If you can believe it, we’ve already reached the end of 2024, and that means it’s the perfect time to look forward to the best anime that next year has to offer. Whether you’re excited for a returning series like Solo Leveling or the final season of Doctor Stone or desperate for a new, highly-anticipated adaptation like Sakamoto Days or Witch Hat Atelier, there’s a ton to be excited about. And that’s not even including the fact that we’re getting a new series from the creator of Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim.
There’s something for everyone, so let’s dig into our most anticipated anime of 2025, including some already announced titles that we’re hoping might end up releasing in 2025.
Lazarus
Shinichiro Watanabe lovers rejoice! Yes, the legendary creator behind Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Carol & Tuesday, and Space Dandy is back with what’s sure to be another stylistic banger, this time coming directly to the iconic Adult Swim Toonami block and a day later on Hulu. While we don’t know exactly when the series will debut, we know it should be here in 2025 no matter what – and we couldn’t be more excited.
As the title hints, this series centers on the hunt for a vaccine after a drug to extend people’s lives is revealed years later to be a death sentence. To find a cure, our heroes must hunt down the man who created the miracle drug and fix things before millions of people die.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2
Sometimes an unexpected anime sneaks up on the fandom and gains attention through word of mouth and excitement. In the 2023-2024 season that was definitely The Apothecary Diaries, which has become a firm favorite since debuting. With a great hook — a young apothecary’s daughter is kidnapped and taken to the royal palace — the show soon becomes a perfect mix of court intrigue and detective adventure as our young hero learns to survive in her new surroundings. With the second season coming soon, we can’t wait to reenter this dramatic and fantastic world filled with complex women, scheming men, and brightly intelligent antagonists.
Sakamoto Days
If you’re a fan of The Way of the Househusband, then this delightful slice of life/crime mashup is likely already on your radar. Based on the manga by Yuto Suzuki, it follows an old man named Sakamoto. He was once a feared hitman, but retired after falling in love and having kids, becoming a chubby old convenience store owner. However, when his past starts to impact his idyllic life, he has to use his very particular set of skills to protect those he loves. From what we’ve seen of the trailer, this is going to be lush, hilarious, and action-packed, with plenty of delicious anime food sequences to feed your eyeballs and soul. Basically, a perfect way to start the New Year.
Solo Leveling Season 2 (Arise from the Shadow)
The first season of the hugely successful adaptation of the South Korean portal fantasy web novel garnered fans across the world, so it probably shouldn’t be surprising that Solo Leveling Season 2 is headed our way sooner rather than later. After Sung Jinwoo is chosen by the mysterious System, he becomes the only hunter in his monster-filled world who can level up his powers — hence the name — and so begins the story of Solo Leveling. The first season was a massive hit, inspiring not only a second season but also a webtoon spinoff, a movie, and a game. When this follow-up hits in early 2025 it’s going to be interesting to see how the series evolves with its supernatural main character and whether it continues to grow its audiences to even greater heights.
Dr. Stone Final Season (Science Future) (Jan 2025)
The fourth and final season of Doctor Stone will be hitting screens early next year and while fans were originally worried that one season wouldn’t be enough to cover the end of the manga, the reveal that the fourth season would be three parts instead of two – with almost 40 episodes to tie up the story – has helped to allay those fears. If you’re not yet a fan, Dr Stone is set in a future where all humans were petrified for thousands of years until our teenage hero Senku Ishigami is revived and commits himself to finding a cure. Soon he realizes how to revive other petrified humans, setting himself and his eclectic allies on a wild adventure to save the world and discover what happened to petrify the globe.
I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time
Based on the light novel series — published in English by Yen Press alongside its manga adaptation as well — this extraordinarily long title has cultivated a fervent fanbase. Alina Clover is the overworked and wildly relatable protagonist who’s trying to keep her work life at work and not have it cannibalize her time away from the front desk of the adventurers’ guild. The city of Ioffle isn’t prepared for this adventurer-who-isn’t-an-adventurer and her war hammer as she attacks her overtime woes in such a fierce manner. The show’s Japanese broadcast begins on January 10, 2025 and it looks like the English sub shouldn’t drop too far behind.
Witch Hat Atelier
It’s hard to put into words just how highly anticipated the animated adaptation of Kamome Shirahama’s smash hit manga is. Finding a huge audience outside of just the anime and manga fandom, this gorgeously illustrated series tells the story of a young girl, Coco, who wants nothing more than to become a witch. After a chance meeting at her mother’s tailoring shop with Quifery, one of the rare magic users in her world, Coco is swept into an entirely new life at the titular atelier. Shirahama’s gorgeous art style seems to have been brought to life perfectly, judging by what we’ve seen from trailers so far, and it looks like this cozy, magical, and utterly fantastic manga series has the potential to be one of 2025’s biggest anime hits.
Gachiakuta (2025)
Kei Urana delivered a modern classic with her manga Gachiakuta, a twisted take on the classic class-war trope that feels akin to a modern day Battle Angel Alita mixed with the Count of Monte Cristo. When Rudo’s foster father is murdered, he finds himself accused of the killing and thrown out of his day to day life surviving in the Sphere — where the descendants of criminals live as an underclass — into the deadly landscape known as The Pit, a stinking landscape of infinite rubbish filled with deadly trash monsters. This is easily one of the most anticipated anime of the year as fans wait to see Rudo’s world and his quest for revenge brought to life by Bones and director Fumihiko Suganuma. The series will also feature character designs by Tokyo Mew Mew’s Satoshi Ishino, who will act as the lead animator on the project.
Omniscient Reader (Hopefully 2025)
In the dynamic South Korean web novel by Sing Shong that this anime is based on, a young man becomes embroiled in the end of the world after being the sole reader of… a web novel that seems to be predicting the very apocalypse he has to now survive! This is the kind of meta commentary that we love at IGN, and the novellas have become a fan favorite since they debuted in 2018. While we’re not 100 percent sure that we’ll see Omniscient Reader next year, we know it is currently in production. So fingers crossed that we’ll get to see the anime adaptation at some point in 2025.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 (Hopefully 2025)
If you’re looking for a delightful campaign fantasy, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better one from the last few years than Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. This unexpectedly existential series centers on an elven mage who decides to seek out the path to restoring her past adventuring party after realizing that she never truly got to know them while they were still alive. Exploring the notions of grief, growth, and of course friendship, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is an endlessly entertaining and thought-provoking adventure, and with original animation studio Madhouse signed on for Season 2 it’s going to look just as beautiful as the first season did.
Which anime are you most looking forward to in 2025? Let’s discuss in the comments!
