Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro

In for a penny, in for a pound. Knack's 1989 OVA Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro (A Good Time for an Adventure) is the second back-catalog show I persuaded (or traded with) Erobeat to do; the first was Junk Boy. By coincidence, Bouken Shite is sometimes called "Junk Boy II," for no particularly good reason. They're derived from comics by different mangaka; they come from different studios; and they carry different ratings (R vs X). Perhaps the common factor is the prominent role of the protagonist's oversized junk in both stories.

Bouken Shite was an example of a now-vanished category, the hentai comedy; others included Lunatic Night and Karakuri Ninja Girl. It had a lot of nudity and sex and even required some censorship, although it was tame by current standards. But it was also full of incidents, characters, and jokes. As with Junk Boy, I suspected that the translation needed improvement. I asked a friend to make new raws from R2J DVD ISOs and Perevodildo to rework the Erobeat scripts. This release is the result. Because it is quite NSFW, it's being released under the Okizari sublabel.

Our hero is nineteen-year-old Kogane Junpei, an aspiring filmmaker and, alas (from his point of view), a virgin. In the first episode, his high-school senpai, Ishikawa Toshio, persuades Junpei to postpone college and go to work for Apollo Productions, a debt-ridden AV (adult video) company - not in a technical role, but as an actor. When he arrives at the company, he is met by a beautiful, brisk young woman named Wakaba Miwa. She measures him for the job. When his adolescent reflexes behave as hoped, she reveals that she is directing Apollo's next production, "Love Juice Angel," which will pair Junpei with established porn star Shinohara Chie. When filming starts, Junpei is unable to perform. He has fallen in love with Miwa and doesn't want to lose his virginity in front of her. Chie takes Junpei off-site and seduces him. Now properly experienced, Junpei and Chie complete filming. "Love Juice Angel" is a success and rescues Apollo from the clutches of its moneylenders.

However, it doesn't last. By the second episode, Apollo is out of cash again. All the men go to work as "hosts" in a seedy club, where Junpei attracts the eye of actress Mina Yoshiko. She promises to help him. He also rescues a young idol, Mikami Shoko, from some street punks. Mina proposes making a movie, financed by her current lover, zillionaire Nanbu Daigo, and directed by her ex-husband, "grand fromage" director Shibuya Shozo. Daigo is unconvinced that the mature Yoshiko has the sex appeal to power a major movie. He challenges her to get young Junpei aroused. When a session of near-public sex demonstrates the strength of both her appeal and Junpei's equipment, Daigo agrees to finance the movie. Mina hires Mikami as the ingenue, Shibuya Shozo as director, and the entire Apollo team as crew. The male lead's inadequate endowment fails to get method actress Mina into the mood; Junpei replaces him. Then Shozo collapses; Miwa steps is an director and replaces him. The Apollo team saves the movie, which becomes a major success. Junpei has realized his dream of working in mainstream films, if not exactly in the way he imagined.

Again, it doesn't last. In the third episode, Apollo is reduced to "guerilla filming" (filming without permits) in Tokyo trains. But then director Shibuya's secretary, Ogawa Masako, still a virgin at 20, asks to co-star with Junpei is Apollo's next AV film. After she demonstrates her sex appeal to Apollo President Ujiki Masami, a film is planned around her defloration. However, both Shozo and his assistant, Gonda, are secretly in love with Masako. They kidnap and imprison her. The Apollo crew mount a rescue operation. After martial exchanges and secret moves, in which Shibuya threatens Miwa's virtue as retaliation for the proposed film, Gonda and Masako show that they are joined by the red string of fate, as well as by outright lust. Despite all the fetish fanservice, the episode ends happily. Gonda and Masako get married, while Junpei demonstrates, in his usual unsuitable way, that Miwa is the only girl for him. 

One indicator that Bouken Shite is "old school" that it requires translation notes. In episode 1:

• "But he's pretty shy. How cute!" Miwa calls Junpei's junk houkei-chan. Houkei means phimosis and the condition leading up to it (abundant foreskin). Here, she likely means "You're not circumcised, and the head hides under the foreskin], but Junpei mistakes it for the actual medical condition, which requires medical intervention.

Episode 2:

• "I chased after rabbits on that mountain"... A children's song.
• "And also complement it with a hag and a newbie." Literally, "And her costars are an obatarian and a clear." Obatarian is "a rude, selfish middle-aged woman", a blend of おばさん and バタリアン. "Clear' probably means that her CV is clear.
• "This is the terrifying Ashura for you!" She says {恐怖の阿修羅だ, literally "Ashura of horror." Ashura has hands and faces on all sides, as Mina does when she's spinning.

Episode 3:

• "Like, for example, a girl who says, 'You're kiwi, papaya, and mango." Another song reference.
• "I always play that 'Virgin Search' game in magazines." A section that ran in the men's magazine "Weekly Jewel" from 1981 to 1996. It included pictures of a dozen girls, and the reader had to guess by the photo alone whether the girl was a virgin or not. The results were printed on a separate page. More information here.
• "Where are you from? From Higo..." More information here. 
• "It's 'Captain'! Call me Captain." A pun on shacho (president) vs taicho (captain).
• "Wh-What's that? It wasn't in the original manga!" Breaking the fourth wall to comment on changes anime adaptations make to source material.

