So, what CD did I get? If you read the title, it's Volume Five of the Diabolik Lovers MORE, BLOOD line, featuring Yuma. This disc is from second series of drama CDs Rejet released for this franchise. They came out all the way back in 2013, so I'm a little bit late to the party, not just a little bit late, very late. Six years late, in fact.
I do love the cover art for these CDs, so much that I display each one on my Otome Shrine.
I have been waiting for this disc to come to me for a few weeks, and almost every day I checked the post for it. Actually, this CD was purchased entirely with Swagbucks, proving that these free gift card sites really do work!
When I put the disc on my computer, iTunes was being such a pain in the bottom. Every single time I tried to add cover art to the audio files, it just wouldn't save it at all. I did a lot of online searching and none of the solutions fixed the problem! Eventually I decided to update the software, and that seemed to solve everything.
You're probably wondering why I'm complaining about software when I should be talking about the actual CD, but I just wanted to mention this, because there's a 0.0000000001% that an Apple executive might be reading this. Please tell your colleagues to fix iTunes for Windows, Apple executive! On every single computer I've used it on, it seems to run like poo. I know you probably don't care about PC users, but please listen to my feedback.
OK, now I'll start writing about what you actually came here for: sexy vampire blood-sucking CDs.
This disc is a bit different compared to the other two I listened to that were released in 2011. The length of the entire thing is similar, but this time it's split into multiple audio tracks. I'm not really sure if I prefer this to having a singular audio track containing the whole drama. The pros of this are that it's easier to skip to a specific part of the story, I suppose. The cons are that since it's broken up into two to four minute tracks, it fragments the whole drama a bit. It's hard to explain, but you'll be listening and suddenly the scenario ends and there's a bit of silence, and then it starts up all over again in a different place. I know the single track DiaLovers CDs fragment things a little bit too, but not as much as this one does.
Another con is that since the CD is split into multiple pieces, there's a higher chance of it coming up on Shuffle when I'm listening to my iPod. You may be like "How is that a con? You could be surprised by sexy vampire voices when listening to music!" Just imagine this: you have some friends or family come over, and they're like "Hey, (insert your name here), why don't we listen to some groovy tunes?" and you put on your iPod, and put your music on shuffle. Everything's alright, you're listening to a rap song, but then it ends. "Hmm... I wonder what the next song is?" your friend/family member asks. And suddenly, they're greeted by someone speaking Japanese. "What's this?" they ask. You run over to skip the track, but it's too late - through your speakers, you hear sucking. Intense sucking, in full surround sound. Then you look up, and you see the reaction on your friend/family member's face. "What on Earth is that?"
Yes, I know you can go into iTunes and select "do not play in Shuffle", but a lot of people won't know that, and I'm not sure if other audio management tools let you do that. It still would be funny though if what I wrote up there happened to somebody. It would be even funnier if it was someone's mother or something.
Let's talk about the actual content of the CD now, shall we? My Japanese understanding is not perfect, as you may know, but I had the help of this archived translation to help me gain a full understanding of things.
I listen to drama CDs by turning my lights off, lying in my bed and closing my eyes. Sometimes lying down feels a bit weird, because the events on these tracks sometimes happen when the characters are standing up, so the dummy head mic makes it sound like your chosen vampire is below you.
I don't read the translation whilst listening, because that ruins the immersion. I rely on my (beginner) Japanese skills to get me through, then I read the transcript in English before writing the review. You may be wondering how I get any enjoyment out of stuff like this if I can barely comprehend the language. I just appreciate the voice acting, and use my imagination to fill in the gaps in my understanding. Also, I just relax. Even though these CDs are supposed to be about hardcore sadistic vampire stuff, I actually find them quite relaxing, just because of the voices and the pretty background music.
You're probably wondering what the plot of Yuma's debut CD is, aren't you? There isn't really much of one, but that doesn't matter. Most of it is just "romantic" scenes with him and the listener. I saw a review on Amazon saying that this was "not for the faint of heart", which is probably true. I'm immune to this Do-S nonsense now, so it doesn't affect me, and plus not being able to fully understand it until reading a translation makes it a bit less scary. I don't really care about how horrible Yuma is to the listener, because it's not real. Media never really affects me, like sometimes it'll make me almost cry, but usually when a character dies or something, I don't really react.
There is a very slight plot here, though. Basically, Yuma just finds the listener because Ruki wants her or something, and it's implied that she used to live with the Sakamaki brothers. These CDs really don't talk about the listener's past or anything, because it's 100% a self-insert thing.
Of course, you never actually meet Ruki in this CD, because you only get the character that's on the cover. Also, nothing happens beyond that basic plot which is only there to describe how the listener comes across Yuma in the first place. If you want a story, read the anime or play the games.
I should probably discuss my opinion on Yuma now. Of course, I really liked him in this CD. It might actually be my favourite one out of the three I own, because it has more sexy scenes in it. There is a lot more blood sucking in this one, compared to Ayato and Subaru's Haunted Dark Bridal discs. It's also a lot more... intense, you could say.
Yuma's voice actor, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, can make some really intense sucking sounds. It's hard to describe it, but I can say that they're a lot louder than what I'm used to from the Sakamaki brothers. They sound a lot more painful, too. Some people dislike these sounds, and compare them to sucking ramen and stuff, but I don't mind them really. I have a lot of respect for these actors, because they're willing to do strange stuff like this. I know they're getting paid to do it, but it still takes a lot of guts to suck into a microphone and say all those romantic lines with a straight face.
However, I think that if I heard a voice actor doing it and speaking English, it would be a lot more awkward for me. I don't know why, but I think the different language makes you less aware that some of this stuff can get slightly cheesy. Maybe it's because it sounds more exotic or something, I don't know.
It's not just the sucking sounds that are good in this CD, everything about the voice acting is. There are plenty of moments where Yuma whispers in the listener's ear, and it sounds great. Sometimes it feels like someone's actually there with me, especially in the final track where they pull out the extra-immersive dummy head mic.
Actually, the final two tracks are my favourite parts of the entire thing, and no, it's not because they're near the end. It's just because of the super special dummy head mic they always use in these bits. If you've never listened to DiaLovers CDs before, basically every single one (at least from the lot I've listened to so far!) has this bit near the end they change to a way better microphone that sounds a lot more immersive. The normal microphone they use is good too, it sounds about 90% realistic, but this special one sounds completely real. Sometimes I listen to the CDs in public (through earphones, of course!) and when these bits come on I look around expecting someone to actually be next to me, and end up looking like a weirdo in the process.
There's not really much more to say, except that I really had fun with this CD. It was definitely worth the wait and the annoying trouble with iTunes. Would I buy more of Yuma's lovely voice in the future? Yes. He's actually my favourite DiaLovers character, below Subaru of course. If you're wondering if I would recommend it, it's hard to say. Everybody's got different Japanese levels, and different tastes, so it really depends on who you are. If you're ever sceptical before buying, remember that there are always voice samples on Rejet's website.
I sort of want to play the MORE, BLOOD game now. Reviews say that it's very sadistic and not that good, but that just means I'll enjoy it. It's hard for me to be critical of a game when it's in a language I don't understand too well...
This concludes my post for today! It's very late, so if there are a lot of errors in this, I apologise. I'm hungry, so maybe I'll snack on some of those leftover Halloween sweets. Oh dear. Why did I have to mention Halloween? That's just going to make this post feel a little bit dated...
I hope you all enjoyed this review though! Goodbye, and thank you for reading.
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