Orphan is releasing a second version of Meisou-Ou Border (Wandering Kings: Border, or something like that), with vastly improved video. This version is so different that I feel it should have an entirely new blog post, not just a rehash of the old one.
Meisou-Ou Border is based on a 14-volume seinen manga by Marley Carib and Tanaka Akio. Only the first three chapters are available in English. It tells the story of two drifters, Kubota and Hachitsuka, who return from the Middle East and choose to live on the margins of conventional society in Tokyo (the "border" of the title). The OVA, from Artland, relates the first four chapters of the manga. An unscrupulous documentary producer send his minion, Hosoki, to lure Kubota and Hachitsuka down to Osaka with the promise of high pay. There are other fringe benefits, such as room, board, and paid female companionhsip. The producer places the two men as "innocent bystanders" in the middle of a yakuza gang war. They manage to hold their own, much to the producer's dismay, and then they drift back to Tokyo. The episode closes with an unrelated encounter between Hachitsuka and his former mentor, Jinnou, now a homeless man down on his luck - a stark lesson in the difficulties of leading an unconventional life in 80s Japan. The tone of the show is mostly comedic, even during the yakuza fight, but the ending is sad and elegiac.![]()
The voice cast includes:- Horiuchi Kenyuu (Kubota) has an extensive resume, including the title role in Guin Saga, as well as Jin Akira in Wolf Guy, Lid in Greed, Nest in Eien no Filena, and the refined son in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show; the last four are Orphan releases. He recently appeared in Sirius the Jaeger.
- Yara Yuusaku (Hachitsuka) played the destroyer captain in Zipang. He had many featured roles, appearing in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Eien no Filena, Hidamari no Ki, Nozomi Witches, both Sangokushi OVAs, Prime Rose, both What's Michael? OVAs, and Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
- Genda Tesshou (Narrator) played Colonel Muto in Joker Game, Moloch in Yondemasu Azazel-san, Rei in the Urusei Yatsura franchise, Moguro Fukuzou in New Laughing Salesman, "Oyaji" in Mitsuboshi Colors, as well as Paul Rusch in Yume Kakeru Kougen, the loyal lieutenant Galbreath in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the dragonman Baguda in Greed, the narrator in Akai Hayate, Dog McCoy in Dallos, Hebopi in Wild 7, rebel leader Oosukune in Izumo, and Rikiishi's trainer Kuroki and Kirishima in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
- Yamamoto Keiko (Hachitsuka's squeeze "Baba") is an industry veteran. She played Choromatsu in the original Osomatsu-kun, Sand Witch in all iterations of GeGeGe no Kitarou through 2007, and the title role in the Bakabon TV series.
- Masuoka Hiroshi (Hirokawa, the TV producer in Osaka) appeared several times in Tokimeki Tonight, an Orphan release. He is best known for Minami's father in the Touch franchise, Masuo in Sazae-san, Jam Ojisan in the Anpanman franchise, and Cyborg 005 in the early Cyborg 009 properties.
- Yoshida Miho ("D-cup" Hiroko, one of the Osaka sex workers) debuted in Touch. Her best known role is Afura Mann in the El Hazard franchise.
- Suzuka Chiho (Naomi, the other sex worker) debuted in Meisou-Ou Border. She had features roles in Lesson XX, Detective Conan, Cowboy Bebop, and Uchuu no Stellvia.
- Kitigawa Takurou (Hosoki) had featured roles in Pollyana, the Tenchi Muyo OVAs, Gantz, Monkey Turn, and Another.
The director, Ishiguro Noboru, was an industry veteran who directed several episodes of Animated Classics of Japanese Literature; he also worked on Mushishi (another Artland property) before his death in 2012. The musical score is good, but I can't find out anything about the composer.gamnark ripped this version from a VHS tape using Orphan's "new" All-in-Wonder 7500 lossless capture setup. The idea for using this ancient technology (the driver runs on Windows XP!) came from Suzaku in Live-eviL, who used it for the Yawara! Atlanta Special laserdisc capture. Accordingly, it's only appropriate that Suzaku encoded this show. (We are very grateful.) The results are amazing: no interlacing artifacts and no blended frames - in fact, one of the very best VHS encodes I've ever seen. Iri translated the show. ninjacloud timed and then retimed for the new raw. I edited and typeset. While the editing changes from the original are minimal, there is extensive additional typesetting, thanks to the improved video. Calyrica and Nemesis QCed the original release; VigorousJammer did a quick release check.
Meisou-Ou Border tells an intriguing story and left me hungry for more. Unfortunately, this is all we'll ever see on anime, and the manga scanlations stopped two years ago. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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Tezuka Osamu Ga Kieta?! 20 Seiki Saigo no Kaijiken (Tezuka Osamu Vanished?! The Last Great Mystery of the 20th Century) is a TV special created by Tezuka Productions in 2000 to celebrate its namesake and departed founder. On New Years' Eve in the year 2000, Tezuka Osamu meets his creations for an end-of-the-century party at Dr. Tenma's mansion. However, before the celebration can start, Tezuka suddenly disappears from his room, in what appears to be a classic locked-room mystery. While Professor Ochinomizu, Sapphire, Sharaku and Wato-san, Higeoyaji, Hamegg, Pinako, Dr. Tenma, and even Robota race around helplessly (or suspiciously), and Black Jack hovers enigmatically, Atom investigates and eventually solves the puzzle. At the end, all the characters from Tezuka Osamu's "star system" (and many others) gather round to toast the new year, the new century, and the new millennium, while Tezuka begins his next adventure.
It's all very slight. The mystery itself doesn't hold water and requires several science-fictional elements for its resolution. (As usual, the explanation takes twice as long as the setup.) Rather, it's a chance for the viewer to get together with Tezuka Osamu's classic characters one last time and to bid them, and the God of Manga himself, hail and farewell.
One of the charms of the show is that it uses many of the voice actors who originated the characters for Mushi Productions or Tezuka Productions. These include:- Kobayashi Kyouji (Tezuka Osamu) was mostly a stage actor. However, he voiced Tezuka Osamu in Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: Boku wa Son Gokuu, Dr. Kudo in Bander Book, and Iyami in the original Osomatsu-kun.
- Shizumu Mari (Atom) played Atom in every instantiation of the character from the original series in 1968 to the movie in 2003. She also played Jim Hawkins in Takarajima.
- Ootsuki Akio (Black Jack) played the same role in all of the Black Jack properties. He played the title roles in Ambassador Magma, Blade, and Montana Jones, Gozo in the Aika franchise, Batou in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, the villain All for One in Boku no Hero Academia, and Nyanko Big in one memorable episode of Tada Never Falls in Love. He played George in Condition Green, the narrator in Fire Emblem, and Nobunaga the boss crow in Ultra Nyan 2, all Orphan releases. He is still active and will appear in this summer's Vinland Saga.
- Katsuta Hisashi (Professor Ochanomizu) played the same role in the Atom series, its remakes, and Marine Express. He appeared in the original Osomatsu-kun, the original Dororo, the first three Lupin III TV series, and the Oishinbo properties.
- Touma Yumi (Sapphire) played the title roles in Emma: A Victorian Romance and Baby Felix. She played Urd in the Aa! Megami-sama franchise. She appeared in numerous shows, including Boyfriend, Condition Green, Fukuyama Gekijou, and Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Nareudesho, all Orphan releases.
- Kumai Matoko (Sharaku) played the title roles in title roles in Hanada Shounen-shi and Papuwa, Syaoran Li in Cardcaptor Sakura, Takao Kinomiya in Beyblade, Sumomo in Chobits, Ginta in Mar, Banba in Kuragehime, Honda Gorou in Major, Coffret in the Eiga Precure franchise, and Kocchi the black-and-white cat in Koneko no Chi.
- Wato-san (Matsui Naoko) played the same role in Mitsume ga Tooru. She played the title role in Compiler, Uru Chie in High School! Kimengumi, Katsumi Liqueur in Silent Mobius, Run Run in Mahoujin Guru Guru, Roux Louka in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Suzuki Sonoko in Case Closed, Juushimatsu in Osomatsu-kun (1988), Marian in Robin Hood no Daibouken, and Matsu in Nobunaga no Shinobi.
- Dr. Tenma (Ooki Tamio) played the same role in the 1980 version of Astro Boy, Ibuya in Hidamari no Ki, Aramaki in the GITS movies, and the title role in Planetarian: Hoshi no Hito.
- Mizutani Yuuko (Pinoko) played the same role in all the Black Jack properties, as well as Rika in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, Lila in Eien no Filena, and Dr. Uematsu Kikue in Yume Kakeru Kougen, all Orphan projects.
- Tomita Kousei (Higeoyaji) played the same role in the TV specials Fumoon, Marine Express, Ginga Tansa 2100: Border Planet, and Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: Boku wa Son Gokuu, the movies Jungle Tatei and Metropolis, in several Astro Boy properties, and the OVA Midori no Neko. He also played Watson in Sherlock Hound.
- Hamegg and Robita (Ootake Hiroshi) played Tezuka-sensei in Fushigi na Melmo and Michael in the What's Michael? OVAs, which Orphan released.
The director, Kuwubara Satoshi, also had a long association with Tezuka Osamu projects. He directed the Black Jack TV properties, did production coordination for Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, storyboards for the Jungle Emperor Leo movies, and production management for the TV series Mitsume ga Tooru. Curiously, there is very little music; the end credits role over silence.
Despite the Orphan staff's passion for All Things Tezuka, the show took a while to get going. convexity translated. Yogicat timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. M74 encoded from an R2J DVD. The original source was a mess, and it proved impossible to clean up. Perhaps someday it will be remastered and streamed.
So for all you Tezuka Osamu fan(atic)s out there, here's Tezuka Osamu Ga Kieta?! 20 Seiki Saigo no Kaijiken. (In tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle, it could almost be titled His Last Bow.) You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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I've mentioned before that Orphan's three-year run of frequent releases has come to an end, due to lack of resources, but I wanted to show how dire the situation actually is:- Waiting on encoding (VHS lossless captures): Kentauros no Densetsu, Mahou Tsukai Tai vs Shamanic Princess (v2), Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve (v2), Oedo ga Nemurenai (v2), Ohoshi-sama no Rail, Okama Hakusho, Shin Dousei Jidai- Hawaiian Breeze, Tottoi: Secret of the Seals, Yamazaki Long Distance Call (v2)
- Waiting on encoding (LD lossless captures): Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, Ichigatsu wa Christmas, Let's Nupu Nupu, Maps (1988), Super Real Mahjong
- Waiting on encoding (DVD ISOs): Amatsuki (v2), Gokuu no Daibouken, Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de 2 (v2), Mars OVA, One Pound Gospel, Hakujaden, Sanada 10
- Waiting on encoding (net streams): Sangokushi movies HD, Saiyuuki HD
- Waiting on translation checking: Akai Akiba Blue Sonnet, Bakumatsu no Spasibo, Genji Part 1 (OVA), Karuizawa Syndrome, Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve, Nayuta
- Waiting on translation: Bocchan, DAYS OAD (2017), Magma Taishi, Mellow, Raiyantsuurii no Uta, Sanada 10 10-12, Sugata Sanshiro, Tengai Makyou,Tezuka Osamu Kyoto Animation Theater, Ziggy Soreyuke! R&R Band
The situation is so bad that the team has stopped buying additional video media. We've also stopped reprocessing previously purchased media through the lossless capture systems. And I'm not even counting the backlog of laserdiscs that Piyo Piyo Productions has already encoded and released.
In view of the backlog, it's fair to ask what projects are actually progressing. The answer is, not a lot:- Sangokushi movie 3. The last of the lot. At release check.
- Hashire Melos v2. A new laserdisc encode. At release check.
- Tomoe ga Yuku! v2. Needs further work on the audio track. On hold at release check.
