Sister Princess episode 0

Sister Princess Eve

Aired

2001.03.28

• Summary by Kevin Lew, 2001.07.22

Then it showed the Sister Princess logo with the images and names of all 12 girls, and the voices of several of them saying "older brother". If you listen carefully, most of the cast members say it slightly differently. There was a mix of "oniichan", "oniisama" and "ani-sama". The title screen says that this was the Sister Princess Eve.

They had two guest hosts, Karen's seiyuu, Kuwatani Natsuko, and Haruka's seiyuu, Kakazu Yumi. They were talking from some grassy area below a small road (so it was basically a drainage ditch). They mentioned that Sister Princess was going to be a new anime. The first episode would air on TV Tokyo on Wednesday, April 4, at 12:45am (!). They more or less mentioned that this was a special preview for the series. The background played "Love Destiny", the opening song, by Horie Yui, who also does the voice of one of the sisters.

As this was just the teaser, they were going to the commercial break. As the announcer mentioned the Grand Sponsors for the show, the two seiyuu were trying to get out of the ditch. It was sort of funny because the ditch was very steep so they were stumbling trying to get out. They pretty much had to climb out using their hands to prevent from falling backwards.

Oh, if you were wondering, the grand sponsor for this show is Mediaworks (maker of the Sister Princess game). King Records (anime CD maker), Broccoli (collectible card maker), and Glico (candy maker) are the other primary sponsors.

[CM break: A very disturbing Glico yogurt commercial showing cows singing karaoke. They stopped singing when they were shocked that yogurt had a high amount of calcium ("an essential mineral").

Star Child (the anime-oriented extension of King Records) was releasing a drama CD for 1200 yen called "Prologue of Sister Princess ~Dear My Brother~" on April 4.

Love Hina House Special was coming, which was more or less the conclusion of the series. They showed the female cast of the series wearing bikinis, indicating the kind of audience they were seeking. It would debut on April 1 (Sunday) at 2:00am.]

The two seiyuu were walking along the road and talking about what was Sister Princess. So they wanted to show the beginning of when the anime was being created. "Let's go!" they said.

At Komu Hall, they had a press release where they had the staff members talk about the anime. They also had all the seiyuu present and a few of them got to introduce themselves and such. They also had a screen where they got to show sample artwork from the show. From what I could tell, this was the standard press report, and there wasn't anything exciting.

The two seiyuu then talked about the actual story line. They showed clips from the first episode, and they talked about how this average Japanese boy would end up going to a foreign place, and in the process he would find out that he has a number of highly attractive "younger sisters". The story of course would revolve around his (increasingly romantic) relationship with his sisters.

They introduced the sisters. The character designs are slightly different from the game designs as the anime is cuter. They didn't really discuss much important detail about the girls (more like what foods they like and junk), and I didn't understand all of it anyway. As a result, I'll just mention the basics.

Karen is the lead heroine voiced by Kuwatani Natsuko. Karen is born on September 23, and is 148 cm tall. Karen is easy to spot as she is featured the most and has a pretty character design. She has long, dark hair that is braided at the front.

Kaho is voiced by Mochizuki Hisayo. She is born on January 7, and is 143 cm tall. She is one of the youngest sisters meaning that she goes to a lower grade school than the protagonist. Kaho has short brown hair and she wears a hairband like Shiori in Tokimemo. Kaho is very cheerful and a little clumsy.

Mamoru is voiced by Kobayashi Yumiko. She is born on October 18, and is 150 cm tall. Mamoru is very athletic and tomboyish, and likes to roller skate. She has short brown hair, and she always wears her racing goggles on top of her head.

Sakuya is voiced by Horie Yui. She is born on December 20 and is 159 cm tall. Sakuya has long brown hair that is tied into two ponytails in the back. She is the most sexy of all the girls as she isn't shy around her brother and acts the most aggressive around him.

Hinako is voiced by Chiba Chiemi. She is born on August 15, and she is 132 cm tall. She is the youngest of all the sisters and goes to the lower grade school with Kaho. Hinako is easy to spot as she is the shortest of the girls and talks like a little kid. She is very open about her feelings and she is extremely genki.

Marie (NOTE: her name is pronounced "Maria" in English) is voiced by Yuzuki Ryouka. She is born on April 4, and is 148 cm tall. Marie loves her pet dog but she has a very weak body and often faints. As a result she stays indoors most of the time.

Shirayuki is voiced by Yokote Kumiko. She is born on February 11, and she is 140 cm tall. She has bright pink hair. The large ribbon on her head makes her look like cat ears on her head. Her hobby is cooking, although she is reportedly very bad at it.

Rinrin is voiced by Kanzaki Chiro. She is born on July 9, and she is 152 cm tall. Rinrin has short brown hair and always wears safety goggles on top of her head. As a result, she looks very much like Mamoru if you don't look carefully. However, Rinrin's favorite hobby is electronics. She loves to tinker and build things.

Chikage is voiced by Kawasumi Ayako. She is born on March 6, and is 157 cm tall. She has reddish hair and wears very mature clothing. She is a mysterious person, and her hobbies are esoteric and spiritual, such as reading Tarot cards. She does not talk much but she seems to be the most adult of all the girls. She is the only sister that does not react with strong affection around the protagonist.

