r/anime’ s best girl of 2025: Round 2: Sweet Sixteen!

Hinako might be out of the game but now Miko's facing her alt version. That must be the mentioned upset.

Summer's defo my favourite season of 2025. There's the CloverWorks trinity, the show about diving ~~into alcoholism~~, and there are also dark horses like Silent Witch, Ruri Rocks, and Takopi.

Looks like the Monica brigade will offer a good fight against Reze, but the Apothecry fans have the lead over both.

##ROUND 1

Matchup | Top Seed | Bottom Seed | Total Votes
:-- | :-- | --: | --:
Most Voted Matchup |Shisui (1)|Ruriko (32)| 478
Average | | | 403
Least Voted Matchup |Miko Yashiro (15)|Shiori Oumi (18)|321

Total Votes: 6,442

Unique Voters: 545

**TOP VOTEGETTERS**

Rank | Girl | Votes
--: | :-- | --:
1 | Shisui (1) | 343
T-2 | Reze (2) | 311
T-2 | Monica Everett (3)| 311
4 | Kaoruko Waguri (4) | 296
5 | Scarlet El Vandimion (5) | 275

**CLOSEST MATCHUPS**

Winning Girl | W% | L% | Losing Girl | Vote Diff
:- | :-: | :-: | -: | -:
Ruri Tanigawa (20) |51.46% |48.54% | Lana Colette (13)| 12
Nagi Arato (11) |52.76%|47.24%|Subaru Hoshina (22)|23
Natsuko Hirose (14)|53.21%|46.79%|Otoha Kurogane (19)|24
Yachiyo (12)|54.43%|45.57%|Lilisa Suzunomiya (21)|34
Miko Yashiro (15)|54.52%|45.48%|Shiori Oumi (18)|29

**UPSETS**

Seed | Top Seed | TS% | BS% | Seed | Bottom Seed | tUI
-: | :- | :-: | :-: | -: | :- | -: | -:
13|Lana Colette|48.54%|51.46%|20|Ruri Tanigawa|0.62

**OVER/UNDERPERFORMERS**

Overperformer | Underperformer | Diff
:- | -: | -:
Monica Everett (3) |Konoha Koga (30) |9.59%
Nico Wakatsuki (8)|Yamamoto (25)|7.02%
Ajisai Sena (16)|Satoko Kusagakure (17)|4.81%

**TOP 5 SCORES**

Rank | Girl | Score
-: | :- | -:
1 | Shisui | 166.48
2 | Monica Everett | 165.82
3 | Reze | 155.14
4 | Kaoruko Waguri | 138.45
5 | Scarlet El Vandimion | 133.84

**PROJECTED QUARTERFINALS**

Top Seed | TS% | BS% | Bottom Seed
:- | :-: | :-: | -:
Shisui | 56.5% | 43.5% | Nico Wakatsuki
Kaoruko Waguri | 50.8% | 49.2% | Scarlet El Vandimion
Reze | 57.2% | 42.8% | Isabelle Norton
Monica Everett | 58.9% | 41.1% | Renako Amaori

**PROJECTED SEMIFINALS**

Top Seed | TS% | BS% | Bottom Seed
:- | :-: | :-: | -:
Shisui | 54.6% | 45.4% | Kaoruko Waguri
Reze | 48.3% | 51.7% | Monica Everett

**PROJECTED FINALS**

Top Seed | TS% | BS% | Bottom Seed
:- | :-: | :-: | -:
Shisui | 50.1% | 49.9% | Monica Everett

Link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HSv5fwqLOpXk6r3BAyZHBDHKg-BzuNoowSRjnLCzZYY

Explanations: https://www.reddit.com/user/redlegsfan21/comments/10dup0w/ranime_contests_bracket_explaination?sort=qa

Open to questions and please give feedback.

Remember to vote Yachiyo, everyone.

Edit:

>Which was your favorite anime season of 2025? And why?

Honestly, 2025 didn't really land many hits for me in terms of anime. Winter and Fall were kind of boring outside of sequels...

