Flesh & Blood ~ Drama CD 1 Discussion thread ⛵ 🎧

Track 2 thoughts well mostly a summary of the events XD

Scene: kazuya wakes up after a nightmare on the train, around 4 minutes in

I didn’t remember the foreshadowing talk between Kazuya and Kaito, about dreams they’ve had, as Kazuya slept on the train, waking up from a bad dream of abandonment on a ship. Kaito, then mentions having had dreams of a different “self”, living in a different world. Kazuya explains the concepts of parallel universes, Kazuya suggesting you might get a peak into your other self through your dreams while sleeping at night! Then, Kaito even says, there might be cases when you loose sight of yourself and get stuck in that alternative dream state/world. O_O

They speculate even more about the situations that would happen after something like that would occur, Kazuya even saying things in the line of it might being a good chance to start life anew, with a clean slate. But in the end, he thinks about getting separated from everyone, family and friends.

Then @Angelica7714 they have their scuffle.

It starts with this train of thought of getting lost in that second reality, never to return. Kaito, becomes dejected and sad, saying that as for him, he honestly don’t think there would be anyone who would search for him if he suddenly disappeared from this world; not his family (as they’re not close) and that he doesn’t have any real friends either.

Kazuya immediately takes offence and questions Kaito’s logic: why would Kaito assume there would be people to look for him, but if Kaito disappeared, Kazuya presumably would do nothing of the sort?! Kaito, continues to dig his own grave here, by laying down his thoughts about the extent/limit of their relationship - that is, as merely an extension of their father’s relationship and presumably Kazuya having not much choice in being around him. → :boxing_glove:

Well, there is more to the talk they do to resolve things for the moment between them, but in the end, they arrive to get to the top of the Hoe, as in how track 1 started. The circle is complete and the story moves on properly.

On the hill/by the cliff/The Hoe
There, they start talking about Drake and his drum. it turns more and more into a spooky story supernatural story. :eyes: We get foreshadowing here, with talk of time-travel and tunnels appearing in the woods nearby.

things are getting stranger and stranger

This is the timing for the first drum beat! Kazuya dismisses it as the weather (black clouds on the horizon). But Kaito seems to hear it differently! While Kazuya hears nothing, Kaito hears a steady beat! :drum:

Then it seems Kazuya does hear the drum beat, but I love his denial after Kaito proclaims that the invisible drum sound is exactly like the legend of Drake’s drum with an invisible source: “it can’t be since there is no war going on right now”. :joy: (that’s quite the jump from it’s thunder in the distance! XD)

Kaito is clearly becoming dazed by the whole thing. He seems really out of it, mumbling about it calling for him. Kazuya protests when he’s moving away, saying that’s not the way to the hotel. But Kaito just runs off! :running_man: as the rain starts falling he runs into 2 girls as well, and they all fall to the ground.

This is when things starts going real bad!

Kaito sees a shimmering in the air, like looking through cellofan. He’s thinking about the stories they just shared of getting to meet Drake and so without thinking stick his hand through. He’s cleary stuck now, partially through as the girls thinks he’s lost his hand! Kaito even have time to push Kazuya away so he doesn’t get sucked in with him, mumbling a warning of tunnels to him.

Finally, Kaito disappears completely, leaving the girls shocked and Kazuya confused. Seconds later, lightning strikes down close-by!

1 Like

Thoughts of my thoughts of track 2. As it goes into my reflections on what we’re told about Kaito and Kazuya as characters and how track 2 ends. :eyes:

Spoilers ahead for the end of track 2

I feel like Kaito, gives his truth as he lives it in his dejected admission to Kazuya that he doesn’t think anyone would care if he disappeared one day. Kaito truly doesn’t feel like he belongs or is wanted in his reality he’s living in. He feels unwanted/unneeded by his family and truly doesn’t think he has real friends.


But also, as they stand on the Hoe, Kaito is also very much in love with the idea of somehow meeting Drake and seeing pirates. :eyes: And, so I feel like this is also something that might be a reason for him hearing Drake’s drum as well as actually finding and falling into a wormhole of his own!

