Drama CD review: 白雲病の住処 (Hakuunbyou no Sumika)

Before I will continue with my new translations, I want to do a small review on a drama CD I bought last M3 (27 October 2019), which was called 白雲病の住処 (Hakuunbyou no Sumika) or in English "The dwelling of the White Cloud Disease". The CD is produced by "asearoute". I saw the crossfade when I was searching for M3 releases and was interested in it. You can find the crossfade here:

Both the white haired boy and girl and the blonde boy and girl are siblings. The blonde girl actually reminded me of the Vocaloid Kagamine Rin, while her brother bears a striking resemblance to Kagamine Len lol. The white haired siblings kinda look like Kasugano Sora and Haruka from Yosuga no Sora, an anime I once saw the title of and I did not watch. Little did I know that the contents were actually quite ... questionable. Until I checked the official website. Now, shall we continue to the story?


Story:

So the story takes place in 1913 in Japan. Two siblings, a boy of 12 years old named Shuu and his little sister of 6 years old named Shigure are lost in the mountains. When they decide to ask the way to a seemingly kind man, named Ichii, who is probably in his 30's, he teaches them a shortcut. They are guided to a village which shouldn't have been there on their way home. Shuu and Shigure stay over at a house of a doctor Ginji and his wife Rin, who were researching a strange disease named the "White Cloud disease". A cloud appears on one's wrists and ankles, and then death is inevitable. They eat porridge there and that night Shigure falls ill. Shuu decides to try to find the way home and tell his parents of what happened. He leaves Shigure behind, although Shigure cries for her brother to not leave her, at the house of the doctor.

When he comes back, the doctor and his wife have disappeared. So he decides to go to search for Shigure.  Later, Ichii invites him back into his house and feeds him porridge. The meat inside was fresh according to Ichii, which makes Shuu think that the meat was imported from a foreign place. When Shuu asks where Shigure, Rin and Genji are, Ichii points out that she is in his stomach and thus what he has been eating was Rin and Genji's body. And that he had to kill Rin and Genji because they realised the truth about Ichii. He goes searching for Shigure, screaming out her name. When he finally is back in the room she slept in, Shigure as well has disappeared, only blood could be found on her futon. Then Ichii points out Shuu has also eaten her fingers. Shuu goes crazy that he couldn't protect his little sister. Shuu tries to throw up everything he has eaten... and Ichii wonders why Shuu still has not been affected by the disease... Apparently one gets the White Cloud disease by eating poison (or possibly eating infected others), which Ichii claims to be medicine. Shuu tries to kill Ichii and screams that he will avenge Shigure. Ichii is killed.... and.... Someone who comes in to visit Ichii is also stabbed by Shuu. Finally, Shuu also dies from the disease and is happy he can finally see Shigure again in the afterlife.

Over 100 years later, two kids, Harushi and Saika, have stolen lighters from the convenience store and have set a house on fire. Then they stumble upon the village "Hakuunmura/ White cloud village". They start expressing their doubt if this village truly existed and if the Saga of Ichii really happened, as it has become an urban legend. They search the other houses in the village and find black bones, which were probably burnt by Ichii. Harushi starts thinking about how cruel the disease actually was. Then, at the very end, Shigure welcomes Shuu to afterlife and says she had been waiting for him.

Then the theme song kicks in, named "月夜の暗涙" (Tsukiyo no anryou) meaning "Silent tears of the moonlit night". It describes the events again of Shigure and Shuu's story shortly again.

A secret story reveals that Ichii used to be a doctor that "tried to cure the White cloud disease", but in the end murdered out almost the entire village...

Review:

Now, where to start with my review? Let's start with the cover. Even though the art style is quite generic, I liked the art of the cover, so I had to buy the CD. The price, 400 yen (booth price for online) or 500 yen (physical) for roughly 36 minutes of main story, 20 minutes of secret story and 2 minutes of a theme song is very reasonable. The main story is actually quite short, I hoped that the main story was a full hour as described on the official site. Even though the story was questionable, in content, it was actually executed very well. A story like this is quite unique. The pace felt realistic and most events, except for Shuu killing two people, were realistic as well. At the beginning I didn't expect cannibalism in the story. Yes, I almost had to throw up because it was actually gross... The end of the main story did feel axed though. It made me doubt if I actually had heard everything.

Next up is the voice acting and background music. The voice acting is actually splendid... Especially Shigure's VA truly expresses the fear of the 6 year old girl when she is left alone. Harushi's voice actor sounds cold and calm, which was exactly what his character was like. Shuu making puke sounds actually sounded realistic as well. The background music and sounds were nice and did not feel out of place. The transitions were also well executed.

In the end, I don't regret buying the CD! It was worth my time to listen to and worth my money. If I had to rate this drama CD I would give it a 9 out of 10, because it was quite short and the ending felt axed.

If you are interested in buying this story, it is available on the official pixiv booth of asearoute: Here