Archive for the Drama CDs & Audiobooks Category


I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 4

March 3rd, 2024

We left Rae and Claire in the Nur empire at the end of Volume 3, and in I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 4 we get into the weeds of so many plots that I’m still reeling from the tone shifts.

Rae and Claire may be “exchange students” but they have revolution on their minds and spend the beginning of the book thinking how they can train Princess Philene up to be the revolutionary leader they need.

But first, we have a cooking contest! And a formal ball. And a murder mystery, and a mysterious magical item, and a kidnapping. And helping out many different people in their various personal issues.

And, of course, that revolution.

There are so many plates being spun that the foreshadowing is barely noticeable, except when it’s a bat to the back of the head.

This is a story that, despite the light-hearted opening, becomes quite serious by the end. Nonetheless, there are many funny scenes* here, as well as a number of sincere discussions of queer existence. When all of that is set aside, the story digs in and becomes both politically and magically, dark.

Once again, narrator Courtney Shaw does a fantastic job at voices. Pronunciation is still an issue, however. Pronouncing Lene “Lean” is a matter of interpretation. But sakura? How is sakura being pronounced “sa-KOO-ra” in 2024? Please.  Oh well. I blame the director. This kind of thing is easy to check. I had some qualms about accents, but I’ll get over listening to a German cook with a Italian accent and a lisp. It was kind of funny after a while.

This 9 and half hour book is a lot of entertainment for the money and while it sets up the final volume of the series, doesn’t really prepare you for it when it arrives

Once again, I think this audiobook allows for a different appreciation of the story for those of use who have read or watched it, and offers accessibility to folks who use audiobooks as an assistive tool. I’m 100% for that and glad to see more Yuri available in this format with Yen’s The Executioner and Her Way of Life added to the roster this winter.

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 10

*I even laughed out loud at a breast size scene, possibly for the first time ever.

Volume 5, the final volume, is available this month from Seven Seas Siren.





I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 3

February 16th, 2024

Two young women, wearing white dresses, one with blonde ringlets and one with medium length brown hair stand with two blonde children, one in a pink dress, the other in a blue dress.When I reviewed Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina!, Volume 3 (平民のくせに生意気な!), I said I would tell you all about my weakness. Well, as I read this volume I realized that my weakness is, of all things, the twins. I don’t much like children, or children characters and stories that show or use violence or exploitation against children usually make me really angry. But these two….youch. They gouge me right in the feels.

So Courteny Shaw’s narration of I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 3 had me a blithering mess for pretty much every scene that covered the changing circumstances and lives of twins May and Aleah, the adopted daughters of Rae and Claire.

Shaw’s voices for the characters are very good. I could half-listen and still know exactly who was speaking. Her iteration of Aleah’s voice is especially interesting, as we know Aleah grew up int the slums, but she speaks with an approximation of Claire’s highborn accent and style.

The story wraps up the final pieces of the Revolution arc, then quickly launches us into the Nur arc, which gives Shaw a chance to crete voices for key characters like Philene and Dorothea, as well as Frieda’s excruciating mishmash of accent.  ^_^

By this point in the story, inori-sensei’s writing had really settled into a rhythm which makes this book move incredibly quickly. It helps too, that this volume includes many side stories from other character perspectives…and a big ole’ goopy happy scene for us to enjoy.

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 10

As I have said of Volumes 1 and Volume 2, the only downside is the occasional odd pronunciation, but as the audiobook is in every other way, an excellent production, I’m just rolling with it at this point. Most importantly, this series makes the light novels more accessible  and I am 100% for that! Maybe reading the LNs wasn’t to your taste, but you want to know what happened after the anime? Try the I’m In  Love With The Villianess audiobooks – they are worth a listen.

Volume 4 hit devices this month, so we can even more demons, Sword Gods and food battles in the empire!





I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 2

January 12th, 2024

A girl with collar-length brown hair wearing a fanciful red school uniform grips the shoulders of a blonde girl in the same uniform as she kisses her. Pink flower petals fly around them.Rae and Claire are about to face their reckoning, once again, in I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 2.  The revolution is upon them, the various forces are arrayed against them and their allies are dispersed. Will Rae Taylor, reborn into this world, be able to save her Villainess love?

