Weekly News Post

Momo&Grapes
MomoGre is releasing another drama CD adaption of a famous book, this time they are doing the Phantom of the Opera. オペラ座の怪人～愛と哀しみの鎮魂歌～ (opera no kaijin ~ai to kanashimi no requiem~, The Phantom of the Opera ~A Requiem of Love and Sadness~) is planned for a 2013.05.21release.

The phantom will be voiced by Hirata Hiroaki, Christine by Noto mamiko, Raoul by Hatano Wataru, and the Persian ('Daroga') by Tanaka Atsuko. I'm sure others will be surprised that Daroga is being voiced by a woman (while he is very much male in the original story), but Tanaka Atsuko has a deep voice and has voiced male characters before, so I assume that they haven't suddenly changed his gender and that it will all work out in some way (MomoGre has my complete trust when it comes to adaptions like these).


Ojisama VS Wakazou
Staying with Momogre for a moment, a second CD in their Ojisama VS Wakazou series was announced a while ago. The idea of this series is that it puts veteran seiyuu against younger seiyuu (I'm saying younger, because the difference is not as extreme as the title implies). This second CD has Horiuchi kenyuu VS Sakurai Takahiro.

Storywise The heroine (meaning the listener) is just a normal OL. After breaking up with your boyfriend a couple of years ago you are taking a break from romance as a whole. And then one day Ishinose Minato(?), one of your co-workers, asks you out. In order to reject him you make a plan to draw the attention of his older brother Yuusei and father-and-company-president Yasuaki(?), but the two of them end up falling in love with you for real.

This description leaves me puzzled as there seem to be 3 people involved, and Momogre has given no details on who is voiced by who, although I think it is safe to assume that Yasuaki will be voiced by Horiuchi Kenyuu. The CD is planned for a 2013.04.25 release (in Momogre their own shop, that probably means that it will be available in other places a little later).

End of the Year News Post Part 2

Mikkai
The main visual for the third Mikkai CD is up on the official site. The character for the third CD is Sagara Misaki (CV: Nojima Kenji) who is a high school teacher. He doesn't stand out much, and seems kind but this is actually due to the fact that he doesn't have much interest in the people around him. The CD is planned for a 2013.02.22 release.


Momo&Grapes
Multiple new releases from MomoGre are on the way.

In Februari another CD with readings of Miyazawa Kenji his stories will be released. The CD includes several of his stories, each read by a different seiyuu: Kamiya Hiroshi reads Chuumon no Ooi Ryouriten (the restaurant of many orders), Nakai Kazuya reads Neko no Jimusho (The Cat's Office) and Ame ni mo Makezu Kaze ni mo Makezu (Be not Defeated by the Rain), and Ishida Akira reads Hokushuu Shougun to Sanninkyoudai no Isha (The Northern Shougun and the Three Doctor Brothers)

In March a new addition to their Men's Only series will be released: this time they are doing an adaption of the Genji Monogatari. The cast list is as follows Hikaru Genji (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki), Fujitsubo (CV: Kishio Daisuke), Yugao (CV: Takeuchi Ken), Aoi (Toriumi Kousuke), Rokujou (CV: Nakai Kazuya), Murasaki (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke), Oborotsukiyo (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya), Tou no Chuujou (CV: Miyauchi Atsushi). This looks like an awesome cast and I am looking forward to everyone playing the female parts, but I keep imagining Genji like he is in the Oujisama (warai) series...

Weekly News Post (part 1)

Once again, this news post is late because I was in London for the weekend. The main reason was to see the Final Fantasy Anniversary Concert, which was amazing! But I've also seen lots of the pretty architecture all over town, and went to see Top Hat on Saturday as well (I have a weakness for old movies and musicals). But on to the news, yes.



Oujisama (warai)

The cover for the third CD has been revealed on the official site. They will start releasing previews of the scenario somewhere later this month as well.






Otoko no Ko
The Otoko no Ko series is getting a manga adaption. It will be published at the Comic Zero Sum Online  site starting 2012.12.10 and will be illustrated bu Nerisuke. Hopefully the comic will raise some more popularity so that we will get another drama CD as well (^-^)

Weekly News Post

I am slowly getting better at this. The day I will actually make my own deadline is near. Hopefully.



Honeymoon

We all it knew this would come sooner or later; the next Honeymoon CD has been announced. This time Okumura Chiharu (CV: Ishida Akira) will take you to Turkey. Chiharu is a history teacher, so you will be visiting a few ruins in Turkey among other things. Chiharu is described as having a sexy aura, but it is hard to guess what he is thinking.

