2013 in Review

No, I'm not going to burden you with my Deep Thoughts on anime in 2013. I watched some shows, but mostly I was busy with editing work. The highlights of this year include:

Orphan Fansubs

Thanks to the return of a long-lost translator, and despite her much-lamented departure back to Real Life, this was a banner year for Orphan Fansubs. The team released fifteen projects, more than in its entire prior history.

• Nagasarete Airantou. The longest series in the group's history.
• Midori no Neko. Tezuka Osamu's first Lion Book OVA.
• Tezuka Osamu Monogatari. Continuing our quest to sub all things Tezuka Osamu.
• Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de "Hachiyoushou" special chapter. A project that was left on the shelf when the translator departed.
• Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de "Hachiyoushou" ~Where the Heart Belongs. The other unsubbed special from the TV series.
• Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de 2. A joint project with macros74, using aF raws.
• Blazing Transfer Student. A true orphan, and deservedly so.
• Sonic Soldier Borgman 2058: New Century. Another unloved OVA.
• Usagi Drop Live Action. A labor of love, and my favorite live-action movie ever.
• Dallos. Possibly the first OVA ever, and not a good precedent for the rest.
• Anne Frank. A joint project with Licca Fansubs.
• Urusei Yatsura - The Obstacle Course Swim Meet. A complete "tune-up" on the most recent Urusei Yatsura OVA.
• Doukyousei 2. Our first venture this year into soft-core hentai.
• Sotsugyusei. The non-h sequel to Doukyousei 2.
• Doukyousei Climax. Our other venture this year into the h-anime genre.

In addition, the team reissued Space Neko Theatre with improved translation and sign.

The burst of activity was made possible by a very small team: laalg mostly, and also convexity and macros74, for translation; archdeco for timing; me for editing and typesetting; and CP and Saji for QC. Thanks, everyone, for working so hard on such an eclectic set of forgotten or mistreated shows!

Work for Other Groups

I've continued to edit and QC for other groups, as time permits. Sometimes I'm trading favors; other times, I'm genuinely interested.

• Kiteseekers. Another group that pursues completing orphan series, when they aren't subbing loli shows. Lime-iro Ryuukitan X made substantial progress, although it's not yet finished; and Hanaukyo Maid Tai got started from BluRay encodes. Lime-iro is not as good as the original series, but Hanaukyo has the innocent ecchi charm of most of the half-length M.O.E. (Masters of Entertainment) shows.
• FroZen-Evil. The three-way collaboration polished off Yawara! with two movie-length extras: Go Get 'em, Wimpy Kids! and the Atlanta Special. What a special team that was! Miyuki is continuing, but it's very slow going.
• ray=out. Hiatari Ryoukou continues to move along, although episodes are not being released. I also edited a couple of ganime OVAs for them.
• WhyNot? I edited the Yondemasu Azazel-san Z series: good, dirty fun, and a favorite of 2013.
• Anime-Koi. I edited the last seven episodes of Genshiken Nidaime, another series I liked.
• Dgz. I edited the ultimate episode of Hellsing Ultimate. I didn't care for it; too many Nazis.
• Saizen. I edited the most recent Prince of Tennis movie, and I really wish I hadn't.
• m74. I worked with macros74 on a few of his projects for subbing forgotten 80s and 90s OVAs.
• FFF. I started by helping them with QC, to get some of the lagging OVAs out the door (Nekogami, Tasogare, Ika Musume). Then archdeco asked me to work on some of his favorites, so I QC'd the BluRays of Senran Kagura and the TV release of Sekai de Ichiban (see a theme?). I volunteered to do Golden Time, which has not been as good as I had hoped, but it's still reasonably enjoyable. As I've written before, my philosophy on simulcast shows is editorial minimalism, except for glaring mistakes.

I won't be taking on any new shows this winter, because of travel plans.

Finally, I did a fair amount of "anonymous" editing, on shows that I didn't want to be associated with publicly. Most of them were clean-ups of subs for personal use, although I've done a few projects that should probably be classified as trolling.

Looking Ahead

I don't expect to be as busy in 2014. Without a full-time translator, Orphan will revert to its prior leisurely pace. I hope to clean up my backlog of scripts during the holidays and enter the New Year with a clean slate.

I'd like to wish my readers (all four of them) a happy holiday break and a joyous New Year. On with the shows!