Al Caral no Isan (The Legacy of Al Caral) is a 1992 science-fiction OVA based on a manga by Michihara Katsumi, who also wrote Joker: Marginal City. It has been on my wish list for a long time, and thanks to the efforts of a new translator, Sunachan, Orphan is finally able to bring you this intriguing show.
Al Caral no Isan is set in a familiar science-fiction setting of ubiquitous interstellar travel, and it explores an equally familiar theme: first contact with aliens. However, the story is very different. For 180 years prior to the beginning of the show, the Harz Bougen Corporation has been discovering and secretively exploiting relics of a vanished interstellar civilization. As the story opens, they discover an alien race, with golden, cat-like eyes, dark skin, and blonde hair, who call themselves the Sanaan. A young Sanaan boy named Toryune is captured and taken away to the Harz Bougen laboratories for "research."
Meanwhile, a small documentary film crew gets wind of the discovery and sets out to expose the truth. Part of the team is a mysterious girl named Shana T, who has a unique ability to unlock the alien relics and retrieve artifacts. Shana also wants to meet the "golden-eyes," as the aliens are called, but for an entirely different reason than the Harz Bougen team. She believes that she is not a real human and that the aliens hold the key to her identity and her future.
The Harz Bougen overseers, led by future president Zach Isedo, seem to be motivated by simple rapaciousness. They believe that the alien civilization which built the relics must have left untold treasures of knowledge or precious substances. They regard the Sanaan as unrelated, inferior "humanoids" with no rights or value. However, the truth is far more complicated. The Sanaan have inherited the power of their mystical creator, Al Caral, who was "the ruler of words." They have no need for weapons; they are far more dangerous than that.
The voice cast is stellar. Hisakawa Aya (Shana) has had a prolific career. She played Skuld in the Ah! My Goddess franchise, Sailor Mercury in the Sailor Moon franchise, Mishima Misako in Yume Tsukai (an Orphan project), and Koneko in Ear of the Golden Dragon (another Orphan project). Recent series include WWW.Working and Kyousogiga. Tanaka Hideyuki (Harmer) also has had a long career, including featured roles as Terryman in the Kinnikuman franchise, Rayearth in Magic Knight Rayearth, Sammy in Bavi Stock (an Orphan project), and Sawamura in Nozomi Witches (another Orphan project). Orikasa Ai (Toryune) made her debut in Shoukoushi Cedie. She also played Sara in Eien no Filena (an Orphan project), Seguchi Touma (the record company president) in Gravitation, Quatre in Gundam Wing, and Ryouko in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. The music, by synthesizer player Kotaki Mitsuru, is repetitive and hypnotic.
Orphan's release of Al Caral no Isan marks the debut of a new translator, Sunachan, who went over the script multiple times to make sure the nuances and complexities came through the process intact. Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, and bananadoyouwanna, Nemesis, and Vigorousjammer all did QC. The raw is from the Internet and could be better. If anyone has an original Japanese laserdisc (Al Caral was never released on DVD), please let us know.
I don't think Al Caral no Isan was very successful. The director has few other credits to his name. The show was never released in digital form. It has rather average ratings on the various animation databases. But personally, I really enjoyed it.
The background world-building is well done, although some details are
never really explained. (What, exactly, are the small dragons that live symbiotically with the aliens?) The human
characters include the usual black-and-white heroes and villains but
also characters whose motives and actions are quite ambiguous. And
finally, the gradual revelation of the true legacy of Al Caral and the
power of words is an interesting twist. (I was reminded of the climax of
Dune, when the protagonist, Paul Atriedes, says, "I can kill you
with a word!") There is no clear-cut victory of good over evil or
vice-versa. Humanity stands on the verge of first contact with aliens,
and after a gruesome series of missteps, it is ready to pick up the
pieces and meet the Other.
If you would like to take that step as well, you can get Al Caral no Isan from the usual torrent sources or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
So here, at long last, is the end of the "-uusei" franchise: 1999's non-hentai TV series, Kakyuusei (1999). With the release of this show, all eleven titles in the series are now available with English subtitles:
- Doukyuusei: Natsu no Owari ni (1994); released in the US on DVD; rips available.
