Original (Manga): Saa Koi ni Ochitamae (ISBN: 4877242767)
Mangaka: 大和名瀬 Yamato Nase
Released: 10/31/2003 Web Pastel Collection (Intercommunications)
Catalogue Number: INCD-2121
Price: 2700 yen (with tax), 2572 yen (w/out tax)
Cast:
諏訪部順一 Suwabe Junichi (結城尚也 Yuuki Naoya) x 岸尾大輔 Kishio Daisuke (坂下のぼる Sakashita Noboru)
中井和哉 Nakai Kazuya (結城和志 Yuuki Kazushi)
高城元気 Takagi Motoki (坂下次男 Sakashita 2nd son)
皆川純子 Minagawa Junko (坂下三男 Sakashita 3rd son)
間宮くるみ Mamiya Kurumi (坂下双子 Sakashita twin A)
福園美里 Fukuzono Misato (坂下双子 Sakashita twin B)
Summary + Review:
First of all, I declare myself the HUGEST Yamato Nase fan EVER, so everytime I review her BL dramas, I'd probably sidetrack into telling you how amazing her artwork is and how you should DEFINITELY read her mangas!! Anyways, Yamato Nase has one of the most unique styles in the yaoi circle, and somehow her bishounens can be at the same time amazingly gorgeous AND meltingly cute. On top of that, Yamato-sensei's amazing skill at portraying facial expressions make every single one of her characters interesting and instantly loveable. Not to mention that Yamato-sensei has a great sense of humor (although a bit weird sometimes >_> read the review "Chinko no Tsubuyaki") and ALWAYS produce unexpected surprises at certain times. Now that I have ranted about Yamato Nase, time to get into the actual drama itself...^^;
Noboru is enrolled in Seihou Gakuen, a private school for the aristocrats. However, he is no aristocrat himself. By taking a special exam, Noboru was able to enroll even though he is only a "shomin" (commoner). Upon entering this school, Noboru finally achieved his dream of approaching (lots of) cute aristocratic girls! However, the real life of attending an aristocratic school is harder than he had expected...
[Somehow this story reminds me of Yamada Tarou Monogatari....perhaps it's the whole poor thing and the abundance of siblings...(Ken is a Takuya x Tarou supporter, BTW XDDDD)]
Let me sidetrack again (not really) into the seiyuus, because this drama has a rather excellent cast in terms of character compatibility. Kishio Daisuke, who plays Noboru, perfectly fits the image of the rather innocent and (actually very cute-looking) boy whose dream is to be close to more girls. Suwabe Junichi-sama (now you KNOW I'm biased when I start adding -sama to name endings) plays the wonderfully perfect, irresistably good-looking and hugely popular (womanizer) Yuuki, who although gentle, sometimes shows his rather...wicked side *Ken evil grins*. First of all, although I have not been a great fan of Daisuke, he is perfectly suited for Noboru's character!! Daisuke's voice has just the right degree of softness and femininity while remaining the perfect adolescent-boy tone that characterizes Yamato Nase's (super-pretty) uke bishounen characters. Noboru portrayed by Daisuke is the exact image of the naive and slightly rebellious boy who becomes rather helpless under Yuuki's stronger attitude *lol*. Compared to Noboru, Yuuki is flawless, gentle, and always composed. Suwabe-sama, if you don't know him already as Valentiano from Ikoku Irokoi Romantan, is THE PERFECT person to choose to voice-act as an aristocrat. His deep tone, his soft chuckle *melts*, and the rich quality of his voice all fits Yuuki PERFECTLY (How many times have I used "perfect" in this paragraph already? XD). Well, I MELT to Suwabe-sama's voice, so you can probably tell how bised I am, but moving on with the story...
Noboru's family is consisted of men, men, and MORE men (Daisuke sounds SO CUTE when he says "Otoko, otoko, otkooooo~~*sighs and loses strength*" XDDDDD) With four younger brothers in the family, Noboru becomes fed-up with guys and wants desperately for a girlfriend. Should I divert again to mention that Noboru's youngest twin brothers are SO AMAZINGLY CUTE as they run around the house and *always simultaneously* cry "Play with us, play with us, play with us!!" XDDDDDDDDD. Although Noboru finally achieved his dream of becoming closer to rich girls, he found out that pretending to be a well-behaved aristocrat is harder than he thought. Totally worn out just by being together with his aristocratic classmates every day, Noboru becomes content just enjoying watching the delightful girls while eating his (always seaweed + rice) lunch brught from home. That's when he realized that the girls won't pay any attention to him AT ALL because of course, Yuuki attracted all the girl's attention! As Noboru angrily buries himself in his lunch (Ken melts even at the slurping noises that is so...kawaii *faints*), a flying volleyball knocked both him and his lunchbox over:
Noboru: MuuuwA! *thud*
(Ken: you're asking me why the hell am I quoting this? Because that noise he made is just too cute....*Ken fangirl screams and twirls around*...-_-;;;; okay, feel free to kick me or something...)
