As the days lead up to Saint Patrick’s Day I started to think about how I never saw Saint Patrick’s Day celebrated in any anime or manga. That is not really a surprise, but of all the anime and manga I would think there would be at least one instance. Spoiler alert, after more research than I expected, I realized a lot quicker than I expected that this hunt would be much harder than I expected.
I will admit, at least to me, Saint Patrick’s Day is kind of the most random “holiday” in the United States. Really, I am pretty sure a lot of people forget about it until stores start marketing green. To be real, the U.S. pretty much uses Saint Patrick’s Day as an excuse to party and drink without actually knowing anything about what the celebration is originally for; just like Cinco de Mayo. Weirdly from what I have read, the U.S. seems to celebrate in a bigger spectacular than Ireland. The U.S. had Saint Patrick’s Day parades nearly two centuries before Ireland, and the strangest part is that I never knew there were parades to begin with. I mean as a kid, it was just a reason to pinch someone for not wearing green, but there actually is more.
Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a celebration of Irish culture and heritage on March 17th, which is also the death date of the patron saint of Ireland, Patrick. Saint Patrick, who lived from the year 385 to 461, was apparently kidnapped as a child, taken to Ireland, eventually left Ireland, came back to Ireland to Christianize everyone, and banished all the snakes from a place that never had snakes in the first place. Amazingly, regardless of there being “Saint” in the name, I never realized there were any religious connotations to Saint Patrick’s Day. It really just seems like something that may have originally been a pagan celebration that religion came in to claim and change before capitalism decided to make some green with the green. I do not know, though. I am not Irish, as far as I know, nor a scholar of any kind on this subject, so this is just pure speculation on my part.
Enough of the little history lesson; it is time to get to the main topic. Where is Saint Patrick’s Day in anime? There are plenty of Valentines and Christmas episodes, so where is Saint Patrick’s Day. There is no real reason I want it to in any anime; I have no special connection with the day. The more I thought about it, though, the more I became curious. I thought there must be at least one comedy gag or something for it, but I never found anything. Then, I think about it some more and it makes sense. Saint Patrick’s Day is not that crazy popular in the U.S., compared to other holidays, so it could be even more rare in Japan. However, Japan does celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! What, really? Apparently, Japan host fifteen Saint Patrick’s Day parades and festivals each year. So, it is not some completely unheard of celebration. It just for some reason never made it in any anime or manga, yet.
Why did I do this? Was it only to say that one thing, which people probably already knew, just to have something for Saint Patrick’s Day? Yes! And, I really was genuinely curious and wanted to share what I thought I would find. Since we already saw where that went, the next best thing will be to talk about Irish characters, settings, and other references in anime, manga, and light novels. Turns out this is not an easy search, and I am not the only one really trying to stretch this topic for the sake of content. I mean, Crunchyroll has an article from Saint Patrick’s Day in 2020 about snake characters that Saint Patrick could have banished. So, mine is not too much of a reach.
I did find a post on the Behind the Anime blog from 2012 that has a list of this very subject. According to this list, Irish characters include Neil and Lyle Dylandy from Mobile Suit Gundam, Leigharch from Black Lagoon, Canon Memphis from Fafner, Diarmuid Ua Duibhe and Fionn mac Cumhaill from Fate/Zero, Cu Chulainn from Fate/Stay Night, Irish from Case Closed: The Raver Chaser (maybe not actually Irish, but he is at least named Irish), and the one I am most familiar with is Celty Sturluson—the Dullahan from Durarara!!. The settings included are found in Kigeki which is set during the Irish War of Indepedence, Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta when the colony falls on Dublin, and Fractale which is set in a futuristic Ireland. That is it for that list. It was short, I was not familiar with most of them, but it is more than I found on my own.
Now, I guess I should show off that I actually did work for this, too. It has been many years since that blog post, so there should be plenty more. Right? Well, not that many more. All I could really find were Leprechaun references such as the Leprechaun race in Sword Art Online’s Alfheim Online, as well as the Leprechaun race from What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? (or WorldEnd, or SukaSuka). That is it; that really is all I could find.
So, Saint Patrick’s Day has yet to be in any anime or manga, and very few Irish characters, setting, or other references. There must be more that I just could not find. If you know of any be sure to let me know. Anyways, I think the time will come that this will change. Although Japan does celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, it is still a more recent thing, so it may just need some more time to build up until it is included in everything. Or, not. Who knows? Like I mentioned before it still does feel kind of random, even in the United States. Also, it is not like this is a special issue I am really gung-ho about, I mean it would be neat to eventually see, but I did want to talk about it because of the timely occasion.
Now, I am going to go celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day the only, admittedly hypocritical, way I know how. Let me know what you think, and please let me know if I actually did miss anything for this Otaku News Opinions.
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