After spending the last four holiday seasons working in electronic retail, I finally will be able to fully enjoy and celebrate the holidays this year. I decided to try and fully immerse myself in all of the Christmas goodness going around since it has been years since I’ve had the time to really get into the spirit of the holidays, and I forgot how much I loved the music!
Holiday music is something that makes everyone get the warm-and-fuzzies, but sometimes we anime fans can feel a bit detached from our love of Japanese culture because of all the American holiday music. Well, no longer!
As my gift to all of the wonderful people who read my blog, I have put together a small collection of some of my favorite holiday songs, all in Japanese!
The first two I want to call out especially because they bring back a lot of memories for me. When I was in high school I was a HUGE Sailor Moon fan, and the Sailor Moon cast was known for their Christmas albums. So here are two songs that I remember listening to every year in high school done by various members of the Sailor Moon cast!
The first one is “White Christmas” sung by Tomizawa Michie, a.k.a. Hino Rei/Sailor Mars:
And here is “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” sung by the entire main cast!
Here are a couple of my other favorite holiday songs done by the Sailor Moon cast!
First of all, another piece from Tomizawa Michie, “Last Christmas”:
And here with her rendition of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” is Shinohara Emi, who played Kino Makoto/Sailor Jupiter:
But let’s not forget that our favorite Japanese pop and rock singers also love getting into the spirit of giving! Two of my favorite artists sprang to mind, so I found some great stuff from them.
Here is a song called “Gatsu no December Love Song” sung live by Gackt! Interesting story about this song: He wrote it in memory of all those lost in the September 11th attacks here in America. It’s a beautiful and very emotion song. Check it out!
Gackt also decided to be good to us by teaming up with one of the greatest j-pop artists of all time to give us another holiday treat. Here he is with Ayumi Hamasaki singing a beautiful holiday song from a 2005 Japanese TV broadcast:
To round it out, here is a really fun and energetic holiday song from my favorite band of all time, AAA. Enjoy their song “Winter Lander!” from their 2009 tour!
Last but not least is a Christmas treat that my good friend Jon over at JANAiBlog shared with me when I brought up making a blog on Japanese holiday music to him. Enjoy “Holy Night”, an insert song from Toradora! sung by the seiyuu who does one of the main characters, Taiga:
If you want to share these songs instantly with your friends and family, you can just link whomever you wish to my YouTube Christmas Music playlist here.
I hope you all enjoy the music, and I wish each and every one of you a happy and healthy holiday season!
Chu★Blog 