Sasayaki Micchaku   

The series continues, this time with a fortune teller. Sawatane Tsukumo (CV: Okamoto Nobuhiko) is an apprentice fortune teller, and that is about everything that the official site tells us about him. Judging from his character image he looks like a cheerful innocent type, but who knows. His design is very different from the first three characters, who all had more of an adult atmosphere. The CD is planned for a 2012.11.14 release.

Drama Recommendations

a while ago an anon asked me whether I could recommend a few drama CD's. The urge to just recommend everything (minus a few) is incredibly large, but I took a while to go through everything that I've listened to so far and made a list of things that I can really recommend.

So lets start with the series:


Hougen Renai

What I love most about this series is that it use all kinds of different dialects, and that the heroine has a voice. Each CD has two characters, each with their own dialect. The concept in each CD is that the heroine (who speaks standard Japanese) travels somewhere for work and meets a local guy there.

The romance in this series develops pretty naturally, and thanks to the fact that the heroine has a voice it allows for a bit more complicated scenario's. Some dialects might be a bit tricky to understand in the beginning, but it is definitely fun to listen to. I still check the official site every so often, secretly hoping that they will continue some day.

My favourite entries to this series are probably vol.1 and vol.4, although I really loved the Niigata story (voiced by Hirakawa Daisuke) as well.

Oujisama (warai)

This is seriously one of the funniest series I know. I think it started as a spin-off series of Meisaku Bungaku (warai), but by now it has spin-off CDs of it's own. The CDs tell various fairytales from the perspective of the prince, while their personalities are turned into something completely different and usually they have hilarious quirks.

The first two CDs each had three princes, each having their own unrelated story and a final 'zadankai' track in which all three of them have a drink and have some (hilarious) conversation. In the later CDs one new prince was introduced, while characters from earlier CDs act as supporting cast. The series is getting longer and longer but it is still as hilarious as in the beginning. They've started using running gags, and frequently mention that they know they are in a drama CD series (fourth wall, what fourth wall?).

Shirayuki (Snow White), Cinderella, and Ibara (Sleeping Beauty) are probably my favourite characters in the series. There is no way I can choose a favourite CD though, they are all brilliant.



Are you Alice?

In Are you Alice? a male Alice wanders into wonderland and is subsequently involved in 'the game to kill the white rabbit'. The main story is told in three drama CDs -Drink me, Check Mate, and Call me- but there are several expansions to the story and an incredible amount of tokuten (bonus) mini drama's.

The main story is rather dark, and switches between being serious and ironic humour. Ninomiya Ai her ability to write sarcasm into almost any situation is one of the main charms of this series, though it also has a very good story. Don't expect everything to be clearly explained though, this series leaves it up to you to connect many of the dots.

The unbirthday series expands on the original story by telling the background of several of the characters. While chronologically mosty taking place before the original story you will need to know the story or you will miss out on a lot of things. Like the original series, this is dark and more serious.

The Tea Party side dramas are less serious and more comical, depicting a few events during Alice his stay in wonderland. One of the charms of this series are the tokuten CDs though; they are mostly complete crack. The whole cast acts out of character - or the entire setting is changed- and the dialogue is often a chain of witty comments, sarcasm, and puns. There are more serious tokuten CDs as well, but most of them are completely hilarious.

This is the series that got me hooked on drama CDs, it all started with this. It is also the cause for my incredible Sakurai bias. Only recommended for people that like dark fairytales or darker stories, and don't mind doing a bit of thinking to figure out what is going on exactly on.



Momo&Grapes Men's Only

While the individual CDs in this series have nothing to do with each other, all of the ones I listened to were very interesting and all of them were very good adaptions of the original story.

As you can guess by the title all of the seiyuu in each CD are all male, yet they did stories like Alice in Wonderland, A Little Princess, and even one based on a novel published by Tiara Bunko (a publisher that specializes in candlelight novels). It takes a little while to get used to, but after a few minutes you are completely used to the voices and it never felt unnatural. It is almost a crime how cute some of these heroines sound.

Most -if not all- of them are also very faithful adaptions of the original stories. They stick close to the originals without taking too much liberty or skipping things. The voice acting is always incredible, and if you ask me these are some of the best drama CD adaptions ever.

The stories that they did are Romeo and Juliet,  The Rose of Versailles (series), Little Women, Beauty and the Beast, Ribon no Kishi, Bluebeard, Alice in Wonderland, Oboreru hodo Hana wo ageru, and a Little Princess.

Fushigi Koubou Shoukougun

ふしぎ工房症候群 (fushigi koubou shoukougun) translates into something like 'mysterious workshop syndrome'. The mysterious workshop in the title is what binds all of the stories in this series together. The shop can only be found by someone who is lost and really needs it, and is run by an old man, who sells 'happiness'

Each story is told by a (high profile) voice actor who both tells the story and acts out certain characters. The story is told from the perspective of the main character, and mostly centers on that person his thoughts. In each story the main character is going through a troubled period or trauma, and the mysterious workshop becomes a turning point in their lives.

