j1m0ne’s blog

The light novel series Kyoran Kazoku Nikki (Frenzied Family Journal), written by Akira (日日日) and illustrated by 6suke is getting an anime, scheduled to broadcast this coming spring season. At the recent Winter Comic Market a promo video was shown and a special drama CD was on sale. The promo (below) looks crazy, and the same goes for the CD - guess it’s another show to add to my ‘To-watch’ list.

The whole premise of the series is wacky anyway - at some given point in the history of the universe, a mysterious entity named Enka mysteriously appeared and mysteriously declared that “In a 100 years time, my ‘children’ will bring despair on this planet.” Sure enough, in a century’s time people started to discover the existence of beings who possessed DNA that earmarked them as potential ‘Children of Enka’. So in the hope of preventing the destruction of the world, the Japanese Imperial Anti-Paranormal Section’s special forces (my military knowledge ain’t hot, beats me whether I translated that correct) placed one of their troops in an experimental family setting with a bunch of potential world-destroyers.

A short intro to the characters:

Midarezaki Family
Kyoka (CV: Fujimura Ayumi - Ayano in Kaze no Stigma)
Mother. Real name Kyoka Eaeriaea (キョウキァ＝エアエリアエア). Claims to be 20-years old. Has cat ears’ and tail, is flat as a washboard and very short. Is rude and brash, and a complete bitch to the rest of the family. Apparently quite likes Oka a lot despite not being very nice to him. There’s this whole long story about having some ancient witch’s ancestors’ spirit sealed within her as well. Has the power (called ‘Mobile Phone’) to intervene in & manipulate other people’s thoughts.

Oka (CV: Kondo Takayuki - Eita in Shana)
Father. Real name unknown, having lost all his memories at 3 when his parents died. 27-years old, he is the main character of the story being the only ‘normal’ human amongst the motley crew. Brought up by two people called Dr.Hell and Hanayama Genichiro. Wears glasses.

Ginka (CV: Fujita Yoshinori - Kaoru in Ouran)
Oldest son. Real name Kizakura Ginichi (黄桜銀一). Aged 23. Left home when he was young after a girl he liked got killed by her father. Has gender-identity disorder (i.e. he’s a bit gay). Most of the time he’s overly girly, but when angry becomes more like a guy. Works at an okama-bar called Virgo. Is the unwilling subject of Chika’s affections.

Teika (CV: Yasumoto Hiroki - Chad in Bleach)
Second son. Real name Shakuya (シャクヤ). 7 years old. Is actually a lion that can understand and converse in human speech. Used to live in the African savannah. Is attached to Yuka.

Hyoka (CV: Hirohashi Ryo - Tamaki in Bamboo Blade)
Youngest son. Real name Kuro no Jusan-ban (黒の十三番). Aged 3. Is actually a remnant of an experiment carried out by Drs. Hell and Holic to build land-combat weapons using Enka children. After the reaseach was aborted, he slept for 3 years. Childish, likes watching TV.

Chika (CV: Tomatsu Haruka - Sumi in Moetan)
Oldest daughter. Real name Himemiya Senko (姫宮千子), age 17. Is not actually a Child of Enka. Yuka is her real sister. Was an antagonist in the earlier part of the story having been ‘overly interested’ in Kyoka’s Mobile Phone power. Has memories of Ginka saving her when she was a child. Is a ‘bancho’ in the school she attends, and has this weird yearning for girls to call her ‘Onee-sama’. A bit violent.

Yuka (CV: Hanazawa Kana - Sora in Sketchbook)
Second daughter. Real name Himemiya Reiko (姫宮零子). 9 years old. Was a victim of abuse in her real family. Gentle and sweet-natured. Likes Teika’s fur. Formerly the eldest daughter before Chika’s assimilation into the family.

Gekka (CV: Sato Rina - Chiaki in Minami-ke)
Youngest daughter. Real name WARAVE. Age unknown, but assumed to be fairly old. Happens to resemble a pink jellyfish. Was pulled in by the head of the Anti-Paranormal Forces whilst out fishing one day, and discovered to be a possible child of Enka. Changes colour to express her feelings. Only eats top grade sushi. Can read and write. Her true form is a junihitoe-wearing bishojo. Was previously the queen of her underwater hometown OASIS, but had been on the run for a 1000-years from the romantic advances of a greedy king.

Everything is gleaned from the wiki and drama CD - I’ve never read the novels. Maybe I should, since there are some 8 volumes of it out already.

