Sweet Voices is closing down

There have been no updates for two whole years now so I don't expect anyone to check for new posts, but I wanted to make an official post that there will be no more updates on this blog.

The truth is, I have slowly moved on from this hobby. It has been months since I last listened to anything, and I don't think I will get back into it either. People change, hobbies change, and that is OK. I had a great time writing reviews and learned a lot from it, and it was amazing to connect with people who shared the same interests.

For now the blog will remain online, but it will no longer be updated. Thank you all for a great couple years!!

Open for business once again

There is no time like the present to do things, so here we go!

While I initially planned to have more reviews written and ready to post for my re-opening, that didn't work out (surprise surprise). Currently there are about 7 reviews in the release que, waiting to be published automatically. I wanted to have a few more, just to be on the safe side in case I didn't manage to write anything for a week. But I didn't want to stall any longer, so I will just have to work a bit harder with writing reviews!

But be warned! To get back into writing I started with listening to CDs that really interested me. Which resulted in a Hirarin marathon  xD

So be prepared for A LOT of Hirakawa Daisuke related reviews, mwahahahaha!!!

Making a little change

As you might I've noticed I've been so busy lately that I've been having some trouble keeping up with the review schedule, to not even mention the news posts. I still want to write reviews, but with this busy schedule I noticed something.


I've been so busy reviewing new releases that other things I still want to listen to keep getting pushed back. Likewise, I've started to feel like I 'have' to review certain things. And like all things that I 'have' to do I keep postponing them. Listening to drama CDs is my hobby, so I don't want to feel like I have to do this or that.

Which is why I'm going back to just randomly reviewing whatever I feel like listening. That probably means I will review less new releases and more older CDs/ series. Less situation CDs and more normal drama CDs. Of course I will still review new things, after all there is a lot that I'm really interested in. But I also want to give myself the opportunity to listen to other things again.

And occasionally, listening to something and not reviewing it without feeling guilty.

Reviewing takes time. Just listening to a drama CD only takes about an hour. But to write a review I need to listen to it more than once, or re-listen certain parts. Writing a proper review also takes at least 1 to 1.5hrs (if not more). Writing the news easily takes 3hrs or more, lately it has been far more. I don't have much free time at the moment, and I want to spend that doing something that I like.

So if you are wondering why certain new releases haven't been reviewed yet, this is why. Same goes for why I've stopped reviewing certain series halfway through.


That said: I've programmed the blog to automatically publish the few reviews I've written lately over the next two weeks. Hopefully that will give me time to get a regular schedule running again.

First of all: Merry Christmas everyone!!
I hope everyone is having a great time with family and friends and eating lots of yummy foods (^-^)


I'm sorry for the lack of news posts, but the end of the year is a bit hectic for me (although I fully admit that my recent addiction to Tales of Xillia 2 isn't really helping).

I will try to post a large news post between Christmas and New Year, as a sort of late Christmas present~

I have to apologise for the lack of posts, but I just can't find the time to write anything. I hope to get things back on track with the news post this Saturday though.



While I don't have the time to make reviews, the tumblr has a nice que full of scans so there will be some activity there.

Question

If I were to, say, post translations. Would pdf be an acceptable format?

A very drama Christmas

I realized when Halloween creeped by that I had missed a chance to publish some reviews in theme (well, I did review Halloween+Town). So now that Christmas is coming closer I need your inspiration! I'm looking for Christmas themed drama CD to review. If you know any, or know any drama CDs in which Christmas plays a (relatively) large role, or is somehow related to Christmas, please let me know and I'll see whether I can find them fast enough to review them in the week for Christmas :D

Here is a small list of what I found so far:

D.Gray Man - Kuro no Kyoudan Christmas Party
Fushigi Koubou Vol.6: Christmas no Dekigoto
Hanayaka ka na, Waga Ichizoku Drama CD
Persona -trinity soul- The Sound of Christmas
Rozen Maiden Traumend-Christmas  Drama CD
Will'o'Wisp: Christmas no Kiseki (?)


Whether these are actualy suited for a christmas review, haha I don't know. So if you know anything, or maybe even just something overtly winter themed, let me know!! :D

One Year Already

Granted, I've been on a one-and-a-half month Hiatus, but this blog has been around for over a year already!

The first review was actually posted on the 20th of August 2010. The way I did my reviews was pretty different at the time (I think?). Less structured an whatnot. The format has changed a little bit, like how I first posted the romanized title as post title, then switched to Japanese, and then switched back again because it made no sense to have Japanese blogpost titles when I'm reviewing for an English speaking audience (^-^;;)

At some point the weekly news post arrived, because posting all the news in sepparate posts simply flooded the blog. and I had to limit the tags on the right side of the page to just seiyuu names because the list would get endless if I didn't. Posts have been going from randomly timed, to almost daily, to random again, to (for now) daily again. And so on, and so forth.

One thing for which this is an interesting opportunity is analysing stats. Yes. You see, blogger has this nifty feature that keeps track of all kinds of things. Like how many people visit your blog and which posts are read most, and so on. And the results are.... interesting xD

Short vacation

Hello!

Yes yes, I know, it has been a while since I've posted. It seems like I need a little more time to adjust to keeping this blog and actually doing something. What can I say, life is just getting in the way.

Originally I planned to start posting again this month, but after an entire week of festivities in town and with tests just around the corner that is simply not going to work. However, starting the 1st of November this blog will resume it's normal, and with any luck, daily posting schedule. I hope all of you will stick around until then!

