Bonus Podcast (with Transcript) 2022 December: Best Anime Christmas Episodes

Happy Holidays, AniFam!

The end of year holidays are upon us, and since Christmas and New Year tend to get the most attention in the world of anime, we decided to look at titles that excel at capturing the mood of those holidays. 

Whatever you're celebrating, we hope you're safe and with loved ones as 2022 comes to a close. 

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VRAI: Hey there, patrons, and welcome to our December end-of-year bonus cast! Thank you so much for your support. It really means the world to us. I’m Vrai, and with me are Dee and Alex!

And because we are celebrating the end of the year, we are going to be looking at some of our favorite Christmas/New Year episodes because those tend to be the biggest holidays that get anime episodes devoted to them. Would either of you like to go first?

ALEX: Sure. Well, I have a proper big example, but I also have kind of a mini-bonus example that I would like to submit, which is the Christmas episode of Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, which is the Fate/stay night spinoff where they’re all just cooking food.

Now, in the same way that you would not get much out of reading a big, cute AU fanfiction, you’re not going to get much out of this one if you’re not already familiar with the characters. But for those who know, it is a very sweet episode, where you have these characters, who are usually engaged in these high-stakes supernatural battles, all just kind of hanging out. You have… You know, legendary Irish hero Cú Chulainn is working at a fish shop. You have big, scary berserker Hercules using his big, scary berserker strength to bring in a Christmas tree. And everyone’s just making snacks and having a nice family meal together, in a way that the turmoil of the series prevents them from doing. So, it’s all very sweet, and it caps off with a Christmas episode. So there you go.

What I did think of, though, when I was trying to think of Christmas episodes apart from that one, which is sort of fresh in my mind, is a bit of a different emotional experience, and that is the Christmas arc of Toradora. Are either of you familiar with this show?

VRAI: We are.

DEE: We are! Caitlin had us do the watchalong of it a couple of years ago, so, yeah, we are both familiar with it.

ALEX: Very nice, very nice. So, you will know what I mean. And again, listeners, if you know, you know. So, the Christmas arc of Toradora is episodes 17, 18, and 19. And it’s got all the Christmas cheer you could ever want and some of the most emotionally devastating moments of the series.

So, for those unfamiliar, Toradora is a matchmaker quest. You have neighbors Taiga and Ryuji, this kind of odd couple, who are on this mission to set each other up with their respective crushes, who are each other’s best friend. But of course, along the way, they start falling for each other instead. And while the seeds for it are kind of planted earlier as well, of course, this Christmas arc is kind of where they both start to realize that that’s what’s happening and then they have to deal with those feelings. And it’s a lot. [Laughs] It’s a lot. I was kind of revisiting it and it would be like, oh my God, the melodrama is high.

The relationship dynamic—the web of relationships and romances and love quadrangles—is too convoluted to get into at this early stage. But the short version is, and some highlights are, we have things like Taiga, who has been this sort of little-ball-of-rage kind of character… she is being much more emotionally vulnerable throughout the arc. She really loves Christmas, it turns out, despite being a little ball of rage. She associates it very much with her happier childhood and has this distinct memory of waiting up for Santa Claus. And she’s like, “I’m gonna do that again! I’m gonna see Santa this time. I’m gonna catch him.”

And so, you have this devastating moment where Ryoji, the main lad… he gets the chance to stay behind at this Christmas party the school is hosting and to talk to the girl of his dreams. You know, the supposed goal of the whole series is getting him in the same room with this girl and letting them have conversation and develop this relationship, but he has to choose in this moment.

He thinks, “Well, Taiga’s going to be home all alone on Christmas and is gonna be waiting for someone who’s not gonna turn up.” So, he makes a decision, ultimately, to go and dress up in (I don’t know where he got this) this weird teddy bear, big onesie/suit thing and turn up and be like, “It’s me! Santa! I came to take care of you so you wouldn’t be alone on Christmas.”

