2025 has been one of the most plentiful and high-quality years that the anime industry has ever seen. While the Winter season was relatively slow, with only a few titles managing to achieve high critical praise, the Spring and Summer seasons have been simply bursting with an abundance of riches. The amount of great anime that was released in those two seasons has simply been impossible to keep track of, and fans of the industry are, frankly, spoiled for choice. There’s just so much great anime that, even though we’re at the halfway point of 2025 it’s going to be next to impossible choosing an anime of the year.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll mostly be looking at new and original anime that debuted in 2025. While fan-favorite anime like Solo Leveling, Dan Da Dan, and The Apothecary Diaries are great and their second seasons may be excellent, this list intends to spotlight new anime, or at the very least, spin-offs of long-running franchises. We’re also going to limit it to six recommendations, which lines up with how many nominees Crunchyroll usually includes for Anime of the Year. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at six anime that stand a solid chance at wining Anime of the Year for 2025.
The Summer Hikaru Died (2025)
The most notable frontrunner for Anime of the Year, at the time of writing, is The Summer Hikaru Died. Its unique blend of horror and yaoi (aka Boys’ Love) makes it an interesting watch, and that’s before you get into all of the dramatic swings that the story takes both visually and narratively.
In a lesser year, there would be no debate as to whether or not The Summer Hikaru Died would be considered Anime of the Year, but 2025 is not like other years. Still, The Summer Hikaru Died should find a spot on everyone’s watch list, especially if you like anime with emotional depth and supernatural elements a plenty.
Zenshu (2025)
In a season that was dominated by Solo Leveling’s second season, most other titles got lost in the shuffle, which is especially tragic in the case of Zenshu. It’s clear from the first episode that Zenshu takes inspiration from classic fantasy adventure anime from the ’80s and ’90s, with the most obvious parallel being Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
It’s interesting to watch our protagonist comment on the nature of the fantasy world, both as a creator herself and as a fan of it, considering it’s the same fantasy world that she watched growing up that she gets transported to. A lot of classic fantasy tropes are presented, only to be subverted in an attempt to save everyone from the cast’s inevitable deaths, putting into question ideas like authorial intent and the nature of endings. Speaking of, the final episode, in particular, is one of the best conclusions of any anime this year, which definitely gives Zenshu a leg up when compared to its peers.
Kowloon Generic Romance (2025)
Kowloon Generic Romance is a complicated series to dissect, and that’s entirely due to the fact its adapting virtually an entire manga in a 13-episode series. At points, it feels somewhat overstuffed, with plenty of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it plot points, but when the series hits, it fires on all cylinders and delivers one the best mature sci-fi romances around.
There’s a lot more lurking under the surface of the series, like the multitude of mysteries that crop up right from the get-go and never get fully resolved until the very last episode. Kowloon Generic Romance is intended for adults, and if you’re willing to give it a shot, it will wrap you in its odd sense of nostalgia for bygone summer days and lost loves.
Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray (2025)
The Uma Musume series has been around for nearly a decade, and while it’s been a fairly popular series in Japan with a lot of Gatcha games and merchandise, it was never able to break through in the West in any meaningful way. That was until Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray, which tells the story of Oguri Cap, a horse girl who is trying to be the best competitive racer of them all.
Cinderella Gray is a sports story at its heart, filled with all of the drama and twists befitting one, but it’s also chock-full of cute anime girls doing cute anime girl things. This was Amazon Prime Video’s big anime of the Spring season (Sorry, GQuuuuuux!), and the fact that it was able to explode in popularity as much as it has goes to show just how much fun and emotionally satisfying the series is. If you’re willing to just accept its a show about famous race horses being personified as anime girls, then you’ll have a great time with it.
To Be Hero X (2025)
China has desperately been trying to break into the anime scene for years, but it finally did so with To Be Hero X. The series is a superhero anthology show that focuses on the story of the top 10 heroes in Japan and how their stories all intersect with each other, as well as trying to figure out the mysteries surrounding the strongest hero in the country, X.
What sets To Be Hero X apart from other shows is how it mixes animation styles, frequently shifting between some absolutely gorgeous 2D animation and 3D CG that would make Arcane blush. But as much fun as it is seeing how each hero connects to each other, it's the world that really sells To Be Hero X. Its power system focuses on how much the population trusts each hero, which, in turn, determines the nature of their powers. The series is ambitious in a lot of ways, but so far, that ambition is paying off in spades.
Takopi’s Original Sin (2025)
Depression, thy name is Takopi’s Original Sin. Despite only lasting six episodes, each episode of Takopi’s Original Sin hits with the emotional weight of a freight train, layering on trauma after trauma for each member of its small cast. It’s a tough watch, coming with a content warning at the beginning of each episode, but it’s so well-written and gorgeously animated that you just can’t turn away from it despite the soul-crushing nature of it all.
The only other anime that’s arguably just as depressing as Takopi’s Original Sin is Grave of the Fireflies, which is saying something. Despite the darkness, Takopi’s Original Sin is so artistically fulfilling that it’s hard not to consider it nothing short of a must-watch anime experience.
Where To Watch The Early Anime Of The Year Contenders Online
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