Last November, Seiyuu Yuka Maruyama posted a Tweet:

I saw a dream of producing an Idol group consisting entirely of young boys. Something a kind to boys’ choir where they graduate when their voice breaks. One day, the insanely popular absolute center boy’s voice starts to break….
Behind the curtains, the manager and myself cried when we saw the center boy hiding backstage, finding a way to let out his soprano voice.

Thanks to support from many people, she is finally able to make this project come to life. Yesterday, she announced the beginning of a new Drama CD Project under her own circle O-enka titled: Idol Showtime. (AiShota) And what perfect way to announce this other than on Children’s Day in Japan?

With the help of her other Seiyuu friends in the industry, she begins this new project. So here are the people lending their hand in the project:

Planning/Script/Character Design: Yuka Maruyama
Scripting & Character Design support: Aoi Yuuki
Character Design Illustrator: Kohaku Sumeragi
Music: Kotori Koiwai, Takao Yuki

Main Cast: Mutsumi Tamura, Mitsuki Saiga, Yumiko Kobayashi, Ryoko Shiraishi, Kotori Koiwai, Junko Minagawa, etc.

Here’s a rough translation of her circle’s O-enka Ameblo blog about the project:

It’s mostly a personal idea I wanted to see come to life. And to be able to officially announce this, I’m very glad to everyone who worked and I’m so thankful.

I love female seiyuu voicing the roles of young boys.
However, this has been on the decline as of late.

Seeing these boys before their voice break with their sensitive and sentimental voices, doing their best until one day it happens, l feel it’s transitory and fleeting, and that’s what makes it amazing. And nothing suits this perfectly than female seiyuu voicing them.

I want to protect that atmosphere…see them grow and cry when they graduate. But these kind of contents have been on the decline lately right? And even if there are some works like this, it’s very lacking lately.

And there are people who wants to see more of this so, as a performer myself it is time to take a step up. And nothing’s better than getting the people who agree with me to work with on this project, and be able to bring out the best of this.

It’s my first project so I have alot of uncertainty. Planning, scripting, character design, casting, calling out, promotion, asking creators for their support. It feels like a storm of challenges. Doing it all by myself really feels like I’m “raising a child”, and I’m just glad there’s many people who wants to contribute to growing it.

I was actually nervous as to how to respond to the promotion. For those who have seen this, they probably don’t know who I am. I’m glad that you’d think this is amazing regardless if you know my person. No matter how troubled this might be, I’ll be working on this til the end.

I’m very glad to have support to all the people who lend their hand to me for this project that I love. I hope to be able to make a Showtime that’ll be stuck in your hearts.

Yuka Maruyama

As a hobbyist creator myself, I want to give all my support to Maruyama san on her project. As a kid growing up, I watching something similar to what she has described and yes, this really has been on the decline as of late. I wish for her all the best in making this project succeed and I hope many of you would be able to appreciate this as well! Let’s give her our support too!

You can check their Twitter page as well for upcoming details.

Source: o-enka Ameblo