true tears - Kochira, Tulip Hosokyoku IN CHARA RADIO
CHARA RADIO runs a different program every month, usually either for an anime or specific artists. For December, the special feature is true tears - aimed at promoting the anime in the run-up to the first episode that airs 5th January.
Kochira, Tulip Hosokyoku updates every Friday and is hosted by the three main female seiyuu:
Takagaki Ayahi as Isurugi Noe
Nazuka Kaori as Yuasa Hiromi
Iguchi Yuka as Ando Aiko
So maybe none of the three seiyuu are household names or fanboy favourites, but with Nazuka steering the ship the show is always bound to be interesting. Within the first few minutes they’d already given each other nicknames - Ayahime, Yukachi and…….Nazu-san ^^; Nazuka is the elder statesman of the trio and gets more respect from the other two.
Each show is around the half hour mark, and features a bunch of corners all revolving around the ‘tears’ theme. Though the only thing that brought me to tears is the fact that all three seiyuu are younger than me _|¯|O
My favourite part is the Shinjitsu no Namida o Minuke! - Tears League corner where the chosen seiyuu relates three incidences which supposedly made them cry, but only one of which is true (the other two are stories written by listeners). The other girls are then allowed a few minutes to question her to try & find out which is the real story. Whoever guesses correctly gets one point, but if both guesses get it wrong then the storyteller gets the 2 points. Apparently, there’s a batsu-game awaiting the one with the lowest points at the end of the month….
For the first episode, Nazuka Kaori told three tales which were more hilarious than tearful to me unfortunately ^^;
1.On the eve of my cousin’s wedding, I got a stye in my eye~~~~
2.I had a dream where I was going to kiss the guy of my dreams, but just as it was about to happen I woke up~~~~
3.I left a pack of tissue in my pocket and put it in the washing machine & all the clothes ended up covered in fluff~~~
Ayahime guessed No.3 and Yukachi No.2, but the answer was No.1. Apparently Nazuka felt really depressed cos she had all sorts of nice clothes and plans for the big day but instead had to try to hide the stye with her fringe~~~~
Episode 2 was Takagaki’s turn - she has a reputation for being unable to keep her emotions in check, so she told Nazuka & Iguchi to not look at her face when she was telling the stories or she’d give it away too easily ^^
1.After I finished washing my hair, I discovered that I’d broken fingernails on both my hands T_T
2.One of my family members ate my favourite pudding that I’d saved up and was so looking forward to eating T_T
3.My newly purchased shirt now has stains caused by the curry I ate T_T
Nazuka was really agressive in trying to poke holes in Ayahime’s stories, asking her So who ate the pudding in the end? and What sort of curry was it? Still, she ended up getting the answer wrong - both Kaori & Yukachi guessed No.2, but No.1 was the real story. Only after Takagaki had revelled in her victory did she reveal her bandaged fingers and broken nails to the others.
The other corner is…. what sounds like That’s Ururun Story. Basically the seiyuu will read this terribly depressing story designed to make listeners cry. One of them was about a person’s relationship with their father - how he/she always longed to move from the small hometown to Tokyo, only to find out that life there wasn’t as glamorous as they’d dreamed of. Unfortunately, the story probably meant nothing to the three seiyuu who are all born and bred in Tokyo ^^;;
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So I’ve actually enjoyed the radio show so far. Although I wasn’t really planning to watch the anime itself, I get the feeling I’m gonna have to give it a go now. I’m pretty hopeful that Kochira, Tulip Hosokyoku will get a full run when the anime starts airing; sola-iro Radio similarly started out as a Chara Radio special before moving on to Bandai’s BEAT Net Radio & Lantis-net when the anime started.