Masachika Ichimura, the original Japanese Phantom, has so similar a voice to Michael Crawford's that the first time I heard the OLC CD, I thought "Mr Ichimura is singing in English!". So, if you have a chance to hear this, you may feel "Crawford is singing in Japanese". Ichimura is a tender and sexy Phantom, and he sings all the songs with deep feeling. I have never heard such a grieving "Down Once More". Christine (Rhoko Nomura) has an accurate scale and an innocent voice. Raoul (Yuichiro Yamaguchi, who sings the Phantom on the other recording) has a quite princely attitude. From a melodic point of view, I think this recording is better than the other one. But there are two regrettable points in this recording. The first, the editing is not good. In the scene of the auction, the Hannibal rehearsal etc all of the dialogue is missing, so it feels strange to follow the story simply from this CD. Secondly, and the worst point is, this recording is out of press at present! If you find it somehow, you shouldn't feel any hesitation in buying it. It's a miracle.