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And everything happening this week for Future Fest!

The thing that makes anime such a wonderful and difficult subject to cover is how beautifully diverse it is. Just in 2025 alone, we’ve had shows return from the brink of obscurity, second seasons that smashed expectations, and comedy shows masquerading as action anime. So, picking the best anime of 2025 is a tall order – especially with so much of the year left to cover.

As such, this isn’t the definitive list of the best anime of 2025. Think of this as a work in progress, with updates on the way after the frustratingly stacked summer season ends and the fall season gets underway.

Best Anime 2025: Apothecary Diaries season 2

The first season of The Apothecary Diaries is good. The second season is somehow much better. From the “frog incident” to the revelation of who Concubine Loulan really is, there are more twists and turns in this season than I thought possible. While fans expecting a budding romance between Jinshi and Maomao will, once again, come away disappointed, this is still enough tension between them that I couldn’t get enough of this show. If you like courtly drama and weird detective stories, this is the perfect anime to watch. - Trent Cannon, Popverse Senior Contributing Writer

Best Anime 2025: My Dress-Up Darling season 2

The second half of My Dress-Up Darling season 2 has easily been the best part of the season, with a focus on the Coffin arc making up for the slow pace of the School Festival Arc and the questionable handling of the "Marin needs to go on a diet" plotline. The ridiculous misunderstanding, as Gojo says, “I don’t plan to sleep tonight,” and his horrified response to the Coffin video game (which anyone who has played Doki Doki Literature Club understands) were sweet and endearing. Plus, CloverWorks has stepped up its game to deliver some stellar animation to bring these two lovesick kids to life once again. - Trent Cannon, Popverse Senior Contributing Writer

Best Anime 2025: Dan Da Dan season 2

I loved season one of Dan Da Dan, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m back for season two. The first half of this season covered what I consider the best arc from the manga, the Evil Eye Arc, which was incredibly fun and traumatic in all the best ways. We’re still getting stellar animation from Science Saru, but the rom-com sicko in me couldn’t get enough of the small scene where Momo and Okarun try to figure out how to hold each other’s hands. It is so sweet and pure… and then a freaking kaiju shows up. - Trent Cannon, Popverse Senior Contributing Writer

Best Anime 2025: Witch Watch

We love a good comedy, and Witch Watch is one of the funniest shows this year. We wouldn’t quite call it a rom-com; sure, there is romantic tension, but it is all in an effort to make you laugh. When a witch-in-training moves in with her childhood crush, magical hijinks ensue as she tries to impress him with spells… at least, until she turns herself flat as a piece of paper and blows out the window. It is absurd and silly, but I couldn’t get enough of it. - Trent Cannon, Popverse Senior Contributing Writer

Best Anime 2025: City the Animation

If there was ever a sign that Amazon Prime Video was upping its anime streaming game, it was snagging the rights to Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt’s long-awaited second season. However, that’s not the best show that Prime Video has had this year. That honor belongs to City the Animation. Produced by Kyoto Animation and based on Keiichi Arawi, City is about… well, the whole city. Each episode is made up of shorts about people around town. Some of them are connected, but they’re mostly just little peaks into their lives. It is beautiful, unique, and absolutely hilarious. - Trent Cannon, Popverse Senior Contributing Writer

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

• Aggretsuko vs Chainsaw Man: Two Wildly different anine with the same anti-capitalist message
• The Summer Anime season return of Kaiju No. 8, Sakamoto Days, & Dan Da Dan are forcing me to break my vow of watching less anime
• From Tomo-Chan to Oshi No Ko: How some of your favorite manga creators got their start in hentai
• Piracy is baked into anime's past, but, like Crunchyroll, we should move on from it
• Flying whales, mechs, and Miyazaki vibes: Inside Netflix's Leviathan anime with the people who made it
• How AI translations of manga continues the 'enshitification' of the medium, and why Japanese publishers are "less precious" about it
• I never wanted a Cyberpunk Edgerunners sequel, but God help me I'm going to watch it
• The Summer Hikaru Died delivers its cosmic horror at an agonizingly slow pace
• The one thing that Dan Da Dan does better than Demon Slayer ever did
• Studio Ghibli movies have never been as cozy as you think they are and that's what makes them magic