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