31/07/2012

MESSAGE 4 U vol.3 Thank U a lot

MESSAGE 4 U vol.3 Thank U a lot


Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2010.01.29
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/me_top.html

Message 4 U is a series in which the postmen of the Mitsubachi (honey bee) post office deliver a message to you in a very special way. When they receive a letter it gets scattered through time, and you yourself have to find several messages before it becomes a whole letter again. These messages are in places that have something to do with the contents of the letter.

The third CD is titled “Thank U a lot” and the letter is a letter from a good friend to express her thanks. The postmen ‘delivering’ the letter this time are Serge Benoit (CV: Ono Daisuke) and Patrick di Tommaso (CV: Terashima Takuma). In the first track the letter is delivered to the post office, after that they take you on a tour through your memories to find the messages.

After postmen with English and German names I expect two French names, but one of them seems to be Italian, hihi. Thanks to being the strong silent type Serge is often seen as scary, while Patrick is very open and more cheerful. Ono Daisuke often voices the perfect boyfriend in situation CDs, but this time his role is very different, which is kind of refreshing.

Serge already manages the person that wants to deliver the message as soon as she enters the post office. Luckily Patrick is there to help. He also wrote Serge a script for explaining how the letters work because Serge apparently often fails to explain things properly. Thanks to the script they actually manage to explain things properly this time. Although Serge is obviously reading stuff from the memo. This is also the only CD where the characters don’t argue about who gets to use the time travel book.

Like always you are taken to different scenes from your past. This time we have a fireworks show, a park at night, in a cafe, at school, and the first day of school when you met. There are a few things different from the first two CDs though. Instead of finding the message after you have seen the scene, there are a couple of times where you find the message and still have to watch part of the memory, or figure out what it means before you can continue.

Serge and Patrick also take a little longer to fall for you. Patrick his attitude towards you remains largely the same, but Serge clearly needs some time to warm up to you. On the other hand, Patrick also realizes how important his friendship with Serge is to him while watching your memories.

One of the biggest changes though, is you actually asking them to read the final letter with you. This was a welcome change for me because that is one thing that really bugged me in the previous two CDs. After that they take you to the beach to watch the sunset, where Serge also shows his kindness by waiting just a little longer before taking you home, so that you can spend a few more minutes together.

Overall it felt like this third CD was a little bit more structured. You asking the postmen to read the letter together with you was more logical than them being the only ones able to read it. And there was a little less focus on the characters liking you and a bit more focus on them. I noticed that the letter have a trump theme, and the way the website would have had room for one more CD in the layout so I’m wondering whether they originally planned one more CD. If so, it is a pity that it was never produced, because this one was definitely better than the first two.


Conclusion:
Still as sweet as ever, but with a bit more structure and therefore my favourite of the three CDs in this series. Ono Daisuke voicing a more silent and stubborn (yet shamelessly honest) character was also a nice surprise.

30/07/2012

Drama CD Translations

Just a quick but none the less interesting note:

I discovered a tumblr that links to all kinds of drama CD translations. It is still very new, but maybe we could all support it by following and/or submitting links to more translations. (^-^)

29/07/2012

Kuroko no Basuke: Drama Theater 1st Games

黒子のバスケDRAMATHEATER 1st GAMES


Company: Lantis
Based on: Manga --> Anime
Released: 2012.07.04


Kuroko no Basuke is a basketball manga serialized in the Weekly Shounen Jump, and follows Kuroko Tetsuya and his team mates at Seirin High. During middle school Kuroko was part of the "generation of miracles", 6 extremely talented regulars on the Teito Gakuen basketball team. All of these players went to different high schools, and of course Seirin will have to face them one by one. This summer an anime adaption started airing, and this drama CD is officially based on the anime, even though it features a completely original story.

In fact, the story has little to do with basketball this time. Seirin was supposed to have a practice match, but thanks to a miss by the other school the gym is already in use by the mama-san volleyball team (volleyball for  middle aged women). Everyone concludes that there is no way they can win the gym from them, so they decide to give up on the match. But since they've already traveled all the way there, they decide to go to the nearby amusement park.

Once there everyone wants to do something different, and they split up. Kuroko (CV: Ono Kensho) and Kagami (CV: Ono Yuuki) end up going to the food court, where they run into Kise Ryouta (CV: Kimura Ryouhei) who just finished a modeling job there. They decide to hang out together a bit, and Kagami has just won a stuffed toy from a crane machine when they run into Midorima Shintarou (CV: Ono Daisuke) who is there looking for his lucky item of the day. As luck will have it the stuffed toy Kagami just won is what he is searching for, and thus they decide to have a match to decide who gets the toy.

