Ketsueikigata Danshi Character Drama CD A Type

血液型男子 キャラクタードラマCD 「A型」

Company: Frontier Works
Based on: Original
Released: 2009.08.26
Official site: http://danshi.me/blood/index.html


In Ketsuekigata Danshi several High School students are thrown into a dormitory because of an experiment by the school principal. All of them have a different blood type, which is exactly why the principal chose them, but what exactly he hopes to achieve with this experiment is unclear. Either way, they will have to deal with their new lives from now on.

The A Type CD puts the focus on Souma Aichirou (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) who is of course an A Type (mainly meaning that he is very serious). The CD starts with Aichirou complaining about the fact that he couldn't study because he had to move to his new house (where he is living together with the other characters). After that he overhears his housemates Akabane Hibiki (B Type, CV: Nakamura Yuichi) and Shirakawa Rio (O Type, CV: Suzuki Tatsuhisa) talking to each other on how they got bad grades and have to take a resit. When it turns out Kurosaki Miyabi (AB Type, CV: Kakihara Tetsuya) has to take a resit as well Aichirou flips and tells them that they will be studying at home for the weekend.

The next day Aichirou wakes them up rather forcefully (only Miyabi is already awake) and forces them to study. None of them want to because they already have plans, but they end up being forced to study anyway. He locks every door and window on the first floor so that they can't escape either. When they finally manage to distract him by asking him for drinks they try to escape through a second floor window. Kurosaki nearly falls of the balcony in his escape attempt and is saved by Aichirou, after which he still runs off anyway.

In the end, Aichirou ends up cleaning the house while the others go out and play. All of them return early because they are feeling guilty though. It turns out Aichirou saw that he was in the wrong as well, and he prepared dinner for everyone. Although... when they mention that they will properly study he switches back into his normal attitude xD

After the main story there is a situation part where you are studying together with Aichirou, who is being adorably clumsy.

The interaction between all the characters was fun to listen to. Of course they are all archetypes for each blood type, which results in hilarious chaos. The principal (CV: Yusa Kouji) also adds to said chaos by being a hilarious eccentric. Kurosaki is arguably the weirdest of them all, thanks to always being spaced out and talking in a really slow manner, but all of them are quirky and fun.

Aichirou is strict and serious, like a proper A Type. His entire family has names with "A" btw, his brother is Aijirou, and his sister Aiko. (The pronunciation of their names is closer to "Ei" if you'd write it in Japanese, but this way the link to A Type is made. All of the guys have the letter(s) for their blood type in their name). Aichirou is also very family orientated, as is shown in his phone call with his family, where he is instantly worried about whether they are eating properly etc.

The freetalk starts in character, after which is switches to normal. Everyone talks a bit about their blood type and whether there are times when they think that they are actually a different blood type (in Japan blood types are used as a horoscope, so every blood type is believed to have several character traits). When Kakihara Testuya does his talk everyone keeps inserting references to Germany (German AB-Type, questions about sausages and beer xD). The end of the free talk is once again in character.

A short -and chaotic- preview for the B Type CD is also included, in which Hibiki gives a short introduction to his story.


Conclusion:
Somehow I had pictured are more situation CD type scenario, but this is mostly about the boys their interaction with each other. Which is brilliant, so no complaints there. Looking at Miyabi his character description it seems like he is two-faced, so I sort of hoped that they would show that a tiny bit as well, but I guess I'll have to listen to his own CD for that.

O.To.Na Gentei oTogame CD Penalty III

オ・ト・ナ限定 お咎めCD Penalty III

Company: Colombia
Based on: Original
Released: 2012.03.21
Official Site: http://columbia.jp/otonagentei/


Otogame CD is a series in which the characters 'scold' you. That is, in a loving way. The kind of things you say to a person because you care about them, like "don't be out late at night, something could happen". Each CD has two characters, in the third vol we have a German count, and the owner of a French restaurant. The series is recorded with the dummy head mic, so at times the characters also whisper close to your ear.

Like I said, the characters scold you, but not in an angry kind of way. It is actually really cute to hear. Each character has 5 tracks, all of them depicting a different situation. Just like in the Kanbyou CD's, there is very little that could be considered 'adult only', despite the title.

The first character is Christoff Haruto von Königsberg (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya) a German count who for is in Japan from time to time for his work, whatever that may actually be. At first he seemed like your typical sweet obochama, but he does tease you a bit.

The first track is about you not being able to say no (which is immediately called typically Japanese, of course), the second one is about you gaining weight, and he teases you about drinking too much beer xD. The third track is about you being a wallflower, the fourth track about you not voicing your feelings, and the final one about you telling a (small) lie.

Throughout the tracks there is some German, which always makes me laugh but the pronunciation is actually very good. ( I kept being amazed by his German, until I did some research and discovered that Kakihara-san was born in Germany and lived there for 18years. It makes sense now, ahaha). The last track is quite amusing; you've come to Germany to meet his family, and he tells you he is going to introduce you as his fiancée. It is only after saying so, that he actually asks you to merry him (in German).

