maiji: Star Ocean 2 CD Drama and Game Novel - the first stories

[images: Two photos of Star Ocean The Second Story media. 1) Booklet and the back of the jewel case for CD Drama Collection Star Ocean: The Second Story 2, featuring the original PS1 artwork. Booklet shows Claude paired with an image of the Shingo Forest. Back of the case shows Rena overlapping an image of a nature scene showing a path with trees, grass and flowers, and mountains in the distance. 2) Front cover of Star Ocean The Second Story Private Action Bootleg by Shougo Mukai. Illustration of Claude and Rena sitting in a tree, looking out towards a town with a mountain in the background.]The Star Ocean series has quite a bit of additional media that did not make it across the ocean for official English releases. I recently got my hands on two of them! I was long aware of both of these, often seeing them pop up on Japanese auction and secondhand sites over the years. However, because neither of them are visuals-focused, in the past I never felt like I'd be able to get much out of them because my Japanese literacy was so low. It's only now, deep in the throes of the third (?) wave of my SO2 obsession with enough basic language comprehension that I feel like I have the motivation and sufficient foundational skills to work through it slowly and practice more Japanese that we are here!! I'm also trying to pace myself in consuming these in between work/life/everything else on my to-do list.CD Drama Collection Star Ocean: The Second Story 2In 1999, the year after the original PS1 SO2 came out, 2 drama CDs were released. See them with more images here and here. They feature the same OG main Japanese cast that was brought back for the 2023 SO2R remake. Listening to it now after having played SO2R a million times with both JP voice casts, it's quite impressive how consistent the seiyuu were able to sound over 20 years later. There are differences, of course; for example, I find Ueda Yuuji (Claude) doesn't employ as much of a rasp here as he does in his SO2R performance. [READ-MORE]This CD has 3 stories (my attempted translations below, with / indicating PS1 vs SE and SO2R translations for names): 港街ハーリーにて - In Port Town Herlie/Harley 紋章兵器恋物語 - Heraldic/Symbological Weapon Love Story 突然おまけ物語 - Sudden Side Story The cast listed are: Claude: Ueda Yuuji Rena: Hisakawa Aya Ashton: Sakaguchi Daisuke Dias: Horikawa Ryo Precis / Ururun: Sumitomo Yuuko Celine: Kaida Yuki Chisato / Eleanor's mother: Kasahara Rumi Mirage: Nogawa Sakura Eleanor: Imai Asami Yul: Hayamizu Risa Michael / Metatron: Touchi Hiroki [Reminder: Also Ernest's voice actor btw lol.] Gyoro / Arena assistant: Matsuda Yuuki Jophiel / Claude's father* / Owner of Gametsuki Hall [this is the antique shop in Herlie]: Ugaki Hidenari Zaphkiel / Doctor: Hirano Toshitaka Zand / Calnus Lieutenant: Yoneda Naotsugu [*Why do they have him listed as "Claude's father" and not "Ronixis"? lol...]My listening skills are pretty bad, and there's no script included, so I struggled through the first story haha. But it's really interesting! It's actually a blend of several Herlie PAs, and seems to fuse the Eleanor and Yul PAs together with some new ideas. I excitedly messaged my sis because when we were much younger we made a Star Ocean doujinshi together, and her story actually was connecting Eleanor and Yul's backgrounds as well, so that was a super fun link. Because this isn't the SE cast (the first time the game was actually fully voice acted), all the background cast/NPC voice actors are totally different from SE and SO2R. Eleanor sounded a lot older than I expected, and I ended up having a really hard time picking Yul out in the voices because my brain kept expecting rowdy slangy dude in SE, haha.Full disclosure: I got this CD primarily because I recall reading somewhere that the third story involves Claude and doujinshi. In my mind, and because the title literally says "omake", I'm anticipating complete crack. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong - but if you do know, don't spoil me (yet) hahaha. [/READ-MORE]Star Ocean The Second Story Private Action Bootleg Contrary to its name, it is not actually a bootleg, lol. Released in 2000, this is the second of two collections of short stories by Mukai Shougo; you can see the info here and here (Amazon links for reference only, general PSA try not to buy from Amazon if you can help it). They play off of, and reimagine or extend, various PAs from the actual game. Officially sanctioned fanfiction basically, haha. It includes illustrations by Mayumi Azumi (who did the Star Ocean 2 manga and also stepped in for the character art for Blue Sphere): cover, a two-sided colour insert, and I believe one black and white illustration per story. I think I've seen most or all of the illustrations because I used to have the two Treasure artbooks which collected Mayumi Azuma's plethora of SO2 art. [READ-MORE]The first story,  一粒 ("A single drop"), was only 12 pages but it took me a while. I'm trying to read a spread at a time without support to see what I can piece together myself, and then start looking up stuff with Jisho and Google Translate. The title, hItobutsu, can be translated "one [counter for a small round object]". "grain" or "particle" are probably the most technically accurate, but I leaned to "drop" because the story has key references/moments involving tears and starlight from above, so I think that works more seamlessly in English.A single drop is from Rena's perspective, and is based on several PAs: Rena's story: where she catches Claude staring at the sky in Salva and he asks her what she thinks is beyond the sky. Recording with English voice cast here. Rena's story: the classic favourite sky PA. My transcript here. Claude's story: PA where Rena asks Claude what he thinks of her strange healing power. Recording with Japanese (SE) voice cast here. In this story, during her travels with Claude, Rena observes that he seems very lonely and homesick, and wonders, not for the first time, where he's from. When they stay overnight at Celine's home in Mars, she has a lovely little private reflection on both of their mysterious origins. It also fills in a missing scene: in the favourite sky PA, if Rena answers that she loves starry skies, Claude asks if she'd like to go stargazing sometime, and we never actually see it in the game. But they do it in this story!I enjoyed A single drop; it's poetic and subtle, and I like that Claude's actions and words are very ambiguous to Rena. Also, I found it interesting that the author had Claude give Rena a mix of both of his "good" answers for his PA (unless you have Ashton in your party and open up the rude joke third answer, both of Claude's options net you positive points for their relationship, just that one gives you an even better result)... and hilarious that the author had Rena give Claude the "bad" answer for the "what do you think is beyond the sky?" PA. Claude is disappoints lolI am also dying because I did a speedy flip-through of the entire book to check its condition and assess its contents, and discovered the illustration for the final story is Ernest and Claude talking. I love Claude and Ernest and we already have so little Ernest content (including fanworks), so the idea that the final story may very well be a Claude and Ernest-centric interaction makes me extremely excited. No one spoil (or disillusion) me!! Anyways, I'm really trying not to skip to the end, haha. I will do this PROPERLY and read everything PROPERLY in order. Very slowly. And trying to manage my expectations so that hopefully I don't get disappointed when I finally get to it.[/READ-MORE]