Such voyeuristic joy, such pure pleasure, such girly, giggly, sweets and flower-filled minutes pass as we once again enter the second-floor meeting room of the Bara no Yakata and spend time with the women who bring the Rosa Chinensis family to life as they discuss important things like who gets the chocolate, the strawberry or the pumpkin flavored sweet.

No seriously, that’s the kind of thing we listen to when Itou Miki (Sachiko,) Kugamiya Rie (Touko) and Ueda Kana (Yumi) get together to chat about everything an nothing for the Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 1.

They discuss the 4th season, and Touko’s character development. They discuss the novels (Kana is clearly the group authority on this, having clearly read them all) and about the New Year’s Eve event.

The drama portion of the CD is “Chocolate Portrait,” the story of how Shouko and Tsutako met. The entire story was dramatized – if anything was cut, I was completely unaware of it, it was so small and inconsequential. To say that this story is wonderful is really an understatement. IF there was any couple in the whole of Lillian that I could ever call a “couple” in the romantic sense, it would have to be Tsutako and Shouko. They fit together beautifully. Shouko is sweet, polite and a little bent, while Tsutako is just about the most social, functional and fun sociopath I’ve ever read. ^_^ Together they make a pair so awesome that they can’t be beat.

The last track on the CD is “Oshiete, Oneesama,” in which the same series of questions are asked of each guest – which character would you want for a sister, a daughter, a friend, (if you were male, of course) a bride, a soeur. Everyone wants Yumi for a friend, and Shimako for a daughter. ^_^ And mostly, although not all the time, whichever guest it is wants their character’s soeur for a soeur. Kugamiya Rie did not deviate too much from the norm.

Up until this CD, the DJCDs have been anywhere from 25-35 minutes. This “Special” CD is about an hour long – the “Chocolate Portrait” drama is a good 30 minutes plus, so it’s good entertainment value for your money.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

When I listened to the Winter Special DJCD, I said it was the best I’d listened to so far, Well, this one was better. ^_^

Please allow me a moment of self-indulgent Fangirlyness.

zOMG, this was the most awesome MarimiteDJCD evar!!!!11111

Thank you.

In truth, the Maria-sama ga Miteru Winter Special DJCD was, in fact, the best of the bunch I’ve listened to so far. For any number of reasons. Here are some of them:

Ueda Kana, the voice of Fukuzawa Yumi, and the host of the radio specials that are collected and turned into these DJCDs has, over her years of doing this become much more comfortable in the role. Where the pauses were long and slightly awkward in the early days, Ueda and the other seiyuu are now quite comfortable with each other and the conversation is more and more like a conversation between old friends.

Ueda Kana has also read all the Marimite books and is a total fangirl for them. ^_^

In discussing the role of Shouko with Inoue Marina, Ueda confidently and excitedly talked about the “Chocolate Portrait” Radio Drama, but concluded with – “Oh, wait until the amusement park scenes…” (from Kira Kira Mawaru) which she goes on to discuss in some detail, mentioning that it’s the 30th book in the series. Inoue admits to only having read up to the 20th novel. Ueda’s practically jumping up and down in fangirlish delight as she speaks of the wonderfulness that is Shouko and Tsutako in that novel. For good reason.

When Nabatome Hitomi arrives for a chat, Ueda says, with obvious delight, “Nana’s here!” Not – Eriko-sama….Nana. ^_^ There’s a moment when they are talking about the “sendai Rosas” (the previous generation of Rosas i.e., Youko, Sei and Eriko’s oneesama. They mention the VAs for Rosa Gigantea, Takayama-san, and for Rosa Chinensis, Katsuki-san, then there’s a pause…. Ueda, Nabatome and I all say in hushed tones of reverence, “to…Mitsuishi-san…”. :-D

The first and fourth guest talks are with the voice actresses for Kanako and Noriko, and all I can say is that they are equally as wonderful.

This is followed by a radio drama which had me in stitches. Mami wants a big scoop for the Lillian Kawaraban, but the Yamayurikai isn’t cooperating by doing anything interesting. Tsutako suggests that she write a fiction – much like her oneesama did. Mami writes a parody of one of my favorite old-school J-dramas ever: Zenigata Heiji.