2 Likes

Wow, your explanation was really good! Thank you!

I tried to ask a japanese friend of mine to help explain the fight, but she could only explain in japanese, so i got the gist of it, but not the nuances.

Your explanation is really helpful!

3 Likes

First time I listened to this BLCD, this is basically what I got as well. I got the gist of events and their consequences, but the details eluded me. While I think everyone is different, I had a lot of fun listening to this series regardless of me catching and understanding everything. I don’t find that to be necessary when it comes to drama CDs in general. As long as you keep up with the interpersonal dynamics and interactions, you’ll be fine, even if you didn’t catch all the facts of an event.

This is the first time for sure that I understood the whole discussion on the train AND on the Hoe, what they were about. I got some of it, I’m sure, but I feel like the important bit here isn’t that, but the how Kaito admits to not thinking of Kazuya as a real friend, the resulting conflict and hurt feelings, but also the very real events after Kaito runs off into the rain.

2 Likes

I just gonna tag @sycamore and welcome them into the chat! <3 :high_touch:

1 Like

Saying hi to @sycamore as well! Hope you can join us!

Haha hello! I have had a hell :fire::fire::fire::fire: work week so a bit behind on everything but planning to listen later today/at the weekend. Well, re listen actually as I listened to these two parts before. I remember them being fun! The voice acting is a lovely improvement from the audiobook I’m currently listening to in Japanese where the person reading it doesn’t do any voices and so half of the time I have no idea who is talking :joy:

1 Like

Welcome! :high_touch: Glad to have you onboard! :sailboat:

Well, take your time. Everyone has their own circumstances. :slight_smile:

I must stay I haven’t tried any audio books yet. I don’t listen to them in Swedish or English either, so it’s just something I never got into, beyond listening to as a kid I believe (like stories for kids and the like).

I do love that whole production around drama CDs, the sfx, music and real voice acting. ^>^ <3

2 Likes

Glad to have you~ I’m thinking I might have to move F&B drama CDs to be weekend-specific; I just cannot for the life of me find time during the week. :\ Hopefully that’ll give them the breathing room they really need; I’m super impressed with even just the first two tracks so far, so I want to give them the attention they deserve. :open_mouth:

Slightly off-topic

I’ve never really been one much for audiobooks myself, but apparently they’re super popular nowadays? I’ve been giving Japanese ones a shot, reading along as I listen, and I feel like they’ve been beneficial to both my reading and listening skills.

Just out of curiosity, which ones are you still hunting for? Sorry if I’m being nosy, haha; I’m just curious since you seem to have been collecting them for a while, and after starting to keep track of the used market myself, I’m curious which ones have been hardest to find in your experience.

2 Likes

Track 3 thoughts

There’s a ton of exposition just in those first sentences :joy: Good luck everyone! :+1:

well, the man is clearly seeing England as the enemy and speaks of the Spanish Armada, along with names I can’t keep up with commanding that army. he apparently has been scouting out the English navy, especially Drake. :eyes:

He says his name is Vincente di Santilliana (i’m sure I’m butchering that spelling), having been sent to save Mary Steward (accused of treason as she converted to Catholicism, plz correct me someone of the facts here), but yeah, she is executed and Vincente fails to complete his orders. So, he’s in Plymouth checking out the enemy vessels.

Enough world building! Vincente is standing on the Hoe, overlooking Plymouth when he hears Drake’s drum! :drum: As you might guess, this is the arrival of Kaito! Vincente hearing the drums run toward the edge of the cliff (I assume) trying to spot the ship with Drake presumably on it. But there he comes across an unconscious Kaito!

Vincente is rather well-versed in global news as he’s manages to deduce that Kaito is Japanese. :eyes: The red color of his hair standing out against his dark eyebrows. It’s not long before Kaito wakes up, feeling the worst. :nauseated_face: But, Vincente seems to see his dead sister in him, and treats him kindly.