And Taiga’s super stoked about it. And it’s really cute. And of course, she knows it’s him. You know, she goes along with it. It’s like, “Wow, it’s Santa! I’m so happy!” But of course, she knows it’s him. And that’s even more moving because she’s like, “He remembered this dumb thing that I said I wanted, and he came through to do it for me so I wouldn’t be alone and isolated.” And then of course, she’s like, “Go off and go see your girl of your dreams. That’s the point of the show. That’s what I’m doing!” But then she gets really upset about that. And then Minorin hears that and it’s a cluster mess. Absolutely. [Laughs]

But it’s… Ah! It’s high drama, it’s got these bittersweet moments, it’s got these really cute moments, and, of course, yeah, that crucial turning point, that “Oh!” moment from both characters where they kind of realize, “Wait. Maybe I don’t want you to go and end up with my friend. Maybe I want to end up with you. Maybe I’d really miss you if you were gone.” All with this glittering backdrop of Christmas trees and starry nights and snow falling romantically and… Ah! It’s so much. High point of the series. Absolutely devo. [Laughs]

DEE: Well, and it’s kind of intercut with some goofiness at the Christmas party itself, right?

ALEX: Oh, for sure.

DEE: So there’s also some good hijinks. Because I remember one of the characters gets quote-unquote “drunk” on sparkling juice or something, and I think they all end up taking their shirts off or something! It’s silly. They get silly at the party.

ALEX: [crosstalk] Yeah, like Kitamura [unintelligible due to crosstalk] around with no shirt but a full Santa beard and suspenders and stuff. I’m like, “Where did…? How’d that happen to you?”

DEE: He shows up as sexy Santa and he’s threatening to hug everybody! And it’s just very sincere high school goofiness. It just feels very much like high school kids screwing around, which is one of my favorite things about Toradora.

ALEX: For sure. And that’s, hey, that contrast there that you have the really sincere goofiness and the real slapstick kind of stuff but then, as soon as you’re like, “Ha-ha! Oh, look at these kids. That was fun,” and then your heart shatters into a million pieces, just like the precious Christmas decoration that gets broken by accident also in this arc.

DEE: Oh, yeah!

ALEX: It’s like, [gasps].

DEE: Oh God. The symbolism! Which is also very high school. The great thing about Toradora is how it feels like what it’s like to be in high school, both the goofy parts and then the earth-shattering relationship moments.

ALEX: Absolutely.

DEE: Yeah, the Christmas special is a nice capstone, sort of a culmination of some of those plot points before they really head into love quadrangle territory.

ALEX: Mm-hm. For sure, for sure. So, yeah. There are other more fluffy and enjoyable Christmas episodes that I also thought of, including my bonus example, but this… you know, it’s one stuck with me. And yeah, you wanna have a good cry for the holiday season? Give Toradora’s Christmas arc a go.

DEE: Yeah. Rom-coms— Well, Christmas in Japan has… it’s not a family holiday like it necessarily is considered in the States. It’s more of a couple’s holiday. It’s considered kind of a romantic holiday. New Year’s is the day you spend with your family. And then Christmas is like you either go out with friends or you go out with a significant other.

So, rom-coms like Toradora, but also, I can think of… Kimi ni Todoke and Lovely Complex both kind of go hard on Christmas is… My Love Story is another one. The Christmas episode is a big moment for the prospective couple because of that cultural understanding of “Love is in the air tonight.” So, yeah, Toradora hits that nicely.

Vrai, what’s yours?

VRAI: Oh! I was gonna say if you want to hear us talk more about Toradora, you can always… we’ve got four whole episodes of watchalong about it.

DEE: Yeah! We have a full watchalong on Toradora if you want to check that out. It’s a fun one, I think, in my unbiased opinion.

[Chuckling]

ALEX: I remember that being fun to listen to, for sure. For sure, for sure.

VRAI: I am going to run through a couple quick, because… Well, my big one is another thing that we already have a full podcast on, so I don’t want to take up too much time with it, but it’s Tokyo Godfathers, a movie that makes me cry!

ALEX: Ah, of course!

