The Best Anime of Spring 2025

The spring season seemed quiet if it weren't for the enormous mecha in the room. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX dominated conversations week-to-week as Evangelion and Shin Godzilla director Hideaki Anno penned scripts alongside Utena's Yōji Enokido for a production led by FLCL's Kazuya Tsurumaki. While all eyes were on Gundam, The Apothecary Diaries unveiled multi-generational trauma as the backdrop to the scheme began in its opening season. There was certainly enough drama to go around this spring, but behind the established heavy-hitters were fantastic series like Rock is a Lady's Modesty, Answer Studio's adaptation of Anne Shirley, and the introspective comedic antics of Apocalypse Hotel.

Read on for the editorial team's favorite anime series from this season.

That To Be Hero X is inarguably one of Spring 2025's top anime is unexpected, as it stretches the boundaries of what anime is. An unprecedented co-production between Japanese Sony-owned Aniplex and Chinese companies BeDream and bilibili, it prominently features a heavily anime-influenced aesthetic, plus a soundtrack from peerless composer Hiroyuki Sawano, an artist synonymous with pulse-pounding anime music. Streaming on Crunchyroll alongside the rest of the service's more straightforward seasonal anime, I'd be willing to bet the majority of its viewers didn't even think to question its origins. Could To Be Hero X mark the inflection point in the West where predominantly Chinese-produced animation reaches critical parity with Japanese anime? It's perhaps too early to tell, but based on the frankly astonishing quality of every single episode of this superhero-based anthology show, I'll be paying more attention to Chinese animation in the future.

Opening with a four-episode arc introducing its world through the eyes of Lin Ling, a marketing video producer forced to take on the mantle of recently deceased hero “Nice,” we quickly come to understand the “trust-based” system from which heroes derive their power. This is a world in which image is everything, a single viral video can both empower and weaken, and giant corporations employ dirty tactics to control their employed heroes' public narratives. While granted incredible strength by adoring fans' rising trust in him, the new “Nice” finds his freedom curtailed and his personality changing under the weight of public perception. Similarly, other heroes find that a life of heroism causes terrible personal complications (such as the poor guy who can't sit to use the toilet, because his fans perceive him as always “standing firm”).

Despite a dark undercurrent placing the show's tone more towards that of The Boys than My Hero Academia, and a penchant for brutal, unexpected twists, To Be Hero X still revels in the sheer colorful, exhilarating joy of superpowered heroics. As three separate studios work together to produce the animation, it leads to fascinating visual switches between scenes. Current-day events might be portrayed in super-detailed, movie-quality, Arcane-esque CG, while flashbacks or dream sequences switch to more traditional two-dimensional appearances. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it's a spectacularly successful approach.

Plot-wise, To Be Hero X is no slouch either. Even considering its anthology approach, with each main character only getting a few episodes to explore their tale, there's a complex meta-story evolving in the background that slowly fills in details of what's really going on behind the scenes. I can't wait to discover how previous arcs' stunning cliffhangers come to resolve in later installments further down the road as To Be Hero X enters its highly-anticipated second cour in the Summer 2025 season.

—Kevin Cormack

While I went into Anne Shirley having some familiarity with its source material, I admittedly don't have the boatload of love and nostalgia for Anne of Green Gables (or the subsequent Anne books, for that matter) the way I know a lot of other people—especially many of my fellow members of the red-headed league who inevitably spent their sunburnt childhoods being told that they reminded people of the same like, five fictional characters including Anne—do. So I was pretty surprised by just how deeply this anime drew me in. Could it be the peaceful atmosphere? Maybe it's the gorgeous, painterly environments? Or perhaps it's got something to do with the infinite charm of Anne and the other members of the Avonlea community? The answer, obviously, is all of the above.

A soothing quality always lingers in the jewel-tones-and-pastels-colored air in Anne Shirley. Like a warm, gooey grilled cheese but for your heart and mind. It's the kind of anime that—well, it doesn't scream “comfort show” per se. After all, it's generally content to be quieter and low-stakes. So it's more like, over fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies and a glass full of a beverage that looks deceptively like raspberry cordial, it politely suggests that it checks all the boxes that a quintessential comfort show would.

