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My Favorites of the Year 2025: Anime Review and Selection of Favorite Anime
This is a long one, lol, so it is definitely going below a cut. I review every anime I watched this year and choose my favorite.
According to my custom 2025 list I made on Anime Planet, I watched 25 shows this year, but there's more to it than just that. Let me get right into it by reviewing the anime I watched this year and making a selection of My Favorite Anime of 2025! I am going to go in order by my list.
Winter Season
This was a pretty quiet season for me, apparently, because I have only one seasonal anime tagged Winter and it’s
UniteUp: Uni-Birth: the sequel to the hugely underrated UniteUp from back in 2021. I really loved the first season and stuck with it even through covid-related production delays, which they filled in nicely with real-life behind the scenes footage of the guys from the different idol groups hanging out and stuff. And I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far of Uni-Birth, but I’ve stalled out on it - I’m stuck at 9 out of 12 episodes. At some point, I’m gonna just knock out the rest of the episodes, and I’m sure I’ll like it well enough!
You and Idol Precure: I forgot to tag this as a Winter or even a 2025 anime at first, so I’ve just done that now lol. This season…ah, I really think it’s a season of missed opportunities. For an idol-focused season, there isn’t nearly as much singing as you’d expect. I really think they should be doing like Symphogear and singing every time they’ve transformed. Heck, even Kirapre manages to have more music in its episodes with the playing of image songs during battles.
There have also been some struggles with story pacing. I feel like they’ve at times completely forgotten about keeping up with aspects of the story. Why is it so important that the Cures stay secret? Why not harness the power of crowds cheering for you? Why not tell them that scary things are happening but you have the power to stop them? And, learning that Heart Garden was drawn up because they ran out of ideas for places to stage battles feels like an enormous cop-out - “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas” type shit.
I do like Cure Wink a lot, but overall, this hasn’t been my favorite season of all time. I wonder how they’re going to try to wrap this one up, but at this point I’m really more looking forward to Star Detective Precure than feeling particularly excited about the conclusion to this season.
Spring Season
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2: 2025 was a big year for all of us Aharen-san sickos because we got news that the manga will be released in English AND we got season 2 on the anime side. Being able to hang out with this sweet, goofy squad once again each week was such a joy, and once again I watched every episode with my husband.
The timeskip was a little jarring - at one point, out of seemingly nowhere, they’re just suddenly third-year students. I am sure they did this so they could fit in as much manga content as possible while also facing the reality that they weren’t going to get funding for a third season. In an ideal world, we get 3 seasons, each covering a year of high school, but this isn’t an ideal world.
Then the final timeskip to the distant future at the end was a bit strange as well. Aharen doesn’t seem to have aged at all despite being a grandmother, and Raido’s only obvious sign of aging was that he has a mustache now, but it was really cute to see their wedding ceremony.
Catch Me At the Ballpark: I really enjoyed this one! I’m a sports fan, though I don’t know a ton about baseball, but you really don’t need any sports knowledge to enjoy this one because the main character also doesn’t know much about baseball despite working as a beer vendor at a park. She starts to learn more over the course of the show.
The show looks at all the other different people who work at a ballpark - from the security guards to the players themselves. I had such fun watching this show that it made me want to go to a baseball game in real life (I did, and I had a great time)! More of these fun “Let’s look at all the different people who work in a place” anime, please! Which also means that almost all of the characters are going to be adults - some of the beer vendor girls in this show are high schoolers, so I guess they’re doing responsible serving lol - and that’s unusual to see as well.
Food for the Soul: This got kinda slept on in a crowded season, but I recommend checking it out. All of the characters are college students who put together a little club that was initially just meant for slacking off, but forms a purpose of cooking and eating food together. So yes, there is a lot of tasty anime food to be seen here! The main character also struggles with social anxiety and grows a lot as a person over the course of the show. Put this one on if you’re looking for a comfy slice of life type show with lots of yummy food. Sometimes they even take you through the recipes they’re making!
Maebashi Witches: Another show that has been almost criminally slept on. I think people were put off by the idol aspect of it all. What a shame - they’re missing out! I’ve described this lovingly as what if Degrassi, but all the characters were magical girls who sang songs to encourage people (and themselves) to overcome problems? The songs are maybe not the most amazing ever, but the lush imagery they use during the songs takes things to the next level. These girls deal with pretty heavy stuff - poverty, body image, loneliness, grooming, unrequited love. Towards the end of the season, there’s also a plot twist that actually changes the show’s status quo for a time, and seeing how that is executed was so deeply intriguing. This may very well be my anime of the year and I can’t recommend it enough.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuX: Bounced off this one when I realized that this show was the equivalent of somehow stumbling into a 4000-level college course despite never taking any of the prerequisites. Happy for y’all who stuck with it, but knowing that I’d need to watch about 100 episodes of the original 70s Gundam in order to really “get” everything…that was just too big of an ask.
