2025 turned out to be a great year for anime, resulting in one of our strongest top 10 lists we’ve had in years. We’ve been doing this a long time, so I’m very happy that thirteen years later we are still finding a lot of anime that we love.

If you’re new to our process, each member of the GLORIO crew submits their own top anime list, and we use a weighted scoring system to determine the final overall list. This has been scientifically proven to be the most accurate way to determine the best anime and I’m pretty sure we’ve never been wrong, but please let us know what your favorite anime was this year.

10. Call of the Night Season 2

Manga Adaptation by Liden Films
Director: Tomoyuki Itamura
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote

Jel: It’s rare that a second season can take a series in a new direction and not ruin what they have. Season 2 of Call of the Night pulls it off, taking the story in the more heavy, serious direction teased at the end of season 1 but without losing the show’s identity. There’s a chill, down to Earth humanity that keeps everything from veering into anime melodrama territory. I’m very satisfied to see a show that I liked turn into something even better than it was before.

9. Spy x Family Season 3

Manga adaptation by Wit Studio, CloverWorks
Director: Yukiko Imai
Series Composition: Rino Yamazaki

Artemis: I say this with a heavy heart – Spy x Family Season 3 has been my least-favorite season of this anime to date, all thanks to three middle episodes that really brought the whole thing to a screeching halt. Luckily, the show built up enough emotional impact and sheer charm over the preceding and subsequent episodes to keep it, overall, in my good graces. While I think the busjacking arc will probably always be a standout for just how discordant in tone, message, and execution it was compared to the rest of this anime to date, I can at least appreciate that in general, Spy x Family continues to otherwise be a go-to watch; despite its worst moments, it’s able to deliver everything it needs to in order to make it to my personal top 5 list for a third year.

8. Sanda

Manga adaptation by Science Saru
Director: Tomohisa Shimoyama
Series Composition: Kimiko Ueno

Zigg: As we are so fond of saying, Paru Itagaki is braver than the troops. There are very few writers who would dare to attempt to mash up future dystopia, arch social commentary, touching coming-of-age drama, and a mountain of barely disguised fetish content. Yet, against all the odds, and in much the same way as Itagaki’s previous work Beastars, the show emerges from the morass not only intact but indeed buoyed by its utter insanity. There’s rarely been a more thoroughly unpredictable show, or one in which the characters sprout more delightfully insane dialogue, but the fact that it’s able to balance silliness and seriousness so well is probably this adaptation’s greatest feat. Throw in a series of winning voice performances and a typically stylish, striking visual presentation courtesy of Science Saru and the result is a show it’s hard not to adore even as it careens headfirst towards what must surely be disaster. How will the gang get out of this zany situation?

7. Witch Watch

Manga adaptation by Bibury Animation Studios
Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Series Composition: Deko Akao

Artemis: Witch Watch is a bit of a slow-burn, in that it took (for me at least) more than a single episode to really show me why I should continue watching. Since I have very little patience these days for something that doesn’t grab me right away, that’s about 30 minutes past what I’d normally allow myself for something I’d deem ‘mid,’ as I’m sure the kids still say. In this case though, I’m really happy I stuck it out, as the anime ended up being easily one of my highlights of 2025.

Humor is of course entirely subjective, but I nearly always found myself grinning, and at times genuinely laughing aloud, almost every episode. The parody references are plentiful but also usually quite clever, and while some of the characters seem pretty surface-level at first, by the end of the series, I can honestly say there was nobody I disliked. This is one show that’s more than deserving of a 1-episode try – my advice to anyone is give it 2-3 before making up their mind.

6. Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray

Manga adaptation by Cygames Pictures
Director: Takehiro Miura
Series Composition: Masafumi Sugiura

Gee: Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray is the encapsulation of what the long running franchise has been building toward over the years. Oguri Cap’s intense love of racing verges on monomania, and the juxtaposition of how this is played for both drama and laughs make her one of my favorite protagonists in recent memory. She also has a real winner’s podium of supporting cast for her to bounce off. Jo Kitahara and Oguri Cap’s relationship as trainer and athlete is the bedrock upon which the story builds its initial foundation. By the Arima Kinen, you really feel she’s grown enough as a character and racer to stand on her own against the likes of Tamamo Cross. This is a story that understands what drives athletes to the highest level with astounding clarity. That it’s all based on the racing careers of actual race horses becomes its greatest strength. You couldn’t write a more gripping drama than this. Cygames Pictures’ excellent production makes this easily the best Uma Musume has ever looked and sounded. From idol vehicle to exceptional prestige sports drama, Cinderella Gray proves there had always been the beating heart of a champion under that sugary sweet exterior.