DEE: It’s a great Christmas movie. It is like the anime Christmas movie, is Tokyo Godfathers. It’s great.

VRAI: It’s so good and it’s so full of feelings, and I am so glad that they took so much care in finally giving it a dub. That makes me really happy. And yeah, other than that, please go listen to the whole bonus episode about it because it is maybe one of the single best anime films, I think, worth watching.

And I also want to give a brief shout-out to the Azumanga Daioh Christmas episode because seeing a cat in a Santa hat say “I’m paid by the government” makes me laugh every time!

[Laughter]

ALEX: [Chuckles] I will have to go and watch that one. I am not familiar with Azumanga Daioh. But that—

VRAI: I love Azumanga Daioh. It’s aged in some ways, but I love it! [Chuckles]

ALEX: That imagery has sold me. [Chuckles] I gotta go find it.

VRAI: The cat is, of course, the small precocious child’s father. You would know this.

ALEX: [Chuckles] Naturally. So it’s all in the spirit of Christmas.

VRAI: Uh-huh. Beautiful.

But my actual pick-pick is a New Year’s episode. It is episode 2 of season 2 of Laid-Back Camp, where Rin goes solo camping. It’s this very quiet, beautiful, and thoughtful episode to kind of step you into the new season and where the characters are growing, because if season 1 of Laid-Back Camp is about bringing everybody together and forming these bonds, then season 2 is sort of about “It’s okay to be alone sometimes, and you will still have friends who are important to you.”

So, I really like the emphasis on quiet scenes and dawn and sort of learning to be self-sufficient, which I think is just one of the things that’s so beautiful about Laid-Back Camp, is its emphasis on how young women should learn to do things and that’s okay and it’s not weird to want to do things by yourself; you are not a freak or a loner who needs a better group, you know? And I just think it’s a beautifully made episode. I mean, it has emotional resonance because of where it is in the series, but I think it’s a lovely little short story on its own, honestly.

ALEX: Mm-hm. Ah, that show is literally so good. That has set the bar so high for hobby shows for me. [Chuckles] Every time we get a new girls’ hobby show, I feel like, “Okay, I can’t just write ‘It’s pretty good, but it’s not Laid-Back Camp.’” I can’t do that every time because that’s not very useful to the readers. [Chuckles]

DEE: It’s unfair. It’s unfair to be like, “The pinnacle of hobby show anime: it’s not that.” [Chuckles]

ALEX: But yes, I totally agree, Vrai, yes. That is a good encapsulation (yeah, like my example was a good encapsulation of all of Toradora’s energies), as, yeah, it has the beautiful scenery, it has that emphasis on companionship while also being on your own, and it’s just a lot of fun.

DEE: Doesn’t…? Correct me if I’m wrong. Doesn’t the first season of Laid-Back Camp end with them going Christmas camping?

ALEX: It does.

VRAI: I think it might. Yeah, so that also counts.

DEE: Like, as a group, so you kinda spin from this sort of social event—because I think that’s the first time Rin goes camping with the full group, is at that Christmas camp. And so, it spins from the social aspect of Laid-Back Camp and the fun of going out as a group and then also the “But it’s also okay to go do things on your own sometimes,” which is the New Year’s episode.

So, it’s a nice back-to-back of the two central ideas of Laid-Back Camp, in both terms of the connection and the community, as well as the growing and the independence and isolation not being a bad thing necessarily.

ALEX: Mm-hm. Yeah, you know what, now that you point that out, yeah. If you watch the first season and second season back to back, chronologically perfectly, then yeah, you get that nice throughline.

VRAI: If you didn’t have to wait… How long was…? Was it only two years? It felt longer. No, I think it was like four years.

DEE: Of course it felt longer. It wasn’t four years. I think it felt longer because… I mean, because everything after the year 2016 has felt fucking long!

ALEX: [Chuckles]

DEE: So, yeah, I think it was just a couple years apart. I was reading the manga, and I think those chapters happened in the same volume, which is why the parallel was sort of fresher in my head.