As if often the case with Knack's productions, the voice cast is laced with aliases, and some of the seiyuu don't appear in anime databases or come from the AV world.

• Morimura Asuka (Wakaba Miwa) was an AV actress. Her ther anime credits include Okama Report, an Orphan/Okizari release, and Korogashi Ryouta.
• Aoyama Hiroshi (Kogane Junpei) played Captain Jun in Blood Royale. Otherwise, he did storyboards and direction.
• Ooizuma Akira (Ishikawa Toshio, Junpei's senpai) played Daikichi in Asatte Dance and Mama-san in Okama Report, both Orphan/Okizari releases.
• Gouri Daisuke as Iguchi Satoru (Ujiki Masami, CEO) played Hoshinaga in Koiko no Mainichi, Kei Saijou in Wolf Guy, Mimi in Okama Report, Bancho in Rain Boy, Jubei in Maris the Chojo, the bartender in Nora Twinkle Rock Me, Bazoo in Bavi Stock, Fatty in Condition Green, the Public Safety Director in Dallos, Sabatini in Hi-Speed Jecy, Taki Seisai in Hidamari no Ki, Ryuusaku in Stop! Hibari-kun, and a bit part in Doukushin Apartment Doukudami-sou, all Orphan releases. He also played Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball Z, Judge in Enma Ou, and Robin Mask in the Kiniikuman franchise.
• Ogata Kenichi, alias Ozaki Junichi, (Boss Kanekura, the yakuza loan shark, and director Shibuya) played the put-upon father in Maroko, Suzuki in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance call, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga Nai!, the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, Chichi's father in Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, the business chief in Okama Hakusho, Tadinori Tachimi, the Terayama family lawyer, in Asatte Dance, and the Narrator/Lord of Kaga in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, all Orphan releases. He also played Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken and Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. 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.
• Toyomaru (Mina Yoshiko) was an AV actress. She appeared in Yaruki Manman, another hentai.
• Fujisawa Marino (Mikami Shoko, Ogawa Masako) was an AV actress and illustrator.

Ochiai Masamune, the director of episodes 1 and 3, also directed Don Dracula, Asatte Dance, and the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVA series. Nitta Yoshikata, the director of episode 2, also directed Eien no Filena and Haru o Daite Ita. The OP and ED are by a group called Paris Texas and are very appropriate.

The original Erobeat scripts were credited to Voldemort. I shifted them onto the new raws. Perevodildo revised them extensively and fixed the timing. I edited and typeset. Paul Geromini and an anonymous contributor QCed. The encoder also wished to remain anonymous. He noted:

Footage was pretty good with only slight treatment for errant halo'ing and rainbowing applied. There was also some moderate dot-crawl throughout that was reduced to the extent possible without harming detail. VFR again to preserve smooth motion in parts as there were some interlaced video-processed text effects and various live action cam footage mixed in to the telecined main film, particularly in episode 01, which included a fair bit of chroma key compositing (green screen) effects. Filesize is a bit heavy, but keep in mind each episode has a roughly ~45 minute runtime. 

He also wrote, "I was [a] bit surprised to see a homage to Yasunori Kato (Teito Monogatari / Doomed Megalopolis) during the climax of episode 03; however, upon reflection, it makes sense, as the novel series and film adaptation had been very popular domestically within the year or two prior to this OVA's production. Funny enough, the novel's OVA wouldn't be released for another year after this series, which may mark it as the actual first time the character's likeness would be animated. A rather dubious honor."

So... a new version of Bouken Shite mo II Koro, with an improved translation, much more typesetting, better encodes, and the same plethora of slapstick, nudity, and sex. If this appeals to you - and you wouldn't still be reading if didn't - you can download the show from the NSFW side of the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume

Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume (Charming Magical Girl Trio) is a 1986 crossover special between three canonical 1980s mahou shoujo series from Studio Pierrot: Magical Star Magical Emi, Magical Fairy Persia, and Magical Angel Creamy Mami. This OVA has no reason to exist, and Orphan had no reason to sub it, but here it is anyway. Orphan has rarely dipped its keyboards into the mahou shoujo genre. I have never watched any of Adesugata's parent series. So what gives?

As far as I can recall with my imperfect memory, Adesugata was one of the first laserdiscs that Orphan's media maven worked with after acquiring a Domesday Duplicator in early 2020. VobSubs were available from ARR's 2011 release. It was easy enough to OCR the subs, shift them to the new raw, and style. And then the project stalled out for five years. No one wanted to translation check, and I didn't want to put more work into the project. Finally, after running through Orphan's entire translation backlog, including all the Young Animator Training Project raws, Perevodildo turned in a new script out of the blue. (I think he was inoculating himself against ever working on mahou shoujo again.) I was out of excuses and did my share. I still don't understand exactly what I watched.

The story begins with the three principals relaxing at a hot spring, enjoying some well-earned rest, relaxation, and hot pot. 