Spring was the best season in terms of new shows: it brought us Apocalypse Hotel, To Be Hero X, and a couple of other less popular originals that were nonetheless good in terms of quality such as Mono, HibiMeshi, Shoushimin, and Rock wa Lady no Tashinami Deshite.

In contrast, Summer was probably the most high-profile and accessible season in ages: tons of huge sequels – Dandadan, etc. – and long-awaited adaptations of popular manga – Takopii no Genzai, Gachiakuta, Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu, Kaoru Hana, etc. If I was speaking on behalf of the average anime watcher, I would probably have to say Summer.

However, I personally enjoyed Spring the most. It felt like the most original, breath-of-fresh-air, and creative season in a while: I still think about Apocalypse Hotel, To Be Hero X had incredible worldbuilding that only an original show would allow, and I had stupid fun watching Rock wa Lady no Tashinami Deshite. I forgot much of most shows I watched in Summer aside from Takopii no Genzai.

The two best girls of the year in Monica and Natsuko already facing up in round 2 is just too cruel!

i hope kaoruko survives until the semi-finals at the very least.

as for reze , monica seems a scarier opponent to me than shisui. she is the main girl in her show after all..

>Mini Challenge:

>Which was your favorite anime season of 2025? And why?

Summer 2025 :

\- grand blue S2

\- seishun buta S2

\- kaoru hana

(huge bonus and the main reason honestly: Lord of the mysteries )

* Oh, no, Hikaru lost!
* Miko won!
* Both rock girls lost, and both rock girls won! Long may the rock girls win! Go Ruri! Go Nagi!
* Monica and Reze both got the same number of votes. So... that draw result might actually happen?
* Isabelle is a great character, but I'm going to vote for Inori.

>Which was your favorite anime season of 2025? And why?

This is a difficult question. Winter and Summer 2025 were incredibly good, but if I were to pick one it would be Winter 2025.

Why? Well, the final 4 episodes of DanMachi S5 aired during the winter season and they were exceptional, episode(s) of the decade exceptional!

> (13) Lana: 199 vs (20) Ruri: 211

Banzai! This was the 1 upset I was rooting for last round. Lana was a good friend who always had Monica's back, but Ruri was one of my favorites for the entire year...and now she's up against one of my other favorites.

> (15) Miko: 175 vs (18) Shiori (146)

[Watatabe] >!Take that fish girl! Fox Supremacy!!<

Mini Challenge: Summer, it's the season where I watched half of my shows for the year and the season that had my favorite show (Takopi) for the year too.

Last match-up was a bit hard but voting for Nagi as she is underdog here.

MC: To be fair all seasons SANs Fall were pretty good for me, but let it be Winter cause Apothecary Diaries were airing its latest part.

Stand behind Isabelle. She was not given more scenes because the author knew she would’ve taken over the story if so. Best and cutest villainess of 2025

Also Summer 2025 was one of the best seasons in years. My Dress-Up Darling S2, Bunny Girl S2, Ruri Rocks, Watanare, Slient Witch, and many more shows. An absolute feast for romance, slice of life, and drama

So glad to see Ruri be the one doing the upset, but why does God give his lowest seeds to his best girls?

This list just gets more boring with every round.

A few difficult to decide upon matches last go around, which doesn't always happen the first round. And a few close outcomes.

I'm just glad that one of the prettiest, most inspiring, and infectiously likable (despite alienating people and having a lot of detractors early on and undoubtedly some who probably never ended up liking her due to her "bratty" persona) characters secured a narrow victory - the gemstone personified, Ruri Tanigawa.

As for the mini challenge:

I think generally that winter and spring were the strongest, with summer and autumn being the weakest. Winter as it had my favorite new series from the year and spring as it seemed to have the largest variety of different series with some unique and interesting premises and/or settings. Spring, for whatever reason, coincidentally or not, often seems to have the largest number of different new series I'm interested in. The spring of 2021 I still believe is the individual season I've seen the largest number of different series from.

But for 2025 specifically if I had to choose I'd say that winter deserves that distinction. Why? Because it contributed three of my Top 5 of the year as a whole, including my #1 - Tasokare Hotel, Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte, and Sorairo Utility.

