Interest

Merry Christmas — Anime Style (Part I)

Instead of with family, couples in Japan celebrate Christmas together as one of their most important nights of the year, right alongside Valentine's Day. Here are some of the ways that anime/manga/game fans and professionals have been celebrating Christmas this year:

Haru-chan

NHK TV's weather girl mascot Haru-chan (voiced by K-ON's Aki Toyosaki) transformed with a new cosplay outfit in the spirit of the season.

Juichi Iogi ( Reinō Tantei Miko )

Manga creator Juichi Iogi wishes everyone a "Merry Christmas♪"

Hiroyuki Nishimura (2channel)

Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of the message board 2channel and a director of the video service Nico Nico Douga, announced on Christmas Eve that he spent 33 hours clearing Sega's PSP role-playing game 7th Dragon 2020.

Namori (Yuruyuri)

Yuruyuri manga creator Namori wishes everyone a "Yuri Christmas!"

Meanwhile, one Yuruyuri fan described the cake he made as a "big failure":

Noboru Yamaguchi (Zero no Tsukaima)

Not everyone in anime and manga is celebrating Christmas on their own. Zero no Tsukaima author Noboru Yamaguchi had to stay in the hospital through Christmas Eve after his surgery to remove a tumor, and he had reported hair loss from the treatment earlier. Nevertheless, he added on Twitter that his girlfriend visited him and gave him a Christmas present (a cardigan sweater).

After many sites posted articles about Yamaguchi's Christmas Eve message, Yamaguchi asked why the sites focused their coverage on just the fact that he has a girlfriend at all.

[Via Ken Akamatsu, My Game News Flash (link 2), Moe Ota-News Sokuhō, Jam Guru]

Tokyo Marble Chocolate Image © 2007 Production I.G/Tokyo Marble Chocolate Production Committee