The Umi no Magnet Education Committee announced on Wednesday a new Santa Company short film, subtitled Manatsu no Merry Christmas (Midsummer Merry Christmas). The film will premiere worldwide on the official MyAnimeList YouTube channel on January 29 at 8:00 a.m. JST (January 28 at 6:00 p.m. EST).

Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas was produced as part of an initiative to tackle social issues through anime, manga, video games, and the internet for the CHANGE FOR THE BLUE project, which itself is part of The Nippon Foundation's Umi to Nippon Project. The project "seeks to create a new marine waste reduction model through collaborations between industry, government, academia, and the private sector, and to spread this model both in Japan and overseas in order to create a movement to raise awareness in society that no further waste should be discarded into the ocean."

Synopsis
Upon their visit to a tropical island just below the equator, Mint and co. from Santa Company find themselves confronted with a mountain of ocean debris. Small acts of carelessness upon carelessness have, quite literally, piled up into a big problem—just what have Mint and the others gotten themselves into...? A splendid, yet strange, secret Christmas story.

Cast
Mint: Haruka Tomatsu (Horimiya)
Thomas: Rie Kugimiya (Gintama)
Noah: Mami Yamashita (Kemono Friends)
Edison: Toru Furuya (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
Panal: Masaharu Satou (Dragon Ball Super)
Cute Angel: Miyuna Kadowaki (STU48)
Mysterious Angel: Marina Otani (STU48)

Staff
Original Creator, Director: Kenji Itoso (Santa Company, Coluboccoro)
Script: Kenji Itoso, Yuu Onda (Enen no Shouboutai: Ni no Shou ending creative planner)
Character Design: Masashi Kudou (Kami no Tou, Chain Chronicle)
Prop Design: Joshua Corpuz
Art Director: Yuuki Nemoto (Rookies: Sotsugyou live-action matte painter)
Color Design: Akira Nagasaka (Dogeza de Tanondemita)
Director of Photography, Composite Supervisor: Gaku Senda (Zombieland Saga assistant director of photography)
CG Director: Yoel Parmenas Purnomo Sidhi (Enen no Shouboutai: Ni no Shou 3DCG)
Editing: Mitsuki Hirose (Dogeza de Tanondemita)
Sound Director: Nobuyuki Abe (Kemono Friends)
Sound Effects: Masahiro Shouji (Masamune-kun no Revenge)
Sound Production: On-Lead
Music: SUPA LOVE (Chocolate Underground)
Animation Producer: Kenjirou Ishida (Scared Rider Xechs)
Studio: ORENDA

STU48 (Setouchi48)—the fifth sister group of AKB48—will perform the ending theme for the film, "Hitorigoto de Kataru Kurai Nara." The tourism board of the Setouchi region in Japan co-owns the idol unit and is supporting the project.

Kenji Itoso's Santa Company began as a short film funded through Kickstarter that premiered in October 2014. A second crowdfunding campaign held on multiple platforms in 2019 eventually funded a feature-length version—Santa Company: Christmas no Himitsu—which premiered that November.

Source: Press Release

Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas on MAL