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Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Man (Aoki Honoo v2)
Aoki Honoo is a one-shot OVA from 1989, based on a six-volume manga by Yanagasawa Kimio, a prolific mangaka who is almost unknown in the West. It was translated by Random Masters and released by ACR...
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Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), Volume 1
Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts) is an anthology of ghost stories, mostly set at schools. Seven volumes were released between 1995 and 1999. Each volume has multiple, independent stories. Because...
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Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), Volume 2
Starting with volume 2, Gakkou no Yuurei began including live-action segments. Why? No idea. Perhaps live-action is less expensive to make. However, I find it disconcerting, and the special-effects are...
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Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou
It's rare that I am totally baffled by an anime, but this one managed to do it. A one episode OVA from 1991, Mahjong Hishouden: Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou (Flying Legend of Mahjong: The Calling...
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OL Kaizou Kouza
Here's a ripe/overripe/rancid piece of Japanese misogyny from 1990, OL Kaizou Kouza (Office Lady Remodeling Course). The AniDB blurb attempts to cast it as a wacky comedy. It's not. At best, it's...
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Happy Holidays from Orphan Fansubs
Well, it's that time of the year again. In the immortal words of Otis B. Driftwood, "Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor."This...
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In Memorian (Cat-Eyed Boy Episodes 7-8)
Between the Halloween release of Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 4, 5, and 6, and this Christmas release of episodes 7 and 8, the anime world lost two major contributors of particular relevance to this show: the...
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Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas
Orphan doesn't often do holiday releases and has never done a Christmas show, as best I can remember, so here's a first: the 1991 shoujo OVA Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas (A Christmas in January). This...
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Natsufuku no Shoujo-tachi
As I wrote in my blog post on Kuro ga Ita Natsu artists have grappled for more than a century with the problem of presenting massive tragedies, such as the atomic bombings or the Holocaust, in ways...
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Plastic Little
Let's face it: the world does not need another version of the 1994 OVA Plastic Little. kuraze spent years wrestling decent video from the DVD releases, and his version is unlikely to be surpassed...
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2024 in Review
A year of retreads and repeats, none of them good: War in Ukraine. War in the Middle East. Famine in Sudan. Famine in Gaza. Covid and flu and RSV, oh my. Donald Trump, the once-and-future president....
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Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), volume 3
Let's start out 2025 on a scary note, 'cause it's gonna be a scary year. Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), volume 3, features more supernatural doings on Japanese school campuses. (How come the schools...
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Seirei Tsukai (Elementalors)
Seirei Tsukai (Elementalors), not to be confused with Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance, is a one-shot OVA based on a manga by Okazaki Takeshi, who also wrote Explorer Woman Ray. Released in 1995, it was...
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Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), volume 4
More ghostly doings in Japanese schools. Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), volume 4, is much like volume 3: six segments of about the same length, both animation and live-action.The six segments in...
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Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai: Tsuyoshi no Time Machine de Shikkari Shinasai
My Discord colleagues in the Inka kairetsu have a dismissive term for the vast bulk of anime that is neither outstanding nor outstandingly bad: they call it mid. A mid anime won't knock your socks off,...
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Mikosuri Han Gekijou
Mikosuri Han Gekijou dates from 2013. It's basically a collection of short (30-40 second) dirty jokes grouped together by setting. It's based on a 4-panel comic strip of the same name by Iwatani Tenho....
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Sakyou Komatsu's Animation Theater
Another anthology show, far better than the last one... Sakyou Komatsu (1931-2011) was a Japanese science fiction author and screenwriter, best known in the West for his novels Japan Sinks and Sayonara...
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Toraemon
In 1985, the victory of the Hanshin Tigers in the Japan Championship, the equivalent of the US World Series, occasioned a one-shot OVA, Toraemon (Tiger Man), celebrating/lampooning the team's success....
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Zetsuai 1989 v2
Redoing Zetsuai 1989 was not in this year's plan (or any year's, for that matter), but when WOWmd did a new Domesday Duplicator rip of the laserdisc, that set the ball rolling. A few timing adjustments...
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Tistou Midori no Oyayubi
Tistou Midori no Oyayubi (Tistou of the Green Thumbs) is a 1990 movie, based on a beloved French children's novel by Maurice Druon. It tells the story of a boy, Titsou. He's the son of a rich factory...
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Utsu no Miko
Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko (Heaven Chapter: Prince of the Skies), commonly called just Utsu no Miko, is a well-known OVA series, released in 13 installments between 1990 and 1992 and fully subtitled....
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Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko
And now the other shoe drops. Orphan presents the first English-subtitled release of the movie version of Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko (Prince of the Skies: Heaven Chapter). The movie, released in 1990...
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Tanjou: Debut
Tanjou: Debut (Birth: Debut) is a two-episode shoujo OVA from 1994. It was originally subbed in the VHS-fansub era. Its two stories revolve around a quartet of high school girls - Ito Aki, Tanaka Kumi,...
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Reader's Digest Condensed Anime - Cello Hiki no Gauche (1998)
Some Japanese stories are so beloved that the have been made into an anime many times. One of them is Miyazawa Kenji's Cello Hiki no Gauche (Gauche the Cellist), with at least five anime...
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Condensed Anime Take 2 - Hashire Melos 1979
Just like Cello Hiki no Gauche, Hashire Melos is a beloved Japanese story. Written in 1940 by Dazai Osamu, known for the novels No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Hashire Melos has been brought to...
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