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Audio Adaptation
(aka: Sound Adaptation)

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Audio Adaptation (trope)
Where things are adapted to audio-only media such as Radio, Audiobooks, or Audio Plays.

The simplest is the Audiobook, which is usually a simple audio recording of a person reading a particular book. Originally, the audio version was abridged due to the limitations of audio recording media. For instance, a typical book of 100+ pages would have required an impractically large number of vinyl records to play in its entirety, and even the development of the cassette tape with its much longer playtime could require a half-dozen for an abridged edition. However, with the rise of the computer audio file and advances in data storage and playback devices, audio recordings of complete books is now a standard item.

Originally, audiobooks were largely restricted for the visually impaired with the aforementioned recording tech limitations. However, when practical recording media that could be carried on ones' person came on the market, such as the Walkman, the audiobook starting gaining a larger market. Today, audiobooks can be purchased, downloaded and played on smartphones, as well as on other audioplayers or personal computers with considerable convenience. As such, people can listen to literature while multi-tasking other activities with considerable flexibility, which has made the audiobook format a growth market in the otherwise struggling book trade.

Some are full adaptations, usually from Literature, Comic Books, or Manga, giving the then silent characters voices. Others are side-stories for the franchise released in an immerse world of sound, a favorite path for animated fare since, after all, they already have the voice actors and sound effects.

Some particular pitfalls of this kind of adaptation include Narrating the Obvious (where descriptive text is just put directly into the mouth of one of the characters present, making them sound like an interpreter for the blind).

This is especially common in Japan. Since they're pretty cheap to produce (you just need the actors, some sound effects, and mixing equipment to make them), a popular work, be it manga, anime, a Video Game or what have you will often get several "Drama CDs" as spinoffs, pseudo-sequels, prequels and interquels to fill in the world and characters. Since the production values aren't too high and for better franchises the actors can like doing them, you can produce a fair number of them and still make a good profit. However, their all-audio nature makes exporting them a nightmare. Drama CDs are the #1 source of All There in the Manual problems for exported Japanese products; because the form is very uncommon in America, there's no real place to sell them, unionized actors drive costs up, etc. As a result, these basically never leave Japan, which can end up being hugely problematic for fans overseas who are missing parts of the story (and for any producers who care about exporting, since they know it's all but impossible for overseas fans to get that part of the story). On rare occasions, there may be an officially released translation of only the CD's transcript, which is the most fans can expect to get, as was the case for the drama CDs for Final Fantasy XV and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I and II.

The BBC also produce a fair few of these for broadcast on Radio 4, including some regular features such as "Book at Bedtime" and "Saturday Play".

