This is my third time hearing the story of AIR (fourth if you count the movie) and I still enjoy it as much as I did when I first played the game.

This is the first CD out of 9 (!). It covers half of Misuzu's story during the DREAM arc. I don't know if the dialogues are taken from the anime soundtrack, but there seems to be a lot more content in the drama CDs than in the animation. I don't believe there is much new material as everything seems familiar, but that's probably because I have the visual novel and the anime both in my head.

First pressing comes with a CD case-sized sticker that matches the cover.

The two episodes included here tell the ending of Misuzu's story in Dream and goes to the first half of the Summer arc. Misuzu's ending here doesn't strike me as emotionally as when I played the game. Probably because her condition is as the story progresses seemed rushed here whereas the game had me sit through more dialogs about her feelings and the dreams that she has more and more. Have the same gripes about Kana's story also. Much of my enjoyment from her arc came from the adventures they had on their journey to find her mother. For example, the scene at the village where Kana has an encounter with a chicken (I believe) is a lot more humors rather than the 2 second scene they had shown.

I actually like the poem on the bonus postcard. The commentary has three staff members again. I never have the time to listen to them in their entirety.

I haven't had such a good laugh in ages. This album is so bad that it's pretty good.

Rather than listening to the CD first, I went directly to the bonus DVD. Like their previous CD, it contains a music video, a para-para version, and a making of. On top of that, it also has a special version of Ichigo 100% ending with Koriki Chushu, a pro-wrestler. The lyrics to the song are ridiculous, but that's kinda to be expected from a title such as this. It turns out that this song is a cover of a euro-beat song, "King Kong" by E-rotic. While the original is in English, this song is mostly in Japanese with sprinkles of English. The first two verses translated goes something like this (Engrish in all caps):

Hold me, KING KONG DO IT RIGHT
This city is a jungle ALL NIGHT LONG
I had been looking for you
This love will someday...

There's just one KING KONG HOLD ME TIGHT
It's the first LOVE CHANCE so
Please turn and look at me
Right now DING DONG MY KING KONG

So lyrics aside, this song is one of those that drills itself into your brain and stays there.

Anyway, back to my first reactions when I watched the videos. The first one is a regular music video. At the time, I was thinking, this song is pretty dumb. The lyrics make absolutely no sense at all. The dancing isn't as great as their first single. I was laughing the whole time thinking how ridiculous it is. The second video is the Para Para version. By now, the song has started seeping into my noggins. While this dance-only version isn't as good as its counterpart from the other album, it's still fun to watch. Still impressed with those 3 inch heels. The third video sealed it off. It has Koriki dancing in the foreground with the girls in the background. They have him dress up in a small shirt and speedos, enough so you can see his belly bounce around. I was cracking up at this point. Finally, the last video has the song playing in the background while they show behind-the-scenes footage. By now, I was already humming King Kong. I was also laughing at myself for becoming sucked in by these middle school girls. Quite deadly, this group is.

In addition to the original mix, there's a eurobeat version which is what the girls dance Para Para to. Personally, I like the eurobeat version over the original mix. There's another song on this CD, but it's not as catchy. Very heavy techno though. Finally, it has another remix of IKE IKE.

First pressing comes with a card of one of the four girls. Probably like everyone else, I wanted to get Asuka, but got Rina instead. Am a HINOI-OTA, now? I fear so.

Damn, can't get this song out of my head!!!

Woke up extra early to go in and watch it. Picture taken with the new cell phone, but truncated to protect the innocent (aka my superiors).

I have the first novel, but decided to read the second novel because I thought it might have more relevance to the anime.

This book is a novelization of the special Ichigo 100% anime shown at the Jump Festival last year. The story covers chapters 66~70 in the manga. There are some parts that are different, but the overall story about going to the countryside to film their movie is pretty much the same. Given that this is based on a screenplay, the story is a pretty fast read because most of it is dialogue.

As bonuses, it has plenty of screen shots of the anime and also comes with character sketches. Like many novels, there's also a bookmark included.

I really feel back for all three girls, Aya, Tsukasa, and Satsuki in this volume. All three of them confess to Junpei in their own way, but as always, Junpei is ambivalent. I'm really surprised that Tsukasa came back though. I thought that after announcing her plans for after high school, it was over. It also looks like Aya and Junpei's relationship might be in trouble too with her plans for college.

No bonuses this volume.

Junpei made a decision! Way to go! Again though, I feel sorry for Satsuki, Aya and even Tsukasa. Satsuki really tries too hard and Junpei ought to give her a chance. I would. At the end of this volume though, Junpei is back to square one.

Bonus comes with Ichigo 14~15% omake manga. In the inside flap, the author has a photo of her hands and the callous that have developed from her excessive pen-holding.

The 4th drama CD in the series and is excellent like the previous volumes. This volume focuses on the story when Yui comes over to Junpei's place for the first time. The other girls, namely Kozue, Chinami, and Sotomura's sister, Misuzu also have a cameo at the end of this CD.

Bonus comes with a DVD case sized pencil board with the same artwork as the cover.

I really like Mamiko's voice, just not for singing. The two songs included on this CD are soft ballads. The first song is Aya's ending theme to one of the original anime DVDs.

I actually like the music and lyrics to both the songs. In fact, the second song is written and composed by one of my favorite artists, rino. Unfortunately, Mamiko doesn't really have the voice to fill the songs.

The third track on the CD has a short and sweet Aya monologue.

