TL;DR: None.

There were definitely some good shows this year, but they all had their drawbacks. I can’t quite find one that earns the title of “BEST” for 2025. Instead, here’s a breakdown of my recommendations and what I thought about them.

The Lineup

• Sorairo Utility: A continuation of the OVA. It’s a solid “Golf x JK” anime, but the production quality dipped in quite a few places.
• Medalist: The story is top-tier, but the production didn’t always do it justice. It was cool to see Kenshi Yonezu volunteers for the OP and Yuzuru Hanyu show up in the MV!
• Apocalypse Hotel: The concept is great, but they tried to cram too much into one show. It led to some conflicting settings and a serious lack of continuity between episodes.
• CITY THE ANIMATION: Honestly, I didn’t get the jokes. While everyone was expecting something like Nichijou, KyoAni went with a more experimental, manga-like coloring style. Unfortunately, it lacked the character building and tight storytelling needed for a good adaptation.
• Ruri Rocks: The production quality is fantastic, but sometimes it feels like “too much.” The educational bits felt a little disconnected from the super fluid animation.
• mono: It had its moments, but it was occasionally boring. It felt more like a visual autobiography of the author, Afro.
• Food for the Soul: Loved the story and the characters, but it really suffered from poor production quality.
• Zatsu Tabi: That’s Journey: This also felt like an autobiography, but I actually really liked the quiet, comforting atmosphere. It reminded me of my own vacation experiences.
• See You Tomorrow at the Food Court: This is mostly just characters talking, but the scriptwriting is so good that it never gets boring.
• CALL OF THE NIGHT Season 2: Great music, great story, a worthy sequel to the first season.
• Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi Tons of dark humor. Episode 5 had some particularly great character building.
• Summer Pockets: A pretty mediocre adaptation. Giving each heroine exactly four episodes made it feel a bit rushed and formulaic.
• This Monster Wants to Eat Me: The music and the depressing atmosphere are spot on. However, the actual animation and series composition were a bit of a letdown.
• The Catcher in the Ballpark!: Ruriko is a great character. The story focuses on the “other side” of sports and is quite heartwarming, but the animation quality was definitely a struggle.
• A Workplace Where You Can’t Help But Smile: A look at the life of a mangaka, with some nice connection to Kuzushiro’s other works. The production was OK.

The Rise of Generative AI in Anime

One huge trend this year was the rise of generative AI.

We had Twins Hinahima, which might be the first show to heavily use GenAI in its production. The quality wasn’t bad, though the workflow behind it is honestly more interesting than the show itself. In my opinion, as long as the story is good, this kind of AI use is acceptable. It’s better than “cheaping out” and making something that looks terrible.

However, that opened the floodgates for a pile of “AI Slop.”

• Shūkan Ranobe Anime: Produced by Ziine Studio. Their goal seems to be churning out short-form content on a 3-month cycle.
• generAIdoscope：ジェネレイドスコープ and 小泉八雲のKWAIDANの世界 seems to be complete AI slop and don’t get much attention.
• Mechanical Marie: This one used AI-generated “Harmony” and got hit with massive backlash. They actually ended up replacing those starting from episode 2 for the TV broadcast.

Behind the scenes, big names like OLM and Toei Animation are already testing GenAI for internal tasks like coloring and backgrounds. I try to keep track of GenAI use in anime here(website in Chinese). 2026 will likely see even more GenAI-assisted anime.Let’s just hope they don’t turn out to be slop.