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Voice acting is serious business


MaggieROBOT

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Hey there! Today let's talk a bit about drama CDs, a kinda add-on to the stories of some visual novels that's super popular in otome and BL fandoms. I'm talking about these two particular fanbases, but it's not uncommon for light novels, manga and anime series, or video games from all kinds of genres to have side stories released in this format. And we even have original stories released like this.

Drama CDs, or audio dramas, are exactly what it says on the tin. An audiobook of sorts with dialogues, inner thoughts of characters and narrations, read aloud by the voice actors of the media in question. Visual Novels without the visual aspect. The perspective can shift from character to character from time to time, and you'll know when it happened when other person starts narrating. If the main character is unvoiced in the main game, common in otome for self insertion reasons and such, these drama CDs are our chance to finally hear their voices.

The big otomege japanese companies, like Otomate and Rejet, release drama CDs for most of it's popular series. And they are frequently announced in their big events, with the presence of the voice actors in question, to the fangirls' delight. I must admit that, since I started following these things, I learned quite a few names of voice actors and even when they use alias (more common in BL than otome, whyyyy is thaaaat), they don't fool me anymore.
 

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Related links given to me by CDJapan when I was looking for drama CDs. Not only I recognize four of these names, but I also know a bunch of previous roles of three of them.
 

There's some different types of drama CD as well. Some features interactions between characters with a short and simple storyline. They are usually called talk CDs. Some otome games that have this type of drama cds are Amnesia (CD's name is "Meido no Kuni no Amnesia"), Hakuouki ("Chizuru Yuukai Jikenchou") and Arcana Famiglia ("Il dolce Regalo").
 

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Cover of "Chizuru Yuukai Jikenchou". The harem is strong with this girl...

 

We also have the otome CDs that, unlike the talk CDs, have only one guy speaking with you or his inner thoughts about you. I mean, the main character. So yeah, an entire CD of your favorite guy whispering in your ear, I can see the appeal. You can usually recognize one by their name pattern: "Series name Vol. X - Character name". So just pick your favorite character and press play to enjoy! Series that have this type of CD are Diabolik Lovers (for masochist girls) and Norn9 (this game have three MCs, so the drama CDs are divided by girl, a track for each one of their love interests)

Together with the otome CDs, we also have the character CDs, that features one of the guys singing instead of talking. Sometimes we have duets, but it really depends on the series. The naming pattern is similar to otome CDs, but it usually have "character CD" specified. As examples, we have Collar X Malice and Code Realize.

 

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Cover of Norn9 Trio Drama CD Vol. 1. Guys of all ages to please everyone!

 

Now if you want something more... spicy, they also got you covered, with the R18 otome CDs. If you didn't press ctrl in all h-scenes you came across, you know what to expect here. Moaning, kissing and all those other background sounds. I never came across any game that had an extra CD like this, maybe they didn't wanted to ruin the pure maiden image, it's more common for these CDs to contain original stories. But I did saw the opposite happen actually, an original R18 CD turned into an otomege. Meet Jooubachi no Oubou!

For BL... we have pretty much the same things except the otome variation. The biggest BL company, Nitro+CHIRAL, sure love to make comedic and ecchi ones, but Karin Chatnoir Omega released even the singing variation for their series Omerta.

As one can guess, all of them are in japanese only. It's a fun way to practice your hearing, but never fear! We also have fantranslations for some of these titles, so don't let it discourage you!

 

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Just don't do like fujoshi Kotone Fujisaki from Keijo!! and listen to your precious BL drama CDs in public. Unless you control very well your reactions...

 

Now that I informed you about this world of voice actor fangirling, let me share my opinion about this. Yes, eargasm is really important in my games. I play lots of unvoiced stuff, but damn, a good voice acting can really make some okay scenes be a lot better (looking at you, Togainu no Chi). And I can count two times when it was a great deal for me...

