Snuggling under blankets with a hot cup of pumpkin spice latte calls for an anime marathon. Not just any anime, though, the shows that remind us of leaves changing colors, sweater weather, and an air of mystery. These series don’t necessarily have these aspects explicitly, but they check off the boxes in terms of making us feel comfortable as we’re watching. Let’s get cozy and relax with these fall-like anime series.

 

Spice and Wolf

 

 

A wolf girl, merchant trading, and a medieval backdrop. On the surface that about sums up Spice and Wolf. Besides autumn being the season for harvests, it’s also a great time for folklore. Holo, the wolf girl, is the deity of harvests and can be compared to an “ookami,” which is a wolf god in Japanese folklore. As a “wheat goddess,” Holo relies on the townspeople’s faith in her to produce bountiful harvests — but they’ve become self-reliant. She seeks a traveling companion in response to her loneliness as a forsaken deity. 

 

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Besides the fantasy aspect, Spice and Wolf is also about economics. It follows Kraft Lawrence, an aspiring merchant trader, as he travels from town to town and becomes better at the trade in order to survive. He meets Holo one night and lets her travel with him in return for her wisdom. Whether you enjoy the budding romance between Holo and Lawrence or merchant trading, Spice and Wolf maintains a steady and relaxing pace over the course of two seasons.

 

Hyouka

 

 

One of my all-time favorite anime is Hyouka, mainly because of the seemingly mundane mysteries that unfold through Kyoto Animation’s gorgeous visuals. While the show takes place during all four seasons, it oozes autumn vibes because of the story’s laid-back pacing. Hotaro Oreki, the main character, is incredibly lazy and only exerts the bare minimum of energy in order to complete tasks or satiate Eru Chitanda’s never-ending curiosity. Honestly, there’s no better time to want to sit back and do nothing than autumn. 

 

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Hyouka brings together four intelligent and naturally curious high school freshmen, each with their own strengths as they solve mysteries that range from figuring out the origins of Hyouka (the club’s official publication) to a school festival thief who leaves cryptic notes behind. If your energy matches Hotaro’s or you prefer pretty chill mysteries, you’ll want to watch (or rewatch, in my case) Hyouka this fall. 

 

Tsurune

 

 

Sports anime are usually about intense matches, freeze frames of characters’ shocked faces as a player pulls a dramatic move, and a team of characters with hearts of gold. Tsurune takes it down a notch, not just because it centers on archery (which is about practiced, precise movements), but also because it’s another work of Kyoto Animation — a studio known for putting in the smallest details in characters’ expressions rather than exaggerating them. 

 

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The main character, Minato Narumiya, stumbles into a forest where he meets a mysterious man at an archery range, capturing a sort of mystical, autumn vibe. To keep the mood going, the show often places an emphasis on the leaves that flutter in the wind as the characters fire their arrows from their bows. Those moments seem like they don’t have as much impact as, say, a basketball player slamming the ball in the hoop, but combined with the character’s state of mind as the arrow flies toward the target, they magnify and slow down revelations, letting us take a breath with them. 

 

The Ancient Magus’ Bride

 

 

A dark fantasy that’s not only great for the spooky season but just autumn in general, The Ancient Magus’ Bride is like stepping into another world and getting lost in a forest with strange and terrifying creatures all around you. That’s technically the premise of the show except that the main character, Chise Hatori, is a normal girl who gets sold to a supernatural being named Elias Ainsworth at an auction. He then takes her to his home in the countryside of Great Britain where she learns to value herself more and learn magic.

 

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If you’re like me and want to expand the spooky season for the rest of the year, put on The Ancient Magus’ Bride. It’s a gorgeous work of animation by Wit Studio and doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to darker themes. The show also has its quiet moments that let us appreciate the world of magic in its most natural form and the creatures that live within it — all while remembering what makes us human. Besides, who wouldn’t be enamored with a seven-foot-tall humanoid who wears an animal skull for a head? No one? Just me?

 

The Girl from the Other Side

 

 

The Girl from the Other Side is another anime that revolves around a humanoid with an animal head who meets a young girl. While it’s not a full series, the OADs (also adapted by Wit Studio) beautifully capture the manga’s art style, which is reminiscent of children’s illustrated storybooks. The setting takes place in a forest filled with beasts that can inflict curses with a single touch and it’s where a girl named Shiva gets abandoned. One beast, whom she calls Teacher, saves her, and together they live in a realm of twilight. 

 

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I can say with confidence that The Girl from the Other Side is unlike any other anime I’ve seen or manga that I’ve read. The anime adaptation experiments with different art styles. In one scene, you see the characters in watercolors, and in another the scenery looks like a children’s storybook illustration such as Peter Rabbit. I’m a huge fan of studios that take creative liberty in how they “show” a story. I also believe that the lack of a full series for the anime makes me appreciate the level of effort that went into producing the three episodes available even more.  

 

Chihayafuru

 

 

Another sports anime on the list that doesn’t have the same intensity as BLUELOCK or Haikyu!! is Chihayafuru, which centers on karuta — actually, scratch that, smacking cards off the tatami-mat floors can get pretty extreme. The story revolves around Chihaya Ayase, who’s known for her model looks but instead aspires to become the best karuta player after meeting a boy named Arata Wataya. She grows up and doesn’t see Arata again until high school where she reunites with her childhood friend, Taichi Mashima, and they create the Mizusawa Karuta Club.

 

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Chihayafuru is poetic when it comes to autumn; the episode titles sound like stanzas from a poem. In fact, some actually are, with a few such as “The Autumn Leaves of Mount Ogura” and “As helpless autumn leaves are caught against the flow” alluding to the season. Just like any slice-of-life anime that takes place in high school, the timeframe goes through all four seasons to signal different points of each character’s development. The show touches on romance, with Taichi’s one-sided crush on Chihaya and the latter’s endless pining for Arata. It’s a love triangle where all three parties involved are amazing karuta players — and worth binging all three seasons for.