What I'm getting at here is that, in a word, this anime is cozy. Wonderfully and deliciously cozy. And not unlike a warm blanket on a chilly day, it's effortlessly able to invite its audience to immerse themselves in idyllic Green Gables. Worth saying plainly, by the way, is that said audience includes people totally unfamiliar with Anne and her world. Anyways, the best part of all of this is that as of the time of writing, the anime's only just reached its 50% mark—it's still got another 12 episodes left to go. So we don't have to worry about what manner of terrible fate will befall us without a steady stream of new Anne Shirley episodes for a few more months.

—Kennedy

If the first half of The Apothecary Diaries' second season had one of my most anticipated scenes from the novels (the infamous “The Frog or the Testicles?”), the second half has my most dreaded. That's an impressive breadth to span in a single season of anime, and it's a testament to the power of both Natsu Hyūga's original books and the quality of this adaptation that both arcs were pulled off with aplomb. But neither happened in a vacuum, either – one of the enduring strengths of this series is that everything has roots that trail backwards until they're uncovered, and that holds true for events to come in (hopeful) future seasons.

However, one of the greatest strengths of this cour is the way it explores victimhood and generational trauma. It goes back to the previous emperor, a pedophile who destroyed the lives of countless little girls fed to him as tributes. The trail of bones he left behind crosses boundaries as the show delves into its themes. Some are obvious victims, graduated to survivors, like Anshi and Shenlü, whose actions are direct reactions to what they lived through – not good ones, but understandable even as they simply create more trauma. Others are peripheral victims, like Shenmei, who wasn't preyed upon by the emperor but witnessed his depravity nonetheless, and who felt she lost her rightful position with Shishou because her family sent her to court. And then there are the residual, generational victims, like Loulan and Suirei – the girls and young women who weren't part of the old regime, but whose mothers were, and who inherit the pain without fully knowing why. The story doesn't elevate one above the other; it understands that they're all suffering because of the actions of one horrible man.

It serves as a counterpoint to Maomao's upbringing in the Verdigris House brothel. Maomao's mother was also a victim of a world that doesn't value women, and she's very aware of that fact – an awareness she brought with her into the rear palace. She may not overtly act like she knows she's managed to escape this fate, but it's still clear that she knows. Every day, she sees how the women in the rear palace live, and when Shisui and Suirei kidnap her, she gets another view of the way women's lives are constrained and controlled. Shenmei may be the nominal puppetmaster of the Shi clan, but she wouldn't have become the twisted woman she is if she'd been valued for more than how she looked. She's a twisted version of the madam of Verdigris House.

This cour of The Apothecary Diaries isn't easy viewing. Although it has lighter moments and a rare supernatural episode, it deals with dark, heavy themes, and it knows it. Lihaku and Jinshi may turn up to save Maomao in the end, but the sad truth is that there's no saving most of the people we've met, both in the past and in the present. It's a powerful statement on the damage one bad person in power can do…but also a reminder that if you look, there are still little bits of hope to be found.

—Rebecca Silverman

On its most basic level, Rock is a Lady's Modesty is the story of a group of girls attending a high-class young lady's academy who secretly form an instrumental hard rock band. It's full of comedy as the outwardly proper young ladies release the vulgar rockers inside. It also has more than a little tension as they all attempt to keep their love of something as uncouth as rock music secret from their friends, families, and school. However, there is far more to this anime than that.

Thematically, Rock is a Lady's Modesty is about struggling to live up to other people's expectations. The group is hiding not only the existence of their band but also the fact that they even know how to play their instruments to match the school's atmosphere and philosophy. But for some characters, it goes much deeper than that.

Lilisa, our main protagonist, tries to make her mother happy by discarding her past, pretending that her mother's first marriage to Lilisa's father never happened and that she has always been the daughter of a well-respected rich man, not a rocker. This means Lilisa is trying to not only prove to the world she is the perfect lady but has had to give up on her beloved rock music—her major tie to her father—as well.

