It's Always Spring
Robert Moscoe: The kids fly from one pole to the other in a short amount of time and the season doesn't change.
Michael Dante DiMartino: It's one of those continuity things where you'll just have to go with it.
Bryan Konietzko: Um... let's not talk about that.—Avatar: The Last Airbender production commentary
"Once upon a time, there was a magical place where it never rained. The end."—Mr. Sir, Holes
Think back to the last cartoon series you watched. Did you see red, orange and yellow leaves coming off the trees? Was there snow on the ground? Was school out of session?
If you answered no to all of these, and furthermore, can't even remember the last time any of these things occurred outside a seasonal episode, then that's because It's Always Spring.
Cartoon characters tend to have a Limited Wardrobe, which generally does not lend itself to cold weather. Furthermore, school is often a plot element in cartoons about kids, so that rules summer out of the question. Finally, it is probably easier to just put green leaves on every tree and to never draw leaves lying on the ground, so ultimately, the lack of seasonal change is a matter of convenience.
Occasionally, the hero may visit another country which may specifically be hotter or colder than their hometown, resulting in a clothing and scenery change unique to that location. However, almost without fail, It's Always Spring in the main character's hometown.
This may also have to do with the demographic appeal to make the audience relate more, as springs tend to occur even in places with both low and high extremes in the climate.
See also Dreaming of a White Christmas, Snowed In, and Heat Wave.
Outside of animation, this is a consequence of SoCalization. In Southern California, where most production takes place, the weather really is spring-like most of the year.
Do They Know It's Christmas Time? episodes almost invariably shift the setting to winter.
Played Straight
Anime & Manga
- Justified in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where Second Impact shifted the axis of the Earth such that there are no longer seasons in the modern sense. This is subtly hinted at by the constant droning of summer cicadas in background scenes where the kids are nonetheless attending the normal school year, and more humorously by Pen-Pen being a variety of penguin who've adapted to a warmer climate.
- This may be best illustrated by the expression "... and tomorrow it will snow", which has apparently taken on the same meaning as "when pigs fly" in Japan.
- Save for flashbacks, it's always early summer in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni because the same month, June of 1983, is repeating over and over, thanks to the influence of a local deity who refuses to let all the main characters stay dead.
- Anime in school settings is usually forced to follow the sequence of the year. Ready examples are The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and even the otherwise rather minimalistic Doki Doki School Hours. They do not, of course, always show it, and in many we are simply supposed to take their word for it that time is passing. In some cases, montages of the semester readily don't show any other season (even when it's implied that a year has passed).
- Cheerfully lampshaded in Ouran High School Host Club, in which it is always whatever season suits the plot of the moment; text boxes in the manga politely ask the reader to ignore the fact that, once again, nobody has moved up a grade.
- While it is usually always spring (or whatever season is most convenient), as of the last half of the manga this has been mostly averted. We see a summer festival, which eventually brings us to autumn, followed by winter with a New Year's outing... and then finally to spring again around chapter 70. From 70 on it appears we have real chronological time. As a bonus, when the seasons change so do the casts' outfits depending on the weather.
- It's still summer in Bleach even though there's been a lot of talk about a dramatic showdown in winter. Early on the title pages showed the characters in winter clothes to reflect real time while it was still summer in the manga. Lampshaded when two minor characters complained about wearing such uncomfortably hot outfits.
- It is not summer in Bleach (well... maybe now, after the timeskip). Manga started in Spring around April, late March, SS arch was during summer vacation, and the winter war happened in October, very early November.
- Justified in Clamp School Detectives, where the ridiculously fancy middle-school campus is kept spring all year long with "a revolutionary cooling system". The Detectives like to build detailed playscapes of different seasons in their office when they want a change.
- Justified in One Piece where different islands have a specific season motif. Changing seasons exist on those islands, but will vary according to the central climate of the island.
- The Artifial Island in Real Drive is going through a perpetual summer. Justified by the use of weather nanites, and eventually turned dark when the weather nanites invites Gaia's Vengeance upon the island.