- Doukyuusei Climax (1995-96); subtitled by Orphan.
- Kakyuusei: My Petty Class Student (1995); subtitled by Orphan.
- Doukyuusei 2 (1996-98); subtitled by Orphan.
- Tenkousei (1996-97); subtitled by Orphan.
- Doukyuusei 2 special: Sotsugyousei (1999-2000); subtitled by Orphan.
- Elf ban Kakyuusei: Anata Dake o Mitsumete... (1998); subtitled by IY-F.
- Kakyuusei (1999); subtitled by C1.
- Kakyuusei 2 (2004); subtitled by Lunar.
- Kakyuusei 2: Anthology (2006); subtitled by Erobeat.
- Kakyuusei 2: Sketchbook (2007); subtitled by Erobeat.
The first five are borderline hentai; the last two are real hentai; and the middle four are PG-rated. Doukyuusei 2 (shorn of its sex scenes), Kakyuusei (1999), and Kakyuusei 2 were broadcast on TV. All the others were OVAs. All of them, except Kakyuusei (1995), were released on DVD; that one only never got past laserdisc.
Kakyuusei (1999) has the same plot structure as all the rest. The happy-go-lucky but undistinguished protagonist, Yamaguchi Tsuyoshi, a third-year high-school student, discovers the girl of his dreams, in this case a demure first-year student named Minamizato Ai. Before they can find their stumbling way to true love, Tsuyoshi is distracted by other girls. Eventually, the series settles down to a final rivalry for Tsuyoshi's affections between Ai and her best friend Iijima Miyuki. Tsuyoshi is aided, sort of, by his comical wingman, Gotu Minoru, who has a hopeless crush on their homeroom teacher, and opposed by the rich school playboy, Haruhiko Satake, who believes he is God's gift to women. Eventually, true love triumphs. What a surprise! The show is entirely innocuous, with nothing more serious than a kiss. The fourteenth episode isn't really part of the series. It provides a bit more fanservice, but nothing like the famous extra episode in Maze.
This series has been a long time coming. It began three years ago, when C1, an old line fansubbing group, suddenly revived after a four-year coma. Progress was slow, because the group leader had real life commitments, and the project almost died twice. As result, the credits are a bit complicated:
- Translation: EmptySoul (1-7), Moho Kareshi (8-14).
- Translation Check: Meiko (1-7), EmptySoul (8-12), kokujin_kun (13-14).
- Timing: EmptySoul (1-12), Eternal_Blizzard (13-14).
- Karaokes: EmptySoul (OP, ED1); Eternal_Blizzard (ED2, ED3)
- Editing: Collectr (all).
- Typesetting: EmptySoul (1-8), Collectr (9-14).
- QC: Calyrica, Eternal_Blizzard, Xanth.
- Encoding: anonymous.
The source is an R2J DVD set, but it's a mess of interlaced and blended frames, just like most of the other shows in the series. Perhaps a more labor-intensive encoding process could have done better, but the series isn't worth it.
Toochika Kouichi, who voiced Tsuyoshi, played the lead in the Comic Party shows and has had an ongoing role in all the Naruto properties. Sango Minako (Ai) played the same role in Elf Ban Kakyuusei and appeared in Tenkousei and other h-anime shows. Sonozaki Mie (Miyuki) played the same role in Elf Ban Kakyuusei and had featured roles in Kingdom, Strike Witches, and the Happy Lesson properties. The director, Kashima Norio, has a few other directing credits, including Elf Ban Kakyuusei and Refrain Blue.
There's nothing that really distinguishes Kakyuusei (1999) from any of its siblings. Its content is tame but otherwise follows the same plot line. If you aren't totally jaded by harem anime derived from eroge, you might like it; but to me, it seems fairly generic.
A batch torrent will be forthcoming for ease of downloading. There won't be any changes.
So here's an orphan series, sort of: the four omake or extras from the Okane ga nai! OVA set. They are technically orphans because aarinfantasy only did the first three, and Nosmas omitted them from its R1 DVD rip altogether. Here are all four, from the R1 DVDs, softsubbed.