- AWOL Compression Remix. Yes, at long last, scripts for the remix have been extracted from the exceedingly rare English VHS subs of the original series. They could use a thorough translation check, but beggars can't be choosers. Episodes 1-4 in timing.
- Chameleon ep3. In editing.
- Tales from the Old Testament. Episodes 1-6 released; episodes 7+ tbd.
Beyond that, the team is limited to shows with existing scripts and existing encodes, for example, BD versions of the Tezuka Osamu Animerama movies.
So if you're an encoder who relishes a challenge (almost all of Orphan's sources present challenges) or a translator who likes to work on shows that differ from today's cookie-cutter anime, please give me a shout. I'm available on IRC almost all the time.
Appendix: A Sampler of Encoding Challenges- VHS lossless captures. Soft deinterlacing, and then all the usual VHS problems: cropping, blended frames, halos, rainbows, etc. Every capture presents unique issues.
- LD lossless captures. Soft deinterlacing, and then all the usual LD problems: cropping, halos, rainbows, chroma blending, etc. Every capture presents unique issues.
- Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de 2 (DVD ISO). Progressive, but very strange color balance.
- Sanada 10 (DVD ISO). Mostly progressive, but interlaced fades and 30 fps credits. A formula for tackling the episodes is available.
- Sangokushi HD movies. Wrong frame rate (29.97 fps instead of 23.976 fps).
- Saiyuuki HD movie. Clearly an upscale. Needs to be downscaled to an appropriate size and cleaned up, a la Wan Wan Chuushingura.
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Here's a revised version of the 1993 Margaret OVA Singles. You can read all about the plot and the voice actors in my original blog post.
This first version used an Internet raw that was very blurry and lacked one of the audio channels. This new version was captured from a second-hand VHS tape using a non-compressing system and then encoded. The improvement in video quality is dramatic:
And of course, having both audio channels is a plus too.
For the first version, Sunachan translated, M74 timed, I edited and typeset, bananadoyouwanna styled the songs, and BeeBee and Nemesis QCed. For this release, the timing was "sushi'd" and then tweaked. I redid the signs, but the dialog and songs were left almost unchanged. Suzaku encoded from a VHS tape acquired and ripped by our Intrepid Raw Hunter™. There is a little bit of fuzz at the bottom of the frame, but I don't think it detracts from the overall result.
With this release, all of the Margaret OVAs now use Orphan's own encodes rather than random Internet raws. We might refresh other VHS releases with new ones using uncompressed captures, but the encoding backlog is already enormous, so don't hold your breath. You can get this new version of Singles from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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The third movie of the Sangokushi trilogy is Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi (Sangokushi: The Distant Land). With this release, Orphan completes its work on Sangokushi, at least for a while: two TV specials and three movies, totaling more than eleven hours of anime. It had taken a year and a half to do - a marathon, not a sprint.
The third movie covers the longest time span, from Liu Bei's expedition to Shu in 211 CE to the death of Kongming in 234 CE. Instead of The Distant Land, it could just as well be titled The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. All of the main characters die, and the ultimate winner of the battle to reunite China is None of the Above - not Liu Bei or his descendants, not Cao Cao or his descendents, not Sun Quan or his descendants. Eventually, sheer exhaustion of all opponents allows a descendant of the Cao Wei general Sima Yi to reunite the country and create a new dynasty... for a while.
The Distant Land goes a long way, perhaps inadvertently, toward undermining Sangokushi's glorification of Liu Bei's nobility and Kongming's strategic genius. In particular, Kongming's "Land Divided in Three Stratagem" fails spectacularly, producing not a peaceful balance of power but a perpetual war for supremacy among the three states, like the three conflicting superpowers in 1984. The results were disastrous: the population of China was cut more than in half between the outbreak of the Yellow Turban revolt in 184 CE and the establishment of the Jin dynasty in 280 CE. The movie tries to claim a retrospective victory for Liu Bei's ideals, but the state of modern China belies that.
Because it has so much time to cover, The Distant Land moves at a breakneck pace from conflict to violent incident to battle and back again. With the exception of Guan Yu's foster daughter Fengji, characters are introduced, act out their part in history, and vanish in minutes. There is little time for character development or domestic concerns, just for plotting, ambition, betrayals, and executions. It all feels rather depressing - or perhaps I'm just tired of working on the Three Kingdoms era after so many hours working on the TV specials and the movies. The Distant Land had a ton of signs to set, and because of image jitter, almost all of them needed to be motion tracked.
The principal voice cast (Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Kongming, Sun Quan, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei) is unchanged from the previous two movies. The new main characters include:- Hiromi Tsuru (Fengji) debuted as Perrine in Perrine Monogatari and went on to play Kashima Miyuki in Miyuki, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, Barge in Blue Sonnet, and Mikami Reiko in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Iyo in Izumi, Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and Takagi Youko in Nine, all Orphan releases.
- Tanaka Hideyuki (Ma Su, Fengji's lover) had a long career, including featured roles as Terryman in the Kinnikuman franchise and Rayearth in Magic Knight Rayearth, as well as Harmer in Al Caral no Isan, Sammy in Bavi Stock, Sawamura in Nozomi Witches, Ronron in Greed, Aoto in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, and Katze in Ai no Kusabi, all Orphan releases.
- Ootsuka Chikao (Sima Yi) also had a lengthy career, starting back in 1963 in Astro Boy. He played Nezumi in the original GeGeGe no Kitarou and Hakaba Kitarou series, Goemon in the first Lupin III TV series, Tora in the original Ushio & Tora OVAs, and Kaibara Yuuzan in the Oishinbo properties, among numerous other roles.. He appeared in several Tezuka Osamu specials, all released by Orphan.
The anime staff remained the same in all three movies.
Despite the massive size of the undertaking, Orphan's work on the Sangokushi movies was done by a small and remarkably dedicated crew. Iri translated all three movies, diligently researching names, translating signs, and labeling the numerous map locations. Yogicat timed, I did edited and typeset, BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed, and M74 encoded from R2J DVD ISOs - a total staff of six. They have my heartfelt thanks for sticking with the project until it was completed. You can get Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net,
Is this the end of Orphan's involvement with Sangokushi? Well... while we were working on the movies, some beautiful high-definitions raws surfaced on Japanese streaming sites. We could put out HD versions of the movies, but there's a problem: the raws are 29.97 fps and need to be re-encoded down to 23.976 fps in order not to wreck all the typesetting. (No, I'm not redoing all that.) So if you want HD versions of the Sangokushi movies, tell your favorite and most capable encoder-san to get in touch with us on IRC. Or do my wrists a favor, and don't.
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At the end of 2014, Orphan did a couple of hard-core h-anime that had been left unfinished. They didn't go through the same process as normal projects, and none of the staffers who worked on them wanted to be identified. Accordingly, Orphan established an h-anime "sub-brand", Okizari (which means "deserted" in Japanese), for these shows. They got uploaded to various torrent sites and forgotten.
Orphan has been quite inconsistent about using the Okizari label. Shadow (Kage) was released as Orphan; in fact, it was Orphan's first release. "Softer" h-anime like Kakyuusei, Dokyuusei 2, Tenkousei, etc. have also been released under the Orphan label. The distinction was always pretty arbitrary, and I don't see any reason to deny that Okizari releases are Orphan projects.
The five Okizari titles to date are:I'm not going to provide an "analysis" of the single episode releases; what's the point? In any case, they're now all available on the Orphan IRC bot. This fulfills a request made nearly a year ago in the comments section of the blog.
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August 16, 2019, 12:04 pm
Orphan has already released two versions of the 1991 OVA Tomoe's Run! (Tomoe ga Yuku!) - the original and a patch to fix a timing problem - so this is technically v3, but who's counting? Erik at Piyo Piyo Productions and I have both wanted to redo the show, because the original encode was done at 29.97 fps rather than 23.976 fps, and its color correction wasn't all that great. The availability of the Domesday Duplicator provided the perfect excuse to revisit Tomoe, so here's a new version, at the proper frame rate and with improved color. The show is a hoot, and I recommend it highly, despite a plot that will not withstand even the slightest scrutiny.![]()
Our heroine, Tomoe Ojima, is a seventeen-year-old roller-skating j.d. She liked to play peek-a-boo and tag with speeding trucks on Tokyo's crowded highways, until her best friend was run over and killed during an outing. On the rebound, Tomoe joins a training school for stuntmen called Green Day. There she launches a torrid love affair with Kazusa Himuro, one of the "managers". Little Does She Know, however, that Green Day is actually the Tojo yakuza group's assassin training school, and Kazusa is the group's chief enforcer. Informed of the truth by an undercover policewoman whom Kazusa then ruthlessly executes, Tomoe makes her escape on skates and flees to the arms of Iori Tojo, the alienated son of Tojo's leader. Together, they fight to foil Kazusa's nefarious plots, take down Green Day, and restore Iori to his rightful position as heir to the group. Tomoe and Iori fall in love, but they realize that Their Love Is Not To Be.
Along the way, many parallels are drawn between Tomoe Ojima and Tomoe Gozen, the legendary twelfth century female samurai. Tomoe Gozen fought in the Genpei War at the side of her liege lord and lover Minamoto no Yoshinaka (identified in the anime by his original clan name, Kiso Yoshinaka), surviving both the war and him. Tomoe's Run! hypothesizes that Yoshinaka did not marry Tomoe because their difference in rank was too great. Iori cannot marry Tomoe Oujima for the same reason. At the end, They Must Part for their different destinies, he to rule a prominent Japanese corporation/yakuza group, she to roam the roads on her roller skates...Even if the plot follows well-worn tracks, the show's a treat. Tomoe is a spunky heroine who makes her own decisions in life and love; for example, it's clear that her relationship with Kazusa is an adult's love affair, both emotionally and physically. The supporting characters are interesting and not just the usual wingmen (and women). And the ending is bittersweet.The voice cast includes:- Yamamoto Yuriko (Tomoe) played Iczer 1 in the Iczer OVAs, Rumy in the Gall Force OVAs, Sally in Mahou Tsukai Sally 2, Sandybell in Hello! Sandybell, Georgie in Lady Georgie, Nora Scholar in Nora, Rihabi and Sayuri in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and Telenne in High Speed Jecy. The last three are Orphan releases.
- Hironaka Masashi (Kazusa) played Siegfried in Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Ihika in Yousei-ou, an Orphan release.
- Inoue Kazuhiko (Iori) starred as Yamaoka Shirou in Oishinbo, Yuki Eiri in Gravitation, and the title role in Cyborg 009, but I know and love him best as the irascible, sake-swilling Nyanko-sensei in the Natsume Yuujichou properties. He also played Kanuma Hayate in Akai Hayate, Ryousuke in Daishizen no Majuu Bagi, Kitten Smith in Starship Troopers, Liu Bei Xuande in both Sangokushi OVAs, and Nakatsugawa in Boyfriend, all Orphan releases.
- Shimada Bin (Kuro) appeared in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Fukyukayama Theater, and Sangokushi, all Orphan releases. He played Ken Nakajima in the You're Under Arrest franchise and numerous other roles. He is currently appearing as Konaki Jijii and Wally Wall in GeGeGe no Kitarou.
- Tsuru Hiromi (Shizuka, Tomoe's older sister) debuted as Perrine in Perrine Monogatari. She went on to play Kashima Miyuki in Miyuki, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, Barge in Blue Sonnet, and Mikami Reiko in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, and UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, all Orphan releases.
The director, Ishiyama Takaaki, also directed Viewtiful Joe, MapleStory, 18if, and a couple of Happy Science movies. (Well, a guy's gotta earn a living.) The camera work is visually interesting, featuring lots of shadow and angle shots, as well as clever use of both foreground and background within a scene. The show features a number of good songs, particular the second ending, Sixteen's Revolution, and the soundtrack is now available online.
