Double Bind 1 and 2
I've mentioned Double Bind before a few posts back but that was a very brief and extremely unhelpful in understanding the plot, so now that I've listened to Double Bind 2, I shall fix that. It's 2 x 2 discs, so it's going to be messy below the cut.
Summary:
The story is about a police officer investigating a serial murder case (kidnapped, and then starved to death). Police officer is Kamijou, and when he was checking out the witness, a boy named Shou, he found out that Shou's guardian (of sorts) is actually Sena, his junior from school last time, who actually had feelings for him back then but never revealed them. Shou himself is a ball of issues; he suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (or more commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) caused by abuse/neglect by his mother when he was really young. It is not something he actually remembers (therein lies the problem. Parts of himself remember different things). So, Shou is sometimes Hikaru who is the aspect who takes on life's challenges or Kei... the aspect who actually saw the killer. Questioning became a bit of an interesting problem, so Kamijou ended up spending a lot more time with Sena and Shou. Sena was openly gay and has an issue with commitment, but soon Kamijou and Sena grew closer and by the end of Double Bind 1, they were together.
At the same time, there's another person trying to trace the killer. One of the victims is the son of yakuza, and due to certain succession issues, it was important to the soon-to-be successor to this yakuza group (Shindou Takayuki) to find that out, and the person to do that job is his lover, Hatori Shinobu. Takayuki is actually Sena's stepbrother and ex-lover (that was before their father dropped the bombshell on them. After they realized they were related, Takayuki went completely cold towards Sena as he would not be able to pull away otherwise, and Sena took that completely wrong... or right and that gave him a huge ball of issues leading to his problem with commitment. By the way, their father is the leader of this yakuza group). Shinobu had no qualms in using whatever means he has to get information and hopefully get closer to the killer. To him, Takayuki is everything but he did not have the confidence nor does he think he is worthy to be important to Takayuki. He used to be a junkie and had once asked for death but Takayuki helped him out of his situation. Since then, he had given his everything to Takayuki, and even asked to be Takayuki's lover so he could be useful to him somehow.
Anyway, by using rather different investigative techniques (Shinobu offered his services to an informant, Kamijou did his police investigative thingy), Shinobu and Kamijou found out that all the current victims had one thing in common: they were all members of this group of delinquents called Red Roofs when they were in highschool, and all of them had participated in a group rape of a young girl back then. They suspect the motive of the serial murder is revenge, but who exactly is the girl? And why exactly is Kei hell bent on finding the killer as well?
As all these things are going on, Kamijou's superior and father figure collapsed due to health problems but refused to stop working. Kamijou found out through his daughter, Miku, that his superior did not have long to live so he did not try hard to stop him from continuing his work. Takayuki and Sena's father was also dying and as he lay dying, he asked for Sena's forgiveness for never being a father to him.
In Double Bind 2, the plot gets resolved!
It begins with Shinobu being informed that Takayuki was injured in a fight so he rushed off to the hospital mid-investigating stuff to see Takayuki. However, Takayuki was being stupid (Shinobu was being stupid too) and told Shinobu that they should not see each other while the case is not solved and implied that Shinobu should show exactly how useful he is. He did not mean it of course, and Shinobu knew it intellectually, but it still cut him. He resolved to do just that and resumed his efforts by tailing the last would-be victim of the serial killer.
Kamijou on the other hand found out who the killer was almost by accident. Kamijou found out one night from pure coincidence (son of friend of friend or some weird few degrees of separation thing) that Miku was supposed to be dead. Or rather, Miku's friend from before said that her mother told her Miku commited suicide years ago due to being bullied in school. He thought it was strange and insisted that Miku was alive and he would get her in touch with Miku again. He checked with his superior who confirmed that Miku had attempted suicide before but it was a failed attempt. When he talked to Miku herself, she said she wanted to completely fresh start, so she did not want to contact people from her past, so no, she did not want to call her friend, Ayaka. Feeling that he owed Ayaka an answer, he checked with the mother and ... yeah, Miku is very, very dead. So, who is this Miku then? Hint: Miku has a brother who loved her very very much and was never seen visiting their father when Miku was around, and vice-versa. =D
Going back to Shinobu now~ By tailing the last possible victim in this case, and then bumping into Shou (Kei-dominant), he found the killer and the killer's accomplice. They followed the killer+accomplice all the way to their base but were overpowered. Shinobu was stabbed, and then both of them were left in the basement with the latest victim and the dead body of the last. All these happenings triggered traumapings in Shou who could not forgive his mother for accidentally or intentionally nearly starving him to death, and definitely starving his twin brother to death when he was much younger.
