Radio Station Days

�On air from the Konoha Studio, on the other side of the Herz!
We're going to have a good time today, too!
This is Aniplex Hour! Uzumaki Naruto's Oh! Naruto Nippon!"

These are the famous words of Takeuchi Junko, the voice of Uzumaki Naruto. Every weekend, since 2003, Oh! Naruto Nippon! has been airing from Radio Osaka and Bunka Housou. This radio program is brought to you by Aniplex, a huge music and entertainment company in Japan. It's a major deal and people take in very seriously.
Junko is the personality of the show, the one who makes wisecracks. At the start of the new month, there is a person from the voice cast of Naruto invited to the station to do the show with her. They are there for a month. I remember the first broadcasting of Oh! Naruto Nippon! I heard. It was Ishida Akira, the voice of Gaara of the Desert. He is a very serious man who takes his job seriously. Of course, Junko didn't take well to that, and forced him to be less serious and got this man to laugh.
They've had other guests, called Monthly personalities, but now they�re called ManPa because the English was too hard for them to pronounce They even got Paku Romi who voices Gaara's mature sister, Temari of the Sand, to come behind the Herz. She was a one-time guest because she is part of another radio program which I will talk about in a few minutes. They really do goof off and you get to see a different side of the voice actors that you would never seen their characters do. Paku Romi is still sarcastic but she is "pleased to be of service" and Junko teases her about being half Korean and half Japanese. This was all in good nature, of course.
Some of the things on Oh! Naruto Nippon! are the best. There's Music Care, where the ManPa (Monthly Personality) help write a song by contributing lyrics. The song was finished and it came out to be Oh! Enka! which is preformed by no one other then Junko herself. Then, they have to play a game and imitate something that a listener submits. A memorable one was where Ishida Akira had to be a cow with its udders being squeezed. It was very funny. But in the same show, Junko had to do a girl from Shibuya helping someone, or something along those lines. There's a catch, though. The loser has to perform a Sexy no Jutsu, which brings on more laughter. Akira-san did and boy, did he do it well.

Other things on Oh! Naruto Nippon! are Radio dramas, which I don't think is going on anymore. Then, there is the question and answer thing will the guests. Like Junko would ask Kanna-san's, voice of Kabuto, favorite food. Which is ramen by the sea, according to him. Or Junko would have a competition with the ManPa to see who would have a Shannaroyu(?) moment, like she did with Sasuke's voice actor. His moment was a dog looked lonely and he went to play with it. However, the dog wasn't thrilled and gave him a look that said, " What are you doing?" Junko's moment was when she got lost and went to the wrong studio and she made an eep, sound that was so cute.
Another radio show, Full Metal Broadcasting, roughly translated, has been discontinued since Full Metal Alchemist has finished its run in Japan. When it was being transmitted through Japan�s radio waves, you could hear Paku Romi (voice of Ed) and Kugimiya Rie (voice of Al) greeting the audience with a warm welcome to the radio program. It�s full of fun between the two of them, and the occasional guest, but most of the conversations are pretty girly.
Kugimiya-san does this really cute English thing, Thank you very mu-cha-cha- desu, which got Paku-san to do it as well. This was a very memorable episode because then Kugimiya-san goes, Doki-doki desu ne, Paku-san says it has nothing to do with a heart, (Doki-doki is Japanese onomonopia for heart beating or throbbing) and Kugimiya-san comes back with another doki doki. Then, they played a game later on the same broadcasting. They had to name the characters, one at a time, alternating turns. It�s a memory type of game and it always started out Edo, Aru� (Ed�Al�) Paku-san was a poor loser and Kugimiya-san really got a kick out of that.

The final Radio Show I would like to introduce to you is Eureka Seven Radio Ray= Out. This is hosted by the voice actors of the two main characters, Renton and Eureka. According to my friend�s back in Japan, this broadcasting is very popular and you don�t want to miss it.
Eureka Seven Radio Ray= Out is pretty much like Oh! Naruto Nippon! and Full Metal Broadcasting. Crazy voice actors behind the Herz playing games with guests, sharing funny moments, and answering personal questions about their lives outside of voice acting. The information about the show is given, special announcements are brought to your attention, and music from the anime is played in between breaks for the hosts.
You can google search the Radio shows, but if you�re curious to hear a broadcasting of one of these programs, you can buy the Radio DJ CD�s for Full Metal Broadcasting and Oh! Naruto Nippon! which can be found on Amazon Japan or EBay. They�re pretty expensive for importing but I think it�s worth it. Even if you don�t understand Japanese, you can�t help but laugh at the antics of the voice actors.



~ Kanon