Contrast with Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, where audio-based works are adapted to visual media.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: A few audio dramas based on Stardust Crusaders adapt several events seen in the manga, alongside having an original story where the group face an enemy Stand User that uses Mind-Control Music to attack them.
  • Lots of manga and anime have audio dramas, from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water to Count Cain to Gankutsuou. Then there's the "Nyoron Churuya" audio drama. Usually, these only exist in Japanese.
  • A great number of manga and Light Novels have Drama CDs released before, during and after their animated adaptations. Sometimes the voice actors between the Drama CD version and the anime version can change. Many a Visual Novel also has a Drama CD included, usually as a bonus. This isn't much of a stretch either, since the line between visual novel and audio adaptation is thin.
  • GaoGaiGar: Some audio dramas explore background material that wasn't covered in the show, such as the aftermath of Guy's space accident with him being Legally Dead so that his father can covert him into a cyborg to save his life. Other audios include extra content that leads up the beginning of GaoGaiGar FINAL.
  • The Sound Stages of Lyrical Nanoha have been an integral part of the franchise from the start, giving additional side-adventures, back-stories, and setting information that would get referenced in the main part of the series, with certain tidbits in the anime only becoming clear if you've listened to these. The biggest one of these is StrikerS Sound Stage X, an entire Story Arc set three years after the third season.
  • Slayers has several set between anime seasons:
    • Slayers EX (Extra) and Slayers N>EX: Set after the first season and second seasons, there are four stories based off of the prequel Slayers Special novels, but they implement Lina's allies instead of Naga. Naga does appear in N>EX, though.
    • The Return of Slayers EX: Five original stories set after seasons 2 and 3, including a run-in with bugs in Saillune's sewer system, meeting baby Val (the reincarnation of the Big Bad of season 3), a hysterical failed attempt to help Zelgadis with his body, and Lina and Naga reminiscing during their old age.
    • Slayers Nextra: Set after the second season, a full-scale adventure, unlike the others.
    • A prologue and epilogue for the Slayers Premium Non-Serial Movie; the prologue creates an issue in continuity by setting two seasons five years apart, which supposedly isn't true in-universe.
    • Two dramas based off of the fourth and fifth seasons of the anime; there is an epilogue story for the one based on Evolution-R.
    • A Crossover story starring the Slayers cast and the Sorcerer Stabber Orphen cast.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi and Negima!? had some drama CDs, which if nothing else, are notable for actually referencing the fandom's popular "KonoSetsu" Portmanteau Couple Name in one of the tracks.
    • A more recent one is the Ala Rubra Drama CD. Specifically the following:
      • Breaking Arika out of the prison.
      • A Hot Springs Episode where the men of Ala Rubra try to take Eishun's glasses.
      • Reenacting the part where Eishun is the Nabe Shogun and Rakan defeats him yet again with the same trick.
      • Nagi VS Rakan. From fighting, an endurance race in the hot springs AND bungee jumping.
      • THE ENTIRE Ala Rubra ships Nagi and Arika together. Even Rakan gives an example on how to sweet talk Arika to Nagi. Everyone's impressed except for Nagi who just laughs at it.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had a radio play called Blind Target, complete with its own theme songs, which was later adapted into a manga (causing a form of Adaptation Displacement in America).
  • Both the manga and anime versions of Chrono Crusade spawned drama CDs. The anime version is particularly notable for being a High School AU and allowing the voice actors from the anime to purposefully make fun of their characters by being as hammy as possible.
  • A really notorious example is Getter Robo Armageddon, which was the animation sequel... to a popular, long-running radio drama based on the Getter franchise that 99% of anime fans had never even heard of when Armageddon first made its way to America. Fans end up missing a fair bit of backstory as a result.
  • Sound of the Sky has two audio dramas. One which explains the deal with the ghost which kicked off the events of the second episode, only to be forgotten by the end. The other tells of how Filicia and Rio first met, along with an explanation of the history of Helvetia after The Great Off Screen War, at least as far as the characters know.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica has four Drama CDs - three of which were packaged in the home video releases and one that was released at a convention. The even numbered CDs are probably non-canon since they are light-hearted Slice of Life Self Parodies of the series. However, the odd numbered CDs contain rather important background information including the identity of the cat seen in the anime's Title Sequence and the prior relationship between Mami and Kyoko that was only implied in the anime. (The latter would actually get a Comic-Book Adaptation in a Spin-Off entitled Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story.) Incidentally, an interview with the writer for some of the Drama CDs revealed that originally they would have been a direct continuation of the anime's events.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion has the comedic Self-Parody Evangelion: After the End, featuring the cast as Animated Actors who discusses how to Retool the TV show to appeal to a wider audience. Much Conversational Troping occurs, and it is actually surprisingly in-character.
  • Pokémon the Series:
    • Pokémon has many Japanese-exclusive radio dramas. For example, The Rocket-dan's Secret Empire is a series of dramas where Musashi (Jessie) and Kojiro (James) act out plays together. In at least one case, their characters were named "Jessie" and "James" in reference to their Dub Name Changes.
    • It's a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket!! is an Original Series drama where a Team Rocket delivery trainee named Mondo meets the Team Rocket trio.
    • Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo was a Japanese-only radio drama backstory to Pokémon: The First Movie. It was later adapted into Mewtwo's Kidroduction for rereleases of the film.
  • A Drama CD version of the 2005 film One Stormy Night was released in Japan in 2006.

