Landscape ~ano natsu no negai~

 

Landscape ～あの夏の願い～

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2009.09.29
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/landscape/land_top.html


Landscape could be described as a bitter-sweet love story mixed with several kaidan (horror stories). You visit the village where you once spend a summer at your grandma's as a small child, and run into a childhood friend while at a festival.

At first you don't seem to remember Hiro (CV: Ishida Akira), but when he talks about how you used to play together every day during one summer vacation you get a feeling that you indeed know him. Now that you are back Hiro wants to show you the fireflies, he apparently knows a place where there are hundreds of them.

While walking there he talks about that summer you spend together as kids, and how you loved scary stories. He was always scared of them, but you never seemed to be afraid. He decides to try and scare you now, so while you are walking he tells several scary stories.

Between those stories Hiro talks about the summer that you spend together, and there are occasional hints that it wasn't all fun and games, such as Hiro mentioning "that there are some things that are better not remembered".

The first kaidan is about a few boys that go and play hide and seek in the school after it has closed. One of them hides in an out of use bathroom, and encounters something there...

The second kaidan is about a doll. A boy moves into the room of his grandmother after she has passed away. There he finds the doll she used to take care of all the time carefully packed away in a box. He moves it to the storage, but somehow it keeps returning to the room...

The final story is about a boy that drowned while trying to save a girl he liked. When he wakes up he is in a mysterious place, and continues to wander there. When he realizes that he seems to be going somewhere without return, he tries his best to return to where he came from.

This last story, together with all the hints that Hiro has been dropping and his saving you from falling make you remember that you went to see the fireflies together before but never got to see them, and why.

It is fairly obvious where the story is headed when you are listening. But even when it is so obvious, the ending is still very sad. I didn't expect this when I started to listen, but I nearly cried at the end. Part of this is probably because the hints give you an idea of what to expect, but you lack the details to known what exactly happened, when Hiro tells you those things in the end all the feels come rushing in.

The kaidan aren't too scary, which is probably because they are relatively short. They might raise a few goosebumps, but that is it. What I didn't realize until I saw it mentioned on the official site, is that they used the dummy head mic for some of the sound effects. After re-listening some of the tracks I did notice it, and it does explain why those sounds effects really creep me out (the sound of the doll's hair for example)


Conclusion:
This CD is only moderately scary (if you'd compare it to something like Kurayamigatari it is almost cute). But the main point isn't the kaidan but the bitter sweet story about the summer that you and Hiro spend together as children. Despite being predictable it was really effective on that part. So all in all a slightly scary CD that drowns (see what I did there?) you in bitter-sweet feelings at the end.

万葉恋歌 ～藤の章～

Manyourenka - Fuji no Shou

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Manyoushuu
Released: 2009.02.14
Official Site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/manyou_top.html


万葉恋歌 (Manyou Renka, "Manyou Love Poem") is a series by Honey Bee that is based on the Manyoushuu. Written in ancient Japanese most of these poems are hard to understand, but this series explains the poems and turns them into a comprehensible story.

This is the second volume (released simultaneously with the first though) and is voiced by Yusa Kouji. The story this time starts while our characters are in their last year of college. Yusa plays the role of a bit of a ladies man, who plays around with several girlfriends. He also shows an interest in you, the listener, though this seems to be a bit more serious. However due to a misunderstanding he assumes that you have someone else you like.

Like the first volume each track is an interpretation of a classic poem. At the end of each scene the poem it is based on is read and its explanation is given. However it might me the atmosphere of the work, but I felt like the poems were less fitting this time. Still I'm impressed how they make a single story out of all these unrelated poems.

Again, track 21 to 39 are all of the poems used in this work.


Conclusion:
While I enjoyed the first one more this is still a nice story. One thing that bothered me however is that Yusa his voice acting somehow sounds unnatural to me at times (heaven knows why, because his acting is usually superb).

万葉恋歌 ～桜の章～

Manyourenka ~Sakura no Shou~

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Manyoushuu
Released: 2009.02.14
Official Site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/manyou_top.html

万葉恋歌 (Manyou Renka, "Manyou Love Poem") is a series by Honey Bee that is based on the Manyoushuu. Written in ancient Japanese most of these poems are hard to understand, but this series explains the poems and turns them into a comprehensible story.

This is the first volume and is voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi. Story-wise, our main character accidentally bumps into a girl on his way home. The encounter ends with each of them apologizing to the other, but he can't get her out of his mind. After a long while of simply being happy sometimes seeing her on the way home he finally finds the courage to ask her out.

What is interesting in this case is not the story, which is sweet and enjoyable on it's own, but how they managed to link different poems from the Manyoushuu to it. Each track ends with a poem and it's explanation. So each track is effectively a modern situation interpretation of a poem.

Classical Japanese never has and never will be my forte, but I don't think I would ever manage to grasp the meaning of these poems without someone explaining them to me. Interesting enough, they've managed to combine these poems that are not related at all into a single story. Writing a scenario to one poem must be tricky enough, but combining several poems into one story is truly an achievement if you ask me.

