10 Anime Shows We Can’t Wait to Watch in 2025
The next year in anime is an exciting one, with compelling originals coming out side by side with returning favorites. Not only is Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe back with a new show, but so is Kazuya Tsurumaki of FLCL fame and Hiroyuki Imaishi, known for his work like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and, before that, Gurren Lagann. While this list is limited to the ten titles we’re most excited for, there are so many shows coming in January alone we couldn’t include them all, like the second season of the surprisingly affecting My Happy Marriage and an adaptation of the popular Shonen Jump series Sakamoto Days. After a strong showing for anime in 2024, here’s what we’ll be watching over the months ahead.
January
Sorairo Utility (January 3)
While it’s hard for anything to reach the giddy heights of Birdie Wing, the new golf anime on the block Sorairo Utility approaches the same sport from a much calmer angle. An expansion of a pleasant short film (which you can watch on Crunchyroll) from 2021, the series is from the perspective of Minami, a high-schooler who stumbles across golf while lamenting that she has nothing which she excels at. It’ll be directed by Kengo Saitō (who also directed the short film); expect good vibes.
The Apothecary Diaries, season two (January 10)
If you, like us, loved the first season of The Apothecary Diaries (featured on our Best Anime of 2024 list), then good news: You don’t have to wait long for more. The medical mystery–slash–historical drama returns in early January with the beginning of the new season, with more sleuthing to be done in the Imperial Palace. For those unfamiliar: The Apothecary Diaries, adapted by director Akinori Fudesaka and writer Norihiro Naganuma from a series of novels of the same name, is about MaoMao, an apothecary turned servant in a royal palace, attending to the emperor’s concubines. Her medical knowledge and expertise in poisons soon lands her a recurring gig as a sort of forensic investigator, untangling intrigue among royal subjects.
April
Fire Force, season three
Taking the idiom “fighting fire with fire” rather literally is Fire Force, a fantasy series about a special fire brigade that combats “infernals,” an emergent strain of borderline demonic, spontaneously combusting humans. The members of the Special Fire Force Company 8 all have their own pyrokinetic powers, with crunchy sound design and colorful effectswork making for action that looks and sounds explosive in every sense of the word. This all takes place in the “Tokyo Empire,” where there’s a rather ominous government and various fanatical religious groups vying for power. Produced by David Production (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), director Tatsuma Minamikawa returns for the series’ final season, split into two parts across this year and 2026.
Yaiba: Samurai Legend
It’s a great time for remakes. Most recently, a new Ranma 1/2 beautifully recaptured the manga’s appeal; another take on The Rose of Versailles is on the way too. You can add this Yaiba adaptation from Gosho Aoyama (Case Closed) to the pile. Directed by Takahiro Hasui (Mob Psycho 100 season three), Minami Takayama reprises her role as the lead character, a young samurai who embarks on a quest to defeat his rival, who has newly transformed into a demon upon claiming an evil sword. Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, Spy X Family) animates.
TBA 2025
CITY: The Animation
The 2011 anime adaptation of Keiichi Arawi’s Nichijou is probably one of the greatest anime comedies ever made, a surreal collection of vignettes creating mayhem out of the mundane lives of a group of high-school girls (and one robot aspiring to be a high-school girl). Though fan demand for a second season was never met, the announcement of an adaptation of CITY by the same studio (Kyoto Animation) is the next best thing. A spiritual follow-up to Nichijou, CITY (directed by Taichi Ishidate, who also worked on the previous series) applies a similar style of humor to a slightly older cast, focused around Midori, a college student who leaves a lot of chaos in the wake of her quest for steady income.
Lazarus
The anime works of Shinichiro Watanabe are renowned for their crossover appeal; his seminal works Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are often recommended as anime gateways. His upcoming original series, Lazarus, stacks up even more reasons for newcomers to check it out with action design by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and a score from a holy trinity of musicians: Kamasi Washington, Floating Points, and Bonobo. Set in the year 2052, the futuristic series concerns a miracle drug that has cured all disease, but three years after its integration into everyday life, the scientist who created it reveals that the medicine has shortened the life spans of all who have taken it — and their death is imminent. The “Lazarus” task force is formed in response, to find a cure for the cure-all drug.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
Like a space colony dropped upon the earth, some of the biggest anime news for 2025 fell with sudden and meteoric impact. Last month, Sunrise announced a new Mobile Suit Gundam with an utterly wild roster of talent behind the wheel (or in the cockpit, if you want to keep it mech-themed), though we’re all still figuring out how to pronounce the title.
GQuuuuuuX is being co-produced with Hideaki Anno’s Studio Khara. The Evangelion creator himself will be contributing scripts while co-writer Yoji Enokido (Revolutionary Girl Utena, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion) will also handle overall series composition. In the director’s seat is Kazuya Tsurumaki (FLCL, Gunbuster 2: Diebuster, The End of Evangelion), while Ikuto Yamashita (Evangelion, again) will handle mechanical design.
Insane list of names aside, the show itself is set in a space colony, exploring an underground mech-fighting ring called “Clan Battle” — a world high-schooler Amate Yuzuriha is drawn into after meeting Nyaan (yes, “meow”). A preview film of sorts, compiled from the first few episodes, is out in Japan in January; at the time of writing, the release date for the series itself is yet to be confirmed.
New Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
The bold and heavily stylized anime directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi are among the most immediately recognizable in the industry — and Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt pushed those visuals to a cartoonish extreme. With raunchy, parodic spins on everything — even Transformers — the recently announced sequel show, New Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, looks to pick up where the old left off 15 years ago, with many of its principal staff returning. The series traces the exploits of “Anarchy sisters” Panty and Stocking (and other characters named after lingerie), two angels kicked out of heaven to Daten City, a sort of in-between place, where they fight to earn back their old position (using the power to turn their underwear into guns, of course).
The Summer Hikaru Died
A close friendship turns Lovecraftian in The Summer Hikaru Died, adapted from the manga of the same name. Teenager Yoshiki realizes that his friend Hikaru, who died on a mountain hike, has been replaced by a mysterious, otherworldly entity. Directed by Ryohei Takeshita (who also directed the acclaimed Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night), the series is produced by Cygames Pictures, the studio behind one of 2024’s best anime series, Brave Bang Bravern.
Witch Hat Atelier
Ayumu Watanabe has been keeping busy: This past year, the director led You Are Ms. Servant; in 2022, it was Summertime Rendering (a great series, not seen by enough people thanks to its time in Disney jail). This year, Watanabe delivers Witch Hat Atelier, which might be his most prestigious adaptation yet, based on Kamome Shirahama’s masterful manga known for its beautiful artwork. It’s the story of Coco, a girl who dreams of using magic despite her inability to do so. One day, she meets a traveling wizard named Qifrey, who shows her that there’s another way of using magic, and to achieve her dream — but it comes at great cost. Produced by Bug Films (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead), there’s some other cool talent involved, such as composer Yuka Kitamura, best known for her work on From Software’s games such as Elden Ring and Bloodborne.