Top 10 Winter 2025 Anime Openings You Can’t Skip - Ranked

The Winter 2025 season is coming to a close so it’s time to reflect on what I think were the best anime openings. As stated previously for other seasons, this list will focus on the entire opening, which includes animation, music, composition, color design, replay value, transitions, etc.—not just one thing or the other. So without further ado, here are the best anime openings from the Winter 2025 anime season.

(*Note: If there any staff members I may have missed for the credits, leave a comment and I’ll add them in!)

10. Dr. Stone

• OP Director: ?
• OP Storyboard: ?
• OP Animation Director: ?

Despite not being the most complicated opening of the season in terms of transitions or visuals, the first opening for Dr. Stone‘s final season with its own creativity that stood out from the other 150+ anime openings of the Winter 2025 season.

With its West Side Story synchronized dancing thanks to yet another catchy track from ALI, who has yet to make a bad anime theme song, I think the way it caters to the current part of the story knocks an American theme out of the park, despite not fitting the overarching tone of Dr. Stone itself.

Besides, how can one not dance awkwardly like everyone else when that chorus hits? It’s not far-fetched to say that the music for this opening carried it to the top 10 on this list. Although, attention to detail on the shadows with strobe lights is worth noting.

9. BanG Dream! Ave Mujica

• OP Director: ?
• OP Storyboard: ?
• OP Animation Director: ?

I didn’t know a single thing about this series going into watching the opening. However, that smile into a crescent moon transition may be my favorite of all the openings from this season. Despite what people may say about the CGI, this is a fantastic opening from start to finish.

Fans of the series may understand the symbolism a little better, but as someone on the outside watching this for the first, second, and tenth time, I never once considered placing it outside of the top 10.

The dark colors and overall visual themes are in tune with the music itself and it does its job of convincing me to even give the series a shot in the first place.

8. Medalist

• OP Director: Manabu Kurihara
• OP Storyboard: Kouji
• OP Animation Director: ?

Despite a lot more still visuals during the verse of the theme song before getting into the action during the bridge and chorus, the opening for Medalist tells its own emotional story in a way that fits the series like a glove.

Some of the transitions in the opening are very well done, especially during the chorus, and this marks another opening on this list that uses 3D animation extremely well. The storyboard is solid, especially considering this is both Kurihara’s debut directing a TV anime series opening and Kouji’s debut storyboarding one.

The theme song is catchy, and even though it does utilize some visual cliches (characters standing back to back looking up at the camera), the opening for Medalist stands out in its own way.

I’d say what the opening does better than any other opening from the Winter 2025 season is the use of depth. During the chorus, noticing how the ice rink keeps expanding and shrinking depending on how close the character is to the camera made my jaw drop, especially with how fluid it all was.

7. Link Click: Bridon Arc

• OP Director: ?
• OP Storyboard: Yuanyuan Lu
• OP Animation Director: ?

Technically not an anime, Link Click still deserves its spotlight on this list for giving us arguably the best storyboard of all the openings. If there was an opening I could describe as the word “beautiful,” it would be this one.

The (mostly) happy emotions of the visuals contrast many of the lyrics rather than playing alongside them (for the most part) like the vast majority of openings choose to do. The colors, artwork, transitions, replayability and the fact the opening actually has a plot are just a handful of things that make this one for Link Click a little more special to me than the previous two, especially for those that watch the series.

Some may think that the opening theme song may not be the best of the openings from Winter 2025, but when taking into account all of the elements that bring together an opening, Link Click deserves to be on this list.

6. Dragon Ball Daima

• OP Director: Aya Komaki
• OP Storyboard: Aya Komaki
• OP Animation Director: Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—the opening for Dragon Ball Daima is one of the best in the entire franchise’s history. If there is an opening theme on this list that matches perfectly with the series, it’s this.

Everything about this opening screams Dragon Ball. The thrill of adventure in the visuals mixed with great animation and a catchy theme song is everything fans could ask for. The transitions are the overlooked aspect of this opening, especially at the beginning.

Anyone who watches this opening over and over will start to notice at the start that the storyboard has a knack for drawing your eyes in certain directions, something that the opening for Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun Season 3 focused on as well.

5. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance Arc (OP2)

• OP Director: ?
• OP Storyboard: ?
• OP Animation Director: ?

If it wasn’t for the next four openings on this list, Rurouni Kenshin would’ve undoubtedly been the number one opening of Winter 2025 for me. Refraining the chorus not once, not twice, not three times, but four times with the drums getting even more intense with each refrain to match the visuals is something you just don’t see much with anime openings. The replayability is off the charts.

Layer overlays are well composed throughout the entire opening with consistent artwork and flashy visual effects animation—there’s just nothing to hate about this opening. The storyboard is fantastic without being too simple or overcomplicated while simultaneously playing into a more retro feel to the opening.

Bright colors from the start to the dark ones in the second half of the opening just to end on a bright note was a nice touch. Transitions are so key in anime openings that blatantly want to incorporate them and that’s exactly what this opening did. Sometimes, those openings can flop—but not here. Having the cross transition with Kenshin’s scar at the end was the cherry on top.

4. Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

• OP Director: Toru Iwasawa
• OP Storyboard: Toru Iwasawa
• OP Animation Director: Reiko Nagasawa

This is where the list gets extremely complicated. For starters, due to nobody posting the updated openings for Orb, I had to go with this one. To check out the latest Orb opening, hop on over to Netflix and turn on one of the recent episodes to see the differences (or do the right thing and just watch the entire series).

