Festival episodes are common inanime. There are so many different types of festivals in Japan, and it’s popular to have a school festival episode, or an outdoor festival that a group goes to. There’s almost always stalls, great food, some kind of café, and fireworks.
Festival episodes can be used as filler to take a break from a drama, or they can be used to further a couple in a romance. Many anime couples have had their first kiss during a festival, usually right as the fireworks go off.
7Toradora
Ohashi High School Cultural Festival
Toradora has a three-episode festival arc. The students vote over what to do and decide on a wrestling skit, instead of the typical maid café. In this overall light show, this arc is one of the more serious ones. It does bring our main couple together, but it’s so much more than that.
There are a lot of familial issues, and even within the skits and contests there are a lot of emotions about whether Taiga, the main character, should make up with her father, who cuts her off financially in the first of the three episodes. And for the other characters, Minori makes a discovery about her sexuality and Ryuuji realizes he’s been naive about those he cares about.
6Free!
Dual Festivals
Free! has multiple episodes that surround festivals. The show is about a High School swimming club as they grow as people, become friends, and work to understand their swimming rivals. One of the festival episodes is mostly just to highlight the personalities of the swimmers, but the second one, the more popular one, is a bit deeper.
Haruka swims in the school’s relay race as the team worries about him. They falsely thought that he was quitting the team, but in reality, he was simply working on his butterfly stroke. It’s a sweet episode about theimportance of friendshipthat brings the main cast closer.
5Code Geass
Declaration At The School Festival
This episode features Ashford Academy as it hosts its annual school festival. There’s a giant pizza, make-up assignments, a haunted house, and several plans to defeat enemies. It’s a very busy episode and everyone seems to have their own plot within it.
Since Code Geass is a more serious show (with some comedic elements), this show is more of a break in the plot. However, it does still move along - revenge plots are decided on, and there are discussions about Zero’s secret identity and how everyone feels about it.
4Hyouka
Juumonji Incident
Hyouka follows a high school student who joins his school’s literary club. He prefers to sit back and conserve energy, but when a club member’s uncle mysteriously dies, the club becomesmore of a murder mysterythan anything else as they work to solve the case.
When their school hosts a cultural festival, a new case appears. School clubs keep getting things stolen from them, and nobody knows who’s doing it. Together, they work to solve the case. This is one of the more unique festival episodes on this list, which makes it a great watch.
3Ouran High School Host Club
This Is Our Ouran Fair!
Usually, festival episodes happen more in the middle of a season, but Ouran’s is right at the end of the show. Everything is in shambles. Tamaki is engaged, and powerful families are tearing the host club apart.
The host club comes together to save Tamaki from a loveless marriage. They leave the school festival and Haruhi takes a horse-drawn carriage to chase him down. She holds out her hand, but before he can take it, a string breaks, and she falls off the bridge. Tamaki jumps in after her, leaving behind his fiancé and choosing the host club.
2Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War
Dual Episodes
There are two festival episodes in Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, and they are both incredible. The first is in the very first season where Kaguya is forced to skip the fireworks. And when she finally sneaks out, she’s too late to see them. Miyuki finds her, and they hop in a cab, chasing the fireworks down.
The second festival is in the third season. The High School is hosting a Devoted Hearts Festival, which is a two-day winter event. There are haunted houses, a cosplay café, and fortune-telling. But most importantly, this is considered the dual confessions arc: the moment where they decide toconfess their love to each other.
1My Hero Academia
Sports Festival
This festival arc is incredible. My Hero Academia is one of the more serious shows on this list and the reprieve of the sports festival is much-needed. Many other classes are frustrated that 1-A is getting all the attention both in and out of school. In order to make it up to them, they decided to host a free concert.
They all work together, and some of the lesser-known characters get the spotlight and showcase their talents. It truly shows how close the class is and highlights that they will do anything for each other. It’s really wholesome.
