As the year winds down and we at JustWatch begin to look back on the past year, I can safely say that 2025 was one of the biggest years yet for the anime industry. There was such an overabundance of great titles that, at times, it was hard to keep track of everything. Plenty of shows commanded the community’s attention, and some series dominated the discourse on social media for weeks, if not months at a time.
So today, we’re going to look at the biggest anime moments of 2025 that live rent-free in my head. These are the moments in that fandom that stuck with me these past twelve months, regardless of the quality of the show. As long as it generated discussion, it was fair game. Most of these shows can be found on Crunchyroll or Amazon Prime Video, so if you want to see the anime moments that defined 2025, you know where to go. Now, without further ado, here they are, in chronological order.
Rentaro’s Speech - The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You (2023-Present)
Harem comedies, whether you like them or not, are an iconic part of the anime community. From Ranma ½ (1989-1992) to The Quintessential Quintuplets (2019-Present), harems have, and always will be, wish-fulfillment fodder for men. But few anime have committed themselves fully to the ridiculousness of the premise as The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, best epitomized by its season 2 finale.
On paper, the finale is just a speech where the protagonist, Rentaro, says why he’s thankful to all the women in his harem. But given the sheer amount of women who love him, he has to compliment every one of them and fully detail the depths of his love. And it’s a long speech, so much so that it won a Guinness World Record for the longest speech in a manga. The end result is a wonderful gag that was perfectly presented and was the perfect capstone for a wacky comedy. It’s ludicrous in the best way possible, and those looking for an unapologetically silly comedy will love it.
Solo Leveling Season 2 and The Crunchyroll Anime Awards
2024 saw the debut of Solo Leveling (2024-Present), a fairly by-the-numbers power fantasy that nevertheless exploded in popularity. Lovers of sakuga quickly glommed over the title, and it’s so popular that even non-anime fans are embracing Sung Jin-Woo’s angsty action.
But therein lies the problem. When the Crunchyroll Anime Awards announced that Solo Leveling won nine of its 13 nominations, including Anime of the Year, the blowback to its success was immediate. Accusations began to fly that Crunchyroll favored Solo Leveling because it was their biggest hit and they wanted to promote their platform instead of other high-quality anime, like Delicious In Dungeon (2024-Present). Don’t get me wrong, Solo Leveling’s action is solid, and people who just want to turn their brains off and watch pretty animation will be in heaven, but it called into question the legitimacy of the ceremony at a point when anime is trying harder than ever to be accepted by mainstream audiences.
“Happy Tenth Birthday” - One Piece (1999-Present)
With the One Piece anime having celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, the series spent most of 2025 detailing the backstory of one of its most enigmatic and imposing characters, Bartholomew Kuma. Unfortunately for fans, they weren’t prepared for how utterly heartbreaking and tragic it was.
For eight episodes, fans experienced firsthand the suffering that Kuma endured over the course of his tragic life. We witnessed his enslavement at the hands of the World Government, the joy he had when he discovered that he was going to be a dad, and the lengths he went to ensure that his daughter could live a full life. And it will make you cry. Even writing about it has me welling up with tears, and I have no shame in admitting that. Some people cry at the horrors the cast of Made in Abyss (2017-Present) are made to endure, or the tragic circumstances that separate Hana’s children in Wolf Children (2012). But Kuma? That hits different. It will break you.
Tougen Anki’s (2025) Female Character Designs Sure Are… Something
By all accounts, Tougen Anki (2025) is a fairly run-of-the-mill Shonen action series. Much like Blue Exorcist (2011-2025), it’s a series you’ve seen done plenty of times before. It has some good action beats, some decent powers, and a plot that isn’t at all complicated. It’s safe, generic, action fodder, and that’s perfectly okay.
But what really got the internet looking at Tougen Anki was its female character designs. If people were rolling their eyes at the fan service in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Tougen Anki takes it to a whole new level. Screenshots of the female characters quickly became the source of quality memes and jokes online. I mean, when characters are walking around like they came out of softcore ecchi shows like Eiken (2003) or walking around like Aphrodite fromRecord of Ragnarok (2021-Present), it’s going to draw some attention; mostly from a bunch of teenage boys, but it drew attention to the series nonetheless.
“Hunting Soul” - Dandadan (2024-Present)
If there’s one thing that’s true about Dandadan, it’s that it has great music. Both seasons of the show featured excellent opening and ending theme songs, but none could compare to the metal masterpiece that was “Hunting Soul.”
