Ear Picking, Leather Gloves, Bonten: Nekogurashi — Healing Laziness with a Siamese Catgirl (CV: Ai Kayano)

I bought this with high expectations since it's a work featuring Kayano Ai, and there were both things I liked and things that fell short of my expectations. As for the good points, though it feels presumptuous of me to say so, the quality of her voice and acting were outstanding. There are opinions like "did she really need to play a character? wouldn't it have been better with Kayano's natural, unaffected performance?" but that didn't bother me much; I was just left with the impression that professionals truly are amazing. As for the bad points, the mic quality is low, so even though the voice is great, the sense of distance, the sense of presence, and the ear-cleaning sounds all end up as noise. I wish they'd put more care into the equipment, because it feels like the material isn't being used to its full potential — that was the disappointing part.

"Listen to Track 08 and you can sleep alongside Kayano-san. You can savor her sleeping breaths." That's it, done. Victory confirmed. That alone is enough of an introduction for this work. Below is just extra for those who need more than that. "Ah, so that's the angle they went with" was my first impression. First, please listen to the sample. This pitch, this pace of conversation. She's a voice actress renowned for her range, able to play a lively energetic girl, a dignified female knight, a perverted masochistic female knight, a graceful older sister, or a motherly mom. In this work, rather than an overwhelmingly sultry adult woman, the impression I got was more of a young, cute vocal tone. I felt this was likely the result of prioritizing a cat-like loveliness. On the other hand, the acting approach has a strong sense of warmth and acceptance. With a languid, unhurried way of speaking with no sense of urgency, she checks in on how it feels while massaging you and guides you to relax. In other words, the "babu-mi" (babyish, nurturing charm) is strong. It was a flavor with an appropriate blend of cuteness and sensuality.

Kayanon's voice is of course wonderful, but the ear-cleaning and ear-blowing sounds are scratchy and hurt my ears. I really feel the quality level of other famous circles' ASMR works by comparison. I realized there's a lot of trial and error that goes into making ASMR voice works that don't tire out your ears. I would be so happy if I could listen to Kayanon's ASMR with the highest possible sound quality! Looking forward to the next work!

First, I was surprised that Kayano-san was doing the voice!? She's my favorite voice actress, so I was already interested at that point, but I thought I should still listen to the sample before buying — and yet, the moment I did, 3 seconds in, I'd already decided to buy it. And when I actually listened..., a cute yet nurturing older-sister type gave me the ultimate healing. She deliberately says things to tease the protagonist a little, and it also seems that the Siamese cat herself likes to be lazy, which makes me feel, even more than the description suggests, that this is precisely what makes her a master at helping you relax. At first I thought I might be so relaxed I'd fall asleep partway through, but the treatment had such remarkable clarity, with a sound design different from anything before that you could really feel in your ears and body, that there was a sense of presence strong enough to make me react involuntarily, and while being healed I oddly also became more awake. Who would have thought a sleep-inducing work could keep me from sleeping. During the "service," my cheeks were completely relaxed and all the tension left my body, and at times there were serious, heartstring-tugging lines that were so poignant they brought me to tears. As the Siamese cat herself says, this is a work that makes you wish this happy time would never end.

It's amazing that they used a professional, hugely popular voice actress for a doujin work. Normally, an ordinary doujin circle can't cast someone like that without going through an audio production company. So I felt they must have paid a considerable fee for it. At minimum, probably starting from 400,000 yen. Or if this is possibly a doujin work from some audio production company, it could have been made a bit cheaper. Either way, hats off to the ambition of this attempt within doujin work. As for the work itself, no matter how you look at it, the sound effects and the audio production were doujin-level throughout. I assume the sound effects are cut and pasted to match the voice, but the timing has that predictable, formulaic feel typical of amateurs making drama CDs. So it's completely obvious that the voice and the ear-cleaning sounds were recorded in separate spaces and combined afterward, and there's almost no sense that the voice actress is actually cleaning your ears. If you just want to hear the voice, I think it's a fantastic work to buy purely out of novelty. In an era where the KU100 mic is being praised and adopted by many studios, it is the best mic for works built around visuals or works that want to emphasize spatial awareness. However, for works like ear-cleaning CDs where stereo positioning is the main focus, a cheaper mic is actually easier to listen to for ear-cleaning works. It would be worth buying even at twice the price. So I wish they'd have a professional sound engineer do the editing instead of doujin staff.

