Last week, I was able to review the upcoming Yen Press release of Sumiko Arai’s popular manga The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All. It was a pleasure to share that review because Yen had done a very good job.I hope you’ll all read that review, and pre-order the book.

While I was on vacation, I took the Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta Drama CD (ドラマCD 気になってる人が男じゃなかった) with me to listen to on the plane.  And it, too, was fun. The cast did a terrific job, with the OTT reactions of the story. Ise Mariya as Mitsuki and especially Kito Akari as Aya really carried the narrative.

Going into this, I was very interested in how they would handle the issue of the music, since 90s 00s music are at the heart of this story. As popular as this series is, there was no way they were going to license every song mentioned in the manga. The approach they took was interesting. We mostly hear the music as if we are listening to someone else listening to them on earphones, so the notes are muted and the tune is implied by a short riff or a bass line. It worked well if you are familiar with the songs in question.

At the climax of the CD, they did license one song, Radiohead’s Creep – a great choice for the story and for Ise’s voice.

The Special Edition includes an booklet with a new, short manga showing us little Aya’s discovery of western rock, and a cute scene between her and Miysuki in story time.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Music – 9 The climax is on point
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7

Overall – 9

Like most Drama CDs, nothing new is added to the story, but it gives us a new perspective on the characters as we hear them now as they torture themselves. ^_^ It was a fun time with characters we’ve already grown to like, which is what we want from a CD. And if Ise and Kito are the voices used for the anime…they’ll be great.