Posted by on December 25, 2025

I hope you know Christmas is made even more special because of you. I hope you have the happiest birthday ever.

Following a Christmas concert, Nanako learns that Yukari’s birthday is Christmas Day, and while Yukari’s all smiles, Nanako spots Yukari might feel lonely, promising that Yukari’s birthday party will be wonderful. At school, after receiving their report cards, Nanako and her friends share their plans for their breaks: since Nanako is going to be busy with filming, they have a Christmas party at Shōko’s place. Nanako promises to meet up with the others after picking up a birthday gift for Yukari. She runs into Yukari at the mall and wistfully thinks it’d be easier to ask Yukari about what she’d like, but in the end, manages to find something she’s happy with. With her friends, the girls do a gift exchange and enjoy the customary Christmas festive meal (fried chicken and strawberry shortcake). Nanako’s friends comment on how she’d only been a Locodol for eight months, and reminisce on how they’d met one another: all of Nanako’s friends met one another on the first day of class after Shōko gathered all of the students who didn’t know anyone else. Quite separately, Yukari attends a family function with her cousin, while Mirai spends Christmas Eve with Yui and her brothers, leaving Nanako’s parents to share a quiet evening together. Nanako’s friends gift her a Santa dress and encourage her to deliver Yukari’s birthday gift. Nanako sets off into the cold of the winter’s night, but she has trouble connecting with Yukari using the intercom at the apartment, and when she learns she’d brought the wrong gift, she collapses in dejection. She runs into Yukari, who’d just returned home from the party, and after being invited inside, Nanako and Yukari share the night together. The next morning, Yui, Mirai and Nanako’s friends swing by to celebrate Yukari’s birthday. As the sun sets, Yukari and Nanako reflect on how quickly the past year’s passed by. While Nanako becomes worried with how much there is to do in the New Year, Yukari takes her hand and comments on how this will make things more fun. Releasing ten Christmas Eves ago, Locodol‘s second OVA was aptly timed, coming out a year and a half after the original series finished airing. Expanding on the story in Locodol, the second OVA proved to be quite an enjoyable watch, representing a quiet and touching conclusion for my second last term of graduate school back in 2015. However, despite being an adorable tale which accentuates how close Nanako and Yukari have gotten, the second OVA would also go on to say something meaningful, as well; slice-of-life stories often weave into their runtime a message of worth, and while I did not catch this a decade earlier, revisiting the second OVA allowed me to learn something new about Locodol.

Striking a balance between obligation and the relationships dear to one form the heart of Locodol‘s second OVA – while this is outwardly a topic that is lost to the overt and clear indicators that Nanako and Yukari are as close as lovers are now, a result of their shared roles and mutual respect for one another, Locodol instead takes advantage of Yukari’s unique circumstances to convey a meaningful (and often forgotten) message about the holiday season. Since Yukari’s birthday happens to coincide with Christmas, a time of year when couples celebrate their togetherness in Japan, this leaves her a shade disappointed when the combination of community events and familial obligations leave her birthday sidelined. While the original Christmas and Yuletide events were originally meant as a mid-winter celebration, bringing light and warmth to the time of year when the weather is coldest, and the days are shortest. The act of being with loved ones, sharing in both food and festivities lies at the heart of every winter festival, including Christmas. However, over the years, social expectations has led to Christmas festivities becoming grander in scale, and while such events are undoubtedly fun, there is also a chance that the original meaning to Christmas becomes lost amidst the spectacle. Traveling overseas to meet loved ones means dealing with long queues and large crowds at the airport, while overlapping Christmas dinners present families with a source of friction. In Locodol, while Nanako celebrates Christmas with her friends as Yukari attends to formal gatherings as a part of her family’s obligations, her friends very quickly spot that because of how close Nanako is to Yukari, it is important for her to remind Yukari of this by hand-delivering a birthday gift after Yukari’s event wrapped up. Nanako, in doing precisely thus, demonstrates to Yukari that she’s loved and remembered. When Yukari finds Nanako in front of her apartment’s front door, the implications of Nanako coming all this way for her is an undeniable show of how much Yukari means to Nanako: in a world where Yukari’s time is spread thin, it is infinitely reassuring to know that there is a steadfast source of support and companionship. Nanako herself admits as such: she might not be the most competent or skillful partner, she is confident that she can be there for Yukari. Even simple gestures like these can make a considerable difference, and in the context of Christmas, when things get busy, such actions act as respectful reminders to loved ones that they matter, even during a time when schedules and events can cause such things to (unintentionally) become forgotten. From a higher-level perspective, the second of the Locodol OVAs ends up being more than just a festive story: it accentuates that Yukari and Nanako’s bond is strong enough to handle any challenges later on.