As they eat, they randomly transform into teenagers. They have to run to the baths and incant a tongue twister to transform back. They then take turns presenting brief excerpts from their respective series. 

The pretext is that they'll each call their boyfriend and introduce him to the other two girls. All three boyfriends were played by the same seiyuu, the three magical girls sound alike, the same jokes get repeated, the video isn't related to the dialogue at all, and when the dialog runs out, the last couple of minutes of each flashback video are play over genki background music. It's hard to follow if you're not a fan.

The voice cast is drawn from the three parent series.

• Tominaga Miina (Hayami Persia) played Ritsu in Fruits Basket (2002), Rollpanna in the Anpanman franchise, and Misaki in Tsuritama. She also played Ito Aki in I, Muuma in Bavi Stock, Kamiya in Tokimeki Tonight, Hikaru in Chameleon, Karen in Yuukan Club, Cresson in Star Dust, Eri in Karuizawa Syndrome, and Kaguya-hime in Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko, all Orphan releases. 
• Oota Takako (Morisawa Yuu/Creamy Mami) played Rikimaru in Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu, an Orphan release.
• Obata Youko (Kazuki Mai/Magical Emi) only appeared in the Magical Emi franchise.
• Mizushima Yuu (Riki, Persia's boyfriend; Shou, Emi's boyfriend; Toshio, Mami's boyfriend) played the title roles in Ai no Senshi Rainbowman, God Mars, and Guyver: Out of Control. He also played the title role in Bander Book, Makabe Shun in Tokimeki Tonight, Shukumaru in Fire Tripper, and Dai-chan in Katte ni Shirokuma, all Orphan releases. 

The director, Annou Takashi, directed all of the Magical Emi franchise, as well as Maison Ikkoku and the magnificent Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.

Just for reference, the tongue twisters are:

• "Blue scroll, red scroll, yellow scroll!" (Aomakigami, akamakigami, kiimakigami) 
• "Bamboo bush got burned." (Takeyabu yaketa, actually a Japanese palindrome) 
• "The other guest eats persimmons." (Tonari no kyaku ha yoku kakikuu kyaku da)
• "Toukyou patent office." (Toukyou tokkyo kyokakyoku)
• "Frogs hopping, three hops, gather hopping, six hops." (kaeru pyokopyoko mi pyokopyoko awasete pyokopyoko mu pyokopyoko)

The last apparently does the trick.

The base script is from ARR, from an R1 VHS release. Someone lost in the mists of time OCRed the subs and shifted them to the new raw. Perevodildo translation-checked and fine-timed. I edited and typeset. Muzussawa, in her first Orphan project, Nemesis, and Uchuu QCed. The encoder wishes to remain anonymous. It's early DdD, and there are artifacts from the decoding process.

Not much else to say about this show. If mahou shoujo is your jam, you might find this an interesting pendant to the classic 1980s series. If not, it will have no appeal. (You can guess where I fall.) In either case, you can get Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

 

Another Yawara! Milestone

After more than a decade, the Yawara! Blu-ray project has reached a significant milestone: all 124 TV episodes, as well as the movie and the Atlanta special, are subbed. Our plucky heroine has been tricked by her grandad, misconstrued Matsuda's intentions, and thrown her trademark Ippon Zeoi, for the last time in anime form.

It's been a long journey, and I've written about it at several points along the way. In addition, kokujin-kun has written an excellent summary of the whole extended enterprise. So extended that, last year, I began to despair of ever seeing the show finished. I threw a tantrum in the staff channel and said that if the show wasn't done by the end of 2025, I was quitting the project. Whether because of that ultimatum, or a sense of impending doom after the US elections, the last 25% of the project was done in less than a year, whereas the preceding 75% had taken more than nine years.

At this point I've seen (and edited) all the episodes once, and about half of them twice, plus the movie and the special. The show is a cross between a sports shounen and a romcom. Judo phenom Inokuma Yawara wants to quit; her conniving grandfather Jigoro schemes to get her to be in more tournament; Yawara trounces everyone. Sports reporter Matsuda moons over Yawara but ruins his chance with her by focusing on her judo instead of her feminine charms. Yawara's eternal rival Honami Sayaka vows to be revenged on Yawara for previous losses; Sayaka's coach and unfaithful fiance Kazamatsuri fantasizes over running away with Yawara. Stir and repeat.

I've already provided CVs for seiyuu playing the primary and secondary roles, so I won't repeat them here. Likewise, I've written about the wonderful colleagues whom I worked with on both the DVD and Blu-ray projects; kokujin-kun as provided a comprehensive summary, including the original Live-eviL project, in his release post.

The staff evolved over time, as inevitably happens in such a long project. That led to some lapses in continuity and consistency, so there will be quite a few fixes needed in the batch release. But they're all minor. If you want to watch Yawara!, the current set of episodes are just fine. And I - who dislike both sports anime and shounen anime - think you should watch the show: for the characters, for the comedy, for the romance, and yes, even for the judo. It's hard for me to explain why I like Yawara! so much. Perhaps I've grown accustomed to her face.

So let's leave off at this point, with Yawara striding determinedly toward her next challenge.