Well, I came all that far just to describe the noise that Noboru makes when he got hit -_-;;;; anyways a bit on the background music, which I find very amusing to listen to...the music that is very Baroque-classical for the aristocrat theme in the beginning would change into lighter music when switching into Noboru's more "peasant-ish" home setting. I personally find the comical theme when Noboru sulks to himself and hurries down his lunch especially enjoyable (that or I just like weird music lol). Anyways, moving ON (or else I'll NEVER finish this review X_x) Because Noboru has a grudge with Yuuki, and because Yuuki saw him on an embarrassing occasion, he tries to avoid Yuuki as much as possible in school.
Onto my second favorite scene, Noboru is doing some self-examination in the bathroom about his looks and style, and wonders how he would act in front of everyone for the day, when he was caught by Yuuki again ^^; Noboru is awfully embarrassed and tries to run for it, but Yuuki caught him and insist on an explanation on why he's been avoiding him. I found this scene particularly excellent because 1. I like struggling noises (MUHAHA), and 2. Suwabe-sama is....*melt*. Anyways just BECAUSE this is Suwabe and Daisuke voice-acting, and because both seiyuus use a softer tone to mimick the "aristocratic" way of speech, the struggle between Noboru and Yuuki becomes rather nosebleeding (pardon my completely wrong use of words as adjectives >_>). Daisuke's small pants and struggling noises together with Suwabe-sama's sighs and low murmurs gives the "struggling" action a completely different feeling than from the standard shouting/fighting (and if you think I sound like I'm describing a H scene, you're not that far off, either *ROFL*). But yes, Ken has already totally melted from a perfectly NORMAL, non yaoi scene only in the SECOND track O_o...how am I going to survive through the rest of this drama~~~~~~*faints*
Anyways, Noboru finally tells Yuuki the "reason" why he enrolled into the school, and decides to make friends with Yuuki. Ironically, he found out that by being friends with Yuuki, he also got more chance to interact with the female classmates. Now because I'm biased, let's skip to the scene that "one day, Yuuki decides to visit Noboru's house..."
Noboru: EHHHHHHHH!?!?!?
So as it goes, Noboru returns home (worn-out as usual), which is full of little younger brothers (as usual), and is very rowdy...as usual (Ken sweatdrops). He begs his younger brothers to be a little more behaved because he brought home a friend...
Brother 1: Eh? From where?
Noboru: From...school.
Brothers (together): Eh?
............
Brother 2: WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Big Brother brought home a friend from schooooollll!!
Brother 1: Quick! Clean up! We need to clean up!!!
Brother 3 + 4: THIS IS BAD! THIS IS BAD! *runs left and right....yes, the beauty of 3D surround sound in this drama is all conserved specially for this CUTE, MELTINGLY CUTE set of twins....*
*A complete mess*
Noboru: please, just calm down~~!! >_<
Yuuki: Nice to meet you, I'm Yuuki Naoya *smiles*
Brothers: .....
Brothers (altogether): Whaaaat, it's just a GUY! (Ken ROFL)
Now that we're onto Noboru's brothers, it's worth to note that this drama used ACTUAL LITTLE CHILDREN to voice the kawaii twin-set!! *Ken dies* While they sound so irresistably cute and have all the proper jumbled kid-pronounciations that are specialty of 5-year olds SO CUTE that I had to listen to them over and over again, isn't it....just a bit wrong to use kids in yaoi dramas? >_> although the twins have nothing to do with the yaoi....
[Ken's addition: One day I was reviewing this drama again...and HEY that voice...sounds familiar, like, RYOMA!?!?!?!? MINAGAWA JUNKO!!!!! O______O OMFG How can I NOT realize that before!? But perhaps it's because I first listened to this drama in the beginning of my seiyuu-loving obssession...oh my oh my...now THAT's valuable XDDDDDDDD]
So, after Yuuki did all the proper things that a guy would do for love (getting close to that person, going to that person's house, treating that person to dessert), he finally confessed...to that person, NOBORU of course XDDDD;;; Unfortunately, love didn't go well for Yuuki the first time, because Noboru is only interested in girls. At this point I'll convieniently skip all the good details of the rest (aahhh don't hit meeeeee~~~) so this review can FINALLY end if you haven't got enough of my rambling already, and just to be a little evil and save some for the actual drama-listening experience itself :D, but if you have good insight you know how comedy yaoi stories generally goes XDD. Just a few more rants on seiyuu goodness, Suwabe-sama's confession of course, makes one want to melt, especially when he says in frustration "What am I to do? Tell me already!" (Ken feels like melting again...). The fact that Suwabe uses a younger tenor voice to suit the high-school age makes his occasional drop to a low tone especially...pleasing to the ears XD (I'll try to refrain from melting XDDDD) Also worth to mention, Daisuke's special way of saying "Sawa~~na" (Don't touch me!) skipping the usual "ru" pronounciation in the middle is so awfully cute, and his high-pitched groaning is so nosebleed-inducing, and I STILL melt (oops) over his lunch-eating noises...ahhhnnnn how come I can just NEVER get enough of this drama!!
In the freetalk, the kids who voiced the twins make a small guest appearance and OMG, they sound even cuter IN PERSON!! *dies* And just a totally random thing to mention, why do they ALWAYS play the same music in ALL the BL dramas for the freetalk session? O_o Is it....a standard or something?