Girl Friends Drama CD

Finally! (Sorry about not having posted sooner. Finals knocked me out for the early portion of this week and Blogger was down for maintenance yesterday.)

The Girl Friends drama CD isn’t an original story, but an adaptation of the first ten chapters of the manga (ending when Mari realizes that she really is in love with Akko), with some sensible edits. A small handful of scenes, like the ones that include Mari’s and Akko’s families, or Akko showing Mari how to do her nails, are cut, and the dialogue is altered a little to make what is included flow together more smoothly. I have no complaints about the edits, since this CD would have been too slavish of an adaptation otherwise.

I usually prefer drama CDs that add a new story to their franchise’s canon, like the ones made for Fujieda Miyabi’s manga. If I were to choose a portion of the Girl Friends manga to adapt to a drama CD, it would include, say, the story covered by volume 4, when Mari and Akko become a couple.

But as an adaptation of the early material, this drama CD is excellent. All of the seiyuu do a top-notch job and bring the characters to life perfectly. It was a treat to hear how the material being covered would actually sound. And of course, since this CD starts at the beginning of the manga, it’s accessible to people who haven’t read Girl Friends. (Like anybody who hasn’t read Girl Friends is going to buy this. ^^;) As a bonus, the CD cover opens to the short drama CD comic Morinaga Milk drew for the January 2011 issue of Comic High! There’s also a photo of the drama CD cast. The image on the back of the CD case comes from the top of the first page of chapter 11.

While this isn’t the drama CD I would have made for Girl Friends, it was fun to hear the characters and perfect as an adaptation of what it covers.

Overall: B