I’ve been a purveyor of ASMR for quite some time, and I’ve also been a Ruffian since day 1 (well, technically before day 1). I was broke for the past 2 months but I finally had the funds to buy the ￥14,000 full package, and had a listen. Here are my first impressions.

Value#

A voice pack for each language costs ￥7,000, and if you were to buy both, it would total to ￥14,000. That is not cheap, considering that each language’s full pack is around half an hour. Compare that to our SFW ASMR goddess, Suou Patra’s commercial voice packs: around 40 hours for ~￥4,000.

This is clearly targeted towards FWMC’s fans (nothing wrong with that). Is it worth it though?

English vs. Japanese#

If you were to only buy one of them (and if you are comfortable with both languages), I would recommend the English version. They sound a lot more natural in English, except Mococo’s track — when she keeps saying “big brother,” which is clearly meant to be お兄ちゃん. It does sound a bit awkward.

Other than that, though, the English version is great. The Japanese version, on the other hand, didn’t quite meet up to my expectations. Their intonations are, from time to time, not quite natural. Surprisingly, Fuwawa’s Japanese sounds more natural than Mococo’s, unlike their usual streams. Mococo’s voice in the Japanese version feels a bit forced, and I suspect that her throat condition wasn’t the best at the time of the recording.

Another main difference between the packs is that, for the English version, ear picking track is done with cotton balls; for the Japanese version, it’s done with bamboo earpicks. Ear picking didn’t sound amazing, though — more to be explained in the next section.

Sound Balance#

This is my biggest gripe with the voice packs. The sound balance and volume calibration is all over the place. I had to constantly adjust my volume, because:

  • The average volume from track to track differs
  • The volume seems to constantly change within a single track, especially when it switches from one ear to the other
  • SFXs are too quiet compared to their voices

It leaves much to be desired, considering this is a commercial ASMR voice pack. No falling asleep here, with all these volume spikes.

Verdict#

Overall, I couldn’t say that I am 100% satisfied with the packs, especially considering the price. They’re somewhat of novelty items (though, this is to be expected).

If you are a Ruffian dying to get more FWMC elements, go ahead — I do recommend picking just one language (personal recommendation is English), since there’s a lot of overlap.

Overall, though, I’m just excited about the possibility of future ASMR contents by FWMC.