Finally got around to checking out the Lillian-sai DVD that was released recently. There are two clips on the disc, one is a digest of the autumn Lillian-sai event held in September last year and the other a seiyuu cast interview after the event.

Listing the cast for reference purposes:
Red Roses: Shinohara Emi (Yoko), Ito Miki (Sachiko), Ueda Kana (Yumi)
Yellow Roses: Nabatame Hitomi (Eri), Ito Shizuka (Rei), Ikezawa Haruna (Yoshino)
White Roses: Toyoguchi Megumi (Sei), Noto Mamiko (Shimako) + Shimizu Kaori (Noriko)

Highlights

- Ito Miki mistakenly introduced her character as ‘Ogasawara Yoko’
- Ikezawa Haruna deliberately misintroduced her character as Shimazu Rei (because she’s married to Rei…) before realising that didn’t make any sense and switched to Hasekura Yoshino
- Noto Mamiko forgot to introduce her character’s name (Todo Shimako)
- Toyoguchi Megumi messed up and introduced herself as the ‘former Rosa Foetida’ (she’s Rosa Gigantea)

Where they reminisced about the past through photographs. They did this corner in the first Lillian-sai a couple of years ago as well.

- Ueda Kana’s was from a photoshoot with Ito Miki taken between Seasons 1 and 2.

- Toyoguchi Megumi’s was a recent one from a Geneon event, with Sei and Noriko fighting over Shimako (and Sei apparently won).

- Ito Miki’s flower shots. The pic in the corner is Miki’s from the first Lillian-sai (which she was embarassed by).

- Shinohara Emi showing off a selection of items, some hand-made, that Marimite fans sent to her.

- Ikezawa Haruna compared all the characters to iced desserts (like Sei-sama is strawberry milk ice)

- Nabatame Hitomi’s… tasteful looking picture of her & Ito Shizuka, taken round the start of Season 1 when they were both relative newbies in the business.

- Ito Shizuka’s collection of Marimite goods that lie in a drawer below a row of beer bottles

- Noto Mamiko’s was a shot of her, Ikezawa Haruna, Hiyama Nobuyuki (Suguru) and Saito Chiwa (Mami) … on the set of a completely different anime (ie Keroro Gunso). A mini Marimite reunion! This was much better than the photo she gave for the first Lillian-sai… for some reason it was a bunch of Osawa agency carrier bags.

Another repeat game from the previous Lillian-sai, which has the members of each of the three Rose teams trying to match their answers up.
1. When you think of sports festival, you think of…
Red rose team: Total wash out. Shinohara wrote 応援合戦 (cheering), Ito wrote ハチマキ (headband) and Ueda wrote 玉いれ (tamaire).
Yellow rose team: 2 out of 3. Ito Shizuka put 組体操 (human pyramid) while the other two wrote tamaire, resulting in Haruna giving Shizuka the evil eye.
White rose team: Mamiko wrote tamaire, Megu wrote ジャージ (jersey) and Kaori wrote 騎馬戦 (kibasen)
2. When you think of Maria-sama ga Miteru, you think of…
Red rose team: 2/3. Yumi wrote ‘rose’ but the other two wrote ‘rosary’.
Yellow rose team: 2/3. The same as red roses, with Haruna the one who wrote ‘rose’.
White rose team: 3/3. All rosaries!

White team wins!

After short drama segments each rose team sang a song (taken from the Season 2 image albums) and all three songs were ear-piercingly bad. Totally off-key and hideous harmonies, with dreadful vocals from at least 4 of them (Ueda Kana, Ikezawa Haruna, Noto Mamiko & Shimizu Kaori). I think Shinohara Emi was good but it was hard to tell as Kana was virtually singing a different song I think the Yellow Rose team did best maybe because I actually like the song (Ma Souer), it’s kinda freaky to think that Ito Shizuka was one of the best singers there :/

- I’ve always noticed this, but Toyoguchi Megumi is really, really, really thin and it freaks me out. Makes me wanna go grab a KFC Bucket and stuff the contents down her throat.

