Solo Leveling Is Not The Best Anime Of 2025

2025 is shaping up to be an awesome year for anime. Solo Leveling Season 2 was comfortably the biggest series of Winter, and I would argue it was also the best show of that quarter. More than three months later, Sung Jinwoo’s latest animated adventure is still head and shoulders above everything else in terms of sheer popularity and exposure (at least, outside of Japan). When all is said and done, and 2025 turns into 2026, Solo Leveling Season 2 will be looked back upon as one of the year’s strongest shows. It deserves that praise.

That said, the biggest anime is not always the best anime, and 2025 has plenty of contenders that have or will present convincing cases for warranting the latter title. Summer 2025, in particular, is filled with massive series, most of which have gotten off to fantastic starts. Let’s highlight a few shows that have the potential to be 2025’s best anime, even more so than Solo Leveling Season 2.

Takopi’s Original Sin (Airing)

2025’s Heaviest & (Potentially) Greatest Anime

Although debuting in June 2025, Takopi’s Original Sin is a 6-episode ONA, so it exists outside the Summer 2025 season’s conventional schedule. At this point, the series is only about halfway done, so there is always the chance that things could get better or worse; however, the former seems almost impossible as Enishiya’s anime has been borderline perfect so far. Based on a short 2-volume manga, Takopi’s Original Sin combines sci-fi elements with a very human and distressing story that deals with bullying, suicide, child abuse, animal cruelty, and neglect.

Largely ignored by her mother and relentlessly bullied at school, Shizuka needs help. She is on the verge of giving up on the world, and her only lifeline is her dog. One day, she meets a naive alien named Takopi who just wants to make the young girl smile. He uses cool sci-fi technology to do incredible acts, including reversing time, to try and help his new friend. However, Takopi not only struggles to get through to Shizuka, but its Earthly experiences also challenge its innocence.

While not an easy watch by any stretch of the imagination, Takopi’s Original Sin tells a refreshingly mature tale that is rich in emotion, complexity, and ambition. Shizuka and Takopi are two of the most sympathetic and likable anime characters of 2025, despite being wildly different from each other. Even the “antagonists” have plenty of depth to them, as they are not just caricatures designed to inflict misery on the vulnerable protagonist.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity (Airing)

A Beautiful And Simple Romance

In a season filled with notable newbies, The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity is Summer 2025’s biggest new anime. Also, in a season filled with great romance anime, The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity might be the genre’s best representative; at least, it has the potential to reach the top. Saka Mikami’s manga is well-established as a modern classic and has been going strong since 2021.

While its Netflix exclusivity and delayed international debut could negatively impact its rollout, the adaptation is in near-ideal hands, as CloverWorks can be relied upon to deliver top-notch animation that does justice to the source material. Unlike Takopi’s Original Sin, The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity tells a simple story that fits seamlessly into the romance genre’s conventions. Kaoruko and Rintarou attend neighboring schools that despise each other (well, really, one of them hates the other), but these two students are more than ready to push against social pressure to permit their budding love to blossom. They have an adorable meet-cute and instant chemistry, setting the stage for a beautiful romance.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity might not hit the mark with people who cannot stand teenage love stories, but the same could be said for Solo Leveling and folks who are not into action. Within the context of romance anime, this show is the most exciting release since The Dangers in My Heart, and it could even be better than that masterpiece.

Dandadan Season 2 (Airing)

2025’s Second-Biggest Action Anime Sequel

Dandadan and Solo Leveling share a few things in common. Both anime are based on wildly popular comics that not only ensured they immediately attracted massive audiences, but also that they would need to meet extremely high expectations. Both adaptations debuted in 2024 and were among that year’s best shows, although I would argue that Dandadan was better than Solo Leveling. They both announced sequels for 2025, enabling them to quickly build on their momentum.

Now, Solo Leveling Season 2 felt like a bigger deal than Dandadan Season 2, which is currently airing as part of the Summer 2025 season. The latter set such a high bar with its first entry that it is hard to imagine a scenario where season 2 could blow its predecessor out of the water. In comparison, Solo Leveling’s 2025 anime marked a massive step-up, with the sequel tripling down on the first season’s strengths (the fights and Sung being effortlessly cool).

All that being said, Dandadan is (arguably) closer to the full package than Solo Leveling. The anime is a genre-blender in the most impressive possible way, merging action, romance, comedy, sci-fi, and supernatural. Such a scattershot approach could and should result in an uneven mess that does not please anyone, but Dandadan somehow makes it work. Momo and Ken’s romance is just adorable, while the fight sequences are well animated and benefit from an assortment of characters with very different powers and designs. The comedy is generally on-point, incorporating both wit and slapstick.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 (Complete)

Currently, The Best Anime Of 2025

Debuting alongside Solo Leveling Season 2, The Apothecary Diaries was Winter 2025’s other big anime, even though Maomao was never going to match Sung’s mainstream international appeal. If viewed solely on the cours released during Winter, Solo Leveling was the slightly better show, although your pick likely came down to genre preference.

However, The Apothecary Diaries continued for another three months and 12 more episodes, and the anime just went from strength to strength. So far, season 2’s final few chapters were 2025’s peak in terms of storytelling, paying off nearly 50 episodes of masterful writing, character development, and historical world-building. Takopi’s Original Sin might be able to match The Apothecary Diaries, but it cannot afford to miss a beat for the rest of its run.

The Apothecary Diaries follows Maomao as she uses her knowledge of poison to solve mysteries in China’s imperial court, although that summary makes the anime sound more formulaic than it is. While the cases are entertaining, they are primarily used to explore the setting’s social and political climate.

Regardless of whatever ends up being the best anime of the year, we can at least acknowledge that 2025 has been overall fantastic.