MAL SECRET SANTA THE GREAT REVEAL! First of all, A BIG THANK YOU to all of our SECRET SANTAS. Annual Stats ♫ 2,514+702 (↓511) initial sign-ups for the Rec Edition ♫ 269 initial sign-ups for the Image Edition ♫ 2,045+498 (↓490) Secret Santas for the Rec Edition after confirmations ♫ 0 (↓237) Elf Gifts for the Rec Edition (not an option this year) ♫ 209 (↓42) Secret Santas for the Image Edition after confirmations ♫ 2,355 (↓438) unique Secret Santas ♫ 302 (↓62) Secret Santas that participated in two events ♫ 48 (↓15) Secret Santas that participated in all three events ♫ 2,745 (↓760) Secret Santa & Elf gifts This year, our goal with the event was really to try and make it more sustainable. Removing the Elf Gift option and not using a text ribbon to advertise the event (only the icon on the menu) resulted in a drop in participation, but not super significant. The confirmation form was made to be much more complex, but we were glad to see that didn't really impact confirm %. While a few people complained about the new form, we saw many more positive comments thanking us for explaining the event in more detail. Disallowing niche or very difficult requests in sign-ups made matching much smoother, and double checking all gifts in the Giftbox form seemed to help with the number of gifts which needed to be sent back, too. All-in-all, this was the first time we were ahead of schedule (!!!) in I don't know how many years haha. We will probably stick with this set-up for next year, with a few adjustments to try and keep things running smoothly~ Second of all, please take the time to give A BIG THANK YOU to all of our ELVES. Elf-pyon ♫ Dancho—team leader, 9x elf ♫ lumarel—co-leader, 3x elf ♫ -Masuko-—5x elf ♫ AlvarRaynor—2x elf ♫ DigiCat ♫ isekun ♫ Kawaii_swan ♫ Nymeew—2x elf ♫ YayakoChii—2x elf ♫ X3nophage Elf-chama ♫ Dancho—team leader, 9x elf ♫ cesars—co-leader, 7x elf ♫ Decoice—3x elf ♫ Everything-Fan—3x elf ♫ fluffycow17—3x elf ♫ Graviity—5x elf ♫ Natsuaki—7x elf ♫ Swiggy—2x elf ♫ Treeky_—3x elf ♫ Twintail_Daemon—2x elf ♫ Bricksticks—2x elf ♫ Chop_in—5x elf ♫ Conde_Mohr—8x elf ♫ CutieZia ♫ SasakiYuuto ♫ Souryu_Nadia Elf-hime ♫ rogueandtasty—team leader, 5x elf ♫ Ebobebo—co-leader, 3x elf ♫ Bobbelbeat ♫ DeadlyRaven—4x elf ♫ eirian_j ♫ jr637 ♫ Javaking369 ♫ Konan_Edogawa_ ♫ MickHeal ♫ Timcampy118—3x elf ♫ Guanimero—2x elf ♫ HimeCrycho—2x elf ♫ TheSunLife Elf-tama ♫ rogueandtasty—team leader, 5x elf ♫ ferrepls—co-leader, 3x elf ♫ coffeedrops—3x elf ♫ gaussian_—2x elf ♫ gyanburubii ♫ KawaiiTendou ♫ pokemonvortex—5x elf ♫ rti9 ♫ BlakexEkalb—2x elf ♫ yahallos Elf-tan ♫ tingy—team leader, 10x elf ♫ awarii—5x elf ♫ HallowsIvy—7x elf ♫ Haptism93—5x elf ♫ HaylenGrey ♫ MelissaWolf—5x elf ♫ nozomemee—5x elf ♫ stardew—7x elf ♫ Furl—2x elf ♫ Kineta—event leader, 11x elf Elf-rin ♫ firefractal—team leader, 8x elf ♫ Nate—8x elf ♫ Shinah—4x elf Our elves took the time to compile all of the lists, painstakingly try to match them so everyone would get a user they could gift to, send hundreds of PMs, organise all the gifts, send hundreds more PMs, give advice on images, write elf notes, quality check and improve gifts where necessary, and generally suffer through the chaos created by running this event during the busy holiday and final exam season. Without all of them, we would have gone stark-raving crazy trying to put this together. Finally, please be sure to: ♫ Pass your Secret Santa(s) a big thank you, and possibly, some feedback on your rec/image. Please remember that it's near impossible to get a gift 100% to your liking from a person who knows nothing about you; I'm sure your Santa tried his best! ♫ Post in this thread, telling us what you thought of the event! See you all next year~ |
KinetaJan 7, 2024 6:57 PM
| Very fun event! Looking forward to the next one! |
 MALoween Mansion 2024 candies:              |
| Thank you to all staffs and helpers with this event. o/ |
| MALoween✟Mansion (2024) Candy Basket 🎃: |
| Thank you for the hard work from the staff as always. And thanks for the gifts @Pimelea! Tasogareboshi no Sui to Neri has very nice unique art style I enjoyed, and the vibes are lovely and cozy. I look forward to reading the other one as well. |
| The change in the procedure was definitely for the best, but I will also admit it was a bit tedious. It was a more streamlined method, so I am thankful for this change, though. I'm speaking for both elves and santas. We know how bad last year was given the delays, haha. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of the elf team. It was a fun experience. I will be back again next time! ❅ Anime: @jaeo_k ❅ Manga: @Mandorik | @slxthie ❅ Image: @Nate |
MickHealJan 7, 2024 6:16 PM
