Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: サンタ・カンパニー～真夏のメリークリスマス～

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 28, 2021

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: ORENDA

Source: Original

Genre: Fantasy

Duration: 26 min.

Rating: PG - Children

Statistics

Score: 5.28¹ (scored by 1,216 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #12235²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #10597

Members: 2,460

Favorites: 4

Available At

Official Site

@santa_company

Resources

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ANN

Synopsis

Santa Company is a worldwide organization dedicated to delivering presents to children. Santa Company's elves—known as "tonttus"—aid several Santas every year by wrapping presents, raising reindeer, and helping with deliveries. Mint Rondo is one of the many new tonttus arriving at Santa Company's tropical island office. Following in her older brother's footsteps, Mint begins training alongside her friend, Thomas Dou, and rival, Noah, to eventually become a Santa herself. Unfortunately, her clumsiness causes her to fall far behind her peers and into her brother's shadow.

One day, while sitting on the beach, Mint, Thomas, and Noah discover the biggest threat that Santa Company has faced yet: ocean pollution! With the accumulation of litter going unnoticed, the growing hazard will soon endanger the surrounding ocean wildlife and the members of the Santa Company. As trouble looms over the horizon, Mint might just be able to clean up her act and save everyone on the island in time for Christmas Eve.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas was produced in conjunction with the Nippon Foundation's "Change for the Blue" initiative in order to raise awareness about ocean pollution as part of the Umi-to-Nippon project. The film made its worldwide debut through MyAnimeList on January 28, 2021.

It is an original work brought to life by Kenji Itoso. A short animation was released in 2014 after a successful crowdfunding campaign, followed by a feature-length version released in Japan in 2019. This work is a spin-off featuring some of the same characters.

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Related Anime

Other:

Santa Company: Christmas no Himitsu

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Rondo, Mint

Main

Tomatsu, Haruka
Japanese

Noah

Main

Yamashita, Mami
Japanese

Dou, Thomas

Main

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Edison

Supporting

Furuya, Toru
Japanese

Panal

Supporting

Satou, Masaharu
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Itoso, Kenji

Director, Script, Original Creator

Abe, Nobuyuki

Sound Director

STU48

Theme Song Performance

APAZZI

Theme Song Arrangement

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Opening Theme

No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.

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Ending Theme

"Hitorigoto de Kataru Kurai nara (独り言で語るくらいなら)" by STU48

Reviews

Jan 30, 2021

marchedbus786

Recommended

Most of this is my early thoughts about the film. I did not spend much time over thinking the film. I also did not watch many short anime films, so i do not have a specific standard for reviewing them. I will be judging the film based sorely on my expectations and how much did the film delivered.
And let me tell you, going in to this, I did not had any high expectations. I did not watch the original film, neither did I know anything about it`s premise and world. I knew that this was a spin-off and that it had limited budget and ... a small team, and that it aimed to tell a simple story with hopefully adequate characters and animation to back it up. And thankfully, it was able to meet and even exceed my expectations. It is a very beautiful, enjoyable and well put together short film, especially considering its free.

STORY AND CHARACTERS:
The story is not aimed to be complex or serious endeavor with any long or complex story points. It is a light hearted tale that aims to tell a simple contained story, with a joyful and serious tone. And it is necessary to have those expectations while watching this film. The story is largely contained and follows the three main characters Mint, Noah and Thomas, as they try to clean the garbage polluting the shore area. Other than the main premise, the film also spends time telling us about more larger plot points of the main series like the Santa company, which really intrigued me. The opening 5 mins of the film was the point where I was most invested in the film. It explains its world and premise with effective dialogues and beautiful art style. There was some adequate jokes that made me chuckle a bit.
But I did felt that at certain points the story was too much to the point and did not try to expand certain plot points. For example, I wished there was a more prominent story arc that better showcased Mint`s shortcomings and her over coming them, Or a better representation of and focus on the littering issue that the film is so heavily aimed at. Thankfully, the story is paced correctly and explains story points effectively. And it overall kept me entertained. It really made me want to watch the original film.