On behalf of the entire team, thanks for watching. 

Shibuya Honky-Tonk

Orphan started on the 1988 OVA Abe George Kattobi Seishun Ki: Shibuya Honky Tonk, or Tales from Abe George's Stormy Youth: Shibuya Honky Tonk (for brevity, Shibuya Honky Tonk), almost a year ago. However, after preparing scripts, the translator pronounced anathema on the project: "I found this very hard to even watch, let alone work with, and hated every second of it." That seemed sufficiently damning to me. I shelved the project and released the encodes in raw form. Well, Translator's Remorse (a cousin of Editor's Remorse) soon made its appearance. It seemed the scripts weren't so bad, after all. With a little more work, a usable release was possible. Accordingly, the project was restarted.

Shibuya Honky Tonk purports to be the autobiography of young Abe George, an author and TV personality, who died in 2017. As he himself admitted, "About 10% of it is true, and the rest is exaggerated and dramatized." The anime claims that he joined a yakuza gang as a teenager and then had various scrapes and adventures, as dramatized in the OVA's four episodes. Each episode is introduced by the author himself.

1. "Young Yakuza Wannabe." Naoya is an oversized, precocious, and crooked high-school student. He wants to join a yakuza gang, because it looks exciting, and he'll have a better chance at hooking up with girls.
   
   
   
   
   He manages to impress an underboss named Kingo at the Todo Group, and he meets a pretty (and willing) girl named Yuko.
   
   
   
   
   But when she is threatened by a rival gang, he draws a weapon and wounds one of his antagonists. This makes him a liability, and he's sent to the UK (he has rich and influential parents) until the affair blows over.
   
   
2. "Digression: Studying in the UK." Enrolled in a public (that is, private) school, Naoya blows off his studies and spends his time fleecing his fellow students and screwing available girls.
   
   
   
   
   Expelled for his antics, he winds up as a gofer at a Japanese news bureau. He's promoted to assistant photographer and shows real zeal to get scoops. This allows a senior reporter to entice Naoya into infiltrating a secret British air force base as an unwitting spy.
   
   
   
   
   Naoya wreaks havoc and ends up getting expelled from the country.
   
   
3. "First Fight Back Home." Naoya is now a full-fledged underling (goon) for the Todo Group. Reunited with Yuko, he nonetheless finds time to bed other girls and get into scrapes. He undertakes various enforcement missions in the company of other young Todo hoods, eventually attempting to coerce a rival group's profitable poker game.
   
   
   
   
   This almost ends in a shootout, but Naoya bluffs his way out.
   
   
4. "Introduction to Yakuza Economics." Naoya starts specializing in cons and scams.
   
   
   
   
   He forges and sells counterfeit tickets to a popular event. He shakes down courting couples in the park. He organizes a fake recruiting event for a non-existing host club, pocketing the application fees. Eventually, he organizes a truly large-scale fraud, but the scheme falls apart.
   
   
   
   
   As the show closes, he's sent to a juvenile detention facility.

It's not in the least believable, but there's plenty of violence, nudity, and sex to keep the audience diverted from the implausibility of the plot. In addition, the show exudes a sort of smugness, from the live-action introductions by Abe George himself, to the glamorization of yakuza life. Still, Abe George wasn't all piss and wind. Based on his experiences as a young prisoner, he wrote the manga Rainbow: Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin, which won the 51st Shogakukan Manga Award and was made into a first-rate anime. (Full disclosure: I edited the show for Frostii.)

A few translation notes.

• Ep 1, "176cm." Naoya was 5' 9" tall at age 14. The average Japanese man in the early postwar period was 161cm tall.
• Ep 1, "Like the Toyama novels?" A series of historical novels by Jinde Tatsurou about a legendary Robin Hood-type character. 
• Ep 2, "...a game of See-Low?" A gambling game played with a set of three dice.
• Ep 2, marks at the head of the bed. The kanji 正 is used for tally marks, with each stroke representing one. There's a prescribed order for the strokes, allowing representation from one to five.
• Ep 3, "Don't forget the pride of Sakura Sogoro, you dunce." Sakura Sogoro was a legendary Japanese farmer. 
• Ep 4, "First, we had Seven Faces, then Thirteen Eyes, and now they follow up Twenty-one Fingerprints with Twenty-four Eyes?!" The first three are crime dramas about detective Tarao Bannai, played by Kataoka Chiezo. The fourth is an anti-war film based on a novel by Tsuboi Sakae, which was also made into an anime.
• Ep 4, "Boss Kingo is a sadist!" "So Boss Kingo is from Niigata?" Nao calls Kingo sado, which the other underlings think is an island in Niigata prefecture.
• Ep 4, ""I wish I could enjoy the rest of Spring..."  Death poem of Asano Nagori, feudal lord of the forty-seven ronin.

