The 10 Best Anime of Summer 2025, Ranked

By Elijah Gonzalez | September 30, 2025 | 1:00pm

Anime Lists Summer 2025 Anime

The 10 Best Anime of Summer 2025, Ranked

The Summer 2025 anime season is finally over, bringing an end to one of the most stacked lineups in recent memory. Not to immediately plunge into hyperbole, but as someone who has been watching seasonal anime for around 10 years now, I have a hard time thinking of a batch of shows that had more collective animation firepower than this one.

Many of the industry’s most impressive studios were in top form: Kyoto Animation, Science Saru, TRIGGER, CygamesPictures, Bones, and CloverWorks with not just one, but two excellent series. Basically, if you’re someone who spends most of their waking hours on Sakugabooru, memorizing the trademark idiosyncrasies of your favorite key animators and animation directors, this was the season for you.

And even if you aren’t obsessed with technical minutiae, this batch was positively stuffed to the brim, full of every genre flavor and them some, with action, romance, horror, comedy, adaptations of beloved literary novels, and so on. Without further preamble, let’s get to the ten best shows from a season to remember.

Honorable Mentions: With You and the Rain, Gachiakuta, Dr. Stone Season 4 Part 2

10. Call of the Night Season 2

Watch on HIDIVE

Improving on just about every aspect of its predecessor while maintaining its trademark neon glow, the second season of Call of the Night capitalized on previously established setup to dive straight into tragedy and redemption. The story follows an insomniac teenager, Ko, and his unlikely romantic interest, the vampire Nazuna Nanakusa, as the former attempts to fall in love with the latter. If the previous season mostly got by on vibes and a killer art style that sold the appeal of empty late-night streets and a life lived against the flow, the second gave us much more to sink our teeth into.

We learned more about Nanakusa and many of her companions, fleshing out these vampires and this season’s nominal “villain,” a vampire hunter who defeats her victims by quite literally attacking an item from their past— it’s a clever conceit that both builds up a decade-long grievance and delivers some vampire logic which softens the apparent age gap between its leads. While the show still would benefit from most of its human characters being older—the same premise about a recent high school/college grad would hit so much harder and feel less skeevy—this second season ended with emotional catharsis only possible thanks to its much improved character work.

9. New Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt

Watch on Prime Video

As someone who probably likes the first season of Panty and Stocking more in theory (a parody of western animation that cranks up its trashiness to 11) than in practice, New Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt upped just about everything good about its 15-year-old predecessor to deliver some of the most elaborately animated gutter humor you’re likely to find. Here, Panty and Stocking, two dirtbag angel sisters cast down from heaven for being the worst, team up with the devil duo Scanty and Kneesocks so they can hunt ghosts. Or, at least, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing, because more often than not, these episodes, which are sliced into two or three-parters, end up being absurd one-offs.

A lengthy homage to the Fantastic Four cartoon from the ‘60s, a dark fantasy digression slathered in several layers of digital distortion, and a musical comprised almost entirely of swear words are just a few of the weirdo shorts that, at their best, combine crassness with a little aftertaste of something else, whether that’s weirdly poignant commentary on the gender dynamics of giallo horror films or a genuinely affecting moment of found family. Because while this series can be unapologetically vulgar and aggressively stupid, it’s all delivered with TRIGGER’s trademark maximalist execution that makes both its comedy and action sequences work. This may be a big, loud, dumb parody, featuring magical girl transformation sequences where twinks do a police roleplay stripper dance, but between its stylish animation and oddly sincere underlying messaging, it’s hard to imagine a more graceful comeback. And in a final bit of trolling that doubles as a hilarious bit of homage to the first season, it also ends on an off-kilter, Twin Peaks-style cliff-hanger. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait another fifteen years for a follow-up.

8. Dandadan Season 2

Watch on Netflix

Watch on Crunchyroll

While the second season of this genre-jumping hit felt like it eased off the gas a tad from its excellent introduction last year, it still thrived in tonal whiplash, mixing and matching various otaku interests into a high-energy pastiche. Do you like ghosts? Centuries-old cults? A big ‘ol kaiju? Giant robots? An alien crab man with an adorable son? This series has a fix for whatever nerdy topic catches your eye.

Events picked up as Okarun and Momo continued to recruit more loveable weirdos, this time helping Jiji deal with his very haunted house and a powerful spirit that loves to punch things. Just like the first season, the element that remains most impressive—outside of Science Saru’s imaginative, elastic animation, of course—is just how dang good this series is at switching between genres. One moment it’s a supernatural horror story, then it’s a high-impact battle shonen, then it’s a slapstick comedy, before ultimately leaning into the convincing romance between its two leads. It does pretty much everything, and it does it all well. Do I wish it would stop randomly putting Momo in sexually compromising situations, and that it would back off introducing more “love interests” for Okarun? Definitely. Should it have kept last season’s all-timer opening by Creepy Nuts because it’s literally impossible to top? 100%. But even with its flaws, there isn’t much else like Dan Da Dan.