The story is told from the perspective of the main character, so you hear their thoughts and feelings. The series is written really, really well, and each story is a very emotional one. I cried more than once listening to this series. While dealing with very emotional topics, the message is always "after rain comes sunshine" and that if you are willing to try you'll be able to find happiness, even though it might be different from what you expect. This doesn't mean every story has a happy end though, but the main character always resolves to move forward, and that emotional journey is what makes this series so special. That they manage to do this in every single CD without making it feel corny only shows how well written it is (and how good the seiyuu are).

What is interesting in that none of the characters in this series have a name. Everyone is always referred to as "he:", "she" "that guy" etc. The main character is also always referred to simply as "me" (although all of the main characters are male, with the exception of the last few stories). Hearing a seiyuu do different roles in one story is also interesting, and you can hear the amazing voice range that most of them have.

Several of the stories have been turned into normal drama CDs, with sepparate actors for each character. While these are all very good as well, the original series had more emotional impact in my opinion.

"Hitoribochi no Tanjoubi", "Christmas no Dekikoto", "Saigo no Negai" and "Yami" are some of my own favourites, but to be honest all of them are incredibly good.



Kannou Mukashi Banashi

One of the first series to spread the use of the dummy head mic, each CD in this series has several seiyuu telling well known stories and/or fairytales in a slightly different way. The stories are faithful to their originals, but somewhere halfway through the wording usually slips into double wording, combine that with the dummy head mic and the result can be very eroi.

Each CD has a theme for all of the stories: Japanese folklore, Andersen fairytales, Kaidan (horror), Grimm Fairytales, Greek Myths, Sengoku period, and finally Japanese folklore again. And of course the Romeo and Julliet special story.

In the first few the amount of ero wasn't that much, but it increases with the later CDs. It never reaches the amount of ero of several other series that focus on that though. Each CD has three stories told by sepparate seiyuu, and one story done by everyone. The introductions done by Inoue Kazuhiko are also on of the selling points. In each CD he tests whether your earphones/headphones are working properly, with suitably questionable wording.

The slight ero/ doki doki factor is of course the focus of this series, but besides that the stories are all simply done very well. The voice acting is good, the way they tell it interesting, and they manage to keep close to the originals (except maybe in the Sengoku one, in which everything but the historical data is pure fiction)

My own favourite is vol.3 - the horror one. The mix between horror and semi-ero is an interesting one. Although the scare factor of the dummy head mic left the larger impression (even though it is nothing compared to Kurayamigatari)

Double Score

This is still a new series and not even all CDs are out yet, and against all odds I am loving it. The CDs tie in with a series of otome games with the same title, and the concept is that age doesn't matter when it comes to love. All of the guys in the series are older (28 or older) while the heroine is 17.

I didn't like the setting and was completely uninterested until I heard some of the preview tracks. Each CD features one of the guys as your boyfriend, along with a sub-character. The scenes between these two characters are what made the series for me. Their conversation are often so hilarious that I can't help but love it.

Other than that I think the use of sound effects is done pretty good in this series (and the use of the dummy head mic) and most of the situation parts (where your boyfriend talks directly to you) are done pretty OK as well, without him repeating too much of what you are supposedly saying. Some of the parts together are pure fanservice in terms of sweet talk and kissing though.





 And then there are a few single CDs that I'd like to recommend:

Don't cry girl

This is the story of a girl named Taeko, who for several silly reasons has to start living with a firend of her parents. The only problem is that the guy in question , Masuda, is kind of an idiot and likes to walk around naked at home. All the time. To make things worse his best friend Jinnai is a pervert, and Taeko her own two best friends are oblivious to their weird actions.

Kurayami Gatari 

This is a horror story that uses the dummy head mic, and the effect is chilling. The setting is that you are hunted by something and visit a certain story teller in order to solve that problem. He tells you two stories: your own story and a very similar one.

The dummy head mic is used with great effect to scare you. In various ways. I'm not good with horror to begin with, but I've listened to a few horror stories and this one is definitely in  the top ranks when it comes to being scary.

Besides that, the entire CD is voiced by Tsuda Kenjirou, who voices several very different roles. Every role sounds completely different though, and I can't help but be amazed by such vocal versatility.



Akogare no situation CD 01- Shikararetai

I can't recommend the entire series because later entries are more average, but the first one is pure gold. While this is a situation CD, don't expect many sweet lines, instead the character spends most of his time reprimanding you for everything that you do. Literally everything.

Of course the entire setting is light hearted so the end result is more comical than anything else. Morita Masakazu did this CD with so much energy, it is really amazing. I really like this CD, and I just want to recommend it to everyone.