The core cast included:

• Ishimaru Hiroya (Abe George/Naoya) played Sabu, another yakuza, in Koiko no Mainichi and gave a bravura performance as the "interpreter" dog Allegro in Bremen 4, an Orphan release. He also played Rodimus Prime in the various Transformer TV shows, Sengoku Shunsuke in Cyber City Oedo 808, and Kabuto Kouji in the Mazinger Z franchise.
• Aomori Shin (Kingo Tanaka) played Solomon in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, Kurokawa in Meisou-ou Border, and Wailing Man in Cat-Eyed Boy episode 5, all Orphan releases. He played Basque Grand in both versions of Full Metal Alchemist and Gonzo in the currently airing Oi! Tonbo. He appeared in Perrine, Oishinbo, Sousei no Aquarion, the Dragon Ball franchise, and numerous other roles in a career that has spanned almost 50 years.
• Sasaki Yuko (Yuko) played the title role in Desert Rose and Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANCTUS. She played Sayoko in Aoki Honoo, Akiko/Keiko in Wolf Guy, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Exper Jiff in Exper Zenon, and she appeared in OL Kaizou Kouza, Amaama to Inazuma, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and Yousei-ou, all Orphan releases.
• Nishimura Tomomichi (Todo boss) appeared as the narrator in YuYu Hakusho, Anzai-sensei in Slam Dunk, Shibaraku Tsurugibe in Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru, and Jamitov Hymem in Mobile Suit Z Gundam. He played Ryuuichi's father in Aoki Honoo, had a cameo as Don Dracula in Bremen 4, and appeared in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Goro Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoka Naru Desho!, Fire Tripper, Fumoon, Hi-Speed Jecy, A Time Slip of 10,000 Years: Prime Rose, Tezuka Osasmu's Tales from the Old Testament, Wild 7, Wolf Guy, and Yamataro Comes Back, all Orphan releases.

Others appeared in episode-specific roles: 