5. Takopi’s Original Sin

Manga adaptation by Enishiya
Director: Shinya Iino
Series Composition: Shinya Iino

Aqua: With its unflinching depictions of the cruelty children can be subjected to and its wholehearted embrace of heavyweight themes like generational trauma and neglect, Takopi’s Original Sin can be hard sell. Nevertheless, few anime this year were able to encapsulate the artistic strengths of anime as well as this six-part OVA about a naive alien willing to move heaven and earth to cheer up his first real friend could. Held up by vibrant, feature-quality animation and an unwavering directorial vision, Takopi’s Original Sin walks the narrow thread between gut-punching tragedy and pitch-black comedy, between heart-rending cynicism and hope for a better, kinder future all the way to its bittersweet conclusion. Ultimately, more than about its acknowledgment that existence can be abject agony, this anime is about the reasons why we scramble to find the silver linings in spite of it all.

4. New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Original by Studio Trigger
Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi
Series Composition: Hiromi Wakabayashi & Hiroyuki Imaishi

Zigg: Hiroyuki Imaishi’s return to the scene of the crime has long been one of the most wanted shows in GLORIO circles, entangled as it was in the fall of Gainax and the exodus of talent that fled the once-mighty studio in its last days. What was surprising when the show eventually arrived though was how much NP&SG was a group effort that showed off the depth and breadth of Trigger’s talent and vision. With segments ranging from scathing card-game parodies to musical curse fests, all the way out to gorgeously loving tributes to the like of Robert E. Howard and Jack Kirby, there was more than a touch of Space Dandy about the show’s willingness to use its cast as players on the weirdest and wildest stages imaginable. The result was not just a delightfully coarse, ribald comedy full of immature black humour, but also a reminder of the limitless imagination of Trigger’s creators. Shitposting on the grandest canvas imaginable.

3. The Summer Hikaru Died

Adaptation by Cygames Pictures
Director: Ryohei Takeshita
Series Composition: Ryohei Takeshita

Aqua: Reality and fiction meld into one in this deeply atmospheric adaptation of a manga by Mokumokuren — narratively, of course, through the tried-and-true mixture of eldritch horror and queer anxiety, but visually just as well, as a result of Cygames Pictures’ mixed media approach seamlessly blending live-action and animation into one coherent, but viscerally unsettling whole. Mirroring both the titular entity’s duplicitous nature and protagonist Yoshiki’s disintegrating psyche, weighed down by delusion and guilt in equal measure, The Summer Hikaru Died thrives in ambiguity, to a point where certain shots had me legitimately wondering if what I was looking at was an illustration, a photograph, or both. Top it all off with a compelling mystery that both demands the audience’s attention and respects their intelligence as it slowly lifts the veil on a twisted folktale steeped in nightmarish imagery, and you get the rare horror anime that will gladly welcome both genre veterans starved for some subtlety and first-time visitors drawn in by the delicious scent of pretty boy tears.

2. CITY The Animation

Manga Adaptation by Kyoto Animation
Director: Taichi Ishidate
Script: Ayano Satou, Masashi Nishikawa

Jel: CITY is a landmark technical achievement for animation, something that should be praised and studied as the rest of the world is getting consumed by AI slop. It somehow manages to feel both warm and textured and analog but also immaculately clean and precise. I can’t do it justice with words, just go watch episode 5 or 9 and see why it’s so great. But even beyond the amazing animation, CITY is a celebration of the extraordinary aspects our everyday lives, with a focus on community and how we are all connected. Watching it just makes you feel good.

1. Apocalypse Hotel

Original by Cygames Pictures
Director: Kana Shundo
Series Composition: Shigeru Murakoshi

Iro: Being a hilarious comedy, constructing a compelling setting, or telling a moving story are each feats impressive enough to hit our Top 10. Apocalypse Hotel does them all at once with seemingly effortless poise. The way it weaves a wide range of subjects together with empathy, creativity, and humor is staggering. The trials of Gingarou Hotel gently remind us over and over again that the inexorable passage of time is meant not to be dreaded, but treasured. Apocalypse Hotel stands tall as an unmissable modern classic and our undisputed Anime of the Year.