The entirety of Episode 18 is dedicated to an exorcism, and to do so, our heroes hire a seemingly goofy band named HAYASii to perform it. And they do so by debuting the most metal anime song since the opening to Watamote (2013). Thanks to vocals by DragonForce’s Marc Hudson and guitar from Marty Friedman of Megadeth, “Hunting Soul” brought a burst of adrenaline that only made the ensuing exorcism even more epic than it already was. Even the characters couldn’t resist headbanging to it! Both the English and the Japanese versions have been streamed tens of millions of times on Spotify, so do yourself a favor and listen to it and get ready to rock!
Panty and Stocking Make A Musical
While Dandadan was bringing down the house in the summer with its fast-paced metal magnum opus, NEW Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt (2025) was doing its own thing. Granted, that usually is the case with Panty & Stocking, but most people weren’t expecting them to dedicate an entire episode to parodying La La Land (2016).
The entire episode is a musical wherein Panty, everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed nymphomaniac, is banned from cursing but discovers that she can sing as many curse words as she wants. And with that, we have song after song of Panty just swearing up a storm while everyone happily sings and dances along. It’s as if you took the most offensive songs from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999) and went even further. And it worked! People started to pay attention to this raunchy send-up of American animation and fell in love with how different it was. Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt may have been away for 15 years, but it definitely didn’t feel like it.
The World of Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (2018-2023) Mourns A Horse
The Uma Musume: Pretty Derby took its time becoming popular in the West, but its time finally came when Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray (2025) was released in the Spring and dominated the discourse. And that timing was all too perfect, given what would come a few months later.
For those who are unaware, the Uma Musume series centers around real-life anthropomorphized racing horses, who are depicted as cute anime girls. Why? Because, as Kemono Friends (2017-2019) discovered, everyone loves a cute anime girl, and one of the most lovable characters was the plucky Haru Urara. Both in the anime and in reality, Haru Urara was one of the most prolific losers in horse racing history, but people loved her regardless. That made it all the more sad when, on September 9, the real life Haru Urara passed away. Fans of Uma Musume were devastated and mourned her death on social media, which was definitely a strange chapter in the anime community, but a unifying one.
Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man Conquer The Box Office
While Hollywood has been trying to crack the anime nut for years, with failed adaptations of anime properties like Bet (2025-Present) and Cowboy Bebop (2021), 2025 was a stark reminder that anime doesn’t need to be legitimized by Hollywood. Case in point, the box office performances of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (2025) and Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc (2025).
Together, both films earned over $175 million at the domestic box office and were worldwide sensations. Theaters were packed to see Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, and it quickly became the most successful anime film at the North American box office since Pokémon: The First Movie (1998). As for Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc, it was the first new installment of the series since 2022, and MAPPA delivered a cinematic spectacle that earned it arguably more acclaim than Infinity Castle. Now, both films have been shortlisted for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. While it’s unlikely they’ll be able to dethrone the frontrunner, KPop Demon Hunters (2025), the fact that they have a chance is a huge milestone for a fandom that seems to only be represented at awards shows via Studio Ghibli productions.
One Punch Man Season 3 Is… Rough…
The first season of One Punch Man (2015-Present) is one of the most well-animated shows of the 2010s. Between the action and comedy, it was a show that more than earned the fanbase it had. And once One Punch Man’s third season came out, almost all of those fans ran for the hills.
It’s hard to just single out one moment from One Punch Man Season 3 that stuck with me for its terribleness. Was it Garou’s infamous slide down the hill? What about the constant cut frames of animation in fight scenes? Maybe it was the odd color choices used throughout, or just the entirety of Episode 6? No matter how you slice it, it’s bad, and everyone knows it. It’s a disaster of the same level as the second seasons of The Promised Neverland (2019-2021) and Blue Lock (2022-Present). One silver lining: at least it’s a fun trainwreck to watch, and everyone wants to see just how bad it can get. That’s… something?
Deku vs. All For One - My Hero Academia (2016-Present)
My Hero Academia has been a popular Shonen series since its inception. It was the perfect blend of Western superhero tropes and Eastern storytelling that proved an irresistible combo for fans of both. And in 2025, it all came to an end. While the last few chapters had some major issues that the anime looks set to repeat, at the very least, the final battle between Deku and All For One was glorious.
It has everything you could want out of an action-packed finale. Heroic last stands. Surprise returns. Almost every character in the series appearing in some capacity to aid in the fight. And throughout, the animation is simply to die for. For eight episodes, fans were treated to a battle that was everything they expected it to be, and then some. Even if fans knew what was going to happen, seeing it unfold was a sight to behold, and it captured the same magic that Avengers: Endgame (2019) did with its explosive finale when it originally premiered. My Hero Academia may be over, but it went out with one hell of a bang.
