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Itsudatte My Santa
File under "cute." Sure, that's what we do with everything by Ken Akamatsu, creator of such as Love Hina and Love Don't Stop, makes a lot of cute work. Itsudatte My Santa is a mild departure in that this story, unlike many of the "harem manga" stories about the "lovable dolt" archetype, this story is concise, straightforward, and finite. That's right, it has an ending, and ends when it makes sense for it to.

Additonal information for the OAV
Alternative title:
いつだってＭｙサンタ！ (Japanese)
Always My Santa

Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Shounen

Running time: 30 minutes
Number of episodes: 2

Vintage: 2005-12-07 (Japanese Limited Edition Release)

Opening Theme:
"My Love" by Nanaka

Official website:
http://e-tnk.net/anime_my_santa_top.html (Japanese)

In the news: 2 times
2005-10-08 - Itsudatte My Santa! Release
2005-06-01 - New Ken Akamatsu OAV

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Basically i know nothing about Itsudatte My Santa neutral But i was generous enough to post some information about this OAV that was recently worked on. I believe it comes after Negima was finished. Anyone else generous enough can help me add more information excluding spoilers. As a Ken Akamatsu fan, eventually i'll be picking this OAV and Manga up when i can.

It seems that AQS is also goin' to be fansubbin' the series. So that's always a good thing.

Anyways, the story goes like this:

One Christmas Eve, a high school guy is sittin' all alone takin' pictures of girls. Obviously (like any other Akumatsu male leads except Negi) he has no one to spend the Christmas with. Next thing you know, a pretty hyper girl with a plush reindeer shows up to comfort the guy. The girl, Mai, learns that the guy hates Christmas because 1) he's always alone during this time, 2) his name is Santa!

Mai figures that she can help Santa out by spendin' time with him but things don't play out so well. She explains that she is the granddaughter of Santa and can make wishs come true. Santa then becomes happy as he finally got the things he has been wishin' for the longest times (spendin' the Christmas with his parents and havin' a date with a crush). However, Mai is saddened by Santa's selfishness and his disrespect of Mai's feelings towards him. So how will they patch things up? Head over to AQS and find out.

I've seen the anime raw and it looks pretty enjoyable. For some reason, Mai is one of those hyperactively annoyin' characters I don't like; yet, I think she's perfect as a lead and is pretty enjoyable to watch.

I actually like the anime more than Akumatsu older attempts (includin' Negima). I guess it helps that the manga was really short so the first episode doesn't feel so rushed.

I didn't like the Love Hina anime 'cause it had a lot of filler episodes that had nothing to do story-wise. At the very least they could of done an episode on the first Valentines of the Hinata Inn + Keitaro. That would of been perfect. In addition, the end of the TV series felt very incomplete. After episode 25, it felt like there's more to the series other than a bunch of movies and OVAs.

Speakin' 'bout the movies, the Spring Special was a big time let down. It felt like the entire movie built up to the point where everyone is reunited and they were so ready to help Nyamo; however, the climax fell very quickly and didn't have a smooth transitional ending. The Christmas Special on the other hand is very well made. I loved that one at least. The OVA also felt a bit rushed and I didn't understand the part where Mao-chan shows up out of no where.

I hate to compare Akumatsu's manga, which is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, to the anime that had tremendous expectations that were not fulfilled. Then there's the English dub, but that just explains itself right there.

Have I provided enough of a convincing arguement?

Vol. 13 & 14 was not included in the Love Hina anime, therefore has not filled my expectations.

Love Hina aside, I found the Itsudatte My Sanra OVA very much so enjoyable. To quote myself in another thread I've posted:

Quote:

In Akamatsu's latest anime OVA, Itsudatte My Santa [aired 12/22, torrent released 12/23], Akamatsu teams up with Sol Blade and Three Fat Samurai [as well as animation producer TNK], in which they have done this series much justice. Not only does is show EVERYTHING that happened in the manga version, but it even gave us an extended story of what happens after the manga [which was really short btw. Ended at a small cliffhanger, sort of]. The OVA is so great that I may even commence that it's better than the manga [mostly due to Yuu-tan's large role of voicing the rambunctious Shirley x3].

And there are actually 3 episodes, despite ANN's previous entry [it has been updated now], and in the preview looks like an Evangelion parody and looks very entertaining.

PS: I wouldn't file this under "cute" as so much "ecchi", because there is indeed nudity. Probably more than what's shown in the manga. Mai's sants transformation sequences are like Sailor Moon [as seen before in Mao-chan] but with a Girl's Bravo addition. [You'll understand when you see it].

Censor? It's barely censored. Especially the 'magical girl' transformation segments. They didn't try to censor much during the shower scene [at least, when she got out].

Girl's Bravo is just an example of a type of ecchi anime; I didn't mean it by anything special.