Christmas fact: “fancy Santa” figurines are not artistic license, but rather, representations of Santa Claus’ rarely used “powered up” form.
Pictured: Santa’s “Super Santa Level 2″ transformation
Is this the form he used in the Krampus arc?
No, Super Santa Level 2 wasn’t introduced until the King Grinch arc. He mostly relied on the Holiday Spirit technique when fighting Krampus:
(The Holiday Spirit technique was later retired due to the toll it took on his body, though it makes a brief reappearance during his battle with the Tooth Fairy in the 1997 OAV.)
I was blown away by the manga-only Cosmic Santa form he attained during the final battle with Jack Frost:
Seeing him tap into the Christmas wishes of all the world’s children to power up his Silver Jolly Happy Soul Rod Attack really made me tear up.
I’ve always wondered whether his Cosmic Form is REALLY all white or if that’s just because the manga’s black & white. Sure, there’s the cover of volume 17 that shows it as white, but it also shows Mrs. Claus’s ceremonial Christmas Eve gown as pure white when we KNOW that’s not true:
And the elves get a white variation of their uniform on that cover too? So I don’t think we can count the cover as strictly canon. I keep hoping we get an OVA remake of the Jack Frost arc that actually follows the manga so we can see Cosmic Form in action. Maybe if the fighting game sells well and shows there’s still an audience for classic manga?
