Buying for an anime fan is harder than it looks. They already own the figures they wanted, the art book is probably on their shelf, and anything with a logo on it is a gamble. A paint by numbers kit gets round most of that. It's something to do rather than something to store, and at the end there's a finished canvas they painted themselves.

Our anime kits are original scenes drawn in the style of anime backgrounds, not characters from a particular series. That makes them easier to give: you don't need to know which show they're watching this season.

In short

• Pick the scene for the person, not for the series they watch.
• 16x20 in (40x50 cm) with 24 or 36 colours suits most first-timers.
• The canvas comes unframed unless you add the DIY Frame Kit.
• Order early and check the delivery estimate at checkout.

Choosing the scene for the person

For the friend whose evenings happen at a desk, with a game or a lofi playlist running, Cozy Room at Night is the obvious one. Warm lamp light, a big window onto a blue city, plants everywhere. It looks like their room on a good night.

For someone who has been to Japan in summer, or keeps saying they will go, Summer Festival by the River shows fireworks opening over the water with paper lanterns drifting across the sky. It's the kit we'd give to anyone who misses Japanese summer festivals.

Samurai under a Red Moon is for the person who prefers the darker side: a lone figure under a huge red moon, painted almost entirely in red, black and white. The shapes are bold and clean, so it reads well from across a room.

Fans of folklore and quieter scenes tend to like White Fox in the Bamboo Forest, where the fox's white fur is built from a few shades of pale blue against tall green bamboo, and there are more foxes in the fox paint by numbers collection. Dragon over the Lake has more colour going on, with a green dragon, a peach sky and orange autumn trees reflected in the water. If dragons are their thing, the dragon paint by numbers collection has three more.

Buying for a younger teenager, or for a bedroom? Floating Islands keeps to blues and greens, with clouds and waterfalls drawn in soft shapes. It's also one of the gentler kits to start with.

If none of those fits, the full anime collection has the rest, and our guide to anime kits for anime and manga fans walks through the ones fans ask about most.

Size, colours and framing

When you don't know how much patience the person has, 16x20 in (40x50 cm) is the safe choice. The numbered areas are big enough to paint comfortably, and the finished piece holds its own on a wall. With 24 colours the areas are larger and the painting goes faster. With 36 there are more steps in the skies and reflections. For a gift to someone who has never done paint by numbers, either works; we'd lean towards 24 for a busy person and 36 for someone who likes detail.

Each kit includes the numbered canvas, matching acrylic paint pots, brushes in several sizes, a small reference image and step-by-step instructions. The canvas is rolled and unframed. If you'd like them to hang it straight away, add the DIY Frame Kit option on the product page: wooden stretcher bars they assemble and stretch the canvas onto before painting.

Delivery before a date

Shipping is free with no minimum to the United States, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia and New Zealand. Everywhere else it's free from 69 USD, and 7.95 USD below that. We don't promise a delivery date here because it depends on where the parcel is going. The checkout shows an estimate for your address before you pay, so check it there, and if the gift is for a specific day, leave yourself a margin.

For Christmas, order by November 29 if the parcel is going to the United States. We set that date from our own delivery records: the slowest parcel we tracked took just under 21 days, and we added a few days on top. For other countries we have fewer deliveries to go on, so rely on the checkout estimate.

A kit from their own character

Plenty of anime fans draw. If the person you're buying for has an original character, or a piece of art they paid an artist for, a custom kit turns it into a numbered canvas. We don't make kits from screenshots of a series or from fan art of characters someone else owns.

The image should be at least 1,500 px on its long side, or 2,500 px for the 20x26 in and the 23.5 in square. Flat-coloured drawings, which is most anime-style art, often look clean with 24 colours. You'll see a preview on the page, but it's a simulation, not a proof of the final printed canvas.

The custom kit takes a little more organising than picking a scene. Look at the anime collection first, and keep the custom option for the person who would rather paint their own character than anyone else's.