Weekly News Post

I think that once I'm done with posting the news I'm going to count how many CDs are actually being released in the next few months, because this is honestly getting ridiculous....




Abunai Koi no Sousashitsu
Looks like the game is still pretty popular, because a third drama CD has been announced. The title is アブナイ★恋の捜査室ドラマＣＤ ～恐怖のキャンプ編～ (abunai koi no sousashitsu drama cd ~kyoufu no kyanpu hen~, Abunai Koi no Sousashitsu ~Camp of Fear Chapter~), so the story will probably have something to do with outdoor camping but the product summary gives no more information besides this being an original story. The full cast (Maeno Tomoaki, Kondo Takashi, Tachibana Shinnosuke, Suganuma Hisayoshi, Morikawa Toshiyuki, Miki Shinichirou, Narita Ken, Miyata Kouki) return for this CD, which will be released on 2013.05.15.

Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen vol.5: The Little Mermaid

I started with vol.4 first, but somehow grew tired of it (pun not intended) and switched to this one instead, which was a very good decision.

王立王子学園 vol.5 人魚姫の王子様

Company: R45°project / Sousakubou
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.05.15
Official site: http://rpgakuen.com/

Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen (Royal Prince Gakuen, RPG for short) is a school where princes go in preparation of their future career as royalty. That means normal lessons, but also stuff like dancing lessons and other things you might need as royalty. Other than the fact that the entire student body are royal princes, it is a very normal school. It is not like you'll notice any of this in the CD's. Although you are the only girl at the entire school.

In this series you both spend time together with your main prince, as well as with multiple characters. Each CD features three princes, and you get to spend some quality time together with the 'main prince' as well as some -often funny- lively moments with all three. All characters are based of fairytales, and series 2 features the 3rd year students Ibaraki Sei (Sleeping Beauty), Namikawa Takumi (the Little Mermaid), and Yagyuu Ryuunosuke (Beauty and the Beast).

In vol.5 Namikawa Takumi (CV: Taniyama Kisho) is the main prince. Takumi looks like a flirt, but is actually quite sweet. Lately he has been seeing nightmares in which his beloved sinks to the bottom of the ocean. However ever since he bumped into you at school one day the nightmares have stopped. He asked you for your number the moment you met, and you’ve been texting ever since.

Takumi his classmates Sei (CV: Terashima Takuma) and Yagyuu (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki) are of course also in the CD, although I felt like the times that the 3 characters interact has decreased since the first series. The moments they have together in this CD are brilliant though. Sei has to clean the pool as a punishment for sleeping in class, and he bribes Yagyuu (by giving him food) and Takumi (by giving him a picture of you) to help him.

Because Takumi texted you that he had to clean the pool you come to visit, and Sei bribes you with two movie tickets. While you are all cleaning Yagyuu and Sei start messing around, and Takumi gets splashed with water, causing him to faint because he is afraid of water in any way shape or form. The discussion on how to wake him up is priceless.

Of course those movie tickets are used for a date with the two of you, and Takumi is surprisingly nervous for it. About halfway through that condition has completely healed though, and I would take several of things he says love confessions, but they are not apparently, because you’ll get a proper confession later.

Of all the CD’s, I think this one had the most ‘normal’ relationship. Fine, Takumi might be a bit overconfident that you’ll eventually start dating, but you start out as friends, it takes a few weeks before you reach the point of daily texting, and the movie date you have is normal as well. Not that the other CD’s were that unrealistic, but somehow this one felt like the first one where you go through several steps, instead of from friends to rabu rabu date mode. (although technically, all of them have a date where you are still just friends and one where you are couple).

The characters from the first series are mentioned as a shout out as well. Because they are 2nd years and your classmates, Takumi feels jealous of them and keeps wishing he was born just one year later.

The cast comment wasn’t too special, but it did have some info that I find very interesting: apparently the script was 43 pages, and Taniyama-san finished the recording in 2hrs (which was fast). If the script of a CD like this is already around 40-45 pages, imagine how long the script for a fully voiced game has to be!


Conclusion:
So far I think I like this CD the best, but Yagyuu also sounds like an interesting character so we’ll have to see how the ranking ends. Despite his looks Takumi is a  really honest and sweet character, if a bit melodramatic at times. The interaction with the other guys was fun as well, and personally the balance between your time with Takumi and with the others was good too.

