks. For one, there's the possible inter-mortuary (is that a word? If not, well, it is now) romance between Nene and the titular Hanako-kun, who for better or for worse, have learned a lot about each other during this second season. And then, there's how incredibly unseriously this show takes itself—how wacky and whimsical it lets itself be. Not that the comedy is limited to this budding romance, of course—in fact, the zombie episode, especially, stands out as I think back on this series' best moments.
I'm not sure yet whether or not I'd call this second season better than the first, but if nothing else, I can at least say with confidence that it's still been massively enjoyable all the same. Even though it's been five years since the first season aired, you'd hardly know it's been so long since Hanako-kun has aired, it was so effortlessly able to pick up right where it left off. Silly, stylish, supernatural, and with just a hint of sincerity, this anime continues to check all the boxes.
—Kennedy
9. Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast -
The writing of Ave Mujica, including its lead-in from the preceding series It's MyGO!!!!!, is designed with that payoff in mind at the end of its journey. Several points in the series—the group's disbanding in episode 4, the farewell concert to CRYCHIC in episode 7, the staged confession in episode 11—are designed as culminations of several episodes of build-up before being folded into succeeding sections of storyline like so many precise layers of steel. Steel that is then hammered, sharpened, and stabbed straight through your heart. It's to the credit of series story composer Yuniko Ayana that she's lined all this up to fall this way, going back to some devious seeds planted in It's MyGO!!!!! that have at last paid off in deliciously vicious ways.
However, the impact of these individual episodes is also down to the specific scriptwriters, directors, and other crew who have treated them, making each one feel like a deserving event in its own right. Any episode that Hiroshi Morita both boards and directs is sure to be a water-tight experience, enhanced by SANZIGEN's CGI animation abilities, only continuing to advance with the demands of this series. Midori Gotō has turned in episode scripts that keep an incredible pace with Ayana's overarching story. These are all pieces that work in concert, giving power to performers like Rico Sasaki to play her role in episode 11. These are individual components that must come together to create a whole, like members of a band, and thankfully, this team seems to work significantly better with each other than the discordant musicians depicted in Ave Mujica.
I wouldn't have those drama-fueled disaster girls any other way. It can be easy to overstate and oversell the appeal of these BanG Dream! spin-offs as train wrecks, notable only because of how outlandish they get compared to their predecessors. Yes, it's crazy that the same anime that had a rocket-powered bear mascot costume in an earlier season is now dealing with alcoholism and parental abuse. But that only underscores how precisely wielded that drama is. It's another calculation in service of that overarching journey—Ave Mujica traces themes of band breakups, reformations, and love of group performances from the origins of BanG Dream!. It's just that now it's tied up in treacherous corporate family drama, multiple personalities, impersonation, and identity theft. It's the kind of story that BanG Dream! needed to deploy something as ostentatious as that episode 11 show. This is a series whose rise has seen knock-on effects outside of itself and on the broader girls' music anime landscape as a whole. And it's doing so with harrowing experimental soliloquies and mental health deteriorating in real-time. It's a show where the YouTuber is the most normal member of the band; it's fantastic. They are seemingly going to make a BanG Dream! Pico mini anime with these characters. Even if they crash and burn off the stage at the end, that alone will make this all worth it. Possibly even more so, if I think about it.
—Christopher Farris
8. Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 3
The last season of Re:Zero, while full of revelations, personal growth, and tons of backstory, took place in an area isolated from the rest of the world. This left things feeling a bit disconnected from everything that came before—especially the Royal Selection and the Witch's Cult. This season is spent focusing specifically on those two plotlines. Every Royal Candidate and nearly every Sin Archbishop has been thrown into a single city to battle it out. This makes for a season filled with action, intrigue, and major character development for the extended cast.
It is also a season that almost completely abandons Re:Zero's core twist. Outside of the opening two episodes, this season has no time loops. This is important because it not only showcases the strength of the other characters who don't have Subaru's cheat ability to rely on and ties in with Subaru's growth as a person.
