2025 has been an incredible year for anime, but some amazing shows are getting lost in the shuffle. While everyone’s hyped about the big sequels and mainstream hits, these underrated gems deserve way more attention than they’re getting.
From sports anime that’ll make you cry to experimental shorts that push creative boundaries, this list highlights the 2025 anime you need to watch before the year ends.
1. Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray
Most people hear “anime about horse girls racing” and immediately check out, but they’re missing one of 2025’s most emotionally powerful sports anime. Cygames Pictures brought this April 2025 adaptation focusing on Oguri Cap, a weak-bodied country racer who becomes a national legend through sheer determination. The storytelling surpasses the original Uma Musume series with more grounded pacing, tougher character decisions, and consistently high animation quality throughout its run.
The manga has surpassed 6 million copies in circulation, yet the anime remains largely overlooked. Despite the unusual setup, Cinderella Gray delivers some of the most grounded and intense sports drama in recent anime. The races feel earned, Oguri Cap’s character arc is compelling, and the emotional weight holds up against any top-tier sports series.
2. Medalist
When the producer admits “there are some parts where we have to lie about the skating sequences”, you know this team was obsessed with getting it right. Studio ENGI’s Winter 2025 adaptation follows 11-year-old Inori Yuitsuka, who’s considered “too old” to start figure skating seriously, and Tsukasa Akeuraji, a 26-year-old former ice dancer who sees his younger self in her.
The production partnered with Japan’s National Skating Federation, got retired three-time Grand Prix Final Medalist Akiko Suzuki to choreograph scenes, and used motion capture with actual professional skaters.
If you’ve ever felt like you started something too late or weren’t good enough, this will absolutely wreck you emotionally. The skating scenes look incredible, but it’s the relationship between a failed athlete and a determined kid that makes this unmissable.
3. Gintama – Mr. Ginpachi’s Zany Class (2025)
Sakata Ginpachi teaches Gintama High School’s Class 3-Z, a ragtag bunch of idol otaku, stalkers, mayo guzzlers, sadists, and delinquents where fights break out, rules are ignored, and sanity is completely optional. Bandai Namco Pictures premiered this in October 2025, and longtime Gintama fans finally got the full-length adaptation they’ve been craving since the concept appeared as shorts in the original series. Based on Tomohito Oosaki’s light novel series that first debuted in February 2006, it parodies the famous Japanese drama.
Unfortunately, casual viewers see “Gintama spinoff” and assume they need to watch 367 episodes of the original first, which isn’t true at all since this anime works as a standalone school comedy.
4. City The Animation
Kyoto Animation’s first entirely new production since the devastating 2019 arson attack that killed 36 staff members deserves attention for that reason alone, but City earns its spot based purely on quality. Director Taichi Ishidate, whose previous works include Violet Evergarden and Beyond the Boundary, brings Keiichi Arawi’s manga to life with the same surreal comedy energy as his previous series Nichijou.
City is rated 7.8/10 on IMDb, yet barely anyone is talking about it outside dedicated comedy anime circles. The anthology format, following various residents of an ordinary city doing extraordinary stupid things, won’t appeal to everyone, but the emphasis on comedic timing through silence and the Richard Scarry-esque vibrant visual style creates something genuinely special. Perfect for viewers who want pure, consequence-free comedy after stressful days, this is your comfort watch that most people are sleeping on simply because slice-of-life comedies don’t generate the same hype as action series.
5. 100 Meters
From the creator of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth comes a film that asks what motivates people through the lens of the 100-meter dash, and if you think a movie about sprinting can’t be compelling, you’re dead wrong. Rock ‘n’ Roll Mountain adapted Uoto’s manga, which was serialized from November 2018 to August 2019, into a 102-minute theatrical experience that premiered at Annecy 2025’s Official Selection before hitting Japanese theaters on September 19. GKIDS brought it to North America starting October 12 with both subbed and dubbed versions.
The rotoscoping animation captures every muscle strain and breath with organic precision, making viewers feel like they’re on the track. It scored 8.2 on IMDb, yet most anime fans breezed past it without a second glance, assuming that track movies can’t deliver emotional depth. So, who should watch this? Anyone who’s ever started something late, faced someone naturally better, or questioned what drives them to keep pushing.
