Top 10 Stellar Anime Recommendations To Close Out The Holiday Season

If you're looking to combine your love for anime with the Holidays, Anime Mojo's looking at the Top 10 anime movies and series that are sure to get you into the Holiday Spirit-, Japan style!

By MarkJulian - Dec 31, 2017 01:12 PM EST

Filed Under: Shonen

We're talking Christmas cake, KFC dinners and New Years shrine visits-Anime Mojo's looking at the best examples of what the Holiday season is like in Japan!

Did you know that Christmas in Japan is actually closer to how the U.S. celebrates Valentine's Day? Christmas is a time for romantic dates and getting a special Christmas cake for that special girl that you've been crushing on all year. If you don't have any romantic pursuits during the Holiday season, it's a time to eat a nice family dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken! Wait..what? That's right, KFC.

Getting a KFC dinner for Christmas requires that you place your order weeks in advance, otherwise, you'll be waiting in line for HOURS!!! The traditional began with a clever advertising campaign by KFC in 1974 which capitalized on the slogan," Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii" or "Kentucky For Christmas." Since then, it's become a Holiday custom.

The Holiday season is then capped off with Hatsumōde, the first Shinto shrine visit of the Japanese New Year. There are long lines at the most popular shrines in Japan, where visitors make wishes to the shrine gods, purchase amulets or charms for the coming year and return the charms from the previous year to shrine attendants, where they are burned. It is common for men to wear a full kimono for their shrine visit.

Itsudatte My Santa! (Complete Series)

Itsudatte My Santa! aka Always My Santa! was a 1998 manga from Ken Akamatsu that was serialized in Shōnen Magazine before his breakout hit, Love Hina. The series follows a student at the Santa Claus Academy who is given a mission to cheer up a miserable Japanese boy who hates the Holiday season because his oddball parents named him Christmas after he was born on December 24.

The manga didn't receive a full anime episode order and was instead, adapted as a 2-episode OVA. That makes it the perfect start or capper on a night of anime-binging in celebration of jolly St. Nick's annual pilgrimage to town.

You can purchase the film on via Amazon (though it's a bit pricey as it's out of production) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XJD3DE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000XJD3DE&linkCode=as2&tag=allsbu-20&linkId=5ae43d90348d9fe7a123663e3c66087

Love Hina Christmas Special: Silent Eve

Arguably manga author Ken Akamatsu's most popular work, Love Hina was a 25 episode anime series from Studio Xebec that aired during the Spring 2000 anime season. The series follows Keitarō Urashima, a young Japanese man who failed his entrance exam for admission into Tokyo University. What makes that even worse is the fact that he promised a childhood crush (who's name that he can't remember) that he would meet up with her at Tokyo U. While he prepares to retake the admission exam, Urashima goes to live and work at his aunt's hotel in Tokyo.

To his surprise, he arrives to learn that the hotel has been turned into an all-girl's dormitory and Urashima believes that one of its residents just might be his childhood crush that he made a promise with all those years ago.

Set after episode 25, the Christmas OVA was originally meant to serve as the first episode of a second season that never came to pass. The story picks up with Urashima finally preparing to re-take his admission exam during Christmas but he's having a hard time focusing as he learns of a rumor that if you confess to your crush during Christmas eve, love will blossom...

The anime special is available for purchase from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006RCKS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00006RCKS&linkCode=as2&tag=allsbu-20&linkId=d6fe962d5f37773653588267a9cdf1a8

Toradora! Episode 19 – Christmas Eve Party

It's the "palmtop tiger" versus the high school's #1 delinquent. In reality, Ryuji Takasu is a mild-mannered second-year student who only developed a reputation as a delinquent because of his incredibly intimidating eyes. Unfortunately for him, Taiga Aisak aka the palmtop tiger is ever bit as fierce as her reputation say she is, and she also happens to be the best-fried of Takasu's crush.

Episode 19 is a Christmas party episode, where Ryuji, Taiga and their friends dress in formal attire and karaoke the night away. It's a pivotal episode as several individuals begin to realize that they might actually have feelings for someone other than who they initially had a crush on. While it might be hard to follow some of the ongoing plot issues if you haven't watched the previous episodes, this one features plenty of KFC, Christmas cake and other Japanese Christmas staples.

You can watch the episode on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/toradora/episode-19-christmas-eve-party-656829

White Album 2 (Complete Series)

White Album 2 is a loose continuation of the first anime adaptation of Studio Leaf's visual novels. Set 10 years after those events, Haruki Kitahara is a high school student desperate to save his after school music club when he suddenly hears an angelic voice singing out from his classroom window...

