Paradise Whisper

 

Paradise Whisper
パラダイスo'ウィスパー

 rejet

Disclaimer: This is technically my first drama CD. When I first listened to this, I know exactly no one and nothing of all the voice actors featured here so I'd say my reviews here will be pretty unbiased with no sugar-coating it. Well. Kinda. I recognized some names and may have initial expectations of them, but I really know none of their works then.

About: The official website actually explained a bit more about the introduction of this series but since I can't read them (it's written in an image so I can't copy paste to Google translate), so I'll just simplify what I could understand from the actual cds. Basically, about a girl being a transfer student to a school which is famous with wealthy, celeb-like students. MC herself is not of the privilege background - she had to have part time jobs to support herself - and at the same time, became the target of constant bullying due to her being poor. This series is about her unfortunate (or fortunate, depends on how you see it) destiny to have it crossed with these specific boys who were referred to the Kamiroku (lit. Six Gods), a group of especially popular boys in the school. They're so popular, they have their own room they used as a lounge or some sort, named Kamibeya (lit. God's room).


Vol.1 Setsuna, The Godly Prince (see Final say) (CV: Toriumi Kousuke)
Setsuna, while being the every stereotype of Rich Kid™, got quite peeved when the MC is not that impressed with him and his money. MC made his car to get scratched while his driver was trying to avoid hitting her and he made her to compensate for the damage (this is later explained to be deliberate because Setsuna just wanted a reason to see her every day). MC is subjected to his stupid beck and call, even forced to wear a choker/collar with studded spikes on the inside to 'discipline' her. Like what some people use on dogs, because yes, this guy treats the MC exactly like a dog. Even called her a dog as well. Thank goodness I never based this terrible first impression of Toriumi. He is currently one of my favorite voice talents but I really can't like this volume at all. I did not managed to listen to the end at all, sorry.


Vol.2 Chisato, The Insulting Bazooka (CV: Maeno Tomoaki)
His title is easily the most hilarious of the six. Anyway, Chisato is quite good looking and from a very wealthy family. He's so popular there seems to be an auction of sort among his fans of who would win a date with him. He noticed MC among the crowd, and got surprised his charm didn't work on her. Later he met her again, asking for a date since the one who was supposed to spend time with him had to cancel (or something similar, I didn't pay attention). Chisato's fans saw MC with him and began to bully her by throwing eggs at her. He helped her to use the Kamibeya's shower room and let her clean up. Bit by bit, both began to open up to one another. Then one day as they were walking home, a car pulled up near them and some men emerged whom Chisato recognized to be from his family's employment. They asked him to come home with them but Chisato refused and with MC, he ran away. The other day MC showed him someone gave her some money and told her to stay away from Chisato (I think). Chisato was quite annoyed he burned the money and then explained his position. His father is a wealthy businessman (I think, I can't really pick out the details) and wanted his son to pursue the same line of career. Chisato however has a passion for dancing. Because of this, he ran away from home and lived by himself. One night, as he was practicing in the same park with MC as accompany, the men came again and this time they forcibly took him away and locked him in his room. He got out and met MC. She advised him to properly talk with his father and make him understand eye-to-eye. He didn't want to at first but when the father himself came to pick him up later, he did. In the end, Chisato managed to convince his father of what he dreamed to be, and he was back living in the family mansion. He thanked MC for this would never would have happened if she didn't suggest it, and they dated as lovers.


Vol.3 Kiraru, The Mysterious Moon (CV: Shimono Hiro)
Kiraru is a bit of the prettiest boy among the pretties. He is an up and coming recording artist, and to most, he is the sweetest and most kind guy they ever met. That is until he met the MC. Kiraru saw some students were bullying MC and he in a monologue expressed that he hated those kinds of people who would simply let themselves to be a victim. He approached MC later and began to sexually harassed her, took her picture with her breasts exposed, and use it as blackmail to get her to do stupid things for him. He even called her his slave. This MC however, in my opinion, is not off the hook of this ridiculous situation. There's a lot of ways she can get out of the blackmail but instead she just obediently obeyed him. The supposed 'romance' even started because the guy couldn't believe how far the girl would do anything he asked her to do. Also the fact that she insisted to listen to him singing even after he had expressed that he found no joy in singing anymore. Some scene that involved him beating up another fellow artist assaulting MC, he was later fired from his management in result. Kiraru then shared his story about having a non-present father and an abusive alcoholic mother. He was scouted to be a singer when performing in a small town's... bar? I'm not sure if I caught the details. Kiraru, with his strong desire to escape his then terrible life, decided to leave town and began to enjoy life as a famous person. Him getting fired from the agency was not received well by him and he got suicidal and wanted to jump over the train platform. MC stopped him in the last moment. MC made him realize again of everything he could do to heal his heart, and that she loved him. She later, in secrecy, managed to find out the town and the place where he had his first gig, even to find every single one of his earliest fans, and took him there to perform again. All this to remind himself to never give up on his dreams.