Toubousha

While the setting is really different, it is somehow very similar to the above one (even having the same seiyuu). In Toubousha you are more or less kidnapped by someone who is on the run. But it turns out soon enough that he isn't entirely bad and doesn't exactly know what to do with the situation either. Which results into a similar kind of commenting on and complaining about almost everything that you do and say.

While the beginning of the CD was more thriller orientated, the middle part is far more comical. This was something that I really didn't expect, but loved anyway. However the CD also has a bad end option, and prepare the tissues when you plan on listening to that.The fact that it has more of a story than the Shikararetai CD makes it very different, so I can recommend this as well. Did I also mention it is entirely recorded with the dummy head mic?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

These are my recommendations, I guess?
Haha, it is really difficult to choose from so many interesting concepts. In the end I decided think about which series I would be most excited about if a new CD would be announced.

If you think it weird that several big name series (Shuukan Soine, Honeymoon, anything by Honey Bee) is missing from this list: of course those are great series as well. These are just my personal favourites (and Shuukan Soine was very close to getting on the list, but I can't keep adding things).

Some people might also know that I'm a Yandere Heaven fan, so why isn't that on the list? Basically because I made this list of recommendations for everyone, and something like Yandere Heaven isn't for everyone to enjoy. I'm happy to see a lot of equally twisted people other fans here and on tumblr, but unless you know what yandere is (and love it) that series is probably something you should stay away from. (But everyone that is now intrigued is of course encouraged to give it a try).



These are my favourites, but if anyone is looking for further recommendations just leave a comment. If you give me examples of things you like (series, seiyuu, character types, etc) I'll try my best to recommend other things! Of course, other people are also welcome to give their recommendations :)

Weekly News Post

Hello there! Today’s news post comes with a few side notes. Next week there won’t be a news post because I am on a short vacation to Italy. I will do my best to make a news post in the weekend of 21-22 July but I can’t promise anything...

Because I’ll be busy with preparations for my second vacation: 4 weeks of Japan!! Which means that there won’t be any news posts from July 28 till August 18-ish, nor will I be able to reply to any comments or post anything on tumblr because I will be busy traveling around Japan trying to meet friends and bankrupting myself by buying lots of games and CD’s. (Which I won't be able to play or listen to until I get back, haha)

Because I already had an involuntary hiatus 2 months ago, I’m trying to keep the blog active during that time. But that means all posts will be queued so that they will post automatically. I will have to apologise for any spelling or grammar mistakes during that time. I’m currently working fulltime to be able to afford all of this, and I simply don’t have the time (or energy) to check them as thoroughly as I usually do.

And now, on to the actual news!!


Oujisama (warai)

I already interpreted the zadankai in the last CD as a confirmation that there would be more releases, and while they might be a little bit different from what I expected my wish has been fulfilled!!

Starting October 2012 three new CDs titled “Oujisama (warai) Date CD” will be released. There are now nine princes, so I’m guessing there will be three princes for each CD. Of course, as this is Oujisama (warai) that we are dealing with I doubt the CDs will be very serious, but just imagine dating some of them. This is going to be hilarious. More info will be released soon on the official site.

Also: the cover for the first Radio CD is on the right.

Weekly News Post

Late News Post is late as always. Also, all reviews from May have been added to the review page. We've reached over 200 reviews, yay!!



Shinsengumi Mokuhiroku Wasurenagusa
Rejet is working on something new: 新撰組黙秘録勿忘草 (Shinsengumi Mokuhiroku Wasurengusa, Shinesengumi Secret Files Forget-me-not, after this simply Wasurenagusa) is a series of situation CD's based on the Shinsengumi and the concept "what if I could have been there". The series will use the Dummy Head Mic.

6CD's have been planned for now: Saito Hajime (CV: Takahashi Naozumi) on 2012.07.25, Okita Souji (Image to the right, CV: Suzuku Tatsuhisa) on 2012.08.29, Kondou Isame (CV: Inoue Kazuhiko) on 2012.09.26, Toudou Heisuke (CV: Shimono Hiro) on 2012.10.31, Hijikata Toshizou (CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa) on 2012.11.28, and finally Yamazki Susumu (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki) on 2012.12.26.

With each CD comes a ticket, if you buy all 6 you can apply for a special drama CD which has all of the characters interacting with each other. So far this seems to be a drama CD only series, but you never know what Rejet has planned for us...



Ojisama Senka
The cast for Ojisama Senka vol. 5 and 6 have been announced. Vol.5 will have Genda Tesshou, Hamada Kenji, and Tobita Nobuo. Vol.6 will have Ishizuka Unshou, Ebara Masashi, and Touichi Hiroki. The titles for both vol aren't final yet, but for now they are titled "itsumo no tokoro de" and "escape".