- In Naruto, the Leaf Village is always depicted with spring/summer weather, even though the databooks give character ages establishing that Part 1 happened over the course of about a year of time and Part 2 up to the start of the Hunt for Itachi was about six months. Granted, it's part of the Land of Fire, so they might just have a warm climate.
- Chapters 15 through 138 of Sket Dance all take place in the autumn.
Narrator: And this long, long, really, really long autumn comes to an end...
- In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, it's always either sunny or rainy, but never cold or snowy. Presumably cyborgs aren't bothered by weather—though if they use hydraulic actuators they might have to change their working-fluid in colder weather—but it's still a little jarring.
- Even in winter, much of Japan doesn't get much snow—and without snow it's difficult to tell how cold it is. Occasionally the characters' breath is visible, usually at night.
Card Games
- An interesting example is the Magic the Gathering plane Lorwyn, in which it is literally always spring.
- For some long period of time, at some point it turns into a dark always fall/winter and is known as Shadowmoor.
- Magic certainly shows seasons, though. Ice Age was one of the earliest sets, and has had a few subsequent sets that show non-spring settings.
Literature
- Justified in Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn book and movie, since it is eternally spring in any forest where a unicorn lives. When the eponymous unicorn leaves her forest to travel, however, she has to endure changing seasons just like any mortal.
- Justified in Thief of Time, where it is explained that the History Monks have frozen their monastery grounds in time during the season when the cherry blossoms are falling, because they believe that to be the most beautiful time of year.
- Ironic, since Asian cultures find cherry blossoms beautiful because of how short the time is they're in bloom.
- Fixed at the end of the book. Lu-Tze got the entire point that Wen missed.
- Ironic, since Asian cultures find cherry blossoms beautiful because of how short the time is they're in bloom.
- The Lost Hero has the characters heading to Walnut Creek, CA in the middle of december. the weather is described as ' brisk' but also as if 'winter wasn't a concept'( forget the real wording) and Mt. Diablo has no snow on it. it gets very cold in WC in the Winter- not enough to snow, thanks to the wind currents off the ocean, but it's not 'warm' in the morning either. And there's often snow on MT. Diablo- enough that hikers can't climb. another fun mention was the Berkeley hills, holding back the fog. while they do that, they are only ' golden brown' in the late spring , summer, and fall. the rest of the time, they are green.
Live Action TV
- An odd live-action example: in the Australian soap Home and Away, it's always summer in Summer Bay. Even when the actors are filming in the middle of winter next to the strong cold winds of the ocean, their wardrobe reflects a summer climate. No wonder they have trouble emoting—they're too busy trying not to shiver. This is justified only by the nature of filming: episodes filmed in winter won't air until mid-spring.
- A live-action Did Not Do the Research-y example in Greek. The show is set in a college in Ohio. The second part began after winter break. The finale was spring break. In between, Not. One. Snowflake. Not even a heavy coat. In Ohio. Where winters are known to kill people.
- The incredibly weak justification? "It's a warm part of Ohio". That's located in southern California.
- Indeed, the fact that the whole upper-right-hand corner of the United States has a, shall we say, wide variety of weather conditions from day-to-day seems to be largely lost on Hollywood. A while back somebody proposed a YKTTW with the excellent title, "Most Writers Live In California".
- Ohio winters really do get milder the further south you go, but no snow at all is inexcusable.
- Sex and the City has its characters living in perpetual spring until the fourth season. They didn't show New York winter until The Movie. Even in snow, the characters... still dressed the same way they had in all the episodes of the show. Brrrr!
- Actually, a NYC winter was shown in a later season where Carrie's dating the Russian artist.
- On LazyTown, Stephanie is apparently staying for the summer. So, the show takes place in summer, right? Well, there's two winter-themed episodes, and an episode where they go to school. Looks like Steph is staying longer than we thought.