Much like the story, the characters are simple and don`t have much dept to them. But they were likable and not irritating and carried the story pretty nicely.The main characters got the most screen time, and the story was focused around getting to know them. I really like their personality and relationship, and they carry the film for me. Apart from Mint, the characters fell two-dimensional, and served more as supporting cast for her, which I think works in the film`s favor. Again, the characters were entertaining and fun and did not overstay their welcome. They fit perfectly in the story and its world.

I have not watched the original film, so I do not have the context for the story and characters. But I think it was still satisfactory and did not contain any major plot holes or missing information. You will be able to watch the film without felling the need to think or speculate much.

ANIMATION AND MUSIC:
The animation and artwork was the best part of the film. The art-style made the world feel authentic and pleasant to look at. There overall good amount of animation. The animation was not fluent at some points and there was a two or three weird cuts, but you`ll hardly notice them.The music was also incredibly put together and added a lot to the story. These two things, more than anything else, were the main reason I enjoyed the film so much.

DIRECTION AND EXECUTION:
like I said, the recourse for this film was limited, but the creators clearly put a lot of effort in making the film. Director Kenji Itoso had a clear vision in his mind, and knew what to put in the film and how to effectively engage the audience in the film. I also think the creators were very effective in setting our expectations right. And they were very clear about what this film was about and what to expect. I think the film was well directed and executed.

CONCLUSION:
Like I said, I did not watch much short films and I did not had high expectations for this film. But I still think it delivered on the key things like. There is noting absolutely great and noting horribly bad, everything is simple. But all of its different aspects come together and gives a enjoyable and fun experience. Whether you`ll like that experience or the film, largely depends on your expectations and tolerance for such things. For the most part, I had a blast watching the film. It simple yet entertaining plot and fun characters made me really happy. I may not remember the characters and the story, but I won`t forget the pleasant time I had watching this film.

Congratulation to MAL for hosting the film. And thank you to all who worked on the film. I enjoyed and loved it very much, and I plan to watch the original film.

Thanks for reading my review. Do watch the film if you think you`ll like it.

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Mar 4, 2021

arcangelos

Mixed Feelings

I think it's a good idea to spread awareness about the plastics and trash that contaminated the sea and affecting marine animals. I really wish the anime would be more realistic, based on reality lives than just a fantasy because, in reality, it is really hard to tell people to not littering the ocean.
You can't just tell people "hey the sea is polluted and marine animals are dying we have to stop this" and then they just agree and clean the oceans. In reality, there are many people who are lazy to put trash in to the bin or just put it in their pocket ...

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Feb 10, 2021

FlyYOUNG

Not Recommended

***SPOILER AHEAD***

Supposed to be educational but instead of focusing on the real life impacts it has (it does touch on this briefly but VERY briefly- probably less than a minute in total), it instead focuses on a monster that appears because of trash which of course not being real, is not going to make people change because it's FICTIONAL.

The main protagonist is also possibly one of the most infuriating characters I've ever met. She's idiotic, blames everything that goes wrong or isn't in her favour on others, and basically just straight up bullies Trevor. She's the epitome of a terrible person yet she saves the ...

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Recent News

MyAnimeList to Stream Premiere of New 'Santa Company' Film

The Umi no Magnet Education Committee announced on Wednesday a new Santa Company short film, subtitled Manatsu no Merry Christmas (Midsummer Merry Christmas). The f...read more

Jan 20, 2021 9:18 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (16 comments)

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Recent Forum Discussion

Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas premiere giveaway (2021) Fish4Seagulls - Nov 25, 2023	2 replies	by Fish4Seagulls »» Nov 26, 2023 3:22 AM
Poll: Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas Episode 1 Discussion asapabri - Jan 28, 2021	26 replies	by NextUniverse »» Jan 29, 2021 4:21 AM
Congrats to MAL for hosting it KayY_Y - Jan 26, 2021	2 replies	by Animekid3 »» Jan 28, 2021 3:12 PM

Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas

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