In a lot of ways I can’t believe the year is ending. It just flew by. It’s always tough for me to narrow down a top 10 list because obviously I enjoyed way more than 10 shows in any given year. But I am glad to go through this process yearly. Not only to compare to what I felt in previous years, but to share my thoughts. The only reason I keep writing at all is to organize my thinking and to share a bit of myself with people. This list is of course not remotely objective. I do feel the top shows of the year were excellent in many ways, but I’m sure someone else could whittle down everything to objective facts. But that’s not me.

So I’ll just be counting down from 10 to 1 in terms of the shows that really worked for me this year. Some of these might surprise people. But I also think most of these shows when people see them on this list will get a “that makes sense for him” kind of response.

10. New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT (Summer)
I still can’t believe this really happened! 15 years! This show had a 15 year wait between seasons. The studio (Gainax) that made the first season isn’t even around anymore. But truly Trigger was the only studio that could have done this show justice. It took all the absurdity and ran with it! We had giant/monstrous versions of Panty and Stocking battling it out like kaiju…in the first episode! This show just constantly ran with the craziness and tried to give everyone a few segments or episodes to shine. They threw in some great new characters and made sure to have the finale be as utterly insane as they could!

No idea if there is a future with more from this show and I know the random skit-based episodes might not appeal to everyone. But it’s just right that a show like this exists. Where you have a loose angel constantly having sex or a sweets obsessed one always chasing that sugar high. This show makes no apologies for what it is and I’m glad to have it in my top 10!

9. Ruri no Houseki (Summer)
If any show really shocked me it was this one. The first episode was decent, but I would’ve said that Ruri had the potential to be a bit annoying. Even in that episode I also would have said that she’s just likable. There’s a charm to Ruri and the show as a whole that’s tough to describe. It’s really a show that just goes into minerals, stone, and understanding the world around us. But the show makes all science easy to follow and is really easy to enjoy. Whether they are finding huge mineral deposits or making crystal radios. There’s just something always going on with this show. I love the whole cast. This is a show that’s hard to express how great it is without just saying…please watch it! You might unfortunately learn a few things, but it’s worth it!

8. Silent Witch: Chinmoku no Majo no Kakushigoto (Summer)
This is another show that surprised me a bit. Studio Gokumi deserves massive props because this show was beautiful. The animation was something else and the music just made the epic moments even better. Monica is an interesting lead. She has a lot of power and skill, but she’s also such a work in progress. Her past is a trauma filled one. But you do see Monica maturing as the show goes on. This girl is going back to school to finish the maturation that she missed out on the first time around. The show also is willing to go to some extremes when it comes to characters paying for their mistakes. Monica is the lead, but she’s not all powerful. Silent Witch was a truly great show and surprised me on a few occasions.

7. The Stunned Hero and the Assassin Princesses (Summer)
I may be the only person out there that has this in their top 10, but I don’t care! I really enjoyed this one. You have a lot of hero focused fantasy series out there, but this one stuck with me. I can take or leave harem leads, but Toto is a great guy. His backstory really sells him for me. He’s lost so much and is on this journey in part…just to regain confidence. The way Toto interacts with each of the heroines works and he brings the best out of them. But at the same time he wonderfully is grateful to each of them. They reached out to him and that saved him.

Which of course makes things all the crazier with them technically trying to assassinate him. All three leading ladies are awesome. Toto is an OP badass, but all three of them are top tier in their own ways. They balance each other out nicely. But what made this stick out for me was the relationship between the girls. It’s easy for a harem to just focus on the relationship with the lead. But the friendship and rivalries within this group made it stand out. This is easily top 10 for me.

6. Shiunji-ke no Kodomotachi (Spring)
This list might not reflect it…but I’m not usually big on harem series. It can be tough for me when I see one clear winning girl and everyone is just there to ship tease until the end. But in this show…it feels pretty well balanced. All the sisters are great girls in their own way. The show did focus on some more than others, but there was enough there to see why someone would fall for any of them. The premise was a bit on the crazier side with this family getting a bomb dropped on them regarding not being related. What a way to bust up a birthday party…The frustrating side was having to be patient regarding the lead. I totally get this guy not wanting to flip the switch on his sisters not actually being related by blood. But it’s a harem…no point in him actually fighting this!

It was a great looking show and I could be down for multiple seasons of this. It’ll be a tough competition within that harem and I have no idea who will walk away the winner. But there was just something enjoyable about this show even when things were getting heavy with drama. Good cast, good animation, good time.

5. Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister (Winter)
I do admittedly find it funny how 5 and 6 worked out for me on this list. But I give the edge here to Amagami for a few reasons. That the first part was a 2024 show allowed the 2025 part to really just hit hard. The story was in full swing at that point. This is a show that surprised me since I thought it’d be easily forgettable. Main character moves into a shrine and gets into harem hiinks with the shrine maidens. But it really was good! Uryu really shows how good a guy he is as the show goes on. His defining moment came with the final arc for this season. The struggle to regain what he truly wants was great and showed how far he had come.

It doesn’t hurt either that I really love the Amgami sisters. While Asahi was a personal favourite…everyone was good. The show made sure to keep rotating nicely between focusing on one girl or another. There was more than enough here to show what kind of lives these girls have lived and what drives them as characters. With the manga finished I’m not sure we’ll get a season 2…but I sure hope so!

4. Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku (Summer)
This is a show that really did surprise me. I knew going in that it had a great reputation. But you never truly know until you actually watch a show. The romance between Rintaro and Kaoruko was beautiful and I’m so glad the season ended where it did. These two are a cute pair and they bring the best reactions out of each other. It would have been easy for the show to lazily lean into the Romeo and Juliet angle. With them being from schools that openly hate each other. But instead the story just uses that while also saying what it actually wants to say.

Cloverworks does great job and this was another case of that. It’s obviously not a hugely action packed show, but everyone looked great. The music hit at the right moment in the big scenes. Heck, even Rintaro’s parents got some nice moments. This is the kind of thing that just works for me. Just developing the characters, giving them great moments, but not abusing misunderstandings constantly. This show just kept rolling along until the final episode.

3. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2 (Winter)
I’m once again amazed by how stacked Winter 2025 was. It’s not a surprise to say that most of my top 5 is from that season. 100 Girlfriends is a concept that in lesser hands might not have worked. But the source material and this adaptation have such love put into them that it does. Rentaro is a harem god and deserves every last one of his eventual 100 girlfriends! He gives absolutely everything to loving each of them and making them all feel special. Whether the show was adding a new girlfriend or just having some fun with the established group…it all worked.

There was no drop in this second season. The comedy, romance, and passion between the characters was consistently strong. I can only imagine the crazy juggling act that will be required to balance the cast as the seasons roll on. But what I will say is that season 2 was great and I loved it. That it is “only” third on this top 10 list shows how great the whole year was.

2. The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World (Winter)
There are shows you hope will live up to your expectations, but sometimes go beyond them. For me this was easily one of those. Effectively having a Power Ranger getting isekai’d is a crazy idea, but my god it worked! What better way to spice everything up than sending someone with their own powers into a magical setting like this? It was great since Red already had a great journey in his own “show” and yet his character arc continues in this fantasy setting. His pain and loss all have tangible meaning and still get explored. This is one of those shows where I truly pray it gets another season so they can continue the story.

The romantic and sexual tension between Red and Yihdra was also pure fun. Maybe someday they will get to Bond Merger! But honestly this show was both full of excellent action and absolutely hilarious. You could feel the passion for super sentai and everything connected to it. This show was truly great and deserves way more hyped than it got.

1. Medalist (Winter)
I really had to go back and forth on this. As always each year has so many great series. But Medalist just consistently impressed me from start to finish. Some shows maybe had an element that didn’t quite land, but I had a great time with this show. And the fact that it came out of nowhere made it such a treat. This story about a young figureskater and her coach just never let me go. Inori had such an emotional journey and of course it’s not over yet. But that final skate of hers in the last episode was beautiful. Her farewell to her past self that was full of self-loathing was beautiful. Inori and Tsukasa made for such a perfect team.

That this was a winter show just made it all the more perfect. It set the tone from the start of the year. And I think the CG performances just makes it all the more worthy to celebrate. There are so many ways this show could have stumbled or not reached its potential. But they made the best use of everything they could (animation, music, voice acting) to create a show that people should absolutely give a shot. This is a special show that warrants it and is my anime of 2025.

Conclusion

So that’s my Top 10 list! And yes, no fall shows ended up cracking it. There were some close ones (like Spy x Family), but I just couldn’t justify dropping anyone out of the top 10. It’s kind of great that 8/10 of the shows on this list were new ones. Sometimes new does have that advantage since it can hit hard and surprise you. But sequels are easy to get attached to because you have some nostalgic connection to them. This year in terms of anime was a great breath of fresh air. So many shows that really meant a lot to me and shows I hope get more seasons. It was a year with a good mix of various genres.

I’m under no illusion that my top 10 list is objective or anything like that. For me there’s no point trying to be all that objective. If something has objective quality, but I just didn’t enjoy it then I can’t force it into the top 10 for the sake of it. And this group is 100% my top 10 list for 2025. Would love to hear what others enjoyed. But in general I just hope everyone enjoyed anime this year. It’s a beautiful thing and I’d never want to be the only one enjoying myself.