Solo Leveling Is 2025's Biggest Anime, But These Anime Might Actually Be Improved
2025 exploded with top-tier anime, but no argument can be made that Solo Leveling Season 2 has been the sole conversation. With its movie-quality animation, never-ending action sequences, and naturally cool hero Sung Jinwoo, the series steamrolled through the Winter season and became a modern shonen work of art. But while Solo Leveling absorbed the popularity and buzz, there have been several other anime in 2025 quietly fighting for the best anime of the year crown.
From the sob stories of The Apothecary Diaries to the mind-blowing fireworks of Dandadan Season 2, the anime world today is more competitive than ever. Let's take a look at the anime that are topping Solo Leveling and even surpassing it in some ways.
Solo Leveling Season 2: 2025's Undefeated Giant
Solo Leveling Season 2 was awaited on the brink of religious fervor, and A-1 Pictures delivered a sequel that not only lived up to expectations, but it obliterated them. From the Beru arc to Jinwoo becoming a monarch-level hunter, each episode was an adrenaline rush of top-shelf animation and great world-building.
Fights were more frenetic, stakes were higher, and the pacing was much smoother than Season 1. It was designed to dominate, and it did. But while Solo Leveling can lay claim to being the most trending anime of 2025, it isn't necessarily the most perfected show.
Dandadan Season 2: Genre-Bending Perfection
Now available for the Summer 2025 anime season, Dandadan Season 2 is the most vibrant rollercoaster of madness, love, and aliens of the year. While Solo Leveling sticks strictly to the power fantasy formula, Dandadan is a manic mixup of sci-fi, romance, comedy, and supernatural horror that never tilts either way.
Momo Ayase and Okarun's love story unfolds in earnest, and the show has no hesitation going ballsy, often venturing into weird places that somehow always manage to land emotionally. What sets Dandadan apart is its unapologetic originality. Every episode is like a mix of Chainsaw Man energy with Mob Psycho soul, and it's glorious.
The art style, led by Science SARU, is one of a kind, unlike anything else being broadcast in 2025. Experimental but polished, psychedelic yet grounded. With blow-it-out-of-the-water characters, gut-busting laughs, and actually frightening villains, Dandadan won't have Solo Leveling's mainstream gloss, but it completely beats, if not matches, its entertainment value.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2: Masterclass in Storytelling
While Solo Leveling succeeds on sheer strength and watchfulness, The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 succeeds on depth, nuance, and cerebral power. Continuing its pacey storyline, the story of Maomao, the poison prodigy of the imperial court, has shifted to a higher level of storytelling.
What began as episodic problem-solving has grown into a highly detailed political drama. The show's second half of Season 2 produced the best-written arcs of 2025, full of betrayals, palace politics, and emotional payoffs that felt hard-won after nearly 50 episodes.
Maomao's interactions with Jinshi are now emotionally mature, and the series finally gets around to giving some important background information on her heritage. The animation is maybe not flashy, but world-building and writing overpower most of this year's anime.
If quality of character development, writing, and depth of storytelling are the criteria by which anime is measured, then The Apothecary Diaries stands alone.
Takopi's Original Sin: The Sleeper Contender
Premiering in Spring 2025, Takopi’s Original Sin wasn’t the talk of the season — but it should have been. This dark, psychological drama explores the concept of childhood trauma through the lens of a time-traveling alien trying to bring happiness to a suffering girl.
It’s a harrowing, deeply disturbing anime that balances hope and horror in equal measure. Visually minimalist but narratively intense, Takopi’s Original Sin is like Puella Magi Madoka Magica meets A Silent Voice. The emotional weight it carries is unmatched.
As the series wraps up its run come next Fall 2025, it's setting itself up as the strongest gut-punch of the year. If it connects the punch, then it could be the emotional anime of the year.
⚔️ Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Part 2 – A Silent Giant Still Standing
After its successful first half, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End returned in 2025 with a tamer but no less potent second half. The anime continued its initial take on the fantasy genre, not of action, but of time, loss, and memory.
Frieren's personal arc, combined with the stunning artwork and somber piano score, is a standout fantasy anime even when eclipsed by Solo Leveling. It's contemplative and understated, allowing audiences a welcome reprieve from over-the-top action and instead examining the psychological cost of immortality.
It doesn't have Jinwoo's swagger, but it has something perhaps even more rare soul.
2025 will be remembered as one of anime’s strongest years in recent memory. Solo Leveling may be the king of popularity. Still, titles like Dandadan, The Apothecary Diaries, Takopi’s Original Sin, and Frieren offer a far richer and more varied buffet of storytelling styles.
Each of these anime brings something unique to the table:
- Solo Leveling for unmatched action spectacle
- Dandadan for genre anarchy that truly succeeds
- Apothecary Diaries for refined, step-by-step storytelling
- Takopi's Original Sin for psychological devastation
- Frieren for fantasy greatness with feelings
Whether high-speed battles are your thing, intricate court politics, or heartbreaking tragedies, 2025 saw an anime for every taste, and nearly all of them are good enough to be Anime of the Year.
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