As these things are happening, Sena went to pay his last respects to his father/"uncle". Takayuki was just sending him out when he received a call from his underling who told him that Shinobu had run off after the killer, himself. Worried for Shinobu's safety, he was about to hop into his car and drive with his injured arm following the directions given by the tracer installed in Shinobu's bike when Sena offered to drive instead. Sena then received a phone call from Kamijou telling him that Shou had gone missing and that he suspects Shou had gone after the killer. He asked to be included in their plans as well, so soon after, the three of them took a roadtrip following the directions to Shinobu's bike and found the hideout.
They were in time to save Shinobu and the latest victim. Shou was unharmed. Miku came clean and took off her wig to reveal Reiichi, the older brother. He wanted to take revenge for his sister. Slightly after her death, he found her diary and read about the gangrape. It wasn't just that once when they took a video of it. They had blackmailed her into silence and repeat performance and she could not stand it, which was why she committed suicide. He wanted the perpetrators to suffer slowly and die painfully. His accomplice was a guy who is completely obsessed with him. He met him in a gay bar, and thought of his revenge, and really, he already had a proclivity to crossdress before then so he told his father that when he's dressed as Miku, he shall be called Miku and when he's dressed normally, he's Reiichi. His father complied and never asked why.
Shou (Kei) went a little berserk on Reiichi as he superimposed his other on him, but Hikaru held him back. Sena managed to talk Shou out of it but though Reiichi was saved from Shou, he had actually consumed poison before the rescue party (Takayuki, Sena and Kamijou) even arrived. He said that he knew his victims had families and friends too, so this was his way of taking responsibility.
After that, everyone who needed to go to the hospital was sent to the hospital and the case was closed. Kamijou had a niggling suspicion left though, so he asked his superior the day after if he knew what his son was doing. His superior confirmed it. It was actually the reason he did not want to take a break, and it was also the reason he dropped Kamijou from the case (it happened earlier).
Shou also had time to fix his issues, just a bit after the case was over. He remembered what happened in the past. His mother had locked him and his twin brother at home and left them. At that that, they tried to survive as long as they could with the food available in the house but they could not cook the food that needed cooking so soon, all the raw meat and vegetables rotted and there was no more food that can be eaten just like that. His brother was born weak so he developed a fever very quickly and got worse really fast. He found one last piece of cookie but he could not bring himself to give it to his brother. He ate it instead and forever felt guilty about it as his brother died not long after. He held onto his brother's hand and waited for help until he was sure he was going to die. Just when he was going to give up, someone broke open the door, found them on the floor and asked him whether he was Kei or Shou. He could not bring himself to say Kei, so he told them he was Shou. He was actually Kei.
Due to his recollection of the past, and the help given to him and his own conviction to face things himself, at the end of the story, his personalities showed signs of integration.
I'm too lazy to go through how it ended for Kamijou and Sena. I'll go to feelings now.
Feelings:
Why is there no hospital bed sex for Shinobu and Takayuki?
Why is there no sex at all for them?! (edit: I mean, in Double Bind 2)
/shallow.
But guh, out of the two pairings, I look forward to the second pairing the most. Ohkawa (Takayuki) and Tatsun (Shinobu) were amazing and Tatsun is such a ball of issues about his relationship with Ohkawa. When Ohkawa gave Tatsun a pair of diamond earrings and then Tatsun was all omg what no but D= at it I was just.. so happy for him and wanted to bop him on his head to make him realize he can actually reach out and take things for himself. -_-;
I'm glad Ohkawa got through to him at the end of the story. OHKAWA, YOU JUST NEED TO CONTINUE REMINDING HIM, "I only need you and Hana in my life." Continue reminding until it's completely ingrained in him. I really liked the part where Ohkawa was all panicked over Tatsun when he found Tatsun injured in the basement of the house. =D
I like Tatsun injured.
The ending of the case wasn't very surprising as the hints were pretty strong already in the second drama cd BUT THAT PART ABOUT HANA BEING TATSUN'S DAUGHTER. that was kinda surprising.
SO VERDICT: Not enough second pair. T___T
The story itself, I enjoyed though I feel that there's too much focus on the relationships in the second drama cd. Perhaps four cds is a bit too much. Maybe three discs would have been better (or at least, if it's four discs and there are so many angles to focus on, flesh them all out a little more. I'm not sure how and right now it's a little too late to be thinking but something feels a little lacking in the experience).