At the same time, society pressures another band member, Tina, into playing the role of tomboy prince by her family and peers. It's to the point where her true personality is completely hidden, and she has to physically alter herself daily to fit the part. Only through unrestrained, emotion-filled rock music can these girls gain even a bit of freedom in their otherwise suffocating lives.

As is necessary for any music-based anime that wants to be anything more than forgettable, Rock is a Lady's Modesty also has an amazing soundtrack that shows off the importance of the drums, electric guitar, bass, and keyboard in a way even a layperson can understand and appreciate. It also just plain rocks.

The visuals go hand in hand with this. When rocking out, 3D animation is used to its utmost to deliver not only awesome camera angles but also to show the complexity of the music by showing the girls' precise hand movements across the keyboard and strings. This is made all the more realistic because, in the performance scenes, our heroines were motion-captured by the members of the real-world female rock band, BAND-MAID, who also perform the show's opening theme song.

In the end, Rock is a Lady's Modesty is a silly-yet-emotionally powerful coming-of-age story where our heroines fight an inner battle between their wants and the expectations put upon them by the world around them. It's got great animation and music, and if you've ever wanted to see some “proper ladies” hilariously spouting out the most vulgar insults this side of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, then this show will have you hooked by the time the first episode's credits role.

—Richard Eisenbeis

The best thing about science-fiction, I think, is the way that it can use the wonderful improbabilities and impossibilities of the speculative genre to give people a lens through which to reflect on their current reality. That goes double for science-fiction animation, since the medium naturally lends itself to reveling in the most far-out elements of both science and fiction. This is what makes Apocalypse Hotel such a standout anime: It uses its post-apocalyptic setting, its colorful cast of wacky aliens and neurotic robots, and its ability to cover inhuman stretches of time and space to tell stories that are hilariously, pointedly, and sometimes achingly human.

Yachiyo approaches her job as the manager of the Gingarou Hotel with all of the tenacity, oblivious literal-mindedness, and tireless devotion of the best sci-fi robots, but her yearning for purpose and order in a world gone to ruin can be painfully relatable. When a clan of unruly tanuki aliens arrive on Earth and make the hotel their home, anyone who has ever worked in the service industry will understand the hopeless paradox of being so glad to finally have something to do after a century or two of dead shifts, even while your customers drive you mad with their ridiculous demands and their tendency to crap all over your hard work. The show's willingness to skip forward decades at a time in between episodes means that it gets to explore stories like showing one of those little Tanuki kids eventually growing up to start a family of her own as the hotel continues to do whatever it decides constitutes work in a world where humanity may or may not be extinct. Any viewers approaching their middle age like I am will understand the melancholy but beautiful way that your friends' and family's lives will change completely in what seems like the blink of an eye.

All of this might make Apocalypse Hotel sound like a maudlin bummer—the anime equivalent of Bicentennial Man—but the best part about this show is that it couches all of its heady ideas and gut-punch emotional reflections in some of the best animation and comedy you're likely to see this year. Kana Shundo has immediately become a director to watch with such an impressive debut as this, and Cygames Pictures is continuing to cement its reputation as one of the most impressive new studios in the industry. Every single episode of Apocalypse Hotel is an utter delight, even when it is making your heart break, and I cannot recommend it enough as one of the best series of the year so far.

—James Beckett

Although I've seen a couple of alternate universe Gundam entries and the two seasons of Gundam Build Fighters that exist, it was only recently that I finally sat down to watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam and saw how well it stood the test of time. It's a good thing, too, because while I was excited for this show based on the pedigree of its staff, I wasn't nearly prepared for just how many callbacks this has to Gundam 0079. “What if Char managed to get the Gundam instead of Amuro” is an intriguing enough concept on its own, but jamming it on top of the exploration of a post-war society, hormonal teen angst, and layers upon layers of technobabble can be a lot to digest. GQuuuuuuX moves at a mile a minute and asks a lot of its audience, as it largely refuses to explain itself and trust that you can follow along as its story moves from underground mech battles to multiverse physics. In that respect, I can imagine it makes for an intimidating watch, especially if you're unfamiliar with the Universal Century timeline. As a lover of abstract storytelling, this has been a fun show to attempt to dissect, and even as its scope keeps expanding, its mysteries have been compelling enough to keep me coming back every week.