The first season of Re:Zero was centered around Subaru fancying himself as an isekai hero, destined to save the world and get the girl. This caused him to act like a self-important ass, trampling on the feelings and goals of those he supposedly cared about. He had to hit rock bottom to accept the world and himself as they truly were. Since then, he has been building himself back up from zero.
In this season, Subaru finally becomes the hero he once believed himself to be. His humble, everyman personality, mixed with his determination to do the right thing for not only his friends but the world as a whole, inspires those around him—be they the Royal Candidates or the civilian population. It's the culmination of an arc nearly 60 episodes in the making.
Of course, none of this would work nearly as well if not for the villains. The Sin Archbishops steal nearly every scene they're in. They are perfect examples of villains you love to hate—though for different reasons. Regulus is a winy, controlling, self-important man-child who happens to be invulnerable and capable of killing with a flick of his hand. Sirius, on the other hand, can make people empathize with her and her insanity—on both an emotional and physical level. And then there is Capella, a sadist who can meld flesh like clay and loves turning people into monstrous abominations. Seeing our heroes solve the mystery of how to defeat each of these villains is a treat—and seeing them meet their comeuppance is catharsis in its purest form.
Take all this and add in some great music and even better animation, and you have an easy pick for one of the best anime of the season.
—Richard Eisenbeis
7. From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!
I'll spare you all the long-winded explanation of how rapidly villainess isekai have become stale; I and many others have written it, you've read it, we all know the deal. The interesting thing about From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated! lies in how it feels fresh and funny, even as it iterates on genre tropes, even as it doesn't really do anything new. To be honest, it's a phenomenon I haven't entirely put my finger on yet; how does Kenzaburo in the body of Grace differ from other series where an otaku is reincarnated as the snooty antagonist of a Regency-inspired sim game? Watch me as I work through it in real-time!
Part of it, of course, lies in the rock-solid and confident presentation. While the animation isn't exactly jaw-dropping action sakuga, the character acting has just enough juice to give a real sense of life to each gesture, of bounce to each and every single one of Grace's five massive ringlets. It perfectly complements and enhances the comic timing, ensuring punchlines have plenty of punch. The voice cast is uniformly strong, but M.A.O's performance as the feminine version of the protagonist stands out as especially mellifluous, as Kenzaburo's dadliness translates into something a noble young lady would do or say in well-heeled, dulcet tones. Both theme songs are joyfully high-energy, some of my favorites of the season.
There's also the warmth. Kenzaburo is something of an idealized figure; he always has the right thing to say, and his skills as a bureaucrat, whether it's doing calculations on a slide rule or smoothing over a tricky social situation, offer him the right course of action for every situation. I'm willing to forgive it since it's a fun change of pace from, say, a protagonist who is really good at video games, which transfers over perfectly to this other world. More importantly, he's an excellent dad and a loving family man. The bits of dialogue between him and his daughter speak to an excellent relationship where he does his best to understand and connect with her, even if her otaku interests are a little different from his.
But really, I think the thing that makes From Bureaucrat to Villainess truly shine is the sense of context. Every time Kenzaburo knows just what to do, it shows the parallel skill that he's using. His relationship with his daughter informs how he speaks to Anna, although his being in the form of a peer drastically alters how his wisdom is received. When Kenzaburo's wife listed off the shōjo isekai she'd grown up with, I gasped at how she included nearly every single title that influenced me as a teen; this is a story that knows and appreciates its genre roots. The story also switches between the perspective in the game and of Kenzaburo's family playing through and watching his experiences. While that does make for some redundancy in the storytelling from time to time, it also confirms that he is loved and missed.
From Bureaucrat to Villainess makes me remember how exciting, even subversive, the idea of villainess isekai was when My Next Life as a Villainess introduced the world to the subgenre. It's an idea that, with strong fundamentals and a bit of creativity, bursts with potential for ensemble comedy, both heartfelt and goofy, even when operating within expectations for the genre.
