Anime is one of Japan's most notable cultural exports, with even those who don't watch it recognizing the medium as Japanese. Its popularity has introduced several Japanese words to Western fans' lexicon, including shonen, shojo and of course, isekai. However, despite reflecting Japanese culture, there's an apparent dearth of anime based on specific Japanese folktales.

While there are notable exceptions, many of the anime based on single folktales are inspired by those from outside the Land of the Rising Sun. This stems from the same concept that makes anime so popular with non-Japanese audiences, and it explains why the Japanese might seemingly be so disinterested in their own cultural stories and fables.

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Anime Avoids Japanese Fairy Tales for Exoticism

Grimms Note

There have been numerous anime over the years that are -- to varying degrees -- based on Western fairy tales and folk stories. Perhaps the most obvious example was the 1980s series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics. Similar to the 1970s anime Andersen Stories, it brought iconic German bedtime stories together in an anime anthology. The more modern series Grimms Note also adapted the works of the Brothers Grimm, albeit in a less traditional manner.

Alice in Wonderland and The Little Mermaid have also been turned into anime throughout the past several decades, with these adaptations ranging from the staunchly accurate to the heavily reimagined. European stories aren't the only non-Japanese fairy tales to be turned into anime, however. For instance, the Chinese tale Journey to the West is a frequent inspiration in anime. One anime that it influenced was Saiyuki, but perhaps its most notable "adaptation" was the original Dragon Ball series.

The prominence of non-Japanese fairy tales as inspiration for anime makes sense in the same way that Western viewers have taken to anime so much. Japanese storytellers and viewers are likely as familiar with their own fairy tales as Westerners are with the exploits of Goldilocks or Little Red Riding Hood. Thus, the exotic nature of foreign fairy tales has more cultural interest to the creators of anime given that it's less familiar territory. The same goes for anime based on the history of non-Japanese countries. Similarly, Western viewers might watch anime for the "Japanese" aspect of it, or because of how different it feels from their own countries' animated productions. This harkens back to the origins of the anime industry, with older works such as Astro Boy meant to emulate the art style and feel of Disney's first animated offerings.

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Are There Any Anime Based On Japanese Fairy Tales?

Princess Kaguya

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was a 2013 anime movie from Studio Ghibli, and it's the most well-known modern adaptation of the Japanese fairy tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. It's not the only anime based on this folk story, though it adapts it in the most straightforward way. Other, much looser adaptations include Sailor Moon, which features concepts from the same story. Romantic comedy Kaguya-sama: Love is War has characters named after those in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, while Turn A Gundam, an entry in the Gundam mecha franchise, also surprisingly draws heavily from it.

This is just one example of how anime tends to utilize Japanese fairy tales. Given that the stories are intrinsic in Japanese culture, accurate adaptations are usually eschewed in favor of anime that remix the characters and concepts, turning them on their heads to keep the material fresh. This is analogous to how Western films and TV shows involving Greco-Roman mythology will sometimes diverge heavily from the source material to not seem old-hat. Yokai-based franchise GeGeGe no Kitaro is an example of a series that incorporates various parts of Japanese mythology and not just one singular source.

Folktales from Japan was a rare exception to this rule, outright adapting Japanese fairy tales in an anthology across over 300 episodes. Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories did the same thing with a horror twist, with a narrator bringing some of Japan's creepiest urban legends to life. These anime, which can both be streamed on Crunchyroll, were released in the past decade, perhaps starting a shift of anime that faithfully brings Japanese fairy tales to a modern and global audience.