As a bonus (I suppose?) all of the poems are included as separate tracks after the main drama.


Conclusion:
Maybe partly because it is based on classical poems, or maybe it is the soundtrack that uses classical Japanese instruments, but the entire atmosphere is very calm. The story is really sweet and it interesting to hear the interpretations that they've made to these poems. Recommended for a day on which you feel like listening to something calm and a bit heartwarming.

Seiza Kareshi Series vol.3 Starry☆Sky ~Pisces~

The Starry☆Sky series introduces 12 ''boyfriends"to you, and each CD has a different character> Their personality is based on the zodiac horoscope, hence the title which translates into something like 'zodiac boyfriend'. This is the third CD and introduces Nanami Kanata, his character is based on the image of the Pisces.

Kanata's story actually begins with him confessing to you. He is so bashfull it made me laugh, and it was a brilliant ice breaker. (yes even with drama CD's you need to get used to each other xD). Despite being very bashfull, Kanata actually acts very together. As long as you don't embarras him you've got a very get together boyfriend.

He also isn't as lovey-dovey as the other two (all the characters in the series have a bit of a habit of emphathizing that you are boyfriend-girlfriend) which is a good thing in my opion, your going out feels more natural. His image bgm is also rather interesting, you'll get my point when you listen to it ( ' ~ ' )

The fact that you are childhood friends isn't really shown in the drama cd though. In one of the final tracks you talk a bit about it, but other than that the fact is left unspoken. Same goes for the fact that he has a weak body, he only mentions it once in a matter of fact manner. If you've played the game (Starry Sky in Spring) you know that you are childhood friends and that despite getting into fight a lot he actually has a weak body. It would have ben nice if it would have been shown more in the CD, but it is not like you are missing out on anything. It might actually be better that you are not constantly worrying about him.

Kanata really made me laugh at some points, and the first to actually make me talk back. Although my reactions were quite different from the actual reactions in the CD (>v<) It is a light hearted but sweet CD, and one of my favorites in the series.

Seiza Kareshi Series vol.2 - Starry☆Sky - Aquarius –

The Starry☆Sky series introduces 12 ''boyfriends"to you, and each CD has a different character. Their personality is based on the zodiac horoscope, hence the title which translates into something like 'zodiac boyfriend'. This is the second volume, the character this time is Amaha Tsubasa, who is based on the image of the Aquarius.

Like the first CD the tracks show you going on a date, celebrating your birthday, making phone calls etc. Tsubasa's character is completely different though, he is very lively almost bordering on childish, which is something he is always worried about. Throughout the CD he is pre-occupied with not acting childish, as a result of which he does seem somewhat childish of course. The energy is refreshing though, too bad it also gave me a feeling like I was interacting with a cute little brother rather than my boyfriend (^-^;;) The few moments he is not worrying about acting childish or grown up is matury rating soars sky high though.

There are some really sweet moments, I especially like the birthday track in which he gives you 'his future'as a present. A bit of a heavy present but the way he gave it was very sweet. The track where you take a walk in the park and he starts talking about the future after seeing a family with kids was also suprisingly sweet, as well as finally showing a more mature side.
 
The voice acting is very lively, his way of talking sort of gave me the image of a cross over between a brat and the kind of people you find in shibuya though xD But like I said the energy is refreshing and addictive.

Seiza Kareshi Series vol.1 - Starry☆Sky ~Capricorn~

The Starry☆Sky series introduces 12 ''boyfriends"to you, and each CD has a different character> Their character is based on the zodiac horoscope, hence the title which translates into something like 'zodiac boyfriend'. This is the first volume, the character Tomoe Yoh, who is based on the image of the Capricorn.

I don't know whether this would have been the best character to start with, because Yoh sort of clings to you. Though that may just be my personal dislike of characters who dote over you so much, as well my experience with the related games. The fact that Yoh is half French and uses some badly pronounce french didn't really make it better either. If you like overly sweet characters though, this might be a good CD for you.

The different tracks show you going on a date, celebrating your birthday, various phone calls (wake up call and goodnight call) a lecture on something related to the character,  as well as the character reading your horoscope. All of them are of course tooth ache inducingly sweet.

Starry☆Sky has become a rather large franchise with the character cd's, drama cd's featuring multiple characters, games, and soon an anime as well. If you want to get the most out of it I highly recommend at least playing the games as well though, first because they are quite fun and second because combining the various media makes the characters much deeper. You'll see new sides of the characters when you listen to/ play more of the material.

Normally I'm quite a fan of Midorikawa Hikaru but... well Yoh is just so sweet it starts to turn me off. He did an amzing job on the super sweet voice, it was just slightly wasted on me (^-^;;)

Starry☆Sky is probably what introduced me to the concept of a character on the drama cd talking as if you were there. That means the character talks to you, and there are slight pauses in which you apparently say something back, and from the reaction of the character you know what you apparently just said. That was you can go on dates and that kind of things. I admit, it sounds rather weird and the first time I quit half-way through because I just couldn't take it seriously and kept laughing. Once you get used to it though it is a lot of fun.