This Earth Day, we look at all the beautiful new anime that celebrate nature.
Nature has always been a big part of anime and manga. This is natural as Japanese culture is largely based on Shintoism, a animistic religion and culture which believes supernatural entities or gods inhabit all things, especially natural landscapes and prominent locations. As a form of media which stems from Japan, anime has also largely adhered to this culture. We can see the celebration of nature in many anime series and movies, including celebrated Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Ponyo.
However, with passing time and the advancement of technology, the way we look at nature has changed a lot. Although anime titles still celebrate nature, sometimes it’s done through a more modern lens, which resonates well with the younger audience. From educational shows to characters relaxing in beautiful natural landscapes, modern anime is teaching us to love everything that’s around us.
Nature as seen through a modern lens
There are some educational anime where nature is the centre of the plot. One of the best examples of this would be Ruri Rocks, based on Keiichirō Shibuya’s manga, which is all about mineralogy.
The titular character Ruri is an enthusiastic high school student who loves jewellery. One day she goes out to find crystals in the great outdoors. There, she meets Nagi, a college graduate student of mineralogy. With Nagi, Ruri finds not only beautiful crystals, but also hidden nooks and crannies where beautiful minerals exist in their natural glory.
The series makes excellent use of mountains, rivers, lakes, and other gorgeous landscapes as a mode of education. The watcher learns a lot about minerals, their origins, and where they can be found. Although the series is almost entirely educational, there is growth and development in the characters as they slowly fall deeper in love with nature.
In a similar vein, we also have to talk about A Place Further than the Universe.
Unlike Ruri Rocks, A Place Further than the Universe is not entirely educational. The main character Mari is a high school student who wants to go on a life-changing adventure. Her friend Shirase wants to go on an expedition to Antarctica to find her mother who was an Antarctic observation crew member and went missing during her last trip. Along with two other friends, Mari and Shirase leave for Antarctica and the viewer gets to enjoy a different view of nature than we are used to.
Nature is not always calm and beautiful, sometimes, its beauty hides life-threatening dangers. In A Place Further than the Universe, we see cold open horizons, harsh winds and weather conditions, and how hard it actually is to journey to one of the most uninhabitable places on the planet. However, there’s still hope and beauty beyond our imagination lying ahead. With every obstacle the characters overcome, we root for them even more to find their purpose in the wide horizon that lies in front of them.
But what does someone do when they know they don’t have enough time to enjoy everything the world has to offer? Turn to nature again, obviously!
In Negative Positive Angler an original anime series focusing on Tsunehiro Sasaki, a university student who is given only two years to live after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Sasaki falls into the ocean, and is saved by a girl named Hana. Along with Hana and her friends, Sasaki develops an interest in the art of fishing, and the group spends their time on the open waters teaching and learning more about it.
Unlike the previous examples where it’s about adventure and learning, Negative Positive Angler is about finding peace in a hopeless situation. Sasaki learns a new craft and enjoys spending time with his friends. But his main aim is to experience something beautiful before his life comes to an early end. And nature is where he finds his solace.
But sometimes, people look for peace and quiet even when they’re not in a hopeless situation. Getting away from our busy schedules and spending a night under the stars with friends is a surefire way to boost up your energy. Laid-Back Camp, based on Afro’s manga, teaches us just that. This slice-of-life series is all about a few high school girls who discover the relaxing yet intricate hobby of camping and spend their days planning and preparing for their next trip.
Although it might seem that camping is all about eating s’mores and sleeping in a tent, there’s much more nuance to it. The series perfectly encaptures how humans use modern day tools to enhance their experience of nature while staying safe.
All of the aforementioned anime titles highlight and appreciate different parts of nature, but with the help of modern technology and understanding of how we can better experience the different things mother earth has to offer.
The visuals are amazing, and keeps you glued to the screen. But it’s much more than pretty animation, it’s about cultivating a deeper connection with the beauty we see all around us. Even when things seem hopeless, you can rely on nature to provide you with some momentary hope and repose.
What anime teaches us about nature
Of course, there are hundreds of different anime series and movies revolving around nature that you can browse to find the one that suits you best. The examples we used all take place in the modern world.
But there are shows like The Apothecary Diaries, where you see the protagonist Maomao’s love for medicinal and poisonous herbs, and how she solves mysteries using her knowledge.
Then there’s Frieren, which teaches us that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. And it’s human nature to stop and look at beautiful sunsets and soak your feet in warm spring water even when you might have more urgent things to attend to. Despite not involving any modern technology, these two shows teach us about the different faces of nature.
You can also turn to Makoto Shinkai, whose work often uses the weather as a moodboard for storytelling. Movies like Your Name, Weathering with You, Five Centimeters per Second, and Suzume are all deeply connected with nature and its different phenomena. Shinkai’s The Garden of Words is one of the most beautifully green movies that tells the story of an unlikely love.
Nature is not a singular, flat concept. It’s vast yet intricate, calm yet tempestuous, beautiful yet dangerous, serene yet loud, and it's utterly, devastatingly breathtaking. Our connection to nature is much older than humanity itself. We all come from nature, exist within it, and return to it eventually.
And of course, there are anime that teach us how to appreciate and preserve this beauty all around us, so that the generations after us can continue to enjoy this miraculous earth we are all a part of.