Seasonal specials are a signature hallmark of the holiday season in Western media, but the Christmas treats aren’t quite so prevalent in Japanese animation. While many popular anime programs do receive a Christmas-themed episode during their run (especially if they air around December), sometimes even playing a distinct part in the ongoing plot, productions specifically geared around and/or created for the season are much rarer.
However, they do exist and range from movies to OVAs (original video animations). If viewers want to add some more diversity to their winter streaming list, these amazing anime Christmas features are well worth checking out and should help to ignite the holiday spirit.
9 Aggretsuko: We Wish You A Metal Christmas
Released in the gap between the slice-of-life show’s first and second seasons, Aggretsuko’s Christmas special takes the show’s charming brand of satire on contemporary life and dresses it up for the holidays.
In We Wish You A Metal Christmas, Retsuko struggles to make the most of her Christmas Eve when she forgets to make plans in advance after being distracted by a newfound social media addiction. To top it off, the adorable red panda has to work overtime while everyone else is out celebrating.
8 Sailor Moon S: The Movie-Hearts In Ice
Adapted from one of the side stories in the Sailor Moon manga, this wintery tale doesn’t revolve around Christmas but heavily features the holiday in its peripheral as the plot unfolds. Everyone’s favorite black cat, Luna, takes center stage in the movie as she falls for a human boy after he saves her life.
Meanwhile, the Sailor Scouts must contend with Princess Snow Kaguya, an icy extraterrestrial who has her cold heart set on freezing over the planet Earth, and her band of Snow Dancers.
7 Tendo Family Christmas Scramble
Although Ranma1/2 had an official Christmas episode, “A Xmas Without Ranma,” in its sixth season, the iconic shounen anime would later receive a second Christmas story in the form of an OVA.
As per usual, the Tendo family household is in disarray but this time the family and its two honorary members are rushing to organize a Christmas party at the behest of Kasumi, who claims Santa Claus himself requested that she throw the celebration. In the midst of the last-minute party planning, Akane and Ranma stress over their presents to each other.
6 Clannad Another World: Tomoyo Chapter
Although the beloved visual novel’s anime adaption revolves around the protagonist Tomoya and his most canonical love interest, Nagisa, Clannad’s OVA “Another World: Tomoyo Chapter” explores an alternate storyline in which Tomoya starts dating Tomoyo. The pair keep their relationship a secret from their classmates, in fear that Tomoya’s reputation as a delinquent will damage Tomoyo’s image as student council president.
The OVA isn’t Christmas oriented but its most climactic (and romantic) scene, and its snowy backdrop, is exactly what one would expect from a holiday romance.
5 Tokyo Godfathers
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Directed by Satoshi Kon, the same director responsible for the avant-garde anime movies Perfect Blue and Paprika, comes this quirky yet heartwrenching Christmas tale. Inspired by the Western movie, 3 Godfathers, the movie follows three homeless Toyko citizens who find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve. Comprised of a teenage runaway, a transgender woman, and an aging alcoholic, the trio decides to do all they can to reunite the baby with her parents.
Tokyo Godfather is by no means a typical Christmas movie but the warmth and essence of the holiday are at its core nonetheless.
4 Christmas Night
This adorable festive special is one of the Pokemon franchise’s Pikachu Shorts: a collection of shorts featured alongside the Pokemon movies, either playing before the movie or being available as extra content with its purchase.
Christmas Night depicts the antics of Ash, Brock, and Misty’s Pokemon one holiday evening when the trio leaves them unsupervised to pick up a Christmas cake. The chaos that ensues is cute and warmly nostalgic for anyone who grew up watching the adventure anime, even if they never managed to watch the short before.
3 Snorlax Snowman
Another entry from Pokemon’s library of Pikachu Shorts but the appeal of the animation is hard to resist. The snowy story isn’t definitively about Christmas but the short’s icy setting and the Pokemon’s determination to craft a snowman certainly bring to mind the holiday season’s signature cold weather.
The muse for the Pokemon’s snow creation ends up being the bane of their existence when Snorlax inadvertently causes them to be stranded at sea with only a floating chunk of ice keeping them from becoming Poke popsicles.
2 The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya
Serving as a sequel to the anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the movie kicks off with the members of the SOS Brigade, an unofficial high school club with a mission to investigate supernatural occurrences, planning a hot pot party to celebrate Christmas.
But when Kyon shows up to school on December 18, he discovers that reality has been mysteriously altered. Classmates are missing, some are there when they shouldn’t be, and no one other than him remembers the world as it once was.
1 5 Centimeters Per Second
This bittersweet coming-of-age story may not be strictly about Christmas or an evening of being literally haunted by its spirits, but it does center around a boy unable to move on from the treasured memories of a snowy night from his youth or the girl he spent it with.
The movie is divided into three episodes, each showcasing a different period in the protagonist’s life as he grapples with the realities of how time and distance affect the relationships that one holds dear.