Moho Kareshi did the original translation (he prefers to convert long vowels to their English counterparts directly). convexity translation checked the dialog and translated the songs. ninjacloud timed the scripts, and Juggen supplied nice karaokes for the two ending songs. I edited and typeset, and Calyrica, konnakude, and Saji did the original QC. For this version, ninjacloud tweaked the timing, I reset the signs and did some minor cleanup on the dialog, and VigorousJammer did a release check. The new raws are from Piyo Piyo Productions and were ripped with Erik's Domesday Duplicator. Audio decoding is still a work in progress, so the audio is an analog capture.
So join our heroine for some high adventure and doomed romance in this new version of Tomoe's Run! You can get the show from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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September 9, 2019, 4:44 pm
I have a secret (well, maybe not so secret) weakness for ecchi gag shows; for example, Hanaukyo Maid Tai. Here's one of the ecchiest and sketchiest, 1998's Let's Nupu Nupu. This is the first release based on a laserdisc source; previous releases used VHS sources.
Let's Nupu Nupu is a series of short sketches gathered into short episodes, with very little continuity and no through plot. The vignettes are organized around characters and situations:- Takagi-kun and Shitara-sensei. Lustful school nurse Shitara Yuri's repeatedly attempts to get into the (literal) shorts of uninterested and disgusted sixth-grader Takagi Fumio. In the US, this would be an episode of Law & Order: SVU. In Japan, it's a comedy.
- The Adventures of Sushi Neko. A mangy cat tries (and fails) at a series of jobs, including sushi chef, convenience store clerk, superhero, English teacher, hard-boiled detective, and office boss.
- The communications problems of a pet hamster in a family where every person calls it by a different name.
- Takao-san and Kobato-chan. Two high school students turn collecting the garbage into a trashy mess of double entendres.
- The Omori Family Drama Series. Brocon and siscon siblings exchange charged utterances about home media electronics.
- Happy Family Center. Kitamura Kumi, 26-year-old single kindergarten teacher, is brought to the edge of despair by a precociously insightful brat, Asami.
Because the episodes are only five minutes long, even the longest sketch goes by in a flash. If it's not funny, there's another one right behind it that may be better... or worse. There's some nudity, because Shitara-sensei strips at the slightest excuse, and lots of suggestive dialog, but no sex.
The voice cast includes quite a few distinguished seiyuu:- Tomizawa Michie (Shitara Yuri) played Linna Yamazaki in Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, Matsuzaka-sensei in Crayon Shin-chan, the nameless Office Lady in Oruchuban Ebichu, Sailor Mars in Sailor Moon, Mihoshi in Tenchi Muyo, Airi Komiyama in Those Who Hunt Elves, and Emi Ogasawara in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played female Joker in Joker: Marginal City, an Orphan release.
- Ueda Yuuji (Takagi-kun) played Johannes Krauser II in Detroit Metal City (OVA), Fuuma Yousuke in Wedding Peach, Sagara Sonosuke in Rurouni Kenshin, Tenkata Akito in Kidou Senkan Nadeseico, Keitarou in Love Hina, Makoto in Futari Ecchi, and Takeshi in Pokemon. He also voiced Nanbara in Hand Maid May, an Orphan release.
- Takana Urara (Sushi Neko) played Mowgli in Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli, Tiger in Saber Marionette, and Maria Tachibana in Sakura Wars. She also voiced Sister Yumiko in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki and Ken in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, both Orphan releases.
- Okiayu Ryoutarou (Takao-san) starred as Aoyama-kun in Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun, Mitsui Hisashi in Slam Dunk, Matsura Yuu in Marmalade Boy, Jinnai Katsuhiko in the El-Hazard franchise, Nueno Meisuke in the Hell Teacher Nube series, the title roles in Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya and Toriko, Samejima Ranmaru in Kizuna, Souma Shigure in Fruits Basket (2003), Berserker in Fate/Zero, Hideyoshi in Sengoku Basara, and Atsushi in Recorder to Ransel. He also played Abel in Fire Emblem, Akram in Harukanaru Toki and 2, and Gion in Okane ga Nai!, all Orphan releases.
- Araki Kae (hamster, Marimo) played Yuuki Miagi in Fushigi Yugi, Minnie Mae Hopkins in Gunsmith Cats, Ann in Juliet, and chibi Sailor Moon in the Sailor Moon franchise.
- Ishida Akira (brother Omori) played Makoto in Boys Be, Cho Hakkai in the Saiyuuki franchise, Sasuke in Samurai Deeper Kyou, Gaara in Naruto, Chrono in Chrno Cursade, Judas in Saint Beast, Ahrun in the Gundam Seed franchise, Kuchiki in the Genshiken franchise, Komugi in Hen Zemi, Natori in the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise, and of course, Yakumo in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu.
- Himomi (sister Omori) has done numerous eroge. In anime, she appeared in Shuffle, Happiness, Koihime Mushou, Carnival Phantasm, and several h-anime.
- Katou Seizo (Sushi Neko's sushi mentor) played Putyatin in Bakumatsu no Spasibo, Oz in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz TV series, Okaa-san in Tokyo Godfathers, and Aran in Freedom. He played Abraham in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament and appeared in Kage and Perrine Monogatari, all Orphan releases.
Multiple directors were involved, each scripting his own skits. The original manga is by Mitsumori Akira.
The original subtitles were by RiP. They did a good job bringing out the lewd jokes in the dialog and the titles, but a few errors have been corrected. ics- transcribed the subtitles, originally for use with his own laserdisc. Iri translated the opening song, and Sunachan translated some additional signs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. ics- ripped the show from his own Japanese laserdisc. The encoding is by Urotsuki of Beatrice-Raws, and it looks great. This is a conventional rip, not a Domesday Duplicator rip, so massive props for making the show look so good. (It's been upscaled to 768 x 576, but I don't think that's noticeable.) So this is an Orphan-Beatrice joint release. I hope there will more in the future; Orphan needs all the encoding help it can get.On TV, each episode had an opening and ending song. For the home video releases, these were chopped off. The laserdisc includes an opening song for all sixteen episodes; it is probably the original ending. The laserdisc ending is an instrumental that includes credits for all the episodes. There is no sign of the TV opening (Maybe True by Fanatic Crisis). The torrent includes a "play all" option. On a player that supports ordered chapters, this will play the OP, the sixteen episodes, and the ED, in laserdisc order.So here's Let's Nupu Nupu with significantly improved video, which allows Shitara-sensei's, ah, lessons to be admired in greater detail. As usual, you can pick up Let's Nupu Nupu from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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September 13, 2019, 5:38 pm
The 1998 series AWOL is infamous in anime history because of its lethargic pacing. It was so poorly regarded that the original TV series was never released on home media in Japan. Instead, the series was re-edited, compressed by a third, and released as four double-length OVAs under the title AWOL Compression Remix. Even that version never made it past VHS tapes and laserdiscs.
The series would have languished in obscurity except for a fortuitous chain of events. First, the original TV series was licensed and released in the United States on VHS tape, with English subtitles; it is now rather hard to find. Second, the author of the Land of Obfuscation blog wrote two detailed reviews, the first on the original TV series and the second on AWOL Compression Remix. These provided a guidebook to how the two were related. Third, a rip of the subtitled VHS tapes came Orphan's way. Last, Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions had most of AWOL Compression Remix in his collection, and I was able to buy the missing volume for him. All the pieces for subtitling the show were in place.
That was almost two years ago. The project languished, for a variety of reasons. To me, the script assembly process looked rather daunting. Most movie specials or "compressions" - like the Dallos Special - are done by assembling all the scripts in order and then knocking out lines corresponding to deleted scenes. AWOL Compression Remix, on the other hand, jumped around. The Land of Obfuscation guidebook provided a general outline, but like the Technical Challenge in The Great British Baking Show, a whole lot of important details were missing. With lots of new and complete scripts available from the Orphan translators, AWOL Compression Remix was a challenge I could cheerfully duck, and no one else in the team was interested in playing script detective.
As I've mentioned in other blogs, starting a year ago, Real Life carried off Orphan's translators, and the backlog of new scripts ran out. I continued to procrastinate by doing revised versions of several shows with new raws, but then the backlog of encodes ran out too. I had to tackle AWOL Compression Remix, at long last. The first episode was very difficult. I couldn't find the cold open. Quite a lot of the first two episodes had been cut (the third episode was cut entirely). The subs and the audio on our copy of the TV series were badly out of sync. Gradually, I was able to develop a rhythm and put a script together. It became easier as the series progressed and I stumbled across missing pieces. (For example, the cold open of Remix episode 1 came from TV episode 6.) There were some additional challenges. Remix added signs to keep the viewer grounded about scene changes; they were not in the TV series. Each volume of Remix had a promo video at the end; they were not in the TV series either. But with a little help from my friends, the scripts came together.
AWOL (and Compression Remix) was a follow-on project from the team that did Next Senki Ehrgeiz, and it was also intended to be an action-oriented sci-fi thriller. Vicious terrorists calling themselves Solomon attack the Allied Planets, stealing weapons of mass destruction called Planet Destroying Bombs (PDB) and gaining control of a network of satellite-based laser weapons called the Planet Link Plan (PLP). The lasers render the Allies' space navies useless. The terrorists proceed to blow up one planet after another and to destroy fleet after Allied fleet. In desperation, the Allies put together a small counterstrike team under Major Jim Hyatt. He recruits not only capable pilots and soldiers but also criminals with special skills, like computer hacking and bomb making. Hyatt's team must find and take out the terrorists before the terrorists blow up the Earth. The show plays a bit like a cross between Condition Green and The Dirty Dozen.![]()
The plot will not withstand scrutiny, of course. Solomon is run by a former military officer, Duran Gash. His motives are never spelled out; he behaves like a comic book villain who likes really big explosions. His ally is Peat Culten (yes, that's how it's spelled), the operator of the laser satellite network. The Allied Planets' military built the network secretly, without informing the civilian government. Further, they gave Culten total control, with no oversight and no backups. (What would happen if he was asleep or on vacation during an emergency is not specified.) Culten has control not only of the satellite network but of every one of the military's computers. Early in the show, an Allied anti-terrorist team successfully boards Gash's ship, but instead of blowing it and all of Solomon up, they try to recapture the PDB missiles. When it's Jim Hyatt's turn, he has recruited exactly the right people to meet every emergency and unforeseen problem that arises during his mission. And so on.The science is a bit dicey too. The speed of light limit is sort of honored - it requires "hyper-drive" to get around space - except when it gets in the way of the plot. Communications are instantaneous, so that Pete Culten can control the PLP satellites in real time from light-years away. Hyatt's pilot can see laser beams coming, so she can dodge them. Well, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds anyway.
AWOL Compression Remix is nowhere near as slack as the original TV series, but it still has some pacing problems. In particular, the endless bickering between the representatives of the civilian government and the military leaders brings the show almost to a dead stop whenever it happens. Much of this was cut, but even more should have been. In addition, the show ends very abruptly; there's no epilogue to show what happens after. Mission accomplished, followed immediately by THE END. Do the criminals get pardoned? Is the military punished for its stupidity? Do the civilian and military officials who wrangled pointlessly all through the show finally strangle each other? We'll never know.
The voice cast includes many notable names:- The redoutable Genda Tesshou (Jim Hyatt) played Colonel Muto in Joker Game, Moloch in Yondemasu Azazel-san, Rei in the Urusei Yatsura franchise, Moguro Fukuzou in New Laughing Salesman, and "Oyaji" in Mitsuboshi Colors. He also played Paul Rusch in Yume Kakeru Kougen, the loyal lieutenant Galbreath in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the dragonman Baguda in Greed, the narrator in Akai Hayate and Meisou-ou Border, Dog McCoy in Dallos, Hebopi in Wild 7, rebel leader Oosukune in Izumo, and Rikiishi's trainer Kuroki and Kirishima in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
- Nakamura Daiki (Chris Sheldon, Hyatt's criminal hacker) played Keith Winter in Condition Green (an Orphan release), the title roles in Dangerous Jii-san Ja and Demon Beast Resurrection, Dayakka in Gurren Lagann, Seiji Date in Ronin Warriors, and Liu Bei in Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi.