All of the matches they hold have nothing to do with basketball though. The first one is a match to see who can make the best puns, Riko (CV: Saitou Chiwa), Hyuuga (CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa) and Itsuki (CV: Nojima Hirofumi) are the ones that come up with this. The second match is telling scary stories, Koganei (CV: Eguchi Takuya), Tsuchida (CV: Inoue Gou) and Mitobe (who doesn't talk -ever- and isn't voiced by anyone) are the ones who thought of that. the first year members Furihata (CV: Mizutani Naoki), Kawahara (CV: Yoshimoto Yasuhiro) and Fukuda (CV: Sasaki Hiroo) miss their chance because they are in the ferris wheel and no one notices them. The final match is a sumo event that is held at the theme park, and eventually all four of them need to work together to beat an actual sumo wrestler.

First thing about this CD: if you don't know the series (manga or anime) it isn't going to be much fun to listen to. The CD assumes you know everyone and doesn't introduce anyone, and continues a couple of running jokes (Itsuki his puns, Mitobe not speaking, Kuroko being invisible, etc). If you do know the series though, this CD is pretty much gold. Only the characters introduced in the anime at the time of release are featured, but on the other hand it also uses the same background music, which makes certain scenes hilarious.

Midorima and Kise are two of my favourite characters, so this was gold for me to begin with. But the rest of the characters also get their funny moments. Two scenes with the other characters that I loved were the first years lamenting that no one knows who they are, and Koganei imagining everyone as hero's, which is followed by a short sentai parody.

Something else I loved is how they used a 'surround sound' effect. When the characters are talking in a group you can hear that they are standing in different positions, as if you are really there standing among them. I don't have an actual surround sound system to test whether this is actually surround sound or just very clever use of stereo sound, but it is interesting none the less.

In the free talk everyone is definitely having a lot of fun. Apparently they turned Kuroko his name into a verb ("kuroko-ru") with the meaning "to disappear", and Ono Kensho was very good at doing that during the recording. Kimura Ryouhei never mentions his name but simply does his freetalk as Kise, and Ono Daisuke uses a lot of the stock phrases for Midorima in his part. The rest switch between making semi-serious comments and absolute chaos, especially near the end (when they are running out of time) some of them stop in the middle of their talk and make way for the next person xD


Conclusion:
If you know the anime this is definitely worth a listen. It doesn't deal with basketball, but the story is pretty fun and uses all of the lovable quirks of the cast. I hope they'll release more of these when more members of the generation of miracles are introduced, and although a serious drama CD might be interesting too, this is a perfect way to have some fun with the characters.

27/07/2012

Koi Sentai LOVE&PEACE Vol.1

恋戦隊LOVE&PEACE ドラマCD1


Company: Broccoli
Based on: Mobile game
Released: 2010.12.22
Official site: http://www.broccoli.co.jp/cd/sp/loveandpeace/


Koi Sentai LOVE&PEACE is based of the mobile game of the same name. In the game you become the pink Heart Ranger, and have to choose one of the four guys that make up the rest of the team as your instructor. Obviously, that is also the character you will fall in love with. A PSP port of the game will be released later this year.

They kept the concept of you being the pink ranger for the CD, so this becomes a mix of a sentai drama and a situation CD, which works surprisingly well actually. In the first CD Akagi Fuuta (CV: Hoshi Souichirou) is your instructor, so the CD is partly focused on him.

The CD begins however with the henchmen of the evil organisation "Menos" stealing people their wallets at lunchtime. Of course this kind of evil can not go unpunished, so the Heart Rangers show up to beat them. The narrator (CV: Kawahara Yoshihisa) introduces all of the characters: The leader Akagi Fuuma / Heart Red, the cool glasses character Aoyama Reiji / Heart Blue (CV: Toriumi Kousuke), the always smiling gentleman Sarutobi Kouhei / Heart Yellow (CV: Miyata Kouki), and the un-hero like Kuromine Tsuguru / Heart Black (CV: Nakai Kazuya). There is some interaction between the narration and the characters as well (he is thanked for introducing everyone for example) which is something I like.

After beating the bad guys everyone retreats to the base, where you works on some image training by practicing yelling your attacks. Meanwhile, the narrator introduces the three main bad guys: Dark (CV: Madono Mitsuaki) who has a gun incorporated into one of his arms and speaks Kansai-ben, the vampire Juteemu (or Je t'aime probably, CV: Maeno Tomoaki), and the wolf-man... Wolf (CV: Shimowada Hiroki) who's ears are first described as cat-ears. Just like there is a 'main hero' for each CD, there is also a main nemesis for each CD, and this time it is Dark. So he gets a little bit more 'screentime' than the other two bad guys. But not that much more. Understandably irritated by the fact that they are always beaten, the evil trio comes up with a strategy to deprive Heart Red of his power.

Which they put into action the next day. They start destroying the city so of course the Heart Rangers show up, minus Kuromine because he made up an excuse. We are first treated to a pretty hilarious transformation scene, and than the battle begins. The bad guys taunt Heart Red to use his full power, and then use their secret weapon (some sort of device that suppresses his power, which comes from his voice) to beat him. You try to cover for him but are too weak. Luckily Kuromine decides to show up after all, and manages to distract the bad guys long enough for you to escape.