This second volume is even better than the first in terms of story. Everything between Rae and Claire moves more quickly, as the forces pushing the revolution increase the pressure. The wave of change catches the two of them up and some significant things are done and said. Narrrator Courtney Shaw is absolutely brilliant, especially as Claire at the climax of the narrative. Equally, she’s delivers devastating pathos in the final chapters of the book. Those of you who have read it know why. Those who have not, may wish to have a tissue or hanky at the ready. The only complaint I have is the continued (and in this volume, expanded) odd choices for pronunciation of a few names, but it’s not worth getting upset over. It’s just a small minor objection to what is otherwise a fantastic narration.

If you reading the light novel did not appeal to you, or you’d just like to know what happens after the anime ended, this audiobook version is highly recommended. If you are already a fan of the series, I’d say this a really terrific way to experience the feels all over again. Shaw does a very good job giving Claire and Rae personality and charm. She makes Rod slightly unpalatable, Yuu fragile, and Thane impenetrable…until we understand him better.

And for those of you already enjoying this audiobook series, Volume 3 was released this week and is up on the Yuricon Store, with a number of purchase or streaming options. Book 4 is coming in February, you can pre-order it now on B&N and Bookwalker Global. It is clear that Seven Seas Siren is getting these out with alacrity, while the series is popular. I have a fannish hope we’ll hear some news about a second anime season before these are completed in March. ^_^

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 9





I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 1

November 24th, 2023

Two girls in red jacket and blue skirt uniforms embrace as if to dance. The girl with medium-length brown hair smiles slightly, the girl with blonde hair looks put out.

If you’ve been reading Okazu for a while, you may know that I love(d) Drama CDs. The Drama C D category here on Okazu has nearly 100 Yuri Drama CD reviews. But the age of the Drama CD passed when the 2020s began. Instead, the genre shifted to digital…which makes a lot of sense, honestly. And, possibly more importantly, a lot of the Yuri manga that might previously have gone to Drama CD is now being made into anime, so skipping that voice-only medium altogether. I’m not complaining. But I do miss those days of popping a CD in on my way to drive to work or a con. ^_^

As a third driving factor in the shift from Dramas CDs, audiobooks – full readings of novel by a narrator – has become way more popular than it was some years ago. In the 1990s I did a LOT of driving and my wife and I constantly listened to Recorded Books on Tape, a company that kept me sane on many a long drive. But then I stopped driving and didn’t have nearly as much time to listen to things and audiobooks went from something hardly anyone did, to something Amazon could make money on. And now we’re sort of full circle as audiobooks have hit Light Novels. We may not have Drama CDs, but instead we have I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 1 from Seven Seas Siren.

Narrator Courtney Shaw does a fantastic job. She captures each character well, to the point that by the end of the book, I knew who was speaking in most places, even if they weren’t immediately named. It was a pleasure to have her read the story to me, which gave me yet another perspective on words I have now experienced 4 or 5 times now.

I know you’ll care, so yes, the entire “Are you gay” conversation – including Rae talking about being impacted by Japanese media representation of gay people – is included. This is a reading of the whole novel, save for inori.-sensei’s author’s notes. Nothing was left out.

My only “complaint” (and it is not a complaint, just something that was impossible to not notice) is that a few of the pronunciations are at odds with both the written Japanese and the anime dub. The one that impacts us the most here is Lene, which is pronounced “lean.” We had a lively conversation on the Okazu discord about the various ways the Japanese レーネ could be adapted to English. My assumption was, since the Bauer kingdom is Frenchish (e.g., Claire François) was that it was meant to be Renée. The Japanese predilection for choosing ‘l’ over ‘r’ in transliteration gives us Lenée, which is pretty much how the anime dub handles it.  This and another choice makes me think that no one on the recording studio staff had thought to ask someone who could read Japanese. It was a very minor thing and didn’t really effect the overall presentation, it was just impossible to ignore – especially as we have the anime at the same time.

But do not let this very minor thing deter you from getting this audiobook. In every way, it’s an absolute delight.  While Shaw’s Rae is less over the top (or, as I like to think of it it, less “Pinky Pie”) than Hannah Alyea’s anime version, it works better for the more fully featured light novel narrative, in which we are given more of Rae’s motivation and backstory.

