2025 has been a good year for Anime.

I’ve spent much of the last few years wondering if we’re entering a period when I won’t be all that into currently airing Anime anymore.  And yet 2025 provided a good number of shows I like quite a bit.

I am definitely watching to completion less shows than I did during 2017-2023. But the year has still provided some shows I think are instant classics and others I’ve enjoyed as much as I enjoyed the average Anime during those prior years. 

The year started out with Zenshu which has quickly earned the status of a must watch for every fan of Animation as a Medium. Ameku M.D. and Magic Maker and Guild Receptionist were also quite fun. And while I didn’t watch it at the time I’ve come to be an unironic appreciator of Solo Leveling. And it finished off the third seasons of Re:Zero and Arifureta. 

I feel the Online Anime Community was uniquely fun to be a part of when GQuuuuuuX was airing during the Spring, I also think Lazarus was unfairly hated and Your Forma is a hidden gem. Also Moonrise was a decent Netflix original and the 2025 Detective Conan film held up to expectations. Speaking of Detective Conan it was in June we got out the most recent major new development in the Rum arc. 

And then Summer brought us a new era of Detective Conan being localized in the West, most importantly a new Dub on Netflix that is the best Dub cast yet. In seasonal Anime we got a Clevetass, a Fantasy Anime that feels like something out of the 2000s and not another quasi Isekai. A few fun new Slice of Life and/or RomComs in Renta-A-Girlfreind season 4, Watari Kun and Cultural Exchange with the Game Center Girl. Plus Rascal does not Dream or Santa Clause lived up to the hype. Oh and Gigguk’s movie Baan was alright. 

For Fall we got more Star Wars Visions, that Assassin Isekai which was above average for an Isekai, more Watari Kun and Spy x Family.  And more shows I may return to later. 

There is non Anime stuff I’ve enjoyed too, Andor was still good but not what I want from Star Wars. Fallout season 2 is just starting. Peacemaker season 2 was great, I still like James Gunn's Superman but the more time passes the more my small issues with it crawl around in my brain. And season 3 of Foundation was phenomenal. 

I may be forgetting something, I don’t have an Anilist counterpart for the American stuff I watch. I know such things technically exist but just keeping my Anilist up to date every time I watch something new is stressful enough.