Nishio Yuka • Hazuki Himari • Kagami Karin
~ 2nd Live Flower Stand ~
I wanted to compile the process for the 3 Agency Joint Audition Crew D4DJ 1st Live flower stand somewhere more collected than Twitter, so here we go!
The goal was to make Oyu, Himaringo, and Kagamin feel as much love and support as possible, from as many overseas fans as possible! Their audition results were only announced about three months prior so I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to gather enough support but I was amazed to actually receive a surplus of funds! I was also surprised and happy that someone from Japan personally reached out and asked if they could participate! I’ll definitely be more mindful of this in the future.
Thank you so much to everyone who participated. ^^
Special thanks to Tsukiyo for many things, @Witeria for illustrations, and @pastelprecure for graphic design!
This was the first flower stand I’d ever organized and I couldn’t be happier with it!
Thank youuu!
It all started with this poll. The goal was for the flowers to be more personal so the original idea was to do backstage flowers for each seiyuu, basically small bouquets that are sent backstage rather than a full flower stand. However, it later turned out that the venue didn’t allow backstage flowers so we went for a full stand instead!
From the start, the ideas for the colors were:
Nishio Yuka: 2/3 black, 1/3 white—2/3rds of her clothes are black!
Hazuki Himari: 1/2 choco brown, 1/2 mint green—she loves chocolate mint!
Kagami Karin: red, white, blue—she was born in America!
Much to my surprise (I expected to pay for most of this), we reached 25% funding with two days! A few days later, it was announced that backstage flowers were not allowed. And so we pivoted into a full flower stand and reached 70% funding just a week later!
It was way prettier when I got it from the illustrator but I had to make the colors and labels more specific for the florist and so it ended up like this. ^^;
We were approaching full funding far ahead of schedule and so I created a poll (the first of many) to decide what to do with excess funds. We settled on something “Decorative”, though it was closely tied with “Functional”.
(I couldn’t actually think of something functional so this was a huge relief…)
We decided on teddy bears after a 15-0 vote! And their names?
Nishio Yuka: DJ サプライズ/Surprise (from STAY TUNE #2, she loves surprises)
Hazuki Himari: DJ Himaringo (Otsuka Sae’s nickname for her)
Kagami Karin: DJ Sierra (from STAY TUNE #2, her middle name)
I went shopping shortly after and chose these three cuties and headphones for them!
DJ サプライズ looked way too smug and I just had to grab it for Oyu!
DJ Himaringo was based on thin mints (i.e. chocolate mint)… what are the chances?
DJ Sierra was super precious and gave me the same vibes I got from Kagamin on the one and only stream she had been on at the time (STAY TUNE #2).
Also bought ribbons!
At this point, the names for DJ Surprise and DJ Sierra were good to go but DJ Himaringo didn’t feel quite right so I created another poll (but not before messing the previous poll up first, oops)!
DJ りんご (ringo, apple) – based on Himaringo
DJ しょくま (shokuma, shoku/food + kuma/bear) – Himari loves food
DJ 配布 (haifu, distribution) – Himari distributes anime character goods among her friends
DJ チョコミント (chocomint) – Himari loves chocolate mint
After a tie-breaker, the winner was DJ りんご!
After they were stuffed, the staff informed me that we could add scents!
I spent too much time sniffing every single scent (this was like hunting for aromatherapy oils for Rikopin all over again…). I’m so sorry, kind staff lady! D=
Oyu: Popcorn (she has this thing about cheese and this was as close as I could get)
Himaringo: Thin Mints (you know the drill by now)
Kagamin: Strawberry (I honestly didn’t know enough about her so I played it safe)
Thanks to the magic of 100 yen stores, I found bags and little decorative flowers as soon as I arrived in Japan!
I’d like to thank @Witeria once again, both for the incredible illustrations and also for putting up with my constant requests to add in details. ><
Here are the references for each of them!
Oyu: Screw earrings, Natsumi Burger (without tartar sauce), Tapioca, Tawashi, her pose
Himari: Her purse, Earphones, Berries
Kagamin: Simple earrings, Western art (Mona Lisa – Da Vinci [her favorite artist] and Starry Night [recognizable])
I went shopping at Kiddy Land (for Rimirin, actually) and found a Disney bag for Himaringo! On a radio show she was on a few days prior, Himaringo mentioned liking Disneyland so much that she goes at least each month. She didn’t name any favorite character and so her bag has ALL THE CHARACTERS~!
This was my first time making ribbons so it took… a fair amount of time.
And final pictures of the plushies in their bags! Had a little too much fun with Kagamin’s.
Finally, the day of the event!
Seiyuu Tweets: Oyu • Himaringo • Kagamin
Oyu’s natsumi burger (without tartar sauce) comment still cracks me up to this day!
And that’s it for this flower stand!
More than anything else, I’m truly happy and grateful that 21 people from around the world came together to send their love and support to these three who are just beginning their journeys as seiyuu! Showing someone that you care for them and want to make them happy, regardless of the response… I think that’s one of the most important things in life. Putting everything you have into something for someone, praying it’ll make them even the slightest bit happy—aren’t gifts wonderful?
iviachupichuland 