Forum - View topicThe Best Anime of Fall 2025
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JustMonika
Posts: 1568 |
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I'd say my favorites for Fall would be
Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray Dusk Beyond the End of the World Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle My Friend's Little Sister has it in for Me! Touring After the Apocalypse Watari-kun's ***** is about to Collapse Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family Spy X Family The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace |
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Wizardizar
 Posts: 208 |
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I will be honest, I don't even think I watched enough shows this season to have an actual top 10, but at least I guess everything I watched will get a turn in the spotlight!
7) With You Our Love Will Make It Through had a strong start and looked really good, but as it went on it you really started to see the cracks in both the animation and the writing. The story tried to serve two masters at once, and would sometime work against itself. By then end I think it was neither horny nor political enough to really fulfill either goals. 6) Mangaka's Wonderful Workplace was just chill vibes. Nothing spectacular but it was never bad I actually learned some new things. Always nice to have a show like that in rotation. 5) May I Ask for One Final Thing started out strong but really ran out of steam by the end, both in terms of animation and storytelling. This story has a huge heart and it has really fun characters (Terenezza is such a fun villain!), but the plot ended up being a little bit of a Fire Emblem/Final Fantasy fanfiction (but like, a good one). 4) Touring the Apocalypse just shows that if you dole out just enough breadcrumbs of a mystery to me, I will even watch a low-key show about touring Japan, and probably check the manga so I can know what is up with all the environmental storytelling. 3) The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity is some really good, pure, teenage romance. Cloverworks really knows how to put those uncertain feelings on screen with splotches of colors. And despite wanting more of that, I really appreciate that they showed us that Waguri was an active participant in the whole courtship, and not just a passive heroine as it sometimes gets portrayed as in anime. 2) This Monster Wants to Eat Me was not the most visually bombastic show this season, but everything else, form performance to the amazing soundtrack (my personal OST of the year, those sad pianos and mournful vocals, oh man), really made this the show that I would just loose myself into for 20 minutes, just hanging off every words. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I loved how slow and languid it was. 100% one of my top 10 of the year. 1) Umamusume! I did not care a bit for the horse girls until Northernlion ended up playing the game last summer, and that got me to give Pretty Derby a chance before catching up on cour 1 of Cinderella Grey. I was missing out on an amazing franchise. I don't really care for sports anime unless they have something extra going on (like Birdie Wing lesbian-powered magic rainbow golf), but Uma is goes so hard and takes the concept of horse girls racing so seriously that I couldn't stop myself from loving it. I also appreciate that this season went extra hard and basically gave us the Uma version of Newtypes with THE ZONE, to the point where two rivals had a discussion about why they race in some nostalgic time bubble in the final few seconds of their race. Beautiful. Umazing. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 3001 |
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The clear winners for me this season were My Hero Academia and Gachiakuta (does a second consecutive cour count?) The upcoming season looks way more exciting to me.
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2565 |
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Only anime I liked this season was My Hero Academia, which I didn't really expect - not that I thought it was gonna be bad, I just didn't expect the entire rest of the season to underperform
I wasn't watching much to start with, but Gnosia frustrated me to no end with how much it felt like I was watching a prolonged game tutorial that never ended but since I'm not playing the game I just disliked the structure and most characters, Touring has fun and boring episodes being a very mixed bag - probably because I don't really care for the mystery of how this all happened nor the tourism itself, but the survivor moments, if you can call them that, are pretty good (like the cyborg man and the motorcycle ghosts (?)), Sanda suffers from "being written by Itagaki Paru" syndrome, so I liked everything about it except its writing, just like it was for Beastars, and To Your Eternity is getting its momentum entirely carried by surprising me over and over, which means whenever it's not being batshit it's pretty boring. Which is surprisingly not often, but still |
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BaronViolet
Posts: 495 |
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What exactly is wrong with Paru Sensei as a writer? |
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Terraziel
Posts: 112 |
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It was an oddly lackluster season, which is not to say it was a bad season, just that I can't see myself coming back to re-watch any of it.
Kamen Rider ni Naritai and Sanda are probably the highlights, but even then they are more interesting than straight up great. |
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Glordit
 Posts: 1186 |
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I've got a bit of a list for my favorites.
3-nen Z-gumi Ginpachi-sensei Alma-chan wa Kazoku ni Naritai Asashin de Aru no Sutetasu ga Yuusha Yori mo Akiraka ni Tsuyoi Nodaga Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka Chichi wa Eiyuu, Haha wa Seirei, Musume no Watashi wa Tenseisha Dragon Raja S2 Futari wa Solo Camp Fumetsu no Anata e S3 Gachiakuta GNOSIA Hyakusho Kizoku S3 Isekai Quartet S3 Kikaijikake no Marie Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru Mugen Gacha Nageki no Bourei wa Intai shitai Ninja vs. Gokudo - Yes, it's stupid and that is why I like it. SI-VIS The Sound of Heroes Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi S2 Touwa no Yuugure Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen Yano-kun no Futsuu no Hibi I forgot some shows Last edited by Glordit on Mon Dec 22, 2025 11:07 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 1162 |
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It still has some episodes to go, but my favorite this season for new series is The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess. This is my favorite manhwa and seeing it adapted so well and gorgeously makes me so happy every week. Also, of course, Kakuriyo Season 2 (THE best isekai), and I’m also quite loving The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess. I love how it pokes fun at isekai and shoujo tropes, but in an affectionate way that is respectful of shoujo fans (not to mention that it validates teenage girls at every corner).
