Sunday, July 15, 2018

Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou

Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou (Singles Apartment Dokudami-sou) is a very ecchi, not to say rather sketchy, three-part OVA from 1989. It was one of the very first laserdiscs that ics- ripped when he joined Orphan; it was encoded more than two years ago. However, no translator wanted to touch the material. Getting a subtitled version seemed hopeless, so Orphan released it in raw form last September. Then intrepid translator Moho Kareshi surfaced after his 18-month-long marathon translating all 136 episodes of the Oishinbo TV show. He said he was ready to help clear up Orphan's backlog, and he chose Dokushin as his first project. Accordingly, Orphan can now bring you this long-neglected show, although this just might be an instance of the old adage, "Let sleeping dogs lie."

Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou chronicles the so-called life of Hori Yoshio, apartment house resident and horny schlub. Yoshio has no talents, no prospects, and no apparent goals, except to get drunk and get laid. His appearance is undistinguished, and his personal hygiene is very questionable. (He tends to drool from his nose and mouth at the sight of a pretty girl.) 


The three OVAs provide five unrelated episodes from Yoshio's life:
  • UFO-chan. A pretty but mentally deficient young woman, who thinks she came from the sky, takes up residence in Yoshio's room. Yoshio is torn between his desire to sleep with her and his wish to protect her, sometimes simultaneously. This episode is double length.
  • Death Trap. Yoshio meets Shinobu, a beautiful a woman who thinks that her sexual partners are cursed to die within a week. Yoshio proves more than willing to test the curse, with near-fatal results.
  • Charge! Adventures of the Okutama Explorers! On a camping trip with his friends Rokuta and Hiromi, Yoshio stumbles over a nubile and willing young woman, who is not at all what she seems to be.
  • Tokyo Lullaby. Yoshio "assists" two young lovers by setting the boy up with another woman and persuading the girl to take a job at a brothel.
  • Visitor at Midnight. Yoshio has an unexpected visit from his childhood crush. Their romantic tryst takes a supernatural turn.
The stories are definitely NSFW, full of nudity and sex. The first, UFO-chan, is the skeeviest of the bunch, as Yoshio and his buddy have no compunction about trying to take advantage of a mentally deficient girl and are only thwarted (repeatedly) by adverse circumstances. It is also too long. The others work better. In all the episodes, Yoshio ends up getting his just desserts.

Because of the episodic nature of the show, the voice cast is extensive:
  • Futamata Issei (Yoshio) is best known for his roles as Godai Yuusaku in Maison Ikkoku, Akira (Chibi) in Urusei Yatsura, and Saburo in Sazae-san. He also played the psychopathic brother Cross in Hi-Speed Jecy, an Orphan release. He recently appeared in Gurazeni.
  • The late Tsuru Hiromi (UFO-chan) 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 and Jill in A Penguin's Memories, both Orphan releases.
  • Ikura Kazue (Shinobu) had leading roles in the City Hunter and All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku franchises. She also played Kuroeda Keiko in Aoki Honoo, an Orphan release.
  • Takada Yumi (Yumi the barkeeper) played Yoshinaga-sensei in many of the Crayon Shin-chan movies and Ayeka in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She also appeared as Saya and Monmo in Cosmic Fantasy and Purinpurin in Hoshi Neko Full House, both Orphan releases.
  • Anzai Masahiro (Rokuta) played appeared as Cherenkov in Starship Troopers, an Orphan release.
  • Yamaguchi Ken (Hiromi) appeared in Yamato 2520, Hoshi Neko Full House, and Condition Green, all Orphan releases.
The music tends to be comic honky-tonk, befitting the tone, but the ending songs by The Hero Band are fairly bluesy, reflecting Yoshio's prospects.

A few translation notes: 

Episode 1:
  • "New squeeze." Yoshio uses kore (これ - "this") reversed (こ) with a raised pinky, indicating a girlfriend.
  • "Get it on with her." Osamu uses manko (まんこ - "pussy") reversed (こーまん), indicating sex.
  • "I want to eat shabu-shabu." Yuuho mistakes shabu (amphetamines) for shabu-shabu (hot pot).
  • "A-A chestnut and a squirrel?" A pun on kuritorisu (clitoris) and kuri to risu (chestnut and squirrel).
Episode 2:
  • Shinobi describes herself as a bad luck fortune, like the o-mikuji visitors draw at Shinto festivals.
Moho Kareshi translated the dialog and signs. Sunachan translated the songs and checked a few lines (under duress). laalg did a much more extensive check and provided more translation notes. Yogicat timed; I edited and typeset. VigorousJammer and Calyrica did QC; M74 encoded. ics- ripped the show from his own laserdisc collection.

So if you're ready for a dip in the slimy end of the pool, you can get Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.



2 comments:

  1. You've mentioned that Moho Kareshi translated all 136 episodes of Oishinbo. Have they been publicly released?

    ReplyDelete