A Recap of the Best Anime of 2025

Key Takeaways:

• Anime is more popular than ever, meaning it was hard to pick just one title for the best anime of 2025!
• We share some of our favorites from popular anime in 2025, from new releases, continuations, and fond farewells
• What do you think? Take our poll!

2025 was one of the best years for anime yet, and it speaks volumes about its growing fan base. The increase in viewers who love Japanese storytelling and animation has led to larger budgets for more studios and talent, more innovative artistry, and a wider range of genres and complex themes. That also means we had a very good problem on our hands: choosing the best anime of 2025!

Because this is a big decision, we’re going to need your help. Our recap includes shout-outs to beloved series that ended this year, along with a showcase of some of 2025’s new and continuing popular anime, giving plenty to look forward to. Whether it’s encouragement to begin that show on your watchlist or inspiration to hit rewatch, read on for a recap of our favorites from 2025 and your chance to weigh in!

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is definitely the best anime movie of 2025. It reigned supreme at the box office throughout Japan and the world, setting new records while clinching a Golden Globe nomination. Its international recognition shows how much the world can’t get enough of the artistic and philosophical adventures set in Taisho-era Japan and that feature traditional Japanese folklore.

Demon Slayer takes us on the journey of Tanjiro Kamado and his fellow Hashira, or the highest-ranking members of the Demon Slayer Corps. Tanjiro began Season One as a young, grieving boy who sought to avenge his family and protect his sister, Nezuko. By the time our journey reaches the Infinity Castle, his mission is a true life-or-death battle across dimensions and against the fiercest demons.

This anime is a thrilling tale that is all at once heartwarming, heart-pounding, and heartbreaking, with plenty of humor and a wide range of interesting characters. From its animation to its storytelling, Demon Slayer is a true cut above the rest, and we know it will remain one of the most popular anime well beyond 2025.

Apothecary Diaries

Apothecary Diaries continues to charm the world as one of 2025’s best-loved anime. The latest season adds more depth to Maomao’s work of solving mysteries while discovering new ones in the midst of palace intrigue. Set in Tang Dynasty China, and as Maomao cynically knows well, the women of the Imperial Palace are just as complicated as the recipes and medicines she concocts for them and their care.

Apothecary Diaries isn’t just another period drama: it’s just what the court physician ordered (or at least, not the official one).

Kaiju No. 8

More battles, more suspenseful cliffhangers, more plot twists, and more monsters (and awards) from around the world are just a few of the reasons why this beast of an anime is one of 2025’s best, especially for scifi and dystopian genre fans.

If you’re like Kafka and caught the bug on this fandom, we won’t fight you on it, but we will encourage you to check out the merch you can “sweep!”.

My Hero Academia: The Final Season

Animation brings a new breath of creativity and originality into stories and thought-provoking ideas that inspire us to play, ponder, and indulge in flights of fancy. The freedom that artists get to create, and viewers to imagine alongside, it’s a huge reason why anime kept getting popular in 2025.

It’s bittersweet that school’s out for My Hero Academia after eight incredible seasons having us wish all things didn’t have to come to an end. We’ve come to know and love so many solid and unforgettable characters like Bakugo, Tomura Shiragaki, and of course, Izuko Midoriya, or Deku. My Hero Academia isn’t just one of the best anime of 2025, it might just be one of the best ever made to date.

Dan Da Dan

Like My Hero Academia, Dan Da Dan is an instant classic that quickly became one of the most popular anime ever. 2025’s season continues the story of Momo, Okaron, and plenty more run-ins with the occult, other dimensions, and other typical teenage adventures.

Dan Da Dan is able to simultaneously balance being funny, bizarre, and provocative, and suspenseful in a very binge-worthy way. We’re not saying it was the aliens, but we are saying there are so many reasons that fans have connected with the series and added it to their own overall top picks.

Umamusume: Cinderella Gray

A horse of a different color in the anime world, Umamusume is one the best of 2025 because it shows how everything can get more magical in two dimensional form. Cinderella Gray is a new series altogether in the popular anime, just as in 2025, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, won major awards for its mobile game!

Fun and games aside, Umamusume, which translates to “horse girls,” features race horses reincarnated as girls with tails, manes, and other horselike features while living alongside humans and working towards their dreams. In fact, in most cases, the umamusume represent real-life race horses!

Umamusume is one of the best anime in 2025 for anyone who could use a boost of joy, as it’s full of endearing characters you can’t help but cheer for along, exciting animation, and delightful plotlines. Fans agree too, as its debut season was lauded by some sources as anime of the quarter!

Choose the Best Anime of 2025

At Plaza Japan, we’ve been in the business of providing authentic and uniquely Japanese anime merchandise for over two decades, which means we’ve been witnesses to anime’s amazing Sailor Moon-style transformation. Anime has come a long way, but one of the biggest was simply that more people are finding shows that speak to them. What once was a somewhat niche interest both in Japan and abroad is now more mainstream and popular than ever. We love to see it, literally!

Speaking of things we love to see, what were your best anime of 2025? Let us know in the poll below, and make sure to keep up to date with all the latest releases for new favorites for 2026!

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