The fourth Drama CD for Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Kyuusei Radio, (屋上の百合霊さんドラマCD「九星ラジオ」) is both charming and vexing in turn, which only serves to highlight the feeling of visiting with old friends that one inevitably gets with post-series media.

It’s been a few years since Yuna met and spoke with two ghosts on the school roof. She and her classmates have all graduated and moved on with their lives. Most of them attend college, including Umi, Sasa and Nena, the broadcasting trio. The three are still friends and, one autumn weekend, team up with the local shopping area to do a special Kyuusei Radio broadcast, highlighting local shops, sales and events. 

In between segments, we learn that Umi, Sasa and Nena are planning a trip to Hawaii and that Nena’s kouhai wants to come. It’s pretty clear that they all think her admiration for Nena crosses a line, but Sasa reminds Umi and, more importantly, us, they just may never become a couple.

The bulk of the drama CD is banter between the three, much of in just as annoying as you might expect with old friends whose jokes you’re not in on. ^_^; But the broadcast is rather sweet and I could easily imagine strolling down a local shotengai visiting the tea store and bakery at their suggestion.

We do get a quick visit with Yuna, at the end, and Ano, Aki and Youka are mentioned, but do not appear. However, someone else does….and, at last, I am vindicated.

This download includes a second disk’s worth of content. Not only do you get an enjoyable hour-long Drama CD, you get the soundtrack  for the series, narrated by none other than…Sachi and Megumi, the ghosts of Shirojo. You may remember that, at the end of my review of the Kindred Spirits VN, I said, “There is a final thing that surprised the heck out of me, but as it’s a huge spoiler, I’ll skip it. Let’s just say that I was surprised again by the end – not what it did, but what it didn’t. Ask me in 6 months when everyone’s had a chance to get through this.” As it’s been a year now, I can spoil this without too much concern.

The final climax (har-har) of the game is Sachi and Megumi finally leaving this mortal plane. I was convinced that, by the end of the game, they would return. I was actually surprised that they didn’t. But here, at the veryyyyyyy final piece of the series, they return. Hah. I knew it. ^_^

Ratings:

Characters – 9 Above all things, extremely realistic.
Story – 8 Pleasant.
Yuri – 5 If you didn’t know Sasa and  Umi were a couple, you might be forgiven for not realizing until they mention it.

Overall – 8

As with all the other CDs, the story is cute, the time spent with characters is entertaining and Nena’s snark is still extremely high-level.

Let’s talk about representation. Let’s talk about canon and subtext and identity.

Years ago, I threw out a definition for recognizing “Yuri,” as opposed to “lesbian” content. Yuri could be seen as lesbian content without lesbian identity. I said this because if a character identifies as lesbian, there’s a higher chance that the story is LGBTQ, rather than Yuri. This is not a hard or fast rule, but an observational guideline. A predatory character identifying herself as a lesbian in a shounen manga hardly shifts the narrative to LGBTQ, but in most of the kind of things we watch and read here, identity is a key factor in the narrative being seen as lesbian or Yuri.

We’ve seen a lot of melding of the two labels over time, as artists like Takemiya Jin and Nakamura Kiyo poke and prod and overlap at the boundaries. And we just talked about how a cartoon can provide a lesbian narrative that is canon…but still subtext.

Today we’re going to talk about a series that has pushed “Yuri” as far as it can go by providing identity and overt text…without ever identifying as lesbian. Kindred Spirits on the Roof Drama CD Vol.3, Rain Kick (屋上の百合霊さんドラマCD第3弾「夕立キック」) manages this.

The story follows two of the popular Yuri Visual Novel’s couples – Maki and Seina and Matsuri and Miyu on a short summer vacation. Maki begins with an expository discussion with Yuna, the game’s protagonist, setting up the fact that Yuna is likely to take over president of the council next year. Maki confides in Yuna that a shop employee recently thought that she and Seina were sisters and that really bothered her. This refrain repeats several times during this CD.

Matsuri and Miyu have already graduated and are now living together. They set up a few days at a resort bungalow for the 4 of them. During the first few tracks I was delighted as the four spoke of the most banal things like who would cook what and their personal schedules (training for the runners, studying for almost third-year Seina.) It was so normal and human and a conversation that might actually happen it took me by surprise. But I should really stop being surprised at Kindred Spirits by now. It does “real” and “human” better than any other series ever.

