The Top Winter 2025 Anime You Don’t Want to Miss

With the Fall 2024 anime schedule now at an end, it’s time to look ahead for what’s coming next with the new wave of anime hitting with the Winter 2025 schedule. 2024 was one of the strongest years for anime in recent memory, and now the next year has even higher standards to meet if it wants to be just as successful. But things are already looking up for 2025 as the first wave of anime hitting for the Winter season are some of the most anticipated new releases of the next year overall. And it won’t be too much longer until it all premieres.

The Winter 2025 anime schedule is packed to the brim with a ton of returning franchises coming back with new episodes, original anime projects from high profile studios, highly anticipated adaptations making their TV anime debut, one of the wildest looking new Isekai anime releases of 2025, and much more. Read on for some of the biggest new anime to keep an eye out for in the Winter 2025 anime schedule starting in January.

Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From the Shadow-

Release Date: January 4th (Crunchyroll)

Solo Leveling kicked off 2024 on a strong start as it was one of the most anticipated Webtoon adaptations of the last few years. It was a series that fans had been wanting to see get the full anime treatment above all else, and it was made clear why as the first season following Sung Jinwoo as he steadily became one of the strongest Hunters in the world. The series began with a hopeless Jinwoo as he was struggling to keep up against the deadly monsters he needed to fight in order to make any living as a hunter, but now Season 2 sees a much stronger, and more confident Jinwoo take on deadlier threats than ever before.

There won’t be any waiting for Jinwoo to do cool stuff this time around as he will immediately be testing his powers against powerful monsters, and soon fans will see him enter a whole new realm of trouble as a result. We could be looking at an even bigger hit than the first season.

Zenshu

Release Date: January 5th (Crunchyroll)

Studio MAPPA, the studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man and more, is coming this Winter with a new original anime project that looks entirely different from anything the studio has done before. It’s a new series focused on the anime making process, but with an additional twist of an anime director being transported to the world of their own favorite anime. Series about anime making are some of the best anime stories, and Zenshu looks to take that creative spirit in an action fueled direction as the director at the center of it all looks to change the tragic fate of her favorite series.

This has the potential to go a lot of ways with each episode, and that makes it one of the most intriguing new anime hitting for the Winter 2025 schedule overall.

My Happy Marriage Season 2

Release Date: January 6th (Netflix)

My Happy Marriage was one of the secretly biggest successes of the last few years. The anime adaptation for Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka’s original light novel series followed not long after its live-action film debuted in Japan, but quickly blossomed into a huge hit among romance fans. With two seemingly opposite people end up forced into a marriage with one another, it turns out that there’s a lot more love brewing between the two of them than they ever would have expected. With some truly gorgeous sequences and a weekly streaming release with Netflix, this sequel season is likely going to be just as big as the first time around.

Dr. Stone Science Future

Release Date: January 9th (Crunchyroll)

Speaking of sequels, Dr. Stone is returning to screens once more with the beginning of the end. Dr. Stone Science Future is going to serve as the final season of the TV anime overall as it will be adapting the final chapters from Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi’s original manga series. Senku and the rest of the Kingdom of Science are traveling to the former United States of America with the intent of saving the rest of the world from petrification. But upon heading to this new area, Senku finds he has to deal with another genius scientist who is really going to give him a run for his money as the final antagonist before it all comes to an end. It’s about to get intense!

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Release Date: January 10th (Crunchyroll)

The Apothecary Diaries had one of the best new anime debuts in recent memory, and the first season only got better once the second half of it kicked off even bigger mysteries and intrigue early last year. At the same time, the central romance between Maomao and Jinshi grew even more. By the end of the first season, it was made clear that there is some kind of connection between the two that they both share and now that’s going to be tested with the second season of episodes. Bigger mysteries, more characters, and even more moving pieces will be added to the mix for Season 2 and this is going to start the year off with a bang.

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!

Release Date: January 10th (HIDIVE)

There are plenty of Isekai anime franchises making their debut this Winter, and each of them has a unique kind of hook. From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated! has to have one of the best, however. An older businessman loses his life, and then gets reincarnated into a romance game for girls. Finding himself in the body of the game’s antagonist, this businessman now needs to figure out how he’s going to be living his new life in this game all while learning how this world works. Then added with the trouble of navigating his new social life, and the businessman might have to use some of those skills he used to survive his office life for so long.

Sakamoto Days

Release Date: January 11th (Netflix)

The first of the major Weekly Shonen Jump franchises that will be making their official anime debuts this year, Sakamoto Days has a high chance of success if its release on Netflix is handled in the right fashion. Yuto Suzuki’s Sakamoto Days is ruled by everything cool. Characters might be grounded in reality, but everything they do is far from it. Fights can span entire cityscapes as assassins use their deadly abilities to tear through their surroundings like paper. And characters move with a speed and agility that’s far from what their bodies look like they’re capable of.

Basically, if it’s cool, Sakamoto Days will do it. If the anime can somehow tap into the frenetic energy of the original manga and bring it all to a new level, we could be looking at the first anime of the year contender for 2025. It just needs to hit the mark.

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

Release Date: January 12th (Crunchyroll)

If we’re talking returns, however, there’s not going to be wilder one than with The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. The first season of the anime taking on Rikito Nakamura and Yukiko Nozawa’s was one of the most refreshing romances in recent memory. The anime introduced fans to anime’s best boy, Rentaro Aijo, who had struck out with 100 romantic confessions throughout his life. But thanks to a mistake from a god, Rentaro now finds himself needing to date 100 of his soulmates or they all die in horrible ways.

It’s a show that’s at times hilarious, but takes its romance very seriously. It’s a show with a massive cast that all interacts with one another in a refreshing way, and is only going to be more impressive when Rentaro meets his eighth girlfriend and beyond in the new season. Time to jump in for sure.

The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World

Release Date: January 12th (Crunchyroll)

What if a Power Ranger got sucked into a fantasy world with all of their powers? That’s the central idea behind The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, and that makes for quite the promising Isekai anime. Taking a Super Sentai hero and their wide variety of abilities, weapons, and even machines into a world ruled by magic, and it’s bound to lead to a wild clash between worlds. With so many Isekai coming out each year, it’s harder for a series to really stand out. But this is definitely the way to go as we’re looking at what could be a very fun watch.

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Season 3 – Counterattack Arc

Release Date: February 5th (Crunchyroll)

But the biggest return of the Winter 2025 by far is Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-. The first half of Season 3 kicked off in Fall 2024, and it challenged Subaru and the others more than they ever have been before. While Season 2 was highly emotional, and really laid Subaru and Emilia bare with its challenges, Season 3 gets right into the action. The first half of the season introduced even more members of the Witch’s Cult, and begins a siege on a water logged town.

Subaru needed to become an inspiring hero, and did so right as the first half of the season came to an end. It’s now time for Subaru and his allies to mount their counterattack, and the next half of Season 3 is about to somehow be more full of action than ever before. It’s all coming to its climax and it’s going to be quite the ride.