When the cast for vol.5 was announced it first said that it would be Hayami Shou instead of Tobita Nobuo, but one day later an apology saying that this was false. Tobita Nobuo was announced as cast one day after that. The apology mentions "a confirmation mistake on behalf of [his] agency" as the reason why he can no longer participate.

A mobile game on Gree has also been released, but unfortunately I have no further info on that.

Shoukoujo Sarah Monogatari

 

小公女物語

Company: Momo&Grapes
Based on: A Little Princess
Released: 2012.01.26


Shokoujo Sarah Monogatari is based on the novel "a Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a fairly well known story, and I think most of us will have heard of it in one way or another, whether someone told it or through the anime or one of it's film adaptions. This is part of Momo&Grapes their Men's Only series, meaning that all character are voiced by male seiyuu.

Sarah Crewe (CV: Okamoto Nobohiko) has crown up in India as the daughter of a wealthy English soldier stationed there. Wishing to give her a proper education, her father (CV: Yamauchi Kenji) sends her to a school in England. To make sure that she will be short of nothing he gives her lots of new clothes and things, and she gets one of the largest bedrooms in the entire school (at the time schools were often boarding schools at the time).

Sarah is well mannered and thanks to her kind attitude and wits quickly makes friends within the school, among them a classmate named Ermengarde (CV: Suganuma Hisayoshi) and the servant girl Becky (CV: Takeuchi Ken). On the other hand, the previous star of the school, Lavenia (CV: Kishio Daisuke) grow jealous of her, and the school principal Miss Minchin (CV: Miki Shinichirou) dislikes her from the start.

But Sarah her fun school days soon end: on her 16th birthday Miss Minchin informs her that her father has died from illness, and because he invested his entire fortune in a mine without profit Sarah is now penniless. Miss Minchin keeps her as a servant, and Sarah is moved from her luxurious room to a small and dark room in the attic.

Lavenia immediately grabs her chance to bully Sarah, but Sarah tries to remains positive. Seeing Sarah try so much Lavenia decides to frame her: she hides a broach she owns in Sarah her room and claims she stole it. Everyone in the school thinks Sarah really did steal it and starts to avoid her.

It is around this time that Sarah meets Ramdas (CV: Yoshino Hiroyuki) a servant from the house next to the school. He owns a little monkey that escaped and found it's way into Sarah her room, and climbs after it to catch it, and the two become friends.

However the school board decides that Sarah must leave the school, and she is thrown out on the street. With no money, and no one to help her find a job Sarah has a hard time. When she finally obtains some money to buy herself some bread, she sees another hungry girl and gives her most of her bread. By coincidence Lamdas sees this and decides to help her....

As always MomoGre their adaption is very faithful to the original. The amount of male seiyuu acting out believable girls in CD is also amazing. Maybe it is partly because they also got to do some really girly talk, but it took me almost no time at all to get used to. Okamoto is usually cute, so the jump to a believable girl isn't too hard. Takeuchi Ken his Becky is so girly it is almost scary though.

Kishio Daisuke his Lavenia also makes my skin crawl. It makes you wonder where he learned to act like an evil bitch like that. Lavenia her tsundere moment in the ending is priceless though. Yoshino Hiroyuki surprised me in an entirely different way. I'm used to his type voice ranging from flirty to gyaruo to host, but not as a 100% perfect butler. I wish he did this more often.

The cast talk isn't too special. It is interesting to hear all those seiyuu that were convincing girls just a few seconds ago talk normally again though. Okamoto saying that it was hard to do the "kyaa!" because it is just to girly was cute though.

Conclusion:
Sarah her life takes a 180% turn in this as she falls from school princess to servant, but luckily she remains positive or this might have become really annoying. Luckily they avoid all of that and it is a cute and (voice technically) amazing story to listing to. Momogre their works are usually good, and this is no exception.

Weekly News Post

Well, bi-weekly in this case because I was on a holiday :3



Dousei Kareshi
Black Butterfly is starting a new series: Dousei Kareshi (dousei means "living together"). The series is all about living together with your boyfriend, but not just the sweet parts. As the intro page states: "Living together with someone, that is fun. hard. getting mad. fighting.hunting one another. and being happy. But even then, always wanting to be 'together'" The official site is just a teaser page at the moment, but I like the character designs and I'm curious how the series will turn out.

EDIT: Turns out Dousei Kareshi will be an otome game series, not a CD series! Dousei Kareshi will release in three games: Butterfly Lip, Butterfly Gloss, and Butterfly Rouge. Each game will feature a different character. As this is about living together with your boyfriend you already start out while dating, so I suppose there will be at least one bad ending (where you split up. Or die) and multiple good endings. The games will use the dummy head mic (can't have anything BB without it xD) and will be released on PC, and will be priced around 3000yen each.


