The Best Animated Shows of January 2025

Toon In: Animated TV Highlights for January, from Harley Quinn to Spider-Man

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Welcome to the ink, paint, and pixel corner of Paste TV, where we’re highlighting some of the best premium animation projects on streaming or direct-to-video aimed for teens and adults. This monthly column not only provides an overview of the new animated shows to check out this January, but we’ve also collected some of the finest creators and voice talents in the medium to give updates, or introductions, to their series.

Solo Leveling Season 2 (January 4)

January is a major anime drop month for U.S. streamer Crunchyroll, including Solo Leveling’s much anticipated second chapter—Arise from the Shadow—which follows the journey of monster hunter Sung Jinwoo and the evolution of his supernatural powers. The twisty tale of shadowy powers behind the System program that runs the dungeon battles between humans and monsters gets more complex, more action packed and the stakes more dire as Jinwoo’s mother’s life is also on the line. Prolific animation studio A-1 Pictures continues to animate the series.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 (January 10)

For those more interested in juicy anime stories, the second season of The Apothecary Diaries on Crunchyroll returns with the palace intrigue ratcheting up around the duties of Maomao, the food taster. Her job is to keep the most favored, pregnant concubine safe from outside threats, which gets more dangerous as a grand conspiracy begins to reveal itself featuring players from inside and outside of the palace.

StuGo (January 11)

For those lamenting the dearth of original animation from Disney, get ready to be dazzled by StuGo, Disney Channel’s completely original and hilariously weird new series created by Ryan Gillis (The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse) and directed by Sunil Hall (The Mighty Ones).

StuGo follows the misadventures of six very different gifted and talented middle schoolers who get lured to a supposed summer camp on a remote island by the mad scientist Dr. Lullah. Crawling with Lullah’s bizarre animal mutants and ridiculous dangers hiding behind every leaf, the kids are stuck with no way home so they have to overcome their individual fears and odd natures to work together to survive and thrive.

While developing new ideas at Disney, Gillis tells Paste that he was tasked to pitch his own original ideas. He dug through his notes and looked to his home state of Florida and his own life for inspiration. “I had gone on this study abroad in college that didn’t go the way we had planned,” he shares. “It had been like two weeks of roughing it out in the Bahamas, so these ideas all sort of coalesced and became one studio pitch, which the development exec picked out and said, ‘This one.’ We spent years working on it until we got the green light.”

The result is a show with the wackiness of SpongeBob SquarePants mixed with The Island of Dr. Moreau, with maybe a tiny pinch of the meanness of Battle Royale. What’s made clear from the pilot is that for Lullah and her island residents, these kids might as well be Gen Xers because they are not even a little worried about keeping any of them alive, fed, or treated nicely. And that forces these little brainiacs to use their noggins in life or death ways.

“The core premise was these put upon, high achieving kids who are needy, and putting them in a space that does not care about that at all,” Gillis says with glee. “Watching them all spiral out is one of the original, core pictures of the show. And it’s about surrounding them in a bunch of nature that doesn’t care about their grades.” Thus, the kids learn to celebrate tiny victories, and as they vanquish crab mutants or flaming volcanoes together with increasingly clever plans, even Dr. Lullah might come to respect them a bit.

As for the bonkers scenarios the kids have to face any given episode, Hall says they do have rules for this island. “If we can somehow ground it in—no matter how thin—science or science-fiction, then it’s permissible,” he explains. “If it’s like pure magic, then it doesn’t quite fly with this island. We draw a lot from classic sci-fi. I’m a big reader of science fiction, so I love bringing some of those weird, speculative ideas into it. And then, of course, just true and natural weird science in the natural world is inspiring.”

The landscapes of Lullah’s island is the design work of renowned art director/illustrator Sam Bosma (Steven Universe). Gillis says that he gave Bosma a basic tropical island locale, and then let him run with the design including making the terrain gnarly for the kids to traverse. “It was about de-romanticizing,” he explains. “We wanted it to not feel too safe or too postcard-y. There’s trash on the beaches. There’s fleas in the sand. He took all that and still made it a space you want to spend a lot of time in.”

And then the board artists and directors came in and added their own flavors too. “I like having the freedom to let people take ownership and find things,” Gillis says. “Like, someone had an idea, and this show can pivot hard in that direction. I know how the series will end. I have a sense of how they’ll say goodbye, but the middle is really us chasing whatever idea we find exciting.”

While the series hasn’t had a second season pick-up announcement yet, Hall says they are ready if it happens. “We definitely have stuff in the hopper for hopefully future episodes. We’ve got a strong plan for the future, so we’ll see what happens.”

Gillis adds, “By the end of the season, the stories were getting so wild and so bizarre and fun that I was exhausted,” he laughs. “I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can do another one.’ But then the ideas started popping up, and it was like, ‘Wow, I really hope we get to do another one. I gotta see these myths!’ The reception has been very nice, and I’m confident that I think it’s good. I believe people will like it, but will they find it? That’s the question.” So, go watch it and support new ideas from Disney animation. And look for StuGo to stream on Disney+ in the spring.

