My Top Ten Favorite Anime of 2025 (and More!)

It's time to talk about the great anime I watched last year and give my top ten along with a few bonus recs!

If you get tired of clicking on the links to the reviews, just check out my anime overview collection for all of them here.

You can also check out my favorite books of 2025 here and my favorite manga and comics in 2025 here!

The Summer Hikaru Died

Yoshiki is a closeted gay teenager who dislikes his small countryside town. One day, he realizes that his best friend and crush Hikaru has died and been replaced by a strange monstrous being who is imitating him. But, missing his loved one and desperate to cling to any piece of him, Yoshiki decides to keep on having a relationship with this mysterious entity.

Lovers of queer monsters ate good this year. TSHD is a sublime horror anime that centers on complex relationships. As a monster, Hikaru has to hide his true self. As an gay kid who has to hide his true self, Yoshiki feels almost equally monstrous. The two have an immediate, intimate connection, yet at the same time Hikaru is unknowable and terrifying to Yoshiki (you know, like any first crush! But with more potential murder). This show is visceral and gorgeous in it’s horror- especially the creepy, beautiful body horror. The animation and artistry is top notch, the unsettling, oppressive summer atmosphere is impeccable, and the characterization is wonderful. It’s an exploration of grief, relationships, otherness, and sexuality that hits just right

Read my full review here.

This  Monster Wants to Eat Me

Premise: Hinako is an extremely depressed girl who’s been searching for death. She runs into Shiori, a mermaid who wants to eat her, and is happy to be her meal. But Shiori is a gourmet who wants her dinner to be as delicious as possible. So she declares she’s going to help Hinako be happy before she eats her, since happiness apparently enhances a human’s deliciousness.

Talk about a delectable story. It’s a top tier yuri horror, but it’s also so much more than that. The show is full of ongoing mysteries and endless twists. I was on board the second a monster girl covered in the blood of her enemies seductively told the protagonist she wants to tear out her intestines and devour her, but the story just got better with each shocking big reveal and compelling backstory. The juicy conflict just gets jucier and gay yearning is perfect. Shiori is fascinating from day one, poised, formal and hilarious in how she'll say the most demented stuff in a cheerful voice. Yet we see her genuinely struggle and break down as the series goes on, see her try to understand Hinako despite how fundamentally different they are. Meanwhile,the exploration of Hinako’s depression also genuinely broke my heart at several points. I adore good drama, I adore actually scary monster girls, and I adore messy queer relationships between deeply unwell women and this series is masterful at all of that.

 This was one of the best anime of the year and I recommend it to absolutely everyone. Unhinged sapphic romance like this is a true delicacy.

Read my full review here.

Apocalypse Hotel

A disaster has forced humanity to abandon the earth and try to find refuge in space. Though there are no humans left, the robot staff of the Gingarou hotel take pride in keeping the place going, with the “acting acting” hotel manager Yachiyo eagerly awaiting humanity’s return. But their first guest since the apocalypse isn’t exactly a human…

For a post-apocalyptic anime, Apocalypse Hotel has a vibrant cast of characters, from lovable robots to tanuki aliens. It’s a gorgeous anime full of both philosophical melancholy and whip smart humor. It’s truly unpredictable from episode to episode—will we be seeing a child attempt to fight a monster with a chainsaw? Will we be seeing the main characters try to cover up a murder? Anything can happen. But what remains consistent is the quality and themes—this anime explores what it means to be left behind, and what it means to adapt, and if it’s possible to move on in the ruins of grief and loss.

  One of the most memorable episodes is when Yachiyo is forced to take a day off work and for the first time explores the city around the hotel—the viewer must quietly admire the (exquisitely drawn) haunting beauty of this abandoned place along with her,  see the way nature transformed the dilapidated buildings, how all the signs of a lives once lived are merging with the wilderness. It’s breath taking, and that really just sums up the whole show.

CITY THE ANIMATION

This anime is based on a manga by the creator of Nichijou, and it has the same gut busting absurdist humor and incredible animation that anime was famous for. Following a quirky cast of characters in a certain city, we see them get up to all kinds of zany adventures, from kidnappings to discovering new species. There’s even a musical episode. It has the strong ensemble writing and I especially enjoyed the trio of 20-something disaster gals, one of whom had a locket plotline that was kind of Revolutionary Girl Utena-esque. If you know you know. A couple warnings: the first episode involves a gag where a boy is laughed at and humiliated when he’s talked into wearing a skirt, and it’s implied a cop (and possibly some other guys) has a crush on a girl who is still in high school in a minor running gag. ACAB for real.

Anne Shirley

An absolutely delightful adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. Many of you already know the story– after a mix up, an imaginative orphan named Anne is adopted by the Cuthberts and her adventures begin. The anime is truly charming. It does a great job representing Anne in in all her dramatic precocious literature nerd glory. The animation is adorable and gorgeous, perfectly capturing the cheerful and pastoral vibe, the voice acting is on point, and both the happy and sad emotions hit hard. The relatively fast pace also means we get to later books in the series that a lot of adaptations don’t cover, and it’s great all the way through.

Read my full review here.

ZENSHU

Natsuko Hirose is an animator and director lauded as a genius, but she’s struggling with her newest movie.  Then she’s transported to the world of the flop anime movie that inspired her career. Natsuko finds she has the power to literally draw and animate beings that will then fight the monsters attacking them—can she use her power to save the day and avoid the movie’s tragic ending?

Zenshu is a love letter to animation, artistic inspiration, and stories in general. I’ve been waiting for an isekai anime that uses the “transported into the world of my favorite piece of media” in a creative and meaningful way, and Zenshu was finally it. And Natsuko is such a likeable and refreshing main character, a nerdy, acerbic adult woman in a baggy sweatshirt and has cousin It hair. The show explores the pressures of being a creator, the impact stories can have on fans, and what makes fiction inspiring. It features a ton of loveable characters to root for, creative and killer animation, and even some light hearted criticism of misogynist narratives. It’s a can’t-miss anime for any fan.