Go, Nico! RIP, Niko. Go, Reze! I want Nico to make it at least one more round; her general cuteness, adorable crush, impulsive fumbling of goofy spells, and earnest desire to help others are extremely endearing.

MC: Summer, for having Bisque Doll, Witch Watch, Mikadonos, Grand Blue, and Dr. Stone.

Missed yesterday, but thankfully no crime like Inori losing in round 1 happened. ^(That was way closer than it should've been though)

Voting for :

* Shisui
* Nico
* Kaoruko
* Scarlet
* Inori
* Monika
* Renako

Mini-challenge : Overall Spring, but Winter gets a honorable mention for its super stacked Saturdays.

Shisui, Scarlet, and Nagi. Asami Seto voiced so many best girls in 2025.

We already lost a ton of great girls in round 1. Satoko,Yamamoto, Nemu, Hikaru and Alina are imo the biggest losses, unfortunately none of them managed to get the upset. The only upset of today was Ruri winning which is great to see let's see if she can continue upsetting vs Kaoruko (I highly doubt it but it would be nice)

>Which was your favorite anime season of 2025? And why?

Winter = Summer > Spring >>>>>>>> Fall

I think all of Winter, Summer and Spring were stacked with great shows in all of them. Winter because of great shows like Zenshuu, Apothecary Diaries, 100GF, Medalist. Ave Mujica and Welcome to Japan Elf-san. Just overall a great mix. Spring had perhaps a few more good shows overall with a ton of amazing SoL shows with the best shows being Apocalypse Hotel, Ninkoro, Mono, Hibimeshi, Zatsu Tabi and Rock Lady. It was however very low on sequels which was why it wasn't rated the highest by most. As for summer, it was stacked with sequels, while also having some great new shows in Takopii, Clevatess, Silent Witch, Summer Hikaru died, Ruri Rocks, City, Food court etc.

If I had to decide between summer and winter I'd propably give it to winter, but it's a very close one. As for Fall.... apart from Spy X Family and Nageki Bourei, I really wasn't looing forward to all that much each week. It had some other fun shows, but really not many and not any I'd rate top 10 in any other season propably.

As for todays votes:

* ~~Ajisai~~ \- **Shisui**: Prior to season 2 I'd never thought I'd be voting for Shisui in every contest she's in, but she really is that good of a character.
* **Alicia** \- ~~Nico~~: Like I said yesterday, my vote goes to Alicia, who is a hero true to her name. Nico and her antics are fun, but she much more relies on her fellow cast to shine and even then she doesn't quite reach the highs Alicia does.
* **Ruri** \- ~~Kaoruko~~ My vote here goes to our little inquisitive scientist her enthusiasm and love for rocks is really contagious.
* **Yachiyo** \- ~~Scarlet~~: I fear Yachiyo will unlock the achievement of getting punched in the face here, but let's pray to the power of shampoo hats that she will prevail!
* **Reze** \- ~~Miko~~
* **Inori** \- **~~Isabelle~~**: Inori to the Olympics! No amount of amazing princess laughs can stop here. (Even though it's a lot closer than usual for a great MC vs a character with maybe like 10 minutes of screentime. I really hope we get to see some more of Isabelle in the future)
* **~~Monica~~** \- **Natsuko**: This one is just cruel. Natsuko is my BGotY and Monica is a close second. Both are amazing main characters from great shows, but in the end my vote has to go to one of these girls, so Natsuko it is.
* ~~Renako~~ \- Nagi

#**Today's Results**
Shisui is setting the bar with 343 votes in her win against Ruriko's 135 votes.

Feel bad for Satoko, but I did vote Ajisai and this was competitive with a 212-173 vote total.

Nico vs. Yamamoto was less competitive though. Thanks to the other 140 voters for her!

Hahari would gladly lose to ~~Shizuka~~ Kaoruko. This is how I can have fun with this result.

Ruri clutched a win on Lana despite that seed difference and show popularity. Happy for her. Wish she can do that again, but that Round 2 opponent...