- In one LazyTown Extra episode, it's stated that she's lived in LazyTown a year by then (the actress had aged 4 years by then, after having been Dawson Cast to begin with).
- In one episode of Gilmore Girls, Rory and Dean spend the night in the theatre in the middle of winter. When they wake up at 5am to go running home, it's perfectly light out. Now, Gilmore Girls takes place in Connecticut. It is never that bright out at 5am during the winter.
- Make It or Break It takes place in Boulder, Colorado and yet we never see any snow or even any characters wearing jackets. It seems like the show only takes place during the spring/summer.
- Degrassi takes place in, is filmed in, and is written, produced and directed entirely by people who live in Toronto, and is an example of this due to a shooting schedule that coincided with summer vacation in the Degrassi Junior High days and now runs roughly April–November.
- Old/New City of Sanctuary never sees any kind of weather change except rain, despite the fact that the series is shot in friggin' Vancouver. The characters do, however, alternate between long and short sleeves.
- While you do occasionally see snow in Northern Exposure, it's pretty scarce, considering the show is set in Alaska. Given that the Arctic Circle is just up the road a stretch, daylight should be rare for part of the year.
- Corner Gas is eternally spring or summer, despite being filmed on site. Of course, winters are quite brutal in Saskatchewan, and the creator/writer/star Brent Butt has expressed his lack of interest in filming in winter (aside from the Christmas episode).
- Averted in Ally McBeal, or possibly inverted- it seemed to be winter more often than not. Presumably because of Snow Means Love or Snow Means Sadness.
- Played straight in The X-Files, even when it was filmed in Vancouver. While not specifically spring, when the agents are at home, the weather seems to be a non-descript season of mild weather. Partially justified in that both agents live around Washington D.C., which tends to exhibit more milder winter weather and seasonal change than other parts of the country. The temperature is really the most noticeable thing, though even the average temperature in the winter is in the 40's.
- Series/Mash. Despite being set in Korea, which is at roughly the same latitude as the the surrounding plantlife is always quite green and alive.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia not surprisingly fits this trope. It's always a sunny, warm day outside, despite the fact that Philadelphia can get quite cold. Even when news reports warn of a huge storm bearing down on the city, the weather is perfect and Frank notes, "It's warm as shit!" Only the direct-to-DVD Christmas episode has the cast actually start wearing winter clothing, and even then the weather is still sunny. The pilot for the show was titled It's Always Sunny on Television, referencing this trope directly.
Music
- This is the reason the songs "Winter Wonderland", "Let It Snow", "Baby, It's Cold Outside", "Sleigh Ride" and, hell, even "Jingle Bells" are considered Christmas songs, despite not mentioning Christmas at all. On the other hand, it's also probably the only reason anybody still remembers them at all.
- Oddly enough, these are BY FAR the most over-played songs on US radio stations during the month of December (more egregious offenders keep this shit going through February). It's especially grating when you're in the otherwise heavily Christian Southeast, where there's very little snow...
- It's also weird considering that winter doesn't officially start until the 21st or 22 December (depending on the Solstice). Therefore, most the Christmas season is actually in the fall.
- Olivia the Band, a rock group from Hawaii, has an album called Where We Come From It Never Snows. Which is true of Oahu, but not the entire state of Hawaii - Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island see snow most winters, and even Haleakala on Maui can get it on rare occasions.
Video Games
- In outside dungeons in Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle, it sometimes rains at different frequencies, but it never snows. And it never even rains anywhere else except in the opening movie.
- The Grand Theft Auto series has this problem, although it is averted in Vice City and San Andreas, which are set much closer to the equator than GTA3. The fictionalized New York of GTA3 never changes climactically despite the significant amounts of time that can pass in game (it is actually possible to check how many days have passed in game from the menu).
- In Liberty City Stories, the game is clearly set in late fall and it was meant to snow on occasion, but either due to programming bugs or the feature being Dummied Out, it never does. It just rains with unusual frequency. (Snow can be placed back into the game with a cheat device.)
