Yume Kakeru Kougen

To this day, Japan retains a strong bias against foreigners. However, a small number of anime movies have been made about foreigners who loved Japan and helped rebuild it in the aftermath of the Second World War. Orphan has already translated and released the 2010 anime documentary Junod, which focused on Dr. Marcel Junod, the first foreign doctor to reach Hiroshima after the atomic bombing. Now, Orphan presents 2002's Yume Kakeru Kougen: Kiyosato no Chichi Paul Rusch (Dreams on the Plateau: Kiyosato's Father Paul Rusch). It tells the story of Paul Rusch, an Episcopalian (American Anglican) lay missionary who dedicated his life to improving life in rural Japan and fostering friendship between the two countries.

Rusch came to Japan in 1925, to help with rebuilding the Tokyo/Yokohama YMCA, which had burned down during the great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. He stayed on to become a professor of economics at Rikkyo University, a fundraiser for Dr. Rudolf Teusler's efforts to expand St. Luke's Hospital, and a lay evangelist for the Anglican Church in Japan. In 1938, he opened Seisen Ryo, a camp on the slopes of Mt. Yatsugatake in the village of Kiyosato. This was the start of a life-long association with the village and its people.

After Pearl Harbor, Rusch was interned and then deported in a prisoner exchange. He worked at the Military Intelligence Language School in the US and returned to Japan for the occupation as part of General MacArthur's staff. Eventually, he returned to Kiyosato and rededicated Seisen Ryo as the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP). He worked on improving farming practices, introducing innovations like cold-resistant crop strains and high-altitude dairy farming. KEEP expanded to include an experimental farm, a nursery, a library, and most importantly for the health of the community, a rural clinic. For his work,  the Japanese government awarded Rusch the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1956, a rare honor for a foreigner. He continued to work in Japan until his death in 1979. Among his numerous achievements, he introduced American football to Japan. To this day, the Paul Rusch Cup is given annually to the best American football player in the country.

While Paul Rusch's life is an uplifting story, it's not necessarily a dramatic one. The anime has little conflict and no villains. (The real villains, like the Japanese military, are kept offstage.) The most suspenseful event is whether the first Jersey cow in Kiyosato - brought in to seed the idea of dairy farming - will survive the harsh winter there. If some Japanese and some Americans act embittered by the war, many more reach out across the cultural divide to help one another. In particular, the Anglican (Episcopal) Church is shown in a uniformly positive light, which is uncommon in anime presentations of Christianity.

In his trailblazing book Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally wrote about how difficult it was to write a story of good. "When you chronicle the predictable and measurable success evil generally achieves, it is easy to be wise, wry, piercing, to avoid bathos... Fatal human malice is the staple of narrators, original sin the mother-fluid of historians. But it is a risky enterprise to have to write of virtue." The same applies to anime. Villains, bloodshed, and desperation make for vivid stories. Simple goodness does not. Yume Kakeru Kougen is the story of a good man who worked hard for others and left the world better than he found it. It's hard to imagine a story more out of step with current times. That's why we need it.

A few notes, some from Elizabeth Hemphill's book The Road to KEEP, and some from Wikipedia:

• The movie deviates from the known facts of Paul Rusch's life significantly. Examples: Rusch never learned Japanese. He did not abandon a fiance to stay in Japan.
• Dr. Rudolf Teusler's motto was, in fact, "If you are going to do something in Japan, make it first class." The addition of "in God" seems to be an invention of the scriptwriter.
• Rusch's students sing him the opening verse of Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home," complete with its original racist language. The song is the official state song of Kentucky. When another Japanese choir sang it to the state legislature in 1967, it triggered a motion to officially amend the lyrics, replacing "darkies" with "people." Today, the song is generally regarded as nostalgia for the slave-holding, antebellum South. In fact, it was an anti-slavery song and was promoted by leading abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass.
• Lonely Bull is loosely based on a real incident. Rusch brought back a single Jersey bull to see if the breed could survive winter in Kiyosato. However, the bull never became sick, and its nickname was "Designed for St. Andrew."
• Psalm 121, which is quoted frequently throughout the movie, is probably more familiar to viewers in the King James version:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

