Death by Moe

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

Pairings:

Konishi Katsuyuki x Kondou Takashi, Nakamura Yuuichi x Tachibana Shinnosuke

Cast:

Kondou Takashi as Onodera Ritsu
Konishi Katsuyuki as Takano Masamune
Tachibana Shinnosuke as Yoshino Chiaki
Nakamura Yuuichi as Hattori (a.k.a Tori)
Kamiya Hiroshi as Yuu
Midorikawa Hikaru
Okamoto Nobuhiko
Horiuchi Kenyuu

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The last few days were tough. Didn’t have much time to blog or even listen to drama CDs. I was so tired yesterday but decided to listen to Sekaiichi Hatsukoi anyway. It wasn’t on my listen list until NekoB asked me if I could review it. I check it out and find out Nakamura Shungiku was the artist of the manga. You could say that was enough to get me curious. The write of the story was Fujisaki Miyako, a name I often see associated with Nakamura’s.

Strangely, both ukes in the dramas are people I have never heard in a BLCD before. Normally, that’s how it goes for the semes … who, this time around, I knew. But I’ll get to the seiyuus later … Anyways, this 2-disk drama contains two stories. Ritsu’s (Kondou) story with Takano (KoniTan) and Chiaki’s (Tachibana) story with Hattori (You-kyan) …

Ritsu’s Story:

After quitting his father’s publishing company, Onodera Ritsu starts working at Marukawa Shoten where he is assigned to the shoujo manga department. There, he starts off on the wrong foot with the editor-in-chief Takano Masamune who turns out to be Saga Masamune … Ritsu’s first and only love.

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The story has an extremely similar mood to Junjo Romantica, with a main seme just as strange as Usagi and a uke who makes a big deal out of everything like Misaki and a second pairing not so alike with any pairing in Junjo though. Junjo and Sekaiichi are some interrelated though. Everyone who read the summary above should recognize “Marukawa Shoten” right? Plus, “Usami Akihiko”’s name is mentionned somewhere at the start of the drama.

Sekaiichi has the same goofy, light-hearted but sweet mood as Junjo. The characters are great and if I didn’t make it obvious with my other reviews, characters mean a lot to me.

Ritsu is you average guy. He doesn’t like manga much. Or to be precise, he doesn’t read them. All he wanted was to work at publishing company and help sell good books. However, having problems at his previous company with his Dad as boss, he quit and started working Marukawa Shoten. At first, he was really determined to quit the place as soon as he learned he had to work in the shoujo manga department … but after Takano gets his bad side with words like “you can’t do anything” “useless” Ritsu gets all worked up and started doing his best. Which is the cutest thing about Ritsu’s personality. He’s stubborn and when he decides something he’ll do it and nothing can stop him.

Takano reminds me of a certain BL-loving man from Kiyosho. He’s extremely passionate about his work and is determined to do everything perfectly. That aside, I’m not sure what else to say about him.

Story-wise, there was no H-scene which contributed to the innocence of their story which just had Ritsu denying he fell for Takano all over again. But, although that premise has been used over and over again, it was still entertaining.

The beginning was slow since Ritsu had not realized Takano was Saga, his first love. When he does find out, it was a shock even moreso when Takano had said their breakup (because they had gone out a while in high school) was all a misunderstanding on Ritsu’s side. The whole predicament was utterly ridiculous but I found it cute. It showed how naive and dense Ritsu was.

Back in school, Ritsu one day asked Takano – or should I say Saga? – if he loved him, to which Saga laughed. Ritsu took it badly and believed Takano was playing him. And there was the end of their short relationship.

Ridiculous, right? Well, after that, back in the present. Takano vows he’ll make Ritsu confess to him once again. In high denial, Ritsu refuses to believe that could possibly happen and throughout their story denies that his feelings could possibly be love. It’s extremely entertaining whenever Ritsu shouts in his mind “Koi janai, koi janai, koi janai!” A bunch of other hilarities ensue, including Ritsu learning that he and Takano are next door neighbors. That was utterly ridiculous.

My favorite scene of their story has to be when Ritsu sent Takano a fax for work and Takano called right after shouting “WE’RE NEIGHBORS! GET HERE RIGHT NOW!!” … that scene was the best.

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Chiaki’s Story:

Yoshino Chiaki is a shoujo mangaka whose editor (works at Marukawa Shoten) is his childhood friend Hattori whom he calls Tori (say it with me “awww”) … Chiaki has always been relying on Hattori whether it be privately or professionally. One day starts a string of strange things that leads Chiaki to believe Hattori is going out with his other childhood friend Yuu … Oh the abundant misunderstandings!

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Sekaiichi really seems to be a drama revolving around various and hilarious misunderstandings. Chiaki’s story was just as entertaining as Ritsu’s. But before I go any further …

While listening to this, I couldn’t help but think about how DAMN SIMILIAR Tachibana’s (Chiaki’s seiyuu) voice was to Miyano Mamoru. It was killing me. I’d love if someone could “ditto” me on this. Please? I’m going to die otherwise.

That said, this might be the closest to thing to hearing the real Mamo in a BLCD. They sound really alike, really. Plus, we’ve got H in this story.

Oh and, while I’m on seiyuus, You-kyan’s serious character sort of turned me off at first. I got used to it along the way to the point of finding it adorable. Ah, manly You-kyan. I probably felt awkward because I had just watched an episode of CLANNAD before listening.

Chiaki is a mangaka. He likes to rely on Hattori and does it without reserve to the point of making him cook for him and do his laundry. He’s an extremely go with the flow kind of the guy and seems to be the totally oblivious type. Overall, he’s just really cute. Hattori, on the other hand, is a really serious person who does everything perfectly.

I liked Chiaki’s story more, but I’ll admit I have less things to say about it. It’s just really cute. That’s about it. The misunderstanding is cleared quickly because of Chiaki’s personality and so there’s not much to go on after … except perhaps why Hattori was arguing with Yuu that day.

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Overall, this was a really entertaining drama CD once again. I’m rushing now because I’ve passed the 1k word mark. The way the story was going, it’s obvious we should expect another drama soon. I can’t wait to get more of Ritsu … it’ll be fun to see how Takano will get Ritsu out of his denial pit.

“It’s 361 before [I] falling in love.” is what Ritsu’s last line was. I’m not sure about the number, I don’t remember it clearly but he did say san-byaku-roku-juu followed by a number I think was ichi … Oh well.