All you lovely folks who wrote in to tell me that Grand Stage Romance Review, Volume 4 (Kohaku Minami) / グラン・ステージ ロマンスレビュー 第4幕「美波琥珀」was pretty goshdarn Yuri…you were so right! Although I’m always going to be partial to Hiou Akito’s second drama CD, Minami is pretty wonderful in this disk.
Minami, you may remember from her first CD, is the second of two Grand Stage stars in her family. Her sister Kurea (Claire) is sort of overbearing in an “I only want you to be happy” kind of way. She’s annoying in her care and attention. She’s also voiced by Kitamura Eri, who voices Minami, who carries this duel role throughout the CD.
Minami has found genuine passion for the Grand Stage and pretty much credits the person she loves for that. It seems obvious that that person is us, her sempai and partner, but either we pretend to not know at first, or haven’t clued in. I was disappointed in us.
But, eventually Minami comes clean and admits flat out that we are the person she loves. She doesn’t ask for an answer, per se, but confesses like a person who really wants to confess.
We are, remember, older, wiser and a good friend of Kurea’s. It’s pretty clear that we’re not “in love” with Minami, even though we obvious care deeply about her. So even though we are not leaping into Minami’s arms, it’s both admirable and sweet that she comes right out and tells us her feelings.
The CD ends with Minami singing her song about happiness, “Sachi,” which you can hear on this Youtube preview.
Ratings:
Overall – 8 (A point off for Kurea, she’s just kind of annoying.)
You go, Minami. I bet you’ll win us over one day. ^_^
I love her song!
Yay. Glad you enjoyed this one. Kurea might be annoying but having her as the other character in this one makes Kohaku’s story unique out of the RR series, as this is the only other time she shows up.
Only Suoh and the other group CD to go!
Looking forward to Suoh!
Ahhh, I love Kohaku *so much*.
I’m kind of wavering on how to interpret the initial botched confession she did – whether we freak out and run away (leaving the poor girl in the RAIN) because we can’t handle the confession, or because we think she likes someone who’s *not* us? There’s also a bit about how Kohaku is fighting with her sister (Kurea still seems to think Kohaku’s 12) and Kohaku asks us whose side we’re on.
And then after her botched confession she gets sick, and we bring her medicine and she thinks she must be *dreaming* so she makes a much better confession! It is so tropey and SO CUTE. (Also, her freaking out when she realizes we’re not a hallucination is the best.)
Ah, that helps me understand that scene better, thank you.
Thank you to everyone, by the way, who goes over the main plot points of these drama CDs for those of us who’s Japanese is not great enough for us to be absolutely certain about some of the plot points.
That will actually be important when it comes to Suoh, I did not really get a lot of what happened in that CD.
Sophie, I always love talking about Grand Stage with you. <3
I’m pretty sure that first incident wasn’t even meant to be so much of a confession. It sort of went from Kohaku asking whose ally we are and that she wants to be our number one to us seeming to think she has someone more important to her. And then we kind of put her on the spot with the whole koibito business to which she correctly guesses Crea put that idea in our head (thanks Crea). She says she doesn’t have a lover, but there is someone she wants to be with, and when we ask who, she becomes reluctant and just doesn’t want to say who just yet. And then it further spirals with us running out of our own home and we get that heartbreaking scene in the rain. (Really, Kitamura Eri’s performance is A+.) Personally, I’m under the impression we’re upset because there’s potentially someone else since we didn’t start getting worked up until the conversation turned to that topic.
It’s so cute how bold she becomes when she thinks she’s dreaming, even daring to kiss us (the others could learn from her). (Her reaction to realizing it’s not a dream is really good though because her main concern is for us to get away from her so we don’t catch her cold.)
I think Kohaku is probably the best example of character development from the first CD to the second. It’s pretty obvious she’s grown a lot thanks to the relationships she’s forged with us and the other otokoyaku of the series.