| Hey @Nijuunisai, Thank you for the gift! I appreciate your effort in giving me this recommendation. I haven't had the time to continue watching "Sakamichi no Apollon" but I do like its art style a lot, and the story is interesting for me to get invested in so I will look forward to seeing it soon. Once again, special thanks to all the elves and event organizers for hosting this event so we can get to know each other and make recommendations according to one's preferences. Cheers! |
 2024 Bunkasai tickets earned:         |
| @MegaGlaceon ☆Thank you for my gift and for being my first mal Santa. I've only watched about 3 episodes of the Kono Oto Tomare! so far but I'm enjoying it. It's got a classic shoujo feel to it which I love. I hope you're having a good start to your year and thank you once again!☆ And thank you to all the helpers and staff who made such a fun event possible! <3 |
peaxchxxJan 7, 2024 7:02 PM
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| A wonderful event once again. I was really lucky to get some great recommendations this year. Thanks to the organisers and elves for making it possible! |
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| Hey @Alphyx and @rubixuitous! Thank you so much for my gifts!! I haven't had a chance to start them yet, but I had fun reading the reasoning on why you chose it for me and some of the details of each! I'll be sending you both some private messages with more detail upon reflection! And this event was so much fun! I hope my recipients liked their gifts! |
| Thank you to the Elves for always doing their best to make things fun and easy for us, as always!! @joMAL Thanks again for your gift! Irozuku was the slow-paced, introspective show I needed after some back-to-back action shows, so it was quite a welcome change of pace. I appreciate you taking time to find an ideal show for me, as I enjoyed it a lot! Hope you have a great year! |
MemeManKeemJan 7, 2024 11:05 PM
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| Thank you to all staffs for the funny event! @nozomemee thank you for the gifts! All three manga inspire me! For now, I've read Geten no Hana because I found it in my language, but I plan to read the other two too! Geten no Hana reminded me a lot Akatsuki no Yona and I really liked it. It is nice and sweet. Above all the drawings are truly wonderful! I wish you a happy new year! |
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| @Shinigamitxan thanks for the recommendations I appreciate it!! Havent had the time to start the series but I read the plot and watched the trailers and I can say am pretty excited about it!! Thanksss!!!! Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Cheers! |
| My Candies: |
| @Brimmy21 First of all thank you!! Before your recommendations I really liked how you described them. (Also your English is really good.) It really took my interest and also it was friendly. So I’m planning to watch all of the suggestions yay!! First I started with Hakuouki. Because your descripsion means this anime “love or leave it” ahahaha so only 2 sides of it. Let’s see if I love it or leave it. Right now I like it but I’ll see if I watch all the other seasons etc. or not. (Even though I added all the other seasons to my list :3 ) (๑˘︶˘๑) I wasn’t expecting 3 and 2 bonus anime recommendations. It made me happy. Also I noticed that the 3 animes of your recommendations coming from 2010’s. Is there a reason or just a coincidence? You’re an anime gourmet and I’m lucky to have your recommendations! I hope you have a healthy, peaceful year and life! Thank you sensei! ^^ (/￣ー￣)/~~☆’.･.･:★’.･.･:☆ Thank you to all the elves, helpers and event organizers!! ٩(◕‿◕)۶ The event was fun and friendly, warm. I’m happy to participate and I’m looking forward to the other events!! |
My Candies:      Bonus Candies:  |
| Thanks for this event. |
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| @ferrepls Thanks so much for the recommendations! I appreciate the effort you put in choosing them for me. The last couple years i've been a bit out of the loop with new-ish and airing anime so i hadn't heard of BNA or The Deer King which is a good thing! I love most of Studio Triggers works i've seen so BNA is perfect to lay back and watch over the new year and i'm enjoying it. I'm going to finish all 3 hopefully sooner rather than later as i've only just started BNA. Hope you have a great year and had happy holidays :) |
| @Laxierz Thanks so much for the recommendations. I enjoyed the first one with the background store and the gags it has inside. I see that the manga will also get an anime, so I will watch it when it comes out or wait till it finishes dub or not haha. I was able to read it as soon as I got the gift! Did read the second one as well to catch up but felt different as you mentioned, will continue to read it as it keeps getting updated. The event was well so thank you for making it great, happy new year all! |
Candies: |