Diabolik Lovers Versus
If you thought the nose bleeding and fainting would stop now that Shuu his CD has been released you are mistaken. Rejet has just announced three new Dialover CD's: Diabolik Lovers Versus.

Each CD has two characters trying to win your love blood. On 2012.08.29 it will be Ayato (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru) VS Shuu (CV: Toriumi Kousuke). On 2012.09.26 Raito (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke) VS Subaru (CV: Kondo Takashi). And on 2012.10.24 Kanato (CV: Kaji Yuuki) VS Reiji (CV: Konishi Katsuyuki). Somebody please mark that last one as the day of my death, I don't think I'll survive listening to it...

Weekly News Post

You might have noticed that there are some reviews missing in the last few days, that is because someone stole my earphones while I was at the gym, so I can't listen to stuff on the go until I've found a new pair of acceptable earphones. Sorry.


Mousou Este
Two more cast member have been announced: Itou Kentarou and Suzuku Tatsuhisa. The official staff blog also has a small line saying that this time it will be the estheticians from the beauty salon Babylon (rival salon to Entreinte, the salon from the previous entries to the series) that will do the treatments.


Amemakura
The seiyuu for Amemakura vol.5 and 6 will be Sugiyama Noriaki and Suzuki Tatsuhisa. Unfortunately there is no other info on the characters yet...

Weekly News Post

One day late. Managing Christmas holidays at my parents and keeping a steady release schedule turns out to be quite a challenge. Although I have to admit that my PS3 is guilty of stealing some of my time, most of it is taken by amigurumi. I never thought the day would come that I would be crocheting untill 3am because I felt I almost got it this time (as you can guess, I am pretty hopeless with it). But, on to the news.


Kannou Jikan 7

With the start of a new series I expected (hoped?) that Kannou Jikan would end, but instead Hituzigumo just announced vol 7. 春の賛歌と神隠しの岩屋 (Haru no Sanga to Kamikakushi no Iwaya) is a story about a Demon who falls in love with a god and locks her away in a cave. But because he years to see her, he visits her once a year... While I was contemplating whether or not I would force myself to listen this time I noticed the seiyuu: Hirakawa Daisuke. Damn you Hituzigumo, you just know that I will be forced to listen to it now. The release is set for 2012.03.02. And is that Sesshoumaru on te cover on the right?

While reading up on their blog I discovered that the series would continue; it is stated that it would continue in a blog entry posted on 17 november. But there was anothing interesting (and useless) discovery. Remember Hituzigumo their Aprils Fool joke? The so called exercise video? Yeah, that is Subaru, the character for the first Amemakura CD.


Lovers Only
A somewhat surprising new was announced by Momo & Grapes. Lovers Only is described as a CD "in which popular seiyuu whisper a love story that is slightly adult, just for you". The short summary describes the sales manager Ichiyanagi who goes to a business trip to China with a subordinate (I assume, that will be you). The business part is going well, however during the trip the already married Ichiyanagi falls for his subordinate...  The CD is voiced by Morikawa Toshiyuki, and is set for release on 2012.02.28.

KIKKA Mystery Reviews

A friend of mine recently reviewed two drama CD's by Momo & Grapes / Kikka, and I thought it might be interesting to post a link to them.

Swiss Dokei no Nazo
46 Banme no Misshitsu

Keep in mind that these are reviews done by a fan of detective fiction, as opposed to my drama CD addicted self. So these are reviews done from an entirely different angle. But personally I liked reading them, so I thought I would share (^-^)

Weekly News Post

Little Princess Sara
The cast for Momo&Grapes their next Men's Only drama has been announced: Serah (Okamoto Nobuhiko), Ermengard (Suganuma Hisayoshi), Becky (Takeuchi Ken), Ravinia(?)(Kishio Daisuke), Miss Minchin (Miki Shinichirou), Ram Dass (Yoshino Hiroyuki)


Damekare
The first rough sketches for Nanao Kippei (CV: Kaji Yuuki) have been released, finally giving us an idea on how he looks. Personality wise Kippei is a popular model who is always up to date with the latest fashion and everything trendy - except that his just his image and behind the facade he is actually an old-fashioned person who loves old movies and tv drama's.


Yandere Heaven 5
And the official site is up!! No new info yet (animate and stellaworth leaked all of it xD) but some nice visuals. And now the waiting for the voice samples starts :3 Samples are up (thanks Tensionrush for the tip!)

The site also confirms that there are indeed two tokuten drama CD's: buy Yandere Heaven 5 at animate and you will get 'the three of us after that ~Ran side~ and buy it at Stellaworth to get 'the three of us after that ~Wakasa side~. Both CD's tell what happens when you choose neither of them in the main scenario and continue to live together from the viewpoint from one of the two brothers.