Screenshots and Commentary

• A decade ago, my posts were written with an emphasis on impressions and enjoyment factor. These posts were shorter in form and, while capturing how I felt about things, did not always delve into a work’s intent. Revisiting Locodol‘s second OVA would prove to be a fun exercise in this regard: I ended up rewatching this a decade after its release for festivity’s sake, and right out of the gates, I found myself at home with Yukari and Nanako performing on stage for a community event. At this point in 2015, I was finished my autumn term and now had one more semester left to my graduate programme, being on track to complete my degree on time.

• With all of my TA duties finished, and my thesis project in an excellent spot, I decided to take the difference of the year off. By this point in time, the additions to my eukaryotic cell project were complete: during the semester, I had been working on an influenza infection visualisation as a demonstration of how adaptive component-based agents were, and a mathematical model of renal pH whose outputs impacted agent behaviours in response to stimuli, to illustrate the merits of a hybrid model over a pure mathematical or agent-based approach. These elements were present to highlight the versatility of game engines as a means of illustrating biological systems in a visual manner, beyond the transcription/translation pathways and glycolysis model I’d worked on over the summer.

• The advantage of having no courses that term was apparent: without any assignments to tend to, or any exams to study for, I could focus entirely on my thesis project, and this allowed me to have the equivalent of a second summer break. Being the TA for the iOS Programming Course, which was entirely project-based, my only tasks there were to evaluate assignments and deliverables during progress checkpoints during term, which meant the time commitment hadn’t been particularly heavy. Thus, I felt no perceptible difference between my summer and autumn, and this produced the single most laid-back time I enjoyed whilst I was on campus.

• Despite being hard at work on my thesis project and the paper itself, the comparatively low pressure meant I actually had time to spare – this is how I was able to episodically write about GochiUsa 2 and still had enough hours left in a day to play Battlefield 3. When people comment on how post secondary is a halcyon time, I wholly agree: although I had far fewer freedoms as a student (dropping everything to go see an aurora, or sneaking out to Banff for the Milky Way simply wasn’t an option back then), one of the joys about being a student was that my obligations and duties were fewer. With this being said, I would not trade my current life for my old student life – memorising animo acids and electrostatic properties of functional groups is not my idea of a good time, and even though graduate school was more about knowledge synthesis and exploration, there are things I do now that simply wouldn’t have been possible back then.

• The shift in perspective is why I find there to be merit in returning to older works and looking at them anew. Locodol, for instance, outwardly appears to be little more than a cute and loose series about Nanako’s foray into public service as a Local Idol, someone who works with local businesses and media to promote an area’s specialities, focusing more on her own missteps and determination to promote Nagarekawa. From first impressions, *Locodol *is funny and laid-back, but a closer look finds a deeper story of how there are hidden gems all around oneself, and how there is merit in learning to appreciate the things that one might otherwise take for granted.

• In the second *Locodol *OVA, Nanako decides to pick up a birthday gift for Yukari and wonders what suits her best: Locodol had indicated that Yukari would look good in most anything, and Nanako only struggles because she’s putting thought into a gift for her. This detail is indicative of how whenever Nanako does anything, she commits wholly to doing a good job, and this is why, even though she might not be the most talented performer or charismatic speaker, Nanako has the disposition to be a Locodol. In the end, after spotting Yukari and briefly wishing she could just ask Yukari what she’d like, Nanako finds something suitable for Yukari.

