Nihongo no Niwa Anime Club: Our Vote for Best Anime of 2025
- ケイトリン
- Feb 24
- 10 min read
If 2025 proved anything, it’s that anime fans were spoilt for choice. From long-awaited sequels to striking new debuts, the year delivered bold visuals, assured storytelling, and a variety of series that sparked lively discussion in our weekly Nihongo no Niwa Anime Club meetings. Across genres like shōnen, isekai, romance, comedy, and more, there was something for every taste and mood.
Curious to see which titles stood out most, we invited our anime club members to vote for the Best Anime of 2025. After multiple rounds, we’re excited to share the results – plus a few honorary mentions for series that left a strong impression. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers ahead! If you haven’t watched some of these yet, consider this your invitation to add them to your next anime binge.
⚔️ Best Action / Shōnen ⚔️
ガチアクタ (Gachiakuta)
Gachiakuta is set in a society that quite literally discards what it deems worthless: those deemed useful live above, while those considered worthless are cast into a sprawling wasteland below and left to rot. The story of social separation follows a young protagonist, Rudo, who is abruptly thrown into the dark and dank underbelly of this world, where survival depends not only on strength but also on understanding the value hidden in what others deem worthless.
Blending explosive action with sharp social commentary, the series explores themes of inequality, resentment, and reclaiming agency in a world that has discarded you. It feels abrasive and tangible, with battles that are almost as much about ideology as they are about survival.
Why We Loved It:
Gachiakuta quickly stood out to our club by feeling rough, raw, and different. Where many shōnen series aim for polish and dramatic power escalation, this one leans into grit, both visually and thematically. The environments feel corroded and heavy, shaped by neglect and resentment, and the action really reflects the environmental brutality.
We also enjoy that the animation leans into exaggerated motion and textured line work, giving the action a raw, graffiti-like intensity that feels distinct within the genre.
Production details:
Studio: Bones Film
Director: SUGANUMA Fumihiko
Episodes (2025): 24
Average runtime: ~23 minutes per episode\
Interesting note:
The manga’s creator, URANA Kei, worked closely with graffiti artist ANDOU Hideyoshi, whose influence carried over into the anime’s visual identity, particularly in background textures and symbol design. This collaboration is rare in mainstream shōnen adaptations and contributes heavily to the series’ unique aesthetic. Also, the name ガチアクタ can be translated to mean ' Legit Trash.'
Action / Shōnen Honorary Mention: Solo Leveling (Season 2)
A powerhouse in its own right, Solo Leveling tied closely with Gachiakuta in community votes, being praised especially for its polished action choreography and power-fantasy execution. It carried through some gratifying power displays, in a world not dissimilar to raid-focused video gaming, but ultimately lost the winning spot because some members were hoping for greater depth in the story after its strong opening episodes. With more seasons ahead of us, we'll be keeping an eye on this one, though.
🌀 Best Fantasy/Isekai/Sci-Fi 🌀
鬼人幻燈抄 (Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho)
Set against the shadowed mountains of Edo-period Japan, Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho begins after Jinta and Suzune run away from their home as children and are taken in by Motoharu, a virtuous sentinel of Kadono Village, and his daughter, Shirayuki. The sentinel has one role in life: to protect the shrine maiden and preserve the fragile spiritual balance of their home by eliminating any threats, including demons. Jinta grows up to be appointed as a sentinel too but finds that the delicate balance of his world shatters when he encounters a demon in the forest, one that speaks not of the present but of a catastrophic evil destined to rise 170 years in the future.
What follows is not just a demon-slaying feast for the eyes but an epic tale that stretches across eras. Bound by the demon's prophecy and cursed with unnatural longevity, Jinta survives the Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, and Heisei periods, watching Japan modernise while he himself seems unchanged. As the world evolves, his purpose becomes heavier, lonelier, and increasingly difficult to define. He is a guardian out of time, carrying ancient violence into an unfamiliar future.
Why we love It:
This category was competitive and easily the most split vote of the year. In the end, Sword of the Demon Hunter edged ahead, thanks in no small part to its strong atmosphere and time-twisting storytelling.
Rather than feeling like a standard modern isekai, where a character gets thrust into a new world, the series leans into a more traditional fantasy tone, drawing on folklore and moral ambiguity and ending in a kind of coming-of-age tale. Watching Jinta endure century after century is where we believe the story finds its strength.
Production details:
Studio: Yokohama Animation Laboratory
Director: AIURA Kazuya
Episodes (2025): 24
Runtime: ~24 min per episode
Interesting note:
Several of the creatures and designs are inspired by lesser-known yōkai and regional folklore, not the usual “greatest hits” we see in popular fiction – a nice bonus for viewers interested in Japanese myth and legend.