Read my full review here.

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty

Lilisa is a refined lady attending a rich girl’s school, but it’s a carefully created façade. She was once one of the “common people”, and now she’s determined to be a model noble lady to force the wealthy to accept her Mom as one of them. Lilisa has also abandoned rocking out on her guitar…until she finds out that the idol of the school, Otoha, is secretly a super aggressive drummer. Will the two form a band, or butt heads?

If you adore watching girls be unhinged, angry, and aggressively gay with each other, Rock is a Lady’s Modesty has you covered. This show is just a ton of fun. (To be clear, the gay stuff is technically subtext but it’s pretty wild subtext. Sometimes involving dominatrix fantasies.)

I love how all the girls in Rock Lady are unapologetic, hilarious weirdos, foul-mouthed and full of rage. I love seeing the raw passion as sweat and yell and they throw their heart and souls into jamming so hard they can’t be ignored. They go up against a crappy clout-chasing poser boy band at one point, and the carnage is beautiful. Has to be seen to be believed. On top of that, there’s some light exploration of classism and intriguing family drama brewing in the background. Rock on!

See my full review here.

The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2)

Everyone’s poison-loving detective has returned! This season really gets deep into the lore of the world of The Apothecary Diaries, and there are a lot of exciting plot developments and reveals. Things get very dark, especially in regards to discussion/backstory involving the previous emporer’s pedophilia, but the show handles it in a nuanced way that gives food for thought. We have a new weirdgirl for MaoMao to be friends with and she ends up being the most fascinating character of all. The show just gets more heartbreaking, more intense, and more layered the longer it goes on. (and a few things about Jinshi get more grating to me, but that’s subjective.) The show is definitely keeping me hooked!

Read my full reviews here and here.

Toilet-Bound Hanako Kun (Seasons 2 and 3)

After a long absence, we finally return to the ghost story full of heart, humor and intrigue. Hanako-kun is a story about a girl who befriends a ghost boy haunting her school both, who has to grant wishes, both to atone for the murder he committed when he was alive and to have his own wish granted. You can read the novel I wrote about how much I loved this anime back when it came out for more.

These seasons adapt some of the best arcs of the manga (The Picture Perfect arc and the Red House arc) and maintain the compelling ghost drama, atmospheric mythological adventures and super fun character dynamics. While the art direction of these seasons isn’t as striking as the first season, the bold visual style does remain. These seasons really up the stakes and deepen the lore. Characters go through changes and have really delicious breakdowns, conflicts, and development. There's plenty of heartbreaking, heartwarming, and hilarious moments.

Read my full reviews here and here.

The Secrets of the Silent Witch

Monica is the fabled Silent Witch, the only one person who has mastered casting spells without chanting. Thing is, the entire reason she invented silent casting is that she has social anxiety and was too nervous to speak in front of the examiners. But now Monica has to go undercover at an elite academy and be the prince’s bodyguard. She’s can overpower any magical threat, but socializing? That might just kill her.

This was a charming anime that shows how a ridiculously powerful character can still struggle and fail—just make her a nervous wreck around people and give her the self-esteem of a sea sponge! Watching Monica struggle and get used to people bit by bit is satisfying, and it’s always cool when she switches into badass mood in the presence of danger. There’s a lot of the standard anime magic school cliches in this, but there’s a warmth to the narrative and the characters. Monica collects lady friends who are kind and understanding to her, the prince is also sweet, and even the antagonists are often given sympathy. Add in some breathtaking animation of the magic spells, a very fun talking cat companion, and a sarcastic bird maid who wants to princess-carry Monica, and you’ve got the recipe for an enjoyable show I’d like to see more of.

Bonus Recs:

SANDA

In a dystopian future, Santa Claus has been forgotten by society…that is, until fourteen-year-old Kuzushige Sanda discovers can transform into Santa, a ripped old man with tons of fantastical powers. His classmate Shiori Fuyumura awakens his Santa side and enlists his help to find her missing friend Ono.

Sanda explores societal fear of aging and fetishization of youth in absurd and unhinged ways, sending the message that growing up is natural. With eye-popping animation and endless zany developments, it’s impossible to look away from. And Fuyumura is a fantastic weirdgirl who deserves the world. The reason I didn’t include it on the top ten was an aspect of the ending of the season really disappointed me, but it’s something that’s pretty subjective, so you might not feel the same.

Read my full review here.

May I Ask for One Final Thing?

When her jerk prince fiancé betrays her, Scarlet does what any proper lady would do: beat the hell out of the prince, his new girlfrien,. and all the nobles who’ve been scheming against her. Scarlet’s fists crave more blood,  and thus begins Scarlet’s mission to hunt down corrupt nobles, slavers, and any asshole who deserves a beating. Sometimes you just want to see an awesome woman beat the shit out of horrible rich people, and this anime will give you that in spades. Scarlet is an utter delight, poised and formal, but absolutely bloodthirsty and joyous in using her prodigious skill to correct injustice. Sometimes violence IS the answer.

Read my full review here.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess

Konaha gets isekai’d into the cringe-ass story she wrote when she was a young teenager, but she’s the villainess instead of her self-insert heroine. Now she has to struggle to avoid her fated death. This is an extremely fun anime that pokes affectionate fun at the a teenage girl writing her original-character-do-not-steal and throwing every trope and romantic fantasy at the wall, only to look back on it as an adult and die of embarrassment. If you wrote bad fanfic as a teen, you might find it relateable. Find out more here.

Read my full review here.