If anyone
still had doubts about whether Frieren: Beyond Journey's End was
a global phenomenon or just a seasonal hit, a recent poll took care to close
the debate. An e-commerce company asked its international customers what their
favorite anime of 2025 was, and Sousou no Frieren took first
place among 161 different works mentioned by 496 people from different parts of
the world.
The full
ranking, from lowest to highest, was as follows: Neon Genesis
Evangelion in tenth place, followed by Solo Leveling, Gundam
GQuuuuuuX, One Piece, Dandadan, Kimetsu no
Yaiba, The Apothecary Diaries, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw
Man in second and Frieren at the top.
The mix of
titles that make up that top 10 says a lot about how international audiences
consume anime. On the one hand there are the relatively new series that
established themselves as phenomena: Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, The
Apothecary Diaries and Dandadan. On the other, classics from decades that
remain valid: One Piece is still there, and Evangelion appears on the list just
as it celebrated its 30th anniversary. Among the titles that began airing in
2025, Gundam GQuuuuuuX was the most mentioned, making it the
strongest debut of the year according to this group of respondents.
The numbers
behind the survey also have their own history. 98 percent of
the participants stated that they like anime, and more than half specified that
their preference is Japanese anime in particular. The most cited reason for
enjoying it was that the development of the stories is interesting,
selected by 83.3 percent of respondents. That data connects
directly with the titles that dominated the ranking: Frieren, Chainsaw Man and
Jujutsu Kaisen are series known precisely for building complex and emotionally
charged narratives.
The survey
was conducted between March 19 and 26, 2026, with 554 people who had made
recent purchases through the service. The answers were sent in English,
Traditional Chinese and Korean, which gives an idea of the geographical profile
of the participants. The open comments that accompanied the responses came from
fans from Germany, Ireland, the United States, Korea, Finland and the United
Kingdom, among others, and in all cases the common denominator was the
appreciation of well-constructed stories and characters with real development.
