further recognition
Kitajima has managed a few side mentions by both staff and characters alike. As she is a minor character, some of these mentions are a tad surprising. Here are some instances of her name being dropped outside straight-up series canon.
official character poll
In late 2007/early 2008 an official poll was held on dragonaut.com in which fans could vote for their favourite character from the series. Rather surprisingly, Kitajima managed to rank SECOND overall. This is a little less surprising when you realise that there was a decided effort between fans of the more voluptuous cast members to get their favourite busts ranked in the top three. Kitajima had been polling between 0.8 and 1.1% of the votes until a sudden surge in voting put her between 18-22%. She was eventually outranked by Garnet MacLaine though she still did manage to beat the entire main cast for second place.
In a special move to reward voters, dragonaut.com gave the three top ranked characters a chance to comment on their poll ranking. Kitajima's rather fitting comments (kindly translated by Meimi) were as follows:
Huh? Me, really? The dragons are more important than something like this, though!
april '08 promotional event
Not long after the conclusion of the series, a promotional event was held for a select group of DVD-buying fans who had earned the privilege. It was attended by the three lead series seiyuu: Ono Daisuke (Kamishina Jin), Minori Chihara (Toa) and Suwabe Junichi (Gio). During the event various parts of the series were screened, fans were able to ask their favourite stars questions and Minori Chihara sang Toa's first image song, "Eternal Shine" (found on the first Drama & Characters Songs CD).
One of the questions asked of the seiyuu was "Which character is the sexiest?". Ono Daisuke immediately responded with "KITAJIMA", Minori Chihara initially wrote "GARNET" but changed her mind and wrote "YUURI", Suwabe Junichi was the last to respond with "MAKI" (?) before deciding on "KIRIL" (quite clearly for the lulz).
drama and characters songs cd (vol. 1)
In drama chapter 2 while Jin is trying to teach Gio about socialising, the dragon confuses Kitajima Yuuri with "a different Kitajima". As the pair are discussing music, specifically Gio's knowledge of enka, the "other Kitajima" he is thinking of is more than likely the famous enka singer, Kitajima Saburou. Gio's understanding of enka, as we learn during this drama track, was transferred to him by Kazuki during their Resonance. Jin subsequently acknowledges that Kazuki "loves enka".
drama and characters songs cd (vol. 3)
In Drama Chapter 5, the three overworked bridge bunnies walk out on Kiril and take a hot springs break. During their relaxation time, the girls discuss other ISDA employees (which includes various antics not seen on screen and crush revelations). While eating, they gossip about Kitajima's apparently amazing calorie-restricted diet and mull over her general size. All three eventually conclude that the key to being able to pull off Kitajima's rather staggering proportions is "style".
While in drama chapter 7, Kitajima makes an actual appearance portraying a tokusatsu villain in control of the super-powered "Kaijin Yonamine" (怪人? Get it? LOL). The three bridge bunnies are supposed to be tokusatsu heroes (Ope3) however, when Kitajima challenges the "leader" of the group all three are unsure who their leader actually is. Despite Kaijin Yonamine's protests about wanting to go home, Kitajima battles the girls before they team up to save the day. Kitajima and Kaijin Yonamine are blasted off into the sky like Team Rocket from PokÉmon. At the end of the episode, Kitajima narrates a "this episode was brought to you by..." message.
saimoe 2008
Saimoe is an annual competition that has run on 2channel since 2002. Its goal is to pit various nominated female "moe" characters against one another in an attempt to determine, by vote, which is the most popular (and by extension, the best). Any girl featured in an anime series, OVA, or movie from the past year can be nominated (no matter how brief their appearance). Fans become extremely riled up during the voting process and try hard to secure a win for their favourite girl.
Kitajima Yuuri, like most female Dragonaut characters, was nominated for the "initial round" during the 2008 Saimoe competition. She was listed in Group 12 but did not proceed past the first round (placing 87th). In fact, she was rather unceremoniously beaten by characters like "Female Student who was praying eagerly in the plane bound for Rome at takeoff" (Maria-sama ga Miteru OVA) and "Female Student who was sitting next to Kuroi-sensei on the bus during a school excursion" (Lucky*Star). Though, to Kitajima's credit, she did manage to place ten spots higher than her Dragonaut co-ster, Jinguji Megumi (who ranked 97th). Kitajima had a total of six votes, Megumi four.
bewe interview mention
While Asano Mayumi's personal interview for bewe.sc has already been mentioned (and translated) here, it should be noted that she was not the only seiyuu to list down similar details for the site. All the primary seiyuu were interviewed and their responses posted to bewe.sc. While quite a few of the questions varied between performers (as fans were invited to send questions in), one question the majority were asked was, "Which of the Dragonaut characters would you want to
resonate and form a pair with?". Gouda Hozumi (Nozaki) was the only seiyuu whose preferred partner was Kitajima Yuuri, though he noted the obviousness of this response, (as his character Resonated with her in the series) and added that Kiril was his second choice. Kiril was actually the most popular choice for a Resonance partner amongst the seiyuu, with the likes of Miyano Mamoru (Aasim) and Kusunoki Taiten (Yonamine) also picking him as their ideal partner.
episode twenty-six film
As mentioned in the section of this site about Dragonaut episode twenty-six, the first half of the OVA is actually a film trailer that the cast in the second half of the episode are watching (while stranded on the ISDA island). While all the main characters in the series appear in this trailer, very few of them are actually "themselves" so-to-speak. Akira is a teacher, Gio is in charge of the kendo club, Laura is a magical witch — it's all very silly and very strange. Kitajima is a student at the school who is sexually harassed at the beginning of the trailer with Garnet and Machina.
Habaragi Itsuki appears in an unrelated part of the trailer as an assistant to Amadeus, the academy director. What makes her appearance particularly interesting is that her character is very similar to Kitajima from the original television series: dressed in a low-cut red top, gold-highlighted belt, lab coat — even her tone of voice and mannerisms are reminiscent of the doctor's. There doesn't seem to be any deeper meaning behind this odd tribute, except perhaps a nod to the fact that Itsuki and Otohime look not at all dissimilar to Kitajima.