Mermicorno: Starfall (January 16)

animated shows January Mermicorno Starfall If you know anything about the world of urban vinyl toys, then the unicorn-forward brand of tokidoki has most certainly pinged your pop culture radar at some point in the last two decades. Now Max is getting in on its popularity with the original animated series, Mermicorno: Starfall based on the collectible line of the same name that was launched in 2015. The series is animated by Atomic Cartoons and follows the underwater adventures of the Mermicornos, or mermaid-unicorns, who protect their ocean home from the evil Ika Inkblot. If none of those words make sense to you, just think water-based My Little Pony with an anime attitude.

Castlevania: Nocturne Season 2 (January 16)

It’s been a tough 16 months for those waiting to see ‘what happens next’ for Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel) and the son of Dracula, Alucard (James Callis), who suddenly manifested on the battlefield in the first season finale of Netflix’s anime series, Castlevania: Nocturne. With the return this month of eight new episodes, viewers will get answers and resolution for what series executive producers Kevin Kolde and Clive Bradley tell Paste was their always planned two season arc to Richter’s story.

“We did have a good idea, direction wise, where we were going to go from a story standpoint, and followed through with that,” Kolde says of their overall arc for Richter, his sister, Maria, and the former slave-and-newly-empowered-goddess, Annette. “It’s always difficult doing these types of adaptations. When we’re looking at source material that game people really are fond of and love, we always have to look at what’s really there in terms of the story. We’re always trying to stay true to characters, build characters that people like and stay true to the underlying themes of the game. I think what Clive did a great job on was carrying through some of the themes that we established in the original series in terms of the universe, world-building and family.”

Bradley says this series is about this young generation of vampire killers and supernaturally inclined characters coming into their own. “They’re in this maelstrom,” he explains. “They are, to begin with, out of their depth which was a very key difference to Trevor in the original show, who was an old hand, had seen the world and had enough of it. Whereas Richter is very different to that. He’s a cocky kid who thinks that he knows what he’s doing, but very quickly, it all starts to unravel. So his journey throughout the two seasons is to become the hero, in the fullest sense, that he needs to be.”

Asked if the writers were worried that Alucard being folded into Season 2 would steal focus from Richter’s story, Bradley admits that they were concerned. “Part of Richter’s journey is to become a hero, but part of what it means to be a hero is that he’s collaborating with other people. The climax is very much about the team and that they have to work as a team. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, kind of thing. And so I think that as a guiding principle, helped to find the balance with those two characters, and of course, with the others.”

As for Annette’s arc this season, Bradley is very excited that they dig into the history behind the Haitian Revolution, which happened in parallel to the French Revolution but is not as remembered. “To have a character that helped us to tell that story felt important to me,” he says. “It was an opportunity to do something quite fresh that I don’t think a lot of people know about, but obviously finding a way to integrate it into the overall story so it’s not artificial.

“And inevitably, you’ve got a love story with Richter and Annette,” he continues. “Allowing that to unfold in a way so that they’re both informing each other’s arc, helping each other to get there, was served very well by two fantastic actors. It was very much at the heart of the whole two season arc. These two young people, from very different backgrounds and very different experiences, finding themselves together, facing this common enemy, and how that brings them together. That was fun to do.”

Come back for a post mortem with the showrunners in the February TOON IN column.

Harley Quinn Season 5 (January 16)

One of the most satisfying and snarky sapphic adult animated series to be found, Harley Quinn returns for a fifth season as Harley (Kaley Cuoco) and Ivy (Lake Bell) shift their hijinks from Gotham to Metropolis. In the fourth season finale, they saved Superman from certain death and created a new girl-power team with Barbara Gordon and Catwoman called the Gotham City Sirens. Just how that quad will function (if at all) in Metropolis remains to be seen, but the producers promise that at least Harley and Ivy will mix it up with Lex Luthor and his sister, Lena Luthor, Brainiac, King Shark and Frank the Plant. The series continues to be audacious and genuinely funny, while satisfying both DC-loving and comics-agnostic viewers with easily understandable arcs and continuously over-the-top scenarios.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (January 29)

As is often the case with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stories happen when stories happen, no matter how much fans want to manifest announced films or series into immediate existence. Take Marvel Studios Animation’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man which was first announced as Spider-Man: Freshman Year in 2021, then visually teased in 2022 at San Diego Comic-Con, then retitled to its current iteration in December 2023.

Guaranteed, no one is more excited for outside eyes to finally watch this alternate timeline iteration of Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Hudson Thames) than showrunner Jeff Trammell (Craig of the Creek), who has been toiling in mandated silence since 2021. Originally summoned to Marvel Studios to pitch another project, Trammell says he was instead approached by animation studio head Brad Winderbaum and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to develop their animated Spider-Man series.