ALEX: Mm-hm, mm-hm.

VRAI: Gotcha.

DEE: But yeah. No, Laid-Back Camp is a great one.

VRAI: Okay, it was three years. Go on.

DEE: Three years. Okay. All right, so… split the difference.

[Chuckling]

DEE: I was gonna say, I love that you guys picked good, dramatic, thoughtful, sympathetic episodes.

I may have pitched this idea like a year ago because I wanted to talk about the Cute High Earth Defense Club Love Christmas episode that I watch every single year. It is my Christmas go-to special!

VRAI: I mean, why would I pick a comedy episode when you’re going to talk about the perfect Christmas comedy episode?

DEE: This is true. It is the perfect Christmas comedy episode. So, for those who don’t know, Cute High Earth Defense Club Love is a magical boy show. It is very much a comedy, but it is a loving parody. To me, honestly, in the same way that Sailor Moon kind of pokes fun at itself while also enjoying itself, it’s that.

It goes harder on the parody element than Sailor Moon does, but it has that same vibe of… It really enjoys this monster-of-the-week format and its characters being these high school boys who kind of get roped into being magical boys and don’t really want to do it. It’s kind of like a part-time job. You’d much rather just be goofing around and lazing about with your friends after school, but sometimes you gotta go to work because you have responsibilities. Except for one. There’s one character who’s kind of the emotional core of the story who genuinely enjoys it. But most of them are just like, “Okay, I guess we have to go fight a monster today. Let’s go do it.”

The Christmas episode is maybe not my favorite of the show, but it’s definitely one of my favorite Christmas specials of all time, including American specials. It’s up there with “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” from Community. I love this episode.

So, the monster-of-the-week format that Cute High does is… again, it’s more in that Sailor Moon vein of: a person gets turned into a monster by the antagonist of the season. And the monsters dip into some personal problem or concern that they’re having and makes that monstrous. And so, then, the fight is sort of a grand metaphor for whatever adolescent issue they’re going through at that particular point.

And the show pokes fun at itself. Some of these things seem like earth-shattering things to the kids involved, but they’re really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. But, you know, in that moment it feels like a big deal.

And this one is about a kid who has to work for his dad’s ramen shop on Christmas, so he never gets to go to parties because he’s always working part time. And he’s grumbling about how he never gets to go to any of the fun parties, and the antagonists turn him into a monster, and he turns into a reindeer monster and he’s gonna mess up those Christmas parties, because if he doesn’t get to have one, then why should anybody else?

But I think it’s the one time they don’t actually have to fight [the monster]. He shows up at their Christmas party, and a couple of the characters kind of just assume he’s the delivery guy in a costume. And so, the others are trying to figure out, “When can we suddenly leave the room so we can transform, so nobody who’s here who doesn’t know that we’re magical boys [can] see us?”

And while they’re trying to figure this out, the reindeer monster gets involved in the party and basically gets to have a Christmas party because they’re just like, “Oh, yeah, you’re working so hard! We really appreciate everything you do. Why don’t you stick around for a little bit? Here, have a drink. Here, have a present. Here, have some Christmas cake.” And so he just goes home, happy that he had a Christmas party, and un-monsterfies because he just had a nice time tonight.

And so, in the midst of it being this really goofy episode about the boys trying to sneak away to change costumes and the antagonists (they have their own thing going on), who are also at the Christmas party, and they don’t know that the boys are the magical boys, kind of dramatic irony… In the midst of all this goofball nonsense going on, the episode does have this very sweet throughline of “Be respectful to the people who have to work on Christmas because that’s tough. Having to work on the holidays is tough.”

And so, being sympathetic and grateful to them and, again, just the simple act of just offering him a drink and being like “Why don’t you stick around for 15 minutes?” fixes the situation without them having to transform and actually fight him. So, it is a lovely little episode in addition to being hilarious pretty much throughout. There’s a whole Christmas gift exchange and, yeah, shenanigans galore.

