Today, March 21st, the drama CD for Yamayade’s smash hit Omae no Hou kara Kiss Shitekure yo (released on Renta! as You Should Be The One To Come Kiss Me) came out to much fanfare, and in celebration a pop-up shop for the series also opened at Sofmap stores across Japan! In collaboration with the Akihabara location’s STELLAMAP café, which often hosts BL collabs and cafés, there was a drink stand on the sixth floor. Thankfully, our kind boss graciously gave us the go-ahead to take a short work trip to hit up the drink stand and pop-up on opening day, so we’ve decided to post a report!
For the drama CD itself, the following write-up is from Sou, since I’m not particularly well-versed in the drama or seiyuu scene:
The main cast features none other than Chiaki Kobayashi as Eito Kanda and Ryōta Suzuki as Kou Ueno. The two of them are accomplished seiyuu with a long list of roles under their belts in a myriad of series, including both mainstream and BL works. Perhaps most notably for BL fans, the two of them recently co-starred as Kiyoshi Adachi and Yuichi Kurosawa respectively in the drama CD and anime adaptations of the mega-hit BL series Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!
The CD comes in both regular and deluxe edition (titled the “Kiss me more?” set — how adorable is that??), with the latter including an extra CD with bonus tracks and a special booklet that includes a bonus manga, a Q&A with the characters, and other special extras. Plus, there may be little bonuses that vary depending on where you purchase the CD from, so be sure to check out the 特典情報 (“bonus info”) for whatever retailer you’re looking to buy from! For Sofmap, this is a pair of “polaroid-style” cards with a foil-stamped replication of Yamayade-sensei’s signature. I was particularly stoked for this bonus, so I immediately bought a copy from Sofmap while enjoying the pop-up shop and drink stand. And, you know I had to splurge on the “Kiss me more?” deluxe edition for that extra booklet and audio! I’m personally excited to experience this story all over again, with the new addition of voices for the characters I’ve come to love so much.
Sou was super excited to be able to pick up the CD along with the drinks and goods, and spent much of their time in line going over the various special editions from a bunch of different stores. I, unfortunately, actually get really flustered and embarrassed listening to voiced BL content, so I don’t usually partake. But it was fun seeing Sou excited over the drama CD release.
But we’re rushing into things…! Let’s start from the beginning.
When we got to Akihabara, I instantly knew where the STELLAMAP café was, since I’d previously gone to the Bloom & Mellow Kiss Winter Date café with a friend. However, I’ve never been to the drink stand before (though I’m just now seeing the Noumi-senpai no Benmei collab and wanting to CRY that I didn’t know about it until now…) so we were anxious about where to go. Thankfully, there was a display in front of the shop that stated it was on the sixth floor, so we got in line to wait for the store to open while excitedly taking photos of the goods display.
The staff was kind enough to let us go to the sixth floor while we waited for the shop to open, and we were able to chill with the BL goods. Right above us was actually a signed poster by Yamayade of the You Should Be The One To Come Kiss Me tankoubon cover with the drama CD announcement. (And don’t worry, we asked the staff if it’s allowed to post images from within the store, and they said it’s okay as long as there are no customers in the images. Manners over content!)
I usually don’t go to Sofmap (or Akihabara, for that matter… /Ikebukuro girlie) so I had no idea they had so many BL manga standees and goods on display! There were lots of other anime goods as well, and you can bet Sou and I stared down the Genshin section for a very long time.
The wait was actually quite long, but that’s okay because it gave us a chance to decide our plan of attack. Since we needed the drink receipt for our work trip, Sou would handle the buying of any “personal” items (goods and CD) while I handled the work purchases (drinks). Unfortunately, there was a limit to how many drinks we could get, so while we originally planned on buying and doing on a write-up on all four, in the end we only got two! I chose the two that looked most appealing without really thinking about it, which ended up being both of Kou’s drinks! Oops. 😭 Sorry, Eito! This also meant I only got Kou’s straw tags. I do love Kou (in fact, I selected him as my favorite seme character of 2024) but I also love Eito so I felt a little let-down by my lack of foresight on this.