The constable role is played by Yoshino, who is joined by Yumi as the plucky, goofy and somewhat limited sidekick. Rei plays Yoshino’s wife Orei. (Edo period female names all begin with “O” as an honorific.)

They go up against the evil gang boss Satou Sei and her partner in crime, the madam of the local brothel, Torii Eriko, as they try to ruin the Toudou family’s senbei business so they have to sell their precious daughter to pay off the debt. The whole thing was absolutely hysterical – made even more enjoyable because I just loved Zenigata Heiji, so I knew what was coming in any given scene. (Yoshino had been likened to Zenigata Heiji in the seventh novel, btw. That’s why she got the role.) At the end of the story, as Oshimako arrives to thank Yoshino (and as Orei bickers about something good-naturedly,) Yumi comes running up with some stupidity. Orei says something like, “Oh well, it can’t be helped” and there’s a pause…after which Shimako, Yoshino, Rei, Yumi and I all laugh utterly fakely, because that *exactly* how every episode of ZH ended. ^_^

The story ends with Sachiko and Rei having hissy fits over the story, but eventually being placated.

The final track is a New Year’s meeting between Ueda and the three voice actresses for the first-years, Noriko, Touko and Kanako. It was interesting to hear how the three actresses for the first-year students treat Ueda with the same respect that their characters treat Yumi. Most of the track is listening to them eat sweets and giggling. ^_^

In all seriousness, I had more fun listening to this one DJCD than all of the others so far – and all of the others were pretty terrific. This one is just the best one *evar.*

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Is there any one among us hard-hearted enough not to swoon when Noriko relates her first sight of Shimako under the sakura tree, looking like Maria-sama come to life? Not me, certainly.

Maria-sama ga Miteru: Cherry Blossom Drama CD set was lovely. Simply lovely.

For the plot, please take a look back at my notes on Part 1 and Part 2 of the novel. (I had not yet begun translating the books at that point, so these are notes/synopses not full translations and therefore still available on Okazu.)

The first CD in the set recounts “The Sakura Among the Gingkos,” the portion of the novel in which we meet Nijou Noriko for the first time, and she meets Shimako. Incidentally, we also meet Matsudaira Touko, but I’ll get there in a bit.

“Sakura” follows Noriko as she meets Shimako and deals with some mild bullying because of their developing relationship. (The latter is only partially true, but she doesn’t know that.) The story climaxes during the Maria-sai, as Shimako is forced to out herself as the daughter of a Buddhist priest.

The Drama CD of this part was fantastic. Noriko, a transfer student from a co-ed school, has always seemed to me to be the most grounded of all the characters in the series. She comes off here as so *normal* it almost takes one’s breath away. Confronted in the beginning of the story by Touko and two other classmates and their positively Baroque formal Japanese, it’s really no wonder she feels disoriented and alien at Lillian.

Noriko’s meeting with Shimako is related very prettily. Noriko’s happy obsession with Shimako is instant and very much *right* on that line between friendship and love. It’s powerful – and mutual. The “outing” scene was horrific. From Noriko’s point of view, it can only be seen as heavy-handed…at best. When Shimako admits to being the owner of the juzu and Noriko bursts into tears for her – it was very moving. Once again, the Marimite cast is superlative.

The second disk of the set, “Background Noise,” covers the same circumstances from Yumi’s point of view. We see the concern Shimako’s friends in the Yamayurikai have for her, and how much they are, really, trying to help. However…to her credit, Yumi spends the entire story thinking that they are handling it really badly. They are, and I’m glad Yumi recognizes it. Itou Miki’s over-acting Sachiko is both hysterical and really cringe-making. As I listened to the scene in the church, I kept thanking the universe that I was no longer a teenager. ^_^

The other half of “BGN” is the introduction of Touko who, if you will please excuse the language, is a total twat. Kugimiya Rie is spectacular as the entitled, manipulative Touko. I’ve grown so used to her – and she has changed *so* much in the course of the novels, that I had completely forgotten what a slappable little creature she is when she first arrives en scene.