• Sawaki Ikuya (Naoya's father, ep 1; male teacher, ep 2; Yajima, ep 3) played Gooley in the Dirty Pair franchise. He also played Kentaro in Ushiro no Hyakutaro, Samuel Hunter in Wolf Guy, Masayoshi Hotta in Hidamari no Ki, Barry in Joker: Marginal City, Alan in Mother: Saigo no Shoujo Eve, Itakura Shirouemon in Sanada 10, the Kaiser in Apfelland Monogatari, and Gonbei the cat in Satsujin Kippu wa Heart-iro, as well as bit parts in Dallos, Heart Cocktail, and Chameleon, all Orphan releases.
• Hirose Masashi (Morio, ep 1; Okamoto, ep 4) appeared in Tengai Makyou, Al Caral no Isan, Dallos, Nora, Kage, Wolf Guy, Junkers Come Here: Memories of You, and Kageyama Tamio's Double Fantasy, all Orphan releases.
• Arima Mizuka (Naoya's mother, ep 1) played Grandma Setsu in Oi! Tonbo, Zara in Bio Armor Ryger, Miriam in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, Mary in Starship Troopers, and a dentist in Don Dracula. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Ono Kenichi (Naoya's friend, ep 1) played Toujirou in Mikan Enikki, Shiro Shirota in Dai-Guard, Asurada in the Future GPX Cyber Formula franchise, and Touma in Dirty Pair Flash. He played Abe no Yasuna in Akuemon and Sugawara in Kindaichi movie 2, and he appeared in AWOL Compression Remix, Bavi Stock, Seikima II Humane Society, Wolf Guy, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.
• Akimoto Yousuke (bartender, ep 1) played Principal Ikebe in Mellow, Nalerov in Plastic Little, Ookubo Sagaminokami Tadachika in Sanada 10, and appeared in Apfelland Monogatari, Genji, Part 1, Wild 7, and Dokushin Apartment Dokidami-sou, all Orphan releases. He also appeared in Stratos 4, Sisters of Wellber, Princess Lover, The Sacred Blacksmith, and Black Summoner.
• Takada Yumi (Susan, ep 2) played Yoshinaga-sensei in many of the Crayon Shin-chan movies and Ayeka in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She played Saya and Monmo in Cosmic Fantasy, Purinpurin in Hoshi Neko Full House, Atover in Exper Zenon, Yumi the barkeep in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Kumaba in Body Jack,(Kurokawa Satomi in Doukyuusei: Climax, and bit parts in Cool Cool Bye and Nora, all Orphan releases. She appeared in many classic h-anime, including Adventure Kid, Angels in the Court, Balthus: Tia's Radiance, Bizarre Cage, Black Widow, La Blue Girl, Countdown, the Demon Beast and Darkness series, Dragon Knight, F3, Fencer of Minerva, Lyon Flare, Trouble Evocation, Twin Dolls, and Venus 5.
• Oikawa Hitomi (Nishina Kurumi) played Ami in the Cream Lemon franchise, Katri in Katri the Cow Girl, and Yasuko in Miyuki.
• Ishimori Takkou (principal, ep 2) played Jodu in Murder Princess, Yoshimune in Buzzer Beater, and Master Luo Wu in Cooking Master Boy. He had small parts in Fire Tripper, Akai Hayate, Aoki Honoo, Nagasaki 1945: The Angelus Bell, Hoshizora no Violin, and Wild 7, all Orphan releases.
• Arimoto Kinryuu (bureau manager, ep 2) had featured roles in numerous shows, including Psycho-Pass, Tokyo Ravens, Joshiraku, Chihayafuru, Un-Go, and Moonlight Mile. He played Kenji's father in Aoi Kioku, Ichijo Yuji in Princess Army and Ogata Kouan in Hidimari no Ki, all Orphan releases.
• Ootaki Shinya (Aoki, reporter/spy, ep 2) played Beat in Scoopers. He appeared in Aoki Honoo, Wolf Guy, Elf ,17, Hoshizora no Violin, Gakkou no Yuurei volume 1, and Hi-Speed Jecy, all Orphan releases.
• Amano Yuri (Chinese girl, ep 2) played the title role in The Legend of Snow White, Julia in Daddy Long Legs, Kiyone in the Tenchi Muyo franchise, and Moemi in Video Girl Ai. She appeared as Lady Freeze in Bakuen Campus Guardress, Catherine in Okama Hakusho, Kuzunoha in Akuemon, Angie in Condition Green, Elthena in Eien no Filena, Kitagawa in Nozomi Witches, Noriko in Singles, the teacher in Tanjou: Debut, Tonto in the Blue Knight segment of Tezuka Osamu: Kyoto Animation Works, and Yuko in St. Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, as well as multiple roles in Fukuyama Gekijou and Gakkou no Yuurei, volume 1, all Orphan releases.
• Nakamura Daiki (Otake)  (Honda Kozukenosuke Masazumi) playedthe 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. He also appeared in Mikeneko Holmes, Condition Green, AWOL Compression Remix, and Sanada 10, all Orphan releases. 
• Yamadera Kouichi  (Ushiji) played many leading roles, including Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Sukeroku in Shouwa Ginroku Rakugo Shinju, Ryouga in all the Ranma 1/2 properties, and the nameless hero of Otaku no Seiza. He played the title role in Hashire! Melos, Benten in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Almarick Aswaer in Nana Toshi Monogatari, Happyaku in Wild 7, Chiryuu in Bakuen Campus Guardress, Matsu in Koiko no Mainichi, Tsuri in Utsu no Miko, and Ryouan in Hidamari no Ki, all Orphan releases.
• Shinohara Emi (Yoshie) played B-Ko in the A-ko properties and Sailor Jupiter in the Sailor Moon franchise. She appeared as the goddess in the Unico segment of Tezuka Osamu: Kyoto Animation Works, Yuri Onagara in Blue Sonnet, vulgar daughter Stephanie in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Reiko in Akai Hayate, Lady Manthrum in Hayou no Tsurugi, a newscaster in Junk Boy, and Android 1025 in Oz, all Orphan releases.
• Tobita Nobuo (Akiyama, printer, ep 4) played Lumial in the Angelique franchise, Ken Wakashimazu in the Captain Tsubasa franchise, Randy in Fake, Sinistra in Kiddy Grade, the title role in Locke the Superman, and Dayon in Osomatsu-san. He starred as Kenichi in Houkago no Tinker Bell and appeared in Princess Army, Genji, Part 1, Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Condition Green, Eien no Filena, Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99, and Ore no Sora, all Orphan releases.
• Yamaguchi Ken (detective #1, ep 4) appeared in Asatte Dance, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Yamato 2520, Hoshi Neko Full House, Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu!, and Condition Green, all Orphan releases.
• Umezu Hideyuki (detective #2, ep 4)(Kobayakawa-sensei) played Akadama-sensei in Uchouten Kazoku and Uranos Corsica in Gangsta. He had featured roles in Asatte Dance, Star Dust, Apfelland Monogatari, Blue Sonnet, Hashire Melos, Hi-Speed Jecy, Hidamari no Ki, Nana Toshi Monogatari, Neko Neko Fantasia, Singles, the What's Michael? OVAs, Yamato 2520, Genji, Part 1, Mellow, Ushiro no Hyakutaro, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.  

The director, Ochiai Masamune, also directed Don Dracula, Asatte Dance, Bouken Shite mo Ii Goro, and the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVA series. The OP and ED are by a group called BORO and are suitably downbeat and melancholy. There's an insert song, with the only lyric apparently being, "Do it, do it, lucky boy." If there's more to the song, no one found it.

Perevodildo translated and timed; he went over the scripts multiple times, trying to parse the gangster argot. Paul Geromini edited. I typeset. Uchuu and I QCed. ImAWasteOfHair also QCed episode 1 but then dropped out. ProxyMan purchased the R2J DVDs, and an anonymous friend encoded them. The encode turned out well, with VFR used to accommodate the live-action prologues. ProxyMan got left off the fansub credits, for which I must apologize profusely.

I'm not all that fond of Shibuya Honky Tonk, but it may be some viewers' bowl of rice. (They probably like Chameleon too.) There's plenty of eye candy, it has some good comedy, and it's definitely NSFW. You can get the show from the usual torrent site and from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

 

Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills

We'll conclude this spate of Young Animator Training Project shows with a relatively recent offering, Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills, from the 2025 edition of Anime no Tane; the other shows are:

• Dive-In!, no dialog
• Sora and the Big Tree, subtitled by DmonHiro
• Trust, raw only from a web source

Galaxy Apartment is a joint Inka-Orphan release. Like all the Anime no Tane shows since 2021, it is short - under ten minutes - but it packs a lot into its runtime. It opens with an unknown man dying in a raid of some kind; but before he kicks the bucket, he launches an object into space with the words, "I'm counting on you, Cass." Cut to an apartment house on a small planetoid, where slacker Cass is the only tenant of Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills. 