The first novel ends where the anime will be in a week or two, which means you can safely listen to this and not be spoiled for much.

Ratings (for the adaptation only)

Overall – 9

You should definitely get this audiobook to experience (or re-experience) the fun of the whole first novel. Then, once the anime is over (and after you have written Ichijinsha to let them know you want a second season, run out and pre-order Volume 2, so you get into the meat of the story!





Yuri Drama CD: @Around Kabukichou Shinjuku 0:00AM ~ Ena Saitou (@新宿区歌舞伎町近辺午前0時)~ 齋藤恵那

April 26th, 2019

Today we’re looking at a lovely little Drama CD I picked up at Comitia last February. I’ve mentioned a number of times that the Yuri section was pretty large as compared with years past, and this last one, was especially sprawling. As we moved out of た into ち blocks, we came across a number of folks selling really unique items. Among those were circle doyondo (どよんど) who were selling an original Drama CD called @Around Kabukichou Shinjuku 0:00AM ~ Ena Saitou (@新宿区歌舞伎町近辺午前0時)~ 齋藤恵那 by Taiyaki, Kokoro and Kudo Asa. Kudo-san voiced the main and only character, Ena…and she did a really decent job of it. It could not have been easy with no one to work off of.

The story begins with Ena, a high school girl, finding us, “oneesan” an older woman (maybe early twenties?) on the ground in the Kabukichou in Shinjuku at midnight. She asks if we are all right, but we are crying and Ena, who is a kind girl, says that we’ll make her cry. She picks us up, takes us to a hotel, because she can hardly bring us home and we tell her that we’ve had a bad break up with our girlfriend. Ena handles that with gentleness.

Each scenario is given a time and a place as a title: Shinjuku Kabukichou at a Hotel 2 AM; In front of the College Gates 6PM. As the scenarios develop we learn that Ena and we have kept in touch by text. Ena asks us for advice which she does not take because she doesn’t want to leave us. Eventually Ena tracks us down to tell us she likes us, can we go out? We say yes.

But as time passes, we’re being distant and Ena finds us, once again drunk in Kabukichou (I am not loving us right now….but I think we were just bumming because we were trying to “protect” her,) Ena tells us that she loves us and asks if we can make it more serious. Thankfully we say yes! We take Ena home and settle down together. For the last track “At Home The Future,” We make out a little and Ena asks us very cutely if she can call us by our given name.* This was an incredibly good and bad scene simultaneously, as poor Kudo-san had to make the kissing sound real by herself. She did better than I wanted to hear. ^_^; Honestly, I find listening to people kissing a little repulsive anyway. I skip those bit in movies a lot of the time.

For the cast talk, Kudo-san was joined by one of the writers, Taiyaki-san. They chatted about the creation of the story, and the manga of it, and how they’d like to turn it into an anime, of course! You can read the opening scene on Yuri Navi as part of their online Web Yuri Anthology Yuri “Toile” (WEB百合アンソロジー「トワール」 ).

You can also listen to the opening tack with Japanese subtitles on Youtube. Thanks redfish for the heads up that it’s also downloadable (at least within Japan) from booth.pm.

This was a delightful, well-acted story that was charming and engaging in a short time. I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to hear more of circle doyondo’s work!

Ratings:

Story – 8
Character – 9
Voice acting – 9
Service – 4 that one make out scene sounds like exactly what its supposed to be
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

*As I mentioned yesterday in my reviews of Kyuusei End Contents Positive: Encount (九彩エンドコンテンツ), this was a repeated theme I’ve seen a few times recently. Is this…a new trope? /insert meme here/

So. Drunk onee-san are rapidly being set up to become the Yuri:2020 version of the cool upperclassman. It’s not going to make Yuri a queerer genre, but I’m finding it hard to complain. Get back to me in 8 years. ^_^

I’ve linked to the Toranoana e-shop to get this. If you are outside Japan, you probably will need a buying service.
This is unrelated, but I found it remarkable, so I will remark on it – Toranoana has an otaku wedding planning service. I think I like that.