I'd recommend this story to people wholeheartedly but. Yeah. There are things I sort of wanted to see.
Summary:
The story is about a police officer investigating a serial murder case (kidnapped, and then starved to death). Police officer is Kamijou, and when he was checking out the witness, a boy named Shou, he found out that Shou's guardian (of sorts) is actually Sena, his junior from school last time, who actually had feelings for him back then but never revealed them. Shou himself is a ball of issues; he suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (or more commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) caused by abuse/neglect by his mother when he was really young. It is not something he actually remembers (therein lies the problem. Parts of himself remember different things). So, Shou is sometimes Hikaru who is the aspect who takes on life's challenges or Kei... the aspect who actually saw the killer. Questioning became a bit of an interesting problem, so Kamijou ended up spending a lot more time with Sena and Shou. Sena was openly gay and has an issue with commitment, but soon Kamijou and Sena grew closer and by the end of Double Bind 1, they were together.
At the same time, there's another person trying to trace the killer. One of the victims is the son of yakuza, and due to certain succession issues, it was important to the soon-to-be successor to this yakuza group (Shindou Takayuki) to find that out, and the person to do that job is his lover, Hatori Shinobu. Takayuki is actually Sena's stepbrother and ex-lover (that was before their father dropped the bombshell on them. After they realized they were related, Takayuki went completely cold towards Sena as he would not be able to pull away otherwise, and Sena took that completely wrong... or right and that gave him a huge ball of issues leading to his problem with commitment. By the way, their father is the leader of this yakuza group). Shinobu had no qualms in using whatever means he has to get information and hopefully get closer to the killer. To him, Takayuki is everything but he did not have the confidence nor does he think he is worthy to be important to Takayuki. He used to be a junkie and had once asked for death but Takayuki helped him out of his situation. Since then, he had given his everything to Takayuki, and even asked to be Takayuki's lover so he could be useful to him somehow.
Anyway, by using rather different investigative techniques (Shinobu offered his services to an informant, Kamijou did his police investigative thingy), Shinobu and Kamijou found out that all the current victims had one thing in common: they were all members of this group of delinquents called Red Roofs when they were in highschool, and all of them had participated in a group rape of a young girl back then. They suspect the motive of the serial murder is revenge, but who exactly is the girl? And why exactly is Kei hell bent on finding the killer as well?
As all these things are going on, Kamijou's superior and father figure collapsed due to health problems but refused to stop working. Kamijou found out through his daughter, Miku, that his superior did not have long to live so he did not try hard to stop him from continuing his work. Takayuki and Sena's father was also dying and as he lay dying, he asked for Sena's forgiveness for never being a father to him.
In Double Bind 2, the plot gets resolved!
It begins with Shinobu being informed that Takayuki was injured in a fight so he rushed off to the hospital mid-investigating stuff to see Takayuki. However, Takayuki was being stupid (Shinobu was being stupid too) and told Shinobu that they should not see each other while the case is not solved and implied that Shinobu should show exactly how useful he is. He did not mean it of course, and Shinobu knew it intellectually, but it still cut him. He resolved to do just that and resumed his efforts by tailing the last would-be victim of the serial killer.
Kamijou on the other hand found out who the killer was almost by accident. Kamijou found out one night from pure coincidence (son of friend of friend or some weird few degrees of separation thing) that Miku was supposed to be dead. Or rather, Miku's friend from before said that her mother told her Miku commited suicide years ago due to being bullied in school. He thought it was strange and insisted that Miku was alive and he would get her in touch with Miku again. He checked with his superior who confirmed that Miku had attempted suicide before but it was a failed attempt. When he talked to Miku herself, she said she wanted to completely fresh start, so she did not want to contact people from her past, so no, she did not want to call her friend, Ayaka. Feeling that he owed Ayaka an answer, he checked with the mother and ... yeah, Miku is very, very dead. So, who is this Miku then? Hint: Miku has a brother who loved her very very much and was never seen visiting their father when Miku was around, and vice-versa. =D
Going back to Shinobu now~ By tailing the last possible victim in this case, and then bumping into Shou (Kei-dominant), he found the killer and the killer's accomplice. They followed the killer+accomplice all the way to their base but were overpowered. Shinobu was stabbed, and then both of them were left in the basement with the latest victim and the dead body of the last. All these happenings triggered traumapings in Shou who could not forgive his mother for accidentally or intentionally nearly starving him to death, and definitely starving his twin brother to death when he was much younger.