With that being said, Orb has to be on this list. Whether it’s number one, number five, or 10th, it’s one of the best openings from a completely objective point of view. Sakanaction’s first anime theme song is like nothing from the others this season and it’s so damn good with the most iconic start—already reaching over 13 million streams on Spotify after its release a few weeks ago.

Orb is also one of the select few openings from the entire Winter 2025 anime lineup this season that puts heavy emphasis on certain scenes, characters, and objects by giving them some form of symbolic message to the viewers. If I had to describe the opening for Orb that I wouldn’t give to any other opening on this list, it’d be “meaningful.”

Every single cut from Orb’s opening doesn’t have a single ounce of deadweight behind it. The visuals aren’t just for the sake of the opening being pretty, it’s to create a mystery of what’s to come without spoiling anything.

3. My Happy Marriage Season 2

• OP Director: Takehiro Kubota
• OP Storyboard: Takehiro Kubota
• OP Chief Animation Director: Hikaru Sato
• OP Animation Director: Yuki Fukuda

I thought the first opening for the series was a masterpiece, but wow is the opening for My Happy Marriage Season 2 captivating in every sense of the word. It doesn’t surprise me given the series’ director was the one to direct and storyboard the opening, his first since directing the opening for Sabikui Bisco.

While the transitions for the opening may not be the best among others on this list, it makes up for it in just about every other department with A+ grades across the board. I enjoy an opening that interacts with the music, but I deeply appreciate when an opening understands its own series My Happy Marriage does.

The music and visuals interact not just here and there, it’s beginning to end from the moment Miyo takes that first breath and opens her eyes all the way to the drop at the very end. That takes such a precise amount of detail and care for just a minute and 30 seconds of visuals.

Even if the music isn’t your cup of tea, it fits the theme of My Happy Marriage Season 2 but more specifically Miyo herself. That’s what’s important and this opening portrays that arguably better than any other opening on this list with its main character.

2. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

• OP Director: Ayaka Nakata
• OP Storyboard: Ayaka Nakata
• OP Animation Director: Yukiko Nakatani

There are good transitions, great transitions, then there’s what The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 opening did. Of course, everyone loves a good transition. But to put this much meaning behind them is pretty damn impressive, even as so much having Maomao’s hair flow somehow transitions to a makeup brush @0:36.

As someone who hasn’t read either the manga or novels, I feel like I’m missing out on so much of the symbolism going on with this opening. But at the same time, I appreciate the visual aspects, framing, and how the opening takes both the points of view from Maomao and Jinshi in the same one-minute and 30-second sequence only to bring them together at the end of it all.

One of the shots I particularly love is the one below of Maomao being shown in the mirror. My eyes are drawn to Gyokuyou since she’s the one looking at the “camera” and then you realize the camera is Maoamo herself, seeing her in the mirror. Little things like that will always stand above a flashy action sequence to me.

However, for those of you familiar with Nakata’s work, this is something she loves to do in her openings. A lot of elements shown in this opening can also be found in her work for I Parry Everything and The World’s Finest Assassin. Just have a look below comparing shots from this Apothercary Diaries (left) opening with her works from the other two (right).

1. Solo Leveling Season 2

• OP Director: Shunsuke Nakashige
• OP Storyboard: Shunsuke Nakashige
• OP Animation Directors: Hirotaka Tokuda, Tomoko Sudo

If you’re going to create an opening for the most popular new anime in recent years, you better come out swinging at every pitch that’s thrown at you—and Solo Leveling Season 2‘s opening batted 1.000 hitting 500-foot bombs on every single one.

Transitions? Flawless. Animation? Marvelous. Opinions aside about the series, do I need to keep going on an adjective shpeel to get the point across that it’s a 10/10 opening? It almost feels as if the opening is laughing at us going “Oh, you think the visuals are great? We also got LiSA to perform the opening theme, too.”

Despiteme thinking this is Shunsuke Nakashige’s best work yet as an opening director and storyboard artist, I still love that he managed to incorporate little creative elements of his own from his other works no matter how minimal they were.

Take below for example with Solo Leveling on the left side along with his other opening works on the right side from 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, Arifureta Season 2, and Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underwold -.

Nakashige has a knack for framing and symbolism in his works while seeming to have a thing for eye transitions right when the chorus is supposed to drop in the theme song. His openings work always tend to have a hint of mystery with a lot of moving parts. But I think it goes without saying this opening for Solo Levling Season 2 is his best work yet.

Having Hirotaka Tokuda and Tomoko Sudo, both chief animation directors for a handful of episodes this season who have a lot of opening work in different positions, as the animation directors for the opening were probably a logical reasoning as to why this could be considered Nakashige’s best opening work as well.

Honourable Mentions

Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective (Studio Project No.9)

Zenshu (Studio: MAPPA)

Re:Zero Season 3 (Studio: White Fox)

Let us know in the comment know what your favorite anime openings were from the Winter 2025 season!

Featured image:
The Apothecary Diaries © Natsu Hyuga/Imagika Foss/”The Apothecary Diaries” Production Committee
My Happy Marriage ©Akumi Agitogi, Tsukiho Tsukioka/KADOKAWA/My Happy Ｍarriage Partners
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth © Uoto / Shogakukan / “Orb: On the Movements of the Earth” Production Committee