Anyway, drinks were ordered, special coasters, drink tags, and recording report booklet were obtained!
Lucky (?) number 27 to wait for my drink! While we waited in line we took pictures of the drink stand and pop-up store display, which was very cute. There were standees of both Kou and Eito, and then all of the goods were used as decoration for the entire section. The drama CD was also playing on the screen next to the drink pick-up, which had a lovely animated video to go with it.
Also, while we were waiting in line we had the wonderful fortune to run into an English Renta! user, which was shocking! It’s always fun to get to meet new BL fans, and even more of an honor to talk to people who actually know of and use Renta! so that will definitely go down as a special moment from the day! Thank you so much for buying and reading the English version! People like you make every long day of of overtime worth it! I hope we run into each other again at J.GARDEN!
After that, it wasn’t long until we got our drinks! In the end, I got the iced maccha warabi latte, and Sou got the strawberry yogurt drink! As I mentioned earlier, there were four drinks in all—two that were Kou’s choice, and two that were Eito’s.
One thing I found particularly cute is that both of Eito’s drinks are quite bitter and plain—(fake) beer, and coffee. Kou, on the other hand, has two quite sweet, cute drinks. Each drink came with an assigned straw tag, as well as a coaster (random choice of six), and the special CD report booklet.
But since we got our goods, and got our drinks, we decided to head out since the beverages are all take-out only and weren’t meant to be drunk in the store.
Of course, on the way out I had to take a pic of the Halloween art stand of Kou and Eito as well…
Cute… Kou’s hand on Eito’s waist… the loving look in his eyes as he stares down at him… wonderful.
After we got outside, we could finally try the beverages. We sat on the low railing outside the store and enjoyed our drinks while trading coasters—the true collab café experience.
I didn’t get the coaster I wanted (I was hoping for the center one on the bottom row) but the two we did get are both adorable, and honestly it’s hard to be disappointed by anything that has Yamayade’s art on it.
My maccha drink was pretty good. For those who aren’t super into maccha, this is still a great option because the maccha flavor wasn’t super strong or bitter! It also wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting until I got to the point where the whipped cream was melting into the drink. One lady who was passing by saw our drinks and evidently got jealous and asked where we got them, so we pointed her to the sixth floor—though I’m not sure she knew they were from a BL manga collab!
As for Sou’s thoughts on their drink:
I got the “Kou’s Choice: Strawberry yogurt drink♥Perfect for an amusement park date” (遊園地デートにぴったり♥苺ヨーグルトドリンク ), with an appearance as cute and pretty as the special illustrations of Kou and Eito accompanying the collab. The base was a strawberry yogurt drink (think Danimals), which I love, so I was happy from the first sip. It also had strawberry sauce and syrup for an extra boost of sweetness, and was topped off with a nice swirl of whipped cream and heart-shaped sprinkles. The whipped cream was denser and richer than most whipped cream I’ve tried in Japan, so that was a pleasant surprise, and I’m always excited to eat sprinkles. I could definitely see the boys enjoying this sort of drink on an amusement park date, and it pleased the inner kid in me as well!
After we finished our drinks and were done taking photos and sharing our thoughts, we figured we may as well stay in Akihabara for lunch because it has a delightful American staple: Hardee’s. Also known as Carl’s Jr. if you’re not cool and from the Midwest. So we went to enjoy some delicious American-style cuisine while finishing taking notes and inventory. We also got some nice photos of the goods we obtained. (With our own money, of course—overspending definitely not sponsored by our workplace.)
But, it was still a work day, so we had to head back for an afternoon of checking BL and translation orders.
Overall, it was very fun! I wasn’t expecting too much since it was a pop-up store more than anything, but honestly just the enjoyment of being in a store surrounded by people who clearly love the same thing is more than enough to make the experience!
(Speaking of… Chotto Matou yo, Harutora-kun pop-up store… I’m taking the day off to be there the second it opens…)
And now, I have a wonderful new memento I can keep on my desk while I work. 😎
rentaBLog 