These Two Hit Chinese Anime Could Beat Out Solo Leveling Season 2 for Anime of the Year

Solo Leveling is perhaps the biggest power-leveling anime of the decade, garnering record-breaking popularity and amassing a large and deeply loyal fanbase within just two years of the anime’s initial release. The series became the king at Crunchyroll’s 2025 Anime Awards, reigning victorious by stealing multiple wins alongside the biggest prize of all: Anime of the Year. Season 2, which aired and finished earlier this year, was met with even more success, surpassing even Attack on Titan as the most-viewed anime on Crunchyroll’s platform.

It’s a given that Solo Leveling has a high chance at winning Anime of the Year again with Season 2. However, those odds have grown quite a bit slimmer with the conclusion of China’s biggest hits this year. To Be Hero X and the Lord of Mysteries donghua have just concluded their near-flawless first seasons. Mesmerizing animation, enthralling action scenes, and storylines rich in lore and well-written characters—both series have given anime fans everything they loved about Solo Leveling and more. With a large portion of the community already criticizing Solo Leveling for everything it lacks, Crunchyroll’s King of Anime is in grave danger of losing its crown.

Solo Leveling Became the King of Anime Series This Year

Solo Leveling is a hugely popular manhwa, becoming Yen Press’ best-selling series in 2023 and circulating over a million copies worldwide that year. When the Solo Leveling anime adaptation first released on Crunchyroll in 2024, it was already supported by the manhwa’s enormous fanbase. That hype alone contributed to its increasing popularity, and fans of the source material couldn’t be more impressed by the production quality of the adaptation.

A-1 Pictures managed to capture the essence of the Solo Leveling manhwa’s art style as well as adapt its most crucial action scenes into a flurry of well-animated and engaging visuals that stayed loyal to what was portrayed in the manhwa. The sheer intensity of the anime’s first episode, which told of Sung Jinwoo’s harrowing origin story as the titular solo-leveler, succeeded in pulling new fans into the series. Viewers just couldn’t help but be drawn to an incredibly sympathetic underdog protagonist.

Jinwoo’s ascension from zero to hero is one of the most compelling underdog stories of the past decade, showcasing a character who was literally at rock bottom before he was given the once-in-a-millennium opportunity to make something of himself. Jinwoo became the only Hunter in the world with the ability to level up, whereas everyone else only ever stayed at the ranking they initially started out as. It was a fortunate stroke of fate that a character like Jinwoo deserved; he had only ever been kind and self-sacrificing, wanting nothing more than to be able to support the family he held dear.

By the time Solo Leveling Season 2 rolled around, the anime had amassed a fanbase who were eager to tune into the continuation of Jinwoo’s journey as the Shadow Monarch. Crunchyroll’s servers weren’t just broken once, but twice, because of the outrageous number of fans trying to watch new episodes the day each one was released.

Despite the criticisms that many viewers had, the Solo Leveling anime still rose to the top as a near-perfect adaptation. From animation to sound design and even down to the stellar English dub (carried by beloved voice actor Aleks Le), the series knocked it out of the park during Crunchyroll’s 2025 Anime Awards. The lineup for the year was stacked with other masterfully made series like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and The Apothecary Diaries. Yet, Solo Leveling managed to snatch multiple awards, such as Best Action, Best Main Character, and Best Score. It even took the coveted crown, Anime of the Year.

To Be Hero X Stands Out From Other Anime Giants in Its Genre

When To Be Hero X first aired, it gained massive traction thanks to a 3D-animated style that blended the beautiful painting-like visuals of Netflix’s Arcane and the expressive comic-book vibe of Marvel’s Spider-Verse films. Although quite a few anime fans are averse to 3D animation, the majority of viewers were quite taken with this aspect of the series. The appeal of it was only furthered with the occasional switch into a captivating 2D art style, which later proved to be an underlying plot element aside from being a simple stylistic choice.

To Be Hero X’s success was also due to the unpredictable plot twists throughout its run, which creator and director Li Haoling is known for in his other works. Episode 1 of the series shocked fans with the death of what everyone initially believed to be one of the series’ protagonists, replacing him with a look-alike who, despite living a lie, embodied everything that a true and classic superhero is meant to be. To Be Hero X also introduced a wildly unique power system that the series’ entire world is structured around. This power system likened itself to the woes and wonders of social media culture, deepening its narrative and exploring the superhero genre in a way it hasn’t been before.

