The Best Isekai Anime Of 2025, Ranked

Release Date: January 10th
Premise: Kenzaburou Tondabayashi is a 52-year-old bureaucrat who gets transported into the world of an otome game. He's somewhat familiar with the world because his daughter is a huge fan. His new identity is a villainess named Grace Auvergne. Playing the role of a villainess won't be easy - he's naturally inclined to be nice - but he might be able to use his dad skills in unexpected ways.
Why It's Worth Watching: This might be one of the funniest isekai premises to come out in years. A middle-aged dad is the last person anyone would expect to play the villainess role, making this is a unique twist on the subgenre. The execution is just as good as the concept. 

Release Date: October
Premise: Ever since she was a little girl, Aoi Tsubaki has been able to see “ayakashi” - spirits who eat human flesh. To keep them from eating her and her loved ones, she uses her cooking skills. Her cooking skills come in handy again when she's used as collateral to the Hidden Realm after her grandfather accrues a bunch of debt there. She's told she has to marry Oodanna, an ogre-god who is also an inn-keeper. Instead, she decides to pay back the debt herself by opening up an eatery.
Why It's Worth Watching: Aoi is a determined, smart, resourceful protagonist who is a lot of fun to follow. The setting is also kind of cool. Many isekai settings are based on video games or Dungeons & Dragons, but that's not a requirement of the genre. Here, it's based in Japanese mythology. The food, which takes center stage, also reflects Japanese culture.

Release Date: April 5th
Premise: After passing away from overwork, Azusa Aizawa decides that she's no longer willing to exhaust herself. Instead, she's going to live a peaceful life doing the bare minimum - killing slimes. But 300 years of slime-killing adds up, and she winds up far more powerful than she ever could have anticipated. That means that she has to accept challengers. 
Why It's Worth Watching: This is the kind of isekai you watch if you want to relax. The stakes aren't high, but the story is still interesting enough to want to follow. There's a lot of emphasis on cute fantasy imagery and found family dynamics. Also, if you're burned out on your job or school, Azusa will be a relatable protagonist. 

Release Date: July
Premise: When Naofumi Iwatani is transported to the world of Melromarc, he's told he's supposed to be the Shield Hero - one of four heroes meant to protect the world from a danger called Waves. What he doesn't realize is that everyone there already hates the Shield Hero…and they're about to hate him a lot more when the princess accuses him of something terrible that he didn't do. 
Why It's Worth Watching: The Rising of the Shield Hero has been controversial from the start. There have been a ton of arguments about the main character purchasing slaves and the ethics of a story centered around false allegations of sexual assault. You may want to keep watching just to keep up with the controversy. Besides all that, the show does have some cool world-building and an complicated power systems that can make the show a genuinely enjoyable watch. 

Release Date: January 5th
Premise: Natsuko Hirose is a talented director whose first anime won her some major accolades. But her next project is supposed to involve romance, which is something she has never experienced. While attempting to fix this problem, she's transported to the world of her favorite childhood anime movie, "A Tale of Perishing." Could this give her the inspiration she needs? 
Why It's Worth Watching: At first, this series seems like it's going to be about anime production, like Shirobako. The fact that it turns into an isekai is a surprising twist. The twist - and the rest of the series - is portrayed beautifully by MAPPA, one of today's top studios. It's an anime-original too, which also makes it stand out in the world of isekai.

Release Date: July
Premise: When Takuto Ira was a child, he passed away from an illness. He reincarnates into Eternal Nations, a fantasy strategy game that he loved. He's not reincarnated as himself, though - he's reincarnated as one of the most powerful gods of the world Mynoghra. This god happens to have an “evil” trait, which means that Takuto is going to have to reconsider some of his plans.

Why It's Worth Watching: Traits are an interesting concept. In video games, characters often have traits that dictate their behavior. That's not true of humans, of course, but what does having a trait do to the person it's imposed on? The idea has a lot of potential. Whether it uses that potential or not remains to be seen, but hey, the character designs are cute.