ITSUDATTE MY SANTA

When people think about holidays, the first things that usually comes to people minds are joyous, happy, exciting, fun-filled celebrations with friends and family. That may be true for most people, but not everyone in the world celebrate the holiday on that type of premise. There are many reasons that someone may have an unhappy holiday season, but there are very little reason why people will have a sad holiday season though out their life. In this one shot, Ken Akamatsu (The writer of the classic harem Love Hina) tries to shed light on how one can have a depressing holiday every year and how one tries to lift the depressing atmosphere that shrouds ones holiday.

The story revolves around a boy that was born a right around the holidays, specifically on December 24, and as a result he is name Santa. This name causes him hardship throughout his childhood because he is continuously teased for such a odd name. On top of that his parents where never around for him, so the anger that reside in his heart continuously grows. The fact that is parents were never around for him, holidays were never a celebration, but it was more of a depressing event. Just thinking about the fact that your alone on the holidays while everyone around you is having a jolly time will bring your spirit down. ( Imagine: You are in Time Square in NYC and everyone is happy and having a fantastic time while you are all alone. Depressing, Right?) The main body of the story revolves around how on girl from Santa Claus Academy that has a problem with magic is sent to cheer Santa up. The story develops from there and we see a developing relationship between the two. The author try to bring forth the idea of Hope, Happiness, Desires, Dreams and BELIEVING.

If you have every see anyone of Ken Akamatsu works, you can practically see how each character is going to look like before reading this one shot. The emotions are clearly portrayed and his art is clear but sometime the content can be overwhelming and cluttered. Although that may be true, it is necessary sometimes to get the full point across. His artwork in comparison to come other mangakas may not be brilliant, but it is awesome in it own way.

The two main character that develop in this one shot as pretty fantastic. You can easily grasp their personalities and discover how each one will respond in a situation. As much as a one shot can, this one shot develops the character well enough to display a change in both of the characters.

In the end with all the work together, this one shot is satisfactory. Since I am a Ken Akamatsu fan, I give this a 7 out of 10. ( May Be Bias)

Thanks for Reading!

This was something that is very distinctly Ken Akamatsu. In fact, in the end, the girl looks just like Saati! For a Christmas one-shot, it was fairly well written. A bit cliche for 90's (works pervert lucks out with hot chick) but it works for this. The storyline was pretty unique, but it was never really built upon on the history of her family and why she loves him. It felt a little empty, to be honest. That being said, the story moved pretty smoothly, the art was good and standard for late 90's work. There wasn't much to derive from the plot or a climax, it was just kind of meh. I enjoyed reading it all the way through, but there are plenty of issues with it.

I didn't like that Santa was constantly talking about breasts and that Mai was just like okay with it pretty much. I also hate that there aren't really antagonists in this story. There isn't much driving you to read aside from the hopes of finding out why he's unlucky or why she loves him, and it never comes. The only reason I kept reading was that I'm a diehard Akamatsu fan and I'm very familiar with his style and comparing it to other works I've read (Love Hina, A.I. Love You, etc).

So there was once a time in which I reviewed a 2 episode OVA called Itsudatte My Santa. That manga was so bad that I was curious as to if the manga was as bad as the manga. I was surprised (although I guess I shouldn’t of been surprised) to find that the manga was based off of a one shot manga. I was even more confused as the second episode of the OVA was not in the one shot. It begs me to wonder just why a one shot could get 2 OVAs where as some of the better manga out there have no anime and are at least 5 or 6 books long. Going back to the manga vs OVA story line, well…

How they thought that this would be a good manga to turn into an Anime is beyond me. The story does not have much to it, just a girl who is trying to make a guy happy on Christmas Eve because she is a Santa. The anime had the only thing that made the story at least kind of sweet… and notice I said Anime. In the anime, the main male characters parents, Santa, were helping children in a third world country during Christmas and that was why they weren’t around on his birthday. In the manga though… they just went on vacation because it was their anniversary. With that logic, I would feel jaded too if my parents didn’t care at all about my birthday and only went out on their anniversary. I understand Santa’s feelings there. He had a right to be pissed and sad on Christmas Eve if they did that every single year. Sure in the anime he had a right to be pissed but at least the parents had a noble cause.

And now we come to the thorn in my side of this manga/anime, Mai. Mai is the strange Santa trying to make him feel better about himself but she ends up screwing things up for the most part. In the Anime, she could be at least somewhat useful as she could make things appear out of no where as long as it started with S. In the manga though… she can only make fish appear. WHY IS IT ONLY FISH? She is a santa in training right? So what would be a time that someone would want fish for Christmas? Unless she is the Santa for cats… but even then, why would she care so much about making a human happy?

‘So what of the Summer Beach trip and the strange rival in love that was so annoying in the Anime’ I hear you asking. They don’t happen. Plain and simple, they do not happen at all in the one shot. In fact, I don’t think anything from the second episode was ever in the manga except maybe the end. I don’t think I am spoiling much on that little fact but ya… the ending is the same I guess. This little revelation bothers me even more as I had to actually sit through that dumb episode.

The artwork is standard Ken Akamatsu style with crisp lines, beautifully detailed hair, and nerdy looking men that look just the same as all his other nerdy men. His characters always seem to look the same to me in any of his manga which is both good and bad. Bad that I can’t tell two characters apart outside the manga and good because he does do a good job in drawing them. A while back I had seen a picture of him and when holding it up to a lot of his male characters, he looks a lot like them. The backgrounds are alright as well with beautiful details. He does a good job on all the art, it just seems like he doesn’t have that much range on the look of characters.

So ya, this one shot isn’t all that good and I don’t feel as though it has anything new. The first episode of the anime was better then the manga in fact and I am so sorry that I am saying that.