Fantasy / Isekai / Sci-Fi Honorary Mentions: Zenshu
A deeply meta entry in the fantasy lineup, Zenshu stood out for its heartfelt love letter to anime itself. The series follows Natsuko Hirose, a prodigious animator and director who finds herself transported into the world of A Tale of Perishing – a critically panned film that nevertheless shaped her creative life. Armed with the rare ability to bring her own animations to life, Natsuko attempts to rewrite a story defined by tragedy and offer hope where none originally existed.
Viewers responded strongly to the show’s emotional core and its exploration of artistic responsibility, grief, and creative legacy. Rather than leaning fully into spectacle. Zenshu frames its fantasy through the lens of creation itself: what it means to love a flawed work, and whether art can be redeemed (or saved) by those it inspires. While it didn’t claim the top spot in the category, Zenshu earned its honorary mention for sheer ambition and heart.
🎭 Best Drama / Psychological / Mystery 🎭
薬屋のひとりごと (The Apothecary Diaries) - Season 2
Season two of The Apothecary Diaries cements the series as one of the most finely crafted mystery dramas in modern anime. Set within the rigid hierarchies of an imperial court, the story once again follows Maomao; having recently come to terms with the secrets of her parents, she returns to fulfil her normal duties on behalf of the emperor's highest-ranking consorts. Making use of her vast knowledge of medicine – not to mention her keen observational skills – she finds herself pulled into a web of poisonings, political games, and dangerous secrets as the arrival of a merchant caravan brings a new wave of intrigue.
This season the mysteries deepen, the stakes grow heavier, and the court’s elegant veneer continues to crack, revealing a world driven by ambition, superstition, and cruelty. Maomao remains a compelling lead, quite simply because she cannot ignore the truth, even when uncovering it may put our favourite unofficial forensic pathologist – and possibly the imperial concubines – at risk.
Why We Love It:
Season two of The Apothecary Diaries confirms what many viewers already suspected: this is an intelligent series that thrives on subtlety, restraint, and razor-sharp wit. Picking up almost immediately after the events of season one, it wastes no time reintegrating us into the layered intrigue of the imperial court...
...and Season 2 is where the long game truly pays off. Threads that once seemed incidental or unresolved in Season 1 are carefully drawn back into focus, showing that this was never a collection of isolated arcs but one cohesive, unfolding story. A side character emerges as a standout presence, so compelling, in fact, that some fans consider them among the most memorable anime characters of the year, surpassing leads from entirely separate series. With a show as deliciously delightful as this, we can't wait to see what Season 3 has in store for us come October 2026.
Production details:
Studio: TOHO animation / OLM
Director: FUDESAKA Akinori
Episodes (Season 2): 24
Runtime: ~24 min per episode
Interesting note:
Many of the medical observations and remedies are inspired by historical herbal knowledge, adapted from real practices. The title, 薬屋のひとりごと (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), can be translated literally as “The Apothecary’s Monologue” or “The Apothecary’s Soliloquy. ”.
Drama / Psychological Honorary Mention: Takopii’s Original Sin
A very different experience, but one that left a strong emotional mark on many viewers, Takopii’s Original Sin is difficult to forget. A deceptively whimsical premise shows an (adorable) octopus-like alien come to Earth to spread happiness, but everything quickly unravels into something far more harrowing. After being saved and named by the lonely and unsmiling Shizuka Kuze, our alien Takopii becomes determined to make her smile, only to confront the harsh realities of bullying, neglect, and childhood trauma that he cannot fully understand.
What follows is not a comforting tale of healing but a stark exploration of misplaced kindness, cruelty, and the limits of good intentions. The series asks difficult questions about responsibility and empathy. Unsettling yet unforgettable, Takopi’s Original Sin earns its place here for its emotional bravery, twisting story, and the lingering weight it leaves behind.
😂 Best Comedy / Romance / Slice of Life 😂
ダンダダン (DanDaDan) - Season 2
Season 2 of Dan Da Dan continues the story of two high school students, Momo Ayase and Ken “Okarun” Takakura, whose argument over whether ghosts or aliens are real accidentally proves them both right. After gaining supernatural abilities through their encounters, the pair – along with their friend Jin “Jiji” Enjouji – become entangled in increasingly dangerous paranormal situations. This season centres on an attempt to exorcise Jiji’s family home, but what begins as a haunting quickly escalates into a confrontation with a disturbing landlord family and a town hiding layers of occult folklore and a few nasty secrets.
