MESSAGE 4 U vol.3 Thank U a lot

MESSAGE 4 U vol.3 Thank U a lot

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2010.01.29
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/me_top.html

Message 4 U is a series in which the postmen of the Mitsubachi (honey bee) post office deliver a message to you in a very special way. When they receive a letter it gets scattered through time, and you yourself have to find several messages before it becomes a whole letter again. These messages are in places that have something to do with the contents of the letter.

The third CD is titled “Thank U a lot” and the letter is a letter from a good friend to express her thanks. The postmen ‘delivering’ the letter this time are Serge Benoit (CV: Ono Daisuke) and Patrick di Tommaso (CV: Terashima Takuma). In the first track the letter is delivered to the post office, after that they take you on a tour through your memories to find the messages.

After postmen with English and German names I expect two French names, but one of them seems to be Italian, hihi. Thanks to being the strong silent type Serge is often seen as scary, while Patrick is very open and more cheerful. Ono Daisuke often voices the perfect boyfriend in situation CDs, but this time his role is very different, which is kind of refreshing.

Serge already manages the person that wants to deliver the message as soon as she enters the post office. Luckily Patrick is there to help. He also wrote Serge a script for explaining how the letters work because Serge apparently often fails to explain things properly. Thanks to the script they actually manage to explain things properly this time. Although Serge is obviously reading stuff from the memo. This is also the only CD where the characters don’t argue about who gets to use the time travel book.

Like always you are taken to different scenes from your past. This time we have a fireworks show, a park at night, in a cafe, at school, and the first day of school when you met. There are a few things different from the first two CDs though. Instead of finding the message after you have seen the scene, there are a couple of times where you find the message and still have to watch part of the memory, or figure out what it means before you can continue.

Serge and Patrick also take a little longer to fall for you. Patrick his attitude towards you remains largely the same, but Serge clearly needs some time to warm up to you. On the other hand, Patrick also realizes how important his friendship with Serge is to him while watching your memories.

One of the biggest changes though, is you actually asking them to read the final letter with you. This was a welcome change for me because that is one thing that really bugged me in the previous two CDs. After that they take you to the beach to watch the sunset, where Serge also shows his kindness by waiting just a little longer before taking you home, so that you can spend a few more minutes together.

Overall it felt like this third CD was a little bit more structured. You asking the postmen to read the letter together with you was more logical than them being the only ones able to read it. And there was a little less focus on the characters liking you and a bit more focus on them. I noticed that the letter have a trump theme, and the way the website would have had room for one more CD in the layout so I’m wondering whether they originally planned one more CD. If so, it is a pity that it was never produced, because this one was definitely better than the first two.


Conclusion:
Still as sweet as ever, but with a bit more structure and therefore my favourite of the three CDs in this series. Ono Daisuke voicing a more silent and stubborn (yet shamelessly honest) character was also a nice surprise.

MESSAGE 4 U vol.2 I’m sorry to U

MESSAGE 4 U vol.2 I’m sorry to U

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2009.10.30
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/me_top.html

Message 4 U is a series in which the postmen of the Mitsubachi (honey bee) post office deliver a message to you in a very special way. When they receive a letter it gets scattered through time, and you yourself have to find several messages before it becomes a whole letter again. These messages are in places that have something to do with the contents of the letter.

The second CD is titled “I’m sorry to U” and the letter send is a letter of apology. The postmen ‘delivering’ the message this time are Cristofer “Cris” Adolff (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) and Hermann Frohlich (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) In the first track the letter is delivered to the post office, after that they take you on a tour through your memories to find the messages.

After postmen with English names, we now get postmen with German names, haha. Despite his last name meaning “cheerful” Hermann is far from the cheerful type. In fact he is quite rough and impolite. Chris on the other hand is gentle and polite for the both of them.