Weekly News Post

Good morning, it is 8:00am, this is the morning news.


And we've already reached July! That means all reviews from last month have been added to the review page. I didn't manage to keep to the 1 review a day schedule but I've been trying! And this month I'll just try a little harder to actually make it.

There is also a new blog page: the glossary. Basically a huge list of drama CD related words and their explanation, so that you don't have to be confused when I start using exotic words. An everlasting work in progress, probably. There is another new page planned, but that remains a little secret for now.



Shuukan Soine
I already had my laugh when the first Shuukan Soine pillow covers went on sale, but vol.5 and 6 have their own covers, and pre-orders have opened. Pre-orders end on the 31st of July. You can only order them if you live in Japan though.

Momogre
It looks like momogre (Momo & Grapes Company) is on a nice monthly schedule with releasing more drama CD's based on famous literary works. The next one is called 十五少年漂流記～二年間の夏休み～ (Juugo shounen hyouryuuki ~ninenkan no natsuyasumi~ , the drifting chronicles of 15 boys ~a two year summer vacation~) and will be released 2011.07.28 and is an adaption of Jules Verne his book "Two Years' Vacation"

Another release is set for august:  ドラキュラ～ふたりの吸血鬼～ (dorkyura ~futari no kyuuketsuki~, Dracula ~two vampires~). The story summary states that "Alexander and van Helsing are chasing Count Dracula,  who is chasing after a girl named Mina because she looks exactly like his long dead beloved. While the Count his right hand Mikael (Michael?) does his best to obstruct their path, Alexander and van Helsing manage to track down the Count...

Kannou Mukashi Banashi Portable?!

Yes yes, I know. I've been a slacker in posting again. BUT, I will try and do my best again this month. All reviews from last month have been added to the review list, and new reviews and news are coming up.


And to start with, while checking up on Otomate their endless barrage of games (I will never catch up if they keep on releasing like this) I suddenly found one very interesting entry: Kannou Mukashi Banashi Portable.

There is not much on the official site except for a message saying that it 'will be updated soon'. However it links to the Kannou Mukashi Banashi Official Site, which in return links to the official site for the game, so there is no mistake that there is a Kannou Mukashi Banashi PSP game coming up!!

I wonder what it will be like?

Review page updated + news

All reviews from April have been added to the review page. Didn't manage to post a review every day, but I got close so on the the next month!! There is a lot of new stuff that I want to listen to, so expect new stuff mixed in!


In other news:


The Oujisama (warai) page has been updated with the announcement of an event in july. Although you have to be in Japan to be able to go of course, but if you can't just go and take a look at the new image on top of the page, it is adorable.

The homepage for Zyklus Code will officially open tomorrow, so don't forget to check, although I'm bound to post about it to remember you again ;)

Kannou Jikan 4 has been confirmed for release. The only description that the homepage gives us for now is that "even though his hair is red, his theme color is yellow" and "the setting is more mysterious this time". Messesanoh is proving useful again, as it already shows us the cover, full title and seiyuu. The title is 感応時間4 ～ねじ巻き　帽子屋の観劇ショー～ (Kannou Jikan 4 ~nejimaki boushiya no kangekishoo~ Kannou Jikan 4 ~The show of the clock winding hatter) and the seiyuu this time is Morikawa Toshiyuki, the recordings will start next week right after Golden Week.. I'm just hoping they are improving again, or this will be the second negative review on the site.

Review page update + regular schedule

Just a quick post to let you know that the review page has been updated with the reviews from march.

Also, after a short period of neglect we should be returning to a regular update schedule, meaning one review a day.

Enjoy the new and upcoming reviews and please continue to support this blog~

New Layout, and other things

Well the layout is still mainly green, very green actually, but it now also features Alice? and Alice from Are you Alice?.

I wanted to make a top image, and what better than someone listening to music? Plus the images actually come from the covers of Drama Cds (and bonus points for the fact that it is Alice 8D)

The side menu has also been revamped, with several new additions; links to audiowiki (a wiki page that lists Drama CDs), several Drama CD companies and series, a search function and a new and better list of labels.

I will probably tweak the layout a bit more, but for now it won't see any other major changes. Please let me know what you think,  or if you know something I could add~

Welcome!

Welcome to Sweet Voices!

This is a blog dedicated to introducing various Japanese Drama CD (series). Though I have attempted to listen to Drama CDs before, I seriously started listening to Drama CDs in the summer of 2009. Before that my Japanese wasn't good enough to fully understand what was being said, but more importantly it was a rather boring summer and I needed something to do or listen to while going outside.

Being a fan of all things Alice in Wonderland, the first series that truly made me addicted was Are you Alice? - a brilliantly twisted version of Alice in Wonderland, in which Alice is male. After listening to the entire series, I started looking for other series and have been listening to various Drama's ever since.

Besides trying to explain what Drama is, I'll be introducing and reviewing random Drama CDs that I have been listening too. While I listen to a broad range of things, one of the only things that you probably won't find here are BL CD's. For all the weird stuff I listen too, I've never really been interested in them.

As this blog is only dedicated to introducing/reviewing Drama CDs, please don't ask me where to find or download them. I'd much rather you'd support the makers by buying the actual CDs through Amazon, CD Japan, Yes-asia or any other import site you prefer. ('-'*)⌒ﾟ~*☆ｳﾌﾌ♪