Miyori no Mori

These series and animated films take place in the countryside, forest, or other rural location.

Anime either based on, heavily influenced by or drawing key aspects from folklore. Folklore encompasses the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, people or culture passed down through the generations by word of mouth and later often recorded in written form.

While the majority of works listed in this club have their origins in East Asian folklore (for obvious reasons) also included are examples of folklore ranging from portrayals of the mythology of Ancient Greece, stories featuring local spirits, legendary folk heroes, adaptions of Brothers Grimm fairy tales and narratives featuring the Gods of the Norse pantheon as characters. Modernised interpretations and retellings have been largely excluded.

As MAL currently sadly only allows a max of 50 entries on interests stacks this list prioritises the stand out and most high quality examples of folkloric anime. For a more comprehensive list which also includes manga, I direct you to my accompanying folklore club of the same name.

Trees, forests, deserts, oceans -- shows where the depiction of the outdoors is absolutely breathtaking!

List of series with a rural setting.
These anime take place in farms, small cites, villages or forests.

This stack will feature anime with broad ecological and environmentalist themes.

For an anime to be considered environmentalist, it must primarily communicate a message regarding the condition of nature; moreover, it should portray nature as suffering, whether from pollution, deforestation, ecosystem collapse, or similar crises, in a manner that resonates with the Japanese environmentalist movement.

Feel free to recommend another anime I might miss.
Let's start with anime that is not in the database.

From Seitarou Kitayama lost anime: Physiology and Ecology of Plants (Shokubutsu seiri seitai no maki) 1922
source: Promiscuous Media_Film and Visual Culture in Imperial Japan, 1926-1945; pp.160

*Note: For this interest stack, The Anime Encyclopedia has been extensively used.
*Also, gratitude to anime-planet.com for their environmental tag. Without it, a considerable number of anime would be included here.
*Most of the descriptions were co-written using LLM technology, specifically Microsoft Bing Copilot, with the generative prompt: "Hi, can you write me a short synopsis about an anime named ..... with environmentalism themes?"

Update: On 18.8.2024, after watching the third part of the @WooKong1 anime history documentary, I added a few anime titles that were discussed in its ecological section. Overall, I highly recommend the video. A not fully animated movie mention in the video Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971)

Anime where the protagonist can see things that others cannot see; ghosts, yokais, monsters, etc.

This stack lists anime that are about buddhism/shintoism or frequently reference at least one of the named religions/philosophies.

Some of the listed anime are surprisingly good and offer a insight into japanese/eastern history, traditions and mythology. Some might be unapologetic propaganda.

List of anime that were broadcast in old brazilian open TV, in channels like Bom Dia & Cia, TV Globinho and stuff like that.

Shows in which parts of the natural world such as its landscapes, flora and fauna and the people who live harmoniously alongside it are portrayed with a particular focus and reverence.

all standalone movies for your anime movie bingo ;)