Mono: Also bounced off this one because I was hoping it would be a photography hobby anime (I love photography and I have since I was in high school!), but it turned into a travel anime focused mainly on the manga artist character, who was annoying to me. I’ll talk more about it in a bit, but there was literally another travel anime focused on a manga artist character this season, and it was way more enjoyable.
Once Upon a Witch’s Death: I enjoyed this one and I was really happy to see that they screened it in the video room at Anime Weekend Atlanta this year. I hope people enjoyed it there! The main character gave me such big Lina from Slayers vibes (love her) and she’s dealing with a tricky issue - trying to remove a curse that will kill her in a year through helping people and gathering their tears of joy. The show seems to take place in the UK, but with magic and witches existing in the open alongside satellite dishes and cars. I feel like the ending keeps things open for a second season, so here’s hoping we get one and I can see Meg Raspberry again.
The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl: This is a shojo romance, so of course the budget for this show is one crisp 10,000 yen bill because no one wants to properly fund girls’ shows, but they made the most of their barebones budget. This show is a ton of fun. Sophia is adorable and I love the juxtaposition between a sweet redheaded girl and the huge amount of physical strength she has thanks to the powers bestowed upon her by the gorilla god. It’s interesting to see the way society works based on what animal powers people are given, too. If you’re looking for a fun little show and don’t mind lower-quality animation, check it out. I think it even has a dub, too!
Witch Watch: I liked this one a lot at first, but then I feel it just started to fall into more of a comedy sketch type cadence instead of trying to move the story along (which could be because the manga is ongoing), so I bounced off it near the end of the second season. The characters are cute and the first opening song is really good, but I just ran out of patience with this one. Life’s too short to watch anime you’re not really feeling anymore, ya know?
ZatsuTabi: THIS is the travel anime with a much more likable manga artist protagonist. It aired right around the time that we discovered we cannot go to Japan unless they change their policy towards certain prescription drugs. My husband takes one that is super duper banned, like they do not even care if you have a valid American prescription, and going without this drug would hugely impact his quality of life to the point that he would just be unable to leave the house. So, until they come to their senses, we can’t go there, and this show helped to soothe the initial hurt that that discovery caused. (I’ve overcome it now.) Following along with Chika as she tours the country and gets inspiration for her manga was really enjoyable and the scenery is animated gorgeously. Her little outfit is really cute too and would be pretty easy to closet cosplay.
Summer Season
CITY The Animation: Remember when I said life’s too short to watch anime you’re not feeling? I enjoyed this one at first, but then fell behind on it and caught myself thinking “Ugh, god, I still need to watch two more episodes of this to be caught up.” And so I told myself “Well, if the show is making you think this, then stop watching!” They did do some pretty neat and inventive animation (and live-action!) techniques, but…I dunno. Comedy is just such a tough anime genre. You either glom onto it or bounce off of it, in my experience, and that may have something to do with cultural differences in comedy, my own personal sense of humor, whatever. Also, Amazon really shouldn’t have taken this show since they don’t bother to translate on-screen text particularly well and this show had a ton of it.
Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl: Bounced right off this one in episode 2 when no one, except for the male protagonist’s younger sister, seemed to think it was particularly odd that this grown man had what seemed to be romantic interest in a middle schooler. (Like, her own mother didn’t think it was strange at all? Ma’am. I don’t expect everyone to react like Stanley when Kelly accused Ryan of flirting with his middle schooler daughter in that one episode of The Office, but…) The aesthetics of the OP and ED were fun, but that was nowhere near enough to overcome the big issue at the core of it all. By all accounts - which is to say, literally one person here on Tumblr who stubbornly stuck with it until the end, and I thank them for taking one for the team like that lol - they kinda never really addressed it, either?
Ruri Rocks: Oh, this is my other contender for anime of the year. I like minerals and crystals. I have a little collection. I don’t think of them in a particularly woo-woo way, but more in a “this cool stuff came from the planet and that’s really cool” way. That’s Ruri Rocks, the show that makes geology cool.
Please stick with it past the first couple of episodes’ blatantly obvious fanservicey shots of the characters. I know that might be a tough ask, but I promise it’s worth it. You will laugh, you will cry, you will learn SO much about earth science. (Seriously, if this show had been around in fall 2007, I would have gotten a better grade in my college geology class. Rocks for jocks my ass, that class was hard as hell.)
The animation is stunning, the music is beautiful AND This was my first encounter with what seems to be a new thing on Crunchyroll where they actually PUT THE TRANSLATOR IN THE CREDITS! FINALLY! Especially with how hard the translator had to work on this one - it’s not enough to just know English and Japanese fluently, but you also need to know complex geological terms in both of those languages. Teresa Aohori Albright, you deserve the world, and so does everyone else who worked on this show.