Weekly News Post

This weeks news post is a bit long, because it merged with the one from last week. I just couldn't find the time to properly write a news post last week, and by the time I was three days late I decided it would probably be better to merge the two (^-^;;)

Double Score

The sample tracks for camellia have been uploaded to the official site. Especially the first one between Yousuke (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) and Yuuya (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke) is priceless. The second sample track where you are alone with Yousuke is just very cute. Yousuke his wallpaper is also available for download, it will be up until 2012.07.12, when the next CD will be released.


Zoku Toriai Kyoudai

The main visual for Zoku Toriai Kyoudai has been released, and if I wouldn't have been sold on the fact that this CD has Hirakawa Daisuke voicing two roles, the visuals would have done the job. Well played Black Butterfly, not only are you using one of my favourite seiyuu, you also managed to make the characters 100% my type.


Soine Hitsuji CD

The release date and cast for the second Soine Hitsuji CD has been announced. The second character Yuuichi will be voiced by Fujiwara Keiji, and is planned for a 2012.08.31release. Like many people said, I didn't expect to see Fujiwara-san listed as cast after seeing the character design, but we'll see how things turn out!

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.

Weekly News Post

Life is getting in the way of everything. So for the rest of this month I'll stick to one review every two days. After that things should return to normal.



Oujisama (warai)

A rough sketch of the tenth prince has been released. To the right is the prince from the Swam Lake. The quote beneath his picture on the site says "*cough*cough*.... Aaaah, if only you would bungee jump for me right this instant this nauseous feeling would calm down....".

Our prince has just reached marriageable age, and has decided to become engaged with his current girlfriend, but he is still searcher for a girl who will swear "true love" to him. He is rather sickly, and tends to cough up blood as soon as things are not in his favour. He loves to make flashy entrances, and whenever something is going on, a host club style BGM tends to play...

Next week they'll also publish a few excerpts from the scenario, so we'll get to see more of what he is like.



Perabu!
After two months of radio silence, The Perabu official site has been updated with two 4kom comics and a message saying that we "should look forward to info about a new release". So I suppose the series will continue? I wonder what kind of scenario they will have this time?

Weekly News Post

Apparently, blogger just decided to change the comment format, so now you can actually reply to someone. Which is nice, accept that I keep forgetting that. Lalala~  Oh well.



Sleep x 2

A second vol for Sleepx2 has already been anounced. Our "sleep guide" for the second one will be Miki Shinichirou. The blog post announcing it explains that they hope that this series "becomes something that you can also give as a present", which is why the jacket has a simple flower design. Vol. 2 will be released on 2012.06.29.



Kindan Kyuuketsuki
Only a few days left until the release, but since a few days a preview movie is up on the official site. It sounds like Maximilian will be less of a sadist, but that he can rival the Diabolik Lovers guys in ero. Some of the lines in that preview movie are killing.

Weekly News Post

Where is the time I had like 16 reviews ready to be posted, hahaha...*sigh*  Anyway, the news.


Oujisama (warai)
The seiyuu for the next prince has been announced: Yusa Kouji. This series is gathering more and more popular seiyuu.... Also, if you go to the official site you'll see that the top has been changed to an image celebrating the Setsubun (the last day of winter）.


Meisaku Bungaku (warai)
The cast for the upcoming CD 'the Ant and the Grasshopper' has been announced. Hino Satoshi will voice the ant, while the grasshopper will be voiced by Fukuyama Jun, and finally Terashima Takuma will voice the stag beetle, though I have no idea where he comes into the story.

The official blog also states that the parody version will also return in this CD. So look forward to the story of the ant and the grasshopper being adapted into: a band version, an idol version, job hunting, and a marriage proposal.

Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen vol.3: The Prince of Thumbelina

 王立王子学園 vol.3 親指姫の王子様

Company: R45°project
Based on: Fairytales x School life
Released: 2012.01.15
Official Site: http://rpgakuen.com/


Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen (Royal Prince Gakuen, RPG for short) is a school where princes go in preparation of their future career as royalty. That means normal lessons, but also stuff like dancing lessons and other things you might need as royalty. Other than the fact that the entire student body are royal princes, it is a very normal school. It is not like you'll notice any of this in the CD's.

