10 best anime exploring Japanese culture

Anime exploring Japanese culture offers key windows for global viewers into Japan's intricate, vibrant cultural tapestry interweaving ancient traditions and ultramodern trends.

The medium's creative storylines, evocative visuals, and deep cultural explorations offer insights into spiritual folklore, competitive subcultures, struggling traditional arts, historical societal shifts, and personal tales of resilience shaping the Japanese spirit.

This list covers ten of the most culturally enlightening anime across genres acclaimed for immersing audiences in aspects of Japanese lifestyles and belief systems.

10 must-watch anime exploring Japanese culture

1) Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (Image via Studio Deen)

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is a powerful historical drama focusing on the live performance art of rakugo - a traditional Japanese style of comedic storytelling and monologue dating back centuries.

Protagonists include Yakumo Yurakutei and Sukeroku, an aging master and his rough-edged, gifted apprentice attempting to keep the ancient performance art alive amidst challenges in post-war Japan and their own complex mentor-student relationship.

This anime explores Japanese culture and delves into the nuances of professional rakugo while exploring how societal change threatens its survival. Through its historical lens, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju highlights national treasures and the importance of cultural preservation amid modernization.

2) Mushishi

Mushishi is an acclaimed supernatural series based on myths and concepts prevalent in rural Japan. The peaceful yet mysterious stories in Mushishi explore "Mushi" - primordial lifeforms that exist beyond human understanding, neither spiritual beings nor conventional organisms, but deeply interwoven with nature and life itself.

Protagonist Ginko investigates various Mushi-related phenomena while learning about remote communities and their folklore. Through scenic backgrounds contrasting rural and urban Japan, this anime exploring Japanese culture greatly emphasizes the relationship between humans, nature, and the supernatural.

Viewers learn about these unique beings rooted in Japanese tradition and get a feel for the country's breathtaking natural beauty as integral to its culture.

3) Chihayafuru

Centering around an obscure competitive Japanese card game, Chihayafuru is a sports drama anime following a trio of friends bonded by their passion for karuta - a sport involving knowledge of 100 specific poems and quickly identifying the second verse when the first verse is read aloud.

The series follows gifted schoolgirl player Chihaya Ayase in particular, spotlighting her personal growth and dedication towards mastering competitive karuta as she climbs the ranks of high-stakes regional tournaments and national-level championships throughout middle and high school.

Beyond depicting this uniquely Japanese card game that demands mental reflexes akin to physical sports, Chihayafuru also explores deeper connections between the traditional poem cards themselves and Japan's rich literary history spanning centuries.

4) Barakamon

This slice-of-life comedy contrasts calligraphy with traditional rural life on a Japanese island. After angry young calligrapher Handa Seishuu is sent to Japan's sleepy Goto Islands by his father, he attempts to rediscover his creative passions, his structured worldview gets tested by exposure to colorful rural characters and customs.

As he learns to embrace the imperfections aesthetically captured in his evolving calligraphy amidst island life's slower pace, urban transplant Seishuu also continually amuses viewers by clashing with and ultimately learning from the islands' distinctly quirky regional culture and values.

Alongside spotlighting the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy of appreciating transient beauty in simple imperfect things, Barakamon also indulges viewers with Goto's sparkling ocean vistas, mouthwatering seafood delicacies, and charming rural traditions steeping this remote scenic community.

5) In This Corner of the World

In This Corner of the World (Image via MAPPA)

This historical drama explores WWII-era Hiroshima through Suzu, a young bride adapting to life near the war's epicenter. Suzu's daily struggles reflect the ever-present anxieties yet remarkable resilience demonstrated by ordinary Japanese citizens unimaginably enduring wartime devastation and deprivation together.

Vivid worldbuilding details reconstructing 1940s Japanese lifestyles through clothing styles, community rituals, local specialties, and more provide living authenticity. It highlights Suzu and other women's ingenuity in repurposing materials, conserving rations, and restoring harvests with resilience.

Beyond its slice-of-life first act, In This Corner of the World evolves into devastation witnessed firsthand once wartime finally intrudes onto the doorsteps and lives featured - paying deep respect to the enduring Japanese spirit despite the losses inflicted.