Back at the base Aoyama performs a medical check on Akagi, but according to the results he should be fine. They conclude that there must have been some sort of device sealing his powers, and decide to train on fighting without yelling out. They don't get much time though, because the next day Menos is already creating havoc again. Another fight starts (in which the Heart Rangers talk very soft) but the rangers are almost beaten again. Until you are in trouble and Akagi mysteriously finds the power to fight them off.

The rest of the CD is is Akagi realising what gave him so much power, and some moments together with you. In the final track he wants to practice whispering, so he whispers all sorts of random things (really random things) until he finally whispers some sweet words. And then starts to blush like an idiot.

I love the fact that there is an actual opening song and transformation scenes. The opening song is quite catchy too. The interaction with the narrator is a nice touch as well. Not to mention his constant "let me explain!" before he explains something. And Dark his Kansai-ben. It has been a while since I heard a Kansai-ben character!

The mix between sentai drama and situation CD works surprisingly well. During the drama your actions are explained by the narrator or sound effects, or self evident from what the other characters say. When you are alone with a character it CD feel more like a situation CD, where they talk directly to you. The last track was pure fan service in that sense.


Conclusion:
I didn't know this was based of a mobile game at first, but the CD itself explains everything clear enough to understand and enjoy it without knowing the game. The other CDs put one of the other rangers in charge of your training, so you get a chance to be alone with everyone. I'm actually getting interested in the PSP game thanks to this.

25/07/2012

Honeymoon Vol.5: Sano Eita

Honeymoon Vol.5 佐野瑛太 


Company: Fortissimo
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.06.28
Official Site: http://www.otome-ff.jp/work/work12.html


In the Honeymoon series you get a chance to go on your honeymoon with you brand new husband. Scenes from the proposal, the wedding, your honeymoon, and when you return are all included. Your groom this time is Sano Eita (CV: Yoshino Hiroyuki), your high school sweetheart.

The CD begins with the confession scene from a few years ago. You were the manager of the soccer club, and Eita the captain at that time. You called him to the club room to confess, but can't say a thing, so eventually he ends up confessing first. Kind of cute really.

We then switch to your last year at university. You are both busy getting a job (which is serious business in Japan) although you haven't managed to find one yet. Eita tells you that he does have an offer, but that would require him to move to Kyuushuu, and he can't imagine living without you. So he asks you to come with him, as his wife. He doesn't have a ring or anything, but you don't mind.

Cut again to the two of you living together as a married couple a few months later. Eita tells you that you are making him happy, but that he feels that he isn't making you happy, not even being able to hold a proper wedding ceremony or anything. So he wants to at least go on a honeymoon, it might be impossible right now, but in one year it should be possible. You immediately say you want to go to Spain.

So one year later you are on your way to Spain. You'll have to go through a few very painful moments of Eita asking the way or other stuff in English, acting incredibly high tension when he does. He gets even more excited when you manage to get tickets for a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Being the soccer fan that he is Eita completely loses sight of what is going on around him. Strangely, I actually thought it was somehow endearing.

You wanted to go to Spain to visit the Prado museum. Eita really does seem out of place here, but he obviously does his best to put up with it for you. The paintings they are talking about btw, are Las Meninas, and I am guessing La maja desnuda. (Eita mentions that he won't look directly at a painting of a naked woman).

While he tries his best here he does fail miserably a little later. You go on a tour of the various bars one night, and he drinks something everywhere, eventually getting completely drunk. When you return to your hotel room he mentions wanting to do it, but ends up falling asleep and remembering nothing the next morning. No worries though, you will get your dosis of eroi the next night.

Back at home some time has passed since your honeymoon. Still feeling bad for not proposing to you properly, Eita surprises you by getting a ring after all, and making a proper proposal. He also says he still wants to hold a proper ceremony one day.

For those of you who know that I'm not really a fan of Yoshino Hiroyuki it might come as a surprise that I actually really liked this CD. Sure, the character (and Yoshino his voice) are still not my favourite, but compared to the rest of the series this CD just felt so much more real. It is far from the perfect wedding and honeymoon, but much more realistic.

Eita doesn't have the money to buy you a shiny ring or hold a proper wedding at the moment he proposes to you, but he really loves you a lot and doesn't want to be separated from you so he proposes. You seem to be living a reasonably happy life but still feeling guilty about possibly not making you happy he makes sure to save up money so you can still go on a honeymoon. Not to mention the final track where he gives you the ring after all this time.

And of course he isn't exactly the ideal husband on your honeymoon, getting drunk and everything. Sure, you could argue that all of this is unrealistic as well, but if felt more plausible than a husband who spends god knows how much money on you (yes I'm looking at you Otoya and Ryou). If I had to name something really unrealistic about this CD, it is you for some reason being a natural talent at flamenco dancing.