- Nakata Jouji (Nelson the Bomb, Hyatt's criminal bomber) is best known as Alucard in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate and as the Count of Monte Christo in Gankuutsuou. He also played Shamon in Amatsuki (an Orphan release), Ashen Eye in The Ancient Magus Bride, Bandou in Elfen Lied, Hijikata in Golden Kamuy, Vladimir Putin (!) in Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku, Jin Kunugi in Rahxephon, Otou in Working!, and Diethard Ried in Code Geass.
- Nakata Kouji (Duran Gash, the terrorist leader) played the title roles in Kamui Gaiden, Ninpu Kamui Gaiden, and Seton Doubutsuki, the narrator in Dallos, and Admiral Maskanen in Yamato 2520. The last two are Orphan releases.
- Nakao Ryuusei, who gives a virtuoso performance as the cackling terrorist hacker Peat Culten, played the lead in Igano Kabamaru, King Falke in ACCA, Hephaestion in Alexander's Decision, Freeza/Cooler in Dragon Ball, and Akio in Chameleon, an Orphan release.
- Adachi Shinobu (Amanda Kessler, Gash's second in command) played Rabi in Madou King Granzort, the title roles in Calimero and Jagainu, Tom (Sawyer) in Huckleberry Finn, Kayra Su in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, and Chou of Benten in Usagi-chan de Cue.
- Miki Shinichirou (John Bishop, Hyatt's sharpshooter) played Kojiro in Pokemon, Fujiwara Takumi in Initial D, Urahara Kisuke in Bleach, Minamoto no Yorihisa in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de, Shintarou in Lime-iro Senkitan, Bruce Wayne in Batman: Gotham Knight, Roy Mustang in Full Metal Alchemist (2009), Gintarou in Gingitstune, and Cyber-X in Hand Maid May, an Orphan release.
- Tanaka Atsuko (Dana McLaren, Hyatt's ace pilot) played Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell and Lisa Lisa in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventures TV series.
- Ootomo Ryuuzaburou( Zack Landis, Dana's trusted mechanic and copilot) played Crocodile in One Piece and Bear Walken in Gungrave.
- Kazuki Yayoi (Rachel Hurst, Hyatt's communications expert) was a stage actress and had no other significant anime roles.
The director, Kawase Toshifumi, also directed Next Senki Ehrgeiz. The music is by prolific anime composer Hamaguchi Shirou, who is best known for his work on One Piece, Girls und Panzer, and Ah! My Goddess; it's quite good. As with Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the opening song is a driving rocker, and the ending song a more soulful ballad.
Because of the origin of the shows, the staff credits are a bit unusual. Yogicat transcribed the VHS subtitles. convexity translated the songs, Sunachan translated the signs, and Iri filled in a couple of lines that were simply missing. I assembled the scripts and did very rough timing. ninjacloud did the fine dialog timing and the song timing. I edited and typeset; the signs are not difficult. BeeBee, Nemesis, and Topper3000 QCed. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions encoded from his own Japanese laserdiscs. So lots of people had their hands, or at least their fingers, in this one.
In the end, is AWOL Compression Remix an improvement on the original AWOL? Yes, definitely. Is it enough of an improvement to be considered good? Not so sure. The old adage about silk purses and sow's ears applies. The creators of Remix were constrained by the original AWOL scripts. No new animation was added, only a few signs. The motives of the terrorists are never explained. The characters remain one-dimensional and functional. And the boring and pointless bickering among the Allies remains boring and pointless. On the other hand, there are lots of explosions, good action scenes, and some standout vocal performances. If you watch AWOL Compression Remix, it may not leave a lasting impression, but you won't tear your hair out either: Twinkle Nora Rock Me or Bavi Stock II it's not (thank the stars).So unless someone wants to clean up and rip the rather rare VHS tapes of the complete series, this is as much of AWOL as we're likely to get. You can get AWOL Compression Remix from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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October 20, 2019, 8:40 am
Streaming services in Japan are republishing classic anime series and movies in record quantities, often in high definition, sometimes remastered. That's good news for fans of old anime, because many of these shows have been unavailable or available only on imperfect sources like VHS tapes, laserdiscs, or hastily mastered DVDs. For example, the streaming source for the original Laughing Salesman looks vastly better than the DVD box set.
However, the streaming raws can also have problems. Sometimes, the high-definition stream is just an upscale of an old laserdisc or DVD, with no attempt at remastering. They result looks grainy and crude, with thick, jagged lines and blotched textures. Sometimes, the streaming service skimps on bandwidth. This introduces blocking and other artifacts. And sometimes, the streaming raw has encoding mistakes - incorrect frame rates (29.97 fps instead of 23.976 fps) or unnecessary blck borders.
Orphan has a pile of high-definition raws for shows it has already released, but many of them have issues that introduce problems in the subtitling process:- Incorrect frame rate. The high-definition Sangokushi movie streams are at 29.97 fps. This can't be correct: the originals were movies and must have been created at 23.976 fps. The incorrect frame rate not only bloats the encode, it also wrecks all the motion-tracked typesetting. Because the Sangokushi movies required months of typesetting, this is a big deal, at least for me as the typesettter. So far, no one has been willing to re-encode them back to the proper frame rate.
- Lack of cropping. The high-definition raws for the Nine OVAs are at the correct frame rate but are not cropped. The first OVA has been released as though it were a wide-screen movie, with horizontal black bars to achieve the movie aspect ratio of 1.85:1 instead of the HD standard of 1.77:1. The second and third OVAs are square but have been padded with vertical black bars to widen the 1440 x 1080 resolution to 1920 x 1080. In both cases, this wrecks the typesetting from the laserdiscs, which are 4:3.
- Ugly upscaling. The original high-definition releases of all the 60's Toei animation films appear to be simple upscales of DVD sources. They look terrible at 1080p and need to be downscaled to 720p to be tolerable, as was done for Wan Wan Chuushingura. (Toei is now remastering some of its best known titles, like Horus and Hakujaden; we'll see if they keep going.)
So I have a question to my readers (all three of you): would you like to see high-definition releases of our past shows, even if the raws have black bars or look terrible? Or should Orphan hold out for properly encoded/cropped raws? Of course, if we had a few more encoders, this would not be an issue...
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November 11, 2019, 9:29 am
I was a bit unhappy with Orphan's original release of the 1992 movie Hashire Melos (Run, Melos). First, it was very big - 2.3GB for a movie that wasn't even full SD. Second, the encode was in two parts, because of differences between the framing on the first and second side of the laserdisc source. Third, I wasn't sure about the ratio. The rip came from a letterboxed laserdisc, but it was packaged in a DVD ISO container. The encoder assumed it was anamorphic at 1.85:1 after the top and bottom black margins were cut off. I don't think is. Laserdiscs are 640 x 480 (NTSC resolution). Even if the top and bottom letterboxing is removed, the horizontal width is still 640.
Earlier this year, a copy of the Hashire Melos laserdisc was offered on Ebay. I bought it and sent it to Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions for ripping and encoding. Erik was able to handle the changes in framing between the two sides, as that's a common problem with laserdiscs, and created a new raw. Orphan is releasing a new version of Hashire Melos using his new encode The principal changes are:- All in one file.
- Laserdisc aspect ratio (borders included).
- Smaller file size.
- Better color balance.
- Short extra (a promo for the film) at the end.
As is his usual practice, Erik left the letterboxing in place. This allowed the karaoke and subtitles to be moved out of the video area. If that doesn't float your boat, you should stick with the previous version.
Hashire Melos is based on a beloved short story by Japanese author Osamu Dazai and has been made into an anime multiple times. It tells the story of Melos, a shepherd who crosses (either deliberately or inadvertently) the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius the Younger (called Dionysius II in the movie), and is condemned to death. He requests time to return home and settle his affairs, but the king refuses, believing that Melos will run off and never return. Melos' friend Selinuntius volunteers to take Melos' place. The king agrees but warns Melos that Selinuntius will be executed if Melos fails to return in three days. After numerous trials, Melos returns in the nick of time. The king is so astonished by this display of true friendship that he releases both men.I find this version of Hashire Melos overstretched. There isn't enough content in the original short story to justify 100+ minutes of screen time. There's a lot of padding throughout. On the other hand, I like the look of the film, as well as its character designs. The main characters have distinctive faces and body types, with real noses and realistic eyes. Melos looks like an overgrown lunk of a shepherd, Dionysius has the "lean and hungry" demeanor of a habitual schemer, and Selinuntius has the balanced appearance befitting a classical sculptor. The animation is fluid, set against very detailed backdrops of the city of Syracuse and the Sicilian countryside. The voice cast is excellent.- Yamadera Kouichi (Melos) played many leading roles, including Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Sukeroku in Shouwa Ginroku Rakugo Shinju, Ryouga in all the Ranma 1/2 properties, the nameless hero of Otaku no Seiza, Benten in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Happyaku in Wild 7, and of course, Ryouan in Hidamari no Ki. The last three are Orphan releases.
- Ogawa Shinji (Selinuntius) played Johnny's father in Starship Troopers and Douglas MacArthur in Junod, both Orphan releases, as well as Hyou in Hokuto no Ken. However, I remember him best as the lecherous ojii-san, Maestro Stresemann, in Nodame Cantabile.
- Kobayashi Akiji (Dionysius) played Tachibana throughout the Kamen Rider franchise.
- Hayashibara Megumi (Clair, Melos' sister) was arguably the most famous seiyuu of the 1990s. She starred as Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop, Ayanami Rei in Evangelion, Rune Balot in the Mardock Scramble movies, Rebecca in One Piece, Lina in the Slayers franchise, female Ranma in Ranma 1/2, and Miyokichi in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. She also played a number of feline roles, including including the title roles in the All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku and Hello Kitty franchises, as well as "lead cat" Iruinedo in Oruorane the Cat Player, an Orphan release. She played Navi in Izumo (1991), another Orphan release.
- Nakamori Aina (Raisa, a prostitute who helps Melos) is primarily a singer. Hashire Melos is her only anime role.
- Aono Takeshi (Calippus, a garrulous old man who helps Melos) was an industry veteran. He played Nurarihyon in every incarnation of GeGeGe no Kitarou through 2007, Billy Bones in Treasure Island, Bookman in D.grayman, Dracule in One Piece, Katsuhiko Masaki in the Tenchi Muyo franchise, and Shiro Sanada in the Yamato franchise. He also appeared in A Penguin's Memories, Ginga Tansa 2100: Border-nen, Fire Emblem, Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, Amefuri Kozou (Rain Boy), the three Sangokushi movies (as Guan Yu), and Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, all Orphan releases.
Osami Misaki directed and also did the storyboards and the screenplay. His use of dark interiors and shadows is striking. Oda Kazumasa composed all the music, including the excellent ending ballad. The background music is subtle and used sparingly.For the original release, M74 transcribed the ACR subtitles and did the initial timing; ninjacloud did timing cleanup. Iri translation checked, I edited and typeset, Juggen created the wonderful ending karaoke, and Calyrica, konnakude, and Xenath3297 did QC. For this release, Iri translated the extra dialog, signs, and song verse in the promo. ninjacloud retimed the script. I cleaned up the script and redid the typesetting for the new raw and the added promo. Juggen redid his karaoke to fit the narrower width. BeeBee and Nemesis checked the release. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions encoded from a laserdisc I bought on Ebay.Hashire Melos is still too padded for my taste, but it's excellent artwork and music make it quite watchable. You can get this new version from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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December 8, 2019, 4:00 pm
Except for short-runtime shows, few current series are left orphaned, because almost everything gets streamed and captured. Thus, orphaned series are mostly a matter of the back catalog.