6) Showa Monogatari

This anime exploring Japanese culture chronicles Japan's Showa era from the perspective of the Yamazaki family. Beginning in 1964, Showa Monogatari insightfully covers milestones that defined the modern Japanese way of life - the Tokyo Olympics, Expo '70, the bubble economy of the 1980s, and more.

Cultural shifts are portrayed through societal attitudes, fashion trends, and eating habits evolving generationally in the Yamazaki household. Nostalgic montages, music, and architecture reconstruct Japan's dramatic progress while emphasizing enduring family traditions.

As an accurate period depiction of average Japanese life in the 20th century, Showa Monogatari is a cultural time capsule covering memorable national events.

7) Sakura Quest

For an entertaining take on contemporary rural Japan, Sakura Quest is a standout slice-of-life anime. When urbanite Yoshino Harusaki takes a job promoting rural tourism in Manoyama village, hilarious cultural clashes ensue.

From paperwork bureaucracy to mistaken assumptions about modern city dwellers, Yoshino's mistakes as she settles into small village life satirize Japanese society. With other young residents fighting the region's economic decline, this series also highlights Japan's pressing rural issues.

From highlighting fading traditional crafts to grandiose but comedic rural governance, this anime exploring Japanese culture charmingly portrays Japan's countryside.

8) Mononoke

The story follows the mysterious "Medicine Seller" as he encounters malicious spirits known as "Mononoke." To destroy each mononoke plaguing humans, he must first understand its Shape/Form (Katachi), Truth (Makoto), and Reason (Kotowari).

Rich in Japanese folklore with morally complex themes, Mononoke masterfully adapts the artistic style, clothing, architecture, and societal norms depicted in Edo Japan. The anime also incorporates horror elements influenced by traditional Ukiyo-e and Emakimono art styles.

With spirits rooted in Japanese myth ranging from possession to vengeance, Mononoke gives a deliciously unsettling perspective on aspects of Japan's past linked to its paranormal culture.

9) Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday (Image via Studio Ghibli)

Renowned Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday indulges viewers in rural nostalgia with its period slice-of-life drama. Following urban professional Taeko spending her vacation working at a farm in the countryside, the moving anime contrasts her childhood memories in 1960s Japan with the present day.

Peacefully paced scenes immerse the audience in idyllic regional life filled with harvesting safflowers, drinking sake, communal baths in ryokan inns, and more. Contrasted with Taeko's memory fragments, it captures enduring rural traditions and women's personal growth across generations.

With exquisite background art capturing the scenic beauty of Yamagata’s countryside and deep emotional resonance, this Ghibli classic is beloved for nostalgically revisiting cultural roots.

10) March Comes in Like a Lion

March Comes in Like a Lion (Image via Shaft)

This contemporary coming-of-age drama series explores Japanese competitive shogi culture while spotlighting the emotional growth of its central characters. Following young shogi player Rei Kiriyama's journey of self-acceptance and grief, March Comes in Like a Lion offers a deep look into the professional shogi world.

Beyond intense matches, the anime shows pivotal behind-the-scenes moments revealing the players' philosophies, superstitions, psyche tactics, and camaraderie from shogi's highest summits. It highlights shogi professionals who began as youth players under immense pressure.

Through Rei's personal evolution and connections fostering his resilient spirit, March Comes in Like a Lion delivers masterful storytelling layered with cultured insights on Japanese shogi at peak competitive levels.

Conclusion

In conclusion, through anime mediums like film, sports dramas, period pieces, satires, coming-of-age tales, and more - viewers can expand their understanding of integral elements shaping Japanese culture.

The anime exploring Japanese culture mentioned covers noteworthy historical events, ancient folk tales, societal shifts over time, uniquely Japanese competitive leagues, traditional performing arts, and practices still thriving today in Japan's countryside and cities.

By appreciating anime highlighting subjects woven into Japan's cultural fabric so ingeniously, global audiences can feel more connected to and enlightened on its vibrant, living heritage encompassing both rich traditions and progressive innovations that characterize this island nation.