If there’s one thing that anime Christmas episodes have in common, it’s romance. Most of them involve a romantic element, with the usual involving some Christmas date presented with some anime misunderstanding or angst. Christmas cakes are also involved, as is snow and shopping.
With this in mind, the other day I asked my Tumblr readers if they considered Christmas to be a romantic holiday. They responded with an emphatic no.
Maybe anime has gotten to me, but in my mind, Christmas has become more and more romantic, right up there with New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. And my favorite Christmas anime is a romantic one – the Love Hina Christmas special.
In the episode, Keitaro works a part-time job, all the while on crutches, to buy a present for his unrequited love, Narusegewa. Not atypical, it’s still a special episode for me, as the levels of angst rise to an outstanding level and Naru’s “kind of” confession is the most lovely, to me, of the entire series.
And this holiday season, it strikes an even stronger chord. I’m reminded of the outstanding lengths we should go to for the ones we love. But all too often, I’m a lot more Naru Narusegewa (I’m a tsundere?!) than I am Keitaro Urashima, leaving a trail of hurt feelings in my family as I fail to love as deeply and strongly as I should.
But it’s the Christmas season when sacrificial love should be remembered most as we celebrate the birth of Christ. And so, I’ll work on being more like Keitaro (without all the failed tests and the pervy tendencies) this season, and I hope you do the same, loving with a heart of giving, sharing, and selflessness. Because those actions are Jesus demonstrated, and it is Jesus whom the season is all about.
[…] Hina (OVA) – Christmas Special [1, 2, 3, 4, […]