First time: I usually research a lot about my game before buying because I hate to waste my time and money in things I know I'll dislike halfway through it. The one and only thing I didn't look about too much was Code Realize, and I even paid almost 40 USD for it, because a) I love steampunk; b) art is gorgeous (art is a big deal for me); and c) Suwabe Jun'ichi was in the cast. Yeeeeeep...... And it was worth every cent in the end, thanks nihon gods.

Second time: I just started playing Omerta, the game was casually showing us the boys and stuff, that usual prologue stuff. Then this blond god appeared before my eyes...

 

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My nose sustained major damage by excessive bleeding

 

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn, he seems like a good candidate for best guy of the game. It was already good, but then he started to speak (voice sample)...

Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, the flood, I didn't even need a h-scene, take meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

*Cahan*, forgive me. And what about you guys? Do you have any voice actor you like a lot? Share with me while I hear this cover of a Vocaloid song by DMMD Ren's voice actor nonstop!

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I know it's slightly beside the point, but it's also mentioned in a way when it comes to character CDs...

I'm always amazed by how many seiyuus are also competent singers. I don't get obsessed with voice actors (well, especially male ones, it's easy to imagine why), but a voice actress that's good at her main job and sings well will usually get me (moderately) excited. I guess I have a thing for people with multiple talents, probably because of how much I lack any artistic abilities whatsoever... :P

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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7 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

I know it's slightly beside the point, but it's also mentioned in a way when it comes to character CDs...

I'm always amazed by how many seiyuus are also competent singers. I don't get obsessed with voice actors (well, especially male ones, it's easy to imagine why), but a voice actress that's good at her main job and sings well will usually get me (moderately) excited. I guess I have a thing for people with multiple talents, probably because of how much I lack any artistic abilities whatsoever... :P

Any discussion is welcome! ;)  But yeah, I also love the ones that can sing too! But with male actors (maybe with female ones too, but I don't remember a whole lot of them, easy to imagine why XD) there's some problems that... I think sometimes they edit too much their singing for them to appear younger and more "ikemen-like" if that makes sense. Let the dudes be more natural, I surely love when they sound more mature! Most of my favorites are beyond 30s or even 40s, they don't need to sound like teenagers...

Edited by MaggieROBOT
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17 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

Any discussion is welcome! ;)  But yeah, I also love the ones that can sing too! But with male actors (maybe with female ones too, but I don't remember a whole lot of them, easy to imagine why XD) there's some problems that... I think sometimes they edit too much their voices for them to appear younger and more "ikemen-like" if that makes sense. Let the dudes be more natural, I surely love when they sound more mature! Most of my favorites are beyond 30s or even 40s, they don't need to sound like teenagers...

Oooohhh, I think it's a huge issue with all seiyuus - it's hard to express how happy I am when the female cast sounds like actual human beings in a JP VN or anime series. :P This goes to singing too, you can just contrast Kana Hanazawa singing with a somewhat natural voice and Kana Hanazawa impersonating a mouse. With all respect to all those liking Renai Circulation, I definitely prefer VAs not overdoing stuff. :D

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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7 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Oooohhh, I think it's a huge issue with all seiyuus - it's hard to express how happy I am when the female casts sound like actual human beings in a JP VN or anime series. :P This goes to singing too, you can just contrast Kana Hanazawa singing with a somewhat natural voice and Kana Hanazawa impersonating a mouse. With all respect to all those liking Renai Circulation, I definitely prefer VAs not overdoing stuff. :D

Hahahahahahaha I just said I don't remember many female seiyuus and you had to bring up the one that I always remember and love :wahaha: Kana Hanaaaaaa! <3 But yeah, the first one is the best one!

Edited by MaggieROBOT
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Good article the drama cd I really wished had some kind of translation was the one from G-Senjou https://vgmdb.net/album/11548

Maybe someday if I actually learn the language I will finally be able to hear what the hell its about. Kindred spirits on the roof actually has several drama cds made and I'll probably have to listen to them all. Though I am normally okay with playing vn's that are unvoiced I always feel like there is a bit missing I'm looking at you Enigma.

