12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 6: Toradora’s “Holy Night” Is Anime’s Christmas Carol

I’m a Christmas music nut. I listen to holiday songs throughout the year and once Thanksgiving hits (I wait until then so I don’t wear myself and others around me out), it’s pretty much Christmas songs all the way through to the 25th. My favorites tend to be those that are carols or otherwise worshipful, like Silent Night or It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. While the world celebrates Christmas as being about family, peace, goodwill, and presents, these songs remind me that those blessings are often byproducts of the holiday’s true meaning, and more the result or glimmer of the Hope that came to bring us salvation that first Christmas Day.

Here at Beneath the Tangles, our little contribution to the Christmas season is this series of 12 Days of Christmas Anime posts. I won’t lie—it can sometimes be a challenge finding Jesus in episodes of anime that tend to focus on parties and romance (though a few series unexpectedly get it right). And Christmas songs in anime? Well, when old-time carols are used properly, they can indeed convey great meaning. But what of newer Christmas songs and, even more specifically, anime original ones?

Toradora, one of my favorite anime and a series that really helped convert me from normie into otaku through the depth of its story and the realism of its characters, actually features such an original Christmas song. It’s not a carol and it’s not in any way about Christ, but this romantic song is a fun addition to a series that balances laughs with heartache.The Toradora Christmas episode is really three episodes long. The main episode in that run (which we’ve focused on already on Day 3!) begins to push the story toward its conclusion by focusing on hurt feelings, mixed signals, and sad Christmas Eves. Amid the pain, Taiga and Ami give an unexpected performance at the class Christmas bash, featuring a song that I can only presume the two wrote themselves!

Isn’t that something? I think because the series parks on Christmastime for so many episodes, it can give the viewers this somewhat lavish production in the middle of it all. Fantastic, too, because it’s an important detail for the series, emphasizing how key/pivotal the holiday is for Taiga and showing her continued transformation from an angry loner into a more open person.

Over the years, the song itself, titled “Holy Night,” has settled into the collective memories of anime fans as a song of the season. “Padoru!” aside, it is the defining anime Christmas song. Yes, that selection may be small, but with how massive a role Christmas plays in anime (and growing as almost every series, should it last long enough, includes a Christmas episode), it rises in importance.

Here are the lyrics (from the Toradora wiki):

It’s Christmas. Give me your smiles
A party night delivered to you
It’s Christmas. Give me your wishes
On this holy, holy night, I pledge to you

This year’s Christmas is a bit special
Even though it’s not a white Christmas
The illumination of the stardust
Look, it’s falling and piling

It’s glittering and shining
And everyone is happy
Flickering, and in a blink
Everyone’s having a dream

It’s Christmas. Give me your smiles
A party night delivered to you
It’s Christmas. Give me your wishes
On this holy, holy night, I pledge to you

This year’s Christmas is certainly special
A lonely Christmas is boring
The smiles are what illuminate it
Look, I’ll decorate it for you

It’s swaying and flickering
And everyone is holding hands
Sparkling and twinkling
I’m looking up at the stars with everyone

It’s Christmas. Give me your smiles
A party night delivered to you
It’s Christmas. Give me your wishes
On this holy, holy night, I pledge to you

Despite the title, which brings to mind the classic, “O Holy Night,” this “Holy Night” is a love song, very appropriate for the lovey-dovey feels that anime usually focuses on for Christmas episodes. But appropriate, too, in how ironic it is: for while love is indeed in the air for the main characters of Toradora, these episodes delve into heartache for the holiday—an unfortunately common feeling, along with loneliness, during this season.

While Taiga carries a joyous attitude on the outside, sending out Christmas presents to the less fortunate and overcoming her usual stage fright to be center stage in the production, she is suffering on the inside. She has been trying to match her girl best friend, Minori, with her guy best friend, Ryuuji, but as demonstrated when she falls apart and bawls later in the episode, she’s actually in love with Ryuuji herself. She’s suffering a great deal.

That contrast between the song and reality is also reflected in its title. Let me explain. “Holy” is sometimes used in anime but rarely in the Christian sense; instead, “holy” in anime conveys a supernatural connection to romance. But I like to think that it points to the Great Romance as well. You see, from the Christian perspective, Christmas is really the expression of God reaching out to us in relationship, lavishing us with love, and seeking to draw us into marriage with him. This romance is one that’s life-changing, more powerful and longer lasting than our earthly romances. He fills the longing in our hearts. So while the romances and loves of this world may fall apart, be full of complications (see the love triangle of Toradora and even quadrangle when including Taiga’s duet partner, Ami), and fail us over and over again, Christmas reminds us that we are forever loved by the creator of the universe. Christmas is the proof of this love, a demonstration of the lengths God went to in order to demonstrate his desire for relationship with us.

So maybe “Holy Night” is more than just a random Christmas song dropped in the middle of a series. Maybe there’s something deeper to it, and maybe it can even point to the holy one whom we celebrate this season.

Here’s the full song (you can also view the second verse during the end credits of episode 19). Listen along and enjoy, And Merry Christmas, everyone!

12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 7: ToraDora
Twwk
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