Scarlet is about to annoy me with who she eliminated and who she's likely to eliminate tomorrow. I wanted to see Inori and Hikaru in Round 2...

Lilisa gave a really good fight. 175 votes to Yachiyo's 209 votes. Otoha gave an even closer fight with also 175 votes (fitting for them to match vote totals) to Natsuko's 199 votes. However, this is still losses for both of them and there is **[only one thing to say about that.](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmUyZmE5NzktMTdjOC00ZmM5LTljZTEtNDExMTQ5ZjkyNTZlXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1920_.jpg)**

Reze and Monica are matching vote totals in Round 1! 311 votes for both. Hope it remains interesting in the seeded Semi-Finals matchup.

It was to be expected for it to be [Miko's win](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/c1b289c78f60.png). But [Miko there is a Bomb Devil Hybrid coming in your direction](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/377e0ff26232.png)

Hinako and Shiori losing together in Round 1 is fitting at least.

Wish Konoha got to 100 votes even if I didn't vote for her.

#**Today's Voting**
It's Ajisai until the end and my vote is one extra vote to make this matchup look less onesided.

Ruri - take this upset as far as you can go (~~which is still going to be a loss)~~.

Yachiyo supporters. I feel the potential for an upset here even if it's small. Vote Yachiyo.

What I said about Ajisai vs. Shisui applies exactly the same to Miko vs. Reze. Look as strong as you can in defeat, Miko.

Isabelle is fun, but Inori...sendoff vote to Isabelle.

Monica's got the Natsuko matchup covered, but I'd love a convincing win for Renako against Nagi!
____
>Which was your favorite anime season of 2025? And why?

Winter 2025 for me was defined by sequels to 2 shows I adore in *The Apothecary Diaries* and *The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You*, but I'll give it to Spring 2025 for the *Apocalypse Hotel*, *Rock Is a Lady's Modesty*, *A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof* combo.

Pretty much all my favorites have already been wiped out. It's basically just Nastsuko, Monica and Nico left and Natsuko and Monica are against each other already lol.

While everyone is going on about summer, my favorite season was either spring or fall. Spring had the most shows I enjoyed, fall had the most shows on my year end top 10.

When I didn't see Fuyumura I was like "You fuckers really eliminated her in the first round?" but then I remembered that she didn't even make it to the first round.

[](#volibearQ)

Today's votes:

Shisui is great, fantastic even; but I like **Ajisai** better. I'll vote for the underdog here.

**Nico** gets my vote, I guess.

**Kaoruko** gets my vote, I guess.

**Scarlet el Vandimion**

**Reze**. I voted for this match up in the Fall 2025 semifinals and my vote is still the same.

**Isabelle Norton**

**Monica Everett**. Monica is my favorite girl in 2025, so I hope she wins. If not, I hope she at least makes finals.

**Renako Amaori**. I'm probably gonna lose Ajisai to Shisui, but I hope Renacchi makes it through to the next round at least.

Hey contest fans, upvote this thread! We should want more voters, which means we need the attention!

Also, I think I'm gonna Ride or Die with Monica. Shisui's story is excellent - it is a credit to the writer that she is so good, and a credit to the animation that they handle her so well. But, as a fairly shy person, Monica is kind of my spirit animal.

And, I look at all of the abstentions. In some cases, I get it, you have two characters that you both could think are best girls, so you opt not to vote. I certainly do that. But at this point in the contest, these are all great characters. If you haven't watched all of the anime that are represented in the "Sweet Sixteen", you should probably add any that you haven't seen to your list of things to watch.

Phew, almost didn't vote because yesterday was crazy. Round 1 also was crazy, but pretty much expected for the most cases.

MC: Not that anyone will read this, but it has to be Winter because of Re:Zero. On top of that, Zenshuu, 100 GFs, Medalist and Apothecary Diaries, plus Guild Receptionist. That's followed by Summer with Silent Witch, Call of the Night, City, Ruri Rocks and Fragrant Flower. Both Spring and Fall had one of my favourite shows of the year in Cinderella Grey and some other good shows, but not enough to compare to the other seasons.