Unfortunately Yoshino-san let's me down a little bit in the freetalk, where he mostly talks about his fear of flying. Which is something that I don't share so I wasn't to interested. What was interesting though is him mentioning that the staff gave him all kinds of travel pamphlets. Yusa Kouji mentions those as well in his own freetalk of vol.4, so apparently the seiyuu were given background information and pictures to help them.


Conclusion:
I'm really happy that they took a step back from the perfect honeymoon and husband, and moved a little more into believable territory. I hope that they'll continue this for the upcoming CD's. Yoshino-san is never going to be one of my favourite seiyuu, but I liked his act in his CD.

23/07/2012

MESSAGE 4 U vol.2 I’m sorry to U

MESSAGE 4 U vol.2 I’m sorry to U


Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2009.10.30
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/me_top.html

Message 4 U is a series in which the postmen of the Mitsubachi (honey bee) post office deliver a message to you in a very special way. When they receive a letter it gets scattered through time, and you yourself have to find several messages before it becomes a whole letter again. These messages are in places that have something to do with the contents of the letter.

The second CD is titled “I’m sorry to U” and the letter send is a letter of apology. The postmen ‘delivering’ the message this time are Cristofer “Cris” Adolff (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) and Hermann Frohlich (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) In the first track the letter is delivered to the post office, after that they take you on a tour through your memories to find the messages.

After postmen with English names, we now get postmen with German names, haha. Despite his last name meaning “cheerful” Hermann is far from the cheerful type. In fact he is quite rough and impolite. Chris on the other hand is gentle and polite for the both of them.

Just like in the first CD they need to find you and explain things before you can go message hunting. Hermann his way of trying to make you come along is almost kidnapping, no wonder you are scared of him at first. And just like in the first CD they both try to explain the whole process, but both fail at giving an understandable explanation. Eventually you are on your way, but not before they fight over who gets to use the time traveling book.

Once again you watch 5 events from your past. This time the letter is a letter of apology, so the scenes you see are things for which your friend still wanted to apologise. This times the scenes are in your room, you meeting up with that friend, the two of you at a cafe, at the nurse’s office, and your house when you were both still little. In all of these scenes you worry whether there was something you could have done, and of course Hermann and Chris try to cheer you up.

One of the best moments is when you talk about the ‘love’ because you and your friend in the past were talking about it, and Hermann and Chris keep telling each other to answer because they both aren’t good with love problems. For some reason their interactions also made my BL radar react, and that while I don’t usually go that way...

When you’ve collected all message parts you head to the Mitsubachi Post Office where the two of them read the letter for you. And to make sure you don’t feel bad about anything they take you on a picnic before returning you to your own time. Of course, both of them have completely fallen for you by that time. Hermann his goodbye is one of the most adorable things in this CD.

I noticed one thing that already bugged me in the first CD but that I forgot to mention; the listener seems to take both the role of the person delivering the letter, and the role of the one receiving it. Of course these are two entirely different people (it is after all a letter that a friend send to you) but this is kind of confusing.


Conclusion:
Obviously this is just as cute as the first CD. Hermann is kind of tsundere, while Chris is the cute character this time. Once again the thing I liked best was their interactions, instead of them liking me.

21/07/2012

Weekly News Post

Sort of weekly at the moment anyway. I should be doing all sorts of other stuff right now, but instead I am writing a news post... lalala.

Also, in preparation for my Japan trip I've re-opened my personal blog (although everything from before is gone). I have no idea how regular the updates will be though. Also, I might post most of the fangirling here or on tumblr. Because my parents don't really need to know all my fangirl moments xD



Kindan Kyuuketsuki
the official site finally updated with more info on the next release: Kindan Kyuuketsuki ~Aobara no Kishi~ ("knight of the blue rose"). Several shops and magazines already listed the CD, but the official site was eerily silent. We now have some visuals with the knowledge that Yasumoto Hiroki will be voicing Rudolf von Weiseheldenburg, the next vampire. You apparently meet him on the battlefield... from where he kidnaps you. But other than that there is little info. Of course we all know what to expect by now. The CD is planned for a 2012.08.15 release.

Meanwhile, Animate already lists another entry to the series: Kindan Kyuuketsuki ~Kibara no Toganin~ ("criminal of the yellow rose") for a 2012.10.17 release. This time it will be Tachibana Shinnosuke who voices a vampire who's name I am guessing to be Friedrich.


19/07/2012

Akogare no Situation: Amaetai

憧れのシチュエーションCD vol.5 甘えたいっ

Company: Gakken
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.05.30


The Akogare no Situation CD series is based on the concept of placing you in a certain situation that you long for/want. (憧れる (akogareru) means "to long for" or "to admire"). That can be being scolded, being protected and in this case; being spoiled a bit

The CD begins with your boyfriend Takahashi Kouichirou (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) working on a test for his students when you call him. After a short talk  you hang up, but almost immediately after you call him again, almost in tears because you miss him, and being the sweetheart that he is Kouichirou immediately hops on his bike and rides to your place. Once there you decide to go on a date (apparently it was still morning?) and head to mount Fuji for a full date course.

