Hidamari no Pinyu

陽だまりのピニュ 

Company: Frontierworks
Based on: Manga
Released: 2008.08.27


Hidamari no Pinyuu is a series about the daily life of Pinuette Chipal Chipalulu (Nickname: Pinyu), the princess of the Chipalulu Kingdom. Except that she as ran away from home to go and live in Japan after hearing stories about it.

The CD starts with Hibina Minato (CV: Shiraishi Ryoko) and Kuji Shoubu (CV: Hatano Wataru) running to catch the bus. Minato sees a pretty girl and stops for a second, promptly missing the bus. The next few days rumours start within the school about a strange foreign girl doing weird stuff. Thinking it might be the girl she saw before, Minato attempts to find her.

After a short search Minato and Kuji find her in a park, tired and covered in dirt. Minato decides to take her home with her where she puts her in bath to get her clean. The girl introduces herself as Pinyu (CV: Noto Mamiko). Minato her mother (CV: Odaira Yuuki) tells Minato that her grandfather once visited the country where Pinyu comes from, and that that is probably how she knows stories about Japan. In the end, Pinyu becomes a transfer student at Minato her school.

Meanwhile at school they have just started a miss high school contest, and Pinyu becomes one of the favourites. This causes Maruo Shuuko (CV: Yajima Akiko) to see her as her rival. Maruo her faithful photographer Chouroku Chinatsu (CV: Yamamoto Maria) always sticks around her, but seems to care much less about the contest.

Mixing these characters with Maruo her classmate Toori (CV: Yonaga Tsubasa) who just happens to be from Chipalulu, Chinatsu (CV: Satou Akemi) who is the captain of the cheerleading club, and Oomori (CV: Hamada Kenji) the captain of the ouen-dan gives us a rather colourful cast for this very cute drama CD.

There might be a contest going on, but don't expect any harsh competition. This above all a very cute and fluffy story. The characters are all very cute and the entire atmosphere is just warm and fluffy. No evil going on in the background or anything like that either. Just full 100% fluff and sweetness.

The cast talk is quite long and is just as cute as the rest of the work. Like Noto-san saying that the Chipalulu language was very difficult to speak, and Yonaga-san saying that he first had to practice to say the full name of his own character. Or someone suddenly asking Hamada-san how long his legs are xD


Conclusion:
The fluff is all  over the place in this work, which is what you should listen it for. The characters are cute and interesting, and it is a really cute story. I wished they would have made more drama CD's for this series, but unfortunately there is only one CD

Blood Alone 3

Blood Alone 3

Company: Marine Entertainment
Based on: Manga
Released: 2008.06.25



Blood Alone is based on the manga series of the same name. It is about the vampire girl Minato Misaki and the novelist/detective Kurose Kuroe who takes care of her. Each of the three drama CD's has three stories. Most of the time these stories are not directly connected but more like episodes from their life.

As always, this has three stories. The first one is about Kuroe and his sister. After solving a case involving two siblings, Kuroe is reminded of his sister. Misaki asks Sainome to tell her a little about Kuroe when he was younger.

The second story seems connected to both Kuroe and Misaki their past. Kuroe receives a request to guard a former assassin. He reclines at first, but after hearing that a certain party is involved he accepts. The man Kuroe needs to protect has become the target of an organisation called "Einseingrad Sparda" is imediately attacked by a girl named Maria (CV: Sawashiro Miyuki). Kuroe manages to deflect attack, but the girl escapes with heavy injuries.

As coincidence will have it, she is found by Misaki. Recognising the girl as a renfield (the servant of a vampire, red) she takes her home so she can recover. However the vampire that sired her soon arrives and kidnaps Misaki. He suspects that she is something special.

While handcuffing Misaki, the two of them make another attempt on the man his life. Misaki however manages to break free, and holds down Maria so that Kuroe can go after the vampire. We get a glimpse of the vampire hunter Kuroe here, it is clear that his fame as a vampire hunter was earned.

The final story revolves all around Misaki her fear of thunder. Kuroe is just about to go out for work, but on his way out remembers Misaki is afraid of lightning, and returns to stay at her side.

At first I though the first and second story were connected, but they are not. Well in a sense they are, Eisengrad Sparda is responsible for some events in Kuroe his past, but they are not directly connected. Both of them were very interesting though.

Both Kuroe and Higure (CV: Kobayashi Sanae) have taken several lessons in awesome for this CD. Higure only appears for a few moments, but proves himself as an ancient vampire. Kuroe shows us some of his vampire hunter skills, and as kind as he is to Misaki, he is cold to his enemies.


Conclusion:
Personally this might be my favourite Blood Alone CD. Sadly it is also the last one that was released, while there are still some unresolved plot points. The manga however continues those. While keeping the atmosphere of the previous CDs, this one also delivers the most action packed story.

方言恋愛 Vol.3

Hougen Renai Vol.3

Hougen Renai translates into something as 'Dialect Love', which is exactly what it is. Hougen Renai tells two stories, each one takes place in a different part of Japan. The whole charm of the series is that the dialect of the location where the story supposedly takes placed is used. This volume has two new prefectures; Fukuoka and Niigata. I was looking forward to this release not only because I love the series, but also because Hirakawa Daisuke does the character for Niigata :3

But first Fukuoka. The Heroine is a high school student who visits a temple in Fukuoka to pray for succes on her entrance exams. There she meets the priest Kunitake Yoshito and his childhood friend Kaori. As she seems far too tense about her exams Yoshito decides to drag her around the city to relax for a bit.

The first few lines made me want to pull my hair out in frustration, Fukuoka ben is NOT an easy dialect to listen to. In fact, it is probably one of the worst and most difficult dialects to understand. It is probably best to listen to the entire story more than once, because the dialect takes a while to get used to so you might miss some things in the beginning. Although Yoshito does cut back a bit on the dialect when talking with the heroine. Who sounds just too cute btw!! Not squeeky-high-voice-cute, but actually cute.

The second story takes place partly in Niigata and partly in Tokyo, but it is the Niigata dialect that takes a central place in the plot. This time the heroine works for a museum and visits Niigata to obtain a specific painting for an exhibition. In the Shinkansen she meets Oshimi Keigo who is an actor. She lends him her phone because the batteries of his own one are drained, and as thanks he shows her around later on. They exchange their mail address before they both return to Tokyo, where the rest of the story takes place.

On the website they described this story to be "as pure as white snow" and I agree, it is very cute. The Niigata dialect is easy to understand. This is also the first time that the dialect itself plays a central part in the plot; Keigo, who was struggling with how to portray his characters in a sincere way, discovers that it is much easier for him to be sincere when he talks in his own dialect.

As always, I really like that the heroine has a voice, it allows for more complicated stories than when you can only listen. In both stories I got the feeling that there was more interaction with other characters, and that through that the focus was more on the dialect this time. This also made the stories seem much more natural, and gave them a fresh feeling.

Conclusion:
So far this is my favorite CD in the series. As much a Fukuoka-ben frustrates me, the story was fun so it was enjoyable. I might even say it was fun to try and understand everything he says. The second story was just too cute, and I liked that the dialect actually played a central role.
That, and it was Hirakawa Daisuke so what more do I want? :3