    Comic Books 
  • Several comics by 2000 AD have received audio adaptations of their own in recent years. The Ballad of Halo Jones, Nemesis the Warlock, and Sláine are among the examples.
  • 30 Days of Night received a full-cast audio adaptation in 2017, fifteen years following the comic's original publication and featured voice actors such as Mark Boyett and Laura Fortgang.
  • The Adventures of Luther Arkwright received a short audio adaptation; it is three hours long, and is fully dramatised, starring David Tennant (before his role as the Tenth Doctor) as Luther himself.
  • Archie Comics: The Mark Waid run was adapted by GraphicAudio from 8 July 2021 to 23 February 2022, and starred Robb Moriera as Archie.
  • Asterix received a series of audio adaptations, produced by EMI Records in the late eighties and early nineties, which were adapted by British translator Anthea Bell and narrated by British comedian Willie Rushton. More conventional audio dramatisations of the comics do exist, but only in their original French.
  • Batman likewise has had a few stints, albeit brief, Knightfall being adapted by The BBC, which also produced an original Batman story entitled The Lazarus Syndrome, both of which starred Bob Sessions as Batman and Michael Gough reprising his role from the Burton films as Alfred Pennyworth. Warner Bros. Records produced an audio drama entitled Batman: Legends of Robin in 1996, which is perhaps notable in that it featured Mark Hamill reprising his role as the Joker. This particular audio drama adapted all the story arcs from the comics which involved Robin in some form. More recently, Batman's individual story arcs have been adapted as part of an ongoing podcast known as DC High Volume: Batman, which not only adapts Year One, but also The Long Halloween and its direct sequel Dark Victory.
  • Blacksad only received a dramatised audiobook within its native French, courtesy of French audio company Blynd Production. It starred Eric Herson-Macarel as Blacksad himself, Bernard Gabay as Smirnov and Ivan Gouillon as Ivo Statoc.
  • During the 1990s, Shan-Lon Enterprises produced audio adaptations of the Captain America storylines The Haunting of Skull House and The Living Legend as part of their Read-Along cassette line.
  • Cerebus the Aardvark ended up receiving a short radio series during the 1980s, which adapted the early issues. It can be found here. Other audio skits were produced and performed at conventions, starring Sim as Cerebus himself.
  • Daredevil:
    • The comics were adapted into two dramatised audiobooks by GraphicAudio, the first being Guardian Devil in 2010 and the next one being The Man Without Fear in 2016.
    • In 2011, staff members at Marvel recorded an audio rendition of the script for the relaunch of the series. A version of it with sound effects can be found here.
  • The Doctor Strange comics ended up receiving one during the late 1960s, produced by WBAI in New York, which ran for a total of seventeen episodes.
  • Recently, ElfQuest ended up receiving one, courtesy of Realm. It solely adapted the first handful of issues in the comic series, albeit with a full cast and sound effects and featured a cast of more than 40 actors. It is available to listen to here.
  • In the late '70s, there was a short-lived radio show version of Fantastic Four. It reasonably faithfully followed the original comic issues, but is probably best known as a very early role of a pre-Saturday Night Live Bill Murray, playing Johnny Storm.
  • During the 1960s, a company by the name of Golden Records produced four audio adaptations of various Marvel issues — to be precise, Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Spider-Man #1, Journey into Mystery #83, and The Avengers #4. More information on them can be found here.
  • Graphic Audio has since joined with DC to bring a number of the company's properties into "Long Car Ride" radio versions, including both original stories, and adaptations of many a Crisis Crossover. The Infinite Crisis one is particularly good.
    • Marvel has also joined their ranks. Currently they have the adaptation of Civil War as well as an original novel based on Spider-Man and an upcoming original story based on The Ultimates. Unfortunately, both the DC and Marvel examples were discontinued in their country of origin due to GA losing the licence to the Marvel and DC characters.
    • More recently, they have adapted comics from other publishers, including The Boys, Vagrant Queen, White Sand, Deep Roots, These Savage Shores and so on. In 2023, they created a trilogy of Hellboy audiobooks, which told original stories set in the same universe with the same characters: A Plague of Wasps (continuing the story of Hellboy in Love), Hellboy & the BPRD: The Goddess of Manhattan, and Lobster Johnson: The Proteus Club. The first two starred Scott McCormick as Hellboy.