It’s also followed by a New Year’s episode that I haven’t seen in a while, so I can’t talk about it too much. But I distinctly remember there’s a snowman monster and the boys are like, “Do we have to? It’s New Year’s! Can’t we take today off?” And I just love that that is the energy of the magical boys in the show. Cute High Earth Defense Club Love is lowkey one of the best magical guardian shows out there, and I would highly recommend it to folks.

VRAI: Yeah, honestly, this is now a Bōei-bu fancast because it good. It really good. The first two seasons are the same cast, and then the third season is a different group of boys, if I remember right.

DEE: [crosstalk] Just ignore Happy Kiss. So, it’s Cute High Earth Defense Club, and then the sequel is Cute High Earth Defense Club Love Love, and then the OVA finale, which is… it is the end. It’s one part recap and then it is a finale story arc that wraps up these boys’ stories. The OVA is Cute High Earth Defense Club Love Love Love!

So, it’s easy to track down. It’s on Crunchyroll. And you can just ignore Happy Kiss because they lost… The great Michiko Yokote is no longer writing for the show, so what’s even the point? And it’s terrific. Yeah.

VRAI: You’ve reminded me that I actually need to finish season 2, because that show is great.

DEE: You do. Season 1 is fun. Season 2 is tremendous. To me, it takes all the things that were great about season 1 and amplifies them in season 2 and becomes this really terrific, very sincere riff on what it’s like to be in high school. And then the OVA actually wraps things up really well.

It’s gay if you squint. It’s gay if… You don’t even have to squint that hard. You don’t really have to squint for it to be gay!

VRAI: I was gonna say, is the lowkey OT3 still in play all the way to the end?

DEE: I mean, the OVA basically ends with clips of them all hanging out together in poses that, to me, read very romantic, so… I said at the end, if you were curious which of these characters he wound up with, the answer was yes.

[Chuckling]

DEE: So, yeah. Again, this is not a Cute High Earth Defense Club Love fancast, but as long as we’re talking about the Christmas and New Year’s specials, which remain definitely my favorite anime Christmas special and one of my favorite anime New Year’s specials… It’s just a fun show, and those episodes are so good. And again, much like in that Christmas episode, so much of the show is a lot of goofiness but sort of packaged around something that, if you look at it, is actually a pretty nice little message that they’ve rolled into their silly show.

ALEX: [crosstalk] Yeah, for sure. Nice!

DEE: So, I’m very appreciative of it. And if you are a fan of Sailor Moon, you’d also really like it because its homages to Sailor Moon are myriad, especially in season 2, straight-up shot-for-shot homages to some of the Ikuhara episodes especially. It’s a fun one. So, that’s definitely my top Christmas special.

ALEX: That’s a very compelling pitch for the show. I may go back and check that out—

DEE: Do it! Do it!

ALEX: —especially as we head into the holiday season, because [chuckles], yeah, that concept is so goddamn funny. They don’t even fight the monster; they’re just like, “Ah, yeah. You’re the delivery guy, I guess. Come on in!”

DEE: Yeah! “Come on in, have a drink!”

ALEX: “I’m here to do evil! I’m so confused! Oh, this is kind of fun.” [Chuckles]

DEE: Yeah. And he comes in with a lecture, like “I’m gonna lecture you on why you need to appreciate the people working more, because you shouldn’t look down on us. And it’s no fair that we don’t get to do things.” And then they’re just so nice, and then he’s like, “Oh! Um, cool! Thanks?” It’s great.

ALEX: [Laughs]

DEE: I love the reindeer monster.

ALEX: That is cute.

VRAI: See, Dee, people do respect your very good recs.

DEE: Alex does.

ALEX: [Chuckles]

VRAI: Aw! And the people at home should… People at home, tell Dee about the things that she has introduced to you, too, because she deserves more love.

DEE: Aw, that’s very sweet of you, Vrai.

VRAI: [crosstalk] Eh. But it’s true.

DEE: But no, it’s a fun show.

Does anybody else have any other holiday specials they want to mention in this episode that folks might want to check out?