For continuing series, Princession Orchestra is amazing and the latest episode was a tearjerker in the best way. And You and Idol Pretty Cure continues to be everything that’s great about PreCure as a whole. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2704 |
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This season I watched too many anime: Gintama, Sanda, To Your Eternity, Ranma, Spy x Family, Tojima, One Punch Man and Flowers.
Definitely Spy x Family and Sanda were my favorites. The former intrigued because of how darker were the new story arcs. The latter surprised because of how attempted to show how people feel about puberty and growth and how far can it affect us. One Punch Man was the most disappointing and Gintama had moments were it was hard to laugh about due to either dated humor the main series exploited or the awkward episode of a suicidal student who is revealed to be a ghost after failing to kill himself. Even Takasugi feels like a character who doesn't fit into comedy arcs considering how he is written. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 5032 |
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It was not a bad season but it was not the tidal wave of great anime that some recent seasons were. There were few big shows and many decent ones ran out of steam. There was also One Punch Man but that is surely appearing in a different list pretty soon.
The ones that stuck with me this season are (in no particular order): Sanda Spy x Family Season 3 A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray Part 2 Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill Season 2 Of those I would call Kamen Rider and Last Boss welcome surprises. Last Boss in particular due to it offering a lot more than just another standard isekai. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19140 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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My #1 for the season is easily May I Ask For One Final Thing? (and for pretty much the same reasons Richard states in the article), but my #2 on a qualitative scale is a series that it seems like few other people are watching: Shabake. It's turned out to be a remarkably involved, detail-rich period mystery tale which perfectly integrates its supernatural aspects into its mystery components and deals a couple of atypical big plot twists. It's also easily one of the season's best-animated titles.
The others I'd put in my top 5 for the season would be these: Touring After the Apocalypse - Best scenery, fun central duo, clever development of the mystery surrounding what the apocalypse actually was. This Monster Wants to Eat Me - For mostly the same reasons Rebecca describes in the article. Isekai Quartet 3 - Maybe not as fresh as the first couple of seasons, but it still revels in its clever allusions and interactions between disparate series. I'll also give props to A Wild Last Boss Appeared and Dad is a hero, Mom is a spirit, I'm a reincarnator for both ending up being way stronger than they looked like they would be at first. The former accomplished it by adding some intriguing background twists into what would otherwise have been a standard OP power fantasy and the latter by focusing much more on its story than on its protagonist being OP. It also has one of the season's best individual episodes (episode 6, the one that nearly spiked to the top of the weekly rankings). |
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meiam
Posts: 3674 |
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I quite liked the first 2 episodes, but episode 3 ending (iirc, spoiler[where they severely beat up the painting spirit]) was extremely uncomfortable and made me put the show on pause until I'd see a full review. I could see it work in a very interesting direction, spoiler[where it "pull the curtain" on the idea that being blessed by the gods/spirit is good, instead showing it to be more of a curse that the main character has to escape]. But I couldn't shake the possibility that spoiler[this was just a BL flavor story, who so often portray violence as some bizarre show of love]. My biggest surprise this season was Spy X Family, I barely limped trough S2 and was bracing myself to drop S3, but its been almost as good as S1, very pleasant surprise. Otherwise the season was pretty rough, wasn't too long ago that winter fall/winter were the strong season while summer was the weak one, but it seems like that's not the case anymore, possibly because of the switch to streaming? |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 19140 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I can assure you that your concern is not the direction the story goes in. As for your first spoiler point, that's kinda true and kinda not; there's a major late twist concerning the protagonist which is definitely off the beaten path for anime, and it has a lot to do with that. I dearly do hope one of the reviewers does a full write-up on it after it ends, as the series deserves more attention than it will likely ever get.
Honestly, I think that's varied more over the years than fandom acknowledges. I will admit to thinking this was the year's weakest season just a couple of weeks in, but I'm not sure I would still say that at the end because there were a number of series which surprised me over the long haul. |
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Flash33
 Posts: 146 Location: Florida |
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There have been many shows I've enjoyed this season. Some of I've enjoyed in no particular order are:
May I Ask For One Final Thing? (A fun show with a fun protagonist & a good supporting cast). The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess (fun twist on reincarnation, being in a story you wrote many years ago & now have to struggle to remember key plot points to survive). Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits S2 (I enjoyed S1 & despite my concerns about S2 being 1 cour unlike the 2 cour S1 the storytelling has eased my worries, and as a bonus the animation has noticeably improved as well. Raiju not being voiced by David Wald anymore was jarring at first but Cody Savoie has done a good job in his stead). The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest (good rapport between all 4 members of Lasting Period as well as a good resolution between the prince & Alec). There are others I've enjoyed such as Hero Without a Class, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's and To Your Eternity but I haven't seen them in a while so I'm rusty on their details (happens when you watch many shows). Last edited by Flash33 on Mon Dec 22, 2025 7:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2808 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Planning on it! |
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