Drama CD - Yuka, Hajimete no Comic Market

The drama CD itself is completely separate from the main storyline, and focuses on the Midarezaki family’s quest to draw a dojinshi for the Winter Comic Market. The CD is narrated by young Yuka, who was told by her ‘mother’ Kyoka to keep a journal chronicling their adventures towards becoming a real family.

Seiyuu
The anime’s seiyuu cast will apparently be retained from the CD, so I’ve got a good idea of what to expect now. Fujimura Ayumi is a riot as the bratty Kyoka, talking at double the speed of most the other characters, Kondo Takayuki is well… Kondo Takayuki, and Yasumoto Hiroki sounds pretty much like Chad does. Fujita Yoshinori is perfect for the role of Ginka, I really can’t imagine anyone else who could do that girly tone. Hanazawa Kana, is needless to say, very cute. Tomatsu employs a quieter version of her mature Corti voice, Hirohashi uses her usual little boys’ voice and Sato Rina…. well it might as well be anyone else voicing the jellyfish really since she only makes odd, jelly-like noises.

Two of Chika’s dojinshi-making friends also appear on the CD:
Mitsuki Shizuka (CV: Igarashi Hiromi)
Yamaguchi Hijiri (CV: Kotobuki Minako)
Let’s just say their appearance revolves around them drawing & selling a popular dojinshi featuring Chika as the main character, without asking her permission first. And that said dojinshi collection ends up in flames.

Summary
I’m probably not going to summarise the whole thing (it’s 50 minutes long), but here’s a typical day in the life of the Midarezaki family:

Day 1: Yuka helps out Oka in the kitchen preparing dinner, when Ginka comes in and climbs all over Oka’s back. Yuka tells Ginka not to get in their father’s way, but the latter claims it’s just a show of affection. From nowhere, Chika appears and says she wouldn’t mind having that affection lavished on herself and threatens to ‘do things’ to Ginichi-san (as she calls him), that would make him a ‘man’. Oka asks Chika what these ‘things’ are, but she refuses to tell him because they wouldn’t be suitable for Yuka to hear. Chika then proceeds to drag a screaming Ginka out of the house, with Oka deaf to his cries for help.

Teika (the lion) comes into the kitchen offering his help, but Oka tells him to go wait in the living room with his mother. Teika then says that Kyoka is having a battle with Hyoka (the weapon) over control of the TV remote, with the first to move being the loser. Oka tells him to leave the ‘two big kids’ alone and help finish the dinner preparations.

Hyoka has control of the remote and appears to be watching some oriental kung-fu show, and is still fighting with Kyoka; this time over some senbei. Kyoka starts screaming at him to hand over the remote as her favourite anime is about to start. The anime is apparently reaching the exciting point where the heroine is going to rush in with a chainsaw against her two-timing boyfriend. Oka comes in and hits Kyoka over the head with a frying pan, telling her not to watch such bloody shows during dinner-time.

Kyoka manages to get control of the remote, and turns it over to the anime channel. Except she gets the wrong one, which is instead showing a news piece about ‘an upcoming biennial event in Ariake called Comic Market with the participation of 500,000 people’. Kyoka then starts making a fuss about ‘How the hell can anyone put on such a big event without asking whether I want to participate first?’ Oka replies that nobody cares about that but Kyoka insists that she wants the Midarezaki family to take part.

At the same time Chika has returned, dragging Ginka along and suggests that everyone eat dinner instead. She asks Ginka if he’s hungry but gets no response, and wonders if she had been too harsh on him. Yuka and Teika agree and tell everyone to eat the sukiyaki which is getting cold - at first Kyoka protests but as soon as Oka brings out the meat she’s the first at the table. Chika praises her dad’s cooking skills, Teika mutters that he prefers raw meat and Hyoka refuses to eat the spring onions. Dinner speeds by quickly, and by the time Ginka gains consciousness everyone has finished eating. Chika then proceeds to…. strangle him from the sounds of it.

Yuka tells Oka that Gekka (the jellyfish) wants to eat dessert and Kyoka turns over the table to try to gain everyone’s attention. Insisting that she wants the family to participate in Comic Market, Kyoka demands that everyone come up with some idea on what to do for the event and storms off in a huff.

End. And that was just the first 10 minutes…. you can listen to the rest on Nicovideo, someone kindly upped it there (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm1933320). It’s a mad show, and anyone into OTT comedy should check it out.

Posted on January 5th, 2008 under anime, drama cd, 狂乱家族日記 • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback