[Cafe Lindbergh ~Bokura no Renai Shinrigaku 2~ Koi no Recipie]
Original (Game): Cafe Lindbergh ~Bokura no Renai Shinrigaku 2~
Company: Ein [studio may-be]
CG Artist: 麻生 海 Asou Kai
Released: 6/20/2003 Marine Entertainment
Catalogue Number: LBS-0006
Price: 3990 yen (with tax), 3800 yen (w/out tax)
Cast:
Disk 1
一条和矢 Ichijou Kazuya (桐野逸樹 Touno Itsuki) x 眞嶋リョウ Majima Ryou (少年 A Shounen A)
一条和矢 Ichijou Kazuya (桐野逸樹 Touno Itsuki) x 緑川 光 Midorikawa Hikaru (一ノ瀬進哉 Ichinose Shinya)
伊藤健太郎 Itou Kentarou (三原拓実 Mihara Takumi) x 櫻井孝宏 Sakurai Takahiro (篠原智裕 Shinohara Chihiro)
Disk 2
"Gateau Opera"
一条和矢 Ichijou Kazuya (桐野逸樹 Touno Itsuki) x 千葉進歩 Chiba Susumu (高見沢 司 Takamizawa Tsukasa)
"Linzer Torte"
伊藤健太郎 Itou Kentarou (三原拓実 Mihara Takumi) x 緑川 光 Midorikawa Hikaru (一ノ瀬進哉 Ichinose Shinya)
"Honey Pudding"
緑川 光 Midorikawa Hikaru (一ノ瀬進哉 Ichinose Shinya) x 櫻井孝宏 Sakurai Takahiro (篠原智裕 Shinohara Chihiro)
"Tiramisu"
伊藤健太郎 Itou Kentarou (三原拓実 Mihara Takumi) x 千葉進歩 Chiba Susumu (高見沢 司 Takamizawa Tsukasa)
"Savarin"
増谷康紀 Masutani Yasunori (渡辺隆之 Watanabe Ryuuji) x 一条和矢 Ichijou Kazuya (桐野逸樹 Touno Itsuki)
鈴木千尋 Suzuki Chihiro (加納遼一 Kanou Ryouichi)
Summary + Review:
This drama is based on the dating simulation BL game "Cafe Lindbergh." Basically, it's free-for-all romance among the five workers of the restaurant *lol* hence the name "Bokura no Renai Shinrigaku" (Our Love-making Psychology). Like the game itself, the drama also covers many pairings. The first disc is a 16-track long story "Tarte aux Fruits," and the second disc consists of five different short stories involving the same characters but different relationship developments.
I would say that Cafe Lindbergh really lacks a central plot, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. I like the ordinary setting of this drama a lot, and the cast plus the relaxing background music certainly adds to the experience. Now that I have gotten into the casting, let's introduce the characters:
There are five workers in Cafe Lindbergh: the master Touno Itsuki (Ichijou Kazuya); the manager Takamizawa Tsukasa (Chiba Susumu *heart*), the chef Mihara Takumi (Itou Kentarou), and two waiters, Ichinose Shinya (Midorikawa Hikaru) and Shinohara Chihiro (Sakurai Takahiro *more heart*). There is a boy who visits the restaurant often, who calls himself "Shounen A" [Boy A] (Majima Ryou), and there is also Touno's old friend AKA owner of the restaurant Watanabe Ryuuji (Masutani Yasunori). One more person worth to mention is Kanou Ryouichi, who is a waiter in another restaurant (he does not appear in the game)...and he's played by SUZUKI CHIHIRO (Platina-saaaammmmaaaa *BIG heart*), so yeah, bias on my favorite silver-haired bishounen so of course Suzuki-san gets to be mentioned *muhaha*. Before I suddenly go into ranting about Apocripha/0, let's get back on track...
The first story "Tarte aux Fruits" is really cute XD because the tracks are all named in different fruit names XDDDD The drama starts off with Chihiro's point of view and his narration of what goes on in an ordinary day at Cafe Lindbergh. BTW, Sakurai Takahiro's voice is really pleasant to listen to, as always *drools*. Soon, Chihiro's point of view is switched to Shinya's point of view. Shinya is shy and rather quiet, but he is very attracted to the kind and gentle Tsukasa. Chihiro, being Shinya's good friend, notices his unusual behavior around Tsukasa, and jokingly mentions it to Takumi. Takumi however, seems a little bothered by Chihiro's comment.
Alone in the bar, Takumi flashbacks to when he first confessed to Tsukasa. Although Tsukasa didn't refuse Takumi at first, the relationship did not work out in the end. On the other end, Touno and Shounen are having a drink together in a fancy resturant. Okay, I have to confess that I know like, near to nothing about what happened between Touno and Shounen, because I didn't play their track in the original game, neither do I have enough Japanese to understand if the details of their relationship is mentioned in the drama. Well, whatever *sighs*. Switch to the THIRD scene, Tsukasa is ALSO offering Shinya some sort of beverage in his room, and Shinya seems to have a knack for knocking over things...*sweatdrops* lol, so erm, while Tsukasa is helping Shinya clean up the mess, Shinya suddenly can't resist his urge to PUSH Tsukasa down...
(Ken wipes some sweat from her forehead) It's kinda hard to keep track when many, many things are going on in the drama at once...lol. Well, apparently Touno and Shounen already finished *their* drink, and are having some H together -_-;; but surprisingly, Touno's inner mind flashbacks to Shinya. When Shinya was looking for a place to live, Touno kindly took him into his own apartment. (and Ken says...hmm....ineteresting...) So maybe Touno is using Shounen as some sort of replacement for Shinya or something, because he is definitely *not* paying much attention to the sex with Shounen *ROFL*. But his really, REALLY deep voice is still meltingly nice when he says "kawaii hito da" (You're such a cute person) XDDDDDD so yeah, add Ichijou Kazuya to my seiyuu drool list, and let's see what's up with the other two couples...
Continuing from the paragraph before the last, Shinya suddenly tries to *aherm* Tsukasa, and confesses "Takamizawa...san, Takamiza-san, suki....desu." Midorikawa sounds ADORABLE in that sentence, and I absolutely love how it sounds like that Shinya is trying to suppress himself but to no avail. Okay, more worshipping to Midorikawa's acting skills! XDD But unfortunately, although Shinya finally overcomes his shy personality and confesses, Tsukasa is instead reminded of when Takumi confessed to him and when HE almost *ahermed*...so Tsukasa uses all his force to push Shinya away, who becomes very apologetic about his behavior and leaves Tsukasa's house.
In the morning, Takumi wakes up in Chihiro's bed O_o it turns out that last night when he was drunk, Chihiro brought him to his own apartment. Takumi contemplates on how cute Chihiro's sleeping face looks, but is suddenly brought into a deep kiss!! O_O He is awfully surprised *rofl* Chihiro however, didn't really realize what he has done to Takumi because he is still half asleep XDDD (Oh, and Sakurai-san's little sleepy-sounding "huh?" is SO cute XDDDD *dies*) Takumi offers to make the breakfast and goes into the kitchen, and wonders how come his heart raced when he was kissed XD. Chihiro chats casually, and brings up last night's conversation when the half-drunk Takumi agreed to date Chihiro (it happens in yet another flashback). Takumi didn't seem to remember anything about his agreement though, and Chihiro is a little disappointed. More of Ken's rant on Sakurai Takahiro's kawaii voice, when he happily says "ii niyoi da na~~oiishi-sou!" (smells wonderful~~and it's delicious!) at Takumi's breakfast XDDDD so cute, melt a tiny bit! XD
More things happen.....like Tsukasa who met Watanabe on the streets and got some counsel about relationships with people, but when Watanabe comes into the restaurant the next day to offer Tsukasa the position of manager at the new Tea shop he just opened, Shinya becomes upset thinking that Tsukasa is leaving because of what he has done that other day. Shinya and Tsukasa are separated by Chihiro, Mihara, and the rest. While Tsukasa admits to Mihara that Shinya is partly the reason why he decides to leave, Chihiro comforts Shinya and tells him to share his worries with friends instead of keeping it all to himself. In the end, Touno keeps Shinya after work for a small talk.
(This part begins where the plot is actively advancing to the H...-_-;;; I think it's a bit rushed, but since the seiyuu-sans sound so kawaii, I'll forgive the plot...) Shinya tries to explain to Touno about Tsubasa, but Touno stops him (MELT at Ichijou's "onegai-desu kara"). Touno kisses Shinya gently, and confesses his own feelings. Shinya is....
Eh, well scene change ^^; Chihiro eats dinner with Takumi, and Takumi suddenly remembers his promise in the bar that other day. THEY confess to each other (Don't ask me how it happened lol O_o)...
Back to Shinya, who haves H with Touno ano...nosebleed at Midorikawa-san's uke sound *dizzy* coupled with Ichijou-san's deep and drawn-out "Shinya....". And, back-to-back is Takumi and Chihiro also...anyways @_@ I once remembered someone tell me that Sakurai Takahiro's uke voice is very similar to Ishida Akira's....but no matter how much I listen to those two, they still sound really different to me >_>...
In the end, Tsukasa still ended up moving to the new tea place, but the rest of Cafe Lindbergh's staff visited Tsukasa's restaurant and sat down to have a friendly chat. Oooh....here's something special about the tea place's master Shiono. He's played by Sakurai Takahiro again!! XDDDDDDD I guess it's because Shiono only have a few lines, but MEEEEELLLTTT Sakurai's super-deep voice @_@!! I can just imagine him being a seme with that voice~~oohhh....anyways, in the shop, Tsukasa offers everyone tea and smiles at Shinya, asking him which brand does he think the tea is. Shinya pulls off one of his usual "ano....umai-desu" XDDDDD (You probably won't get the joke unless you play the game, but Shinya ALWAYS say umai-desu whenever Takumi ask him about opinion on his cooking ^^;). And Chihiro frowns at Shinya's reply (Not that again...can't you say anything else?) XDDD;;;;. Shounen A also comes in, and some things are said about Touno and Shounen A's relationship but my Japanese *cough*....so I didn't get a single word. But Shinya is happy together with Touno, and Tsukasa is content about his new job, and Chihiro and Takumi seems to make yet another good couple, so it's a happy ending ^_^ Omededoh!
So ends Disc 1. Disc 2 is Cafe Lindbergh ALL OVER again MUHahahaha (As if you didn't have enough already). This disc is basically "earcandy" for more nosebleeding H scenes with the Cafe Lindbergh cast XDDDDDDDDDD Chuck the previous story, this drama opens with its first mini-drama "Gateau Opera." Now if you're one of Chiba Susumu's avid uke-voice fans like me, you'd probably wonder in the first drama "but where's CHIBA-sama's uke scene??" XDDDDDD In Gateau Opera, finally, Tsukasa gets his first H scene *melts and drools all over the place* with Touno. OOoooohhh Chiba-san sounds SO adorable when he says "Itsuki...san..." and when he groans @_____@ and Ichijou-san's voice saying "aishitemasu-yo....dareyori mo" is so sexy @_@ *dizzy* the scene after the H scene is also really, adorably cute, with Tsukasa drifting asleep as he is speaking, and his voice falls weaker and softer until at last he is comforted by Touno and finally falls asleep mumbling indistinctively "Itsuki...san..." XDD The background piano that first enters unnoticeably becomes very warm, very soft, and Touno's whisper of "oyasumi, Tsukasa" is really, really comforting. I really love when a drama expands on the serene and happy atmosphere after the H scene, and I think in Gateau Opera, it's very well illustrated by the excellent voice acting and the background music.
Moving on, the second mini-drama "Linzer Torte" takes on another pair: Takumi x Shinya (Itou Kentarou x Midorikawa Hikaru). In this piece, Shinya is confused about what is "love" and whether Takumi really likes him. He consults Chihiro (BTW Shinya always call Chihiro "Chii," and I thought that was extremely cute XDD), who thinks that if Shinya has a person he likes, and that person is also kind to him, then he should just ask that person about his feelings. Chihiro encourages Shinya, and says that love is about two people, so if Shinya likes that person, he should just be open about it. Shinya takes Chihiro's advice, and asks Takumi who he really likes. Takumi laughs and says of course, it's Shinya. But that's not the good part, because then SHINYA confesses himself, and being such a great Midorikawa fan, I really enjoyed Shinya's confession. Personally I think Shinya's shy personality is really cute, and I like how he always pauses between his sentences XD and when Midorikawa finishes his confession with a tempting "Daite...kudasai, Mihara-san!" (Please...take me, Mihara-san!), my mind is already not working properly XDDDD and I think that's the same thing that happened to Takumi, because you hear him grit his teeth, and then bedsheet noises XDDDD ahh more tissue for Ken because the next H scene is also very...@_@ and god, Midorikawa is so SKILLED...*nosebleeds*
"Honey Pudding" (These drama names are currently making Ken very hungry @_@) is a pairing between Shinya and Chihiro. I was expecting Sakurai Takahiro to make seme in this one, but surprisingly he became uke O_o and Chihiro was the more assertive one too...but oh well, congratulations for Midorikawa who made seme XDDDD;;;;
The fourth drama "Tiramisu" brings back the scene in the first drama when Takumi confessed to Tsukasa and was rejected. Thankfully, it's only a nightmare that Takumi had. Tsukasa, who is sleeping besides Takumi, comforts him. Needless to say, the rest of the drama focuses on Takumi x Tsukasa. More Chiba-sama uke-voice goodness *drools* except I still like it when he's more reluctant than willing XDDD I think I'm too poisoned by Koyasu x Chiba in the Papa to series XDDDDDDDDD
The last mini-drama "Savarin" is a...change of flavor *sweatdrops* The game setting for both Watanabe Ryuuji and Touno Itsuki is around 40-50 years old...BUT, old men have their own sexy points XDD;; plus, Ichijou-san made uke MUHAhahaha XDDDDDDD This drama serves as a very nice ending to the entire series, since it is a recap of the times before Cafe Lindbergh is established. The last track traces back to the beginning, when Tsukasa and Takumi introduced themselves for the first time. When asked what shall the name of the new restaurant be, Touno slowly pronounced: "Cafe. Lindergh desu."