- Grand Theft Auto IV is set sometime in Autumn, as the leaves are for the most part gold and brown, and most of the characters wear coats.
- Somewhat averted in Bully. The season changes as the storyline goes on, but only as the storyline goes on. Also, after its end, the "Endless Summer" part starts.
- The Sims 2 was the first Sims game to introduce the changing of seasons with their expansion pack Seasons (clever name, right?). Before Seasons, however, and even in the original version of the Sims, it was spring all the time, and the Sims could wear whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to, which really wasn't all that bad. There just isn't enough time in the Sim day to worry about the weather being too cold for bikinis, and it gives the skinners (people who primarily create clothes and genetics like eyes and skintones) a lot of creative freedom.
- This was also averted to a degree in the Vacation/On Holiday expansion of the original The Sims, where specific vacation locales were either in the middle of a blazing hot summer or a cold winter, and the characters' outfits changed to reflect that. Of course, the weather in THOSE regions is a constant as well...
- The eternal spring was lampshaded in one of the expansions when you get the meteorologist job.
- For Vacation, mentioned above, it's semi-justified by being a mountainous island: the winter-like lots are up on the snow-cap, the temperate lots are in a forest up on the mountain's side, and the summer lots are down on the beachy shore.
- In Persona 4, it's always the rainy season, as it's guaranteed to rain every couple of weeks or so for matters of plot convenience.
- In FarmVille, there are no seasons; it is apparently always the best time to grow whatever crops you want. There's a cosmetic purchase that makes everything white, like snow, but it has no effect on gameplay.
- In the first four generations of the Pokémon series, each region seems to take place in a specific season. Kanto takes place in the spring, Johto in the fall, Hoenn in the summer, and Sinnoh in the winter. (The trope is averted in Pokémon Black and White and subsequent games; see below.)
- Gameplay and Story Segregation in the last three Elder Scrolls games. Officially, there are seasons (the names of the months are derived from agricultural practices among other things, e.g. Last Seed), but in the games the season is apparently keyed to the location rather than the time of year. To wit, it's always spring or summer in Morrowind and Cyrodiil, and always late fall or winter in Solstheim and Skyrim.
- Of course, Nirn isn't Earth. Strictly speaking, it's not really even a planet (cosmology in The Elder Scrolls is bizarre, to say the least).
- In the Neverwinter Nights series the seasons never change regardless of how many times the In-Universe Game Clock cycles from day to night.
- Despite the name, Neverwinter does get snow in the pen-and-paper game. Its name comes partly from the fact that the river never freezes, due to being warmed by a dormant volcano upstream inhabited by fire elementals.
- Paragon City in City of Heroes always seemed to be in late Spring or maybe early Summer -- except during the Halloween and Christmas events, when Fall and Winter dressing was temporarily applied to all zones (Halloween) or just Atlas Park (Christmas).
Web Comics
- After several years of sunny summer weather, The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob announced it would be introducing seasons, inaugurating it by having a Humongous Mecha knock over Bob's freshly raked pile of leaves.
- Not only is it always spring in "Mr. Square" but they never seem to leave the same field of grass.
Western Animation
- In South Park, it is always winter, even when it's not (during baseball season, or while school is out). In the original short films that preceded the series proper, the creators figured characters in snowy landscapes would be easier to animate since their feet would be obscured by the snow.
- As Cartman puts it in "Jakovasaur", "There are two seasons in South Park: winter and July."
- There is a part of Colorado (north of the region referred to as "South Park"), that's called the "Neversummer Range".
- As Cartman puts it in "Jakovasaur", "There are two seasons in South Park: winter and July."
- In Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy it was always summer for the first four seasons except the three holiday specials. After it was Uncancelled the fifth and final season took place in fall.
- Ben 10 takes place entirely during summer vacation.
- Which ironically forced the obligatory Christmas Episode to take place in a Christmas Theme Park.