| Hey do you know where I can find who was my secret Santa because I never got a message informing me of them. |
| Very nice event! Got two amazing anime gifts, thank you @verivanilla Finished and enjoyed them both greatly. They made a nice end of the year and start of a new one. I hope that my gifts were ok as well ;o Or, well, at least one. Have an awesome 2024 everyone. |
• あきらめないで • slice of life / drama / mystery / supernatural / fantasy / sci-fi / comedy |
Reply to Chotto_Matte
@Brimmy21 First of all thank you!! Before your recommendations I really liked how you described them. (Also your English is really good.) It really took my interest and also it was friendly. So I’m planning to watch all of the suggestions yay!! First I started with Hakuouki. Because your descripsion means this anime “love or leave it” ahahaha so only 2 sides of it. Let’s see if I love it or leave it. Right now I like it but I’ll see if I watch all the other seasons etc. or not. (Even though I added all the other seasons to my list :3 ) (๑˘︶˘๑)
I wasn’t expecting 3 and 2 bonus anime recommendations. It made me happy. Also I noticed that the 3 animes of your recommendations coming from 2010’s. Is there a reason or just a coincidence?
You’re an anime gourmet and I’m lucky to have your recommendations! I hope you have a healthy, peaceful year and life! Thank you sensei! ^^
(/￣ー￣)/~~☆’.･.･:★’.･.･:☆
Thank you to all the elves, helpers and event organizers!! ٩(◕‿◕)۶ The event was fun and friendly, warm. I’m happy to participate and I’m looking forward to the other events!!
I wasn’t expecting 3 and 2 bonus anime recommendations. It made me happy. Also I noticed that the 3 animes of your recommendations coming from 2010’s. Is there a reason or just a coincidence?
You’re an anime gourmet and I’m lucky to have your recommendations! I hope you have a healthy, peaceful year and life! Thank you sensei! ^^
(/￣ー￣)/~~☆’.･.･:★’.･.･:☆
Thank you to all the elves, helpers and event organizers!! ٩(◕‿◕)۶ The event was fun and friendly, warm. I’m happy to participate and I’m looking forward to the other events!!
| @Chotto_Matte 2010's probably because in 2013/2014 i started a bunch of anime all at once and only finished maybe 2 or 3 i call it my watching abyss era cuz by the time i came back excited for anime i had all these anime in currently watching and wasn't planning on getting to them any time soon XD i mentioned Gargantia and Valvrave both of those were during the abyss era but Gargantia was completed. I watched Hakuouki in 2016, tsuritama in 2017....its prolly mostly 2010's cuz i'm a filthy casual that will spend my time rewatching things (FMA/FMAB, AOT, Naruto, Shippuden etc etc) so i only really got into seasonals in 2018 which is probably why i rec'd these ones because i have a connection to them unlike the more newer anime that have come out :3 |
| Hello @ohpishhposh Thank you for lovely manga recommendations! Although I still haven't caught up I started Noragami and I am having a great time reading it. I aprraciate al 3 recommendations and will try to finish all 3 within first half of this year as they look exactly like what I was looking. I can not wait for the new experience of Tokyo Ghoul manga and many plot twist of BSD next. Thank you for being my Santa this year. |
2023:            |
| Really enjoyed this event. A huge thank you to all the elves who worked tirelessly to make the event run smoothly! Can't wait for the next one. |
on | @Waran-Ess I really enjoyed both Call of the Night and HigeHero. I will admit that I actually preferred HieHero, so I'm really glad that you added the second rec! Thank Youuuu❤️🔥 |
| @HarusakiYorokobi Well, that Steins;Gate recommendation was exactly what I needed; an anime to make me feel awful and remind myself that life is dreadful 😎. Jokes aside, I loved it, I wasn't planning to watch it anytime soon, but I'm glad you recommended it to me, I watched it in just 3 days, which is around the time it takes me to watch a regular 12-episode anime, so you can get an idea of how much I enjoyed it. I wrote a review for it too, in case you want to know the specifics of my thoughts on the anime. I'm also gonna play the visual novel, which I already have on Steam from a while back apparently, then I'll watch the rest of the series. Regarding Shikioriori, you said it'd make me cry, but the most it did was made me feel quite nostalgic. I like animes like that, nostalgia is one of those feelings that I like feeling in a way, but it often times turns into melancholy and I must admit Shikioriori had that impact. However, I didn't find it more enjoyable than the average anime, it was a bit boring at times, although the animation was pretty beautiful. Didn't check out your third recommendation yet, but once I do I'll tell you my thoughts about it if you're interested. |
| Pretend there's something flashy and cool here. |