In this series you both spend time together with your main prince, as well as with multiple characters. Each CD features three princes, and you get to spend some quality time together with the 'main prince' as well as some -often funny- lively moments with all three.

The third and final CD of the first series centres on Hiiragi Motochika (CV: Kaji Yuuki), Who represents the tale of Thumbelina. The prince in the orriginal story is a flower fairy, which is reflected in the fact that Chika (as everyone calls him) loves flowers a lot. Chika has a very cheerful but selfish personality, and is pretty loud.

You spend quite some time with Haibara Kouki (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) and Shirase Yukito (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) this time. There are two longer tracks with them, one where you have cooking class. The theme is supposed to be 'home cooking' but all Chika wants to make are desserts. The second one is a scene where you have to tend to the flower beds. This is where Chika has his moment of unusual behaviour; he is faaaaar to passionate about it.

Contrary to the first two CD's, Chika doesn't need his friends their help to confess his love to you. Instead, a large part of his CD is dedicated to his feelings of jealousy and guilt towards his friends because he likes you. However in the end he does choose to confess to you, and tells this to Kouki and Yukito as well.

Like I said, Chika is a bit of a brat. However he explains this in the first track: he is the youngest child in the family and at some point discovered that if he would whine he would get anything. This eventually led to him being used to getting everything he wants, so he doesn't really get serious about anything. Luckily he isn't as bratty as in the second CD any more, because things were getting really out of hand in that one.

Unfortunately, this still leaves Chika as a sort of 'usually acting genki but has some angst going on in the background' type. Which really isn't my thing. The combination of those things is... not my favourite, let's keep it at that.

Sadly, the cast talk is also back to being quite generic. All of them made a small comment and that was it. I had secretly hoped they would do something silly again like last time, but too bad.


Conclusion:
Chika is too genki and bratty for me, add in the slight angst, and I start to loose interest. Still, for fans of Chika is reckon this is a good CD, because for once he is more than just the moodmaker.

Weekly News Post

Short plug: Sweet Translations has it's first translation out, with thanks to Vii for proofreading! The translation for Karekoe vol.1 can now be found here. More translations are planned, so go and spread the word :D



Disney Date
You can't beat how popular Disney is in Japan. And thus we now have a Disney x Seiyuu collaboration. It looks like the CD will consist of famous disney songs sung by popular seiyuu. If we can trust amazon and a few other sources, the track list will be as follows:

ホール・ニュー・ワールド（A hole new world)
ひと足お先に（one jump ahead）
いつか夢で（once upon a dream）
愛を感じて（can you feel the love tonight）
ビビディ・バビディ・ブー（bippity boppety boo）
アンダー・ザ・シー（under the sea）
星に願いを（when you wish upon a star）
ハイ・ホー（Hi-ho (the dwarve song）
ゴー・ザ・ディスタンス（go the distance）
サークル・オブ・ライフ（circle of life）

The deluxe edition also has a 'date CD' in which the seiyuu introduce date spots, I'm not sure whether those are Disney related though. Speaking of seiyuu, I haven't seen a confirmation yet, but rumoured are Fukuyama Jun, Kamiya Hiroshi, Suzumura Kenichi, Seki Tomokazu, Morita Masakazu, Sakurai Takahiro, Sugita Tomokazu, Irino Miyuu, Midorikawa Hikaru, Yamadera Kouichi. The CD is slated for a 2012.02.22.

Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen vol.2: the Prince of Snow White

王立王子学園 vol.2 白雪姫の王子様

Company: R45°project
Based on: Fairytales x School life
Released: 2011.11.15
Official Site: http://rpgakuen.com/


Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen (Royal Prince Gakuen, RPG for short) is a school where princes go in preparation of their future career as royalty. That means normal lessons, but also stuff like dancing lessons and other things you might need as royalty. Other than the fact that the entire student body are royal princes, it is a very normal school.

In this series you both spend time together with your main prince, as well as with multiple characters. Each CD features three princes, and you get to spend some quality time together with the 'main prince' as well as some -often funny- lively moments with all three.

This second CD centres on Shirase Yukito (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) who represents Snow White (The first kanji from his last and first name form 白雪 shirayuki, which is Japanese for Snow White). He is normally calm and collected, but when it comes to you he loses his normal character. His family oversees an apple orchard since many generations, but recently they also started a computer company, making him very skilled with computers. And slightly obsessed with them, he gave his to laptops a name.

Yukito his family has an old saying, if they say "mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all, please let me meet my special one today" to a mirror, it is said they will meet that person very soon. Yukito does this out of boredom one day, and on his way to school a little later he finds you sleeping somewhere near the school. He wakes you up and because the chime has already started ringing, helps you up and you run to class together.

After that you seem to like him a lot, and apparently you go out of your way to talk to him, confusing Yukito because he thinks he is boring to talk to compared to his two friends Haibara Kouki (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) and Hiiragi Motochika (CV: Kaji Yuuki). The two of them join you for a few scenes, where especially Hiiragi causes trouble. They turn up in the library and make a lot of noise, waking up the librarian (which is implied to be a very bad thing to do), and more or less invite themselves to the family's apple orchard to pick apples and make apple pie.

This is of course also the scene where Yukito freaks out of you trying to eat an apple, eventually taking a bit of it himself and then giving it to you. Only realizing that that was a very weird action a few moments later.

Despite you clinging to Yukito like an idiot, it doesn't look like he is going to confess, or maybe even realize, his feelings any time soon, so at the end of the CD Haibara and Hiiragi think of a scheme to get you two alone somewhere. Which was completely obvious, and succesful xD

I like the scenes with you and Yukito, but I find the scenes with Haibara and Hiiragi in it a bit too noisy. Mostly because Hiiragi acts like a brat most of the time (Kaji-san even says this in the cast comment). In the last CD he was a genki moodmaker, here he is just annoying. I really like Yukito though, his normal cool but actually just socially slightly inapt ways make him fun to listen to.

Speaking of the cast comment, for no reason at all they end up whispering their comments. Sakurai seems to be having a lot of fun as well, you can hear him laughing in the background when Toriumi-san does his comment.


Conclusion:
I a bit torn between I like the parts with you and Yukito, and finding the rest slightly annoying. But overall it is still fun to listen.

Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen vol.1: The Prince of Cinderella

王立王子学園 vol.1 シンデレラの王子様

Company: R45°project
Based on: Fairytales x School life
Released: 2011.09.15
Official Site: http://rpgakuen.com/


Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen (Royal Prince Gakuen, RPG for short) is a school where princes go in preparation of their future career as royalty. That means normal lessons, but also stuff like dancing lessons and other things you might need as royalty. Other than the fact that the entire student body are royal princes, it is a very normal school.

In this series you both spend time together with your main prince, as well as with multiple characters. Each CD features three princes, and you get to spend some quality time together with the 'main prince' as well as some -often funny- lively moments with all three.

This first vol. centres on Haibara Kouki (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) who represents the prince from Cinderella (the 'hai' in Haibara also means 'ash'). He has a very kind personality, and when you just arrive as transfer student he takes good care of you, showing you were everything is and explaining all kinds of things, even going as far as picking you up to go to school together.

It is obvious Haibara likes you, but he seems a bit hesitant at times. You've apparently met when you were both young, but you seems to have forgotten all about it, and Haibara is simply afraid that he will lose you again. And it seems like he doesn't remember everything himself as well, because when he finds a single shoe lying at the bottom of the stairs he has one of the weirdest reactions ever (causing many amusing comments from the other two princes Shirose Yukito (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) and Hiiragi Motochika (CV Kaji Yuuki).

The other two princes seem to like you as well. It feels a bit strange as the first time that they appear in a scene them they already cling to you, while there seems to be no prior contact. On the other hand, you are all classmates, so let's just assume you interacted with them there.


Haibara is a bit quick with clinging to you, but on the other hand you seem to be his first love from his childhood, so let's just forgive him that. Like I said he has a very kind and caring personality, but he also seems to missing the vital point at times, making him adorkable. The other two also have amusing personalities, Shirose is cold but pure hearted, and Hiiragi is very my-pace but can say the meanest things with a smile. The interaction between the three of them is very amusing to listen to.

The cast talk isn't very special. Apparently Sakurai kept mispronouncing things at the part where he goes into shoe-mania mode, but other than that it was a very generic talk.


Conclusion:
The balance between the moments alone and with all three seems a bit off to me, but overall it was pretty nice. Although I like the parts where the three princes interact more than the moments with Haibara alone. Those are so pink and sugar coated that they might induce caries. And as much as I love Sakurai, these situation CDs don't seem to be his forte.