- Both used and lampshaded in The Simpsons: During one Valentine's Day episode, all the kids wore their usual T-shirts and shorts and Lisa wore her usual sleeveless dress; later, when the episode was mined for a Clip Show, Lisa comments in voiceover "It was an unusually warm February 14th, so the children walked home without jackets."
- Lampshaded again in the Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores segment of Treehouse of Horror VI. Marge quickly glances at Bart and Lisa and says "You kids should have jackets on."
- The Simpsons averts this one at other times, though, with the occasional episode ("Mr. Plow," "Homer the Heretic") set in winter or fall without reference to any holidays. Matt Groening expresses some annoyance with this trope in the DVD commentaries for those episodes.
- On Camp Lazlo, it's always summer. Makes sense, since they're at summer camp, right? Except it's still summer, and they're still at camp on Valentine's Day. Most of the Christmas Episode took place in July, for crying out loud.
- During an episode of Rugrats, the grandfather moves out of the main families house. For the next 30 seconds to 1 minute it shows the seasons changing. Then after it comes back to the season it originally was it is found out that this entire weather pattern change happened over a one week period with a sentence saying "One Week Later". Now THAT'S spring weather.
- Hey Arnold! played with this trope in a way similar to the Rugrats example above. There was an episode where Stinky decided to enter a harvesting competition—and while he is farming, it rains, it snows, it is amazingly hot... and in the end of the sequence, this dialogue (that sounded something like this but not exactly) happens:
Stinky's dad: What a crazy weather! It rains, it snows, it dries...
Stinky: And all within a week.
- There was also the episode wherein the town gets affected by a heatwave.
- In Code Lyoko, a year apparently passes without any change in the seasons or weather except when required by the XANA attack of the day, and no aging or moving up in grades for the characters. All of the main characters except Yumi start off in the eighth grade, then a year passes and they're still in the eighth grade, then Aelita (who is in the same grade as the rest, i.e. eighth) is said to be twelve years old. Only once do they actually move up a grade, and if memory serves only twice is any sort of school holiday mentioned.
- Although it's occasionally averted—the episode "Reawakening" takes place during winter for no plot-relevant reason -- Gargoyles follows this trope to a "T". It became particularly notable after creator Greg Weisman established a detailed timeline for the series, which sets several adventures to specifically take place over winter months.
- For the most part, it usually is spring in Danny Phantom. However, during most times on-site of Casper High, the season is apparently autumn as all the trees are orange. Even right before summer vacation.
- In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, it appears to always be summer unless the season is relevant to the plot. In one case this led to bafflement when a Fall Episode occurred soon after a Winter Episode, with no discernible transitions in either direction. Admittedly, the seasons are explicitly magical, but Word of God claims they still take the normal amount of time and this was purely because they didn't want a calendar to limit what plots they could do.
Real Life
- Even warm locations have seasons—the rainy season versus the dry season, for instance. Nevertheless, seasons in Southern California tend to oscillate from summer, to
early fall, to late springnot summer, back to summer again. It tends to make the imported deciduous trees very confused.- Tropical environments and places with similar climates usually don't change a lot, having only a dry season and a wet season. In some areas the dry season is the period between fall and winter and in other's it's the opposite, but besides the temperature and the amount of rainfall, the surroundings are basically always the same.
- Rainforests in particular, where the temperature change from day to night is greater than summer to winter.
- Tropical environments and places with similar climates usually don't change a lot, having only a dry season and a wet season. In some areas the dry season is the period between fall and winter and in other's it's the opposite, but besides the temperature and the amount of rainfall, the surroundings are basically always the same.
- One interesting case of this becoming Truth in Television, the rise of climate controlled buildings means it can always be spring indoors. Since most buildings stay at somewhere between 68 and 72 year-round, people who work in these buildings tend to dress for spring for their workday and simply put on extra layers whenever they have to go outside.
- The natural environment within caves changes little if at all with the seasons, and then only because the flow rate of underground streams may be slightly higher after a spring thaw.