Tsukasa songs are a little more upbeat than Aya's. Like Aya's single, the first song is a character ending from one of the original anime DVDs. It has 2 songs, a Tsukasa monologue, and karaoke versions for songs.

I'm always impressed by Megumi's vocal capabilities. Her singing voice here is a lot different than the voice she used to sing Paine's song from FFX-2. I actually like Aya's music and lyrics better, but the singing is better on this CD.

The rating for this CD is solely based on how damn catchy the song is. The song is sung by a group of four 14-year-old girls. Hinoi is actually the name of the leader of the group, Asuka Hinoi. In the photos and the DVD, they make an effort to make her different from the other three. Can you guess which one she is from the cover?

The ending song has a eurobeat feel (not that I know exactly what that is, but just my impression). There's the original mix, a slightly longer extended version as well as a karaoke version. The second song is equally upbeat. Both songs don't really have meaningful lyrics, but for this type of music, it's not really necessary.

As I mentioned above, this CD comes with a DVD. The DVD comes with three different videos of the ending song. The first is a regular music video, the second is a para-para version, and the third is a behind-the-scenes film with the music playing in the background. No matter how cheesy it may be, I have to give respect to the girls for being able to dance in 3 inch heels.

First pressing of this CD/DVD combo comes with a HINOI Team sticker.

The story itself is okay, because it mostly follows the first part of the manga series from when he sees the mysterious girl on the roof of the school to the first valentine day during his first year of high school (48 in the manga). It would have been nice if it was a new story, but I have no complaints that it tells me the story for the third time (first manga, second time is drama cds, third is this game, and fourth is when I get the DVDs).

Like the manga, this story is broken up into 48 chapters, each chapter taking about 10 minute to play. In total, I don't think I took more than 10 hours combined, but I started this game in April and only finished now. Haven't had much time to devote to it.

The main rant I have is the the game engine itself. Having played through a few of these romantic adventures, I expected more.

The only positive I have is that during dialog selection, it tries to mimick Junpei's indecisiveness by having a time limit. For example, you're given two choices, but if you don't choose any of the two, it gives an alternate response (almost like a third choice). The other unique part of the game is a "movie making" mini-game, but it's pretty lame. Now for the negative.

There are voices for all 4 girls with the same CV as the anime and drama CDs. But that's it. None of the other characters are voiced.

There's no history, so you can't scroll back to re-read text. For someone forgetful like me, it's not very convenient.

You can only save at the end of each chapter, rather than at any time. And they only give you 10 save slots on the memory card.

The story path I took ended up with getting chocolates from all 4 girls (yay!).

Rating: 1/4

The show is a special edition of the Ichigo 100% radio program hosted by Mamiko Noto (Aya) and Megumi Toyoguchi (Tsukasa). The guests for this CD are the two other leads, Sanae Kobayashi (Satsuki) and Nana Mizuki (Yui).

Not having heard the regular program which is broadcast as traditional radio, I'm not familiar with the various segments they have on the show. For example, they have a segment where the voice actresses act out a scene in character and are rank by each other. Depending on their score, they receive various gifts.

While not as entertaining as the Kiminozo Radio CD, it's still pleasant to listen to.

Like with many eletronic items, the best stuff don't arrive into the States until much later. I had been looking at the Sony Ericsson S710a from Cingular for a while now, but that phone's pretty old (relatively speaking). I was then researching to find what's out now and I saw that Sony Ericsson has a new K750i out for the overseas market. Fortunately for me, I live in a heavily Chinese population and can speak fluent Chinese, so I managed to snag a phone and for a pretty good price (cheaper than the S710a). It's an import from Hong Kong, so it has English and Chinese for it's languages (as opposed to Spanish or French on local phones, which are useless to me). So here are some of it's features:

2 megapixel camera - I'm really spoiled by my Digital Rebel XT, but this camera is still pretty decent for something on a phone.

Charging by USB - could come in handy at the office.

FM Radio!

Music Player - Most phones can play MP3s, but this phone also plays AAC files, the files that iTunes encodes to by default. Since all my music is encoded in AAC, this is a big time-saver, so I don't have to convert my songs to MP3. Doesn't play protected AACs though. Supports Memory Stick Pro Duo (1 gig is the largest stick as of now).

Chinese/Japanese Support! - Most of my Japanese songs are tagged (by me) in Japanese. If there's one thing I dislike about domestic electronics, it's that they're usually not Asian language friendly. But, this phone displays Japanese so I don't have to rename my songs when I transfer them. Very cool.

Bluetooth/iSync - My address book and calendars are automatically sync'd between my desktop and phone (my iPod also has a sync'd copy too).

And like all of my gadgets, this one has a name too. 伊里野 (Iriya).

[8/6 Update: Fry's had a sale on Memory Stick DUOs this weekend, so now Iriya has 512 megs of storage. Could have gotten the 1GB stick, but decided that I already have an iPod.]

I'm a bit disappointed in this CD. I thought that it would be a full hour of drama, but it's only about 28 some minutes. The rest of the CD has talk by the four lead voice actors/actresses.

The 3 drama CDs here has the cast act out some memorable scenes in the novel that never made it on air. In particular, I love the 3rd drama on this CD. The radio talk is pretty plain though. Given how many free web radios there are now, they really should made the CDs a little more interesting. Despite that though, I think this CD is still worth it for the stories.

The CD liner notes has a lot of comments from various staff members.