Orphans rescued since I started this blog (aka, the Honors List):
- 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (Marco) (neo1024)
- Aim for the Ace! (Bluefixer)
- Akai Hayate (Orphan)
- Alps Stories: My Annette(Licca)
- Amuri Star Ocean (mixed groups)
- Before Green Gables (ARR)
- Black Jack: the last OVAs (Bluefixer)
- Blue Dragon (Takeo84)
- Busou Chuugakusei - Basket Army (Migoto/anon)
- Captain Tsubasa (Frenchies/Saizen)
- Code Breaker OVAs (Orphan)
- Cutie Honey (TSHS)
- D4 Princess (tipota & Orphan)
- Daa! Daa! Daa! (Aozora & TMUsubs)
- Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora (OnDeed)
- Gallery Fake (Muji)
- Gyagu Manga Biyori S2 (sulez_raz)
- Haita Nanafa second series (Omen then Glitch)
- Hakugai: The Legend of Moby Dick (tipota)
- Hakuouki - Otogisoushi (YouTube)
- Hal & Bons - last episode found subtitled on YouTube
- Hell Teacher Nube (ARR)
- Hiatari Ryoukou (ray=out-Orphan)
- Hidamari no Ki (Orphan)
- Hi-Speed Jecy (Orphan)
- Hyouge Mono (Doremi)
- Kakyuusei (1995) (Orphan)
- Kakyuusei (1999) (C1)
- Kiss Dum (Doutei)
- Kyou Kara Ore Wa!! (Saizen & Yabai)
- Jang Geum's Dream (ARR)
- Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette (Licca & Wasurenai)
- Lime-iro Ryuukitan X Cross (Kiteseekers)
- Little Women II (Licca)
- Love Get Chu (Oyatsu, Yoroshiku)
- Maicching Machiko-sensei (streaming on CR)
- Maple Story (Linguistic) - Korean audio
- Marie & Gali S1 (Wasurenai)
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (KiteSeekers)
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure (Licca & Wasurenai)
- Miyuki (FroZen-EviL)
- Mizu Iro Jidai (Kiteseekers)
- Onara Garou (Kaitou, Double, and anon)
- Perrine Monogatari (Licca & KiteSeekers & Wasurenai)
- Porphy no Nagai Tabi (Licca)
- Rakugo Tennyo Oyui (ARR)
- Saint October (ReDone)
- Showa Monogatari (GotWoot)
- Sonic Soldier Borgman TV (Mushin) - based on HK subs
- Sonic Soldier Borgman: New Century 2058 (Orphan)
- Souten Kouro (Gotwoot & Doutei)
- Stop!! Hibari-kun! (Orphan)
- Tetsuko no Tabi (m.3.3.w)
- Tokimeki Tonight (Orphan-Saitei)
- Tono to Issho S2 (anonymous)
- Ultraviolet Code 44 (KiteSeekers)
- Yamato 2520 (Orphan)
- Yawara (FroZen-EviL)
- Yoshimune (ARR)
Note that the list only includes series that were started by one group and abandoned and then picked up and redone or finished by a different group. Subbing old series that were never done before doesn't count; nor does resuming a series after a long pause. ARR's subs are often derived from Hong Kong or Malaysian DVDs.
Orphan rescues in progress (aka, the Fingers-Crossed List):
- Dash Kappei (Shindoi)
- Idol Densetsu Eriko (Kiteseekers & Licca)
- Kuruneko (Glenn)
- Ninku (SolZen), using the new Blu-Ray release
- Patalliro (aarinfantasy)
The note from the previous list applies here as well. Mermaid Melody and Eriko had one episode done by a different group.
Orphans stuck in limbo (aka, the Series Broiler list):
- BAR Kiraware Yasai
- Corrector Yui
- Dibetagurashi
- Dragon Quest
- Gene Diver
- Lady Georgie
- Marginal Prince
- Neon the Animation
- Onegai My Melody S3
- Piropoppo
- Puu-neko
- Robin Hood no Daibouken
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (2010)
- Shinshaku Sengoku Eiyuu Densetsu Sanada (Sanada 10)
- SunakiNishi
- The Kobocha Wine
(Updated 08-Dec-2019)
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December 8, 2019, 4:33 pm
Every now and then, I remember that Orphan Fansubs was started to complete series abandoned (orphaned) by other groups. Simultaneous streaming has reduced the likelihood of abandoned series, so the original mission has been complemented, or perhaps overtaken, by a focus on shows stranded on the wrong side of the analog-digital divide. However, I do keep an eye on my "orphan series list," and occasionally an opportunity arises to check one off. Here, without further ado, is Hiatari Ryoukou.Hiatari Ryoukou (48 episodes, 1987-1988) was the fourth of Adachi Mitsuru's manga to be adapted for anime, and his fourth baseball rom-com, following Miyuki, the much shorter Nine, and the much longer Touch. It took over Touch's TV slot, thereby providing Japanese audiences with three continuous years of Adachi Mitsuru. It bears more of a resemblance to Nine than to Touch, but it has many of the same stock Adachi character types and plot situations.![]()
The Hiatari Ryoukou project began in ray=out in 2012. I was asked to edit on a freelance basis. The project struggled to maintain a consistent release cadence: an initial set of releases in 2012, almost nothing in 2013, a burst up to episode 24 in 2014, and since then, nothing, even though the basic script work - translation, timing, editing, encoding - was finished in early 2014. (I documented my frustrations with the project in this blog post.) Well, the wait is now over. Starting just after Labor Day, I went back to the Hiatari Ryoukou scripts, revisited the editing, typeset where necessary, and asked the Orphan team to help with additional translation and QC. It took just about three months to get everything in reasonable shape. So here, at long last, are the final 24 episodes of Hiatari Ryoukou. I have not revisited the first 24 episodes, nor do I intend to, but they are included in the batch for convenience.
Hiatari Ryoukou is as standard an Adachi Mitsuru story as you can imagine. Kishimoto Kasumi lives in her aunt's boarding house with four (male) students from Meijou, her high school: Takasugi Yuusaku (the good-natured one), Ariyama Takashi (the heavy one), Mikimoto Shin (the conceited one), and Aido Makoto (the invisible one). She has an older boyfriend, Muraki Katsuhiko, who is often off the scene, in college in America. Yuusaku, Ariyama, and Shin all end up playing for Meijou's fairly pathetic high-school baseball team, which is managed by Kasumi's friend Seki Keiko. Shin and Ariyama have a yen for Keiko. Yuusaku, although attracted to Kasumi, believes that he should defer to Katsuhiko, particularly when the latter returns to coach the Meijou team. The messy romantic relationships overlap with the baseball team's quest to become contenders and reach Koshien. Stir and repeat for 48 episodes. It's lighthearted fun. However, the ending is very rushed and abrupt, and the baseball side of the story is never resolved.
The voice cast includes many veterans of Adachi Mitsuru world, as well as some newcomers.- Morio Yumi (Kasumi) played Akimoto Reiko in the long-running Kochikame franchise.
- Mitsuya Yuuji (Yuusaku) played Tatsuya (the lead, a Yuusaku clone) in Touch, Pen Pen in Mr. Penpen, Kouji in Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Irabu in Kuuchuu Buranko, Jecy in Hi-Speed Jecy, and Daisuke in Stop!! Hibari-kun. The last two are Orphan releases.
- Shiozawa Kaneto (Shin) played Iason in Ai no Kusabi, Rock Holmes in Fumoon, Shiina in Chameleon, Sanzou in I am Son Goku, and Kurahashi Eiji, the ace pitcher, in Nine, all Orphan releases. He also played Joe in Tokimeki Tonight, Yoshio in Miyuki, Takeshi in Touch, D in Vampire Hunter D, Narsus in Arslan Senki OVA, Rosario in Dragon Half, and Abriel senior in Crest of the Stars.
- Hayashiya Kobuhei (Ariyama) is a Humanities professor and rakugo artist. His anime credits include Koutarou (the Ariyama clone) in Touch and Yoichi in the Kochikame franchise.
- Tsuru Hiromi (Keiko) debuted as Perrine in Perrine Monogatari. She went on to play Kashima Miyuki in Miyuki, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, Barge in Blue Sonnet, and Mikami Reiko in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and big sister Shizuka in Tomoe's Run!, all Orphan releases.
The director, Tokita Hiroko, has done many well-known series, including Yawara!, Miracle Girls, Mizuiro Jidai, Yami no Matsui, Mirage of Blaze, Kaikan Phrase, Peach Girl, and School Rumble. He also directed the two Ultra Nyan OVAs, which Orphan released. The songs are by various artists, including Serizawa Hiraoki, who did many of the songs for Nine. Just to emphasize the continuity, the last insert song in Hiatari Ryoukou is a variation on Midsummer Runner, the ending song for Nine. This completion of Hiatari Ryoukou retains the styling decisions (dialog and song styles, the use of honorifics, the inconsistent romanization of long vowels) from the ray=out episodes. Compared to the state of the scripts in 2014, the main changes are:- Translation of missing lines and more signs.
- Translation checking on the insert songs.
- An additional editing pass.
- Timing cleanup.
- Additional QC.
- Wider horizontal margins and more frequent line breaks.
- Typesetting with motion capture to compensate for image instability.
The credits for these 24 episodes are a bit complicated. Athanor provided the DVD raws. For ray=out, AgitoAkito encoded, tacokichi translated, nollarg timed, alchemist11 styled, and first Saji and then Samika did QC through episode 38. For Orphan, I edited, checked, and typeset, Nemesis did QC, and Skr, Iri, and convexity translated missing lines and signs. convexity translation checked the insert songs.
With the success of Mix, Adachi Mitsuru is experiencing another revival, and several of his properties have shown up in high-definition on Japanese streaming sites. Mostly, they look like upscales - sometimes laserdisc upscales - but we can always hope for remastered versions done from original sources. In the meantime, here's Hiatari Ryoukou. You can get the episodes from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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December 25, 2019, 2:11 pm
Here's another OVA with a bit of a checkered past, 1985's Karuizawa Syndrome. As originally made, it included live-action sequences of nude AV models. The sequences had nothing much to do with the actual story, and as a result, the OVA was rather poorly received. An anime-only version was released on VHS in 1986, and amazingly, it crossed the analog-digital divide and got a DVD release in 2002. That's the version Orphan used for this release. Sorry, AV fans.
Karuizawa Syndrome tells the story of Aizawa Kohei, former leader of the biker gang Deep, now turned freelance photographer specializing in nudes. (Maybe that was the justification for the live-action sequences.) Kohei has nothing much more on his mind than having fun and getting laid. He and his best bud Matsunama Sumio hoped to bum their way across the U.S. in a jeep, but that fell through. Now the pair, flat broke, are forced to flee creditors in Tokyo and take shelter in Karuizawa (a mountain resort town in Nagano province) with Sumio's sister Kaoru, who is also Kohei's childhood friend. There, Kohei meets a number of other women, including Kuonji Noriko (known as Non), the former leader of a girls' biker gang. She's brought Kunoshita Kumiko with her, in hopes of settling the score with Deep, whose members gang-raped Kumiko's older sister and drove her to suicide. Also in the picture are the proprietor of the local coffee shop La Cuca, the proprietor's sister, Minowa Milk, a local girl named Tsunoda Eri, and the current leader of Deep, Onda Jiro. Kohei tries to score with anything female, succeeds with both Non and Kaoru, and apparently gets both of them pregnant. (Non's actually just late.) The stress causes Kohei to flee the scene and take up with one of his models, Yukari, but she's sick of her aimless life and intends to return home and get married. Kohei realizes that he can't continue drifting. He returns to Karuizawa and Kaoru, apparently ready for a steadier relationship... maybe.
