Air Dates: April 8th to June 10, 2018 on TV-Asahi for ten episodes, aired at 2:30 am Saturdays
The main cast....
Haruka Fukuhara as Makoto Kikuchi.... Parents run a green grocery where she was scouted by Oshima and has struggled greatly at the beginning to be a voice actress(Seiyu).
Yurika Nakamura as Asami Kuriyama.... The best of the five females who are trying to become voice actresses, disliked Makoto at first for her lack of dedication.
Mariya Nagao as Ren Ineba.... Massive Otaku fan, especially for the 'Precure' series.
Jun Amaki as Konatsu Morimoto.... From Kansai and too often speaks in that dialect.
Aoi Yoshikura as Ryoko Ochiai.... Former child actress making a comeback as a voice actress.
The others, it's a very small cast so far and will add to the list if needed.
Haruka Tomatsu as herself.... Ex-voice actress who now hosts a popular radio show.
Shingo Tsurumi as Yuichiro Oshima... Head of Ihara Productions where the girls work.
Masaki Nakao as Katsutoshi Shoda.... Oshima's assistant.
Originally started this drama when it first came out back in April 2018 and even recapped the first two episodes. The third show was subbed and said I would continue once more were done. However those subs weren't coming or at least at the time they weren't as I think the team doing them dropped the project. Forgot about the drama for a long time but then discovered the whole series was subbed and am really glad about that as it seemed like such a fun show.
So am doing the first two recaps over as the others were done such a long time ago. For now the plan is to do two batches of five recaps in a row as the series has ten episodes. The shows are only 23 minutes long so these shouldn't be too lengthy which will make reading them much easier. Really had wanted to see another series with Haruka who is the star of the show and has 80% of the screen time, she's one superb actress. Will leave this intro up for this first batch but may tweak things here and there, let's get to the second of these five recaps.
No rehashing needed as I'm sure all have read the above post. Oshima was impressed enough with all five voice actresses to have them become a part of his Ihara Productions agency. One requirement for his Seiyu's, term I'll use for voice actresses, is that they all live together in a company dorm. This is Makoto's first time living away from her home that's above the family green grocery, know she's just eighteen in the show but the other four girl's ages haven't been revealed though they all seem older.
There's four bedrooms and five females which of course means a pair of them will have to double up. Naturally the pairing was of Makoto and Asami who didn't hit it off well in the first show. Asami is such a serious person, perhaps too much as we rarely see her smile and seems her only purpose in life is to become a popular Seiyu. Asami is the best of the five gals and does give the others advice but in a roundabout way. But she's cooled off a bit and is no longer mad with Makoto as she's realizing a newcomer is going to make plenty of mistakes.
Even though they've only known each other for a few days the five girls really have hit it off and it almost seems they've been roommates for years. This drama is mainly centered around Makoto as she's in almost every scene the first three shows so won't be describing the other gals too much as they're not on the screen enough. But that changes in the fourth episode as the story revolved around Ren, the fifth show was all about the struggles of Ryoko so at least the other four will have a turn in the spotlight.
As you can see in the screenshot above this batch Makoto was amazed at how the other four knew how to take care of their voices so well, it was something she had never thought of. That makes perfect sense though as for a Seiyu their voice is their livelihood. Now that the five have settled into their new apartment it's time for them to begin working as Oshima has sent them all out to auditions but for this show the focus was on the ones Makoto attended.
Not sure of the total but as it was too many of them to count and Makoto was a failure at each of them. It wasn't just because of one reason but Makoto still hasn't got the timing of the character's lips down well enough plus though she has a fine voice it's become a one dimensional one. But once again she meets her new friend Haruka who is a popular radio show host though Makoto doesn't know that yet, Haruka was also a very esteemed Seiyu. She gave Makoto more advice on the art of voice acting which was to study the source material.
What that meant was for Makoto to read the entire script, not just her lines so she could see what kind of anime it was such as a comedy or thriller. Also Haruka said to study up a bit about the authors as they often give clues on what their characters are like in interviews. Which is what Makoto did and she's gradually improving as a Seiyu, her manager Oshima knows he has such a talented girl and didn't expect a miracle after two weeks of auditions. It wasn't just Haruka who was helping out Makoto but the other four that she lived with, all of them want to see each other become a success.
Near the beginning of this episode the manager Oshima and his assistant Masada had told the group about a new project that would be starting up. It was for an anime called 'End of the Century Chocolate Girls' which was a major production and required five girls but we didn't hear any more about it in this show nor by the end of the fifth episode.
Even with all of her practicing Makoto failed at yet another audition and is starting to become a bit down. She's starting to doubt herself and thinking she made the wrong decision about attempting a career at voice acting. Oshima had another audition lined up for her, he's a bit disappointed at her failures but is still 100% behind Makoto. But she told her manager this would be her last audition if she failed again, it's probably been twenty auditions by now Makoto hasn't passed.
To cheer up their friend the roommates suggested they all take in a movie together. Makoto was studying hard for that next test but thought why not as she may never see them again if she fails this next audition. The scene following the movie is a very key one and perhaps the most important one for Makoto in the series. The girls had discovered a small child who couldn't find her mother, four tried to cheer her up but all failed. That's when Makoto came to the rescue and was soon able to turn the small girl's tears into laughter.
Soon there was a whole crowd of children around Makoto and her four friends stood around amazed. What Makoto was doing was the acting she had done in front of her family's grocery store. She was assuming the voices of many characters and it was this talent which is what Oshima had noticed in the first place. All of the girls rallied behind Makoto and told her that's how she should voice a character in her auditions.
Which is what Makoto did the next day as she went in for what could be her final one. This time her performance was Makoto's best to date but she still didn't have any confidence on getting the role. Later that evening she received a call from the producer of the anime, Makoto didn't get the part yet he wanted to see her again for a second audition. That's as close as Makoto has got to date and how that next goes will be taking place in the next recap.
An episode usually ends off with a short clip from one of Haruka's radio shows. Another character I want to find out more about is Asami who is played by Yurika Nakamura. She was also in both seasons of "Kakegurui" and don't know enough about her but will be trying to work on a post(s) for her. Two down and three to go in this mini marathon of recaps, as always have a bunch of screenshots which makes following the story a bit easier.
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