  • The Grishaverse graphic novel Demon in the Wood (a graphic novel adaptation of the short story of the same name) was adapted as a full-cast production, which featured Ben Barnes (who portrayed the Darkling in the television series) as the narrator.
  • Kill Shakespeare received a five-part audio adaptation, produced by the Pulp Variety Streamcast and supposedly officially authorised by the publisher; it can be found here.
  • Kingdom Come received a full-cast audio adaptation in 1998, which was produced by Time Warner Audiobooks and was partially adapted from a novelisation of the story.
  • Marvels received an audio drama podcast adaptation in 2019, produced by Stitcher Studios and featuring AnnaSophia Robb as one of the protagonists. It was originally released as a Stitcher Premium exclusive before being distributed to other podcast platforms. It concentrates primarily on adapting the 1960s chapters of the story.
  • The Mask: While no official audio adaptation of the original comic has been produced, GraphicAudio also produced an audio adaptation of its sequel series I Pledge Allegiance To the Mask.
  • The Maxx received an audio drama adapting the first three issues of the comic in 1993, which was produced by Animated Alligator Ltd and starred Allister Slokill as the Maxx, Erin Latour as Julie and Rock Romano as Mr Gone.
  • NO/ONE received a supplementary podcast, entitled Who Is No One.
  • British independent comic company Cutaway Comics produced an audio adaptation of their series entitled Omega.
  • The Perhapanauts received one, although it often included original material rather than directly adapting the stories from the comic.
  • Pocket Universe Productions has officially adapted some comics, such as Archer & Armstrong, Locke & Key and even The Vault of Horror.
  • During the 1970s, Power Records, a brand label of children's audiobook company Peter Pan Records, produced a series of audio LPs based on comic book characters. While they mostly told original stories, some of them were direct audio adaptations of comic issues - for example, Fantastic Four #126 ("The Way It Began") and Captain America #168 ("And A Phoenix Shall Arise"). Lines of dialogue from the latter would be later used in the Eminem song "Rap God". The ones devoted to Superman, Wonder Woman and Spider Man were translated into Spanish and Japanese during the 1980s.
  • British independent comic Psyence Fiction was adapted into an audio series by the original creator, Rik Hoskins, which can be found here.
  • Radiant Black was slated to receive one, but it failed to manifest, likely as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
  • A Singaporean graphic novel known as Sacred Guardians received an audio adaptation, performed by a cast of Singaporean actors and produced by Asiapac Books. It is available to listen to here.
  • The Sandman (2020), a faithful audio drama adaptation of The Sandman (1989), using narration and sound effects in lieu of visuals.
  • Spider-Man has received multiple audio adaptations over the years, including a 1996 BBC audio drama produced by Dirk Maggs, who would later go on to adapt The Sandman. The adaptation featured Brian May of Queen fame composing the soundtrack.
  • Various Star Wars comic book arcs have received audio adaptations, including Tales of the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, TOTJ Freedon Nadd Rebellion, TOTJ Dark Lords of the Sith, Dark Empire I, II and Empire's End, Crimson Empire, and the three Dark Forces graphic novels. Oddly enough, they never finished them by releasing the two more Tales of the Jedi arcs featuring Ulic Qel-Droma.
  • Superman has been adapted to radio form many times. The first one gave birth to the popular "It's a bird! It's a plane!" opening, and was responsible for creating kryptonite as well. It was also possibly responsible for killing the KKK.
  • Herge's Tintin has received numerous audio adaptations over the years: firstly, there were a series of audio adaptations in French released on LP, and then a BBC radio series during the '80s and '90s. The latter often features an introduction, depicting Tintin typing up his latest report, thereby functioning as the narrator of the stories. In these adaptations, Snowy takes on the role of extraneous narration and comic relief that can't be accomplished through dialogue and would have been accomplished through artwork in the original.
  • BBC Radio produced an adaptation of When the Wind Blows. This adaptation was a two-hander (appropriately considering the comic's Minimalist Cast) and featured Peter Sallis seven years before he played Wallace.

