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Minamata City's Anime-Style 'First Love' Podcast Launches 2nd Volume
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The city of Minamata, Kumamoto began streaming a new podcast for its "Hatsukoi Project 2016" campaign on November 25. "Minamata Hatsukoi Podcast Toki no Kakehashi" (Minamata First Love Podcast: Suspension Bridge of Time) is the second volume of Minamata's promotional campaign that launched in February.
The new podcast volume is a two-part bittersweet "adult love story," and the first part will be available until the end of February. The story is set in Minamata and Tokyo, and it centers on passionate emotions carried over from first love. Like the campaign's first volume, the dramatic podcast project features an anime-style story and promotional artwork.
Miyuki Sawashiro (Lupin the Third's Fujiko Mine, Natsume's Book of Friends' Jun Sasada) plays the protagonist Sayaka Yagi, and Eiko Masuyama (Lupin III: Part II's Fujiko Mine, Sindbad the Sailor's Sugaru) voices her mother Yukiko. Daisuke Kishio (Sailor Moon Crystal's Jadeite, Durarara!!'s Kasuka Heiwajima) plays Sayaka's love interest Ryūsei, and Masumi Asano (Psycho-Pass' Risa Aoyanagi, Keijo!!!!!!!!'s Kyōko Shirayuki) voices Sayaka's rival in love.
Minamata's project is related to late singer-songwriter Kōzō Murashita, who was from the city, and his famous song "Hatsukoi" (First Love). Yuka Imai's version of the song served as an opening theme for the Boys Be... television anime.
The promotional project's theme is "Say I Love You: First-Love Town Minamata," and local citizens are involved in various aspects of the campaign. Other parts of the project include a first-love photo contest and exhibition, as well as a "Love Festival" event. A nationwide project collected people's stories and searched for their First Loves. A video about the story of an "Apple Girl" from that campaign began streaming in April.
Video's about the project's high-school romance story from the first volume began streaming last January and February.
The first episode of the podcast's first volume, "Hatsukoi Dōri" (First Love Street), debuted on February 24, followed by "5 Senchi no Koi" (5-Centimeter Love) on March 14 (the White Day romantic holiday in Japan). The final episode of the first volume, "27 Nenme no Dōsōkai" (27th-Year Reunion), premiered on March 28.
Source: Anime! Anime! (Kōtarō Nakase)