The voice cast includes:

• The deep-voiced Genda Tesshou (Paul Rusch) played Colonel Muto in Joker Game, Moloch in Yondemasu Azazel-san, Rei in the Urusei Yatsura franchise, Moguro Fukuzou in New Laughing Salesman,  "Oyaji" in Mitsuboshi Colors, as well as the loyal lieutenant Galbreath in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the dragonman Baguda in Greed, the narrator in Akai Hayate, and Dog McCoy in Dallos, all Orphan releases.
• Orikasa Ai (Koichi, the boy who narrates the story) made her debut in Shoukoushi Cedie. She played Seguchi Touma (the record company president) in Gravitation, Quatre in Gundam Wing, and Ryouko in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She also played Toryune in Al Caral no Isan, Sara in Eien no Filena, and Malet in Oruorane the Cat Player, all Orphan releases.
• Mizutani Yuuko (Dr. Uematsu Kikue, the Kiyasato clinic physician) has many credits, including Pinoko in all the Black Jack properties, as well as Rika in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki and Lila in Eien no Filena, both Orphan projects.
• Toriumi Katsumi (Shigeru, a young man in Kiyosato) played the male lead, Wakamatsu Masato, in Miyuki, as well as numerous featured roles in other shows.

The director, Dezaki Satoshi, is an industry veteran. His other projects include the Tezuka Osamu specials Marine Express and Time Slip Ichimannen Prime Rose (both Orphan releases), the Urusei Yatsura OVAs, Tobira wo Akete, Kasei Yakyoku, Boyfriend, Bakumatsu no Spasibo, and many more.

Iri found the DVD for this movie and did the translation. Yogicat did the detailed timing. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and VigorusJammer QCed. M74 encoded. The release includes the English dub track (and a songs/signs track to go with it), as well as Japanese closed captions, and thus is one of the very few multi-audio, multi-subtitle releases Orphan has ever done. The DVD is wide-screen the old-fashioned way, with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, instead of via an anamorphic presentation.

You can get Yume Kakeru Kougen from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net

Sangokushi 2 (1986)

Here's the second Sangokushi OVA, from 1986: Orphan's 125th release. It starts after the Battle of Red Cliffs and charts the ups and downs of Liu Bei Xuande's attempt to create a viable state in Shu Han to balance Cao Cao's Wei and Sun Quan's Eastern Wu. It is considerably darker than the first OVA. The alliance between Lui Bei and Sun Quan falls apart. Several more main characters, including audience favorites, bite the dust. The ending is inconclusive, at best, and tragic, at worst.

Like the first OVA, and like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms from which it draws inspiration, Sangokushi 2 plays fast and loose with history. It portrays Liu Bei as supremely virtuous and Cao Cao as a megalomaniac villain. Neither view is supported by historical records. Although Liu Bei adhered more closely to Confucianism than his rivals, he was still an unscrupulous warlord, starting as an ally of Cao Cao and then betraying him. Cao Cao was a capable ruler in many ways but consumed by his ambition, universal to warlords of that period, to become supreme warlord and then emperor of a united China. Cao Cao's origin story - that his blonde hair is not an anime convention but the result of his mother being raped by invaders - is fiction. The romance between Liu Bei and Princess Lihua (Lady Sun) is likewise an invention. (He was married four times. Lady Sun returned to Wu after the break between Liu Bei and Sun Quan.) Still, the power of great fiction to overshadow fact cannot be denied; in China, the equivalent of the English idiom "speak of the devil" is "Speak of Cao Cao, and he appears." Attempts to rehabilitate Cao Cao's reputation in the Communist era have been only moderately successful.

The cast and staff of the second OVA are basically the same as the first, so I won't repeat my comments from the earlier blog post. Iri translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, bananadoyouwanna and VigorousJammer QCed, and Skr provided the raw. bananadoyouwanna styled the insert/ending song, "Miss Dreamer," which is very good.

