Summary
Every year gives you a whole month to start focusing on all the spookyanime, games, and movies. Who doesn’t love a special where the Halloween spirit is front and center? While many might be familiar with classics such as the Charlie Brown special or the campy Scary Godmother films, anime has plenty of Halloween specials as well.
It’s always nice to see your favorite anime characters partaking in the festivities. There are costumes, parties, and spooky shenanigans that ensue. From classic anime hijinks to facing fears about the future, here are the best anime Halloween specials to watch.
8Gabriel Dropout
Angels On The Loose
If you want an anime that actually shows the characters Trick-or-Treating, then check out Gabriel Dropout. This anime features a group of angels who live among humans as part of their training. Unfortunately, the main character, Gabriel, ends up dropping out.
This doesn’t stop her from having adventures on Earth though, and one of them just happens to take place on Halloween. ‘Satania’s Counterattack’ has Gabriel’s friends try convincing her to go out for the night. This includes the tradition offinding the perfect costumefor her. It’s a silly little episode where everyone can dress up and eat candy. So if you’re nostalgic for Trick-or-Treating, give it a watch this Halloween season.
7Love Live! School Idol Project
A Halloween Performance
Nothing screams Halloween more thana group of idolsgetting ready for a spooky performance. ‘Happy Halloween’ is an episode that has the idols of Love Live! getting ready for an important performance that might make or break their careers.
There are plenty of decorations all over the episode that perfectly convey the spirit of the season. This is one of the few Halloween episodes that actually holds some weight to the overall plot of the show. So there are some plot points you’ll appreciate a bit more if you’ve been keeping up. Nevertheless, it is a fantastic way to kick off your Halloween anime marathon.
6Ouran High School Host Club
A Test Of Courage
In anime, one way to celebrate Halloween is through a test of courage. With the members of the Host Club participating in providingjump scaresfor their fellow students, it soon becomes a challenge to see who can last the longest. The loser gets their face plastered all over the school as a coward.
‘Until the Day it Becomes a Pumpkin’ is a great episode since it has every main character getting into their costume persona. One iconic moment is confusing a pumpkin as the wolf man. The episode also tackles a few more personal fears, such as the changes that relationships face over time. Overall, this is an excellent episode to watch during Halloween.
5The Ice Guy And His Cool Female Colleague
A Costume Contest
It’s always a real treat when anime breaks out of the high school setting and goes ina more adult direction. It just so happens that love is blooming at the office between the descendant of a snow spirit and his oblivious coworker.
While this may sound Wintery, this episode ‘Excitement! The Halloween Costume Contest’ is a full Halloween experience. When a costume contest is scheduled at the office, it’s time to pick costumes, shop for props, and get plenty of visuals that depict what everyone loves about the spookiest season of them all. So pass the pumpkin spice because there is plenty of work to be done before the party.
4The Melancholy Of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya And Nyoron! Churuya-san
What Is Halloween?
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is one of themost iconic anime from the early 2000s. So of course it gets a chibi version. As leader of the SOS Brigade, Haruhi has a knack of throwing her friends into a variety of different situations, from filmmaking to murder mysteries. Basically, anything to cure her boredom.
In ‘That’s right! Let’s celebrate Halloween!’ Haruhi decides she wants to throw a Halloween event. The only problem is that she has no idea how the holiday works and uses a single photo as a reference. This leads to many hijinks and inaccuracies, but at least she does get a few things right. Sometimes the fun of Halloween is figuring it all out as you go.
3The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K
Preparing A Disastrous Party
Saiki K is a psychic all year round, and while he tries to keep this power in check, the people around him are constantly roping him into different shenanigans. In ‘Holding a Halloween Party,’ the gang tries to celebrate the spooky season. There is only one problem. No one really knows how to celebrate Halloween.
This leads to a short but sweet episode as the characters all make their own missteps in trying to recreate familiar Halloween traditions. Like any episode of Saiki K, hilarity ensues. This makes for a great Halloween episode that you don’t want to miss out on.
2Bleach
It’s Just A Dream
Bleach has so many episodesthat it is only inevitable that at least one of them touches upon the spookiest season of them all. Luckily, the series has filler and if you make it to Episode 304, the filler takes the form of ‘Gaiden Again! This Time’s Enemy Is A Monster?’.
This episode is everything you could want from a Halloween adventure. Everyone is in costume, the plot is nonsensical, and everything keeps in theme with the season. Sure, it doesn’t have any impact on the actual plot at the time, but it’s nice to take a break every now and then just to watch the characters interact in a low-stakes adventure.
1Pokemon XY: Kalos Quest
A Trick Or A Treat?
Nobody does Halloween like Pokemon. From a whole set of Halloween-themed plushies to special Pokemon TCG boosters to hand out to trick-or-treaters, the franchise goes all out each year. So, of course, with over 1.000 episodes, there are bound to be a few spooky ones thrown in the mix. However, one episode from the X and Y era stands out.
This is ‘A Festival Trade! A Festival Farewell?’ and it has Ash and his Kalos crew attending a Halloween-themed festival. All the characters are in costume throughout this episode, and it just so happens to focus on Jessie’s pumpkin Pokemon, Pumpkaboo. Will Jessie trade her previous teammate or will somebody get tricked?