Exceptions and Aversions
Anime & Manga
- Averted in Aria, where Akari mentions the changing of the seasons in her letters, which is reflected in the art for the episode. The manga volumes are actually seasonally themed, with the first being fall, the second being winter, the third being spring, and so on. That 2–3 years pass and nobody seems to get any older is not mentioned.
- Note: 2-3 Mars year, which means roughly 4-6 Earth years.
- Love Hina also had all four seasons, several times (it takes place over the course of at least two years). It even had Halloween, Christmas, and New Years stories. In order.
- Averted in Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, which clearly shows winter at the very least several times during the Daily Life Arc.
- Sailor Moon has seasons that progress at the same rate as the episodes aired. Since there were five series but the internal timespan is less than three years, this is the source of intense confusion to anyone trying to put together a consistent series timeline.
- Averted in Kimi ni Todoke, where the beginning and end of each school term is clearly marked, accompanied by an appropriate change of season.
Comics
- Averted by... well, probably most newspaper comics, and they have plenty of good reasons to. Most cartoonists don't live in California, and most of their comics take place in the present day in the creator's own country. They also have plenty of time to waste on strictly winter-related strips and storylines, being not confined to the 22-episode limit that most TV shows have, and most strips are guaranteed to only run once, during the appropriate season (reruns take up a maximum of four weeks a year and can be culled from any point in the series' run).
- Calvin and Hobbes in particular had some epic winter strips over the years, including his famous
demented snowmenderanged mutant killer monster snow goons.
- Calvin and Hobbes in particular had some epic winter strips over the years, including his famous
Live Action TV
- Averted in the various versions of Law and Order, where, due to filming in New York City and the production's shooting schedule, it seems to be mostly winter.
- Look at the clothes worn by people in the background, fall episodes are filmed in summer. Spring episodes are shot in winter. The amount of sunlight is also a giveaway.
- Averted on ER, which gives the impression that Chicago never has spring. Most of the time it's either snowing or raining, unless it's sweltering hot because they wanted an air-conditioning failure episode.
- Longtime residents of the Chicago area know that this is Truth in Television - Spring here lasts about 45 minutes after the last snow melts. Then we skip straight ahead to high-80s temperatures and high-90s humidity.
Video Games
- Averted somewhat in Persona 3, the game takes place over the course of nearly an entire year. As the seasons change, the trees lose their leaves and they eventually grow back... but that's about it.
- Your party members will change clothing depending on the season (and little else), and school goes in and out of session as expected.
- As noted above, it's Japan. You were expecting snowfall that close to the equator?
- The videogame The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall actually averted this trope. Seasons would change, with snow covering the ground in the winter. Except in the desert country. Of course, NPCs (especially the females) dressed in rather light and revealing clothing no matter the weather.
- Dwarf Fortress, with typical depth, averts this by simulating the seasons appropriate to the local climate.
- Played straight in Adventure Mode due to Good Bad Bugs which cause the season to reset to spring every time you quick Travel, which is rarely more than a couple days each time.
- Averted in Backyard Football 2004. When the climate in real life changes, the game climate changes too. Sports games, football games in particular, have had weather options in place since the 16-bit era. American football is defined to some degree by the fact that it's played outdoors, in a season extending from fall until the end of January or the beginning of February, and the majority of its teams are located in the (colder, wetter) northeast and Great Lakes regions.
- Animal Crossing threw this trope out the window. The seasons pass pretty much like they do in the real world.
- Harvest Moon games have rotating seasons The crops you can plant and things you can gather change with them.
- Pokémon Black and White have a brand new feature where the season changes at the start of every month, in contrast to how it was always the same season in previous generations.
- Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches is set in mid-autumn, probably because that's when the various leafy twigs you need to collect can most easily be distinguished from one another.
- Averted, kind of, in The Lost Crown, which does take place in springtime, but with the full range of weather—fog, cold, thundery, sunny, rainy, windy—one might expect from a realistic depiction of that season.