—Caitlin Moore
6. Flower and Asura
Studio Bind did wonders in ensuring that Ayano Takeda's second novel adaptation wouldn't suffer the sophomore slump. Truly, this is a Takeda story through and through, and with its heartwarming foray into speech recitals, it makes for a wonderful successor to Sound! Euphonium. A competition looms over our high school characters' heads, and wholesome yuri is sprinkled throughout. Like Kumiko before her, our leading heroine, Hana, embarks on an inner journey to become a better version of herself. There's a bleed-over from the story that made Takeda a household name, but enough nuances help the anime stand out on its own.
Hana lacks confidence in her abilities the same way Kumiko lacks direction, although the former doesn't have the same awkward streak as the latter. Meanwhile, the moments Hana has with her senpai Mizuki exude a different type of chemistry; Mizuki lacks the same brashness as her counterpart Reina, and her being more nurturing and supportive towards Hana early on leads to some of the most tender moments the show has to offer. It's a nice change of pace to see the two hit it off so quickly instead of letting their emotions slowly simmer until finally erupting at the very end as they did in Euphonium's first season. Flower & Asura also gives its supporting characters opportunities to shine in ways that feel Euphonium-esque. I enjoyed the episode focusing on a character who can't realize that perfect is the enemy of good. It's a relatable feeling, one I especially struggle with at times.
Flower and Asura also seems to be an ardent follower of the “less is more” rule. The environments here are vibrant and detailed despite looking simple and gray at first glance. The direction helps enrich the art and animation to give it that much-needed visual punch, especially with the fantasy sequences that come with each character's readings. There's a surrealist element that brings out the drama of the words being read and the characters' psychology in a way that I did not expect, yet more than welcome. Does Flower & Asura reach the same dramatic highs as Euphonium's first season does? It comes close to me. Still, it's distinct and unique enough to separate it from the pack in the best way possible. It's as good as high school drama gets.
—Jeremy Tauber
5. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V
Is calling this one of the best of the winter season sneaking it in? Probably, but even though we only got the final few episodes of DanMachi's fifth season during this timeframe, they're more than enough to merit a place on this list. These episodes bring us to the conclusion of not just the Fertility Goddess Arc, but to the end of several long-running storylines, most notably Ryu's past with Astrea Familia and the story of Syr Flover. While Syr's true identity can feel a little muddled with all of Freya's bargains with Hörn and the original Syr, the most important takeaway is that Freya and Syr are one and the same. That makes the war game between Freya Familia and most of the other familias in Orario about much more than just her actions with Bell. The game is really about Freya's search for the right to be happy as just an ordinary woman, free from the expectations others pin on her as a goddess. Most of Freya Familia doesn't realize what their cultish devotion to their goddess is doing to her, which is what makes Hedin's “betrayal” of Freya much more than it appears. He finally understands her when he looks at her through the lens of the Bell debacle, and he realizes that the only way to make her happy is to free her from her obligations as an object of worship. Hedin yearns to be her oðr but understands that while he's her devoted child, he never can be.
It's a mirror of Ryu's arc, wherein she learns to accept that her sisters in Astrea Familia are truly gone, but can still live on through her. Hedin's understanding of his goddess is similar to the way Ryu comes to understand herself, and both of them learn that what looks like betrayal (switching sides or living on) is proof of love. Hedin sacrifices his familia for their leader, while Alize and the others give up their lives so that Ryu can live. Neither were easy decisions, but once they were accepted, they were what was best for Freya and Ryu. That both women ended up at the Hostess of Fertility is equally important, because it's the only place in the entire world where they can work through their issues and find solace in their fellows' understanding. No one at the tavern expects them to be anyone but who they are, and that ultimately allows them to find and become who they are.
All of this is ably supported by some stunning fight scenes (Ryu's return to the field of battle lives in my head) and excellent voice acting. Nobunaga Shimazaki does a phenomenal job as Hedin, and Saori Hayami's Ryu is also excellent. Bell may feel a bit sidelined, but this arc is more about him as a catalyst than the hero. He has to fight (and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka still has plenty to work with!), but he can't save Freya. She has to do that herself, which is what Hedin is working towards.
