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New Year's Greetings — Anime Style (Part IX Updated)
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
For generations, people in Japan have celebrated New Year's Day by sending specially designed cards — nengajō — to each other. As part of the tradition, postal workers store all the nengajō that are mailed in the final weeks of the old year, and then deliver every single one on New Year's Day. Many nengajō mark the Chinese Zodiac by depicting the animal of the year. (In 2013, that animal is the snake.) Here are some New Year's greetings from the folks that will be bringing you anime, manga, and games in the new year.
Click on the thumbnail images to see the original greetings!
Hanako (Gingakei Joshikō Nama Arisu-chan)
Harmonyland
Megumi Hayashibara
Click on the image to see Hayashibara's full video message.Tachibana Higuchi (Gakuen Alice, Portrait of M & N)
Aya Hirakawa (Kunisaki Izumo no Jijō)
Kaori Monchi (Hey! Class President)
"First shrine visit of the year."Thanks to Lys for the correction.
Update: The first image from Tachibana Higuchi was actually an image from Kaori Monchi. Thanks to Lys for the correction.
There are many more anime/manga/game nengajō out there, so if you know of one we've missed, feel free to let us know in our forums or by email (newsroom at animenewsnetwork.com). Akemashite Omedetō Gozaimasu!
(Here are 2012's greetings, 2011's greetings, 2010's greetings, 2009's greetings and 2008's greetings!)
Fruits Basket image © 2004 Natsuki Takaya/HAKUSENSHA • TV TOKYO • NAS • Fruba Project. Licensed by FUNimation® Productions, Ltd.
follow-up of New Year's Greetings — Anime Style (Part VIII)
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history