Itsudatte My Santa!

Information of Anime

When did people stop believing in Santa?  Was it at a certain age, when they found presents in the closet, when they saw daddy putting the gifts in front of their faces, or when they yank off Santa's beard & learned it was their father?  Either way, no ones seems to believe in Santa Claus any more.

A high school student named Santa is an unlucky boy, especially on Christmas Eve, the day he's born on.  Every year, his parents don't visit him for Christmas or his birthday.  They only call him & let him know how they can't leave work & how much they miss him.  One Christmas Eve night when sitting in the center of town, a girl goes up to him & asks him to spend the night with her.  She proclaims to be Santa Claus & this throws Santa off guard.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The girl proclaiming to be Santa Claus is actually Santa Claus Mai.  She carries around a stuff deer named Pedro.  From Santa's view, he thinks Mai is crazy in how she asks him to spend the night with her.  Mai doesn't give up on him & starts doing magic which is mainly fishes appearing out of nowhere.  This causes Santa to be more unlucky than he is.  In an incident where he accidentally bumps into a gang leader & getting his butt whooped, Mai tries to save him.  As Santa gets the chance to escape from the fight & her, he decides to save her.

At Santa's place, Mai questions Santa about his life & family.  However, she knew beforehand about Santa's situation & decides to throw a party for him; a birthday & Christmas party in one.  As Santa is having fun & looks outside to the city, Mai tells him that each light in the city lights up for him & he's not alone as he proclaims to be.  She always tells him that her real form is hidden & can't only be revealed when Santa believes in Santa Claus.  Mai suddenly kisses him & tells him that she gave him some of her good luck fortune to her.  Just then, Santa's senpai who he adores calls him & tells him to meet somewhere.  Hearing this conversation, Mai starts to feel sad & hangs up his call.  She tells him that it's just a dream caused by her magic she just gave him.  Mai suddenly confesses her feelings to him.  Santa, however, thinks it's a joke & tells her that he still doesn't believe in Santa Claus or magic.  In tears, Mai runs away.

Later, Santa goes to his Senpai's house only to discover that she didn't call him.  However, she is holding a Christmas party & people from the back are inviting Santa in.  They tell him that he always alone & rarely go out with his friends.  This causes Santa to think back about what Mai said to him earlier & starts to look for her.  When he finds her in the center of town where they first met, he decides to turn her good fortune back since he didn't deserve it because he didn't believe her.  After returning the fortune back by kissing her, Mai transforms to her true form along with Pedro.  Together, they spend the Christmas night by going to delivery Christmas gifts to children around the world.  Along the way, Santa meets his parents who are unaware that he's around.  They call him like every Christmas & Santa tells them how he understands their work & will support them all the way.

The next day, Mai visits Santa's apartment.  She transforms back into her teenage appearance & tells him that she can't go home because she used up all the magic last night.  This leads to the second episode.

In the second episode, a lot of time has passed & two new characters are introduced in the series.  Sherry is ordered to get Mai back to the North Pole for her Santa Claus training.  However, Mai doesn't want to go back because she will never see Santa whom she feels is an important person to her.  She has until midnight on Christmas Eve to say goodbye to Santa.  Sherry tries to help Mai, but Maimai always interrupts Santa & Mai's dates.  This continues throughout the year & Christmas Eve arrives.  Sherry tries to plan a date for Santa & Mai & tells Maimai to stop interrupting them or else Mai can't say goodbye to Santa.  Mai overhears this conversation & tells Sherry about how she feels.  The conversation between the two leads to a conclusion where Mai will not say goodbye to Santa, but thank you instead. 

By the time Mai thanks Santa in the center of town, it's very close to midnight.  With Sherry & Maimai's powers, time is stop for a while to allow Mai & Santa to have a date.  After the date, Mai transforms into her full form & Santa tells her that it's not goodbye as they will see each other again soon.  The next day, Mai gets sent back to Santa's apartment.  Apparently, the councils at the North Pole didn't want Mai back.  It was Maimai they wanted.

My Personal Review

Itsudatte my Santa is quite a short OVA & a bit fast paced.  The anime is full of Japanese puns that you need to understand to get some of the jokes & silly humour as well.  There is some detail nudity here, mainly nipples, but no sex.  So, your standard PG-13 rating would apply here.  This OVA is based on Ken Akamatsu's first manga by the same name.  I heard that this is the manga that he started his career with.

Animation

The character designs are a bit different from Akamatsu's works, but it's still recognizable.  The hairstyles are the same & Santa has almost the same clothes as Keitaro Urashima of Love Hina.  What I found different were the eyes.  They aren't as round as Ken's other works.  They look more sharper on the edges of the eyelids.

The backgrounds are the same as Ken's works.  Simple with a bit of details here & there.  The colours used are pretty dull & not too bright.  They aren't clashing with the characters which have dull colours as well.

The animation movements are what you expect from Ken's work containing wild comedy.  Fast paced with superhuman like powers.  Although you get to see Santa "fly" around the place, it's not going overboard at times.  However, the gang leader gets beaten around a lot that it makes it silly.

Sound

The sound effect are your standard wacky sounds.  When Santa gets pushed around or receives a whooping, he makes those loud popping sounds.  The volume is just right & they are very clear.

The voices are very good in some parts, especially in Mai's case.  When she goes "Ho, ho, ho", it seems like she's forcing it.  When she changes to her true form, her whole voice feels forced more.  Almost to the point that she can't act out her expressions.  It makes the teenage Mai better than the sexy adult one.

The music was very cute.  It always has that Christmas feel to it.  However, the songs don't stick to my head at all.

Story

The OVA is mostly about Santa & Mai's relationship as Mai can't get back home.  Because it's an OVA based on a manga, it's quite fast paced & doesn't have that feeling that the ending is complete.  Personally, this OVA is mainly sold in the Christmas season with some anime fan service on the side.  Don't expect a lot of good plot development here as the fast pace can leave a lot of holes.

Overall Conclusion

Itsudatte my Santa! is just a simple OVA to enjoy during the Christmas season.  It's doesn't offer a good storyline, but it provides some nice comedy relief here & there.  I would recommend watching it for the sake of the Christmas spirit & it shouldn't really be in your must watch anime list.

On a scale of ten, Isudatte my Santa! receives a seven.  The OVA is fast paced & leaves very little room for explanations at the moment, so there are some holes in some places.  Right now, this OVA seems to be purely for fanservice purposes.

Although many anime web sources say this is a two episode OVA, the end of episode two shows a preview of episode three.  That is actually a spoof preview as a third episode doesn't exist.