    Comic Strips 
  • In 2010, the Telegraph strip Alex was adapted for Classic FM.
  • The Avengers comics received an audio adaptation, courtesy of Big Finish Productions.
  • A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Guardian strip Clare In The Community became one of the station's longest-running sitcoms.
  • The Comic Weekly Man was a radio show which ran from 1947 to 1954, which featured radio character actor Lon Clark reading selected strips from the eponymous Comic Weekly.
  • Dan Dare has received at least four adaptations for audio: the first two being produced by European companies Radio Luxembourg and Radio Madrid, the third being produced by the BBC and the fourth produced by company B7 Media (but still broadcast on BBC Radio), the trailer for which can be found here.
  • Flash Gordon received a radio serial adaptation in 1935, at first adapting the first handful of issues in the comic serial but gradually diverging more and more until it concluded with a crossover with another of Raymond's heroes, Jungle Jim.
  • Mandrake the Magician received a radio serial which ran from 1940 to 1942.
  • Modesty Blaise has received numerous adaptations over the years, often produced by the BBC.

    Fan Works 
  • The Changeling of the Guard: Beginning in November 2017, the YouTube channel Fanfiction Reader began featuring this story as read by a computer voice. Begin listening here.
    • The author has expressed amusement at some of the effects caused by having a computer read the story.
  • One Helluva Broken Day: Begun on April 2023, a bunch of Hellaverse and SCP fans from said fics Discord community got together to make an audiobook for this crossover fanfiction from Archive of our Own. The channel can be found here.
  • The author of the Undertale Fanfic Visiontale made an audio drama for Chapter 41, the in-game equivalent of the moments leading up to the protagonist meeting Asgore. The first half can be found here, and the second half can be found here.
  • A Youtube user by the name of Ivanicoh lays out a scenario in which the abandoned "Red Flag" operation in the canon Halo timeline is actually pushed forward in this adaptation. What is told is a massive shift in the fates of a multitude of characters, including Jacob Keyes, Noble Team, John-117 and other often less-known individuals such as Danforth Whitcomb and many others. Painstaking detail is added for each part of the scenario, including well-done ai-voices for each important character including Master Chief, Cortana, Emile, Jacob, Whitcomb and others, mounting a subtle infiltration into High Charity, the massive planet-sized city-ship of the Covenant Empire.
  • The Youtube channel HellFox83 produced a number of audio dramatizations of scenes taken from The Wormhole Chronicles, a crossover fanfiction series based on Halo and Mass Effect.
  • A fanfiction based on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Penny Saves Paldea, was made into an audio adaptation by Katrina S. Forest on her YouTube channel starting on April 2023, where she not only reads the chapters, but also goes over the glitches logic fails in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that are covered in each video (including some fails inspired by her experiences with the game) in full detail before she begins each chapter, complete with clips from the game and custom animation with models based on the models of the characters and Pokémon. It can be found here.

    Films — Animation 
  • Gulliver's Travels was given a 30-minute adaptation for radio's Good News of 1940, and was presented with a Framing Device of Gulliver returning to Lilliput to visit his tiny friends. Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross, the singing voices of Princess Glory and Prince David respectively, did their singing and speaking voices for the broadcast.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • All three original Star Wars movies had radio play adaptations broadcast by NPR: Star Wars in 1981, The Empire Strikes Back in 1983, and Return of the Jedi in 1996. The first one is very famous for including a whole lot of stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor of the original movie, including early scenes on Alderaan with King Organa, a long chat between Biggs Darklighter and Luke that established both their characters, and a greatly expanded interrogation scene between Vader and Leia.