And when I say full date course I do mean a very busy one. Kouichirou basically gives you / let’s you do anything you want. So you visit a flower park, go for a walk with a dog, go cycling, float over the lake in a swan boat, eat icecream and eventually shop for some souvenirs, and riding the ferris wheel. Throughout all of this you act all cute and naive, and Kouichirou patiently grants your every wish. The guy must have the patience of a saint.

The CD is all about spoiling you, so of course it is as sweet as possible. This isn’t candy coated, it is candy coated with whipped cream and sprinkles wrapped in frilly gift paper with extra ribbons. And all of that somehow without being annoyingly lovey-dovey. It also sticks more to the main theme again, although I have to admit that vol.4 had a bit of a difficult theme to turn into concrete scenes.

Toriumi-san also comments on the full day date in his comment. He actually says that we should maybe all try it someday. Apparently there is a longer character description, because Toriumi-san mentions that one of Kouichirou his skills is throwing chalks with 100% accuracy (and that he wanted to act a part in which he would do that). Also, he likes to be spoiled himself but if you’d ask in a cute manner he’d be willing to spoil others. He also urges those of us with a younger boyfriend to spoil them sometimes, so that when they have fully matured you can be spoiled by them full time.


Conclusion:
This is so sweet it almost hurts, luckily the amount of lovey dovey isn’t too high, so I just think it is extremely cute (and will probably never happen in real life). Cute as it is though, you won’t really miss anything by not listening to it.

17/07/2012

Honeymoon Vol.4: Kashiwagi Ryou

Honeymoon vol.4 柏木稜


Company: Fortissimo
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.04.28
Official Site: http://www.otome-ff.jp/work/work10.html

In the Honeymoon series you get a chance to go on your honeymoon with you brand new husband. Scenes from the proposal, the wedding, your honeymoon, and when you return are all included. Your groom this time is Kashiwagi Ryou (CV: Yusa Kouji) the young president of the company where you work.

The CD starts with Ryou recalling how you met. Without knowing that he was actually the company president you walked up to him at work saying that one of his buttons was loose, and offered to attach it again. Intrigued he asked you out on a date. You dated for a few times before you asked you to be his girlfriend, and only after you accepted he revealed who he was. You've been hiding your relationship all this time, and he wants to bring it out in the open. Not by revealing that you are dating, but by marrying you.

A little while later he comes back home late while you are watching a travel program you like, which covers Hong Kong this time. Ryou says he has never been there and would like to go, so you decide to go there. He won't be able to take time off right after your wedding though, so you go on your honeymoon before you get married. Ryou asks you to let him plan all of it.

I will take the easy route and just summarize the entire honeymoon as follows: Rich. From traveling around Hong Kong in a limousine, to staying in a top class hotel, to stuff like Peking duck and shark-fin soup, to eventually going to the casinos in Macau, everything just screams rick. I was saying Otoya was spending money like it is water in vol.2, Ryou is also a big spender.

Different from the others Ryou doesn't seem to feel like waiting until the final night for the action though. When you first arrive he also seems in the mood. Unfortunately the scene gets cut off, so we still have to wait until the final night. And I could swear you hear undressing sounds during the kissing. Or mabey I'm just getting ahead of myself.

The final track is when you've returned to Japan, and Ryou is giving a speech at your wedding. I failed to be really moved by it though *is shot*.

Ryou really does everything for you, and you are being spoiled to no end. He doesn't seem to mind spending money to make you happy. How on earth you didn't know he was your employer is a mystery to me though. Another thing that bothered me is that Ryou speaks Japanese to the staff of the restaurant when you arrive. Either all high class restaurant in Hong Kong come with Japanese speaking staff, or someone overlooked something here.

Ryou is described as being slightly S on the official site, and while he does tease you a bit it could have been more. Unfortunately this series is much too candy coated for that. Ryou is a little less sweet than Yuuto and Daichi and more like Otoya though.

In the free talk Yusa first says this was a bit embarrassing to do, and then follows with a "just kidding". He hopes that this made you feel like you went to Hong Kong yourself, and also says that you might be able to go there yourself. Although you probably shouldn't eat Peking Duck and stuff like that or you might go over your budget xD 


Conclusion
This was a little less sweet again, but also featured a groom who obviously has too much money again. In fact, Ryou and Otoya might actually be very alike?!?. Either way, this vol was a bit too unrealistic for me. Luckily, the next vol does a better job at that, so look forward to the review for that!!



ps: this is my favourite cover in this series.

16/07/2012

Message 4 U vol.1 Happy Birthday to U

MESSAGE 4 U vol.1 Happy birthday to U


Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2009.08.28
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/me_top.html

Message 4 U is a series in which the postmen of the Mitsubachi (honey bee) post office deliver a message to you in a very special way. When they receive a letter it gets scattered through time, and you yourself have to find several messages before it becomes a whole letter again. These messages are in places that have something to do with the contents of the letter.