• Yukari is seen with her cousin, Sumire, and I remark that this particular character gave me no shortage of trouble during my earlier posts – I had assumed that Nanako had a cousin, and this impression lingered with me for some time. Now that I think about it, Sumire looks very similar to Yosuga no Sora‘s Nao Yorihime, and while I have, in the past, written about Yosuga no Sora to some capacity, there might be merits in revisiting the series again and giving it another go with a fresh set of eyes: while I have written about my impressions of this anime, dealt with how the setting helped work out the story’s themes and even did a collaborative discussion of how each of the vignettes worked out with a fellow blogger. However, as far as doing a pure “what was this work trying to achieve”, I do not believe I’ve ever tried to attempt this with Yosuga no Sora.

• One detail in the second *Locodol *OVA I particularly enjoyed was how Nanako’s Christmas party with her friends is a casual and spirited occasion. Throughout Locodol, Nanako was shown as predominantly spending her time with Yukari, and Nanako’s friends were invariably benched as the story focused on Yukari and Nanako. However, Shōko, Mitsugu, Satsuki and Misato are clearly driving forces for Nanako: despite not being Locodols themselves, they still support Nanako where they can (despite the occasional sardonic remark about Nanako’s suitability for public speaking and performing), and by the end of Locodol, have been involved in both vetting performances and helping the Locodols out.

• From gift exchange and the enjoying of a traditional Japanese-style Christmas Even dinner (chicken and strawberry shortcake), to Shōko sharing a laugh at Satsuki’s expense after the latter dons antlers and a red nose, this Christmas party is very laid-back, bringing to mind the Christmas events my family puts on. To help viewers put things in perspective, the Christmas party Nanako enjoys is briefly contrasted with the Christmas events Yukari, Mirai and Yui enjoy. Yukari is shown at a formal function with Sumire, while Mirai and Yui hang out at Yui’s place.

• The shift in framing accentuates how everyone has their own Christmas activities and traditions: whether it’s celebrations with close friends, a black-tie gala, or just time spent together with the people one cares about, there is no invalid way of celebrating during the holiday season. For me, I’m accustomed to a cozy, quiet day at home during the holidays, and the only year I’ve done anything dramatically different was back in 2014, when I did a winter trip out to Taiwan and Hong Kong. This was a particularly memorable experience, and I still recall how I’d spent Christmas Day flying out to Taoyuan Airport: for that trip, the itinerary officially began on Boxing Day, and this began our tour of the island.

• Even now, I still wish I had a good camera and set of map apps: while I’ve been able to retrace some of my steps for a potential revisit, a few of our destinations remain forgotten (including a jade factory in the Taitung area). By 2015, my family returned to a more traditional Christmas spent at home, and I remember how that year, because I had such a laid-back semester, the Christmas a decade earlier had also been one of the best. By then, I’d purchased my first iPhone, the venerable iPhone 6, and I’d begun using its camera on my walks to a nearby park, where I captured the snow blanketing the prairie landscape under skies of deep blue.

• As memory serves, I also built the Master Grade 00 Raiser in 2015, and by then, I’d quite forgotten that the Awakening of the Trailblazer had been out for five years at that point. I will be returning to write about the Gundam 00 movie towards the end of the month to commemorate this milestone. By the time my Christmas break drew to a close ten years earlier, I was more than ready to go back and face the last of my graduate school semesters, and while block week was running, I would draft out a set of thoughts on the second of the *Locodol *OVAs. I recall being a little surprised that Locodol was receiving two OVAs at the time: the series had concluded quite definitively, and in a satisfactory fashion back in 2014.

• The Locodol official animation guidebook does not cover the events of the second or third *Locodol *OVAs, and as memory serves, there’s also a dedicated soundtrack for the OVAs. It is evident that as far as effort goes, the Locodol OVAs were not after-thoughts, showing that studio Feel had been committed to bringing the story to life. Seeing the work that went into the OVAs therefore makes the disappointment of not getting a continuation all the more pronounced: altogether, there’d been ten manga volumes, and the series finished running back in 2022, so even if the anime had only adapted the first four volumes, a full five years later, it would’ve been possible to continue Locodol purely based on the amount of content.