He's desperately trying to make money as a "Nyantuber," but his page, about cute multi-tentacled creatures called Takochu, is getting no views at all. 

His landlord Chami stops by to demand the rent, and his mother calls to nag him about his slacker lifestyle.

Then he receives a package from "Mamazon." He's expecting meat buns from his mom, but instead, it's a baby in a prison uniform, with a spiked iron pacifier, whose sole word is "Da!"

Before Cass can figure out where the baby came from, the apartment house is surrounded by villainous shark aliens sent by the evil Captain Cigar (and the even more sinister Mother Shark):

Cass has no idea what to do, but Da uses his pacifier as a flail and trounces all the sharks (Captain Cigar too). Da is seriously OP.

Chami contributes as well, using her transforming broom against the enemy.

She then transports the apartment house, via warp drive, to Neptune. Cass has recorded all the events. When he uploads his video to Nyantube, he gets millions of views:

He's promptly banned, of course. And then the show ends, with an ominous cliffhanger. Wow!

Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills is visually inventive and narratively dense. Nothing is ever explained; for example, I only found out the identity of the unknown man in the opening sequence from the end credits. Unanswered questions abound. Who, or perhaps what, is Da? What are the villains after? Will Cass ever make any money? We'll never know.

The voice cast is first-rate:

• Kobayashi Chiaki (Cass) starred as Asakase in Sonny Boy, Yuiichi in Tomodachi Game, the title roles in Moriarty the Patriot and Ragna Crimson, Hayate in Cool Doji Danshi, Gabimaru in Jigokuraku, Stark in Sousou no Frieren, and many other roles. He played Okuninushi in the first Science Saru x MBS Original Short Anime Daisakusen short, an Orphan release.
• Kuno Misaki (Chami) starred in the title role in Aharen-san wa Hakarenai and as Touko in Hikari no Ou. She played Xialon in Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Shiori in the Non Non Biyori franchise, Hawk in the Nanatsu no Taizai franchise, and Chie in Chuck Shimezu, an Orphan release.
• Sakamoto Chika (Da) played Campanella in Night on the Galactic Railway, the title role in Tsuruhime, Nonoko in Tobira wo Akete, Tendonman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, and Agumon in the Digimon franchise. She appeared as Kijimuna in the Utsu no Miko movie, Miko in Ohoshi-sama no Rail, Yasuda Yumiki in Nine, Kometora in Charapno Land no Bouken, and Suzume's erstwhile love interest, Katagiri-kun, in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases.
• Ohtsuka Mizue (Cass' mother) played Butaro Tomita in more than 400 episodes of Chibi Maruko-chan, among other roles.
• Iwata Mitsuo (Cass' Father) starred as Tetsuya in Outlanders, Shoutarou in Akira, Kintarou in Golden Boy, Jay in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, and Wataru in Doukyuusei: Climax. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Touchi Hiroki (Captain Cigar) played Takumi in Zipang, Abel Nightroad in Trinity Blood, Ovan in .hack//roots, Baldroy in the Kuroshitsuji franchise, and Heiter in Sousei no Frieren.
•  Kujira (Mother Shark) was best-known roles as Otose in Gintama and Orochimaru in Naruto. She also plays Matsuyo in the Osomatsu-san franchise. 

This was director Aoki Kane's first directing assignment; previously, she had done animation and storyboards.

Inka did the front-end work, and Orphan the back-end. Perry Dimes translated and did initial timing. Darkonius translation checked and fine-timed. darkcart edited. I typeset; the typesetting is ten times longer than the dialog. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The raw is from Gecko and had major flaws in its timecodes. It took a lot of experimentation to get the subbed version to play properly. There was no place to put fansub credits, so this blog post will have to do, commemorating another smooth Inka-Orphan joint project.

I liked Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills quite a lot. It's unpredictable, with interesting animation and stand-out characters. It leaves the viewer - at least this viewer - wanting more. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news in irc.rizon.net.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu OAD 6

I worked on the original Hoozuki no Reitetsu TV series when I was in FFF, and I fell in love with the show's weird vibe, deadpan comedy, and outrageous cast of crazed characters. FFF dropped the show midway through its second season but continued on to do the first five OADs (original anime discs). However, the last two came out after FFF disbanded and have never been subbed. The show's esoteric language and insane typesetting requirements discouraged most other teams from considering it (Orphan included). Now, with its usual timeliness, Saizen is picking up the ball and releasing OAD 6, a mere five years after it became available.

Hoozuki was always a fairly discursive series - vignettes rather than a through plot line - and the OADs continue that tradition. This episode focuses on two minor characters, both cats: Koban, the tabloid reporter for a local scandal sheet, and Kan, the male infidelity investigator for King Songdi. They may be inhabitants of Hell, but they cannot disguise or escape their feline nature.