The first CD is titled “Happy Birthday to U” and the letter send is of course a birthday wish. The postmen ‘delivering’ the message are Malcom Catley (CV: Ishida Akira) and Rio Alcott (CV: Shimono Hiro). In the first track the letter is delivered to the post office, after that they take you on a tour through your memories to find the messages.

Rio is the younger on of the two and basically really cute and naive. He calls Malcom ‘senpai’ and gets scolded by him a lot for acting rash or not doing things properly. The interaction between them is part of what makes this CD so cute.
But before you can go collect the messages they still need to find you of course. Rio does an exceptionally bad job at that telling you that he is searching for someone - when you turn out to be the one he is searching for. They explain how the entire letter thing works (although they aren’t very good at explaining) and you head off!

You visit several scenes from your past, one where you are shopping with a friend, your house, your school, your house again (during your birthday party when you were little), and the hospital on the day that you were born. During the time that you see all these scenes Rio and Malcom talk with you, listen to your worries, try to cheer you up, and are obviously attracted to you.

When you’ve got all messages you return to the Mitsubachi post office, where they read the entire letter to you. In the final track they celebrate your birthday with you like they promised somewhere earlier in the CD.

This is a super cute and heartwarming CD. Apparently you were worried about whether your friends really liked you, and this was your friend her way of saying that she really likes you and hopes you will always be friends. The story mood never gets heavy though, thanks to Rio and Malcom being too busy adoring you to let that happen.

I would have loved it if the actual letter was included with the booklet or something, instead of them reading it aloud to you. Somehow it would have been perfect if you went to gather all the messages in the drama CD, and then had to read the actual letter yourself.


Conclusion
Like most Honey Bee things this CD is very cute. Personally I thought the interactions between Rio and Malcom were the most interesting part of the CD though. Neither of them is my type (Rio is too naive and Malcom is, well, voiced by Ishida) so I guess that is why I was more interested in their interaction than in them liking me (*´艸`*)

15/07/2012

Koisuru Lesson Series: Kaname Yuuto no Perfect Lesson

恋するレッスンシリーズ「奏悠斗のパーフェクトレッスン


Company: Broccoli
Based on: Original
Released: 2010.09.22
Official Site: http://www.broccoli.co.jp/cd/sp/lovelesson/


Koisuru Lesson is a series in which you date your instructor/teacher. Each vol. has a different character that teaches something (cooking, violin, English, etc). The setting is that you are both a student and the girlfriend of said character. There are six CD's in total, divided in pairs, and the characters make cameo appearances in the CD they are paired with.

This CD has Kanade Yuuto (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru) who is a student at a music university, and your violin instructor. Kanade his attitude towards you is actually slightly different while acting as your teacher or when you are on a date. You yourself seem to be a bit of an airhead this time.

The story starts during class, and I have to say that the single time that I held I violin in my hands I managed to make it sound better than this. Then again I wasn’t specifically aiming for a certain note. After the lesson he walks you home, and when you’ve almost reached home you bump into Kobayashi “Ridai” Michihiro (CV: Hatano Wataru), your childhood friend.

Yuuto and Michihiro are also friends from school, so he invited the both of you to his room to talk a  bit. Michihiro teases Yuuto a lot about the two of you, which isn’t really made any better by you not being able to name anything that you like about Yuuto after he was forced to say what he like about you.

It has been a while since the two of you went on a date, and because he is free the day after you invite him to do something together. And then turn up late yourself. You spend your date shopping for CD’s and other stuff, and eventually go to the park, and rent a boat to go rowing. In the middle of the lake you corner Yuuto asking whether everything is OK because he has been strange lately. Turn out that he was having trouble writing songs lately, but he feels like this date gave him new inspiration.

Yuuto is slightly tsundere, but sweet none the less. To be honest he is quite patient with you as you are causing him all sorts of trouble (in a cute naive way). Just like in the Hanikami Lesson CD he is teased quite a bit by Michihiro (poor guy, even in his own CD is is being teased). Maybe because I listened to this immediately after Hanikami Lesson, but I was way too partial to Michihiro the entire time he was there.

The violin music that played was a nice little touch. I’d like to think of it as the piece of music that Yuuto wrote after your date.


Conclusion:
I’m way too partial to Hanikami lesson, but this was a nice CD as well. Yuuto is very different from Michihiro, which made it easier to enjoy them in different ways.

13/07/2012

Diabolik Lovers Vol.6: Shuu

Two Toriumi reviews so close together and as different as they can be, haha. This was pure coincidence though, because it took me several nights to listen to this CD. Please tell me I am not the only one capable of falling in sleep while listening to this series.