Bottom line, To Be Hero X proved itself to be unlike any other superhero anime before it. And with exceptionally well-written and popular series like My Hero Academia and One-Punch Man still running, that’s saying a lot. To Be Hero X presented a large cast of diverse individuals, whose stories helped to explore and expand the world and deconstruct the concept of what it means to be a hero in a society where everyone has an ulterior motive. Every detail, every plot twist, and every loveable character kept the series’ audience engaged from start to finish.

Lord of Mysteries is a One-of-a-Kind Isekai Series

Lord of Mysteries began as a web novel series written by the online author, Cuttlefish That Lives Diving. It eventually grew to become one of the largest literary works in the world, surpassing the word count of even that of Harry Potter or George R.R. Martin’s renowned A Song of Ice and Fire series. Lord of Mysteries clocks in at over 1400 chapters, and that doesn’t even include its currently ongoing sequel, Circle of Inevitability. Cuttlefish’s near-endless masterpiece has garnered roughly 15 million globally. That success not only earned it an incredible animated adaptation but also an RPG game in its development as well as a manga adaptation.

The first thing that anime fans noticed about the Lord of Mysteries‘ donghua adaptation is the quality of the animation, credited to Studio B.CMAY PICTURES. Lord of Mysteries is by far the prettiest series in Anime 2025’s lineup, showcasing graphics that can easily rival—perhaps even beat—cinematic works like Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. The world that is depicted feels real and lived in, and the characters move like actual people rather than 2D puppets. This quality stays consistent throughout each episode, even through its stellar action scenes, which are punctuated with the finesse of the series’ magic and supernatural abilities.

Lord of Mysteries is a donghua that introduces a magic-based power system where strength isn’t the key to ascension, but rather intellect. And that makes the main character, Klein Moretti, the perfect protagonist. Klein, known in his first life as Zhou Mingrui, is an observer and deep thinker who was isekai’d in the strange Victorian-esque world that is explored in the series. Although the isekai anime genre has been done to death over recent years, Lord of Mysteries remains a truly unique experience thanks to its rich and expansive lore, world-building, and unraveling mysteries.

All of Lord of Mysteries Season 1 is now available to stream on Crunchyroll.

Solo Leveling Doesn’t Have What it Takes to Wears its Crown Forever

Solo Leveling is an exceptional anime. What it does right, it does exceedingly well. However, many anime fans believe that its popularity is what carried it through the Crunchyroll awards, and the actual quality of its story and characters can’t hold a candle to the competition it was pitted against. Despite the series’ success in numbers, it doesn’t even rank in MyAnimeList’s Top Twenty series. Meanwhile, The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2) currently ranks at #19, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End usurped the legendary Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s place as #1.

The opinion that Solo Leveling only won Anime of the Year due to its overwhelming popularity is only backed by the many valid criticisms about the anime’s narrative. Solo Leveling has great animation, amazing action sequences, and the main protagonist aura-farms better than any anime character in recent years. The thing is, Sung Jinwoo’s on-screen charisma doesn’t make up for the lack of depth given to his supporting cast. The action and hype don’t change the fact that the series mainly focuses on building Jinwoo into the most powerful character. Although there is more than just power-leveling involved in Solo Leveling’s overall storyline, the anime doesn’t offer much nuance in the genre and archetypes it explores. It is simply the basic power fantasy.

To Be Hero X and Lord of Mysteries also focus on their protagonists advancing to higher levels in their respective power structures. However, in comparison to Solo Leveling, both series dive deep into the nuances of power-leveling in their own distinctive ways. To Be Hero X sees its characters literally trapped by the very fans that give them their superhero status through the belief-based Trust Value System, while Lord of Mysteries explores how great power can come at the cost of one’s own sanity.

On the other hand, Jinwoo’s character has little to no growth beyond Solo Leveling Season 1, and much of Season 2 follows the predictable pattern of Jinwoo defeating an enemy and growing stronger simply because that’s how The System is programmed. While that can be gratifying, it’s a gimmick that gets old quickly because there is nothing to truly challenge Jinwoo and test him in anything other than strength.

Lord of Mysteries already started out with a massive fanbase like Solo Leveling did but offers more in terms of story. To Be Hero X‘s strongest selling aspect is its diverse cast, which is Solo Leveling‘s weakest point. Both series have captivating narratives and well-written characters that elevate them beyond the basic power fantasy that Solo Leveling is. At this rate, A-1 Pictures’ prized horse will eventually lose the race for Anime of the Year next year.