From Sunnydale to Studio Ghibli: Why Buffy Fans Will Feel at Home in Anime

Editor's note: We have included several bonus images in this review, for ~*the nostalgia*~. And because of the feels.

Saving the world, bonding over trauma, and still managing group photos somehow.

What Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Anime Have in Common

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was never just about slaying demons. Beneath the witty dialogue and supernatural action, it was a show about friendship, grief, loyalty, and the search for belonging. That’s why it still resonates decades later: the monsters were metaphors, but the emotions were real.

Anime, at its best, works in the very same way. While the art style and cultural backdrop may feel new, the heart of these stories often beats in rhythms familiar to anyone who once followed Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles. The same blend of humor, heartbreak, and metaphor that drew us into Sunnydale runs through Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, and in series that balance levity with loss.

If you loved Buffy for its mix of wit and weight, or for the way it made you think about life through fantasy, you may be surprised to find that anime offers a kindred depth. Let’s explore those connections — and highlight some shows that feel like natural next steps for Buffy fans.

If you’re a Buffy fan brand new to anime and looking for clear guidance on where to start, see The Beginner’s Guide to Anime for Discerning Viewers. For a framework to help you choose shows that align with your values, see The Ultimate Guide to Evaluating Anime for Value Alignment.

Nothing says friendship like cramming into the magic shop to debate your odds of surviving Tuesday.

Buffy’s Emotional Core—and Where to Find It in Anime

Buffy endures because it never stayed shallow. Just when the quips and vampires felt routine, The Body stopped time with raw grief, and Once More, With Feeling let music surface truths no one wanted to say.

Anime hits the same nerve with equal precision. In Violet Evergarden, a simple letter becomes a conduit for loss and repair (the episode with the mother’s letters lands like a quiet earthquake). A Silent Voice turns school drama into a reckoning with guilt and forgiveness. March Comes in Like a Lion treats depression as lived terrain—small acts of care, like the Kawamoto sisters’ dinners, become lifelines.

Where Buffy used demons to highlight adolescent fears, anime often uses spirits, curses, or magical creatures to press into universal questions: Who am I becoming? What do I carry with me? How do I connect when life feels fractured?

When the Hellmouth delivers a jump scare and suddenly everyone’s a soprano.

Humor & Healing: Why We Stayed Through the Hard Arcs

A big part of Buffy’s power was how it disarmed us with wit, warmth, and camaraderie before pulling us into deeper waters. The “monster-of-the-week” rhythm built trust; humor became emotional scaffolding. So when the story plunged into heartbreak, we stayed — the laughter had bound us to the characters too tightly to look away.

Anime often follows the same rhythm. SPYxFAMILY wins us over with absurd disguises and comic timing, then roots our attachment in the fragile trust forming inside its patchwork family. Violet Evergarden captivates us with moments of curiosity and beauty, so that when grief surfaces, we already feel bound to her search for meaning. The balance of levity and gravity makes the journey possible — and healing.

For more on how humor becomes a doorway to insight, see More Than a Laugh: How Comedy Anime Sharpens Our Insight.

Back when the Hellmouth was new, the library was HQ, and Cordelia wasn’t technically invited—but showed up anyway.

Found Family: Scoobies in Another Key

The Scooby Gang was the heart of Buffy. Whatever enemies came, what mattered most was the imperfect but unbreakable bonds among friends. They argued, they drifted, but in the end they chose each other again and again.

Anime is full of this same found-family heartbeat. In SPYxFAMILY, a spy, an assassin, and a telepath form a makeshift household that becomes more real than any of them expected. In The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting, a hardened gangster learns tenderness by caring for a little girl. In Sweetness and Lightning, shared meals knit together a widowed father, his daughter, and a lonely high school student until their bond feels indispensable.

Like the Scoobies, these groups hold us because their loyalty isn’t easy or automatic. We watch them falter, forgive, and return to each other — and it’s in that choosing again that the family becomes real.

For more on how relationships deepen when they move beyond genre tropes, see More Than a Love Story: How Romance Anime Deepens Our Understanding of Connection.

Willow: “This might be dangerous.” Buffy: “That’s literally my major.”

Strong Female Leads and Emotional Vulnerability

Buffy became iconic not just because she could slay vampires, but because she carried contradictions in full view. She was powerful and unsure, determined and grieving, playful and exhausted. That complexity made her feel real. More than that, she had agency: her choices — whom to trust, what battles to fight, when to sacrifice — shaped the story’s direction. And her strength wasn’t only in combat. It was in how she built loyalty, stood resilient in loss, lived by her values, and changed the people around her.

