Island Time in Lockdown: Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Slow Culture and Its Shinto Source Monica Alice Quirk PhD candidate, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia mquirk97@gmail.com Abstract This article argues that Animal Crossing: New Horizons embodies the culture of Slowness discovered by many during the covid-19 lockdown in 2020, and that its acclaim points to a future for Slowness in games and, perhaps, in lifestyle more generally. The title will be considered within the context of Radde-Antweiler et al.’s framework of gamevironments, which considers the cultural landscape of a given game based on its technical aspects and its reception among audiences. Through this, the Slowness in the game can be identified. It will subsequently be argued that this Slowness is the result of Shinto presence in the game, as the tradition is largely concerned with the natural environment and mindfulness, contrasting with the values promoted by capitalism and globalisation. Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its popularity point to a growing discontent with the status quo of ‘fast’ living. Keywords animal crossing – slow living – Shinto – video games Introduction In the lockdown resulting from the 2020 covid-19 pandemic, millions of peo- ple turned to Nintendo’s newly released Animal Crossing: New Horizons as an escape from the constricting reality of quarantine. The game’s popularity was unmatched, with players flooding social media with discussions, memes, and observations surrounding the title. As many countries begin to emerge from lockdown months later, we may begin to reflect on the huge presence enjoyed Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture 10 (2021) 428–444 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/21659214-bja10032