Listening to her snipe at Yumi, a thought suddenly hit me. Rainy Blue is coming up. I’m going to have to sit through those DCDs. Ugh. Ughughugh. I don’t know if I can do it. Oh well…I have Kohitsuji no Kyuuka to look forward to, after that whole thing is over. I’ll just grit my teeth and cope.

In happier news, we get a little Sei-service, when Yumi visits her, and after the Maria-sai.

For the first time, there is a bonus track where we get some very amusing comments and a lots of “natsukashii”s and “hisashiburi”s by the voice actresses. I was very glad for the bonus track. It’s about the only time we hear what the seiyuu have to say for themselves – it is immediately apparent that this group feels *very* comfortable with each other at this point. And that they’ve got a load of in-jokes. Also, I found it amusing to hear several of them refer to the series as “Marimite.” ^_^ I don’t know why, it just tickled my fancy.

The one physical extra is a postcard of Hibiki Reine’s art of Noriko. Pretty, as always.

Ratings:

Story – 7
Characters – 8 for Noriko and Shimako, 4 for Touko, 7 for everyone else
Yuri – 5 It worked a bit better visually, with those long, lingering “just kiss her” moments
Service – 8 who else buys these other than us obsessive fans? ^_^

Overall – 8

This is me, grasping at the Touko of Bara no Hana Kanmuri and trying to forget the Touko of Cherry Blossom, signing off.

While we waited breathlessly for the anime 3rd season OAVs to be released, the cast and staff of Maria-sama ga Miteru were working hard to keep fandom stimulated.

There were, of course, the Marimite Drama CDs that I love so much, and live events were held in which fanboys were able to write haiku as if they were one of the characters, among other things. Also filling in the gaps were web radio programs, which were released on a semi-regular basis at the Animate TV site. The web radio program host is Ueda Kana, the voice of protagonist Fukuzawa Yumi.

In each “episode” Ueda Kana chats with one of the other voice actresses, they eat cake and tea, and giggle a lot. ^_^ Fan mail is read and responded to, and for many of the episodes an original radio drama completes the set. The web radio shows were originally distributed as streaming audio.

The “DJCD”s are collections of the web radio shows, which is especially nice as I know I missed three or four in the middle there.

The segments of the DJCDs are split into the chat with one of the other seiyuu, a segment called “Tell me, onee-sama” in which each VA is asked which character she would pick as the best sister, bride, teacher, high-class woman, friend, etc. And, of course the radio dramas which are often insane and frequently laugh out loud hysterical. If you have seen fanart over the last several months of “Magical Girl Shimako” – the radio dramas are where that comes from.

Along with “Mahou Shoujo Shimako” segments (always sponsored by Satou Sei-sama), there are many and varied Yumi x Sachiko stories that considerably up the Yuri factor between them, and also provide a chance for Yumi to be heard giggling in a terrifying way, and Sachiko to sound scared for her life. ^_^ But the winner has got to be the very wrong story in which Rei dresses in a bear costume in order to appeal to Yoshino. I KNOW I was chortling in a way that made my work neighbors worried as I listened to that one.

You can of course get these CDs through Amazon JP: DJCD 1 and DJCD 2, but in this case, they were part of my questionably large purchase of CDs from Animate in Ikebukuro.

The voice actresses talk very fast (and giggle alot, did I mention that?) but the radio dramas and the “tell me onee-sama” segments are easy enough to follow.

One thing I want to mention, just because I found it fascinating, was that several of the VAs do impressions of other VAs as their characters – and by and large they are very good at it. It’s kind of funny, and definitely fun.

Ratings:

Art – Original covers, to make them more appealing to hardcore fans – 6
Story – Casual, giggly chat, and crazy, yurified dramas – 9
Characters – Did I mention that the Yuri quotient was upped? – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – We have seen fandom and they are us – 7

Overall – 8

Oh, and “roll cake.” That’s all I’m saying about that. If you want to know what I mean, you’ll have to listen to the CDs. ^_^