Fall Season
Alma-chan Wants to be a Family: This is kind of Spy x Family meets Aharen-san, and it was just silly fun, but a good watch. Alma is cute. Her mom and dad so need to just get together already and throw away the pretense of “Ha! You SUCK!” “No! You suck MORE!” They never did really explore why the school principal spoke English, though. And I was surprised this was just 11 episodes, not 12. Did they run out of money or something? Well, anyway, this was just good fun and I’m glad I took the recommendation of Cy from Anime Feminist, who enjoyed it, after the Anime News Network review was a bit more scathing.
Mechanical Marie: Cute and fun. Marie has a fun design, Marie 2 is freaking hilarious, Arthur has exactly one (1) brain cell and it is focused entirely on Marie. I do feel it rushed to its conclusion a little bit, and the ending makes it crystal clear we are not getting a sequel, and once again there was lower-quality animation because (heavy sigh) no one wants to fund shojo. All in all though, an enjoyable watch.
Si-Vis: The Sound of Heroes: An idol group fighting a mysterious deadly enemy? An outsider falling headfirst into this strange new world? A mentor character dying in the very first episode? Close enough - welcome back, Symphogear! But I’ve hugely stalled on this one (I’ve only watched episode 1), and I don’t really know why. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it this season. I’ll hold on to it, though, and hope at some point soon to be more in the mood for it.
Non-Seasonal Anime I Watched in 2025
Happiness Charge Precure: I’m slowly but surely making my way through this - I am up to episode 10. This is one of my favorite Precure seasons, though. (I haven’t tried to rank it yet simply because I haven’t finished it.) I love the characters. They are all so bright and lively. The funny-anime-face quotient in this season is SO high and the concepts are all interesting, too. It would be great to finish this one in 2026, but I’m taking my time enjoying this one, so no pressure.
His and Her Circumstances: I got the DVD set of this at AWA 2024 and have been slowly working through it. It’s a certified hood classic and does some really intriguing things with animation. I recently got through episode 7, so I was able to listen to the first part of the watchalong podcast Anime Feminist did in 2022! I’m excited to keep watching the rest.
Initial D 3rd Stage: This is a movie, so it was an easy watch, and my husband and I liked it. Shame that 4th Stage isn’t readily available on Crunchyroll. Don’t worry, I’ve already found another method to get it, but since it’s back to TV series form, it’ll take a while lol.
Precure All Stars Movie F: I love a Precure all-star movie and that was no different here! It was great to see the Hirogaru Sky gang again as well as the other characters chosen to be in the main cast. It was a fun and enjoyable watch. I hope they do keep the All Stars movie series going - I hope that F doesn’t mean Final here!
Pretear: I started watching this at the end of 2024, but it spilled over into January 2025, so I included it in my 2025 list. SO GOOD. So underrated. Junichi Sato cannot miss when it comes to magical girls. Really interesting concept, fun characters, great music. It’s just 13 episodes and it’s on Crunchyroll, so it’s an easy watch and I highly recommend it. Fun fact: it has a manga, and it was published in English by ADV MANGA. Yes, ADV at one point had a manga publishing arm. I found this out at AWA’s manga library, which is a real hidden gem and a great place to visit despite their stringent bag policy (which is there for a reason).
Saber Marionette J: I’m continuing to watch this - I started last year - and enjoying it, though the “Otaru is mine!” “No, he’s mine!” “No, he’s MINE!” from the three marionettes can be a bit grating at times. I’ve gotten through 15 episodes out of 26 and the last couple of them have focused on new year stuff (they literally even have a Kohaku Utagassen, though both teams are male because, well, it’s an all-male planet), so that’s been fun to watch in the past couple of days.
Symphogear, Symphogear G and Symphogear GX: 2025 is the year I got into Symphogear, encouraged by attending a “You should watch Symphogear” panel at AWA 2024! I’ve made my way through 3 out of 5 seasons, and I think my favorite is G. I think it had the best plot, it introduced important new characters, the songs were spectacular…GX felt like a bit of a downgrade by comparison. I’ve watched episode 1 of AXZ, so it’s still a work in progress right now, and once again I think I need to be in the right mood for this show - but I’m looking forward to watching the rest.
Wedding Peach: Bought the DVD sets of this one at AWA 2024 - I was stoked to find them - and I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far (3 episodes). The more magical girl shows, the better.
I haven’t actually watched any of it yet, but I want to give a special shoutout to the Dirty Pair TV Series Blu-Ray for finally becoming a real tangible product I could hold in my hands in 2025. I never gave up on it, even when plenty of other people did, even through the years of delays and the Kickstarter radio silence. Never Give Up - John Cena. (Well, except for when he did do just that in his retirement match, but I digress.) I am definitely going to actually pop this one in and watch it in 2026.
Favorite Anime of 2025
Ooh, this is a tough one. I have two very strong contenders: Maebashi Witches and Ruri Rocks. Both are beautifully animated with great stories and characters. Both made a strong impression on me. Both were extremely enjoyable and I looked forward to them every week. You know what? I’m gonna say they’re BOTH my favorite anime of 2025. Watch them BOTH!