VRAI: Honestly, as we were talking, I was thinking about it and thinking, you know, it feels like… New Year’s episodes are still pretty common because it’s a good way to thematically bump off “The characters are heading in a new direction” or “They’re facing a big decision.” But I feel like as series that are only a single cour become more common, Christmas episodes have become a little bit less frequent because it’s a very “We’re in our second cour and we need our breather moment before we head into the final act where everything gets really important,” like Toradora. So, I don’t know. I’m just thinking about that.

DEE: Yeah, I think it just tends to be very much a… To me, it’s very much become a rom-com staple. Like, if you’re watching a rom-com, they’re going to do a Christmas episode. Komi Can’t Communicate did one and followed it up with a New Year’s episode, as well, and that’s the most recent one I can think of. I don’t think Aharen-san did one but I don’t remember.

ALEX: I was thinking about Christmas episodes, and for some godforsaken reason the Rent-A-Girlfriend Christmas episode came into my head. I was like, “I’m not talking about that. That’s an awful episode of an awful show!”

[Chuckling]

DEE: I mean, we could say, yeah, what Christmas special shouldn’t you watch? And the answer is Rent-A-Girlfriend.

ALEX: Yes, dishonorable mention is Rent-A-Girlfriend, which I did watch. And look, I maintain everything I said in my first-impressions review. It had potential, which is why it’s so annoying that it didn't live up to any of it, including squandering and making garbage out of the rom-com staple of the Christmas episode. Ah, dear.

DEE: [crosstalk] Oh, dear. Oh, dear.

VRAI: Now, now. Now, speaking of rom-coms with Christmas episodes, I did remember one more very important one: the proposal episode of Yuri on Ice takes place at Christmas.

ALEX: [Gasps] Of course!

DEE: It does! That’s a good one. It has to. It has to take place on Christmas, right?

VRAI: [crosstalk, tender] It has to! Uh-huh!

DEE: It’s a rom-com staple.

ALEX: [Chuckles] Yes.

VRAI: Exactly. Well, and thinking about it since the rumors that Ice Adolescence is officially dead and I’m sad, but now Sayo Yamamoto is free. [Sighs]

ALEX: I could give Yuri on Ice a watch, a rewatch. That was a good show, and it was such a long time ago in the scheme of things, you know?

DEE: And it’s about ice skating, so, really, it’s a perfect winter watch.

ALEX: That’s true.

DEE: So there you go!

And then if you’re looking for something to watch with your kids at home, folks, the Pokémon: Indigo League Christmas episode “Holiday Hi-Jynx,” which was banned in the US because Jynx is in it… It’s bad! You don’t need to track it down. The only good thing in it is Team Rocket kidnaps Mister Sandy Claws, and that’s pretty fun.

[Laughter]

ALEX: If all else fails, Team Rocket will save the day with their mere presence.

DEE: Yeah. But I will say that… Pokémon X/Y, there’s an episode called “Under the Pledging Tree!” which is…

As the show progressed, they moved away from actual holidays and into Pokémon versions of holidays. And “Under the Pledging Tree!” takes place in Kalos, and there’s some town that has a tradition where they string lights up on these trees and they give gifts to their Pokémon as, like, “We’re so grateful to have you in our lives. Thank you for all you do for us!”

ALEX: Aw.

DEE: So, it’s kind of a Pokémon Christmas episode without, you know, actually calling it Christmas. They do a Halloween episode in Kalos as well that’s also quite good.

But, again, if you’re looking for something to watch with the kiddos, that one’s a fun one. Team Rocket once again tries to steal all the presents, because of course they do. Why wouldn’t they try to steal all the presents? They’re Team Rocket! But it ends on a very heartwarming note with everybody getting gifts for their Pokémon, including Team Rocket, because they love each other!

ALEX: Aw!