• The only practical explanation is that as far as sales go, Locodol had not been impressive enough to justify a second season, even if reception to the series had been warm enough that two new OVAs came out. As it was, however, getting a pair of OVAs was still appreciated, and here, Nanako’s friends decide to kit her out in a Santa outfit before encouraging her to go and deliver Yukari’s gift. While they can be a little mischievous, Nanako’s friends are ultimately supportive and caring – they know what Nanako means to Yukari and also spotted that Nanako is someone who could always use a bit more confidence, so having her going into the night wearing a Santa dress is their way of both showing Yukari how much Nanako cares, as well as helping Nanako become a little more bold.

• The prospect of wearing so little, when heading out into a night that’s cold enough for snow to fall, however, is not a thought I’d entertain – even at comparatively mild temperatures, the chill can set in very rapidly. Compounding the problems Nanako faces is the fact that once she arrives at Yukari’s place, she learns that Yukari is still out and moreover, she’d brought the wrong gift over. Nanako’s mishaps are always adorable, akin to watching a small animal suffer a minor bit of misfortune, and for me, this was what made Locodol so enjoyable to watch.

• It is because the inconveniences that impact Nanako are known to be low-impact, so one can smile in the knowledge that things aren’t serious. However, one admirable trait Nanako has is how, despite said inconveniences, she always finds a way to play the hand she’s dealt. Her on Christmas Eve, just when it seems like there’s nothing left to do, Nanako slips and falls, only to come face-to-face with Yukari. Yukari welcomes Nanako in, and after warming up, Nanako apologies to Yukari for having forgotten her gift at home, wishing her a Happy Birthday anyways and promising she’ll get the gift to Yukari soon.

• Although Nanako is forgetful and clumsy, when the moment arrives, she always comes through. Nanako is an excellent example of how someone who’s reliability and ability is not always apparent can still be more than capable. This trait is what caused Yukari to take an interest in Nanako during the events of Locodol‘s original run, and so, even as Nanako counts herself as being someone unsuited for entertainment, the reality is that the synergy between her and Yukari are what make the Nagarekawa Girls so effective.

• I imagine that for Yukari, she’s so accustomed to putting others ahead of herself that in the past, she’d never really had a chance to celebrate her birthday with friends. Nanako’s coming over to her place would likely be a first, an action that accentuates how much Nanako cares. Nanako’s remarks here, that she’s not the brightest or most reliable, is a clear show of her personality: Nanako tends to undersell herself, but when it comes to stepping up, she shines. Yukari is overjoyed, and she ends up asking Nanako to stay the night, starting with a warm bath.

• Yukari and Nanako are as close as any couple, and this was something I omitted on my initial discussion of Locodol‘s second OVA. In retrospect, while not treating the two as being in a relationship won’t necessarily harm Locodol‘s themes, seeing Yukari and Nanako as a couple becomes a way of quickly and viscerally communicating to viewers that as a result of their complimenting personalities and traits, as well as their shared experiences, Nanako and Yukari are close enough to be indispensable halves of a whole whenever they do their work as Nagerekawa Girls. In Locodol, yuri isn’t present for the sake of being present, but rather, it’s strategically used to convey a very specific point.

• Framing Nanako and Yukari’s relationship as romantic allows the work to immediately convey how important the pair are to one another, and this, in turn, produces an economy of time with respect to storytelling: since Nanako and Yukari are very nearly always in sync, Locodol can focus on the things the pair do as Locodols. The main series had been very successful in this regard, showing the growth Yukari and Nanako have as they work together to share their community’s joy on a much larger stage, and as such, one cannot begrudge manga author Kōtarō Kosugi or Feel for wishing to illustrate the side to Yukari and Nanako’s relationship that, in Locodol proper, there simply hadn’t been time for.

• OVAs thus represent the perfect time to highlight the so-called “in between” moments in a give work, and *Locodol *did an amazing job. Nanako’s friends, and the Nagarekawa Girls don’t normally hang out, so having Misato, Shōko, Yui, Mirai and Satsuki gather to celebrate Yukari’s birthday with Nanako gave Locodol a chance to bring everyone together. What follows is the sort of birthday I imagine Yukari would’ve always dreamed of having, a spirited event done with friends.

