Bringing Academy Showdown Gaiden to Life – Audiobook Announcement!

[Kido-san97]

Yo yo! Kido-san here! I've got some exciting news for you all! After a wee bit of development hell (several months worth), Part 1 of Academy Showdown Gaiden: The Barefoot Girl is finally finished and has been released on my YouTube channel! This fully voice-acted project—written and narrated by yours truly—brings my love for anime (and manga)-inspired storytelling to life in a way I’ve been dreaming of for years.

Clocking in at approximately 40 minutes and 2 seconds, this is just the beginning of an epic two-parter, and I can't wait to show what's in store for Part 2.

This short fantasy story—first written four years ago—is based on characters my brother, my best friends, and I have been brainstorming for over a decade. It’s part of a vast fantasy universe we started back in high school, though I’ve only been truly putting it all together for nearly eight years now.

Also, check out the official cover art of our titular character! This incredible piece was passionately drawn by my good buddy Ink Knight—as always, he perfectly captured my vision! If you like what you see here, definitely check out his page and show him some love!. See his links below.

I can’t thank everyone involved enough for lending their voices, talents, and enthusiasm. Their support gave me the courage to see this project through. Now, I just have to do the same for Part 2!

You can currently listen to Part 1 on both YouTube and SoundCloud! Your choice. I'll provide updates on Part 2's progress, though it will take some time before it sees the light of day.

Links to my work and where to contact me!

@kidosan97 | Linktree

Subject-724 (2025)

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Synopsis: Amos Naragishi, a freshman at Eden Academy—a prestigious school specializing in training young mages for assassination and espionage—is given a dangerous mission: eliminate a rogue soul mage who escaped from his client’s lab. As a soul mage in training himself, Amos must face an S-Class threat far beyond his current skill level. Can he survive the hunt, or will he become the hunted?

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Genre: Action, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, Comedy, Drama, Horror

Illustration: Ink Knight (Instagram | DeviantArt | Twitter/X)

Character Avatars were created using CHARAT ROUGE & CHARAT BLANC

Meet The Cast!
The roles have been cast! Auditions were held on Casting Call Club's website: (https://www.castingcall.club). This platform offers free and paid opportunities for voice actors, writers, directors, and composers. If you're an aspiring voice actor or creator like me, I highly recommend it!

I will be narrating this audiobook. I've always been told I have the voice for it, so I figured, why not give it a shot on a story I wrote?

Without further ado, allow me to introduce our voice cast! Links to their CCC pages will be provided below.

Her CCC page: https://www.castingcall.club/erinburrsirr

His CCC page: https://www.castingcall.club/TheSkylerDrake

Her CCC page: https://www.castingcall.club/mykneelani

Her CCC page: https://www.castingcall.club/han-banan

Their CCC page: https://www.castingcall.club/queenofbeans

[Kido-san97]

Last, but not least, here's Part 1 of Academy Showdown Gaiden: The Barefoot Girl! It dropped at 12:00 PM CST / 1:00 PM EST on March 25th!

This is an anime-inspired audiobook based on a short fantasy story I wrote four years ago. As I've established before, it’s fully voice-acted and narrated by me.

This is just the beginning—I’m working toward making Academy Showdown a multi-platform experience:
Web novels
Audio drama series
Upcoming webcomic

I’d love for you to check it out and let me know what you think! Stay tuned and spread the word!

~ Kido-san

[CarltonIsaac]

[Kido-san97]

Yo, yo!! Thank you all so much for checking out Part 1 of The Barefoot Girl! I’m already hard at work on Part 2 and aiming to make it even more immersive in terms of overall presentation.

Your support means the world—please look forward to what’s next!

Here's some of the analytics from Part 1.

[Kido-san97]

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[Kido-san97]

I made an RSS page for the audiobook, now all of you podcast listeners out there can check out Part 1 of The Barefoot Girl. I've included some other major sites where you can listen, as well. Enjoy!

• RSS.com
• Spotify.com
• Soundcloud.com
• YouTube.com (Audio Version)

[Kido-san97]

Still hard at work on Part 2 of The Barefoot Girl. Ink Knight's designing new emote sprites for the characters during lines of dialogue. Here are just a few of them, featuring our two leads Amos and Nanaya.

We've got a couple more things cooking for this epic conclusion of the short story. More to come!

Amos Naragishi sprites (2025)

Nanaya sprites (2025)

[Kido-san97]

Yo, yo!! It's finally here—the official cover for Part 2 of The Barefoot Girl audiobook! Featuring Frida, a character set to debut in the conclusion to this short story. She is voiced by QueenOfBeans. I'll include a link to my latest sample for Part 2 (below the portrait) to give an example of their voice work!

Just like with the first cover, this is captured in a scene from Amos' point of view. As usual, Ink Knight expertly crafted the wonderful artwork—this time clocking in at 12 hours to breathe life into Frida and this particular scene! As always, I appreciate his consistent hard work and dedication to this project! Couldn't ask for a better creative partner!

Special shout-out to my friend V-Mo for entrusting me with her OC I helped her recreate after deciding to rewrite Academy Showdown all those years ago. I hope she enjoys what I've done with Frida.

So my expectation is to get this released either before or during Halloween. Nothing has been set in stone quite yet as there's still some work to be done. We'll have to see how that goes. Until then, stay tuned, everyone!

~ Kido-san

Frida (2025) by Ink Knight