- I think Ikezawa Haruna and Noto Mamiko were the prettiest there <3

- Just before the event ended the seiyuu threw a bunch of autographed softballs into the crowd, and Ito Shizuka decided her high heels were getting in the way and took them off so she could get a decent run up to throw xD

Cast interview

So basically, your usual boring chat about the event etc. All you need to know is that the following happened:

+1 for harem!

The product of boredom. This (click for larger image) is the version with seiyuu names – for character names refer to this one. There are some spoilers in there I suppose, but you’d have to be retarded to not think that Touko will end up as Yumi’s petite souer. Though maybe the Yoshino-Nana and Tsutako-Shouko connections aren’t that clear so far in the anime… but I presume that if you’re watching the new season you would be a long-time follower of Marimite anyway and hence would’ve already spoiled yourself to bits with the novels.

Also, I guess the chart is sort of incomplete because I can’t find a picture of Rino (Rosa Kanina’s seiyuu). And I think I forgot an orange line between Rei and Yoshino :3

The highlight is the second part of the Chocolat & Portrait sidestory (one of the best parts of Marimite methinks) where Shoko & friends steal into Lillian High School and she meets Tsutako for the first time. Rosa Foetida (Eriko) also appears this time, in the ‘chasing Shoko around because there’s a cleaning tag on her uniform’ bit :3

I think Marina’s voice fits Shoko’s character well, I loved the scene with Tsutako where Shoko talks about how she hates having photos taken of herself. “At this rate I’ll never get married, I can’t even take an ‘omiai shashin’!” and “Even if I do get married, I’ll still have to take wedding photographs!”

I hope Chocolat & Portrait get animated, but I won’t keep my hopes up if Marimite 4 turns out to be just 1-cour.

Some of the dialogue between Ueda Kana (K) and the show’s guest Inoue Marina (M):

What would you (like to) do if you were reincarnated as a man?
M: (If) I was reborn as an ‘ikemen’, I want to be ‘popular’ with girls. I want to make them ’serve’ me.
K: But you can do that (make them ’serve’ you) even now you know.
M: I don’t understand. That’s weird…weird eh? (Pause) But yeah, I want to do that even now.
K: What, have girls serve you?
M: Mmm yes (laugh) I want to lead girls on (laugh)
K: But you’re already popular with the girls, you know.
M: What, in my present ‘form’?
K: Yes, in your present ‘form’…and you would be too if you were reincarnated as a guy.

Umm… yay for yuri undertones? So yeah, Inoue Marina wants to build her own harem – form an orderly line please.

What do you look for in a man?
M: Hmm… I’d prefer the conservative type? Someone who doesn’t smoke, since my dad does and I hate it. (Someone who) Doesn’t gamble, and who’s compatible with me food-wise, someone whom I can have a coversation with and so on. Or someone who will tell me that everything I cook tastes good!
K: I’d like someone who does things to the extreme – either they gotta be better at games than me or they don’t like the at all. It’d be awful if he was the ‘in-between’, halfway-house kind of person…
M: So what if the guy really liked games but wasn’t as good at them as you?
K: Well normally guys would be shocked by such things (girls being better at games than them) wouldn’t they?
M: There aren’t many people who are better at games than you are, are there?

All conversations involving Ueda Kana inevitably lead to Video Game Land. I discovered that as much when researching Kana for the profile I’m doing for her (Rejoice, Kana fans )

Words of the Day
omiai shashin: formal matchmaking photos [a portfolio of photos for prospective suitors] (お見合写真)
ikemen: good-looking guy (イケメン)
motetai: want to be popular (モテたい)
haberasetai: want to make [one] serve (侍らせたい)
kyokutan: to the extreme (極端)
chuutohanpa: unfinished, halfway (中途半端)