The 5 Best Anime Series of Winter 2025, Ranked

4. Medalist

Watch on Hulu

Watch on Disney+

Despite being one of the more under-discussed shows of the season, Medalist nails just about every detail of this figure skating journey, capturing both the hot-blooded thrill of competition and the wonder of performance. We follow Inori, a middle schooler who started skating “late” (i.e., didn’t begin when she was five or six) as she goes against the tide with the help of Tsukasa, her loveable golden retriever of a coach. The bond between these two is the beating heart of the series, a supportive relationship that makes it difficult to avoid getting teary-eyed; we see how affirming it is for Inori to finally find something she’s good at as Tsukasa discovers a similar joy in watching his student succeed. However, although this coach-and-pupil combo is deeply wholesome, the story also grapples with the cost of caring so deeply by exploring the realities of engaging with such an expensive, time-consuming, and fickle sport.

And while those storytelling boons probably aren’t a shock for those who read the show’s well-regarded source material, the quality of ENGI studio’s animation has been a pleasant surprise. These skating performances utilize 3DCGI and motion to capture each double Salchow, as smart camera flourishes emphasize the athleticism and skill on display. Medalist’s arresting sports action and passionately conveyed drama earn it a well-deserved place on the podium.

3. Ave Mujica – The Die is Cast –

Watch on Crunchyroll

For many, myself included, BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! proved one of the biggest anime surprises in recent years, an achingly heartfelt music drama about a group of disaster teens bouncing off each other like pool balls while they recovered from the break-up of their old band. It’s no small feat then that the direct sequel to that series, Ave Mujica – The Die is Cast –, features a group that is somehow even more of a trainwreck, twisting the lessons and arcs of the previous season into a dark parody of what came before. We follow the ups and downs of the titular band, Ave Mujica, a power group of young women as talented as they are incompatible, while their personal problems spiral into outright catastrophes.

If It’s MyGO already probed for emotional depth beneath the cutesy exterior of the “girls start a band” sub-genre, Ave Mujica journeys to even darker corners, interrogating the psyches of these deeply flawed, complex characters with surprisingly avante-garde execution—at one point, a tragic flashback is presented as a raw, single person stage play, while at another, an ongoing mental breakdown is portrayed with harsh colors and a seeming allusion to the iconic film The Red Shoes. It’s strange that this project exists in the first place, taking an investor-friendly mixed-media franchise into unsettling psychodrama territory, and even more impressive that it does this while avoiding being gratuitously edgy or insincere. If you want to watch 12 episodes of mentally ill lesbians crashing out as hard as humanly possible, sprinkled with allusions to Hermann Hesse’s 1919 bildungsroman Demian, then this is the show for you.

2. The Apothecary Diaries

Watch on Crunchyroll

Through the first half of its second season, The Apothecary Diaries has maintained just about everything that made it the best anime of 2024: its fleshed-out historical setting, explorations of power dynamics relating to class and gender, engaging mysteries, gorgeous visuals, and the best little freak detective around. We continue to follow Maomao, an apothecary whose curiosity led her to solve countless medical mysteries in a fictionalized rendition of Imperial China’s Inner Palace. This latest run presents a fresh batch of conundrums, each requiring our heroine to uncover complicated illnesses and crimes, all while navigating a social landscape where she’s near the bottom of the hierarchy and an accidental faux pau could mean her life.

It’s a heavy premise, but one presented with a well-balanced mixture of humor and thrills as a growing list of colorful characters enter Maomao’s orbit; it’s deeply affirming to watch our protagonist’s good deeds come back around when the other women of the Rear Palace have her back in times of need. It all works to tease out the underlying gender-based tensions at play while still leaving room for much lighter episodes that make the most of this great cast of characters, like Maomao’s adorable adoptive sister Xiaolan or the always perceptive Gyokuyō. While we’re still waiting for the latest overarching conspiracy to come into view, I have high hopes for the rest of this season given what we’ve seen so far.

1. Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

Watch on Netflix

Over its 25-episode run, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth has taken us across decades and several protagonists, bringing to life heartbreaking sacrifices made in the pursuit of knowledge. Set in an alternate version of Middle Ages Europe, the story follows an eclectic group attempting to prove the heliocentric model as a Catholic Church equivalent threatens to torture and kill those who promote this “heretical” theory. They dedicate their lives towards understanding the cosmos for very different reasons: some are transfixed with scientific truth, while others want to reverse church doctrine that states Earth is the “lowest” realm in the cosmos. But whatever the reason, this band gives everything they have for a future they may never see, capturing the selflessness and bravery of standing against the status quo.

All throughout, the series maintains nuanced perspectives on religion and belief, exploring the sometimes muddy lines between having faith in an unproven scientific theory and believing in the divine as its characters grow in affecting ways that make their fates all the more gutting. Through their struggles, we see both the dangers of striving for knowledge at any cost and also the beauty of one of humankind’s greatest qualities: our curiosity. You probably never thought you’d cry over heliocentrism, but Orb: On the Movements of the Earth may just change that.

Elijah Gonzalez writes about games and anime. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon series. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.