Time for some funny moments! Poor JunJun! XD I know from this series’ free talks that he openly mentioned his own lack of language studies, even in English. So I know how much effort he has put into this. Still, the result… well it’s still hard not to laugh about Kaito frantically trying to answer Vincente’s barrage of questions! XD

In any case, it makes Kaito take a mental break and take note of his surroundings! :eyes: He’s still very confused and feeling terrible, but suddenly also take not of Vincente’s clothes. He’s clearly not wearing your typical clothes of some random tourist.

Well, that escalated fast! XD Essentially, Kaito blurts out everything, much to Vincente’s confusion and doubt. What is this guy saying even? he’s from the future? Whut?! O_O And in a moment of wanting to clear his name from lying about all of that, he tries to prove it too, saying he knows what will happen in the coming years, describing the next Spanish commander before it has happened. Vincente is not convinced!

Also, Kaito finally realize he’s speaking to a Spaniard and that Drake’s drum might have been because of Vincente! :eyes: Since, Vincente showed him kindness at first, he wants to pay him back by giving him a friendly warning, don’t board a ship as it’s be sunk in the upcoming war against England…well, let’s just say Vincente doesn’t take that last fact well…he’s enraged at the suggestion that Spain will loose and so attacks Kaito, trying to strangle him. Poor Kaito! :C

While Kaito seems to have lost consciousness, and Vincente regrets his actions, he’s also contemplating what Kaito is, how come he knows these things. He concludes he might be able to predict the future, being related to various people who’s names I again didn’t catch, but yeah, he makes up a full reason for why Kaito might have been caught up in some conspiracy and left there on the hill.

While, the prediction Kaito gave him was dire, Vincente thinks he’s been blessed in having found him, allowing Spain to take up counter measures for their failure. But, there are voices of people having spotted a siluette of someone at the hill (him) and so Vincente flees the scene.

Well, a lot goes on, on this track! :eyes: Personally, I like the fast tempo. XD It’s harder to parse for sure, but it makes it seem like I’m watching anime really, though it’s all in my imagination! ^>^ :heart:

Minor reflective Spoiler Vincente mentions his dead sister here. Then we hear the sounds of a neckless’ chains rustling, and something bigger, like a medallion (which he mentions showing his sister). So we know that Vincente is wearing a rosary (the specific word used) with a medallion with his sisters face. But…the chapter art in Vol 8, has clearly failed to notice that specific detail, as he’s dressed with a way too long chained neckless with a simple cross instead, later on in the series.

1 Like

There were reasons I had to discontinue buying any manga or drama CDs for several years. Let’s just keep it at that. I never finished F&B for that reason. I still got a couple of CDs left! And now, not fresh out of printing as they were at the end. This is much too long ago for me to remember much details, I’m sad to say. ^^’

1 Like

Huh, I posted a long comment yesterday but the forum seems to have eaten it and now I am tired :sleeping:

Anyway, I have listened to the first three parts! The first two were fun and pretty understandable and then the third part……(to be fair, I had the same experience reading the book!)

I think I’m finding Kaito more likeable in the audio version than I did reading for some reason, not sure why!

3 Likes

RIP your comment. I’ve experienced this as well. A real downer.

lol I think can see where you’re coming from with that one for sure. As much as we get a lot of internal monologue in drama CDs, there’s just less of it than when reading? So, I think the character becomes more stable and less caught in internal turmoil as it were. Or just not as much? :sweat_smile: And it sort of makes for a more kept-together character, that I also think I prefer. :rofl:

2 Likes

Relistened to Prologue and Scene 1, then listened to Scenes 2 and 3 this past weekend! I think I caught a few more thinks on my re-listen of last week’s tracks; for Scene 2, I think I followed Vicente and Kaito’s conversation fairly well! Not so much Vicente’s history lesson at the beginning, but once he found Kaito I was able to follow the thread of things better.