Yotsuba is voiced by Hanba Tomoe. She is born on June 21, and is 149 cm tall. Yotsuba has brown hair and hair ribbons. She likes to "check" things (that is, investigate) meaning that she's never without her favorite magnifying glass to examine things. I don't quite get it.

Aria is voiced by Mizuki Nana. She is born on November 2, and is 139 cm tall. She is one of the youngest sisters, and has long bluish hair. She always wears fancy dresses. Aria is very shy, and does not speak often. But when she does talk, she speaks with an Kansai accent, I think (she says "-han" instead of the "-san" honorific).

Haruka is voiced by Kakazu Yumi. She is born on May 16, and is 157 cm tall. Haruka is easy to spot as she always wears kimonos and she also practices with traditional martial arts weapons.

Then they showed scenes of the seiyuu in the studio recording their lines for the anime. They played "Love Destiny" again in the background. It was interesting to see what the seiyuu did when they screwed up or what they did to relax. They also showed a stopwatch with a script, indicating that oftentimes seiyuu had to record their lines even before the anime was drawn.

They mentioned that a Tokyo Game Show 2001 event was going to happen on March 31st. They were going to have some seiyuu sing and dance at this event. Maybe some of it wouldn't be fake singing.

[CM break: Aquarian Age with the new Scorpio Set collectible card game. Volume 5 of the DigiCharat anime was out on DVD.]

After the short break, they went straight to the Sister Princess Valentine Party that naturally took place on Valentine's Day. They had all of the seiyuu sing songs. They said that a few of the songs would come out on the Sister Princess Prologue CD.

Most of the singing sounded like it was real. While most of the seiyuu could sing CUTE (cute = squeaky), some of them couldn't sing WELL. Man, this was one time that I wished that they dubbed in some fake singing for them. The mentioned Horie Yui's maxi single for the SisPri opening would go on sale in May.

After the event, they showed the tables with the bazillion character goods and there were crowds of fans trying to buy them.

As a continuation of the character goods, the two hosts went to Animate in Ikebukuro. They had an entire aisle labeled as "SisPri Fair (or Fare)". The manager (I think) for the Animate went over to assist them. They had everything from calendars to mouse pads for the game/anime series. Kazaku liked one of the note books for her character (I think). Natsuko found a bookbag for Sister Princess and got very excited. The manager said that they could have them for free. Then the girls quickly ran out of the store before he could change his mind.

Then they went next door to the Toranoana. They already had three volumes of special "character collection" books based on the TV series. The manager came over and talked about their display of SisPri goods. They had an entire table dedicated to SisPri books such as guides and artbooks.

Then the two girls said "Sis Pri Jump!" when they landed, they had "teleported" to some new location. Basically, it was the home station for some of the JR buses, I think.

The girls squealed because they spotted the new Sister Princess bus and ran to it. Basically, it was a special "moving billboard" bus with Sister Princess artwork covering it. The side of the bus said to look for Sister Princess as an upcoming anime on TV Tokyo, a game on the Playstation, and an article in Dengeki G's magazine. The back had Hinako-chan dressed in a tour guide uniform carrying a guide flag (as if to say, "Follow Me to Excessive Cute!"). The girls squealed because it was so cute. I myself almost had to puke from the overcute exposure.

The girls then went inside the production studio for the SisPri anime. They said that they had to sneak in as the production was apparently "secret" or something. So they were crouching and whispering through the building. (Go figure). They wanted to deliver some souvenir to somebody in the studio.

[CM break. More Love Hina anime ads so you could see more cleavage. Also a Game Boy Advance commercial. And a Sister Princess PS game ad. Cute!]

The girls went into the studio and they showed the actual artists making the anime. The anime appeared to be 100% CG so the studio was a mostly empty room with lots of humming from all the computers along the wall. The decor was surprisingly industrial and boring. They had folks were working quietly at the workstations. The two seiyuu noticed one of the artists coloring on a cel (I think) of Karen.

Then they left to go talk to one of the head artists who was working on pads of paper drawing sketches of the cels. He showed them how he flipped the sketches to make sure they would have continuity. Later, the sketches would be transferred to a storyboard worksheet that looked more formal.

Then they finally went to the creator of the Sister Princess game/anime. They gave him their gift. The girls had a quick chat. Then they asked him to say a message to the viewers about what he thought about the Sister Princess anime.

The end of the show showed the two seiyuu sitting by the bank where they started the show. They had a quick chat about their characters and some last hype about the show. They played the ending song to Sister Princess in the background. Then the credits rolled as they were still talking.

If you sent a postcard to TV Tokyo, you could qualify for one of the lucky ten people to get a limited edition poster, maxi CD-single (featuring a seiyuu image song), and "character collection" book as a prize.

They showed the Grand Sponsors again for this episode, and Kuwatani Natsuko and Kakazu Yumi made funny faces in the background. When the words "Sister Princess Eve End" appeared, you could hear Karen's voice say, "I'll be seeing you again... oniichan."