While the premise sounds chaotic – and often is – the series carefully balances outrageous supernatural action with sharp comedy and genuine emotional growth. Psychic powers, alien transformations, and urban legends collide with teenage insecurities, jealousy, and budding romance. Even at its most bizarre, the story remains grounded in the evolving friendship between its leads. Season 2 amplifies the oddities, but it also deepens the characters, proving that beneath the absurdity lies a surprisingly heartfelt coming-of-age story wrapped in a hearty dose of paranormal madness.
Why We Love It:
If there was one category where the NNN Anime Club reached near-immediate consensus, it was in this genre, and Dandadan’s second season earned the title with relative ease.
Season 2 builds on the controlled chaos that defined its Season 1 debut, refining its tonal balancing act between absurd humour, heartfelt beats, and sudden genre detours. What we think makes Dandadan particularly effective is its refusal to treat comedy as anything less than weighty. Even its most outrageous moments serve character development, while quieter scenes allow relationships to mature naturally.
Visually, the series continues to experiment with exaggerated expressions, kinetic camera work, and abrupt tonal shifts – techniques that could feel jarring in less skilled hands but which instead reinforce the emotional elasticity of the story. The result is an anime series that feels spontaneous but carefully formed.
Production details:
Studio: Science SARU
Director: Abel Góngora
Episodes (Season 2): 12
Average runtime: ~23 minutes per episode
Interesting note:
Momo’s psychic battles often feature bold, almost cartoony distortions, emphasising how overwhelming the supernatural world feels to her. In contrast, Okarun’s transformations are framed with more detailed anatomy and sharper motion lines, reflecting his confidence and obsession with proving himself. The animation intentionally shifts style depending on who’s “in focus”. The series is also packed with small cultural and pop-culture Easter eggs, for example, Ken “Okarun” Takakura’s name being a nod to the legendary Japanese actor of the same name.
🌏 Best Donghua / Non-Japanese Animation 🌏
To Be Hero X
To Be Hero X presents a world where heroism is inseparable from visibility, reputation, and public perception. In this society, heroes are not defined solely by their actions but by how they are perceived – by the public, by institutions, and by themselves. The more people who trust and believe in a hero, the stronger they become, with the hero who accumulates the most trust earning the coveted title of "X". This creates a system where ordinary people can gain superpowers and rise to heroism, but only as long as that fragile trust holds.
Tonally, the anime is deliberately unstable. Episodes shift rapidly between satire, absurd comedy, and moments of introspective seriousness. Visually, To Be Hero X rejects stylistic consistency in favour of expressive experimentation, drawing from Chinese animation traditions, Japanese anime, and Western adult animation. This hybridity mirrors the show’s thematic focus on fractured identity.
Why We Love It:
To Be Hero X stood out by proving that bold storytelling and stylistic ambition transcend national borders. Winning our Donghua/Non-Japanese Animation category, the series captured our anime club’s attention through its fearless genre blending and thematic audacity.
At its core, To Be Hero X is a meditation on identity, public perception, and the absurd expectations placed on “heroes”; themes that – in an era shaped by the visibility and performance of modern social media – resonate deeply with us. We believe the series does well in oscillating well between sharp satire and genuine emotional introspection, often within the same episode, without undermining either.
We found the visual style enjoyably eclectic, shifting between exaggerated cartoon aesthetics and more restrained, cinematic framing. Rather than smoothing these transitions, BeDream Studio weaponises them, reflecting the psychological strain of maintaining a heroic image in a system that consumes its idols as readily as it creates them.
Production Details:
Studio: BeDream
Director: Li Haoling
Episodes: 12
Average runtime: ~20 minutes per episode
Interesting note:
Director Li Haoling is also known for Link Click, and To Be Hero X subtly references that series through shared thematic motifs rather than direct narrative connections. The production team has cited Japanese tokusatsu, Western adult animation, and Chinese internet culture as simultaneous influences; an unusually hybrid foundation that gives the series its distinctive voice.
With that, we come to the end of our Best Anime of 2025 list! A massive arigato gozaimasu to everyone who participated in this year’s poll; your votes and enthusiasm help highlight the shows that truly captured the imagination of the anime community.
Looking ahead to 2026, fans have plenty to be excited about. The next season of Jujutsu Kaisen promises high-stakes battles and dramatic character growth, continuing the journey of our favourite sorcerers and their fight against curses. Meanwhile, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is returning to explore the bittersweet reflections and quiet moments of a world after adventure. In anime, there’s always so much to look forward to, and we can’t wait to dive in with you all.
Here’s to another year of incredible moments that will stay with us long after that chilled anime outro…
What was your favourite anime of 2025? Leave a comment below.
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