Although this season marks a pause in anime adaptations since there's not quite enough source material in the main series for more (although Sword Oratoria and the other Familia Chronicles and Astrea Record could yield interim anime), this is an ending that can tide us over. With Syr and Ryu resolved, we can take a breath, assured that for now, things will keep going in Orario until we have the chance to stop by the city again.
—Rebecca Silverman
4. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2
At this point, I've made my love for The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You very, very clear across the internet. I loved the first season so much that I started binging the manga (which is even better!), and I will now talk anyone's ear off about how the series nails the kind of queer and poly-coded irreverent humor that I wish was more common across popular media. All season 2 had to do to be one of the best anime of Winter 2025 was match the standard set by the previous season, and it did so easily!
Season two of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You was even more of what made me like the first season so much! There were more inexplicable hijinks, more informed forays into cute and kinky situations, and, of course, more girlfriends! Some of my favorite new additions to the Rentaro family from this season include the sporty masochist, Iku Sutou, and the puppy-girl maid, Mei Meido.
As much as I like specific new characters, the real attraction for this new season is the growing connections between the ever-increasing number of girlfriends. It's adorable and hilarious that Rentaro's first girlfriends, Hakari and Karane, are now dating each other as much as they are Rentaro; even if neither of them will admit it. It's also fun to see the hyper-competent Nano become even more of a big sister figure to the smol-bean Shizuka, even as beauty queen Mimimi has claimed the icy beauty Nano to be her rival. I'm also enjoying seeing the formally horny-MILFs-in-your-area Hahari grow into a more nuanced character via her relationship with her maid, Mei, and her affectionate doting on the perpetually hangry Kurumi. 100 GFs is giving more and more poly and queer community vibes with each passing episode, and I'm living for it!
If I had to offer any criticisms of season two, the opening for this season isn't as fun and chaotic as the immediately endearing season 1 OP. I pray to whatever god or devil that will listen that this changes in an OVA or some kind of bonus episode, but the second season seemingly cut the best joke in the manga from the anime. This is a shame as the anime has otherwise done a great job adapting scenes, gags, and character quirks from the original manga, as seen in the first story beat of season two and the eating contest mini-arc.
The second season of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You doesn't reinvent the wheel by any means, but if you loved season one as much as I did, this season gives you more of the cute, quirky, queer, and kinky cocktail that made the first season so special.
—Lucas DeRuyter
3. Dragon Ball Daima
Dragon Ball is arguably a tentpole of Japanese animation and entertainment. Legendary Akira Toriyama truly made something special that touched the hearts of millions of people for decades, and we will continue to feel that influence until the sun dies. We would not have mainstays of animated pop culture if it weren't for Dragon Ball and Dragonball Z. However, a franchise this big tends to grow outside of the control of the creator. We have seen that with some additions to the franchise, like Dragon Ball GT and Dragonball: Evolution. However, in the past couple of years, Toriyama had a much stronger involvement in expanding the world of his franchise.
Toriyama had a certain magic in how he created worlds, wrote characters, and injected a specific brand of fun into everything he touched. I've watched many fan projects and expansions of Dragon Ball, but very few have been able to capture his specific charm. Dragon Ball isn't just about the action; it's also about the adventure and a sense of whimsy that is hard to come across, even in many modern-day animated properties. There's a lot to be said about Dragon Ball Daima, like how it sometimes sets ideas that don't get any payoff or how the canonicity of everything fits into the larger franchise. But I don't care about any of that because I can't remember the last time that I got to sit down and enjoy a carefree adventure.