  • The Radio show Lux Radio Theatre was a long-running program adapting hit (and some lesser) movies to radio drama form. It was produced and hosted by Cecil B. DeMille. The Lux adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life stars Bill Pullman as George Bailey.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who has a lot of these.
    • The BBC have produced a few radio adaptations of serials such as "Genesis of the Daleks".
    • Official BBC-produced original radio plays have been produced as far back as 1986's "Slipback".
    • Officially licensed audio plays by Big Finish, featuring the continuing adventures of Doctors Five, Six, Seven, and Eight (and later Four), now number in the hundreds. Quality is generally considered very high, and is praised for expanding character and concepts which didn't get too much attention or love during their appearance in the TV series, thus leading to quite a few cases of Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, especially for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor.
    • An outfit called BBV Productions produced audio plays and series of varying officialness during the Nineties: one starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as "The Stranger" and "Miss Brown"; one starring Lalla Ward and John Leeson as "The Mistress" and "K-9"; and one starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as "The Professor" and "Ace". None of these were licensed Doctor Who spin-offs, though BBV did obtain a license for K-9 directly from the writers who created the character (an approach they also used to have several recognizable monsters appear in their productions). The "Stranger" and "Mistress" series got away with it by having a low profile and just enough differences from the originals, but the "Professor and Ace" series attracted official notice because McCoy and Aldred were basically playing the same characters under the same names ("Professor" was what Ace always called the Doctor in canon, too), and the BBC stepped in to force some more filing-off of serial numbers.
    • BBC Audio has produced several audiobooks featuring the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. They also created three series of Fourth Doctor audio dramas, starring Tom Baker and Richard Franklin (reprising his role as Third Doctor "companion" Mike Yates).
  • Torchwood:
  • BBC Audio made some audiobooks of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
  • There have been a few instances of BBC SitComs transferring from TV to radio:
  • Have Gun – Will Travel was one of the few television shows that then had an adaptation for radio, as opposed to the other way around.
  • Various adaptation of Kamen Rider, in tapes.
  • Radio 4's six part Neverwhere technically belongs under TV, although Neil Gaiman would probably rather you considered it an adaptation of his novelization.
  • The Channel 4 sketch show Absolutely has been revived on BBC Radio 4 as The Absolutely Radio Show.
  • There was a brief attempt to adapt I Love Lucy as a radio show – a little ironic considering the concept started as a radio show years earlier – but after a single unaired trial episode was produced (using the same script as the TV episode "Breaking the Lease," fleshed out with descriptive narration from Arnaz as Ricky), the idea was abandoned. However, the radio pilot did have one positive effect: CBS executives had worried that Arnaz's accent was too thick for American audiences to understand. Hearing the radio pilot convinced them that his accent wasn't as thick and undecipherable as they had originally feared.
  • Our Miss Brooks: Many television episodes were SoundToScreenAdapations of the radio program. But a few episodes of the television program would also be remade for the radio. For example, "June Bride", the first season finale, was remade into "Marriage by Proxy".
  • The Twilight Zone (1959)". A radio adaption of the original 50's/60's Twilight Zone series was produced for the British digital radio station BBC Radio 4 Extra starting in 2002. It aired for 176 episodes between October 2002 and 2012 and was also also syndicated in the United States on nearly 200 radio stations (as well as XM Satellite Radio channel 163 and Sirius XM Book Radio). Narrated by actor Stacy Keach, each episode was an adaption of an episode from the original Rod Serling TV version, with every episode from the original series eventually receiving an radio adaption along with a few original stories created for the radio version.