Web Comics
- Averted by Unwinder's Tall Comics, which not only changes seasons, it maintains the seasons for multiple comics (none of which are actually related to the plot or Christmas), and characters' clothing changes appropriately.
- Played with in Our Little Adventure. The seasons do change but since the world is flat, they logically shouldn't. There are also places in Manjulias where it's always summer or always winter. This like many other things in the comic get lampshaded.
- The plot of The Phoenix Requiem happens during the course of one year, with the changing of seasons clearly seen in time.
Western Animation
- Despite the quote at the top of the page, Avatar: The Last Airbender averts this for the most part, especially in season one, which features a trip from the south pole to the north pole, with the weather and outfits notably changing to being appropriate equatorially and back over time. Sure, you'd think that there would be different seasons in the north and south hemisphere, but let's just go with the Fanon that the Avatar globe doesn't have a tilt.
- One episode did seem to explicitly take place in Autumn.
- For the record, the first season begins in fall and changes to winter (as an important plot device, in the two-part "Winter Solstice" episodes), the second is spring, and the third is Fire Nation (volcanic near-equatorial archipelago) summer.
- Averted in As Told by Ginger: if watched in production order the 1st season runs from early fall to summer (in "Summer of Camp Caprice") and the 3rd runs from winter (in "Far From Home") till next fall. The second season, however, starts in the fall but has no particular timeline in the second half. It also rains from time to time without it being relevant to the plot.
- Averted in Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb, whose Expository Theme Tune states that the show is about finding a way to spend a summer vacation.
- There is an episode, called "I, Brobot", where Phineas at least reflects on the idea that summer doesn't last forever, when he sees a green leaf fall of that tree they always recline under as they're "discussing" possible plans for the day.
- The Christmas Episode, however, has shifted the setting to winter break.
- And the recent Halloween Episode actually took place on Halloween. There have been a few other holiday/seasonal-themed episodes where the creators got around the whole "summer" thing by incorporating seasonal changes or elements into Phineas and Ferb's plans. They invented "S'winter" (winter in summer), built a haunted house to cure Isabella's hiccups, and, more recently, decided to stage an old-fashioned family Christmas special with fake snow, guest stars and gum ads.
- There is an episode, called "I, Brobot", where Phineas at least reflects on the idea that summer doesn't last forever, when he sees a green leaf fall of that tree they always recline under as they're "discussing" possible plans for the day.
- Averted in Moral Orel. The First Season takes place in the Fall and Winter. The Second Season takes place in the Spring. The Third Season takes place in the Spring, Fall and Winter.
- Averted in the original Transformers animated series. Autobot Headquarters is located in a desert, where there wouldn't be much in the way of seasons. One episode Lampshades this when Megatron's latest scheme disrupts the world's climate and it starts snowing in the desert in July. The episode opens with several of the heroes having a snowball fight.
- In Transformers Animated, it's snowing in Detroit around the end of season one, and again midway through season 3 during the Christmas Episode (which secondary material confirms was the Autobots' second Christmas).
- Averted on The Spectacular Spider-Man, where time passes realistically with visible seasons.
- Semi-averted on Max Steel: the first series of the show starts at the beginning of the school year and finishes somewhere in the summer semester. However, unless the characters aren't in California, the weather is always nice a spring-like.
- Averted in Chuck Jones' Bugs/Daffy/Elmer Looney Tunes trilogy, with backgrounds in full autumn color or snow white - due to it being rabbit season. Duck season. RABBIT SEASON!
- Averted with American Dragon: Jake Long. While the series is mostly Always Spring, the two Valentine's Day episodes are notably snowy in addition to the Christmas episode. However, the Chinese New Year, which typically occurs in January–February, is in spring-like weather.
- Played straight in Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy with a perpetual summer until the last season (with the exception of their holiday specials). The final season lampshaded this trope when Eddy changed all of the neighborhood calendars to July, rigged the cul-de-sac with central heating, and painted the leaves green so he could keep up his daily school-free scamming forever.