Anime gives us heroines with that same breadth. Yona of the Dawn grows from sheltered princess to leader, learning resilience and agency as she gathers companions whose lives are transformed by her integrity. Snow White with the Red Hair shows strength in choosing kindness and pursuing her vocation with steady resolve, shifting those around her by living authentically. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind embodies a different kind of power: she risks herself to protect life, modeling how compassion can disarm violence and alter the course of her world.

What unites these characters with Buffy is not just bravery, but the way their humanity drives the story. They act with agency, they let their vulnerability be seen, and they create ripple effects of growth in those who walk beside them. True strength here is not about being invincible — it’s about being whole.

For a deeper exploration of servant leadership in anime, see Red-Haired and Resolute: Four Protagonists Who Lead by Serving Others, where we uncover how characters from very different worlds embody courage through service and responsibility -- including one of our personal favorites, Shirayuki.

The Summers’ living room: where Buffy got to just be a daughter, if only for a while.

Heartbreak and Healing: Why Buffy Fans Connect with Anime’s Emotional Depth

Ask a Buffy fan their most unforgettable moments, and chances are they’ll recall heartbreak: Angel turning after one perfect night, Joyce’s sudden death, Tara’s tragic end. The show didn’t shy away from sorrow — it insisted that pain shapes us as much as joy.

Anime often lingers in that same bittersweet space. Violet Evergarden follows a soldier learning to live with loss while discovering the meaning of love. A Silent Voice portrays bullying and guilt with an honesty that makes forgiveness feel both fragile and profound. March Comes in Like a Lion brings us close to depression’s weight, then offers tenderness in the form of chosen family.

Like Buffy, these stories don’t hand out easy answers. They hold beauty and sorrow together, showing that healing doesn’t erase grief — it grows from it.

For more on how stories turn struggle into growth, see Why Drama Anime Moves Us: A Spotlight on Emotional Growth and Connection, where we explore why vulnerability and conflict stay with us long after the fight is over.

Buffy and Angel—because saving the world wasn’t hard enough without cursed boyfriends.

Metaphor and Magic: The Shared Language of Buffy and Anime

One of Buffy’s greatest strengths was its symbolic storytelling. Demons could stand in for addiction, high school literally became hell, and resurrection carried the weight of trauma. What stayed with us wasn’t the monsters themselves, but the way they exposed our own fears, flaws, and desires.

Anime thrives on this same symbolic richness. In Princess Mononoke, curses and forest spirits embody the clash between human ambition and nature’s limits. The Ancient Magus’ Bride uses magic and myth to explore trauma, self-worth, and what it means to be chosen. Spirited Away turns a bathhouse of spirits into a journey through courage, identity, and resilience.

For Buffy fans, this use of the supernatural as metaphor will feel like familiar territory — just told through a different symbolic language. For more on how fantasy worlds carry meaning beyond their magic, see More Than Magic: What Makes Fantasy Anime So Enchanting?.

Buffy in leather, armed with destiny and a conveniently glowing plot device.

Where to Start

If you’re curious but cautious, here are a few anime that align closely with Buffy’s spirit — mixing metaphor, emotional depth, and community in ways that will feel familiar.

• Violet Evergarden — letters and memories become the path through grief, resonating with Buffy’s most bittersweet episodes.

• SPYxFAMILY — lighter in tone, but its found-family warmth and humor carry the same heartbeat as the Scoobies.

• The Ancient Magus’ Bride — a hauntingly beautiful tale of healing and self-discovery, with supernatural metaphors as layered as Buffy’s demons.

• Yona of the Dawn — a heroine’s journey from sheltered princess to courageous leader, echoing Buffy’s arc from reluctant teen to seasoned protector.

• Princess Mononoke — epic in scope, yet rooted in questions of responsibility and care, much like Buffy’s battles were always about more than the fight.

These series balance accessibility with depth, offering both entertainment and reflection — a natural next step for anyone who still carries Sunnydale in their heart.

The Scoobies questioning everything, including why you haven’t hit play on your first anime yet.

Why Buffy Fans Should Give Anime a Chance

Buffy showed us that stories are never just stories — they become part of how we face the world. We laughed, grieved, and grew alongside characters whose battles mirrored our own.

Anime carries that same torch. Whether through heroines who lead with compassion, found families who hold each other through the dark, or metaphors that turn the supernatural into insight, these shows continue the work Buffy began: helping us see our lives more clearly through the lens of story.

If Buffy once gave you courage to face the unknown, anime can offer new ways to keep growing — with beauty, with belonging, and with resilience.

For more on how these conversations open into real life, see Talk About What Matters: How Discussing Anime Can Deepen Your Relationships.

And we’d love to hear from you: Which part of Buffy’s storytelling spoke most deeply to you — and what kind of anime connection are you most curious about? Share your thoughts below — your reflections may guide what we highlight next.