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.