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Ok first let’s get the ugly bits out of the way - the first episode of Lovely Idol is terrible.  In brief, Lovely Idol is apparently a long running franchise where they had various “generations” of idols, and the anime is going to focus on the newest groups - the third generation, detailing on how these young talents are going to make themselves worthy of the Lovely Idol name.  The alarms went off as soon as I noticed that they reused an entire 10 second of animation sequence in the opening animation, and here I thought that opening animations were supposed to make people want to watch the show.  Pulling a Gundam Seed Destiny on us in less than 90 seconds has to be a record.  The show itself is uninspiring and it screams of a low budget bishoujo anime trying to capitalise on the diehard fanbase, and I don’t even want to get into the obligatory little sister character who has too much affection towards her older brother. 

While the first episode was cringe-inducing except for the impressive acapella performance by the character (of whom I’ve forgotten the name) played by Nogawa Sakura 野川さくら, the remaining of the event was entirely entertaining.   Besides the aforementioned Nogawa Sakura, the other seiyuu guests consisted of Nakahara Mai 中原麻衣, Momoi Haruko　桃井はるこ, Goto Yuko　後藤邑子, Chihara Minori 茅原実里 and Sakai Kanako 酒井香奈子. 

During the two talk sessions, as Nogawa Sakura, Nakahara Mai and Momoi Haruko were no strangers to events, thus they were all capable of handling what were thrown at them.  Chihara Minori seems to be settling more comfortably now and was able to stir up the atmosphere and get some reactions from the audience.  She also make some fairly interesting and non-stock answers to questions.   

The surprise for the day definitely goes to Goto Yuko.  Her witty comments and numerous good comebacks on comments made by the MC shows an entirely different image to her many on-screen avatars. 

On the other hand, Sakai Kanako’s lack of experience and her young age really showed through.  Stumbling on a few conversation topics and made a real blunder when she failed to properly read one of the ward names in Tokyo during the prize draw.  

Besides the usual talks, there were also live performances.  Nogawa Sakura skillfully handles the opening theme song by herself, and the very idolish ending theme, complete with equally idol-style dance moves, were performed by the entire cast.  Chihara Minori’s gunshot hand gesture was particularly cute, overloading the many, and very loud, Minorin fans with her moe-ness.

* Warning - the following are purely personal opinions based on what I saw on the day, so take it with a big grain of salt.

While during the talks the cast themselves insisted in their bondings during the recordings and puts up as much of a joyful mood in the event as possible, at the end of the event sent pointed out that somehow they didn’t seem to fit together.  I made the observation that it was more like a 2:1:3 formation.  The 2 being Nogawa Sakura and Nakahara Mai, 1 being Momoi Haruko, and 3 being Goto Yuko, Chihara Minori and Sakai Kanako.  Momoi Haruko didn’t seem to fit in at all and she did not once chat with the other seiyuu on stage nor follow up on any conversations.  Nogawa Sakura and Nakahara Mai were quite comfortable following up to each other, most probably thanks to them having worked together before.  The remaining trio seems to have Minorin in the centre, with her having worked closely with Goto Yuko in Haruhi, and that she’s co-hosting a Lovely Idol radio program with Sakai Kanako.  On top of that, Sakai Kanako also co-host a radio program with Nogawa Sakura and they seem to have a kohai/sempai relationship going on there.  Remember that Kanako blunder I mentioned?  While everyone else gave Kanako a little teasing laughter for her lack of knowledge, Nogawa Sakura was the only one who had her face all straight disapproving.  Also I can’t help but think that Nogawa Sakura wasn’t particularly happy that day with Minorin’s fans making up the majority of the attendees and Minorin having the loudest cheers.  It’s probably just me imagining things, but it sure made good conversation topic on the way home.

In a 50/50 split on veterans (Nogawa Sakura, Nakahara Mai, Momoi Haruko) and up-rising stars (Goto Yuko, Chihara Minori, Sakai Kanako), watching them in this event it strikes me as almost ironic to have such a cast in a show where it’s about uprising idols wanting to walk out from the shadows of their predecessors in the idol industry, as the cast seems to be themselves a reflection of the story they’re playing.  If it’s up to me, I would just forgo the anime altogether and let the seiyuus themselves play it out. 

THAT, I would pay to watch.

I have to admit, I’ve been on a bit of a Minorin-fever lately, so when I caught news about this event on 茅原実里’s official homepage, I was hoping that I can still make the cutoff limit of the first 100 person to pre-order the　「Ｌｏｖｅｌｙ　Ｉｄｏｌ　Prologue DVD」 at とらのあな秋葉原本店, and both sent and I were lucky enough to make the cut.

To be honest, I have no idea about the show nor was I particularly interested in it, except for the fact that it stars a fairly impressive cast and that it’s got something to do with idols.  But to us seiyuu fans, these points are not important, so there I was, at an event related to a show which I had no idea of, just for the seiyuu. 

As the event begins, the MC of the event, also a producer from Avex, introduced Minorin, whom was wearing a black short-sleeve shirt with a white dress today (photos at her blog) which presented her in quite a different style compared to last week’s event, but no less attractive.  However that was not all, as there was a surprise today, 酒井香奈子 (Sakai Kanako), probably most known for her leading role in ＲＥＣ, joined as special guest for the event.  A pleasant surprise for the fans indeed. 

The event itself was pretty ordinary like most events of these types - which consists of talks about the show, and then the goods were handed out.  The present for today’s event was a らぶドル trading card signed by Minorin herself which she hands out to the attendee personally.  Besides the trading card, as a bonus, the people whom attended this event also has a chance to draw a ticket from a box for a chance to go to the らぶドル premiere event on the 24th September, and this was Sakai Kanako’s job for the day.  The flow was first draw ticket with Sakai Kanako, then receive trading card from Minorin, during which the attendee also has roughly a minute worth of time to talk with each seiyuu.  

For me personally, the highlights of these events are always when I meet the seiyuu face-to-face and the challenage of trying to say something meaningful to them.  Talking to Minorin was relatively easy as I already had something in mind when coming to this event - the signing event last week and her upcoming birthday event in November - talking to Sakai Kanako though was a different matter.  It was a good thing that I’ve seen REC hence I could strike up a compliment on her job in the show.  Nevertheless, I do feel sorry for Sakai Kanako when some people whom were obviously not interested in her and never expected her to appear would just stand there in silences waiting for their turn to talk to Minorin. 

Next up on the Minorin-event calender is らぶドル premiere event.  Apparently there would be a mini-live there so I’m looking forward to hear some live performances there.

*UPDATE* アキバBlog has a report on this event.  Visit for photo goodness.