Set during the fall semester of the school year, the drama from the anime's love triangle plays out against lots of snow, a Christmas school trip and even a New Year shrine visit. Plus, the emotional aspects of the series will leave you hugging your loved ones all the tighter.

You can watch the series on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/white-album-2

Sword Art Online Episode 03 – Red Nosed Reindeer

One of the most popular anime series in the world, whether you love it or hate it, everyone's watched at least the first season of Sword Art Online. As such, the only episode you need to rewatch for a bit of Holiday cheer is episode 03 from the first season.

And by cheer, I mean soul crushing depression as the series tricks you into believing that the group Kirito ventures into a Christmas-themed dungeon with will be the main cast only for all of them to be mercilessly slaughtered. It's arguably the best episode of the entire franchise.

You can watch the episode on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/sword-art-online/episode-3-red-nosed-reindeer-606743

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Anime Film)

The 2010 anime film from KyoAni picks up after the events of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and sees Kyon wake up one morning in a world where Haruhi and Itsuki Koizumi don't exist, the SOS Brigade never formed and Yuki Nagato is a regular human. The film can best be described as The Butterfly Effect meets Orange.

The events of the film occur between December 18 and December 24 so there's plenty of typical Christmas activities driving the plot and occurring in the background.

The anime film has an English dub from Funimation that's available from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X9C1HHR/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B06X9C1HHR&linkCode=as2&tag=allsbu-20&linkId=4412b4be9cd799d38ff5c5d26689711c

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Episode 10 – Troupe Dragon, On Stage!

Another KyoAni series (maybe someone at the Studio has a secret love for Christmas), the Winter 2017 anime series follows a female computer programmer who gets drunk one night after work, misses her train stop, ends up in the woods and saves a dragon named Tohru that had been stabbed with a magic sword. Kobayashi wakes up the next morning at home, surprised to learn that the dragon has taken human form and insists on being her maid. Tohru's presence in the "real world" attracts several of her mythological friends, who form their own relationships/partnerships with regular humans.

Towards the end of the anime (episode 10), Tohru and her dragon friends are asked to put on a play of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl to hilariously disastrous effect after the group decides to spice up the story with their magical abilities.

You can watch the episode on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/miss-kobayashis-dragon-maid/episode-10-troupe-dragon-on-stage-they-had-a-troupe-name-huh-728819

Lupin the Third: Sleight Before Christmas

Lupin the Third: Sleight Before Christmas is actually episode 11 of the first season of Lupin the Third Part II or New Lupin III - the new incarnation of the series following the episodes that aired from '72-'73. Sleight Before Christmas is also known as A Present For The President and originally aired in 1977.

This particular episode sees Lupin and his band of thieves attempting to steal a special Christmas gift from France's Prime Minister to the President of the United States - a heavily guarded bottle of French wine that was actually the last cork of Bordeaux wine made by Napoleon. Complicating matters further is the fact that Lupin's nemesis, Inspector Zenigata is also guarding the wine.

You can watch the episode on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/lupin-the-third-part-2/episode-11-a-gift-for-the-president-679187

Golden Time Episode 24 - Golden Time

It's the 24th episode and finale of the J.C.Staff anime, but for a Christmas-themed marathon it's perfectly fine to start with the end. The titular themed finale sees the protagonist Banry struggling with his retrograde amnesia and coping with the version of himself that lost his memories and fell in love with Kōko Kaga and his pre-amnesia self who was in love with his childhood friend, Linda.

In many circles, the finale is regarded as one of the most emotional episodes in all of anime. If you're celebrating the Holidays with your significant other, this is definitely one not to miss.

You can watch the episode on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/golden-time/episode-24-golden-time-649611

Tokyo Godfathers (Anime Film)

If you're any kind of anime fan, it should have been obvious that the list would end with Tokyo Godfathers. Directed by Satoshi Kon and loosely based on Peter B. Kyne's Three Godfathers, the Studio Madhouse anime film follows three wildly different homeless people on Christmas Eve who stumble across an abandoned baby while rummaging through the garbage.

A Christmas adventure ensues as the unlikely trio attempts to track down the baby's parents that involves the yakuza, Japanese police, Latin American hitmen and a Christmas miracle or two. The feel-good film is definitely a great way to cap off a long night of Christmas-themed anime episodes and films.

A blu-ray copy is available for purchase from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0753ZQCRT/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0753ZQCRT&linkCode=as2&tag=allsbu-20&linkId=888dd8ad02dff9774f0591842f67c4d6

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