How anime has led the way in the battle against climate change

Storytelling naturally reflects the culture and climate it's produced in – yet few films and shows appear to be tackling the biggest threat to both.

According to Climate.gov, 2024 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850 (by a wide margin) and the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred in the past decade. Floods and heatwaves are increasing as the climate crisis grows, yet Western takes on this issue remain few and far between, especially when it comes to children's fare where they could make the most impact.

Since Ferngully left a lasting impression on millennials in the early '90s, not many animated films have continued where it left off. Just The Lorax and Pixar's Wall-E stand out as two notable exceptions when it comes to tackling environmental issues in animation. It's a different story in Japan, however.

Anime has long incorporated themes of this nature, tapping into traditional Taoist and Shintoist beliefs that prioritise ecological harmony and respect for the natural world. The Godfather of Anime, Tezuka Osamu, did so as far back as the '60s with Kimba the White Lion, and more adult stories like the Black Jack manga, where an unlicensed surgeon used his money to fund environmental projects.

It's Studio Ghibli that often comes to mind first, however. Even before the studio was named as such, co-founder Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a post-apocalyptic saga where the key to surviving a polluted world came from understanding the resilience of nature and the interconnectedness of all living things.

Plenty of other Miyazaki films continued this outlook further including Spirited Away, where the cleansing of a polluted river spirit is vital to the story and My Neighbor Totoro, which celebrates the beauty of rural life and preserving natural spaces. Aside from Nausicaä, however, it's Princess Mononoke which comes up most regularly in these conversations, thanks to the central conflict between forest spirits and human encroachment where industrialisation threatens life itself.

Crucially, Miyazaki avoided any obvious route in, offering up a more complex examination of both sides without outright condemning one or other. Humanity is violent throughout the film, for example, but Lady Eboshi, its leader, also cares deeply for those in need, building an entire community for lepers and other social outcasts.

That's not to say Miyazaki let humans off the hook entirely. "I’ve come to a point where I just can’t make a movie without addressing the problem of humanity as part of an ecosystem," he said in an interview with Asia Pulse around the film's release in 1997 (via Asia Pulse).

The same is also true for Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, who put his own unique spin on that conflict in Pom Poko, swapping out wolves and forest spirits for shape-shifting Tanuki (raccoon-dogs indigenous to Japan) who engage in extreme guerilla tactics similar to radical groups like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front.

Such ecological concerns aren't just limited to Studio Ghibli. A host of different anime creators have explored similar issues, from child-friendly fare like Doraemon, Dr Stone and Miyori's Forest to more mature titles such as Parasyte: The Maxim and Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You.

One that's endured longer than most is Pokémon, which has encouraged climate awareness since the '90s with a celebration of biodiversity that fosters love for all living things. Most Pokémon are inspired by real-life plants and animals, after all, including one whose transformation has been influenced by climate change directly.

A species named Corsola is a coral-themed Pokémon that needs clean water to live. Polluted waters discolour and even break the growths on its back. The Pokémon games Sword and Shield introduced an evolved version of Corsola that's essentially dead as a result of global warming. The Cursola have changed type from water to ghost, bleached like real coral that's died due to ocean acidification and global warming.

It's just as well that this franchise is using its power for good because the global popularity and impact of Pokémon cannot be overstated.

Just this week, protesters showed up at the United Nations climate conference dressed as Pikachu, aiming to stop the financing of coal and natural gas projects across Southeast Asia. What this reflects so well is how anime often speaks to the power that systemic organisations hold in such cases, emphasising the need for structural change over individual consumer behaviours which come to the fore more in Western equivalents.

Yet despite all this, climate education in Japan is nowhere near as strong as you might think. Despite the severe issues the island nation faces due to climate change, from massive rainfall to intensifying heatwaves, indifference to these problems is growing.

According to a 2023 Cabinet Office survey that polled 3,000 adults (via The Japan Times), only 31 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 30.3 per cent of those in their 30s replied they were interested in climate issues.

Meanwhile, 60.4 per cent of respondents over 70 said they were interested, which isn't ideal because you'd want this to flip the other way where the future of this planet is concerned.

That's not to say anime can't inspire real change where the climate crisis is concerned.

In a 2019 study, researchers from the University of Tokyo found that including animal characters in animated shows can increase public interest in real wildlife. Through their research, (now Associate) Professor Fukano Yūya and his team found that animals in a popular anime called Kemono Friends received 4.66 million more Google searches and 1 million Wikipedia page views than they had in the 18 months prior to broadcast.

Crucially, this boost in interest led to increases in real-world conservation activity as the specific species featured received larger public donations across Tokyo zoos.

Kelvin Tang, a postdoctoral climate education researcher at the University of Tokyo, tested this connection directly in a 2023 workshop (via The Japan Times) where he introduced 10 young children to ideas around climate change through simple cartoons and videos. Asking them to draw a picture of how they envision Japan's future climate 50 years from now, some drew a burning forest or even a burning Earth while others drew pretty flowers or grassy fields.

"I see this as a hope," says Tang, "because some students, after learning about climate change, about this alarming situation, still have that hopeful future (in their minds),” he said. The resulting conversation led to students suggesting what they can do to help, whether it be turning off lights or reducing meat consumption. "The key is to find how to really harvest this hope," adds Tang, "for them to be an agent of change, to change these concerns into constructive action."

In the same article, attention is drawn to a new series of anime shorts called Future Kid Takara, where the kid and a scientist go back in time to flee environmental disasters and discover the "beautiful Earth" that no longer exists for them in the future. Early signs of climate change here and now portend the apocalyptic era they hail from.

The 11-episode series aims to inspire hope for positive change among elementary school students with educational, classroom use in mind. By organically conveying this vital message in an animated story like Future Kid Takara, the idea is to educate but also empower young people to change the future together, shaking off the mindset that hope is lost already.

With such a long history in this field, anime remains the perfect vehicle to mainstream these concepts already and inspire further change. It's in the very DNA of this medium, after all. But it's not just Japanese animation that should aspire to make a difference. Powerful storytelling across the board is needed on a global scale to inspire action at a time when our reliance on fossil fuels is increasing as fast as the temperature is worldwide.

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