It's hard to characterize Karuizawa Syndrome; perhaps it's best described as a seinen slice-of-life. There's comedy, there's angst, there's drama, and there's lots of nudity and sex. However, all the sex scenes are done with super-deformed (chibi) characters - a stylistic decision that seems weird at first but that helps to keep the scenes light and frothy.The character designs are also a mix of realistic and chibi styles. The younger siblings (Sumio and Kumiko) are drawn as chibis, with massive mops of hair, making them look about eight years old. In fact, they're both grown-ups.
The voice cast is a who's who of 1980s seiyuu stalwarts, and there's a staggering amount of overlap with previous Orphan releases:- Shiozawa Kaneto (Kohei) played Shin in Hiatari Ryoukou, Iason in Ai no Kusabi, Rock Holmes in Fumoon, Shiina in Chameleon, Sanzou in I am Son Goku, and Kurahashi Eiji in Nine, all Orphan releases. He also played Joe in Tokimeki Tonight, Yoshio in Miyuki, Takeshi in Touch, D in Vampire Hunter D, Narsus in Arslan Senki OVA, Rosario in Dragon Half, and Abriel senior in Crest of the Stars.
- Toda Keiko (Noriko Kuonji, Non) played Hitomi in Cat's Eye, Iczer-2 in Iczer-One, Blinky in Fushigi ga Koala Blinky, Kitarou in Gegege no Kitarou (1985), Nina in High School Agent, Kiki in the Kiki no Lala series, Anpanman in the Anpanman franchise, Karara in Space Runaway Ideon, Sophia in A Wind Named Amnesia, Kate Jackson in Bavi Stock, and Eterna in Hoshi Neko Full House. The last two are Orphan releases.
- Sakakibara Yoshiko (Kaoru) played Sybil in Black Magic M-66, Sylvia Stingray in Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, Sir Integra Hellsing in both versions of Hellsing, Paula in Condition Green, Melinda Hearst in Dallos, and Mimau in Greed. The last three are Orphan releases.
- Matsuya Yuji (Sumio) played Margu in God Mars, Tatsuya in Touch, Pen Pen in Mr. Penpen, Kouji in Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Irabu in Kuuchuu Buranko, Jecy in Hi-Speed Jecy, Yuusaku in Hiatari Ryoukou, and Daisuke in Stop!! Hibari-kun. The last three are Orphan releases.
- Tsuru Hiromi (Milk) debuted as Perrine in Perrine Monogatari. She went on to play Kashima Miyuki in Miyuki, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, Barge in Blue Sonnet, and Mikami Reiko in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Keiko in Hiatari Ryoukou, Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and big sister Shizuka in Tomoe's Run!, all Orphan releases.
- Tanaka Hideyuki (La Cuca's manager, Minowa Takanari) played Terryman in the Kinnikuman franchise and Rayearth in Magic Knight Rayearth. He also played Harmer in Al Caral no Isan, Sammy in Bavi Stock, Sawamura in Nozomi Witches, Ronron in Greed, Aoto in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Katze in Ai no Kusabi, and Ma Su, Fengji's lover, in Sangokushi 3, all Orphan releases.
- Tominaga Miina (Eri) played Ritsu in Fruits Basket (2002), Persia in Magical Fairy Persia, Rollpanna in the Anpanman franchise, Misaki in Tsuritama, Muuma in Bavi Stock, Hikaru in Chameleon (2-6), Kamiya in Tokimeki Tonight, and Karen in Yuukan Club. The last four are Orphan releases.
- Hironaka Masashi (Jiro) played Ihika in Yousei-Ou and Kazusa in Tomoe's Run!, both Orphan releases, as well as Siegfried in Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- Ogata Kenichi (Jiro's father) played the put-upon father in Gosenzosama Banbanzai! and Maroko, as well as Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken and, most recently, Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. He played the Lord of Kaga and narrator in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, the governor in Akuemon, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga Nai!, the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, and the ruthless rival cyborg in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call, all Orphan releases. However, he's best known to me as the voice of Ranma 1/2's Sataome Gemna, whose alter ego - the grumpy panda - is my avatar on most anime forums.
- Miyuki Sanae (Kumiko) played Lynn in Lady Lady!! and Botan in Yu Yu Hakusho. She also played Namiko in Akai Hayate, the Star Cat in Hoshi Neko Full House, and Kotetsu in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, all Orphan releases.
- Yokozawa Keiko (Yukari, the model) is probably best known for her starring role as Sheeta in Castle in the Sky. She played the title roles in Charlotte (1977), the Dorami-chan properties, and ESPer Mami, as well as leading roles in Plastic Little and Legend of Lemnear. She also played Pandora in Akuma-tou no Prince Mitsume ga Tooru, an Orphan release.
- Yamada Keaton (Naruse Dai, head of the modeling agency) played the narrator in Master Keaton, Kanako's father in Boyfriend, and Xun Yu in Sangokushi 1 and 2. The last two are Orphan releases.
The director, Nishikubo Mizuho, also helmed Miyuki, Purple Eyes in the Dark (an Orphan release), and most recently, Giovanni's Island. The music is by Kazato Shinsuke, who also wrote the scores for Urusei Yatsura, the Kinnikuman franchise, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes (OVA version).A few translation notes:- After Kaoru loses her virginity with Kohei, she makes an enormous breakfast, including red bean rice. That dish is a dead giveaway to her friends, because it's often used to celebrate a significant milestone in a woman's life.
- When Milk is wondering why Kohei is so popular, she uses the word kei-haku-tan-sho, which refers to a trend in consumer products for "smaller, lighter, better." Kohei mishears it as houkei tansho, meaning "small and uncut."
- Milk tries to teach Kumiko to resist Kohei's advances with the phrase, "I want to have a platonic relationship." Kumoko mishears "platonic" as "plastic" and proceeds to mangle the phrase totally, producing "I want to halve a plastic relay stripper."
- Eri tells Kaoru that Non is also pregnant by Kohei; this seems to precipitate Kaoru's miscarriage. Eri isn't messing with Kaoru. The manga makes it clear Eri hadn't heard that Non's pregnancy was a false alarm.
Moho Kareshi did the original translation. convexity checked the dialog and signs and translated the songs. ninjacloud timed, I did editing and typesetting, and Nemesis and VigorousJammer did QC. The encode is by fong, from an R2J DVD. The raw includes a six-minute promo at the end.
So Orphan is ending 2019 on the same note as it began, with an ecchi OVA. (Our first release of the year was Majo Demo Steady.) I quite enjoyed Karuizawa Syndrome, although it's a bit dated in its attitudes. It's available from the usual torrent sites as well as IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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December 29, 2019, 8:17 am
After three years of continuous project growth, Orphan cut back this year. Many people on staff, particularly the translators and encoders, were snatched up by that dread event called Real Life; others retired or went missing or comatose. Still, there were quite a few interesting releases this year, ranging from a children's classic (Manxmouse) to epic historical drama (the Sangokushi movies).
Orphan Fansubs
Orphan's original projects for 2019 were: - Majo Demo Steady. A sexy sci-fi comedy. Laserdisc encode.
- Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoka Narudesho! The second (and much worse) of Eguchi Hisashi's anthology shows. Hard to watch and harder to unsee. Laserdisc encode.
- Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament: In the Beginning, episodes 1-6. Tezuka Osamu's take on the Bible, featuring substantial textual liberties and a lot of cute animals. DVD encode.
- DAYS: Touin Gakuensen. The true continuation of the DAYS TV series, documenting a high-tension match between rival teams. DVD encode.
- Maze Movie promo. The Maze movie is probably lost forever; only this tantalizing fragment remains. Laserdisc encode.
- Fukuyama Gekijou - Natsu no Himitsu. A charming anthology of stories for children, ranging from comedic to poignant. Laserdisc encode.
- Oedo wa Nemurenai! The last of the Margaret shoujo OVAs, and by far the best. Set in the Shogunate era, it tells a fast-moving tale of a intrigue and romance. VHS encode.
- Akatsuki no Yona OADs. The concluding episodes (alas) of Yona on anime, providing the background of Zeno, the last of the four dragons to be introduced in the TV series. DVD encode; joint with FFF.
- Manxmouse. The Paul Gallico children's classic about a misshapen ceramic mouse that comes to life and ventures off to see the world. Laserdisc encode.
- Amaama to Inazuma. An utterly charming slice-of-life series about a widowed father of a six-year-old girl, and their joint quest to escape an endless fate of store-bought meals. BD encode; joint with Godless Fansubs.
- Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake. The first movie in the Sangokushi trilogy, documenting Cao Cao's rise to power. DVD encode.
- Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! The second movies in the Sangokushi trilogy, covering the events leading up to and immediately following the Battle of Red Cliffs. DVD encode.
- Tezuka Osamu Ga Kieta?! 20 Seiki Saigo no Kaijiken. A tribute to the godfather of manga, bringing together his most famous characters to solve a mystery. DVD encode.
- Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi. The final installment in the Sangokushi trilogy, covering the deaths of the major protagonists and the continuing stalemate in the battle for supremacy in China. DVD encode.
- Let's Nupu Nupu. A series of racy comedy shorts more or less centered around an inept talking cat. Laserdisc encode; joint with Beatrice-Raws.
- AWOL Compression Remix. A ragtag team of specialists from the Allied planets must defeat a seemingly unstoppable terrorist organization. Laserdisc encode.
- Hiatari Ryoukou 25-48. The completion of Adachi Mitsuru's classic slice-of-life romcom-with-baseball from the 1980s. DVD encode; joint with ray=out.
- Karuizawa Syndrome. A sexy, slice-of-life seinen show about a happy-go-lucky photographer and the women in his life. DVD encode.
The availability of new sources, as well as Orphan's significantly improved transcription capability for analog media, resulted in a record number of reissues: - Hashire Melos v2. A new encode, with proper scaling and better color equalization. Laserdisc source.
- Tomoe's Run (v3?). A new encode, at the proper frame rate, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source.
- Singles v2. A new encode, based on an uncompressed VHS capture. The improvement over the original ARR capture is significant.
- Meisou-ou Border v2. A new encode, based on an uncompressed VHS capture. The improvement over the previous capture is amazing.
- Boyfriend OVA. This is the "full length" version of Boyfriend, two parts totaling 110 minutes, versus the 94 minute TV special. New material and a vastly improved encode. Laserdisc source.
- Al Caral no Isan v2. A new encode, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source.
- Tsuki ga Noboru made ni v2. A new encode, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source; a substantial improvement over the VHS raw used previously.
- Ultra Nyan (theatrical version). A new encode, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source.
A big shout-out to our intrepid media maven, for setting up the media transcription capability in Japan, and to Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions, for his continual help and support. I also want to thank the Arutha foundation, which has hosted all of Orphan's releases on IRC.
The Audio Side
Orphan released a lot of audio projects this year. Unless otherwise indicated, the sources were CDs and were ripped by Orphan's intrepid media maven.- Majo demo Steady image album.
- Fukyuyama Theater original soundtrack.
- Oedo wa Nemurenai! original soundtrack.
- Singles original soundtrack.
- Kiss wa Me ni Shite original soundtrack.
- Oshare Kozou wa Hanamaru original soundtrack.
- Capricorn image album.
- Project A-Ko 2 expanded soundtrack. Laserdisc source (Pony Canyon dual disc).
- Boyfriend OP/ED single.
- Hashire Melos ED single.
- Boyfriend original soundtrack.
- POPS original soundtrack.
- Tomoe ga Yuku! music collection.
- AWOL original soundtrack.
- A-Girl original soundtrack (from Meisen).
- Fighting Beauty Wulong OP/ED collection.
- Majo demo Steady original soundtrack. Laserdisc source (Pony Canyon dual disc).
This shows where most of my media budget was spent this year...
Work for Other Groups
There seems to be less each year.- Frozen-EviL. I continued to edit the Blu-Ray version of Yawara!