There's something poetic about Dragon Ball Daima being one of, if not the last property Toriyama ever worked on before his unfortunate passing. While it might not have been what a lot of people wanted, it feels like the kind of outing from him that we needed. How it acts as a love letter to other aspects of the franchise like Dragon Ball GT, how it finally gives fans a lot of the ideas we've dreamed of for years, how it fully embraces the once unexplored areas of the Dragon Ball world and how it packages all of this in one of the most gorgeously animated shows I have seen in the past year truly makes this feel special. I was in tears by the end of this series, and I can see myself rewatching it numerous times in the future. It's hard to say how the franchise will continue beyond this point. If this truly is the last bit of media we will ever get from the legend himself, then all I can say is thank you for thinking about us and having fun until the very end.
—MrAJCosplay
2. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2
Sometimes, there's nothing wrong with just getting more of a good thing, and the second season of The Apothecary Diaries is perfect proof of that. The first season got a lot of mileage out of its mix of court intrigue and sharp humor, and so far, the second season has done a good job of following up on what works. The weekly mysteries that Maomao finds herself dragged into remain as intriguing as ever, and it's still fun watching her bounce between doing just about anything for her love of poisons and her failed attempts at keeping her head down around powerful court officials.
That's not to say that the first half of this season has nothing new on offer, as it also does a great job of following up on all the mysteries surrounding the royal family, and the answers are pretty harrowing. While we were given hints during the first season that the previous emperor had a bad reputation and how the youngest of the current concubines used to be one of his, it's only through the story of the Empress Dowager this season that we get the full scope of his actions. We learn how he impregnated her at a young age while using his position to prey on other young girls and how, in turn, she took revenge by assaulting him once she was no longer desirable to him. While the show deals with a lot of heavy subject matter here, it manages to handle all of that very delicately. It shines a light on how the imperial court system allows such things to happen while not shying away from how monstrous the Emperor's actions were. Time will tell how these revelations will affect Jinshi's dynamic with Maomao since the latter is still only vaguely aware of the former's royal status (including the parts of it even he doesn't seem to know). Still, I'm pretty excited to find out if Jinshi can grapple with the level of responsibility placed on him better than his grandfather did. It all makes for some incredible drama, and while it's certainly possible things could slow down in the season's back half, it's already managed to outdo a lot of the first and has easily been one of the biggest standouts of the winter lineup.
—Jairus Taylor
1. ZENSHU.
All art is, in some manner or another, an attempt to share a human connection. It might be a specific core memory, a resonant theme, a hope for the future, an unsettling fear, a search for shared understanding or perspective — the point is, whenever someone draws a picture, or composes a song, or writes a story, it will capture something fundamental about the creator as they are, in that exact moment. The difference between mediocre art and the stuff of greatness is how vividly that particular essence can be captured and preserved for its audience.
On a surface level, Studio MAPPA's ZENSHU. is a success based purely on its ambitions as entertainment. It is an incredibly gorgeous-looking and consistently engaging take on the traditional “Hero gets reborn into the world of their favorite [Insert Riff on Beloved Pop Cultural Reference Point Here]” formula, and it features one of the most charming casts of heroes around. Our protagonist, Natsuko, is talented enough to make for a riveting heroine in the fight to save the world of A Tale of Perishing; she's charming and witty enough to make the anime just as good of a comedy as it is a spectacle of adventure; and she's flawed enough to give ZENSHU. some real meat to chew on when it comes to examining the pitfalls of pursuing a life of creative artistry in a profit-minded world like ours.
All of that alone would probably be enough to make ZENSHU. a shoo-in for the top spot of the season, as far as I'm concerned. What makes the show something truly special, though, is just how powerfully it functions as a bridge to understanding the people who created it. Director Mitsue Yamazaki, scriptwriter Kimiko Ueno, composer Yukari Hashimoto, and the rest of the immensely talented crew at MAPPA have crafted something that truly speaks to the beautiful, painful, melancholy, empathetic, and deeply personal relationship that a lifelong artist has with their craft, and with the audience that they are hoping to connect to. Just like A Tale of Perishing did for Natsuko herself, ZENSHU. is a vision of art and artistry that will resonate with fans for a long time.
—James Beckett
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