A Summer to Remember: Yuki Academy Swim Club – My Laid-Back Kouhai Childhood Friend

The sound and voice are beyond reproach, but regarding the girl who does the ear cleaning, said to be a childhood friend— throughout the work there's a recurring phrasing along the lines of "me rather than your girlfriend," which leaves a not-so-great impression. She flirts with him at the pool and all, yet the protagonist doesn't seem particularly dissatisfied with his current girlfriend, so the way she basically threatens him into letting her clean his ears anyway is pretty outrageous. Is that supposed to be "doing things at her own pace" in some sense…? I can't help feeling it's a bit of a shame, thinking that if the setting had simply had them as a couple, we could have heard this girl's cute side more naturally. A work that feels like a slightly bittersweet memory of a certain summer.

This is an ASMR work by the up-and-coming voice actress Kana Hanaiwa. Despite being relatively new, her performance was high quality and wonderful. As for the ASMR (ear cleaning sounds, etc.), the quality is beyond complaint, likely thanks to the circle's long history in the genre. ※The following contains harsher criticism, so please be advised As other reviews have mentioned, the heroine approaching the protagonist who already has a girlfriend comes across as somewhat mean-spirited, and I couldn't shake a lingering sense of guilt throughout. Even if the intent was to portray the bittersweetness of an unrequited love, I feel there could have been better ways to handle it—for instance, something like "senpai is going to get busy with entrance exams soon…" Especially noticeable were the lines that repeatedly put down the protagonist's girlfriend, which was another somewhat frustrating point. There were also a few things that made me want to raise an objection, like "Why didn't Kanatsu-chan approach the protagonist before he got a girlfriend in the first place?"—personally, these bothered me. As for other minor points, there's a sense of "couldn't this have been fixed with direction?", such as clearly enunciating the "i" in "...shiteiru," and I also felt the script's clumsiness (strong words, but still) in things like the overly explanatory tone common in this type of situational voice work. In particular, the part where she flicks his knee felt like it could have used more polish—something like "What? Don't just suddenly flick my knee! (pouts)" comes to mind as a bit awkward as written. That ended up being fairly harsh criticism, but overall my satisfaction was high, and since this is (probably) Hanaiwa-san's first ASMR work, I think it's a must-listen for her fans.

This was almost my first time listening to this kind of ASMR. As for the ear cleaning, it was less "heart-fluttering" and more "nerve-wracking"... I found myself on guard against the heroine both mentally and in terms of her technique, bracing myself for the possibility that she might jab him at any moment. Since I myself have a memory of getting an outer ear infection from ear cleaning after swimming and having to go to the doctor, I found myself oddly empathizing with worry over whether the protagonist, who has a competition coming up, would be okay...? Heroine, that's genuinely dangerous, you know... The first half was nerve-wracking enough to feel almost like torture, so in that sense, I guess I was thoroughly absorbed and enjoyed it. By the time one ear was done, my guard relaxed somewhat and I felt relieved, but since she kept bringing up the girlfriend topic periodically, my heart never really settled down until the end. The heroine is scary. Well! That said, the voice is great, the breathing is wonderful, and the ear cleaning was high quality, so I did enjoy it! Next time I think I'll listen to it after going to the pool. I'd be happy if the next one could be enjoyed straightforwardly, without all these distracting thoughts.