Favourite Television of 2025

So. Most of the fictional TV I watch is anime and this list reflects that. But as a rare treat, I do have two non-anime shows in the list this year! Is one of them animated? Yes. But one of them is not! Which is, for me, a real branching out. And I’ve also really enjoyed catching up on 3 seasons of Reacher over the summer, though that didn’t quite make this list. We’ll have me regularly watching actual humans pretending to be other actual humans yet. But, for now, here’s 10 shows I watched this year that I had a lot of fun with.

Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Season 1 was good, season two is excellent. Nicely drawn and animated, good voice acting, and the connection between individual mystery arcs and the overarching plot is better balanced than the first season. What makes it work especially well, though, is the characters. Really good supporting cast (shout out especially to the long-suffering Gaoshun and Basen), and Maomao and Jinshi’s dynamic is fantastic. The key to it is they’re each working in completely different genres; Jinshi absolutely thinks he’s in a romance narrative and Maomao absolutely is not (“somewhat large frog,” anyone?). Can’t wait for the continuation.

Apocalypse Hotel

This was nowhere on my radar going in and was absolutely fantastic. The initial setup suggests a comedy; robots keep running a hotel on an Earth from which humans have evacuated and wacky hijinks ensue. And it does do that, but also mixes in elegiac reflections on a lost human Earth and real emotional resonance as our robot main character develops her own personality. All 3 of these collide in one episode, without dialogue for the bulk of its run time, that is the best single episode of television I watched this year.

Clevatess

~Dark Fantasy~ isn’t typically my vibe, and if this had just been edgelord fantasies and hyperviolence (and there is a fair bit of violence) it wouldn’t stand out. But Clevatess does something a bit different. Our titular character, an unknowable lord of monsters, starts to try to comprehend humanity. And the darkness of a lot of the plot is used to make the lighter moments (some nicely done comedy beats) stand out and also ask us if the pitiless force of nature violence represented by Clevatess is indeed worse than the intentional cruelty of one person to another. A much better piece of storytelling than the initial premise might suggest.

Dandadan season 2

Season 1 was great. Season 2 is great. Science Saru continues to hit it out of the park. Great art, killer soundtrack, excellent voice acting. A riotous genre mashup of horror, SF, screwball comedy, highschool drama, and romance that on paper maybe shouldn’t work but in reality is executed flawlessly. Just watch this, it’s great.

Heated Rivalry

Fundamentally just a nicely done gay romance show, but so nicely done. Good production values, nicely curated soundtrack, well-acted in general and spectacular chemistry between the two leads in particular. At one level none of this is groundbreaking, but at another having something so fundamentally mainstream as this – effectively a Hallmark series with the “bubble butts” dial turned up from zero to 11 – that is so unapologetically gay and horny is a welcome thing in times like we are living through. And the execution of all of it, while within pretty standards m/m romance parameters, doesn’t feel reductive in its depiction of its queer male lead characters (though it does just slightly in the underdone secondary romance), which very much does not go without saying. A fun, occasionally moving time, and deserving of the sequel series it is getting.

Kowloon Generic Romance

An example of that well known genre, alt history SF romance deep dive into the nature of regret. High concept and almost entirely pulls it off. Impeccable retro futurist 80s vibes, sympathetic character work, a brain twisty arc mystery that mostly made sense, and casual queerness among multiple main characters that is very, very unusual for a non-BL/yuri anime. The one negative note is that the pacing is a little rushed; a full two cour run would, I think, have been ideal, but that is a quibble. I very much enjoyed what this show served up.

May I Ask For One Final Thing?

Beautiful noblewoman fights injustice by punching terrible men – and the occasional woman – in the face. That’s it, that’s the anime. Yes, there are a couple of other plot lines going on (a reasonably charming romance subplot, some shenanigans with side characters) but that’s the core of it. Nicely drawn, good voice acting, and the couple of jabs at wish fulfilment isekai are well-placed. Far from the most complex thing I watched this year, but amongst the most fun.

The Mighty Nein

It’s animated, but it’s not anime! The second adaptation of a Critical Role campaign is, in my view, significantly more successful out of the gate than the first. The first two seasons of Vox Machina did too much, too fast for people not familiar with the characters, and tried to cram too much plot into too few too short episodes (all of these improved by season 3). The Mighty Nein had a longer episode length, spends time introducing its characters, has a very interesting anti-villain in Essek, and importantly is less visibly (at least to me who hasn’t watched much Critical Role) an adaptation of an actual play. The D & D influence is absolutely there, but it feels more like it’s own thing as an animated series than did Vox Machina. The end result is a fun, well-produced and nicely animated romp with a bit of depth and darkness for contrast. And Essek and Fjord can get it.

My Dress-up Darling season 2

A really nice continuation of season 1, a sweet teen drama that at one level is a romance between the two main characters (though neither of them quite acknowledges that to the other) but more broadly is a love letter to the community of cosplay. Nice comedy beats, good character work, and far less of the slightly uncomfortable “this is a seinen show so here are girls in their undies” moments that season 1 had. Does not fully adapt the manga, and I’d love to see the story completed, but leaves it in a good enough place that if that doesn’t eventuate the story doesn’t feel cut off at the knees.

With You and the Rain

Another delightful surprise I expected nothing from. Introverted woman finds tanuki on a rainy evening, takes tanuki home, pretends it is a dog. The tanuki, for reasons that are never explained, can read & write & understand human speech. Shenanigans ensue as the two learn to live with each other and without ever changing who she is, our introverted lead’s life opens up at the slightly chaotic and always adorable behest of her tanuki friend. Classic slice of life with very little tension – you wouldn’t want to watch a lot of these all at once, but as a very chill, well-produced change of pace it is delightful.