万葉恋歌 ～藤の章～

Manyourenka - Fuji no Shou

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Manyoushuu
Released: 2009.02.14
Official Site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/manyou_top.html


万葉恋歌 (Manyou Renka, "Manyou Love Poem") is a series by Honey Bee that is based on the Manyoushuu. Written in ancient Japanese most of these poems are hard to understand, but this series explains the poems and turns them into a comprehensible story.

This is the second volume (released simultaneously with the first though) and is voiced by Yusa Kouji. The story this time starts while our characters are in their last year of college. Yusa plays the role of a bit of a ladies man, who plays around with several girlfriends. He also shows an interest in you, the listener, though this seems to be a bit more serious. However due to a misunderstanding he assumes that you have someone else you like.

Like the first volume each track is an interpretation of a classic poem. At the end of each scene the poem it is based on is read and its explanation is given. However it might me the atmosphere of the work, but I felt like the poems were less fitting this time. Still I'm impressed how they make a single story out of all these unrelated poems.

Again, track 21 to 39 are all of the poems used in this work.


Conclusion:
While I enjoyed the first one more this is still a nice story. One thing that bothered me however is that Yusa his voice acting somehow sounds unnatural to me at times (heaven knows why, because his acting is usually superb).