Vol.4 Asuma, The Charisma King (CV: Kondo Takashi)
Asuma comes from a family of famous musician. He has a twin brother who is far talented in playing the violin than him. Asuma himself couldn't play as well as the twin, especially since getting himself hurt from a fall from a flight of stairs. Now every time he tries to play, it will hurt him so much he couldn't keep holding the violin up. MC happened to witness his difficulty to play and Asuma immediately blackmailed her by taking her phone. He made her promise not to tell anyone about what she saw. He would ask her to come to the Kamibeya for no reason at first, but then began to sexually harassed her by unbuttoning her shirt and kissing her. MC was very not into being treated like meat so she struggled to refuse him. Only when Asuma threatened her with her phone again that she stopped. He asked her why would that phone be so important to her, and she explained it was bought and paid off with her own blood and sweat. She had to work part time job at a small kiosk selling croquette to afford the phone, while at the same time managing school life. Asuma was impressed; he didn't think there was anyone like that in this school which most are rich kids. He paid her work place a visit and fell in love with the croquette. Though it seemed like Asuma and MC started to warm up to one another, there came an issue of his twin brother. He was very upset when people asked Asuma for the twin that he ended up forcing himself on MC while in the car. She struggled until she managed to hit him hard and dashed out of the car. Asuma didn't think she would want to see him again so he avoided her since. But one day he saw some girls were throwing sand at MC, he yelled at the bullies before he noticed what he was doing. MC confronted him and asked if something is wrong with him. Asuma told the story about the twin brother. Although he is very jealous of his twin, somehow he saved him when he was about to fall down a stairs. He fell instead and that left him with an injury that made him unable to play the violin again. Asuma later heard from his mother that his twin caught in an explosion accident and was unconscious at the hospital. It was only then he saw that though he was jealous of the twin, he admit Asuma also admires him and wished he could do everything that he himself cannot. MC reminded him that it's not too late for him either and encouraged him to keep pursuing his dream.


Vol.5 Natsume, The Double Face (CV: Kimura Ryouhei)
Natsume met the MC when he coincidentally walked into and witnessed some girls throwing basketballs to MC. The bullies ran away after seeing him and he helped her to stand. He mentioned that he used to be bullied too so he knows what it felt, thus he would be helping bullying victims here and there if he saw them happened in front of him. Natsume however, while most of the times very gentle and soft spoken guy, changed into a violent and perpetually angry persona whenever he got his head wet. The constantly-angry Natsume explained to the MC that he was born as a self-defense back when he grew up in another country and had been a victim of bullying, but Soft-spoken Natsume denies the other Natsume and would not accept that they are two of the same person. He also repressed any memories he had back when he was alone and depressed. Both Natsumes also shared the same attraction towards the MC and this fueled even more internal hostility between the personas. Angry Natsume got so furious of Soft-spoken Natsume because of this, he threatened to burn down his house to kill himself, but MC never stopped trying to talk him out of it. They only reached a level ground when they saw MC fell unconscious after inhaling too much smoke of the fire. Both Natsumes finally see that they both loved and cared for the same person and they finally accepted one another's existence. Soft-spoken Natsume became the primary Natsume then, but he no longer resent his other persona. He would suggest her to hit the shower together just so she could meet Angry Natsume again.


Vol.6 Ruu, The Rainbow Devil (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke)
This was my first Hirakawa works and although the character is terrible at first, he redeemed himself. The other reason I like this volume the most is because how the MC is no pushover, and will slap a guy when he deserved it. Ruu started out to be extra nice to MC when she first transferred to the school and became the target for bullying. He even stepped out to the crowd to ask people to stop harassing her. After a while of giving her all his attention, MC finally confessed to have fallen in love with him. And that's when Ruu's true colors showed. He humiliated her feelings and force her to stand in the shower and got her clothes wet, saying everything was a game to him. He even locked her in a store room for one whole night when MC didn't back down from demanding him his apology. While still in the process of getting an apology and an explanation why he's being such an asshole, Ruu got a call saying his grandfather had caused fire in their house by accident and is now unconscious at the hospital. He started getting panicked of how would he go on by himself if he lost his grandfather - the only one who loved him since his own mother abandoned him (I think she's the reason he felt he needs to be an asshole to all girls). He started to tell her everything about himself then and it concluded with MC slapping him for being so weak and left. The next day he came running to her and begged her to come and help him with the cleaning up. Reluctantly, she came and that's when she learned that Ruu used to be a ballet dancer but stopped for some reason. MC told him to continue dancing and keep following what he loved. He did and stopped being an asshole in the process and became decent human being instead.


Final say: The characters' title I found from the official website, but they weren't exactly mentioned in the actual drama CD. I have no idea to translate 神スペックプリンス so I just go as well as I can make sense of it in English. Overall, this series has so much drama that I have no idea why was it called Paradise Whisper. More like Emotional Hell lol. It was also where I found some of my current favorites like Kimura and Hirakawa. I recommend this completely if you need that drama.