“I think I work really well with a big open canvas, and that’s kind of what Spider-Man was for them,” Trammell says of why he thinks he got the job. “It’s this alternate universe Spider-Man of the one we know and the one we’re familiar with. It really allowed me to get in there, have fun and create something new and fresh, but still have the core values of the character, a lot of the characters that we all love to see, but maybe change the way that we see them in a fun way.”

He also sets the record straight in confirming that the alternate timeline aspect was decided “almost immediately” in early development. “I think there’s a lot of thought that it was always a prequel series to the Tom Holland movies,” he surmises. “But we realized very early on that it’s super limiting in what kind of stories we can tell. Once we were able to move away from that, it was like, ‘Okay, now there’s a whole world we can play with and we’re not restricted to this year in time where we can tell this story.’”

Trammell says in the early days, he and the team looked back at their top-tier animated Spider-Man series, with one of his very favorites being The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009). “One thing that they did fantastically is they built characters,” he praises. “It’s never just like, ‘Boom! Here’s this guy and he’s a lizard.’ You have time to know the characters and get to have your own personal feelings towards them. Then as they evolve, you really are along for that journey. I think it’s kind of par for the course of a Spider-Man series to do that with Spider-Man. For me, to do that with villains felt like a really fun idea, so that’s something that we really wanted to do.”

As for what kind of Peter Parker/Spider-Man they needed to anchor this series, Trammell says, “He’s a friendly neighborhood Spider Man, but so much of who Spider-Man is, is influenced by who Peter Parker is and the people around him,” he explains. “I really love digging into Peter and his mindset and how that affects who Spider-Man becomes as the hero. And so much of that is the people around him. Being able to put new people around him and see how those people affect his growth, and how that affects his growth as Spider Man, in turn, has been one of the things that I was most excited about from early on.”

And that includes framing Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo), the CEO of Oscorp, into Peter’s mentor. “Norman as Peter’s mentor is a very fun hook, because there’s so much history there,” Trammell offers. “We can use those expectations of the past to give people what they want, but maybe not the way that they anticipate it going. And for me, that’s kind of the through line of this show. We all love these characters, and we all know these characters, but we’re still meeting them for the first time in a fun way. Is Peter super trusting because this guy wants to help him, or is Peter keeping him at an arm’s length because no one knows his secret, and he wants to make sure that things stay that way? That in itself, builds so much fun intrigue between these two characters.”

Trammell also credits supervising director Mel Zwyer for first suggesting actor Colman Domingo as Osborn’s voice as they were stuck trying to figure out who could live up to the character’s reputation. “I was like, ‘That is a genius idea,” he remembers. “We immediately tried to get him, and luckily, Colman was super excited about playing Norman.”

As to the overall look of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the animation is primarily animated by Polygon Pictures and CGCG who use a cel shading technique that mimics the style of comic books. “They’ve been so hard working in really pushing the envelope to help us get what we wanted from the show,” Trammell praises. “I’m just really excited for people to see all their hard work, as well as the team’s, because it’s turned out so great. It’s so fun to watch what is essentially a comic book opening moving in front of you.”

Trammell also adds that because Marvel Studios Animation doesn’t have a house style, they were encouraged to explore an aesthetic that was nothing like What If…? or X-Men ‘97. So, they honed in on the drawings of Steve Ditko, John Romita Sr. and the Stan Lee iteration of Spider-Man, and then figured out how to modernize those base designs.

“Luckily, we were able to find so many talented artists, namely Leo Romero, who’s our lead character designer,” Trammell says. “He has this uncanny ability to make something feel classic and modern at the same time. The first time he did Spidey, or when he would do a character like Norman, or even our Daredevil and showed us how they would interact in this world, that was really fun to dig into.”

As to the overall structure of their storytelling, Trammell says audiences can expect a story arc but the series itself is not locked into covering a school year each season like some have speculated. “There’s a fantastic comic by Christos Gage and Eric Gapstur that’s the companion to the show that perfectly fills in a gap that we have in our first episode,” he says of how they treat space in the timeline. “Who’s to say that in a future season, maybe there’s another one of those that fills in that gap, and I would love that.”

Lastly, will there just be one villain per season? Trammell says there will be “a few antagonists” who will get their own stories that build over time. “We’ll meet plenty of characters that I think people will love and recognize, but there’s some other characters that might take a little more time,” he teases. “One that I’m really excited for people to see is our integration of Scorpion. I love that character, and I do feel like we found a really fun way to utilize them and make him feel scary, as he should.”

Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, NBC Insider, IGN and more. She’s also written official books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water and the latest, The Art of Ryan Meinerding. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett or Instagram @TaraDBen

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Toon In: Animated TV Highlights for January, from Harley Quinn to Spider-Man