Also it's a shame that Omerta isn't translated because that actually looks really cool. (I still love anything mafia related)

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Unfortunately I didn't quite interested with shounen ai drama CD for very obvious reason here, but at least I remember Fata Morgana drama CD. One of the reason of why I'm suddenly interested with Fata Morgana back at 2016 from being skeptic is the drama CD itself, which contain some good name like Soichiro Hoshi, Sakurai Takahiro, Kenichi Suzumura, and Suwabe Junichi - the female side also have good name as well like Yui Horie, Koshimizu Ami, and Asumi Kana.

As for the seiyuu themselves, one of famous female VN seiyuu would be Kawashima Rino and her voice was recognizeable enough because she have many roles. Taguchi Hiroko was also the one that I could recognize, and I'm pretty interested with Fujisaki Usa. For more seiyuu, Sawashiro Miyuki and Yuki Kaida did good job at Go Princess Pretty Cure, especially the later. For the last one, there's Yukari Tamura in which I started to recognize her tone after heard her as Bern in Umineko. For male seiyuu, I think Shiichiro Miki did the good job as Roy Mustang from Brotherhood. So does with Fujiwara Keiji, in which he usually did have some take it easy tone.

For more reference, you may check Pygmalion because it have Hanakana or Kara no Shoujo 2 because it have Suwabe Junichi as Reiji. Or if you want to watch those two at the same time, then Go Princess Pretty Cure movie should be a good choice (Maybe you already watch that though). As for why many actor use pseudonym when voiced BL, I think it's more or less unwritten rules that they shouldn't use their real name when voicing a porn, because if they use real name the they gonna face the risk of having a hard time like be fired and have their reputation fallen. So the seiyuu use pseudonym to avoid that risk.

I think that's all that I could write for now.

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59 minutes ago, littleshogun said:

Unfortunately I didn't quite interested with shounen ai drama CD for very obvious reason here, but at least I remember Fata Morgana drama CD. One of the reason of why I'm suddenly interested with Fata Morgana back at 2016 from being skeptic is the drama CD itself, which contain some good name like Soichiro Hoshi, Sakurai Takahiro, Kenichi Suzumura, and Suwabe Junichi - the female side also have good name as well like Yui Horie, Koshimizu Ami, and Asumi Kana.

As for the seiyuu themselves, one of famous female VN seiyuu would be Kawashima Rino and her voice was recognizeable enough because she have many roles. Taguchi Hiroko was also the one that I could recognize, and I'm pretty interested with Fujisaki Usa. For more seiyuu, Sawashiro Miyuki and Yuki Kaida did good job at Go Princess Pretty Cure, especially the later. For the last one, there's Yukari Tamura in which I started to recognize her tone after heard her as Bern in Umineko. For male seiyuu, I think Shiichiro Miki did the good job as Roy Mustang from Brotherhood. So does with Fujiwara Keiji, in which he usually did have some take it easy tone.

For more reference, you may check Pygmalion because it have Hanakana or Kara no Shoujo 2 because it have Suwabe Junichi as Reiji. Or if you want to watch those two at the same time, then Go Princess Pretty Cure movie should be a good choice (Maybe you already watch that though). As for why many actor use pseudonym when voiced BL, I think it's more or less unwritten rules that they shouldn't use their real name when voicing a porn, because if they use real name the they gonna face the risk of having a hard time like be fired and have their reputation fallen. So the seiyuu use pseudonym to avoid that risk.

Oh yeah, Fata Morgana and Kara no Shoujo already are in my "to read" list, thanks for giving me even more reasons to read them :wahaha:

As for female seiyuu, I have a hard time to remember her names and I'm slightly tone deaf all the more with high pitched voices so... But look, I remember Sawashiro Miyuki, because for me she's that awesome!

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