If you're not familiar with Okane ga nai! (No Money!), it's a yaoi OVA about a college student (Ayase) forced to pay off his debt to a loan shark (Kanou) by selling his body:
That's probably enough information for most people. If you need more, read the Wikipedia article.
These omake emphasize comedy rather than drama, so they're a showcase for the voice actors to display their comic talents. Ayase is played by the incomparable Fukuyama Jun, who has starred as Panda in Shirokuma Cafe, Geass in Code Geass, and Kuro-sensei in Assassination Classroom, among numerous other major roles. Kanou is voiced by Kosugi Juurouta, who has had many featured roles, including Touji in Ninku and Gisuke in Kage. The amateur AV photographer, Gion, is played by Okiayu Ryoutarou, whose 30-year career recently included the title role in Keppeki Danshi Aoyama-kun.
M74 encoded and timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis QCed. I haven't done much to the subtitles, other than restore Japanese name order and honorifics. On the other hand, the typesetting was an effort. For example, episode 2 has 27 lines of dialog and 7600+ lines of typesetting. Enough said.
You can get these mini-episodes from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
If you've followed Orphan's releases, you should know that many OVAs of the 80s and 90s were made as promotions for other media, like manga (Yuukan Club, Nozomi Witches), light novels (Eien no Filena), and video games (Cosmic Fantasy). 1992's Seikimatsu - Humane Society (Seikima II - Humane Society) was a promotion for a rock-and-roll band. It wasn't the first of its kind; it was preceded by 1991's Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, for example. But it may be the strangest.
Seikima II was a Japanese death-metal band, of the kind parodied so lovingly in Detroit Metal City: kabuki makeup, songs about rape, murder, and satanic destruction, and a public persona of devilish evil. The OVA purports to tell the backstory of the band, which, according to its publicity, was composed of actual demons (akuma) from the parallel dimension Makai. In the OVA, five vicious demons (the five band members), led by Demon Kogure (the lead singer), are plotting the destruction of humanity. The only effective opposition comes from the saintly Rosa, who is actually the reformed war goddess Freyja in disguise. The demons attempt to activate their ultimate weapon, the Tower of Babel, before Rosa can complete her counterweapon, the Tower of Cain. The demons {spoiler alert} triumph and are on the verge on destroying the world when their leader suddenly decides that they should, instead, form a rock-and-roll band in order to convert people everywhere into demon worshipers. End of story.
For some reason, I am irresistibly reminded of the Monty Python sketch "Hell's Grannies." At the end, a pompous British colonel stops the sketch with: "Started off with a nice little idea about grannies attacking fit young men, but now it's got silly." Seikima II - Humane Society starts out as a nice little fantasy about demons versus gods, but then it gets silly. The demons themselves are goofy; for example, Sgt Luke is deathly afraid of celery, and Prof. Ishikawa uses his clairvoyance mostly to peek at women. The ending credits include a live performance by the band, replete with bad makeup, bad hairdos, and cheesy special effects, emphasizing just how silly it all is.
As befits a death-metal band, normal speech played backwards is used for various incantations. Where we could make them out, these lines are set reversed, in a different font and color, as "spells."
A few translation notes:
- "Its name was... maneki neko." The famous beckoning cat figurine of Japanese commerce.
- Odr (or Óðr) is a warrior from Norse mythology associated with the goddess Freyja.
- The giant water bugs in Ishikawa's plague are native to east Asia but are now considered endangered in Japan.
- A daisangen hand is an easily completed hand in Mahjong.
- The Japanese dialog uses akuma for generic demons and the English loan word Demon as Kogure's first name.
The five band members played themselves, and the lead "demon" (Kogure) is quite good; his opening English monologue is a treat. Doi Mika, who voiced Rosa, played the lead in Explorer Woman Ray and provided the wonderful narration in all the Mushishi properties. Matsumoto Yasunori, who voiced Odr, Rosa's foremost soldier, played the lead in action shows Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Hard the Bounty Hunter, Starship Troopers, and Oz. He also showed his flare for comedy as Tohru the magician in Every Day Is Sunday and Dick Saucer in Dragon Half. The director, Kamiya Jun, worked on many projects, including Girl from Phantasia, Blue Seed and its sequel, and the first Kingdom series.
