The must-watch anime to look out for in spring 2025

2025 continues apace with a whole new slate of highly anticipated anime premieres this spring. The spring anime season, which runs from April through June, boasts some of the year’s most exciting new series yet, including a brand-new sci-fi action anime from Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichirō Watanabe and a new Mobile Suit Gundam series directed by FLCL creator Kazuya Tsurumaki and co-written by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno!

There are even more new releases to watch this season, including a new spinoff of My Hero Academia, the third and final season of Fire Force, and revivals of the beloved coming-of-age anime Anne Shirley and the action comedy anime Yaiba: Samurai Legend, among others! We’ll update this list in the future with premiere dates and confirmed streaming platforms as we get closer to the season.

Let’s dive in and see the anime coming this spring to look forward to!

Lazarus

Release date: April
Where to watch: Adult Swim, Max

Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe returns this year with his first new original anime since 2019’s Carole & Tuesday. Set in 2052, Lazarus centers on a task force of agents assembled from across the world to hunt down an enigmatic genius whose revolutionary cure-all drug is revealed to be an existential threat to humanity. Produced by MAPPA, the anime will feature action choreography by Chad Stahelski (the John Wick franchise) and a score composed by Bonobo, Floating Points, and Kamasi Washington.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

Release date: April 9
Where to watch: TBA

The latest series in the Mobile Suit Gundam anime franchise is easily one of this year’s most anticipated premieres of 2025 on the strength of the talents assembled alone. Coming off the popularity and success of 2022’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (pronounced as “G-quax”) centers on Amate Yuzuriha, a high school student living in a space colony who becomes embroiled in the underground fighting scene of “Clan Battles” after crossing paths with a mysterious refugee named Nyaan. The series will be directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki of FLCL fame, with scripts co-written by Yoji Enokido (Revolutionary Girl Utena) and Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Release date: April 7
Where to watch: TBA

Vigilantes is a spinoff prequel to the ridiculously popular My Hero Academia series. While the main series is mostly focused on the law-abiding world of registered and highly trained Quirk users working as superheroes, Vigilantes, as you might have guessed from the name, takes a much less formal approach to saving the day. The series specifically follows Koichi Haimawari, who gets invited to join a band of vigilantes who save the day on their own terms. This series is a great look at the parts of My Hero’s world we haven’t seen before, and is starting up at the perfect time, considering the main series’ final season is set to begin at the end of this year. —Austen Goslin

Fire Force season 3

Release date: April 4
Where to watch: Crunchyroll

Fire Force returns this spring for its third and final season! The first “cour” of 13 episodes will air from April to June, while the second is set to premiere in January 2026. With Tokyo in flames, citizens dying from spontaneous combustion, and the villainous White-Clad amassing more power, Shinra Kusakabe and the rest of Special Fire Force Company 8 must rally together to prepare for what will likely be their most difficult battle yet. —TE

Wind Breaker season 2

Release date: April
Where to watch: TBA

Coming off the propulsive finale of last year’s season, Wind Breaker is back this spring with season 2! After defeating Shishitoren, Haruka Sakura, Hajime Umemiya, and the rest of Bofurin face a new set of adversaries in the form of the rival delinquent gang known as KEEL. Toshifumi Akai, the director of the first season, will return to direct season 2 along with screenwriter Hiroshi Seko. —TE

Yaiba: Samurai Legend

Release date: April 5
Where to watch: TBA

This one’s a revival of an all-time classic, by way of Wit Studio. Yaiba was first released as a manga in 1988 and tells the story of a young boy who was trained as a samurai in the woods and then moves to the big city. Eventually he battles another swordsman, Onimaru, but when the battle ends in a stalemate, Onimaru sulks off and finds a magical katana that convinces him to try to take over the world with an army of demons. And, of course, Yaiba and his friends are the only ones who can stop him. While this story was made into an anime in the mid-’90s, Wit’s new adaptation looks absolutely stunning, and should be an excellent update on this classic. —AG

To Be Hero X

Release date: April 25
Where to watch: TBA

A Chinese-Japanese co-production, this anime takes places in a world full of superhumans where the top few compete in a battle royale to be crowned X, the most popular hero. While we don’t know much more about the series just yet, there is an early trailer that makes it look flashy, stylish, and extremely cool. —AG

Your Forma

Release date: April 2
Where to watch: TBA

Based on a series of light novels written by Mareho Kikuishi and illustrated by Tsubata Nozaki, Your Forma is set in an alternate near future where, after a worldwide outbreak of viral encephalitis, a revolutionary new technology known as “smart thread” is developed to record and monitor people’s vital signs. The technology also records every sight, sound, and emotion its users experience, making it the perfect tool for crime-solving. After burning out all her previous partners, Electronic Investigator Echika Hieda is assigned a new one — a brilliant yet sarcastic android known as Harold Lucraft — to tackle a particularly dangerous case. —TE

Anne Shirley

Release date: April 5
Where to watch: TBA

While perhaps not the flashiest of the shows premiering this spring, the new Anne Shirley anime is certainly one of the most intriguing premieres of this season. Based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic 1908 children’s novel Anne of Green Gables, and previously adapted by Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata in 1979, Anne Shirley centers on a 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly adopted by middle-aged siblings to help tend their farm. Following her growth through adolescence to adulthood, the anime will adapt both Montgomery’s original novel and its sequels. —TE

Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl

Release date: June 27
Where to watch: TBA

Yasuomi Umetsu is a prolific animator with a reputation for three things: gorgeous character designs, thrilling and inventive action sequences, and OVAs with… uh, questionable erotic content. The trailer for Virgin Punk, his first original project in over a decade, looks promising, delivering on the former in ample amounts and showing the utter apparent absence of the latter. Set in 2099, the series looks like a more explicitly futuristic take on Gunslinger Girl, centering on a cybernetic bounty hunter named Ubu who is thrust into a web of shady characters and deadly adversaries.

The first installment in the series, “Clockwork Girl,” is set to debut in Japanese theaters in June. Here’s hoping that audiences will have the chance to watch it stateside later this year. —TE