Well, it is November 25th which means on the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" calendar that we're entering the Christmas season on the blog so expect the Yuletide tunes to come out fairly often over the next few weeks leading up to December 25th. By the way, the photo of Santa Claus above was taken in front of Hakuhinkan Toy Shop in Ginza. It's kinda like Tokyo's version of FAO Schwarz.
It was only about two weeks ago that I put up the latest in the "Karakai Jouzu na Takagi-san"（からかい上手の高木さん...Skilled Teaser Takagi-san） articles with main seiyuu Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）as the titular Takagi-san performing a couple of covers of Japanese pop tunes. However, a few days back, I just happened to view Season 3's Episode 9 which was the Christmas episode for the entire franchise. Great timing that. And if viewers had thought that the show couldn't get any sweeter, well, they had a whole bunch of mistletoe thrown at them.
Of course, the show topped this cake off with a candy cane or ribbon or gingerbread cookie with Takahashi singing "Santa ga Machi ni Yatte Kuru", aka "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", during the end credits. The arrangement was so adorable and old-fashioned that Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）probably turned green with envy. I hadn't mentioned it before, but those Japanese lyrics were provided by opera singer and composer Takao Kanbe（神戸孝夫）, and they were first used on The Peanuts' cover of the song all the way back in 1962.
Yeah, it's got some of that Hallmark Xmas card type of orchestra behind it, but also some of that piano from Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". What's not to love? And of course, for the fans, it's Takagi-san herself at the mike. Along with this version and The Peanuts' cover, the blog also has Tony Bennett's immortal take as a ROY article which ironically began last year's Xmas season on KKP exactly one year ago.
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