DIABOLIK LOVERS ドS吸血CD Vol.6 逆巻シュウ
 

Company: Rejet
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.05.23
Official site: http://rejetweb.jp/dialover/index.html


Diabolik Lovers is a series that leaves you at the mercy of sadistic vampires. The project features drama CD's, radio broadcasts on NicoNico Live, and a PSP game by Otomate. The drama CD's are the first to be released together with the radio broadcasts, and this is vol.6 featuring Shuu.

Shuu (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) is the oldest of all the brothers, and has a very apathetic attitude. Almost everything is too much trouble, and he doesn't care about anything or anyone. He is also almost always listening to music.

The CD begins with you taking shelter from the rain on your way home. Shuu walks by, says hi, and tries to walk on. Yet for some reason you stop him. He doesn't want to walk home with you, or take shelter because he is already soaked anyway. To make things worse, his earphones break, for which he blames you because you kept him standing in the rain.You get shoved to the ground, and he even steps on your hand, but gets bored real fast and quits. He almost wants to take a nap on the side of the road because he is feeling sleepy before you drag him along running towards home at full speed.

(where on earth you found the strength to do that is a mystery)

Now most of us would probably be like "run to your room before something bad happens!" after all off the shit that went down in the other CD's. But to my surprise you keep following Shuu around. You are worried that he will go to bed in his wet clothes (which he was planning on doing btw) and keep insisting on him changing into something else. Even though he almost strangles you at one point, you keep insisting.

So he tells you that if you want him to change you should just take his clothes of yourself, which you start doing, but you get embarrassed halfway through. Then he orders you to strip, which you do but you hide under the blankets of his bed. Lots of humiliating you later, he starts asking whether you like him, which is when things really go wrong.

He tells you that if you want to stay by his side, you'll have to give him your blood and hands you a knife. So you slice your neck. As if that isn't bad enough he says the wound is too small, so you open it further by pulling it open with your fingers. At this point in the CD I was really considering quitting. I've endured a lot in this series, but this really was too much for me. Somehow I managed to keep listening though. The rest is all dummy head mic , but it is also all bloodsucking and Shuu saying he wants to see more of your expressions of pain.

In all of the other CDs I could feel sympathy for the heroine/listener, but in this CD... You keep bugging Shuu though he obviously wants to be left alone. Over half of the CD his is telling you to leave him alone yet you keep bugging him. And the fact that you are willing to cut your own neck was just *shudders* This is the first time that it was obvious that the heroine really is a do-M and willing to do all sorts of things and willingly suffers pain. That combined with the fact that Shuu doesn't care about you at all was just too much.

I noticed before that there is almost no romance in these CDs. Subaru shows a liiiiitle bit of affection and Kanato is weirdly possessive, but on the whole none of them care about you. I'm the kind of person that can handle do-S and yandere as long as the characters have a little bit of love for you, but this series really is a bit much. The earlier volumes were still bearable, but the further you get the worse you are treated (with the exception of Reiji maybe).

I knew about some stuff in this CD before listening to it, and I have to agree with most people: Yui (the default name of the heroine in the games), WTF are you doing?!?! This CD really was to much for me.

And yet, despite all of the horrors going down in this CD, the background music was so relaxed I fell asleep every single time I listened to it. I ended up searching for the point where I fell asleep the night before and then listening for another 10min before I fell asleep again.


Conclusion
Do not want, Do not want, Do not want, Toriumi sounding sexy, Do not want, Do not want, Do not want, but why am I still interested in the radio show and the VS CD's? Probably mostly because I hope that they will show even just a small shimmer of affection in those...

12/07/2012

Akogare no Situation: Homeraretai

憧れのシチュエーションCD vol.2 褒められたいっ

Company: Gakken
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.02.28


The Akogare no Situation CD series is based on the concept of placing you in a certain situation that you long for/want. (憧れる (akogareru) means "to long for" or "to admire"). That can be being scolded, being protected and in this case; being praised.

The CD starts with you walking into the salon where your boyfriend Aoyagi Yuu(CV: Shimono Hiro) works. He is surprised that you come by so late, and you nearly burst into tears explaining that you had to do overwork because someone else made a mistake. But ---- praises you for properly doing your work, even though the person who made the mistake already went home

You’ve got a rare day off together the next day (Yuu works as a hairdresser, so his days off don’t match yours most of the time) and you decide to go to the amusement park. Despite usually not being able to get out of bed in the morning, you get up early this time, which gets you some more compliments.

While at the amusement park Yuu talks about how you met; apparently you clung to him when you were in the haunted house, only realizing he didn’t belong to your group when you were outside again. Cutest thing ever. But we are here for compliments of course, and don’t worry you’ll get them. You’ve been on a diet and have reached the weight you were aiming for, so lots of compliments there. After that is some souvenir shopping together. And more compliments.

This CD was mostly cute. Yuu is a sweet boyfriend, and he showers you with compliments, but it never gets too much. For all of its cuteness, this CD occasionally snipes you with teasing remarks. Like Yuu suddenly saying that “he had the opportunity to confirm that you lost weight last night”.