In the first segment, Koban is on the prowl for a story. For him, prowling consists of going to his usual haunts, napping, and avoiding Hoozuki. 

He sees Kan going about his rounds. He imagines an interview with the scatterbrained young demon Nasubi. 

He runs into King Enma, who has developed a passion for interlocking metal puzzles (Hoozuki solves all of them easily). 

And he attempts a stakeout, which is promptly disrupted by Shiba, Momotarou's dog, who thinks stakeouts are an excuse to play. 

In short, nothing much happens, except a series of random events in keeping with the Hoozuki ethos.

In the second segment, Kan introduces himself and demonstrates that, like most cats, he is utterly self-absorbed. 

He visits Hoozuki to offer him a chance to relax through petting a cat (Hoozuki declines). He speculates on the nature of a Pharoah's symbolic beard (Hoozuki tells him the answer, which Kan ignores). Finally, Hoozuki gets him to leave by pointing out that Kan resembles an attendant of the Egyptian goddess Bastet. Kan goes to the Great Library to research the idea, and with help from Okou, the snake-wearing tormentor demon, he confirms that he is likely of Egyptian origin. 

Greatly pleased with himself, he returns to his job, where he boasts of his new found knowledge to his coworker En the snake, who couldn't care less.

Twenty minutes is not enough time to showcase all the secondary characters of the Hoozuki universe, but it does have some of my favorites and their superb seiyuu:

• Sugiyaki Noriaki (Koban) played William T Spears in the Kuroshitsuji franchise, Uryuu in the Bleach franchise, Sasuke in the Naruto franchise, Katsumi in the Cardfight! Vanguard franchise, Shirou in the Fate franchise, UK in the Hetalia franchise, Takuma in the Moyashimon properties, Akira in ReLife, and Usahara (the vicious rabbit) in Damekko Doubutsu,.
• Wakamoto Norio (Kan) played the title role in The Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas, Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, Cell in the Dragonball franchise, Katakuriko in the Gintama franchise, Oda Nobunaga in the Sengoku Basara franchise, Guren in Ushio to Tora TV, Shining Saotome in the Uta no Prince-sama franchise, and Oskar von Reuenthal in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He also appeared as Joshua Balboa in Plastic Little, Sakakibara in Sanada 10, Noa in Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99, York Denman in Apfelland Monogatari, Major Thrauza in Yamato 2520, Denon in Amon Saga, the Tengenji underboss in Koiko no Mainichi, and the Narrator in Joker: Marginal City, all Orphan releases
• Yasumoto Hiroki (Hoozuki) played Inohora in the DAYS franchise, Germany in the Hetalia franchise, the bear in Kumamiko, the hero's wingman Bonba in the Himouto shows, the antagonist Yuuri in Megalo Box, Kinjo in the Yowamushi Pedal franchise, and many other roles.
• Nagasako Takashi (King Enma) played Bill Atkin in Alice in Cyberland 2 and the principal in Sensou Douwa: Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu, both Orphan releases.
• Kobayashi Yumiko (Shiro, the dog) played the title role in Crayon Shin-chan, Poemi in Puni Puni Poemi and Excel Saga, Souchi in ex-Driver, Mamoru in Sister Princess, Shoubu in the Duel Masters franchise, and Norio in Sensou Douwa: Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu, an Orphan release.
• Saito Kimiko (En) played Rachel in Anne Shirley, Madam in Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Melissa in BNA, Rem in Death Note, Sister in Eden of the East, Juri in Handa-kun, Micchan in Migi & Dali, Chieke in Kuragahime, and Fuji Mine in Yaiba: Samurai Legend.
• Kitamuri Eri (Okou) played Saya in Blood+, Alleyne in Queen's Blade, Hinata in Kanamemo, Rin in Kodomo no Jikan, Mahiro in Haiyoru! Nyaruani, Izumo in the Ao no Exorcist franchise, Megumi in High Score Girl, Mikagi in Arve Rezzle, Yachiyo in the Working! franchise, Araragi Karen in the *monogatari franchise, Homura in Senran KaguraI, and  Yakou in Amatsuki, an Orphan release.
• Aoyama Touko (Nasubi) had featured roles in Digimon Tamers, Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z, Hanamaru Kindergarten, and Zenryoku Usagi.

The director, Kaburagi Hiro, was also in charge of the first Hoozuki TV series.

This a Saizen release, but almost everyone involved also appears on the Orphan staff page. (If this were an Orphan release, almost everyone involved would also appear on the Saizen staff page. The overlap among back-catalog groups is now nearly total.) The staff was:

• Translation - convexity
• Timing - sangofe
• Editing - Collectr
• Typesetting - kokujin-kun
• QC - Eternal_Blizzard, Nemesis, Uchuu

The raw is a 1080p web rip. 

So grab this penultimate installment of the Hoozuki no Reitetsu OADs from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Saizen|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. Let the Hoozuki gang cast its magic one more time and whet your appetite for (one hopes) OAD 7. No promises, though.