A lot of this comes down to the combined genius of Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki, and Yoji Enkido, who are all clearly having the time of their lives here. These three titans of the anime industry have differing approaches to storytelling, and you can see some of those differences clashing in how the show can shift between a sometimes abstract main plot while divulging a bunch of smaller expositional details. One thing they have in common is that they're all huge nerds, and you can feel that in every Universal Century reference or new bit of terminology. It is a bit bizarre to see a Gundam entry largely stepping away from war commentary in favor of a denser sci-fi plot, but that doesn't mean it has nothing to say. It still finds time to discuss the treatment of refugees within the space colonies, and to remind the audience that even a Girlboss Space Nazi is still a Nazi as we see more of Kycillia and her desire to make Newtypes the dominant form of humanity at the expense of everyone else. It's certainly not without its flaws, the biggest being that its three leads, Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji, are lost in the shuffle of the show's ever-evolving plot, and are subsequently the least interesting members of the cast. Other members of the ensemble, like Challia Bull, help pick up the slack, and his inclusion is among the show's more interesting subplots. GQuuuuuuX is a bit of a mess, and a product of perhaps too much ambition, but I'll happily take overambition over a lack of it, and for as convoluted as it is, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all season.

—Jairus Taylor

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. The anime adaptation of Jun Mayuzuki's hypnotic Kowloon Generic Romance envisions a microcosm of a world predicated entirely on the power of memories. If you haven't seen this series, it's hard for me to consider how deep I should go into discussing its mysteries, as peeling back the layers of its premise is part of the appeal of a first-time watch-through. It's a riveting, appointment-viewing psychological thriller, up there with recent television medium greats like Severance.

Being compared to today's successes reflects how much Kowloon Generic Romance pays homage to the aesthetic of yesterday. It's not just in how it's set in a replica (or is it?) of the famous Kowloon Walled City, echoing the visuals of the occupied bygone era. All of this anime's imagery recollects times past, from the fashion to the omnipresence of smoking. Even the (excellent) opening theme feels like it comes from an anime of a previous generation. There's an instance of lead character Reiko Kujirai asserting her preference for not following up on later volumes of stories she otherwise enjoys. To live in the past is to live safely and comfortably in Kowloon, and the anime, at first, even allows the audience to ease into that comfort.

It doesn't last, as nothing can. Even as it becomes apparent that this walled garden of the past orbits around Reiko and her complexly involved love interest Kudou, it is inescapable that others inhabit this world, and they supply much of the texture and tension to this manifold mystery. Yaomay is a contender for one of the year's best characters, an electric presence who yearned for Kowloon specifically because there were no nostalgic memories attaching her to it. The adorable Xiaohei belies more than meets the eye in a slowly revealed yet heart-wrenching turn of events. And that wonderful waiter, Gwen, delivers on his own depths, driving much of the revelatory parts of Kowloon's plot, uncovering his own tragic romantic arc. All of them are entangled in the memories of others and connections they can't let go of, showing off a slice of this cramped city and how the threads of interactions inevitably entangle others.

The technical storytelling of Kowloon is compelling. It's a thriller with reveals, surprises, and parts you wouldn't want your co-workers to spoil for you until you'd seen it for yourself. While it's good at all those things, that atmosphere and vibes make it such a strong contender this season. It's an anime unafraid to marinate in the sweaty fumes of a just-painted apartment, realizing that Reiko's exhausted, reclining in this state is sexier than any polished fanservice. It's a series that will tease characters connecting over a huge chunk of episodes, only to jump ahead to their morning after, so the framing can linger on this one-of-a-kind personal moment frozen in time. Kowloon couches its Generic Romance in intriguing twists and sci-fi trappings to feel grand, but it's the anime's reminder of the smaller, intimate moments, like the first puff of a cigarette or bite of a watermelon on a sweltering summer day, which reminds us of the experiences that truly resonate and are worth remembering.

—Christopher Farris