• Thanks to Nanako’s friends, Yukari’s gift from Nanako is delivered, and it turns out to be a pair of winter gloves, perfect for colder days in Nagarekawa. Nagarekawa is inspired by Nagareyama in Chiba Prefecture, and therefore, has the same climate. January temperatures average around 4ºC, but temperatures can drop below zero at times, making the gloves a suitable gift. Now that I think about it, since Nagareyama is serviced by the Musashino Line: Minami-Nagareyama Station is situated at the heart of the city, and being located a mere twenty-odd kilometres from Tokyo as the crow flies, it’s quite easy to get to relative somewhere like Toyosato. Visiting the locations of Locodol is now well within the realm of possibility – if I were to do a Tokyo-centric trip, both Nagareyama and Ooarai would be reasonable day trips to take.

• This is something that I will consider for the future: looking back, *Locodol *had been a wonderful accompaniment for The Giant Walkthrough Brain eleven summers ago, and in conjunction with GochiUsa, provided me with a source of relaxation and inspiration as I navigated the project leading into graduate school. Admittedly, being able to go and try the croquettes seen in Locodol form the bulk of my inspiration to go for a visit, but there’s also quite a bit to see and do there, too: the historical district in Nagareyama is home to cozy cafés and delightful shops, while the city’s central museum showcases the area’s history and is free to check out.

• If I do return to Japan, I will probably bring my shiny new Sony a6700, an APS-C camera: the demands of the past year led me to consider purchasing a second camera body, and I’ve been evaluating a number of options. In the end, I decided to go for the a6700 because it has IBIS and uses the same batteries my A7 III. Despite being a full eight hundred quid more pricey than the mid-range a6400, I decided these two features would justify the cost because of what I intend to use the a6700 for: a second camera for events where lighting might not be the best, with enough battery life to not cause me any concern. I ended up picking the a6700 today, which I took off.Yesterday was my last workday for the year, and after work wrapped up, I took a quick walk around the block before joining my best friend for dinner at Earl’s, where we ordered their six ounce prime sirloin with sautéed mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables, after starting with their ahi tuna tataki.

• 2025’s been a bit of a wild year, both in my professional and personal life: at work, some of my more notable accomplishments this year was learning React Native and laying down the groundwork for a new line of products, as well as using AI to successfully bring a legacy Android app up to snuff so it complied with Google’s new policies. In the past, I had tried to update the app, but dependency hell prevented me from achieving this. While AI is disparaged and even feared amongst internet users, the reality is that when correctly applied, AI can be used to greatly accelerate workflows. I ended up successfully completing the task of eliminating the technical debt our Android offering accrued over the years and solved the problem of 16 KB alignments that our legacy libraries had.

• Outside of work, readers will likely have heard about how one of my photos of the Milky Way was accepted to the 58th EA International Salon of Photography’s competition back in July. I also learnt to shoot portraiture and use studio lighting, discovered how to get more from my camera and put my skills to practical use for friends and family. While there were a share of disappointments, entering the last week of the year, and the break offered by the fact I had a number of unused paid vacation days, I’m looking forwards to getting some rest and hit the ground running for 2026.

• In the time left before 2026 arrives, I’m going to take things easy, starting with tonight’s turkey-and-prawn-yi–mien dinner, a prelude to Christmas dinner tomorrow evening. Today’s been a very relaxing sort of day: I woke up at my usual time to lift weights, picked up the a6700 and then, whilst waiting for the turkey to bake, I prepared Crème brûlée. With chilly conditions (temperatures held at -17ºC) today, my inclination to go out vanished on the spot, and today was the perfect day to mostly stay in, tend to a few things and unwind with shortbread cookies, eggnog and a good manga like Yuru Camp△.

• Satsuki, Misato and Shōko head home after a wonderful party: they’d intended only on dropping off the gift and ended up having a great time, and after seeing Nanako, Yukari, Yui and Mirai together, they appreciate how the four are able to have fun as Locodols. This is a side of Nanako that these friends rarely get to see, and I cannot help but feel that this experience also acts a reassuring one, that Nanako has someone to look after her and look after when working with the Nagarekawa Girls. As the day winds to a close, Yukari and Nanako reflect on the year’s experiences. As the sun sets, the pair hold hands, accentuating their closeness, but the moment is interrupted when Nanako realises she’d forgotten to inform her parents she was out.

