The Drama CD universe has connections to
the manga ones but there are some specific differences. Most
importantly are changes in character names from the original manga
series - examples including the names of the boys' teacher
(Mizutani-sensei instead of Shimizu-sensei) Takagi's band
(Cassandra Next instead of Cassandra) and band
members/associates (specifically Hiroyuki instead of Hiroshi and Rika
instead of Yuka). They also do not necessarily belong to a specific
sequence -
although the "M Ni Makasero" CDs are numbered as such, they don't
actually lead directly on from one another in most ways.
As far as I can ascertain, the following
Drama CDs exist for the Sotsugyou M line. All the disks pictured below
are scanned from my own collection.
M Ni
Makasero!
(Leave it to M!)
Volume One
Kusanagi Mizuho (The Student Council President) has developed an
inordinate amount of interest in the five M boys, calling them to the
"Kusanagi Palace" in order to bend them to his way of thinking. While
Yuusuke and Mikimaro seem quite happy with the idea, Arai and Takagi
are more reticent about becoming Kusanagi's "puppets."
Extra tracks: A one
track screenplay known as "Karaodrama", with the second rendition
missing a vocal track to allow the listener to play seiyuu. The track
is entirely scripted in the sleeve of the CD.
|
Volume Two
Follows a similar plot to the original manga volume five. An old school
friend of Yuusuke's - Kana - turns up, and Yuusuke begs Arai to help
him deal with her. However, it turns out Kana has grown up really
pretty, and Yuusuke no longer wants Arai involved. The trouble is, Kana
has already developed something of a crush on Arai, forcing him to go
to extreme methods to dissuade her.
Extra tracks: A one
track
screenplay known as "Karaodrama", with the second rendition missing a
vocal track to allow the listener to play seiyuu. The track is entirely
scripted in the sleeve of the CD.
|
Volume Three
Kawazoe Haruka is back in town and reacquainting himself with not only
Kusanagi but also Arai. Meanwhile Nakamoto demands the truth from
Takagi about his past relationship with his step-mother.
Extra tracks:
|
Volume Four
Arai and Takagi attend a reception for one of Arai Yoshiki's fashion
parties, and Takagi finds himself the target of a trouble-making
publicity agent who wants to cause Yoshiki some trouble. Meanwhile,
Kawazoe also turns up at the event, leaving Arai more than a little
distracted.
Extra tracks: |
Mou Ichido
Labyrinth (Labyrinth One More Time)
In the OVA, it's mentioned that the "previous" bunkasai featured a band
being hired to play. This is that story, because it involves the band
Takagi used to play in (in this CD it is called "Cassandra Next" but it
is the same band). There is a catch, however - the band will only play
if Takagi also plays with a band of his own making. The root cause of
it is jealousy over the affections of Cassandra Next's manager (here
called Rika), who has apparently long since had a crush on Takagi
despite being involved with Cassandra Next's frontman (here called
Hiroyuki). When they find out what's going on, Arai and the others
decide to help Takagi to complete the challenge by playing "Labyrinth"
as "M".
Extra Track: This CD also
contains an extra track which flashes back to the M boys' first
appraisals of one another, including Takagi's arrival at the school.
Tooki
Tabidachi (A Far Away Journey)
(I don't have this CD yet, info to come when I track it down!)
Male
Graduation Plus
These appear to link in with radio broadcasting and dramas of
that nature. They lead up to the boys' graduation.
Volume One
Main story:
The boys go to a festival, where Mikimaro meets a strange man
who gives him the ability to grant his wishes. Mikimaro is excited and
wishes for Arai to be nicer to him...starting off a series of bizarre
events. Mikimaro soon
realises that things were better the way they were before...and he
wants his old life back!
Midnight Ghost
extra story: A rumour is going around that there's the ghost of
a girl being seen in the boys' dorm. Arai is sceptical and drags
Nakamoto into investigating, whilst Mikimaro and Katou are hiding
something and Takagi is acting strangely...
Extra track:
Brief "chat" track from the seiyuu.
Volume Two
Main story: A childhood acquaintance of
Yuusuke's is working in a failing cafe "The Sunflower" (Yuusuke swears
she's just an old friend of his sister's!). Yuusuke volunteers Arai
into helping the girl (Noriko...I forget her other name) out with
cooking tips and in the end all the boys get involved in bringing the
place back to life - particularly Yuusuke who has a very special way of
getting patrons into the place! (Some very funny stuff with Yuusuke
being called Yuu-chan by Noriko and getting all embarrassed...and then
all his friends doing it, even Nakamoto...)
Love Error extra
story: Someone is making late night calls to Noriko and
hassling her with romantic messages of a slightly sinister time.
Meanwhile Mikimaro is sure that one of Noriko's regular patrons at the
Sunflower is in love with her. Things turn slightly nasty when the
man's obsession becomes desperate, but then he's reckoned without the
combined efforts of Arai's protective instincts and Yuusuke's ability
to pedal a bike!
Extra track: Brief
"chat" from the Seiyuu.
Final Volume
There
is also THIS CD:
Sotsugyou M+ Volume III: M+
Mayonaka No CD SUPESHARU
(M+ Midnight Special CD)
Though it's labelled volume 3, it is a "special edition" disc which
involves several individual tracks for each of the seiyuu/characters
relating to their Midnight Radio (as the sleeve indicates). It's a
basically mish-mashed melee of Sotsugyou radio stuff. Even though I've
listened to it, I think I need to dig it out again because it's a touch
weird :P
Each Seiyuu has two tracks, plus opening, closing and bonus
tracks.
Message
From M (Midorikawa Hikaru)
This disk was sold as a
mini-disc release and features Midorikawa Hikaru as Arai Tougo.
(Remember, I did say that to some degree Arai seemed to be the central
character...) I don't have this disk yet, so can't say any more about
it...though I wonder if it's along the same lines as the tracks on the character special CDs.
It should also be noted that drama tracks for the Sotsugyou boys also
appeared on their Minidisc releases (one for each character and one
group performance).
There are also disks connecting with
"GIZOKU", which was apparently a spinoff series based in the same
general world as M (and spawning another seiyuu unit G.I.Zoku). I have
nothing from this yet, so can't comment much more on that - but there
were definitely drama CDs and stuff associated with it!