The second character Kinosaki Kakeru (?) (CV:Chiba Shigeru) came as a bit of a surprise for me. Of course the character description states that he is 53, but somehow I hadn't registered what that actually means. It means he sounds old too, and I discovered that that really isn't my thing.

Either way, Kakeru is the owner of a French restaurant. It seems like you know each longer than your business trip to Paris though, which is the stage for the first track. Kakeru thinks you are too serious about everything, and takes you for a boat trip on the Seine. The second track is about being naive, the third one about working too hard, the fourth one about not thinking things through and whether you should like him or not, and the final one about what happiness is.

I kind of liked the third one, he is in full waiter mode, which is a lot better than his normal flirty attitude. In the fourth one he is actually really mad at you, making him the only character in the series who is actually mad. After that the conversation changes to whether you should like him or not. At first he tries to discourage you (cue me celebrating) but eventually he does give in. But I don't want to date a 50year old geezer (T^T)

This is definitely the weirdest entry in the series, or at least the one where need the most tolerance against unlikely situations. I mean, the odds of meeting (and getting to date) a count and being taken on cruises and high class dinner parties are rather slim the last time I checked. The second half of the CD was a real turn off for me, and I had to force myself to listen to all of it.


Conclusion:
Personally I definitely liked the first two CDs better. This one was getting a bit too strange for my tastes, and neither of the characters are really my type. The other CD's seemed plausible, the situations where things that could actually happen, this was a bit too far from reality for the concept.

This also made me realize I really don't like ossan characters. I was planning to listen to Ojisama Senka, but now that I have experienced this that has been moved down the list a bit...

Koisuru Lesson Series: Hibino Yoshimi no Natural Lesson

 恋するレッスンシリーズ「日々野芳美のナチュラルレッスン」

Company: Broccoli
Based on: Original
Released: 2010.08.25
Official Site: http://www.broccoli.co.jp/cd/sp/lovelesson/


Koisuru Lesson is a series in which you date your instructor/teacher. Each vol. has a different character that teaches something (cooking, violin, English, etc). The setting is that you are both a student and the girlfriend of said character. There are six CD's in total, divided in pairs, and the characters make cameo appearances in the CD they are paired with.

This CD has Hibino Yoshimi (CV: Ishida Akira) who is a popular painter. Despite his young looks he is actually 30. Th heroine her mother was his teacher at highschool, and he owes much of his popularity to her efforts. Her mother asked Hibino to help the heroine with painting, and that is how you met.

The CD starts with Kokushiro Ayumu (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya) ringing Hibino his doorbell. Ayumu is the son of the owner of an art gallery, and came to ask whether his new work is ready. Ayumu is curious about your paintings, so he comes into the atelier to look. Hibino (with your help) teases him a little when he comes inside.

Ayumu talks about Hibino his paintings getting more colour. Hibino himself jokes about it being because he might have found a girlfriend. Of course, it turns out the listener is the rumoured girlfriend.

Hibino takes you on a date/ outdoor class to a museum, where he explains a bit about several paintings. I like the quiet atmosphere that they managed to create during your date.

On your way home it starts to rain, so you have to shelter somewhere. This is the best part of the CD. Hibino seems to worry a lot about being seen together with you, so you start to tease him and ask how much he likes you. And you give each answer a grade. Surprisingly, he actually tries to get a better rating, eventually not even caring about the fact that you are seen when he kisses you.

The most brilliant point is probably Hibino worrying about your parents finding out you are dating, and you replying that your mother already knows. In fact, she was the one who urged you to confess.

Hibino his worrying about whether he is too old for you sort of annoyed me. Although I'm not sure how old you are supposed to be (it kind of makes a difference whether you are 18 or 25). But it is clear that he really likes you.

There isn't much difference between his attitude as a teacher and as your lover. But you get private lessons, so I suppose that is acceptable. He was surprisingly willing to try and get a higher score for his love confessions though, even though he keeps saying he is too old for skinship or saying how much he likes you all the time.


Conclusion:
I enjoyed this CD much more than I thought I would, which is mostly thanks to the rating of his love confessions ("40 points? that was worth at least 50"). His final sentence is also amazing. But I still don't like Ishida Akira as a boyfriend, sorry.

Yoru Cafe Tokidoki Garcon no Susume

 

ときどきギャルソンのススメ

Company: Luv Records
Based on: Manga
Released: 2006.09.24
Official Site: http://www.luv-records.jp/title/yorucafe/


Yoru Cafe is ased on the manga of the same name, however this drama CD is an original story that takes place 3 years after the events of the manga. 'Queen's Cafe' is a cafe that is only open at night. the owner, Hina, and the three waiters Sawatari Soushi, Yukimura Yoshisumi, and Nanjou Nozomu run the cafe with the four of them.

By the time of this story Hina (CV: Saitou Yuka) and Soushi (CV: Maeno Tomoaki) have already married. Yukimura (CV: Ono Daisuke) has become a successful writer,  and Nozomu (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya) works as a civil servant. Queen's Cafe was closed, but they are re-opening it for one night.

The story begins with Hina trying to get Soushi to bake the cakes for the cafe with her, he doesn't want to at first but agrees to help her. Unfortunately Hina drinks a bit too much alcohol while baking and falls asleep drunk (she has a bit of a bad habit with alcohol) and Soushi ends up staying up all night to finish the cakes on his own.

The next day the four of them meet to set up the cafe, but it turns out that the place they rented for this is more of a bar than a cafe. The bar is still stocked with every possible type of alcohol, and so when the customers come many of them order alcohol and no-one orders any cake. This depresses Hina and she starts to drink, causing her to near sexually assault Nozomu and Yukimura when they come to check up one her...

This is a sweet story, and although I find Hina slightly annoying she is hilarious when she gets drunk. However, I have never read the manga, which makes me feel like I am missing out on a lot of background information here. The story is perfectly clear, but I imagine there must have been a lot going on before Hina and Soushi finally married and things like that.

I find the freetalk mildly amusing. Mostly because only the male seiyuu get to say something while Saito-san seems to be completely absent. It is perfectly clear what the selling point of this CD was, haha.


Conclusion:
I think this CD is mostly interesting for those who know the manga. It is ok, but a bit generic on it's own, so if you don't know the manga your time is probably better spent listening to something else.

Yandere Heaven ~karei naru Sanjou-kei hen~

 ヤンデレ天国~華麗なる三条家編~

Company: Hobirecords
Based on: Original
Released: 2011.08.12
Official Site: http://www.hobirecords.com/yandere4/

Yesss, Yandere Heaven 4!! I was waiting for this!　The series returns with two new characters; this time you are loved to bits by your childhood friend and fiance Yamashina Makoto (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya), and your butler Minase Yasunori (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki).

-obligatory warning that yandere might not be for everyone-

The story starts on a birthday party, just after your engagement to your childhood friend is announced. Unfortunately neither you nor your butler Minase knew anything about it, although everyone else in the household seems to know.

To prepare for the wedding Yamashina starts living with you, starting a few days in which Minase tries to keep him away from you. Eventually though, Yamashina manages to get the wedding preparations done. On the night before your wedding both Yamashina and Minase come to your room, the one to convince you that you can't escape, the other to convince you to run away with him, and you'll have to choose...

Like in previous entries to the series, there are two sepparate endings, one for each character. The endings are somewhat milder that in the last CD, although that might also be due to neither character being bloodrelated this time (thankfully!)

There is a lot more humor in this CD than in any of the others. The interactions between Yamashina and Minase can actually be called comical at times. Of course when both of them go yandere there is nothing left of that light atmosphere, but it was interesting to see that you can mix the two to some extent.

The cast talk was pretty fun. Kakihara seems to be talking more to himself that to the listeners xD And Morikawa-san suddenly goes high tension. Other than that it wasn't very special though.


Conclusion
This will remain my guilty pleasure for ever I think. It was a little more subdued that the previous entries, but the fact that we have a yandere butler here makes up for a lot of that. I hope that they'll continue the series, in the meanwhile I'll just re-listen all the existing ones~

Perabu! A Capella Love!?

ぺらぶ！ A cappella love！？

Company: Frontierworks
Based on:  Original
Released: 2011.06.22
Official Site: http://perabu.jp/index.html



Perabu!! A Capella Love!? is the story of 5 high school students who are suddenly told that from now on they are the school a capella club (or for schort, perabu). Oh, and that they have a performance in front of the entire school in exactly one month.

The person behind all of this is the rather eccentric music teacher Sakikabara Ryuunosuke (CV: Ono Daisuke) for reasons you'll hear at the end of the CD. Our five victems are of course all completely not interested in a capella and completely different types of people (although they at least seem to be familiar with each other).

Inoue Yoshiya (CV: Kimura Ryouhei) is the moodmaking of the gang. He is always in high tension and tends to make up words (for example he keeps using 'perabu' as a verb). Katagiri Hayato (CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa) makes the impression of being a delinquent, but is actually a great cook and overall housewife. Learned all of these things for the sake of his beloved little sister. Arisaka Keiichirou (CV: Maeno Tomoaki) always acts very serious, but actually loves cats and has his own cat-blog. Mitsunaga Chihiro (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya) is your standard much-too-popular-with-the-girls narcissist. And finally Tokieda Ayumu (CV: KENN) is always either sleeping or eating, and looking cute while doing so.

Story-wise this follows the pattern of a random group of unwilling people is thrown together to do something, problems must be overcome, and they succeed. Usually there is a "friendship bonds are formed" step somewhere in between, but these 5 were already pretty close. Perabu relies on the quircky personalities of its characters to make the story interesting. However this works only half of the time. While their quircks did make you laugh, it still feels like the 'story' is too simple.

However it gets bonus points for actually including the a capella song they were practicing. The last track consists of the song + everyone stating that they've come to like a capella and want to continue (surprise surprise)


Conclusion:
Perabu! certainly isn't a bad drama. It is actually pretty funny and the quirky characters are very lovable. Yet it feels like it could have been so much more. Despite the funny take on things the plot is just too thin, literally almost everything is predictable from the start. Hopefully they'll improve this a little for the next entry in the series.