The story has little drama, but is pretty chock full of identity.  We spend time with Matsuri and Miyu, discussing Maki’s concern about being seen as sisters. Miyu logically suggests that “sisters” is a guess by a stranger to make the close relationship of Maki and Seina make sense. Matsuri wants the two of them to be seen to “fit” together naturally in that way, they they belong together. Matsuri mentions her concerns when she confessed to Miyu, and says that by then, she had pretty much become comfortable with the fact that she was always going to be attracted to girls. (Aki also had a similar admission during the game.) They have  touching moment and a sneaked kiss.

Maki and Seina also discuss Maki’s concern. Ultimately she admits that she wants them to be seen as “lovers.” Seina is moved by this, and they discuss their lives in the future, together.

So, when we look at these relationships, they are canon AND overt text and, although the word “lesbian” is never used, there is awareness of identity in Matsuri and awareness of the way their relationships appear to others. And I find myself marveling at how sneakily this adorable Yuri series gets to talking some real shit to an audience that, in part, probably never thinks about this stuff at all. Damn.

As with Kindred Spirits Drama CD 1, Playing Girlfriend and Drama CD 2, Friendship Plans,  Rain Kick is available by download from Mangagamer’s website in 2 digital downloads, one with the full Drama CD, subtitled as a video file – so no Japanese comprehension needed-  and one with the CD insert images, extra voice tracks, original raw voice CD track, and translated credits and notes.

An excellent way to develop the characters. I’m absolutely looking forward to the 4th Drama CD, Kyuusei Radio!

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Unrelated to the issue of representation and identity, I fell in love with this series all over again when Seina was given a conversation about how she could tell the beams in the ceilings were for decoration only. I grinned my way through the “contractor’s daughter” talking about the way the building was constructed. The conversation is meaningless, unless the writers really gave a rat’s ass about character consistency. Which they did. And I love them for it!

I may bring back the Stargazer Award and award it to Okujou no Yurirei-san writers for exceptional writing in the face of industry tropes.

As we’re rounding the corner into the final quarter of the year, I’m looking at this series for my best of and thinking it’s going to be hard to beat it.

“Koibito-gokko” is not all that positive a phrase. It’s used somewhat disparagingly, to diminutize and dismiss same-sex love, especially between girls. To be told that you are pretending to be lovers, because of course you can only really become lovers with a boy, is just not a nice thing to say.

I’m gonna be honest that when I saw that the first Kindred Spirits Drama CD was called “Koibito-gokko” 「恋人ごっこ」, I was not leaping to get it initially. But after listening to and thoroughly enjoying the Second Drama CD and being reminded that this series has yet to let me down, I decided to give it a try.

Kindred Spirits, Drama CD 1, Playing Girlfriend was, despite the title, very cute.

The story follows Yuna’s classmate Ano, as her annual existence as an object of worship by other students has become more stalker-y than she’s comfortable with. Her friends. Yuna, Hina and Nena suggest that if she pretends to have a lover, her fans will back off. Because Ano cannot decide which of the three would make a better fake girlfriend, they all decide to try it out.

Another cringe-worthy plot and I just had to trust to the writers that they’d make it worth my time. And so they did.

Ano’s lunchtime escapade with Yuna was absolutely darling. We spent a little time just listening in as they discussed their future plans. It was plain up a bit of hanging with characters we like for a little longer, with nothing creepy about it.

Hina is next, and she gets a chance to impart some genuine wisdom at Ano and listeners, the crux of which was “If you really like someone, you don’t stalk them.” Thank you, Hina.

Of course, before we went into the Nena and Ano scenario, I knew that this was where it was most like to be a bit service-y, as both Ano and Nena remain unpaired in the original game, are both friends and are both geeks, although in different ways. Nena did not disappoint. She played Ano beautifully and really had a little fun at her friend’s expense without hurting her at all. It was nice to remind ourselves that Hina and Nena are both observant and Yuna’s very realistic…and that Nena had a wicked sense of humor.

Ultimately, Ano pulls herself together and develops a plan to help herself and her fans…with her friends’ help.

Like the Second Drama CD, Friendship Plans, this was purchased from Mangagamer’s site, and came in the form of two downloads. A Drama CD with original seiyuu, and subtitles over images, and a second download with CD inserts, images, credits and extra voice tracks, wishing you a good morning, good night, kitchen timer and the like.

Ratings:

Story – Despite a icky title, it was an 8
Characters – 10
Overall – 8

The DCD ties together two little loose ends from the game; Ano’s helping Yuna, and the fact that fans paired Ano and Nena, and gave them a story that was both satisfying and not at all cringe-making.

At this point, I’m just now all in for anything these writers throw at me. I trust them implicitly to not let me down.