東方☆幻声郷 秘封倶楽部 〜メリーさんの羊〜
Touhou☆Genkoekyou Sealing Club 〜Mary had a Little Lamb〜
サークル/Circle
スキマ産業「桃色支部」/ Gap Industries "Pink Branch"
Event
例大祭7 / Reitaisai 7
Cast;
春李めぐみ | Harui Megumi
マエリベリー・ハーン | Maribel Hearn
杉崎真奈 | Sugisaki Mana
宇佐見蓮子 | Usami Renko
蒼紗 | Aosa
八雲紫 | Yakumo Yukari
Now, this is this circle's fourth release and it's roughly one year old. I was looking for it since it got released, and when it popped up on DLsite this fall I just went ahead and bought it. Best 1050yen spent in my life. Maybe.
Gap Industries isn't a circle that I think stands out in terms of good innovative writing or interesting scenarios as far as audio dramas go, and even then, it's not as if the available Touhou audio dramas out there set the bar very high. Even by pretty low standards I found them to be more or less uninteresting, even if their voice actors aren't necessarily bad. So, when I finally got to listen to this my expectations weren't very high.
But what do you know. It's short, very short, even... but it's very charming. First time I listened to it, alone late at night, I was put into a light state of euphoria.
Maybe it's because it's a retelling of Ghostly Field Club, and thus the writers didn't have to bother with a scenario of their own, and that this is the reason why this work seems so different. Although admittedly, some of the nonsense (out-of-place, cheap, etc) dialogue is still to be found here, but it's bearable, and far from as bad as I've recalled it being in their previous releases.
I love the use of music, especially the way "Mary The Magician" is used at 07:44 and onward. The voices are also very nice, I love how Mary's VA's very feminine somewhat sultry voice also manages to be very girly and "cute". Renko's VA has this weird pitch she does with her voice at times, it sounds a bit odd but I don't hate it... It's a bit cute. Not to mention her performance is so nice overall, it wouldn't matter much even I disliked it. Yukari's VA, even though she appears so briefly her performance is also great. In fact, as far as casting goes, I think this might be my favorite among all Touhou Drama CDs I've heard overall.
I've wondered why Gap Industries wouldn't do more works like this seeing what a lovely little gem this is, and at one point it hit me how wonderful it would be if they didn't only do Ghostly Field Club, but drama versions of the rest of the music CDs as well. It's already been almost a year since they put this out, so it seems unlikely they have such plans but.... Well, Reitaisai8 is in a few weeks. They haven't made any announcements yet, and while I'd hate to get my hopes up.... one can dream, right?
Also, some trivia I found while searching for the voice actor's romaji names;
Harui Megumi (Mary) has made a bunch of TV commercials and stuff, and she also did Eiki and Yuyuko in the 3rd, 4th and 5th Touhou M-1.
For a full download of the CD;
http://www.mediafire.com/?w6xql722bk5fwcz
For a full properly purchased download supporting the circle and their hard work;
http://home.dlsite.com/work/=/product_id/RJ068009.html
For more information on Touhou Drama CDs, you might be interested in the Touhou Audio Drama Compilation;
http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,6394.0.html