DEE: So, yeah, I was trying to think if there were any family Christmas specials, and if Pokémon had one that wasn’t the bad “Holiday Hi-Jynx” episode! Which I did track down to watch when I was doing my marathon, because I was like, “Okay, it’s not streaming anywhere because Jynx is in it and this was before they made Jynx purple, so it’s rough.” But I was like, “I do want to rewatch it,” and I was like, "okay, it’s not even a good episode. It’s a fucking mess."

But Santa Claus does canonically exist in the Pokémon-verse, so…

ALEX: [Chuckles]

DEE: Canonically he’s real!

ALEX: That’s fascinating. Not even that… Oh, what’s his name? That bird-looking Pokémon who’s red and carrying a bag around who looks a bit like Santa?

DEE: [crosstalk] Delibird. Yeah. Yeah, Delibird.

ALEX: Is he not the stand-in for a Father Christmas in that universe? I suppose not?

DEE: I mean, at this point, yeah, but in the Indigo League there was no Delibird. That was a later addition, so…

ALEX: Of course.

DEE: It was literal Santa Claus! They went to the literal North Pole, and they met literal Santa Claus! And that never came up again. [Chuckles]

VRAI: One last very important one that is full of feelings: there’s a very important plot episode that takes place on Christmas in Laid… [corrects self] not in Laid-Back Camp… in Place Further than the Universe.

ALEX: Oh my God! Yes, there is. Ah!

DEE: I would not watch that one out of order, though. That’s not like a “You can just pop in.” I feel like the Cute High or the Laid-Back Camp you could kind of watch without context and just enjoy them as episodes, knowing the basic premise. Yeah, Place Further than the Universe you need to watch from start to finish.

VRAI: [crosstalk] And you should!

DEE: Not just so you’ll understand the Christmas episode, but because it’s a really fucking good show!

ALEX: Yeah, I’m actually really excited about the prospect of a rewatch of that with the team, you know?

Before we wrap up, though, I think we do have to give an honorable mention to whatever that Sailor Moon episode is where Tuxedo Mask is dressed as Santa and then he’s like “And a happy New Year!” and unveils himself dramatically. Whatever that is.

DEE: It’s not an episode. I believe it is the S movie.

ALEX: Ah! Well, fantastic. [Chuckles]

DEE: It’s either the S or the Super movie. It’s the worst of the movies.

ALEX: Oh, no!

VRAI: It is.

DEE: Yeah, I think it’s the S movie.

ALEX: [crosstalk] Except for that part.

DEE: It’s the worst of the movies, but that part is at the very beginning, and it’s great!

ALEX: [Chuckles] Okay. A shoutout, then, to that, what, 20 seconds of that Sailor Moon movie with Tuxedo Mask as Santa. [Laughs]

DEE: Yeah. Shoutout to Tuxedo Mask as Santa Claus. Very important.

VRAI: And then you can skip the rest of the movie, which is about Luna falling in love with some dude, some human dude.

DEE: Yeah. You can watch the other two Sailor Moon movies. They’re good times.

VRAI: Mm-hm.

DEE: But they’re not Christmas related, so I guess they don’t really fit into this conversation.

[Chuckling]

ALEX: Well, wonderful. Lots of holiday cheer. I love that we covered so many different genres in this discussion.

DEE: A little something for everybody, right? Yeah.

ALEX: A little something for everyone this holiday season.

DEE: Excellent.

VRAI: Well, thank you again, AniFam. We couldn’t do this without you, and we hope that you have a safe end of your holiday, whatever it is that you’re celebrating, with people who you care about and who care about you. And we’ll see you in 2023. Take care of yourselves, okay?

ALEX: Bye, everyone!

[Ending theme]

DEE: Why does 2023 sound terrifying to me?

VRAI: I don’t… No, I’m not ready. I’m still processing 2020!

ALEX and DEE: Yeah.

ALEX: I’m like, that’s not a real year. That can’t be a real year.

DEE: I’m like, how is there a 3 in there? That doesn’t feel right.

[Chuckling]

DEE: There hasn’t been a 3 in our… It’s been a long time since we had a 3 in our year. So…

ALEX: [Chuckles]

VRAI: Yeah.