Romeo and Juliet

 ロミオとジュリエット

Company: Momo&Grapes
Based on: Romeo and Julliet
Released: 2010.03.25


Like the title implies, this is Romeo and Juliet. The catch here is that it is part of Momo&Grapes their Men's Only series, meaning that all characters are voiced by male seiyuu.

In all honesty, the fact that it is done by Momo&Grapes and that it is part of the Men's Only series is the only reason I listened to this. I have no love for the story of Romeo and Juliet.

*cough* back to reviewing. The story is completely faithful to the original. Romeo (CV: Ishida Akira) sneaks into the Capulet masked ball together with Benvolio (CV: Naruse Makoto) and Mercutio (CV: Suganuma Hisayoshi) where he meets Juliet (CV: Kamiya Horoshi) who kisses Romeo in order to chase away her suitor count Paris (CV: Masuda Takayuki) and Romeo and Juliet fall in love. With the help of Juliet her wetnurse (CV: Kusonoki Taiten) and the friar Laurence (CV: Takemoto Eiji) they get married. However Tybalt (CV: Ishikawa Hideo) got hold of the news that Romeo sneaked into the Capulet ball and wants to duel Romeo, who doesn't want to, Mecutio gets killed in the end, Romeo is exiled, meanwhile Juliet is engaged to Paris against her will, and in order to escape the marriage feigns her death, and so we reach the well known tragic end of this story.

I am sorry for my sloppy summary of this classic piece of literature.

This is a bit hard to review, because I don't like the Romeo and Juliet story in general so I'll try to focus on other things instead. Like or don't like though, Kamiya his Juliet was very cute. It makes you want to hug him. I had more problems with Ishida his Romeo, but I finally settled on the fact that a voice actor that I don't particular like voiced a role that I dislike, so that it all matches. (I am sorry, Ishida-san is brilliant at times, but I'm not very fond of his voice). Interestingly enough, Kamiya-san apparently thought of Ishida-san as the ideal Romeo (He says so in the tokuten CD).

Actually, I personally found the cast talk and tokuten talk the most interesting tracks on this CD xD Almost everyone has an interesting comment (Ishikawa Hideo his final remark was the best xD). The rest of the cast going "kawaii! kawaii!" while Kamiya-san was talking, or "Romeo-samaaaa!" when Ishida-san starts talking was just too cute. In the tokuten talk CD Kamiya-san mostly says how worried and nervous he was about his role as Juliet, while Ishida-san just goes "I wasn't worried at all [about my own part]" xD

Something interesting that I already though of and that was also mentioned in the cast talk, was that in the time on Shakespeare plays were performed with only male actors. So to some extend this drama CD is actually really close to the original play.


Conclusion:
This is, I think, actually a good drama CD. I just don't like the story and I can't get over that no matter what. I'm sorry. But if you like the Men's Only series it is worth a listen, and if you like the Romeo and Juliet story it is probably a must.

Dracula ～Futari no Kyuuketsuki～

ドラキュラ～ふたりの吸血鬼～

Company: Momo&Grape
Based on: Dracula (the novel by Bram Stoker)
Released: 2011.08.12
Official Site: http://www.momogre.com/


Dracula is a character we all know, whether from the actual novel or simply as the main representive vampire we all know him. This story is based on the original novel, although it takes a lot of liberties with the story.

The story starts with Alexander (CV: Ono Daisuke) and van Hellsing (CV: Nakai Kazuya) taking down a vampire underling. It turns out they were searching for Vlad Dracula (CV: Nakamura Yuuichi) who was rumoured to come to London to find the reincarnation of his long lost love.

Believing that his love from 400 years ago is reborn, Dracula searches for Mina Marley (CV: Hanazawa Kana) to take her back to Transylvania. Despite Alexander and van Hellsing their attempts to stop him Dracula manages to kidnap Mina. Alexander and van Hellsing follow them back to Transylvania, and it comes to one last showdown in Dracula his castle...

Like I said, they took some liberties with the story. To be more exact they added Alexander his character as Dracula his younger brother. The story between Alexander and Dracula gives both a more human side. They might have strayed quite a bit from the original story, but I liked this story a lot.

The music definitely added to the entire atmosphere. At times very sad, but epic during the battles, if you pay attention to it you'll see it is really well written. The tokuten CD you got from pre-ordering it also includes a really beautiful instrumental track.. The sound effects too where really good, to the point of making me flinch when someone got hit by a sword because it makes such a horrible fleshy sound.

