After a year of breakthrough shonen hits and western crossovers, 2025 is looking like a bumper year for anime. Big-name sequels, hyped-up debuts, and the swan song for one of Shonen Jump’s modern classics are all ahead.
It’s always tough to whittle things down, so it’s worth spotlighting some honorable mentions before we reveal the top ten anime to look out for. Firstly, heavy-hitting shonen like Fire Force Season 3, Hell’s Paradise Season 2, and Dr. Stone: Science Future should be on your action-adventure radar in 2025. If that weren’t enough, you can look forward to more DIY demon slashing fun in the form of a Chainsaw Man movie.
That’s not all, though; high-stakes action can be found in shippers’ paradise SK8 The Infinity Season 2 and bus-victim-turned-isekai shenanigans in Mushoku Tensei Season 3. The standout new addition to the high fantasy genre, Frieren, is also back with a second season.
Finally, the delightfully weird Delicious In Dungeon, in which monsters are on the menu, returns for Season 2, while grim tearjerker To Your Eternity Season 3 has the potential to ruin your 2025, too. Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty with the 10 most anticipated anime coming in 2025…
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2
- Release date: 10 January 2025
- Studio: TOHO Animation Studio, OLM
- Cast: Aoi Yûki, Kaiji Tang, Katsuyuki Konishi
A light novel-turned-manga-turned-anime in 2023, The Apothecary Diaries takes place in a fictionalized version of Imperial China and follows Maomao, a young healer who lends her skills to the Imperial Palace’s ailing concubines. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 continues the show’s blend of mystery and period drama, with Prince Jinshi enlisting Maomao’s medical sleuthing services. If only his pesky feelings for her would stop interfering with their important work…
That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Season 4
- Release window: 2025 (likely summer or autumn)
- Studio: Eight Bit
- Cast: Miho Okasaki, Megumi Toyoguchi, Megumi Toyoguchi
Among a deluge of bizarre, transformation isekai, That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime remains the high watermark, long outliving its silly conceit in the title to become a geopolitical fantasy tale in its own right. Titular Slime Rimaru has earned humanoid form since the show began in 2018 and continues to build and defend his monster empire in Season 4. Fans are in for a double helping with a new theatrical film also on the way.
The Rising Of The Shield Hero Season 4
- Release window: 2025
- Studio: Kinema Citrus
- Cast: Kaito Ishikawa, Asami Seto, Rina Hidaka
Despite getting off to a controversial start in western regions, The Rising Of The Shield Hero anime has maintained enough popularity to receive a fourth season in 2025. In this dark isekai, shunned antihero Naofumi Iwatani teams with the human-tanuki girl Raphtalia and bird monster Filo to fight the Waves Of Catastrophe. A visual for Season 4 teases ‘the return of the exiled’, with Naofumi and his team overlooking a sprawling cityscape in a portrait of tense nostalgia.
Spy x Family Season 3
- Release window: 2025 (likely summer or autumn)
- Studio: CloverWorks, WIT Studio
- Cast: Takuya Eguchi, Atsumi Tanezaki, Saori Hayami
Perfectly weaving farcical comedy into slick espionage action, Spy x Family is one of Shonen Jump’s most unique crowd pleasers. Takashi Katagiri, who directed the film Spy x Family: Code White, returns to direct Spy x Family Season 3, which had been originally anticipated to release in October 2024. The manga is still ongoing, with super spy Loid, his assassin wife Yor, and their adopted telepathic daughter Anya continuing their mission to covertly bring peace to a divided nation.
Kaiju No.8 Season 2
- Release window: 2025 (likely summer or autumn)
- Studio: TOHO Animation
- Cast: Masaya Fukunishi, Wataru Katoh, Fairouz Ai
You’ve probably never considered who has to clean up in the aftermath of a kaiju battle, but that’s what the initial premise of promising newcomer Kaiju No.8 is about. Combined with an Attack On Titan-esque twist, elder Millennial Kafka Hibino harbors fantasies of fighting giant monsters rather than picking up after them. A shock transformation makes this dream come true but also brands him a public enemy, leaving Kafka with a lot more pieces to pick up in Kaiju No 8 Season 2.
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Solo Leveling Season 2
- Release window: January 2025
- Studio: A-1 Pictures
- Cast: Taito Ban, Reina Ueda, Genta Nakamura
One of a crop of recent manwha anime hits, Solo Levelling takes isekai power fantasy to new… err… levels. Similar to Tower Of God, the action takes place in a strange and brutal world, the ranks of which are dominated by powerful hunters. A chance encounter with a rogue program called The System transforms weaker hunter Sung Jinwoo into one capable of growing in strength. Wouldn’t you know it? He’s the Chosen One! Jinwoo’s push towards the S-Rank continues in Season 2, teased by a seasonally icy trailer included with the ReAwakening film in September.
One-Punch Man Season 3
- Release window: 2025 (likely summer or autumn)
- Studio: J.C Staff
- Cast: Makoto Furukawa, Hikaru Midorikawa, Daisuke Namikawa
Starting as an amateur comic poking fun at shonen power systems, One-Punch Man’s unbeatable superhero Saitama has been frequently pitted against the characters he was created to parody by fans. The gag of a hero motivated by sheer boredom became a more straightforward battle story in its second season, arguably to its detriment. Hopefully, One-Punch Man Season 3 – coming out a whole decade after the first – can do its source material better justice as it continues the Monster Association Arc.
Naruto Shinsaku
- Release window: 2025 (expected)
- Studio: Pierrot
- Cast: TBA
This 20th-anniversary remake of the Naruto anime has proven as elusive as some of its own ninjas. Slated to release in 2024, it’s now expected in 2025, coinciding with the return of it younger sibling series Boruto. There’s still less information about the project floating around than the similar One Piece anniversary remake. However, fan speculation points to Shinsaku giving greater emphasis to storylines that connect with Boruto for greater universe cohesion.
Sakamoto Days
- Release date: 11 January 2025
- Studio: TMS Entertainment
- Cast: Tomokazu Sugita, Hina Kino, Ryōta Suzuki
The next hotly-tipped debut from the Shonen Jump stable, Sakamoto Days takes a leaf out of Kaiju No.8’s book, starring an older main character in Tara Sakamoto. So old, in fact, that he’s already lived an entire life’s worth of action as a John Wick-style assassin and is peacefully retired. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last, with Sakamoto swapping his apron for guns in a crime comedy anime that looks like it’ll capture the manga’s silly cutaways and serious fight scenes well.
My Hero Academia Final Season
Release window: 2025 (likely summer or autumn)Studio: Studio BonesCast: Daiki Yamashita, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Ayane Sakura
With the manga concluded in August 2024, the My Hero Academia anime is not far behind. Beginning as the academic proving ground for Japan’s young, Quirk-empowered superheroes, the story broadens out in its latter seasons to put the kids on the frontlines of a devastating villain uprising. Along those lines, Season 8, its final one, concludes the heroes’ decisive battle against the Paranormal Liberation Front, as well as Deku’s personal war with All For One. A global phenomenon, the My Hero Academia anime will leave a big hole to fill.
In the meantime, why not check out our list of the best anime movies ever made.