- Saizen. I continued to edit and typeset Laughing Salesman.
- Soldado. I QCed this year's Ninku releases. I'm actually finished, but the last five episodes haven't been released yet.
- Kiteseekers. I finished typesetting Idol Densetsu Eriko... and right glad I am about that.
Laughing Salesman continues to be a useful diversion; I find its exceedingly dark humor appropriate for the times. The end is in sight, and the team is doubling back to redo the first 25 episodes in HD. Yawara! continues to be fun, and I'm getting to see all the episodes I missed by coming in at the middle of the story in the DVD project.
Favorites of 2019
I'm not an anime critic, so I no longer try to compile a "best of" list for the anime year. These days, I don't watch enough anime, outside of the genres I like (slice-of-life, comedy, sci-fi, seinen, josei, cats), to be knowledgeable enough to make a "Top 10" list. Instead, I'm listing my favorites of the year and why they kept me interested all the way through.
My choices this year, in alphabetical order, are: - Dororo. Although this seems to violate my preference for shows without violence, I simply could not look away. This updating of the Tezuka Osamu classic improves on the source material while remaining faithful to the master's humanistic spirit.
- Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. (My Roommate Is a Cat.) Well, it has cats, so need I say more? In fact, it's a remarkably complex story about how the interaction between a damaged man and his wary feline helps heal them both.
- Fukigen na Mononokean: Tsuzuki. A totally unexpected sequel to a modest fantasy series that I really enjoyed. It was wonderful to see Abeno, Ashiya, and of course Fuzzy, again.
- GeGeGe no Kitaro (2018). Still running after two years, and consistently excellent. It's made me look at earlier incarnations of the franchise, none of which, alas, are completely subbed.
- Kanata no Astra. A damned near perfect space opera. Not ponderous like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, not totally goofy like Hoshi Neko Full House, it blends adventure, danger, comedy, and camaraderie perfectly.
- Kono oto Tomare! A sports anime of sorts, but laser-focused on its characters rather than the typical shounen challenges.
- Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin. Another supernatural sleeper that hit it out of the park, despite limited production values. A humanist take on human-youkai relations, rather more optimistic than GeGeGe no Kitarou.
- Sarazanmai. This show that grabbed my interest from the opening frames and never let go. I did not like Ikuhara Kunihiko's previous series; I found them pretentious and depressing. This one has all of Ikuhara's trademark idiosyncrasies, but it tells a coherent and compelling story despite (because of?) the quirks.
I don't have any honorable mentions, but my Guilty Pleasure list is filled with detective shows, including anything with Tsuda Kenjirou, like Cop Craft and Special 7. And I liked the short seriesYatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki, for no discernible reason.
I know I should watch a broader range of anime. I'm missing out on terrific shows like Vinland Saga, Mix, and Beastars, but I Yam What I Yam - a confirmed old curmudgeon and likely to remain so. At least this way, I don't have to watch isekai or idol shows.
Looking Ahead
Orphan Fansubs will continue to focus on The Shows That Time Forgot™, probably at a slower pace than before. There's no shortage of good material to work on, and interesting raws are more abundant than ever; but qualified staff is in short supply. If you're a translator, encoder, QC, or yes, even an editor or typesetter, with an interest in the back catalog, please get in touch. We're a harmonious group of cats, if a bit old-fashioned; a team without Discord, so to speak.
Thanks, everyone - both team members and fans. Have a happy and safe 2020.
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Here is the Orphan's third version of Tezuka Osamu's 1970 "erotic cartoon"Cleopatra. The first was based on topfh's excellent but upscaled DVD rip; the second on a high-definition web stream; and this one on the UK Blu-ray. Each version has improved over the previous one, but seven years is a long time to keep poring over the same anime. I hope this release is definitive.
I'm not going to rehash my previous blog posts about Cleopatra. Ithas the virtues and defects of later Tezuka Osamu "entertainments," with a lot more nudity and sex. Cleopatra is less coherent than its predecessor, Senya Ichiya Monogatari. The co-director, Yamamoto Eiichi, attributes this to Tezuka Osamu's greater involvement with the project, but the master is not around to defend himself, so it's impossible to know. It is certainly filled with Tezuka's trademark anachronisms and gags.
What's new in this version that makes it worthwhile to download and watch it yet again? Several things.- The commentary track by Helen McCarthy, author of the excellent and informative The Art of Osamu Tezuka. She provides insightful comments on the movie and its individual scenes, with a strong appreciation of the beautiful artwork.
- The original trailer. The trailer has an extra scene not in the movie and puts the erotic content front and center, rather more than I had previously thought. Cleopatra may not be an "X-rated cartoon," but it's not just a Tezuka Osamu romp with more boobs.
- Remastered video and audio. I don't find either of them an improvement over the prior releases - the audio in particular is very soft - but your mileage may vary.
- Official subtitles.
The official subs are pretty good. I made some minor changes in the edited and styled version; the untouched subs are available as PGS.- "Apollodoria" rather than "Appolodoria." Although the character is fictional, the root name comes from the god Apollo, so one "p" and two "l"s.
- Inconsistent naming. Octavianus is (mostly) shortened to the familiar form, Octavian, but Antonius isn't shortened to Anthony. I've left that as is, because it mirrors the audio track.
- Rationalized line breaks.
- Removal of ellipses (there are way too many).
- American spelling and usage rather than UK spelling and usage.
Here are some comparisons between the official subs and the fansubs on the script's "tricky bits."- 6:00 - the Pasatorine words for the Cleopatra Plan. The official subs assume it's nonsense and translate it as "Beges Do Manto." I agonized over finding any meaning and eventually came up with "Deces d'amant," as though it were mispronounced French, meaning "death of the loved one."
- 12:45 - The Mayor's flowery greeting is literally "Lord Caesar, child of the sun." The official subs have a nifty pun, "Caesar, Son of the Sun." The fansubs are simply "the Great Lord Caesar."
- 16:20 - Apollodoria lists the attributes a woman must have to attract Caeaar. The official subs are explicit and crude: "She will need to be naturally tight, with the skills of a prostitute." The fansubs are indirect: "She must have both natural talent and consummate techniques."
- 22:57 - A well-known quote by Namikoshi Tokujirou. See http://www.shiatsu-london.net/whatisshiatsu.html. The official subs say "The Art of Shiatsu"; the fansubs, "The heart of finger massage."
- 29:02 - Caesar's exclamation at finding Cleopatra in the bag is literally, "Ah, says the surprised Tamegorou!" ("アッ驚く為五郎). This is Hana Hajime's catchphrase from a 1969-1970 TV variety show 『巨泉×前武ゲバゲバ90分!』; and Hana Hajime is the voice actor playing Caesar. "Tamegorou" is a character from a story Hana liked. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJh-FJXynzM. The official subs use a contemporary (to 1970) reference with "Sock it to me!" The fansubs are "Great gods of the heavens!"
- 41:20 - In order to break Ionius, Pothinus orders his men to gang rape Libya. The official subs emphasize the brutality: "Do it until she's torn!" The fansubs are more circumspect: "Do it until she faints!"
- 1:17:45 - Literally, "You can't get hemorrhoids without touching your ass." The start of some truly terrible punning, in Japanese and both English scripts. The official subs use "No butts, no glory hole." The fansubs are "No butts touched, no piles gained."
- 1:17:50- Literally, "You can't catch a tiger cub without entering a tiger's lair." Official subs: "But it's 'No guts, no glory.'" Fansubs: "You mean, 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.'"
- 1:17:53 - Literally, "There's still the ass.""Ketsu" by itself means "ass"; tiger's lair is "koketsu." Official subs: "But nothin'!" Fansubs: "But you still gain something!"
- 1:21:20 - Literally, "I mean, mine's just a tiny one with a compact vehicle license," meaning the Japanese license for engines of 360cc or below. Official subs: "Mine's a compact car." Fansubs: "I mean, mine's just a tiny subcompact."
- 1:21:24 - Literally, "Caesar's was a dump truck with a special license." Official subs: "Caesar's was a dump truck\Nthat required a special license!" Fansubs: ""Caesar's was a huge 100-ton dump truck."
- 1:23:43 - "The word i-impossible is not in my dictionary." A real quote from Napoleon, to match the onscreen image. Identical in both scripts.
- 1:27:26 - Here, the official subs ignore a pun on makase (leave it to me) versus Marcus. The official subs are the prosaic, "Leave this war to me, Marcus Antonius!" The fansubs have, "Big battles are a walk in the park for Big Mark!"
- Ending song - "Guerilla, Guevera, Gewalt.""Gebaruto" means violence. To keep the alliteration, the German term for violence, "gewalt," is used in both scripts.
Helen McCarthy takes exception to the translation of the puns at 1:17:50, but I think the localizations work well. The greater explicitness of the official subs is perhaps more in tune with current times.
Tezuka loved his Easter eggs, and manga cameos and pop culture references dot the movie:- At 11:44, the spectators include Tensai Bakabon, Dame Oyaji, Osamatsu-kun.
- At 34:24, the spectators include Fugata Sazae from Sazae-san and Hige Oyaji from Tezuka's Star System.
- At 14:49, the ninja is Kamui, from Sanpei Shirato's manga of the same name.
- At 1:26:40, the messenger is Rat-man from GeGeGe no Kitarou.
- At 1:30:56, the fighter is Kagemaru from Sanpei Shirato's Ninja Bugeichou .
- At 1:33:44, Anthony's incapacity as a result of his addiction is symbolized by a brief shot (14 frames) of the stylized logo from Otto Preminger's 1955 addiction drama, The Man with the Golden Arm.
Japanese anime continued to be blasé about copyrights into the 1980s, but eventually real brand- and character references were banished.
Orphan's fansubs are the default subtitles. The official subs are included in two versions: untouched PGS and edited and styled. Thus, the movie has six tracks:- Video (default).
- Japanese audio (default).
- English commentary audio.
- English fansubs (default).
- Edited and typeset English official subs.
- Original PGS official subs.
The trailer has only four tracks: video (default), Japanese audio (default), edited and typeset official subs (default), and PGS official subs.
For this release, M74 obtained the Blu-ray, ripped and OCRed the official subtitles, and encoded the movie and the trailer. ninjacloud retimed the fansubs and the trailer; Yogicat retimed the official subs. I edited the official subs and the trailer and typeset (mostly in the trailer). BeeBee QCed the edited official subs. The fansub credits are unchanged.
So here's the Blu-ray version of Cleopatra. Even if you found a previous version sufficient, you'll still want this version for the trailer and the commentary track. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
Discotek has licensed Cleopatra for U.S. distribution. The Blu-ray is scheduled to be released in March. Please support their ongoing efforts to rescue titles from the back catalog by buying the Blu-ray when it's available. I will!
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January 22, 2020, 7:26 am
Often, an anime movie that follows a successful TV series is a summary compilation, like the movies made from World Masterpiece Theater series or Blue Gender: the Warrior. Sometimes, it actually provides a conclusion for a series that ended with unresolved plot lines, like End of Evangelion. Sometimes, it's a side story to the main TV series plot, like Yawara! Sore Yuke Koshinuke Kids!. And sometimes, it's an alternative version of the events in the main TV series. That's the case with the Hiatari Ryoukou movie, Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita (Kasumi: You Were in My Dream), which came out just as the TV series was ending in early 1988.
Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita starts at the point where Kasumi's boyfriend Katsuhiko departs for the U.S. to go to college (about midway in the TV series). Fast forward two years, and Katsuhiko suddenly returns to Japan. In the interim, he's become a star motorcycle racer and is rumored to be involved with another celebrity named Tadona. In fact, he's still in love with Kasumi and has come back to Japan to propose to her. Meanwhile, the boarding house gang have reached the last year of high school and are all preparing for graduation. Keiko-chan intends to go to a music university and become a teacher. Kasumi herself wants to study classical Japanese literature. Shin and Ariyama have plans too. Only Yuusaku is drifting, trying to see if professional photography might suit him. Katsuhiko's determination to get an answer from Kasumi runs up against her ambivalent feelings about choosing between him and Yuusaku. He decides to force the issue by winning a big race regardless of the risks involved, and then...![]()
Because Kasumi is an alternative version, it's pretty clear from the outset that the events in the movie won't be conclusive, because we already know how the TV series turns out. This structural difficulty is compounded by weak writing. One of the joys of the TV series was the side characters, Shin, Ariyama, and Keiko, who figured prominently in the story and the comedy. Here, they have at best walk-on parts.The focus is relentlessly on the central trio of Kasumi, Katsuhiko, and Yuusaku, and their interactions have already been done to death. In addition, the previously invisible Makoto gets many more lines, most of them expository to advance or clarify the story. Another issue is that the TV series is a rom-com with baseball trimmings. The movie is a rom-com with... motorcycle racing? While this change allows Katsuhiko to have his do-or-die moment, it both defies belief and walks away from one of the core strengths of Adachi Mitsuri's writing. The movie feels not only irrelevant to the core story but unrelated.
The TV cast was mostly unchanged, except for Ariyama, who was played by Suzuki Kyonobu, a journeyman seiyuu with many featured roles. The TV director, the talented Sugii Gisaburou, was replaced by Oguma Kimiharu, who had only a few credits to his name. Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita played on a twin bill with the first Kimagure Orange Road movie and used some if its songs as background music.
The original script for the movie came from the defunct ray=out Hiatari Ryoukou project. tenkenX6 checked the dialog, songs, and signs and revised them extensively. M74 timed. I edited and typeset. BeeBee and Nemesis QCed. The raw is a full HD web stream. I don't think it deserves such high resolution - I prefer watching it at 720p or 540p - but it's easier to downscale in a player than to upscale.
If I sound disappointed in Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita, that's because I am. I would have liked a real continuation of the main story, carrying forward Meijou High's baseball quest in true Adachi Mitsuru fashion. Instead, it uses the trite "it was all a dream" trope to spin a yarn and then throw the whole concoction away. Still, if you'd like one last visit with Kasumi, Katsuhiko, and Yuusaku, then Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita is your cup of tea. You can find Kasumi at the usual torrent sites or download it from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news in irc.rizon.net
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January 24, 2020, 5:33 am
I haven't done a status update in a while, and the news isn't good. Most of Orphan's projects, or potential projects, are stalled for lack of resources, notably translation checking and encoding. Here's what's "on the slipways":- Senya Ichiya Monogatari, Blu-ray version. In RC.
- Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band. Encoded; translated. In editing and typesetting. BUT... this title could use a better encode, because it is badly interlaced.
- Fighting Beauty Wulong. This will be Orphan's next series project. The existing Hong Kong DVD subs are awful. Translated; encoded. In timing.
- Blue Sonnet. Encoded; translated; timed. In editing and typesetting.
That's it. Next, stalled at translation checking - encoding, translation, timing are done:- Bakumatsu no Spasibo
- Genji Pt 1
- Makoto-chan the Movie
- Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve (also needs re-encoding from uncompressed capture)
- Nayuta
- (Maris) The Choujo
Next, stalled at translation - encoded and pre-timing are done:- Bocchan (TV special)
- DAYS OVAs 2016
- Magma Taishi (Ambassador Magma)
- Mellow
- Raiyantsuurii no Uta
- Sanada 10 ep 10-12
- Sugata Sanshiro
- Tengai Makyou
- Tezuka Osamu Kyoto Animation Theater Works
Next, stalled at encoding. These include R2J DVD ISOs, Domesday Duplicator LD captures, and uncompressed VHS captures. - VHS - Yamizaki: Long Distance Call; Oedo ga Nemurenai!; Rail of the Stars; Tottoi: Secret of the Seals; Okama Report (only vol 1 and 2 so far); Shin Dousei Jidai- Hawaiian Breeze; Kentauros no Densetsu; Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve
- LD - Super Real Mahjong
- R2J DVD - Amatsuki; Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de 2: Shiroki Ryuu no Miko; One Pound Gospel; Mars OVA; Sanada 10 ep 10-12; Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament
- HD web rips - Sangokushi movies (need frame rate transcode); Saiyuuki 1960 (needs downscaling from 1080p to 720p); Nine OVAs (need black borders clipped off)
Many of the titles to be encoded already have scripts and could be started pretty quickly. However, all of Orphan's sources tend to be problematic; every analog capture, and even the DVDs, require detailed analysis and hand tweaking, unfortunately.
Finally, I would like to help Erik at Piyo Piyo Productions out by creating new versions of titles he's recently recaptured on the Domesday Duplicator: Exper Zenon, Amon Saga, and Stardust Paradise.
So Orphan needs staff, of all kinds: translators, encoders, QCs (particularly an RC), but yes, even editors and typesetters - I'm now the bottleneck on too many projects. If you're interested, and you know what you're doing, please contact me or other staff members on IRC.
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February 8, 2020, 4:47 am
Here is the Orphan's third version of Tezuka Osamu's 1969 "erotic cartoon"Senya Ichiya Monogatari, usually translated as 1001 Nights. The first was based on topfh's excellent but upscaled DVD rip; the second on a high-definition web stream; and this one on the UK Blu-ray. Each version has improved over the previous one, but as with Cleopatra, three versions of the same anime is a lot. I hope this release is definitive.
I'm not going to rehash my previous blog posts about Senya. Ithas the virtues and defects of later Tezuka Osamu "entertainments," with a lot more nudity and sex. The plot meanders all over the place, and the movie could have been shortened without much loss. However, the stylistic variability helps to keep it visually interesting, and the individual set pieces are usually engaging. There are frequent "easter eggs" to reward the movie buff. For example, the titanic confrontation between the three-eyed giant and the equally gigantic bird Loplop is a direct tribute to the fight between King Kong and a pterodactyl in the original 1933 movie. For me, it's best to treat Senya Ichiya Monogatari like a chapter book, taking it in small doses. This helps to tame its extreme length and makes it possible to appreciate the scenes and set pieces individually.So what's new in this version that makes it worthwhile to download and watch it yet again? Several things.- A long and informative interview with Yamamoto Eiichi, the director of both Senya Ichiya Monogatari and Cleopatra. Yamamoto has great stories to tell about the movies themselves and his collaboration with Tezuka Osamu. His portrait of Tezuka is not always flattering, but it's always interesting.
- The original trailer. This makes it clear that the erotic content was front and center to both the creation of and the marketing campaign for the Animerama movies.
- The commentary track by Helen McCarthy, author of the excellent and informative The Art of Osamu Tezuka. She provides insightful comments on the movie and its individual scenes. She is particularly good in highlighting the (for the time) innovative imagery.
- "Remastered" video and audio. Frankly, I don't find either of them an improvement over the prior releases. The video did not look good at "full HD", despite the alleged remastering, so this release still uses 1280 width.
- Official subtitles. And therein lies a story.
The official subs for Cleopatra are quite good, so I had high hopes for the official subs for Senya. The fansub translator, convexity, thought they could be the default... until we looked at them. They're terrible: stilted, awkward, and, most surprisingly, full of grammar and translation errors. A sample:- "Miriam" is translated as "Milliam." There's no excuse for this: Japanese has an "r" sound but no "l".
- "He might've been a guinea pig in his before life." Not "previous life"?
- "This will do to every women." Uh, "This will do for any woman" or "This will do for all women"?
- "So shall be it." How about something in English like "It shall be so" or "So shall it be"?
- "They both said same thing." What happened to "the same thing"?
- "We both seem lost." This is a fine sentence, but it's clear from context that the line is "We both seem to have lost."
- "All hell is going to break lose." No, it's loose.
- "I'll witness like that." Do they mean "testify"?
- "So what you say a big thing is this, huh?" I'm not sure I can even parse this one. Maybe "So this is what you meant by something big, huh?"
I could go on and on.
Accordingly, Orphan's fansubs are the default subtitles. For those who want to get the full BD experience, the official subs are included in two versions: untouched PGS and extensively edited and styled. This means the movie has six tracks:- Video (default).
- Japanese audio (default).
- English commentary audio.
- English fansubs (default).
- Edited and typeset English official subs.
- Original PGS official subs.
The interview and trailer have four tracks: video (default), Japanese audio (default), edited and typeset official subs (default), and PGS official subs.
For this release, M74 obtained the Blu-ray, ripped and OCRed the official subtitles, and encoded the movie and features. ninjacloud retimed the fansubs and the features; Yogicat retimed the official subs. I edited the official subs and features and typeset (mostly in the trailer). BeeBee QCed. The fansub credits are unchanged.
So here's the Blu-ray version of Senya Ichiya Monogatari. Even if you found the previous versions sufficient, you'll want this version for the extras and the commentary track. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
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February 21, 2020, 1:36 pm
Korean drama Parasite's underdog win at this years Oscars has triggered anew the debate about subtitles versus dubbing. As this article in Vox explains, the subs vs dubs argument has now spilled over into the film scene, to the amusement or chagrin of anime fans, who thrashed this through decades ago, without reaching a conclusion.
I'm not going to rehash the arguments about anime. Between fansubbing and later simultaneous streaming, subtitled anime has basically won. Most Japanese anime is released in the US with only subtitles. Dubbing is expensive - script development, additional actors. The margins in the licensing business won't support the extra costs, except for massive mainstream hits, which are few and far between, or studios with money to burn, like Disney.
Fifteen years ago, when the sub versus dub argument in anime was still raging, I was decidedly anti-dub. I had watched too many dubs that were marred by bad acting and/or inaccurate scripts. (Besides, I'm an editor, so I wanted there to be words for me to work on.) Now, I'm more open. A good dub makes an anime accessible to a wider audience. I don't feel there's any sacrilege in replacing the Japanese voice actors, if the underlying meaning of the lines is preserved. As Miyazaki Hayao remarked, anime in dubbed in Japanese too.
For me, an example of a good dub is the Disney/Ghibli Howl's Moving Castle. The English voice cast is superb, and the script follows the Japanese pretty well. Of course, the Japanese voice cast is superb too. I've watched Howl's Moving Castle both ways, and I like them equally. On the other hand, the dub for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya bothers me considerably - not because of the voice cast, but because of the script. (I documented my misgivings here.)
I consider foreign-language films to be a completely different case than anime. An anime character has no "real" voice. It may have a familiar voice, through repeated viewing, but everything is dubbed. The mouth movements are somewhat abstract, and they can fit reasonably well with different languages. If Japanese anime is dubbed into English, or US animation is dubbed into Japanese, the key question to me is the quality of the script and the performances.On the other hand, a film actor does have a real voice, and that's the voice I want to hear. I don't want any dissonance between the mouth movements or the facial expressions and what I'm hearing. The "one inch barrier," as Parasite's director Bong Joon-ho called it, is no barrier to me. I read fast, and I don't find the subs distracting. For me, the dub is the barrier and the distraction. If I'm expecting to see and hear Jean-Paul Belmondo or Toshiro Mifune, and instead I see that face speaking English, the movie's spell is broken.Fortunately for me, English dubs of foreign-language films are rather rare. The US market for such films is small, and the incremental expenses for dubbing are not supportable. The reverse is not true. US films, particularly blockbusters, are frequently dubbed for overseas markets. (Disney's Frozen was dubbed in at least 30 languages, for example.) Japanese seiyuu often have dubbing credits on their resumes; it's no different than anime work, really.
Will the paucity of English dubs change over time, perhaps triggered by Parasite's success? I'm skeptical. Unless or until a foreign-film turns into a US-based blockbuster and spawns a franchise, economics will dictate subtitling. I hope it stays that way.
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