I think just the voice actress's name tells you everything, but you can experience the ultimate healing! I was lying in bed thinking "I wonder if there's an ASMR work by Kayano Ai..." and when I opened DLsite, there was an ad for this on the top page! It woke me up from a 300-year sleep. Personally, it would have been perfect if the ear-cleaning sounds etc. were a bit stronger, but since the voice actress is Kayano Ai, I suppose wanting more than this would be greedy...

You get taken care of with ear-cleaning and massage by the "Siamese cat" played by Kayano Ai. As for this time's cat-girl "theme," since she's a laid-back older-sister character, I started listening wondering how she'd take care of me — maybe in a bothered, reluctant way? But she took care of me far more attentively than I imagined, and that gap gave me a warm, heartwarming feeling. (Since she's a laid-back type plus a cat-girl, I expected a "I don't wanna, this is a bother" kind of vibe, but she healed me thoroughly and properly.) Also, just as written in the description, she's a character who gives off a sense of natural warmth and acceptance, so just being near her makes you relax, gives you a sense of security — just listening to her voice was healing. (Her drawn-out, unhurried way of speaking also let me listen with my shoulders relaxed.) In addition, this work includes a lot of the massage parts that are my personal favorite, so emotionally I was able to relax a great deal. As an overall impression, I'd note the following points. ●She takes such attentive care of you that you can listen with your shoulders relaxed ●There's a lot of massage (for me) which was extremely healing ●The atmosphere stays relaxed and gentle throughout, putting you in a peaceful mood I listened very happily and felt very at ease and healed. If you're curious, please give it a listen.

I've bought other works in this series too, but I bought this one immediately because the voice credit was Kayano Ai. The appeal of this work lies in the variety of ear-cleaning sounds and the sleep induction through Kayano-san's whispering. For the ear-cleaning sounds, there's the bonten (fluffy puff) that spreads sound throughout your ear, the gently-touching baby cotton swab, and the sound of a single spot being worked on with a cypress-wood ear pick — it's a great value set, three delicious treats in one. All of them have minimal sound stimulation and are very well suited to inducing sleep. As for Kayano-san's performance, it's simply too amazing — all I can say is "as expected." Her delivery, with its focus on "healing," left me completely disarmed. Not only that, there's also leather-glove sounds that aren't in the other works in the series, and the list of good points is endless. If you're seeking healing audio, this is a must-listen.

This is an ASMR audio work featuring the professional voice actress Kayano Ai. Of the four works so far, this might be the most distinctively quirky in both content and character. The voice actress's performance matches the lazy older-sister-cat character of the Siamese cat extremely well, and it was a healing work to listen to. There's more variety in expression now — bonten ear-cleaning, cotton gloves & satin glove massage, and healing through the sound of rain, which wasn't present before. However, the poor sound quality hasn't really been improved, and as the expression increases and the work gets better overall, these small flaws become more noticeable. If you're a fan of Kayano Ai, this is definitely a fan item you won't regret buying.

It's Kayanon, Kayanon!!!! The long-awaited Kayanon is finally here!!! Personally I was hoping for a fox-girl Kayanon ASMR, but this is fine too. Kayanon, aka Kayano Ai, is a popular voice actress who's appeared in all kinds of works, and now she's finally appeared in an audio work. Great voice, great acting — I have no complaints about the audio itself. It's the best. In particular, the cat-speak is extremely moe. Getting blown on near the ear is also a big plus point. Having Kayanon blow in your ear like that must be the best. If you like Kayanon, you should buy this. It's on sale right now! No matter which track I listened to, I was healed. It's amazing, truly...