• Ahead of this, it turns out Yukari had gotten in touch with Nanako’s parents, so there was never any problems. This moment shows how while Yukari admires Nanako’s spirit, and Nanako is someone who can step up, Yukari is a forward thinker who also does her best to support Nanako, too. This mutual give-and-take is, incidentally, characteristic of a good relationship, where both parties complement one another and give the other the strength to do things neither can do alone. With this, the second of the Locodol OVAs draws to a close, and in the spirit of not dragging things on for readers, I’d like to wish all readers a Merry Christmas!

• I will be returning in June to write about Locodol‘s third and final OVA, which follows the Nagarekawa Girls as they try to shoot a promotional video of Nagarekawa. This OVA released a few days before my graduate thesis defense, and I remember writing about it on the day I finished my defense: after I learnt I had passed (with minor revisions), I suddenly felt as though I had nothing else to do, and looking at the OVA had been my way of occupying my time, before switching my attention to a pair of conference presentations I was set to give a few days later. This is a story worth revisiting, and since I don’t have a graduate defense on my mind this time, I’m confident that I’ll probably gain something new from rewatching the last Locodol OVA.

Although Locodol had previously focused on the idea that local things are worth celebrating, and it just takes another perspective to highlight the best of an area, the second Locodol OVA would boldly clarify something that fans had seen since day one. Throughout Locodol, Yukari’s perception of Nanako is clearly beyond that of a fellow coworker and even friends: ever since Nanako had stepped up to help her, Yukari had all but fallen in love with Nanako, and while Nanako herself seemed blissfully unaware of this at the onset, by the second OVA, it is clear that this is no longer the case: she is willing to forego a bit of modesty and wear a Santa dress to deliver Yukari’s birthday gift after dark, and after reaching Yukari’s place, the pair spend a more intimate evening together (albeit one that’s still framed in a family-friendly perspective). By this second OVA, the writing is on the wall, and since my modus operandi is to acknowledge yuri when it meaningfully impacts the narrative, this outcome means that for Locodol, it is appropriate for me to do the same as well – Locodol‘s portrayal of yuri is such that the closeness between Yukari and Nanako parallels the intimacy between the extraordinary and everyday, of how neither can exist without the other, and how sometimes, the extraordinary is the everyday, and the everyday is extraordinary. By presenting the relationship between Nanako and Yukari in such a fashion, Locodol reminds viewers that there are merits in falling in love with the mundane because it is all around us, and despite being a familiar part of our lives, the everyday is still full of surprises. This is what Locodol sought to achieve with its application of yuri in the story, and in retrospect, the series was very successful in this regard, using the metaphor to sell the fact that the things people take for granted in their daily lives are actually things with considerable depth and value of their own. It’s now been a decade since Locodol‘s second OVA aired, and in that time, the world’s changed. For my part, the way I approach anime has also shifted, and this is partly why I wished to return to the OVA and revisit it – when I first wrote about it in 2015, my focus had been on what the story had done well, as well as what I felt the OVA added to Locodol, and while I had expressed optimism that Locodol might receive a second season at the time, in the present day, the lack of any continuation suggests that the books have closed on Locodol. This, however, does not take away from the fact that Locodol was an excellent story of individual growth, local appreciation and friendship elegantly wrapped into a tale with adorable characters and a warm, inviting setting.

Anime: Reflections, Japanese Animation, Locodol Anime, Anime reflection, Anime review, Aoi Anan, Futsū no Joshikōsei ga Locodol Yattemita, Locodol, Mirai Nazukari, Misato Mizumoto, Mitsugu Ōta, Miyako Mima, Nanako Usami, OVA, personal reflection, reflection, Review, Saori Nishifukai, Satsuki Kashiwaba, Shōko Noda, Sumire Mihara, Tatsuya Usami, Tomoko Usami, Tsubasa Tsurugi, Yui Mikoze, Yukari Kohinata