6. Apocalypse Hotel
Type-Moon co-founder Kinoko Nasu called this “not only one of the best anime of 2025 but also of this century”, which sounds like hyperbole until you actually watch it. In 2057, “infortunium pollution” makes Earth’s air unbreathable for primates, forcing humanity to flee to space and leaving behind the Gingarou Hotel in Ginza, maintained by robot concierge Yachiyo and her staff. A century later, their first guest in decades turns out to be an extraterrestrial visitor.
Apocalypse Hotel scored 7.4 on IMDb, but that number doesn’t capture the emotional gut-punch it delivers. Comparisons to WALL-E and NieR:Automata are spot-on, exploring what motivates beings designed to serve when there’s nobody left to serve. The show balances absurd comedy with profound loneliness, making viewers empathize with robots in ways that feel uncomfortably human.
7. Ruri Rocks
The manga’s creator Keiichirō Shibuya is a former science teacher who studied mineralogy in graduate school, which explains why this feels less like fiction and more like going on actual rock-hunting adventures with someone who genuinely loves the subject. Studio Bind ran this from July to September 2025 on Crunchyroll, proving you genuinely can make “cute girls doing cute things” about literal rocks and have it work.
High schooler Ruri Tanigawa wants jewelry but can’t afford it, so she decides to find crystals herself and meets graduate student Nagi Arato, who introduces her to proper mineralogy. The production quality rivals Laid-Back Camp’s nature travelogue vibes, with Studio Bind refusing to stop animating movement and lavish outdoor shots. If you’ve ever loved a hobby deeply enough to bore your friends talking about it, Ruri’s infectious enthusiasm will hit home, and you might accidentally learn enough mineralogy to impress geology majors.
8. New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
Fifteen years is a hell of a wait for a sequel, especially when the original 2010 series ended on a cliffhanger that left fans screaming. Studio Trigger finally delivered in July 2025, running through September, with the angel sisters returning to Daten City. The major shakeup? Scanty and Kneesocks are now co-stars since Heaven’s economy crashed and coin values plummeted to near zero, forcing all four to split rent and gigs.
Director Hiroyuki Imaishi returned with the original creative team, and honestly, they learned absolutely nothing about decency in those 15 years. Critics called it “a joyous celebration of freak-ass sexploitation trash” that wants audiences to cut loose and laugh at how ridiculous everything is.
9. My Melody & Kuromi
Directed by Tomoki Misato, the visionary behind Pui Pui Molcar, this stop-motion series proves Sanrio characters can carry surprisingly dark storytelling. TORUKU from WIT STUDIO produced this Netflix exclusive celebrating My Melody’s 50th and Kuromi’s 20th anniversaries, premiering July 24, 2025. My Melody opens a cake shop in Mariland after finding a mysterious heart in the forest, while rival Kuromi’s Japanese sweets shop across the street stays empty. The cute aesthetic gradually shifts darker with possessed characters, glowing red eyes, and psychological horror that might distress younger viewers expecting pure fluff.
The anime scored 8.2 on IMDb, with adult viewers shocked by the unexpected depth beneath the pastel colors. Parents watching with kids found themselves equally invested, with one reporting five complete rewatches without their daughter getting bored. K-pop group LE SSERAFIM performs the theme song “Kawaii” produced by Gen Hoshino, adding modern energy to classic characters.
10. Lost in Starlight
Netflix dropped something special on May 30, 2025, and most people scrolled right past it because Korean animation still doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Climax Studio and director Han Ji-won created their first feature-length film, and it earned praise from Bong Joon Ho himself, who called it “a visual masterpiece that takes you around the universe”.
The setup sounds simple: 2050 Seoul, where astronaut Nan-young dreams of Mars while musician Jay runs a vintage audio equipment shop, and they meet when she needs her late mother’s record player fixed. What elevates this beyond typical romance is how it treats its young adult characters like actual adults dealing with grief, career ambitions, and the brutal reality of loving someone whose dream is literally on another planet.
