Top Five Anime of 2025
After watching and reading a bunch of “Best Of” 2025 anime lists, I realize I didn’t watch or at least finish many series that are on those lists. One of the main reasons for that is something specific to this year — 2025 has been such a true social and political nightmare that I just couldn’t watch shows as depressing at Tokapi’s Original Sin or The Summer Hikaru Died. I’m sure those shows are as good as everyone says, and I’m sure I will watch them when I am able, but this year wasn’t that time.
Additionally, there are just some types of shows I’m done with — specifically, the Umamusame franchise. I liked the first two seasons, but by the time Umamusame: Cinderella Gray came out this year I had seen enough of it. Also, it qualifies enough as a sequel that it wouldn’t be on this list anyway. Then there is a whole category, the villainess fantasy or isekai stories. I’ve seen a bunch of them, and they are now as trope-stuck as isekai is. And unlike isekai as a whole, there aren’t enough shows to always have at least one interesting take in every year.
That said, there are two isekai anime series on this list, but that’s because in both cases the main character is refreshingly different from the bog-standard bland self-insert protagonist.
As I mentioned above, this short list only includes new series, not any sequels. With that said, here is the list in alphabetical order.
From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman
This fantasy series does suffer from one of the annoying tropes from isekai. The MC doesn’t acknowledge how special he is as a swordsman until near the end, despite having trained the best sword fighters in the kingdom. But the rest of the story is interesting enough to make up for some of that, and the amazing sakuga in the sword fights easily covers the rest. And while of course nearly all of those fighters he trained that we meet are hot women, he steadfastly refuses their advances because, even though they are now adults, he was their sensei when they were not. Wow, was that a refreshing take from an anime.
May I Ask For One Final Thing?
Scarlet El Vandimion is the hero we need right now — a woman with immense magical and martial abilities who loves to punch the absolute shit out of corrupt, treasonous, slave-trading rich scumbags. Not that this fantasy story (OK, with one weird isekai element that is frankly immaterial) has any relation to real life right now or anything… The art is gorgeous, the animation is solid if not always inspired, and the music brilliantly uses upbeat classical pieces to counterpoint Scarlet’s wild punch-fests. But the two main characters are where the series shines. Scarlet is fantastic as a woman who has held her emotions in check for so long that she is considered an ice queen and then gets to fully express her anger. But it is her foil/love interest Prince Julius that steals the show. He is a Prince Charming with the manipulative, button-pushing, charming soul of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s
The first real isekai on the list starts out seeming like a standard “whole class gets summoned to become heroes to fight the demon king” but quickly swerves, and in a big way. Our MC, Oda Akira, gets the character class Assassin and immediately realizes having too many people know that could be a problem. When faced with possibly stopping a huge conspiracy in the very first episode, he finds he really doesn’t want to kill anyone. Oh, and he is overpowered because of a special skill — of course — but it has such enormous potential downsides he is frankly terrified of it. The series does get a bit too talky near the end, but it does so as Akira struggles with his resolve to not kill, and that is good moral discourse. Oh, and the art and animation are top notch.
Ruri Rocks
I was a rockhound as a teen and young adult, so even if this series wasn’t beautifully drawn and animated by Mushoku Tensei‘s Studio Bind, I would probably love it. Luckily for me it was. Ruri is a bubbly high school student who slowly gets drawn into the world of mineralogy when she encounters the ridiculously voluptuous geology grad student Nagi, while they are both in the mountains looking for “pretty rocks” as Ruri calls them. The series is a bunch of connected single episodes in which they (and eventually other companions) explore different aspects of the geology of Japan. And before you get worried, while there are the barest hints of yuri around the relationship between Nagi and her fellow grad student Imari, there is none between any of the adults and the high school kids.
The Water Magician
Starting off again as what looks like a standard isekai, Ryou Mihara asks the reincarnation god to put him somewhere very remote so he can live a chill life but maybe give him magic so he can learn to defend himself. Armed with water magic, we watch him enjoy learning his abilities and exploring his remote forest. So, when he finally meets another person, the shipwrecked adventurer Abel, we have no idea how long it’s been, and it seems not long as Ryou still looks like a teenager. But that god gave him immortality, and it’s been some decades since he was reincarnated, giving him a believable reason for being insanely overpowered. Another flip of the script is that Ryou always knows how powerful he has become, but he doesn’t know anything about how powerful the things he now faces are, as he accompanies Abel out of the wilderness. When he figures that out early on, we get to see what amounts to an OP main character going around the rest of the series with cheerful big dick energy. Such a relief from emo or delusional OP characters.