Just like in the first CD they need to find you and explain things before you can go message hunting. Hermann his way of trying to make you come along is almost kidnapping, no wonder you are scared of him at first. And just like in the first CD they both try to explain the whole process, but both fail at giving an understandable explanation. Eventually you are on your way, but not before they fight over who gets to use the time traveling book.

Once again you watch 5 events from your past. This time the letter is a letter of apology, so the scenes you see are things for which your friend still wanted to apologise. This times the scenes are in your room, you meeting up with that friend, the two of you at a cafe, at the nurse’s office, and your house when you were both still little. In all of these scenes you worry whether there was something you could have done, and of course Hermann and Chris try to cheer you up.

One of the best moments is when you talk about the ‘love’ because you and your friend in the past were talking about it, and Hermann and Chris keep telling each other to answer because they both aren’t good with love problems. For some reason their interactions also made my BL radar react, and that while I don’t usually go that way...

When you’ve collected all message parts you head to the Mitsubachi Post Office where the two of them read the letter for you. And to make sure you don’t feel bad about anything they take you on a picnic before returning you to your own time. Of course, both of them have completely fallen for you by that time. Hermann his goodbye is one of the most adorable things in this CD.

I noticed one thing that already bugged me in the first CD but that I forgot to mention; the listener seems to take both the role of the person delivering the letter, and the role of the one receiving it. Of course these are two entirely different people (it is after all a letter that a friend send to you) but this is kind of confusing.


Conclusion:
Obviously this is just as cute as the first CD. Hermann is kind of tsundere, while Chris is the cute character this time. Once again the thing I liked best was their interactions, instead of them liking me.

Message 4 U vol.1 Happy Birthday to U

MESSAGE 4 U vol.1 Happy birthday to U

Company: Honey Bee
Based on: Original
Released: 2009.08.28
Official site: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/me_top.html

Message 4 U is a series in which the postmen of the Mitsubachi (honey bee) post office deliver a message to you in a very special way. When they receive a letter it gets scattered through time, and you yourself have to find several messages before it becomes a whole letter again. These messages are in places that have something to do with the contents of the letter.

The first CD is titled “Happy Birthday to U” and the letter send is of course a birthday wish. The postmen ‘delivering’ the message are Malcom Catley (CV: Ishida Akira) and Rio Alcott (CV: Shimono Hiro). In the first track the letter is delivered to the post office, after that they take you on a tour through your memories to find the messages.

Rio is the younger on of the two and basically really cute and naive. He calls Malcom ‘senpai’ and gets scolded by him a lot for acting rash or not doing things properly. The interaction between them is part of what makes this CD so cute.
But before you can go collect the messages they still need to find you of course. Rio does an exceptionally bad job at that telling you that he is searching for someone - when you turn out to be the one he is searching for. They explain how the entire letter thing works (although they aren’t very good at explaining) and you head off!

You visit several scenes from your past, one where you are shopping with a friend, your house, your school, your house again (during your birthday party when you were little), and the hospital on the day that you were born. During the time that you see all these scenes Rio and Malcom talk with you, listen to your worries, try to cheer you up, and are obviously attracted to you.

When you’ve got all messages you return to the Mitsubachi post office, where they read the entire letter to you. In the final track they celebrate your birthday with you like they promised somewhere earlier in the CD.

This is a super cute and heartwarming CD. Apparently you were worried about whether your friends really liked you, and this was your friend her way of saying that she really likes you and hopes you will always be friends. The story mood never gets heavy though, thanks to Rio and Malcom being too busy adoring you to let that happen.

I would have loved it if the actual letter was included with the booklet or something, instead of them reading it aloud to you. Somehow it would have been perfect if you went to gather all the messages in the drama CD, and then had to read the actual letter yourself.


Conclusion
Like most Honey Bee things this CD is very cute. Personally I thought the interactions between Rio and Malcom were the most interesting part of the CD though. Neither of them is my type (Rio is too naive and Malcom is, well, voiced by Ishida) so I guess that is why I was more interested in their interaction than in them liking me (*´艸｀*)