From the voice actors I loves Hanazawa-san her performance best. Her Mina is both sweet and shows that she can stand up to Dracula. I would have loved to hear her more. The only one I had problems with is Nakai Kazuya as van Hellsing. His performance was very good, that is not the point, but somehow his voice doesn't fit my image of van Hellsing (and, dear Momo&Grape. van Hellsing was a doctor, not an archaeologist)


Conclusion:
The story is somewhere between an adaption of the novel and an original Dracula story, but either way it is very good. It is not as scary as Blue Beard was, but still sufficiently spooky. The voice actors did a great job in bringing this story to life (pun not intended), and it is definitely worth a listen. Especially on a dark and preferably stormy night.

Fushigi no Kuni no Alice ~Alice in Wonderland~

不思議の国のアリス~Alice in Wonderland~

Company: Momogre
Based on: Alice in Wonderland.
Released: 2011.05.26
Official Site: http://www.momogre.com/



This story is part of momo&grapes their "men's only" series, meaning that all characters are voiced by male seiyuu. The story is based on (the Japanese translation of) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

You know me, if something has 'alice' written on it I'm all over it. So when I found out that momogre would do an adaption of the original work I was super exited!

The story itself is so famous that it doesn't really need an explanation. This adaption is very loyal to the original story, so there isn't really much to explain for me there. (except that, well, it is very loyal to the original. And I love that). In fact, I think that they've actually used part of a translation as script, because most conversations seem to be exactly like how I remembered them. The Narration is of course original to this work.

The cast was fantastic as well. Kaji Yuuki is a super cute Alice, although no matter how hard I try he doesn't really sound like a girl to me. He sounds more like a young boy but still super cute and it somehow works so I am not complaining. The only voice I was uncomfortable with was that of the Cheshire Cat, who is voiced by Takeuchi Ken. Somehow his voice didn't suit my image of the Cheshire Cat. Then again I might just be too used to Inoue Kazuhiko as the Cheshire Cat from Are you Alice?

Another funny trivia about the Cheshire Cat is that he is called "Chashire Cat" in the story, even though the official site lists him as Cheshire Cat. The seiyuu talk about this in the freetalk as well.


Conclusion:
Personally I absolutely loved this adaption. I love most things even remotely related to Alice in Wonderland so I'm probably biased, but this was a wonderful adaption. It is very faithful to the original, and has a wonderful cast. Whether you're already familiar with the story or not, this is a wonderful drama to listen to.


Also, I'm sorry for reviewing two different Alice in Wonderland related things in a row :p

Aohige ~Itan no Kizoku~

青ひげ～異端の貴族～

Company: Momo & Grape
Based on: Bluebeard / Gilles de Rais
Released: 2011.05.03


This story is part of momo&grapes their "men's only" series, meaning that all characters are voiced by male seiyuu. The story is loosely based on the story "Bluebeard" by Charles Pernault (which in return is sometimes believed to have been based on the story of Gilles de Rais).

This story starts as a romance, however it turn much darker as it progresses. Jeanne Asran (CV: Hino Satoshi) is about to be married to count Gilles de Rais (CV: Yusa Kouji). At the time of the wedding they have never met before, but the marriage is a happy one.

However around the time of their marriage, a serial killing involving young boys occurs. Because Gilles gives scholarships to young boys in the area the head of the investigation, Lance (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) suspects Gilles as the culprit. When Henri (CV: Kaji Yuuki) one of the students that received a scholarship and also worked at the castle where Gilles and Jeanne reside disappears, Lance his suspicions grow stronger and stronger.

The end of the story holds a few surprises, so I won't say anything about it.

The voice acting in this piece is wonderful. Like someone at Hibiki already said, especially Hino as Jeanne did a very good job. His voice is absolutely believable as a woman. The story alone is touching enough, but with the incredible voice acting it really becomes very emotional. This is the first drama cd in a long time that really got me to cry. Near the end the tears were literally pouring down my face ･ﾟ･(ﾉД`;)･ﾟ･

Another interesting thing that has to do with the recording of the voices and sounds is that they've made good use of stereo sounds. When to characters are having a conversation you can hear that one is standing more to the left and the other more to the right, which helps to give the impression that you are really there and watching the situation unfold.

In stark contrast with the emotional content and music of the main drama the cast comment suddenly starts with a much too happy sounding Yusa. All members do their best to make a serious comment, however most of them (especially Yusa) are just to giggly to make it sound serious. Which is a good thing, because it lifts your spirits after this emotional and somewhat depressing work. (Also, Hino says he was uncertain about his own acting as a woman, especially in the beginning when he had to play the 10 year old Jeanne).


Conclusion:
Like I said this is a very emotional drama. However it is absolutely worth listening. Both Yusa and Hino did a wonderful job as Gilles and Jeanne respectively. Not that the other seiyuu their performance was any less, but the performance of these two really stand out (they are, after all, the main characters).