As for Scene 3
…sheesh, Cyril’s VA’s falsetto sounds really fake. :anguished: That really took my by surprise. Rufus’ gruff type of speech and voice I couldn’t really follow, sadly. :sweat_smile: Geoffrey sounded pretty good, though! I can see that voice matching with the image I have of him in my head. I was happy to hear Rufus making the same dumb joke in the CD as in the book:
Geoffrey: “Kaito…Tougou…”
Rufus: "To go where?! :rofl: "

I’m definitely not used to following along in a club while not understanding what feels like at minimum 60% of what I’m hearing. If this were a normal book club, the effort from trying decipher a difficult text would be enough to dissuade me to drop it until I’m at a more advanced level. But with this drama CD, I’m both super familiar with the source material and can listen well enough to comprehend just enough to carry me along, so it’s convincing my brain that everything’s fine. But when I come here to type out my thoughts, I find I don’t have much to say because I couldn’t follow the tracks themselves that well. :thinking:

I don’t intend on dropping the club or anything; I just wanted to jot down some things on my mind. What are everyone else’s thoughts? Are you guys pretty comfortable with your listening skills? Are there any particular techniques you’ve been using to “intensively” listen as we go along? Or are you happy with just enjoying the ambience? Comprehension will come with time and effort, I know; I just feel like I’m in a weird place right now.

3 Likes

It’s always hard to compare. I’ve had literally years to parse some of this stuff, at least for the first 2 releases in the series, that i’ve relistened to before.

My personal trick is to turn down the lights. put on headphones and only listen. Don’t do anything else, as that’s enough of a distraction to lead you astray. Try to relax as much as possible and focus on the things you do understand, while letting go of the things that went over your head. If necessary, relisten to the same track. Sleep on it and listen again some other day. Let your mind do some magical parsing of the audio, so to speak. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If not, let it go and move on.

In a way, I feel like it helps to not cut your listening experience short, track by track, but to do longer listening sessions as it takes you a while to get into it, and then try to keep going for as long as your attention allows.

Not sure if this is a help or not, but that’s how I made my way through lots of Drama CDs of varying complexity. ^^

4 Likes

Thank you for the tips! :open_mouth: I’d like to give that method a try, I think; it sounds relaxing, if nothing else, haha. These tracks are short enough that listening to several in a row sounds very doable as well; maybe once we get past all these POV changes things might even out more as well? As things are now we go Kaito → Vicente → Geoffrey → (next week) Kaito, so it ends up being pretty disruptive for someone trying to piece together a coherent picture of what’s happening.

2 Likes

It is. XD For many years, I listened to some BLCD before bed, basically listening until it was all just incomprehensible gibberish and I was more or less asleep. It’d pause and then the next day, i’d probably relisten to the last or the last couple of tracks to get back into it. Very relaxing indeed! :sleeping: :headphones:

2 Likes

Oh Hi. :wave:

Just popping in to say I started listening to this with y’all.

At first I was hesitant about giving this drama cd a try because

  1. my listening skills are absolute garbage
  2. my vocab and grammar are still lacking
  3. I have not read the book
  4. and ちょっと高いねえ

However, once I started listening, I was blown away by the production and the voice acting. And then I recognized that was Jun Fukuyama’s voice and now I’m 100% in.

Listening to this also got me to start reading the book. And reading the book has been extremely helpful with parsing the cd (at least so far …)

I’m enjoying the difficulty level between the reading and listening and have been learning quite a bit. I’m a little behind so hopefully I can catch up quick.

4 Likes

Welcome to the club! The more the merrier! :smile_cat:

And yeah, it great that we’ve got the books as help. :slight_smile:

I also love the voice acting of this series, and the other sound production is top tier.

Voice actors are seldom allowed to create a role freely, but with anime they constantly have to match the images and timings of lines with the action on screen. Drama CDs allows for a very different approach, where they get direction but has much more freedom in their interpretation of the character and and especially dialogue just becomes this organically created thing between the voice actors.

Does it show I’m a fan of this media format? XD

4 Likes

In case you haven’t noticed, we also have a book club in the forums:

It covers lots of nautical vocab as well as character hints and of course discussions! Also, if you have any questions or remarks, please feel free to use the threads!

4 Likes