“RECS: Here Are Some Fresh Anime To Herald The Spring!”

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Why It Works. After many months of bleak skies and interminable cold, it appears that the chill of winter is finally subsiding and spring is on the rise. Winter always tends to put me in a foul mood, and given I live in a place that’s more or less wintry for about half the year (thank you, New England), you can imagine how excited I am to see the sun again. And what better way to celebrate our escape from the cold than through a collection of spring-ready anime, chock full of community activities and outdoor adventures? Frankly, it’s still a little too cold where I’m at to actually appreciate the spring (thanks again, New England), so just sinking into some spring-appropriate anime is currently the best I can hope for. Let’s run down some shows to herald the new season in style!

Spring And Young Love

Spring and youthful romance are inseparably linked, and anime is chock-full of romances that celebrate the season. MY Love STORY!! stands as one of the best of them, centered on a gentle giant and his pint-size paramour, and following their journey far past the point of confession. Kimi ni Todoke – From Me To You is another gentle spring romance, featuring a deathly shy heroine with two of the funniest friends in romcom history. Heck, if you’re looking for more certainty of springtime than that, some romances outright announce that in the cover: between Blue Spring Ride and Your lie in April, you’ll be flush with explicitly spring-themed romances for quite some time.

Spring And Appreciating Nature

After a long winter of being cooped indoors by the inhospitable climate, getting out and back into nature is one of my favorite parts of the spring season. But if you’d like to appreciate the joy of nature from the convenience of your computer screen, anime certainly has you covered. Slice of life shows are uniquely suited to pastoral appreciation, and great choices like Non Non Biyori and Flying Witch exploit that to terrific effect, demonstrating the profound beauty and gentle atmosphere of the Japanese countryside. But nearly any genre can include a dash of appreciation for the natural world, as demonstrated by dramas like MUSHI-SHI and action shows like Dr. STONE.

Spring And The New School Year

Regardless of the scholastic schedule of your own country, any long-term anime fan can’t avoid knowing that the Japanese school year begins in early spring. This double-stacked combo of new beginnings feels like it’s actually superseded my own memories of high school, leaving me with a strong mental connection between spring and new school adventures. For any fans who are similarly afflicted, there are plenty of anime ready to cater to this sentiment: great Kyoto Animation dramas like Hyouka and Sound! Euphonium seize directly on the link between spring and the reinvention of a new school year, while other shows like Daily Lives of High School Boys and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! bring a lighter tone to this combo.

Spring And Celebrating Community

Along with the beauty of the natural world, spring also features a resurgence of life in our local communities. As the weather turns warmer, shops and street corners bloom like flowers, offering friendly faces and new experiences at every turn. Getting out and appreciating a rich local community is an experience celebrated by all sorts of great anime, from the gorgeous magical Kyoto of The Eccentric Family, to the wild mix of locals populating Arakawa Under the Bridge. And if you’d like to spend some time on the other side of the counter, local shops and their employees are the actual stars of shows like Polar Bear Cafe and Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san.

Spring Into Adventure!

Alright, maybe you don’t need your spring anime to explicitly highlight just what makes spring specifically so special. Maybe you’re just looking for some fresh adventures to make the most of the season, shows that embody the full package of getting out into the world and seizing your place within it. If spring is synonymous with new adventures for you, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better choice than Ranking of Kings, a fabulistic tale whose wanderings encompass a vast and unique magical world. And if you’ve already been clued into Ranking’s brilliance, you ought to further check in on Dragon Quest: The Adventures of Dai, a sleeper hit with great animation and plenty of fantastical appeal.

Regardless of what spring means to you, it at the very least means “the end of winter,” and for that I am eternally thankful. I hope you’ve found a show or two to celebrate the season among my suggestions, and please let me know your own favorite spring-themed anime in the comments!

Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

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