As Japan is one of those countries that sit in the perfect sweet spot just the right distance away from the equator, it has afforded them the ability to experience the four seasons in distinction. None of that “three days of autumn” before winter or a winter of rain that some other countries get. Each season in Japan has historically had its own set distinct time to shine. As such, they have a culture of seasonal delights that highlight all the good things about each season.
This tradition of highlighting the seasons has also spread to anime where the seasonal weather helps augment the themes of a series.
While more rare than anime set in the season of rebirth and young love that is spring or the youthful days of warm freedom that come with summer, winter in anime gives a series a certain tone. Winter is a season of nostalgia and romanticism, but also a time of melancholic stillness and emptiness.
This means anime set in winter often has a distinct somber tone even if the series can explore a number for different plots. If you are looking for anime that captures this specific winter vibe, then give these anime recommendations a try.
Anime Set in Winter
Erased
What goes better than the frozen snows of winter than the potential for children to be buried under them?
Possibly too dark of a joke aside, that is actually what the plot of Erased is trying to prevent. This time-manipulating murder mystery is about a man with a power that often lets him go back in time a few minutes to prevent accidents that happen near him. However, when someone close to him is murdered, he loops back all the way to his childhood, shortly before a winter where three children were abducted and murdered by a serial killer who was never caught.
This gives him a chance to address some key regrets he had in his childhood as well as save the lives of the soon-to-be victims as he tries to unravel whodunit and what connection they had to the murder in his adult life.
Golden Kamuy
Golden Kamuy is a historically inspired series following a soldier who returned from the Russo-Japanese War in the early 1900s. After a vow made on the battlefield, he went to Hokkaido to pan for gold that will support the wife of his deceased war buddy. While doing so, he learns of a treasure stolen from the native Ainu people by criminals.
A strange man in the wilderness tells him that each member of the gang had a piece of the map leading to the treasure tattooed on their flesh while in prison, supported by the fact that he discovers that this very man is a holder of a piece of the map on his own flesh. He teams up with a native Ainu girl bent on revenge to find the treasure before the criminals can.
Golden Kamuy is one action-packed and long-running treasure hunt story, so while it starts in the brutal Hokkaido winter, not all of the series is set in the snow. However, by the time you miss the early days of survival in the snow, you are now invested in the survival of the characters against an increasing interesting array of enemies.
White Album 2
While both White Album and the “related, but not an actual sequel” White Album 2 both take place in winter, most will sing the praises of the love triangle-focused White Album 2 over the more harem-focused White Album with its wide array of highly dislikable characters.
White Album 2 starts in the fall with a light music club on the verge of disbanding. However, a boy who just recently learned to play guitar aims to save the club by recruiting a girl with a passion for singing and a mysterious girl who often accompanies his guitar playing from a locked room next door to his music room.
As the series goes on and the relationship between the three of them grows more complex, winter arrives, and with it – discontent.
Kanon
While Jun Maeda and his passion for creating emotionally resonant anime often takes full advantage of the seasons in his series, none are more winter-focused than Kanon.
This series follows a main character returning to a city that he often visited as a child. However, after seven long years and one traumatic incident, he has no memories of his time in the town. He returns in the dead of winter and slowly meets a series of girls who all have memories of him.
Winter in Kanon is highly symbolic, being used in this instance to accent the emptiness of his memories and how frozen in time he is. As such, the charm of Kanon is the slow unraveling and revealing of his memories, finding out what happened to him, and what connection he really has to all these girls.
Laid-Back Camp
Laid-Back Camp is a unique Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime where the “thing” that these cute girls are doing is camping. However, as one of the main characters really doesn’t like the crowds that come with camping the the more seasonal months, she only goes during the winter.
As such, Laid-Back Camp is one of the best anime set in the winter as it really highlights the aesthetic joys of the season through its long, lingering visuals interspersed with cute camping shenanigans. In fact, it was so effective, the anime inspired an actual boom in winter camping in Japan.
Wolf’s Rain
In Wolf’s Rain, the world isn’t ending with a bang, but with a whimper as the planet is gradually dying and wolves are being blamed for it.