As these things are happening, Sena went to pay his last respects to his father/"uncle". Takayuki was just sending him out when he received a call from his underling who told him that Shinobu had run off after the killer, himself. Worried for Shinobu's safety, he was about to hop into his car and drive with his injured arm following the directions given by the tracer installed in Shinobu's bike when Sena offered to drive instead. Sena then received a phone call from Kamijou telling him that Shou had gone missing and that he suspects Shou had gone after the killer. He asked to be included in their plans as well, so soon after, the three of them took a roadtrip following the directions to Shinobu's bike and found the hideout.
They were in time to save Shinobu and the latest victim. Shou was unharmed. Miku came clean and took off her wig to reveal Reiichi, the older brother. He wanted to take revenge for his sister. Slightly after her death, he found her diary and read about the gangrape. It wasn't just that once when they took a video of it. They had blackmailed her into silence and repeat performance and she could not stand it, which was why she committed suicide. He wanted the perpetrators to suffer slowly and die painfully. His accomplice was a guy who is completely obsessed with him. He met him in a gay bar, and thought of his revenge, and really, he already had a proclivity to crossdress before then so he told his father that when he's dressed as Miku, he shall be called Miku and when he's dressed normally, he's Reiichi. His father complied and never asked why.
Shou (Kei) went a little berserk on Reiichi as he superimposed his other on him, but Hikaru held him back. Sena managed to talk Shou out of it but though Reiichi was saved from Shou, he had actually consumed poison before the rescue party (Takayuki, Sena and Kamijou) even arrived. He said that he knew his victims had families and friends too, so this was his way of taking responsibility.
After that, everyone who needed to go to the hospital was sent to the hospital and the case was closed. Kamijou had a niggling suspicion left though, so he asked his superior the day after if he knew what his son was doing. His superior confirmed it. It was actually the reason he did not want to take a break, and it was also the reason he dropped Kamijou from the case (it happened earlier).
Shou also had time to fix his issues, just a bit after the case was over. He remembered what happened in the past. His mother had locked him and his twin brother at home and left them. At that that, they tried to survive as long as they could with the food available in the house but they could not cook the food that needed cooking so soon, all the raw meat and vegetables rotted and there was no more food that can be eaten just like that. His brother was born weak so he developed a fever very quickly and got worse really fast. He found one last piece of cookie but he could not bring himself to give it to his brother. He ate it instead and forever felt guilty about it as his brother died not long after. He held onto his brother's hand and waited for help until he was sure he was going to die. Just when he was going to give up, someone broke open the door, found them on the floor and asked him whether he was Kei or Shou. He could not bring himself to say Kei, so he told them he was Shou. He was actually Kei.
Due to his recollection of the past, and the help given to him and his own conviction to face things himself, at the end of the story, his personalities showed signs of integration.
I'm too lazy to go through how it ended for Kamijou and Sena. I'll go to feelings now.
Feelings:
Why is there no hospital bed sex for Shinobu and Takayuki?
Why is there no sex at all for them?! (edit: I mean, in Double Bind 2)
/shallow.
But guh, out of the two pairings, I look forward to the second pairing the most. Ohkawa (Takayuki) and Tatsun (Shinobu) were amazing and Tatsun is such a ball of issues about his relationship with Ohkawa. When Ohkawa gave Tatsun a pair of diamond earrings and then Tatsun was all omg what no but D= at it I was just.. so happy for him and wanted to bop him on his head to make him realize he can actually reach out and take things for himself. -_-;
I'm glad Ohkawa got through to him at the end of the story. OHKAWA, YOU JUST NEED TO CONTINUE REMINDING HIM, "I only need you and Hana in my life." Continue reminding until it's completely ingrained in him. I really liked the part where Ohkawa was all panicked over Tatsun when he found Tatsun injured in the basement of the house. =D
I like Tatsun injured.
The ending of the case wasn't very surprising as the hints were pretty strong already in the second drama cd BUT THAT PART ABOUT HANA BEING TATSUN'S DAUGHTER. that was kinda surprising.
SO VERDICT: Not enough second pair. T___T
The story itself, I enjoyed though I feel that there's too much focus on the relationships in the second drama cd. Perhaps four cds is a bit too much. Maybe three discs would have been better (or at least, if it's four discs and there are so many angles to focus on, flesh them all out a little more. I'm not sure how and right now it's a little too late to be thinking but something feels a little lacking in the experience).
I'd recommend this story to people wholeheartedly but. Yeah. There are things I sort of wanted to see.