7. Anne Shirley

Watch on Crunchyroll

If you want a demonstration of what happens when an anime studio gets some very good material to work with, look no further than this year’s Anne Shirley, a series that conveys the appeal of this beloved literary icon. Adapting the early 20th-century Anne of Green Gables novels, the anime takes us through about a decade in the life of its imaginative protagonist Anne (spelled with an e), a previously orphaned girl who calls Avonlea, Canada, home.

If I had to summarize the appeal of the series, it’s just how convincingly it places us in Anne’s headspace, capturing her wonder, joy, kindness, and occasional temper as she grows up in this little town. Heartwarming, but never maudlin, its unconquerably likable lead proves why she’s been a favorite everywhere from the US to Japan for more than a century. If this show has a weakness, it’s that it’s trying to get through too much material, cramming three books into a 24-episode series in a way where some conflicts don’t have enough time to build. Still, even with this significant flaw, Anne Shirley captures the essence of this story, making you nostalgic for a childhood you never lived through.

6. There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless…

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There’s disaster lesbians and then there’s Renako Amaori, a former introvert who accidentally charms her way into the hearts of her classmates, including a literal supermodel and another girl she repeatedly refers to as an “angel.” Her problem (besides deeply internalized heteronormativity)? As someone who’s never really had friends, she mostly just wants a stable friend group that isn’t full of people in love with her.

Simply put, Renako is a hot mess, and throughout its first season, There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… (often shortened to Watanare, on account of its Japanese title), she details these various hijinks in hilarious internal monologues where she misunderstands both romance and the impossible-to-ignore reality that she is very gay. Making more progress in a few episodes than most romance anime do in seasons, she stumbles through contrived situations that endear us to a group of well-written characters who are somehow equal degrees of hot mess. It’s funny, unabashedly queer, and is a rare multi-love interest show that feels like it could actually take a well-deserved poly route. Renako is so powerful that she’s apparently unbound by the curse that dooms all yuri and yaoi anime to a single season, with a follow-up coming out this November. Muri Mondays may be on hold, but thankfully not for long.

5. City The Animation

Watch on Prime Video

This season, TRIGGER wasn’t the only renowned studio following up on a decade-plus-old predecessor that juxtaposed absurdly involved animation against the silliest bits imaginable, because Kyoto Animation delivered a spiritual successor to one of the funniest anime of all time, Nichijou, with a series that proved just as visually jaw-dropping. Adapting another manga by Nichijou author Keiichi Arawi, City the Animation is both a goofy gag show and an ode to the power of community.

The story follows, well, a whole bunch of people: the “Mont Blanc Trio” of Nagumo, Niikura, and Izumi, three college students who live together, the Makabe family, the Adataras, and a dude literally referred to as Nice Man, who lives up to his name. Jumping between the members of its extensive cast, this absurdist comedy’s one-offs slowly weave into something more, best embodied by its fifth episode, a genuine magic trick of animation that drives home the interconnected nature of these people’s lives as KyotoAni flexes its talent. Kindhearted, colorful, and deeply hilarious, City the Animation is a convincing reminder of why Kyoto Animation is often considered the most impressive studio in the TV anime industry.

4. Takopi’s Original Sin

Watch on Crunchyroll

Content Warning: This series contains extremely graphic depictions of bullying, child suicide, depression, implied child sexual abuse, and animal abuse.

For much of Takopi’s Original Sin run, I was worried that its viscerally animated and deeply upsetting depictions of child abuse would end up as nothing more than a cheap narrative trick meant to elicit shock value. And while I still want to draw attention to the above content warnings before offering a recommendation, thankfully, this painful journey arrived at a well-deserved endpoint that tied together its ruminations on cruelty and neglect. While bittersweet, its finale highlighted the importance of listening to survivors instead of foisting toxically positive “solutions” on them, encouraging an empathetic outlook and solidarity between those who’ve endured this kind of unjust treatment. Takopi’s Original Sin teeters on the edge of exploitation, but ultimately avoids the plunge, justifying its vivid portrayals of suffering by forcing us to look at something ugly that we’d rather ignore.

3. The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity

Watch on Netflix

At first blush, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity’s premise doesn’t exactly stand out: it seems like another romance series where a gloomy, sad boy is saved by a girl of his dreams who conveniently materializes to “fix” him. Thankfully, this show makes an incredibly convincing argument for why you should never judge a book by its cover, building out the relationship between first-year high school students Rintaro and Kaoruko as they see past superficial details in eachother to get at something real.

Beginning with a modern-day Romeo and Juliet star-crossed-lovers sort of deal, where the pair go to schools that hate each other, Rintaro is a kid who’s always been stigmatized for looking “scary,” something that’s more or less made him give up on showing others his true (and deeply good-natured) self. However, after Kaoruko reaches out to him, we watch as they both bring out the best in each other, their hangout sessions and teen emotions beautifully rendered via CloverWork’s loving attention to detail. In an era shot through with toxic “Manosphere” nonsense, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is a moving portrayal of a very different type of masculinity, one defined by care and kindness. Keying us into every minor up and down of this journey with gut-punching emotional clarity, this is one you don’t want to miss despite Netflix’s head-scratching episode rollout strategy.

2. My Dress Up Darling Season 2

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Even as someone who largely enjoyed the first season of CloverWorks’ cosplay-centric romantic comedy My Dress-Up Darling despite its penchant for over-sexualizing much of its cast, I didn’t expect the second to prove such a delightful, affirming, and stunningly well-animated follow-up. Continuing to center on Gojo, a high schooler who doubles as a traditional doll maker at his family’s shop, and Marin, a bubbly gyaru who is not-so-secretly a massive nerd, this second season builds on everything great from the first while (somewhat) toning down many of its more disconcerting elements.

Just like before, our leads are a pairing that transcends the series’ seeming male wish-fulfilment setup—i.e., the former loner Gojo befriending an outgoing fashion model in Marin—by convincingly portraying exactly what these characters mean to the other. For Gojo, Marin’s deep-seated inclusiveness towards others’ interests helps dispel his fear of being seen as “weird” for being a traditional doll-maker despite being a guy—in a show very much about rejecting nonsensical gender essentialist notions, this season leans even further into this with its respectful handling of a cross-dressing cosplayer Amano and other characters who defy gender norms. As for why Marin cares about Gojo, we see how he’s an attentive, earnest partner eager to learn about her interests who not only loves making Marin her intricate cosplay outfits, but is also the kind of guy who skips school when she’s sick to cook her a delicious meal. Put simply, this wish-fulfillment works because it’s wish-fulfillment for both parties and not just the dude, as the show’s perspective regularly switches to Marin—it almost feels like she has more screentime than Gojo this time around, even if that probably isn’t true.

And what really ties it all together is CloverWorks’ incredibly loving adaptation, one that maximizes every joke and slice of life moment with dynamic animation and carefully considered framing that brings us into this world, sometimes going as far as switching art styles entirely as it portrays ‘90s action comedies and pixel-art horror VNs. At this point, there are very few studios that inspire more interest if they’re attached to a project than CloverWorks. In fact, I’ve almost forgiven them for the great Wonder Egg Priority Disaster of 2021. If you weren’t there, trust me, that’s saying something.

1. The Summer Hikaru Died

Watch on Netflix

There’s a long-standing belief in the anime scene that it’s borderline impossible to make animated horror work—look no further than the graveyard of Junji Ito adaptations, with Uzumaki being the latest to start strong before spiraling into the ninth layer of hell. However, despite these poor odds, The Summer Hikaru Died overcame all obstacles to deliver one of the best anime of the year, a thorny series that combines slice-of-life mundanity with churning terror as it delivers both monsters-as-metaphors and just plain old monsters with equal degrees of skill.

The story centers on Yoshiki, a depressed teen who feels thoroughly out of place in his conservative, rural community, and Hikaru, his best friend, who is always good for a laugh. Or at least, he was before he died. After Hikaru’s body is taken over by an unknowable, blob-like entity, Yoshiki is forced to make hard decisions about what to do with this creature that looks just like his old friend. What comes after is a series that excels both in terms of its high-level themes and its moment-to-moment execution, using this situation to convey what it’s like for Yoshiki, a queer kid living in a village stuck in the past, to navigate his regressive surroundings. He faces both tremendous grief over the loss of his best friend and equal levels of fear about getting so close to this being beyond his understanding.

But despite all of these negative emotions and perilous circumstances, the show more than makes room for little moments—Yoshiki’s friend group setting off fireworks on a cool summer evening, the adorable banter between best friends Yuki and Asako, and maybe most surprisingly of all, the monster-beyond-mortal-understanding mostly acting like another goofy teenager. CygamesPictures skillfully brings out each of these modes, focusing on the grounded details of this town, with its worn-out ice cream shops and creaking cicadas, before a deformed ghost, with its neck broken at an impossible angle, charges at the camera. This show has a lot going on thematically—it navigates grief, generational trauma, and queerness besieged by stifling conservatism—and aesthetically—its detailed background art and how it skillfully transitions between genres—but it never loses sight of what matters most: the relationship between its two leads. Boys Love anime are generally sidelined and ignored by the industry writ large, but The Summer Hikaru Died is just too bold to look away from.

Elijah Gonzalez is an associate editor for Endless Mode. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.