The series follows a group of wolves capable of shifting into human form in order to blend in as they journey towards a myth that says only wolves will be able to find the path to paradise and escape the dying world.
As one of the most melancholy stories in anime, it is only natural that this series takes place almost entirely in the winter, accenting the misery of the situation and the journey.
Mushishi
Mushishi is an episodic wandering anime about a man who studies the entities known as mushi who cause a series of phenomenon when they cross paths with humanity. Sometimes the mushi provide benevolent blessings and sometimes they cause malevolent curses, but no one is sure why these wholly neutral entities have such diverse effects.
As Mushishi is a wandering story, it wanders through all the seasons as the main character Ginko travels. So while winter isn’t the focus, it always comes back around eventually.
A Lull in the Sea
While A Lull in the Sea is remembered as an aesthetic anime, it doesn’t actually start with the winter aesthetic. Instead, it emphasizes the beauty of the ocean by following a series of ocean-dwelling kids having to go to the surface to attend school after their schoolhouse underwater closed. They get to know the human children, descended from those who left the undersea kingdoms and lost their ability to breath underwater, and deal with the discrimination against them on the surface.
At the halfway point, a significant event transpires which coincides with the arrival of winter. This means the second half captures all the roiling turbulence of a seaside winter to match the new tone of the story.
Amagami SS
Amagami SS is an omnibus romance, which is a fancy form of harem romance storytelling where each girl gets her own romantic arc with the main character, with time resetting for the next girl after each conclusion.
This means that while Amagami SS doesn’t start in winter, the season comes six times throughout the series. As Christmas Eve is an important couples holiday in romance anime, you get six different versions of the event.
Hokkaido Gals are Super Cute
Hokkaido is the northernmost major island in the Japanese archipelago, and as such, its experiences the fiercest winters more on par with Russia than the rest of Japan.
Hokkaido Gals are Super Cute starts off with a boy moving to Hokkaido from Tokyo with his family in the middle of winter. Not only is he adjusting to the more extreme local weather, but he is adjusting to the distinctly different culture that those living in rural Hokkaido have compared to the fast and modern culture of Tokyo.
While Hokkaido Gals are Super Cute doesn’t stay winter forever, it does place a huge emphasis on it with all the pink cheeks, noses, and ears that come with it. However, despite the emphasis on winter, this romance anime sure does like to show the bare skin Hokkaido girls strip down to when they go inside. It is definitely a must for those who are looking for a more suggestive romance to heat up those winter nights.
A Place Further Than The Universe
Who says you can’t have a winter anime that takes place in summer?
Well, most people would say that. However, A Place Further Than The Universe is about a group of high schoolers who are trying to fulfill a dream to get to Antarctica by going on a research trip with a group of scientists. While it may be summer in Japan, it snows all year in Antarctica, which they do eventually reach.
The charming thing about A Place Further Than The Universe is that it explores an unrealistic goal that you often find in anime – like high school girls going to Antarctica – but actually explores the journey to get there in a surprisingly realistic way.
Yuri on Ice
In truth the winter vibes from Yuri on Ice don’t come from the outdoor scenes, since much of it takes place inside.
Yuri on Ice follows a profession figure skater who chokes and blows his shot in the Grand Prix Final. He returns home to Japan where he considers retiring form figure skating until a World Champion figure skater he admires shows up on his doorstep and offers to train him.
As much of this series takes place inside a skating rink, it captures the same winter vibes as more dedicated winter anime without stepping outside much.
Vampire in the Garden
Vampire in the Garden really embraces the melancholy of winter as a setting in the story it tells. The series follows a forever war between humanity and vampires were even things like music, something that has become associated with vampire culture, is forbidden among human settlements.
It follows a human woman meeting a vampire woman who is grieving the death of her human wife and looking to join her in the afterlife. They bond and eventually set out across the wintry, war-torn wasteland looking for a mythical place where humans and vampires live together in peace.
Do you have more anime set in winter that gives off those cozy snowy vibes? Let fans know in the comments section below.
