王子様 (笑)シリーズ ドラマCD 第4巻 ～王子様はカエル〜
Company: Frontierworks
Based on: Fairytale
Released: 2011.03.24
Official Site: http://www.fwinc.co.jp/princewww
The 'Oujisama (warai)' series re-imagines various well know fairy tales. The stories are told from the perspective of the prince and in a rather hilarious way. This time, the story of 'The Frog Prince' is re-imagined, although there are a few things surprisingly close to the original story,
(For those unfamiliar with the series "Cinderella" and "Rapunzel" refer to the princes from those stories)
The story begins when Cinderella (CV: Suzumura Kenichi), Rapunzel (CV: Ishida Akira) and Aladdin (CV: Miyano Mamoru) meet at some sort of social event. Rapunzel mentions Cinderella his real name (prince Charming) and nearly gets shot. Afterwards Aladdin almost suffers the same fate. The three of them quarrel a bit over their new lifestyle now they are married, when suddenly a frog (CV: Sugita Tomokazu) joins in on the conversation.
It turns out that Cinderella once borrowed something from the frog (who is the prince of the frog kingdom) and got it dirty, so now the frog wants Cinderella to make it up to him by fixing a date with a certain princess who is sitting near the fountain. Everybody keeps switching sides in helping or not helping the frog, most notably Aladdin who switches sides depending on where he expects to gain the most profit.
Of course, the Frog eventually turns into a human (which grosses him out, leading to a funny scene where he is grossed out by his perfect appearance), but I was surprised that this happens not because of a kiss (like in the modern fairytale) but because he was thrown against the wall by the princess (like in the original)
The zadankai (where all the characters gather for a drink and chat away) this time mostly revolves around whether the frog (who they keep referring to as 'Kaeru' (Japanese for frog) has gotten used to being a human yet. He turns back into a frog for a while, and to 'prevent confusion because this is a drama CD' they make him say "geko" after every sentence when he is a frog. The other hilarious thing is that Kaeru still doesn't know 'how human babies are made'. The zadankai fades out while Rapunzel tries to explain this in a cute way.
A special mention should probably be made for Takemoto-san, who voices 3(!) roles in this drama: Cinderella's younger brother, The servant of the princess, and the Genie. Not to mention he did his recording alone. I must say he did a really good job of keeping these roles completely different. I also like how they made one character mistake him for another, just so that he could state who he is at moment. Several times in the drama. It was a good way to avoid confusion.
The cast talk is ok I guess. They all need to talk about what their favourite animal is, but Sugita-san is busier doing impressions of his grandfather. While Suzumura-san and Ishida-san simply talk about cat's or dogs, Miyano talks about elephants...
Conclusion:
Maybe I should have listened to this before listening to vol.5, but it was a lot less hilarious. It is still however a fun drama CD (partly because I love Cinderella, and starting from this CD Aladdin as well). But now that I've listened to the entire series, bring on the next two!!!
Yay, finally a review on Oujisama (Warai) vol. 4! (^-^)
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed less hilarious than the succeeding volume, but there were really funny lines/conversations. I personally liked the Frog Prince's line about how 'men who fall in love become perverts' XD
Takemoto-san voicing most of the side characters has since become a running gag, and he does deliver each role great.
One more thing: to my ears, the Frog Magician was Ishida-san, the gruff voice he uses for old characters... :)
(sorry for the long comment)
AAAHhhhh! Me and my typo's! Gomeeeeen. *fixes it* I should not write reviews in a hurry. *cough* I made a short cut by going 'Takemoto-san voices all side characters' but that isn't true like you said. Lalala~ *cries in a corner out of shame* I am sorry Ishida-san
ReplyDeleteI loved the part where the Frog Prince is all disgusted about his new (ikemen) looks as a human~ And the part where he goes 'geko' at the end of every sentence, I really hope that they will do that again in 2nd Season xD
Because I listened to vol.5 first I didn't know that Takemoto-san voicing all the side characters was a running gag at the time (I hadn't heard it being used here after all). None the less, I am in awe of his voice range. I've also heard him portray a very convincing old man somewhere else, and all I can think is how.can.you.do.that?! *in awe*
Takemoto-san must be one of the more versatile seiyuu around, to be able to do a lot of different roles XD
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of other funny parts, I also loved how the Frog Prince described how the Cinderella couple call each other privately (^-^)
I know that there are already a lot of princes in the series, but I do hope they continue with this! :D
That part was GOLD. Though I still wonder how that Marriage actually works, I sort of imagine them not seeing each other at all actually (^-^;;)
ReplyDeleteI also hope that they'll continue! But aren't we starting to run out of princes by now? Speaking of continue, now that they have 3new princes, I really hope they will do a new yomikatari CD!