One thing that annoyed me a bit were the stops between the tracks and some of the transitions between the scenes. They often felt very abrupt, which kind of breaks the flow of this otherwise very nice CD. This wasn’t the case at all before, nor is it in later entries of the series, so I wonder what happened.

I was really looking forward to the freetalk, because the others I heard were pretty long and mostly hilarious. But Shimono-san his comment is only 3 minutes (the others are closer to 10), and relatively serious. He simply talks about how he is not very good with being complimented.


Conclusion:
The stops are a bit annoying, but otherwise this is cute. Just be prepared for a few snipe attacks to the heart ♥

11/07/2012

Double Score ~Camellia~

Double Score ~Camellia~


Company: BlueMoon
Based on: CD <-> Otome Game
Released: 2012.06.29
Official site: http://www.asgard-japan.com/bluemoon/ds/


Double Score is an upcoming series of otome games where every obtainable character is between 29 and 46 (the heroine is 17). The concept of the game is that "age doesn't matter when it comes to love". Before the games are released however, each character gets a situation CD.The second character to get a CD is Todaka Yousuke (CV: Toriumi Kousuke), a 32 year old salaryman. He works in the same company as Suou but in a different department.

Yousuke is busy finishing his day of work before he can go on a date with you. You haven't seen each other for an entire month, so he is really excited. And I mean really excited. Which both shows during his conversation with himself and the short phone call you make to check whether the date is still on.

Before he can go see you he still needs to visit one client though. The company is about to finish a large project for another company, and to celebrate they are planning to take the (female) president of said company to a host club. Apparently they use that club more often. Todaka just needs to go over some details with the owner, yet instead of the owner Seiya (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke) shows up for the meeting. They enter the host club to go over the details, and while Seiya is getting water (he doesn't want to give anything else), Yousuke gets a mail from you asking which outfit you should wear. He eventually decides on the miniskirt outfit, to which Seiya (who just returned) replies that he is all about legs. Yousuke wonders how on earth Seiya knew what he was thinking, but it turns out he was voicing his thoughts out loud xD

After finishing their own business Seiya says the owner wanted Yousuke to pick a good wine for the shop and hands him some pamphlets. While Yousuke is looking at the wines, Seiya suddenly says he heard a certain someone recently started dating a 17year old girl, causing Yousuke to panic because he doesn't want to talk about it. Eventually it turns out that Yousuke is taking it slow with you because he is afraid that if you cross a certain line, he'll be deciding your future for you. Quite unexpectedly, it is Seiya who tells him that he should voice how he feels before he might not be able to control himself at some point.

It also turns out that Seiya made up the thing about picking a wine, he was just getting back at Yousuke for "using his precious time". So Yousuke hurries of to your meeting point but ends up being one hour late. Luckily, you are also late, but arrive just in time to see him getting hit on by two girls. Of course you misunderstand the entire situation and run of in shock like a proper otome heroine does. And of course Yousuke runs after you.

Cue dummy head mic when he catches up with you. He explains that it was a misunderstanding and you go for dinner as planned. Afterwards you are walking through the park and he tells you it is his dream to live together in the future. You tell him that is your dream as well, which leads to some nice kissing. And Yousuke asking you to stay at his place that night.

All of the things I liked from the first CD are back in this one.The brilliant interactions with the sub-character, the use of sound effect (this time you can hear cars passing by and the rustling of leaves when you are in the park) and the hilarious internal monologues. Yousuke his thoughts are even funnier than those of Suou.

I was quite surprised by Seiya his attitude and personality actually. While he is as snarky as I expected, he also seems like a hard worker and surprisingly serious about relations. I didn't expect him to be the one to give anyone relationship advise. I was also waaaaay too interested in him, to the point of being sad when his part was over. Oh well, in one month his CD will be released as well :D

Yousuke is kind of worried about your age difference in terms of being afraid that he might tie you down, especially if you 'would cross the line', which is why he is holding back on making your relationship, ummmm, physical. I felt that it is a reasonable thing to worry about, you are after all supposed to be only 17. But why he is so relieved when you tell him you want to live with him as well after worrying so long about it is a bit of a mystery to me. It is after all someone of only 17 that says it, as if you are already sure what you want for the rest of your life by then. God I must sound old saying this.

If you've got the first spress edition there is an extra track in which Yousuke answers various questions. Like hat kind of food he like (ramen) and dislikes (bell pepper), and his hobby (eating delicious food). Just like with Suou one of the questions is what kind of underwear he would like you to wear, but unlike Suou he actually answers it; it doesn't matter whether it is cute or sexy - it is all about what is inside.  


Conclusion
Yousuke is quite energetic, and his internal monologues are even more brilliant than Suou his thoughts. Seiya teasing Yousuke was a lot of fun as well (I am clearly focussing on the wrong character here). There is less kissing this time, and more Yousuke being silly.