Seikima II performed from 1982 to 1999, with occasional reunion concerts after that. They continued their association with anime as well (thanks to the anonymous commenter for this information). Demon Kogure appeared in Wanna-Bes and Urotsukidoji II. The group did the theme song for Maze in 1997, and just last year they did the openings for Terra Formars Revenge. Because their activities and popularity continued well into the digital era, this OVA was released on DVD. Iri found the disc and translated it. ninjacloud timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis and VigorousJammer did QC. M74 encoded from the R2J DVD. Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band is also available on DVD, but no promises about that show.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that this genre of music is not aimed at my demographic. (I stopped listening to rock-and-roll in the early 1970s.) Accordingly, I'm not the best authority to consult on the merits of the band or the OVA. But whether you find it all entertaining or silly - or both - you can get Seikma II - Humane Society from the typical torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
Wan Wan Chuushingura (The Doggie March) is a 1963 Toei Douga feature-length cartoon (they weren't called anime in those days). Starting in 1960 with Saiyuuki, Toei put out a feature-length color cartoon every year. These movies were aimed at children and have been characterized sometimes as faux Disney, with G-rated plots, lots of sidekicks and hijinks, and interpolated songs. In the hands of a master, like Takahata Isao, the formula worked brilliantly (1968's Horus no Daibouken); in less inspired hands, it produced mediocre results. Wan Wan Chuushingura is better than most. It is one of just two Toei productions from the 1960s that has not been translated into English. (The other is Andersen Monogatari.) It is best known for two things: first, it's based on a manga by Tezuka Osamu; and second, it was Miyazaki Hayao's first film as an animator (he did in-between animation).
Wan Wan Chuushingura tells the story of Rock, a country pup who lives in a mountain forest. His mother, Shiro, is a fierce defender of the local fauna from the depredations of Killer the tiger and his evil but clever sidekick, Akamimi the fox. (Never mind that tigers live in jungles, not on mountains, and are solitary except when mating.) When Akemimi lures Shiro into a fatal encounter with Killer, Rock vows revenge. However, he is too young and small to achieve much. He sets out for the city to recruit allies and falls in with a rough but lovable gang of street mutts. After many adventures, Rock eventually leads the city dogs into battle against Killer and Akamimi, with predictable results, if not exactly in a predictable way.
In the
title, "wan wan" is Japanese onomatopoeta for a dog's bark, as "nyan
nyan" is for a cat's meow. "Chuushingura" (Treasury of Loyal Retainers) refers to a famous Japanese
historical episode, the 47 Ronin, which is frequently
dramatized in Japanese movies and plays. Except for the dogs seeking revenge against Killer, the anime doesn't draw on any part of the
actual incident. (There aren't even 47 dogs.)
The animation in Wan Wan is fluid, and the action sequences are both exciting and good-looking. The movie is mercifully free of the soulful and romantic songs that periodically wrecked the pace of 1960's Saiyuuki. Aside from the opening and ending, the only other song is a lullaby that Shiro sings to Rock, and it's entirely appropriate in the context. On the other hand, there are a couple of "poetic" dream sequences that seem to be padding. Perhaps they were intended to give younger viewers time to calm down before the next thrill ride.
Because Wan Wan was made more than 60 years ago, the voice actors belong to a different era and are little known to modern audiences. Hori Junko, who played young Rock, had an amazing career, starting in the 1960s and appearing as recently as the last decade. The late Kamo Yoshihisa, who did a great comic turn as the clever but craven Akamichi, worked mostly in the 1960s. The fluid and engaging animation was directed by the late Daikuhara Akira, who worked on several Toei Douga features. He received a Lifetime Achievement Prize in 2006. The musical score is functional, but the catchy opening and closing song, The Doggie March, is a total earworm.
Iri translated the show, and M74 timed it. I edited and typeset (not much to do there), Nemesis and bananadoyouwanna did QC, and Skr encoded from a high-definition stream. The video is full of grain, which led to a large encode; of course, it might just be dirt on a non-remastered print rather than true film grain:
Maybe we'll get a real Blu-Ray someday.
So fall in line with the 47 (well, 31 or so) doggies and march, march, march to see this entertaining story. You can get it from the usual torrent sites and from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
