Kakumei no Hi

革命の日

Company: Fairy Co. Ltd
Based on: Manga
Released: 2001.07.28


Kakumei no Hi (the day of the revolution) is a drama CD based on the manga of the same name by Tsuda Mikiyo. The protagonist of the story is Yoshikawa Kei (CV: Takeuchi Junko), who after having lived 18years as a man discovers that he is genetically a woman. Kei decides to surgically become a woman and live as a she from now on.

But that is of course harder than it seems, and Kei (now called Megumi) still acting and talking as a guy doesn't make things easier. Nor does the fact that he still goes to the same high school (although he starts as a first year again) which means running into his old friends. Who recognise him, and to make things more complicated, fall in love with him.

The story mostly centres on Kei coming to terms with the fact that he is female now, and his friends trying to pursue him. Toba Shuji (CV: Suzuki Chihiro), Tachimachi Tadashi (CV: Hasebe Kouichi), Shinmei Kazutoshi (CV: Chiba Susumu) and former classmate but now student council president Kawata Hiroaki (CV: Takemoto Eiji) all want to go out with Kei/Megumi, and they are rather forceful about it. Luckily Kei has Yutaka Makoto (CV: Takimoto Fujiko) who is there to help him have like a proper girl, however she is also trying to get Kei to date with one of his friends (because she believes that that would be easier than getting Kei to date a total stranger).

The story is pretty funny. The whole gender change isn't treated to series, as the main focus is just Kei his/her inability to act as a girl and his former friends falling in love with him. her. This is confusing. I read the manga a long time ago, and I think it follows the manga very acurately, although personally I find the manga better simply because of the hilarious visuals.

Takeuchi Junko her Kei/Megumi is really good. She perfectly captures the bratty Kei, and later Megumi who still acts and talks like a guy, but she can also sound extremely cute. The rest of the characters are ok but not really special. Makoto her bossing people around but being super protective of Kei is somehow endearing too.

The last track is a short side story about how Kawata came to hang out with the rest of Kei his friends. It turns out that when Kei was hospitalized (and left school without a word to his friends) they were all worries about Kei and their mutual interest in finding out what happened to him brought them together (to the extent that they backed Kawata his ambition to become student council president so that he could obtain more info on where Kei went from the shadows xD)



Conclusion:
It is a pretty funny story, but I like the manga better because you've got the visuals of tomboyish Kei.Megumi acting silly. There is a second drama CD for the second vol. of the manga though, and I'm actually a little curious on how that is (because the story develops just a tiny bit more)

God Child - 切り刻まれた食べられたミスプディングの悲劇

God Child - The tragedy of miss Pudding.

The drama is based on the manga by Kaori Yuki. In this volume the stories 'The Tragedy of miss Pudding' and 'A Crooked Fairytale' have been made into a drama. The drama follows the story of the manga closely, almost to the word.

In the first story, the tragedy of miss pudding , Cain investigates two murders in which the victims their belly were cut open, and a plum pudding was found on the scene of the crime. Furthermore, eyewitnesses saw a blond haired girl that was singing the Plum Pudding Rhyme from Mother Goose (speaking of which, the rhyme has been altered for this story). He meets a young woman who despite just being married asks to spend the night at his place. It turns out that she is convinced that she committed the murders in her sleep...

I quite liked this story. Partway through you can guess how it will end, but it is interesting none the less. The drama is clearer on some parts, while the manga explains other details better (for example the plum pudding). It made me want to make plum pudding... (considering what happened to those in the story that isn't really a logical choice, but I still want to make it xD). Also, I forgot that Cain is such a flirt xD

A Crooked Fairytale is a story from when Cain was younger. One of Cain his maids has been smuggling antiques out of the  mansion to sell together with her lover. One night while the two meet they are overheard and kill whoever it was, only to discover that it was the young Count Cain that they killed. They quickly bury the corpse underneath the Juniper tree, however the next day Cain shows up somewhat shaken but alive.

You don't get what is going on in this story until the end (unless you've read the manga, of course). It was a pretty good short story... I really don't know what else to say about it. It is good but not fantastic. Once again the drama is clearer on some points while the manga is clearer on others. In this case it might be somewhat difficult to understand what happened to the maid if you didn't read the manga.



The drama was recorded with a 3D recording technique, making it sound as if the characters move around you. I didn't know that that technique was already used so many years ago, so that was a bit of a pleasant surprise. Of course the effect isn't as clear as with recent drama's, but it is definitely there. Especially Cain suddenly 'appearing' on one side was a rather nice effect <3

One thing that I noticed is that while the music is great, it plays for  too long. This is only the case at the end of each story (when the story it's theme is played again), but the music simply goes on for about 30 seconds too long. Other than that I have don't have any major minor points.



Count Cain/ God Child is a wonderfully dark manga by Kaori Yuki, and if dark fairytale like stories aren't your thing then this drama is not for you. I mostly recommend this to people who already know the manga, otherwise you probably miss a lot background. It is not like it is impossible to understand without prior knowledge, but knowing all kinds of story background and/or character relations probably does make it easier. That and it is simply nice to hear these stories with sound, as the drama is completely loyal to the manga it really feels like the manga with sound.