| Thank you to all the elves for another lovely Secret Santa event! And to my Santa @karyli thank you for the movie recommendation :) Even though I'd heard of it before I never added it to my MAL list so I might've never gotten around to it if you hadn't reminded me and given me that extra push. I really enjoyed it! The characters and story were engaging, but honestly the visuals alone would've made worth the watch for me, haha. |
| Hello @Kineta!! Thank you very much for your gifts! I added both of your recommendations to my list and have started on Chimimo but I haven’t l finished it yet. It’s very cute and silly. I haven’t begun your second recommendation yet as it took a moment to find it but I am looking forward to it as I’ve been wanting to check it out for quite some time!! |
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| Hi @fakeguy123 ! Thank you for your recommendations! Due to some unforeseen events I was not able to watch as much as I wanted to but I did watch the first couple of episodes of Steins;Gate and I am very intrigued by the concept/story and I am looking forward to continuing as I have heard many great things about this show! I can totally see Rintarou becoming one of my favorite characters! I look forward to checking out your other recommendations eventually as well. Thanks again! |
Reply to Mayron_Luctus
Very nice event!
Got two amazing anime gifts, thank you @verivanilla
Finished and enjoyed them both greatly. They made a nice end of the year and start of a new one.
I hope that my gifts were ok as well ;o
Or, well, at least one.
Have an awesome 2024 everyone.
Got two amazing anime gifts, thank you @verivanilla
Finished and enjoyed them both greatly. They made a nice end of the year and start of a new one.
I hope that my gifts were ok as well ;o
Or, well, at least one.
Have an awesome 2024 everyone.
| @Mayron_Luctus you're the absolute best, have an amazing 2024 <3 |
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| Hello secret santa @HimeCrycho Thank you for the amazing gift!!! I appreciate all the effort you put in, i know it must've been quite the challenge but it means a lot that you could find me a anime that i have yet to watch that i would be interested in. I have yet to finish watching both recommendations: Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san, and Show By Rock!!. But from what i have seen so far, i love the art style and am having a blast watching them both. Once i get more free time i want to binge them. But they both have a nostalgic feel to them and i enjoy that. This has been a really great gift and i appreciate it alot. THANK YOU !!!!<3 And thanks to all the elves and event organizers for another amazing event that allows all of us in the community to get to know each other, and make new friends and discover more shows to watch that we would enjoy! Until next year!!!! <3 |
CANDY:  |
| thank you so much for everyone who put this secret santa together! it was my first time participating in the event n' i had a blast! @IronMacho i appriciate the recommendation you gave me, i really really enjoyed the eminence in shadow. i'm going to watch the next season very soon! thank you so much <3 happy new year everyone :)) |
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| @zilvinas Thank you for the secret Santa gifts. I will watch the gifts you gave me as soon as its possible for me to sit down an binge several episodes at a time. @OOzPNG , @Sergio_26 and @WoughtFighter I am your secret Santa. You are free to message me with reviews of your gift and maybe I can give you more suggestions for anime to watch if you like the anime I sent to you already. |
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| Ello! @TheCatlover192 !!! Thank you so much for the recommendations. I've already finished Midori no Hibi and loved it! I've started Gakkougurashi and Honey & Clover and gotta say it'll be a good time watching them. I forgot to mention it in my request to share preferably older anime and I was really thrilled when I got your recs. I'm shooting a friend request. I'd love to get some more recs from you and share some as well if you're up to it. Finally, I'd like to thank you once again for the well thought gifts, really appreciate it! |
TheRealVeethovenJan 8, 2024 2:05 AM
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| Thank you all for your hard work to make this fun event possible!! I was a bit scared of screwing up the gift form but I appreciated the detail of the explanation and dm reminders <3 Dear Secret Santa @itsradoo , thank you so much for your fun message and recommendations! I've started Baccano and like it, o/ it was a bit confusing at the start but so worth getting into! I appreciate you taking the time to find something I haven't seen yet and would enjoy <3 |
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