Best Anime 2025: Top Winter Releases You Can’t Miss

The Best Anime 2025 has captivated fans this winter, with standout releases like Solo Leveling and The Apothecary Diaries. More than 40 episodes are coming out every week during the Winter 2025 anime season, which is a great way to start the year. Even though the medium as a whole benefits from having a lot of different types of shows, only a few seasonal series will be remembered once the snow melts and the flowers start to bloom in the spring. With a good mix of sequels and new movies, the current lineup has the potential to be great, but it remains to be seen if that will happen.

Best Anime 2025: Top Winter Releases

There are so many shows on at once that it’s not only hard to keep track of them all, but it might not even be fun. An outline of the top ten anime of Winter 2025 can help with this, at least in terms of finding places to begin. Let’s go over the best parts of the season.

Sakamoto Days

Studio: TMS Entertainment
Based On: Manga
Creator: Yuto Suzuki
Streaming Service(s): Netflix

Aside from the sequels, Sakamoto Days was the most talked-about anime in Winter 2025, and that was only because Yuto Suzuki’s original material was so good. The promotional materials for the adaptation, on the other hand, took away from its original momentum, with complaints about poor animation that didn’t seem to capture the manga’s kinetic energy.

In Sakamoto Days, a famous hitman falls in love and decides to settle down. The movie is an action comedy. These days, he runs a convenience store and spends his time with his wife and cute child. Sad to say, Sakamoto can’t retire, so he will have to keep his new life safe from his old one. He also hires a gunman who was sent to kill him in the first place.

The Sakamoto Days anime is still a bit of a mystery at this point. The first episode mostly made me laugh, but it didn’t calm all my fears that came from seeing the trailers because the animation was inconsistent, going from “pretty good” to “pretty stiff.” Still, the first episode of the anime mostly kept the manga’s charm, funny parts, and likeable characters.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

Japanese Title: Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo
Studio: Bibury Animation Studios
Based On: Manga
Creator: Rikito Nakamura
Streaming Service(s): Crunchyroll

Harem anime aren’t for everyone, and most people don’t pay much attention to them. Even though it’s still pretty niche, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is easier to get into than most movies in its genre because it’s mostly a comedy, even if it’s a comedy about harem silliness and tropes. The anime’s style of parody humour was established in the first season, which also showed Rentarou’s brilliance as a worthy main character and how the girls were different in more ways than one.

More soulmates should be added in Season 2, which should make things even sillier and keep the story moving steadily towards what its title promises. In Episode 1, the girls switched bodies for a few episodes, which set the tone right away and gave them all a chance to show emotions that were different from their usual ones. Also, Rentarou’s new girlfriend joined the harem, and she won’t be the last one.

Ave Mujica: The Die is Cast

Japanese Title:BanG Dream! Ave Mujica
Studio: SANZIGEN
Creator: Bushiroad (BanG Dream!)
Streaming Service(s): Crunchyroll

A follow-up to 2023’s BanG Dream! The first episode of It’s MyGO!!!!!: The Die is Cast may have been the heaviest of any Winter 2025 anime, and if the second episode is any indication, that wasn’t a one-time thing. As the title suggests, the sequel focuses on Ave Mujica instead of MyGO!!!!!, and the girl band seems like it’s about to break up, even though they just started out.

The Die is Cast by Ave Mujica is more about the characters than the music. So far, each episode has focused on a different girl (Sakiko or Uika), going surprisingly deep into her problems and thoughts. There are real-life themes like alcoholism, abandonment, and anxiety that the anime isn’t afraid to touch on as it looks into what drives these characters to each other and to the stage. It may take a while to get used to the CG animation, but it is very good. The music is also great.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Japanese Title: Kusuriya no Hitorigoto
Studio: OLM, TOHO animation STUDIO
Based On: Novel & Light Novel
Creator: Natsu Hyūga
Streaming Service(s): Crunchyroll

The first season of The Apothecary Diaries set a very high standard. The show is back for another 24 episodes, and there’s no reason to think that it won’t live up to those high standards. Even though it’s still early, the Winter 2025 anime hasn’t missed a beat so far. It mixes comedy, drama, historical references, and world-building very well.

Maomao is the main reason to watch The Apothecary Diaries. She has a sly sense of humour, is easy to like, and can handle romance checkpoints. Maomao is very interested in studying medicine and poison, and his unusual skills come in handy when he has to look into strange things that happen on the grounds of the Imperial Palace.

The first episode of Season 2 was pretty lighthearted and mostly went around a cat. But this plot thread that seemed silly was actually used to show different sides of two important characters and sprinkle in some historical facts. The “episodic” stories in The Apothecary Diaries have always been a great way to show not only the characters but also the society they live in.

Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Studio: A-1 Pictures
Based On: Manhwa
Creator: Chugong
Streaming Service(s): Crunchyroll

Arguably the most well-known manhwa of all time, Solo Leveling was destined to receive an anime sooner or later, but quality was far from guaranteed. Fortunately, the responsibility fell on A-1 Pictures, and the dependable studio went on to produce a polished first season in 2024. While the story was nothing too special, the action sequences were fantastic, delivering smooth and fast-paced animation that veered into cinematic territory.

Season 2 is shaping up to be more of the same, which is far from a criticism. Sung Jin-woo tags along on a seemingly easy hunt, only for things to quickly spiral out of control. Consequently, a bunch of hunters are trapped in a dungeon containing enemies well beyond most of their abilities, with Sung being the exception. As fun as dungeon crawling is, Solo Leveling’s hunter conflicts and the mechanics behind Sung’s power are more fascinating, and they are featured in season 2.

Also Read: Solo Leveling season 2 release schedule: When is episode 3 out, Key Dates and What to Expect