    Multiple 

    Podcast 
  • Realm's catalog includes audiobook adaptations of classic sci fi short stories.

    Radio 
  • Room 101 runs on television still, but this show went in the opposite direction to the usual Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, as it also runs on BBC Radio Four. In its radio format, it follows the original format where a single guest is interviewed at length about their pet peeves and hates, and is hosted by Paul Merton.

    Theatre 
  • The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show, a 6-part series produced by the BBC World Service, is essentially an Adaptation Expansion of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
  • The Magic Flute received an audio drama aimed at children. It was produced by the North American music company Classical Kids and features a premise similar to the 2022 film, with a young girl being isekai'd into the world of Mozart's opera, where she encounters the protagonists of the opera and comes with them on the quest. Thus, the eponymous enchanted instrument becomes hers, rather than being given to Tamino as in the original. However, there are some differences from the opera, among them the snake accompanying them on their quest rather than perishing as in the original.
  • The Moth, a popular New York true storytelling series, did shows for ten years before releasing the audio as a podcast and then the NPR show The Moth Radio Hour.

    Video Games 
  • Clock Tower: Each game from the second onward has its own drama CD. The first two are just adaptations of their respective games, while the third is a prequel about the protagonist's mother, Nancy.
  • Dragon Quest V: Three audio dramas were released in 1994 that covers several scenes depicted in the game.
  • Metal Gear: A two volume Metal Gear Solid Drama CD that basically served as a continuation to the PS1 game, while the fictional radio drama IdeaSpy 2.5 in Ghost Babel became an actual radio drama starring Hideo Kojima as the title character.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has a whole bunch of these, focusing on various characters and expanding on them. Even with the games coming to America at last, we're quite unlikely to see these.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a Radio Drama adaptation called Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition.
  • Ever17 has two Drama CDs, After You've Gone and 2035, both being Post Script Seasons.
  • Riviera: The Promised Land has three drama CDs — one of a promotional nature (the Prelude disc), one containing mostly gag stories and voiced scenes from the game with a single serious original drama explaining antagonist Malice's backstory (the Epilogue disc), and a third containing a series of long episodic adventures (The Precious Chapter). Even when the first two were in print, it was a nightmare trying to buy them, as none of the Japanese vendors selling them shipped overseas. Luckily for (Japanese-speaking) fans, the third didn't have this problem.
  • Yggdra Unison was given a drama CD, featuring three episodic stories starring some of the more popular characters. The cast has expressed hopes of being able to produce more, although we've heard nothing from them on the subject since.
  • The Putt-Putt series had a book titled Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas, which came with an audio cassette of the same name.
  • The Freddi Fish series had a book titled Sing Along with Freddi Fish and her Friends, which came with an audio cassette of the same name.
  • The Mega Man Zero series had audio tracks included on each of its soundtrack releases. The story importance of these tracks ranged from trivial (such as how Alouette came up with the names for the Baby Elves) to vital, such as explaining Elpizo's backstory (including how he got his name), how Phantom knew about Omega's true nature, or why the Guardians chose to help Zero at the end of the third game.
  • The Japanese version of Elemental Gearbolt includes an unlockable audio drama version of an event mentioned in-game, in which the main characters meet as children and promise to reunite. It was Dummied Out of the English release, but the localizer summarized the story in the manual.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening has four CD dramas, each with different stories. The first one (with a male Avatar) depicts the days around Chrom's marriage and focuses on character interactions and some ambushes by Risen. The second (with a Female Avatar) revolves around someone's serious Sick Episode and the aftermath of Emmeryn's Heroic Suicide, alongside Henry and Lucina/"Marth"'s sort-of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. The third (no defined Avatar) is all about the already Bad Future that Lucina and her fellow Second Generation characters are about to leave. The fourth and last one (also w/o a defined Avatar) is noticeably Lighter and Softer and about Lucina and the children's struggle to find Lucina's precious tiara and both Morgans incidentally meeting up with each other in the Outrealms.
  • There are many CD Dramas for for The King of Fighters, usually one or two per game, with individual characters sometimes getting their own CDs. They go from very cracky skits bordering on Gag Dubs, to pretty interesting characterization-wise (i.e. Dengeki Bunko explains how both the Japan Team and the Women's Team came to be among other things, The Sun and The Moon chronicles Iori Yagami's life outside KOF and the Yagami/Kusanagi feud at an unspecified time in the past, and KOF 2000 gives more background on K' and his group while also featuring Athena's misadventures through the world until she finds Kyo and they have a more serious talk about how everyone misses him at home).
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a CD Drama available only in Japan which takes place a year after the events of the game, and also confirms which of the good endings is canon (Maria chases Alucard).
  • New Dynamic English has a radio show produced for Voice of America.
  • A series of Persona 3 CD Dramas were produced. All of them take place during the events of the game and focus on relationships between the cast members as well as side plots that were not covered by the main game. Unfortunately, they are only available in Japanese but fan-made translations exist.
  • Several audio CDs of Puyo Puyo are known to exist, each having multiple stories on them presenting all sorts of humorous scenarios featuring the series' characters.

    Webcomics 
  • The Boston Metaphysical Society received an audio adaptation entitled The Ghost Ship, which was released in 2022 and starred a cast with theatrical backgrounds.
  • Cheshire Crossing received a full-cast audio adaptation produced in 2019 by Penguin Random House Audio, which featured a bunch of voice actors playing the various characters.
  • Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has an "unofficial" Radio Play here that has currently produced three episodes covering the story arcs "Warrior for Hire," "Recipe for Disasters," and Part I of "The Return of Dark Pegasus," with Part II in the works as of October 2010.
  • Erika and the Princes in Distress has an audio adaptation, produced by French audio company Javras, but which ONLY exists in French (although it is easy to follow along using the original comic as a guide).
  • Girl Genius has been adapted twice: once as a series of short stories telling non-canonical narratives (which can be found here), and a more official series of audiobooks adapting the official novelisations created by the creators of the webcomic.
  • Lackadaisy has two of them: one which can be downloaded here and another one here.
  • Les Normaux was adapted into a full-cast audio production by Harper Audio in 2025. This adaptation won the AudioFile Earphones Award of that year.
  • NIMONA received an audio adaptation in 2016, which was produced by Audible and featured Rebecca Soler as Nimona and Jonathan Davis as Ballister Blackheart.
  • Nixvir received this narrated by a single person, but with cinematic music and sound effects.
  • Sabrina Online also received an audio adaptation during its heyday, here. It only covers the first five or so years of the comic's run.
  • A webcomic known as Sithrah received a short audio adaptation which only adapted the first handful of episodes in the series.
  • Slightly Damned has a Radio Drama adaptation here that currently consists of two episodes covering the first 63 pages, with episode three (set to be pages 64-93) well under way as of October 2010.
  • Welcome to Room #305 has received a Korean Radio Drama.
  • An audiobook of When Heaven Spits You Out follows the novelization of the original webcomic, and is narrated by the comic and novel's author, Ruairidh MacVeigh.

    Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): Sound Adaptation, Radio Adaptation

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