You can get Sangokushi 2 from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net

Queen Millennia TV

Leiji Matsumoto is one of the great names in Japanese manga. His numerous projects include The Cockpit, Space Battleship Yamato (with Yoshinobu Nishizaki), Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Galaxy Railways, Space Symphony Maetel, Ozuma, Queen Esmeraldas, and Queen Millennia. Virtually all of his manga have been adapted to anime, and the shows are very popular in Japan. However, treatment in the West has not been so kind. Harmony Gold mashed together Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia into a show called Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years. It sank without a trace and is now considered lost. Captain Harlock was eventually released to streaming media and licensed by Discotek. Queen Millennia remained unavailable... until now. After 13 years, Live-eviL has finished its fansub of this incredible series, releasing the last four episodes yesterday. It's now possible to binge-watch this show in its entirety.

Despite the long duration of the project, Live-eviL's treatment has been remarkably consistent, despite changes in every department - translation, checking, timing, editing, typesetting, and QC. (The last episode contains a credit roll of all the people who worked on the show; it's huge.) There are subtle changes over the years. The Live-eviL IRC channel moved from EnterTheGame to Rizon. The fansub credits during the opening were replaced with the Japanese production credits; the fansub credits moved to the ending. The romaji font for the opening was updated to be more readable. Consistency may be hobgoblin of small minds, but it certainly helps the viewer if there are no jarring changes in fonts, names, and terminology as a long series progresses.

The voice actors were icons of 1980s anime but are probably not well known to current audiences:

• Han Keiko (Yukino Yayoi, the "Queen Millennia" of the title) starred in numerous World Masterpiece Theater adaptations, playing Becky in Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Annette in Alps Story: My Annette, Meg in Little Women, and Nancy in Pollyanna. She played Queen Promethium in the numerous Millennia spinoffs and sequels, as well as Luna in the Sailor Moon franchise.
• Toda Keiko (Amamori Hajime, Yukino's helper) starred as Kitarou in the 1980's versions of GeGeGe no Kitarou, as Anpanman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, and as Hitomi, one of the leads, in Cats Eye. She also appeared in Hi-Speed Jecy, Oz, Bavi Stock, and Hoshi Neko Full House (all Orphan releases).
• The late Nagai Ichirou (Professor Hajime) appeared as Konaki-jiji in the 1980's versions of GeGeGe no Kitarou and as Happosai in the Ranma 1/2 franchise.. He also provided the off-the-wall narration in Gosenzosama Banbanzai and Maroko. He played Tezuka Ryousan in Hidamari no Ki, Professor Doherty in Nora, Togo in Yamata 2520, and the Hong Kong mafia leader in Yuukan Club (all Orphan releases).

So if you are a fan of Leiji Matsumoto, run, don't walk, to your favorite torrent sites or to the Live-eviL IRC channel and get Queen Millennia now. The file sizes are small (as they tended to be when the project started), so it won't take very long to download the whole thing from today's fast seeders and bots using today's fast broadband links. Then enjoy this seminal series, now available in English for the very first time.

Greed

No, not the famous, and famously butchered, 1924 Erich von Stroheim film, but an hour-long OVA from 1985. Greed is kind of a swordfighting fantasy and sci-fi hybrid. It was released on video tape and laserdisc and then never seen again. I don't know why it ended up on Orphan's list of projects; I think it was discussed in BakaBT's topic on "Old Anime for Subbing" and caught my eye.

Greed tells the story of Lid Kyle, a young man living in dank jungle forest inhabited by ferocious monsters. His dying father tells him to undertake a journey north in order to fix the "distortion" that has twisted reality. Lid leaves the jungle and immediately encounters a desert area. There he meets a young woman, Kii Mi, and her small sentient pets, known as Weakies. They're attacked by mechanical monsters and saved by a large man called Baguda, who can transform, briefly, into a dragon. After fighting off giants, they encounter a mute warrior named Rongun. They journey through the land of the Innocents, fairy-like creatures, and end up in a kingdom dominated by machines that have gone mad. Its ruler, Mimau, completes their company. Together, they go to confront the ultimate evil in the universe, the reality-twisting demon Vailly.

It's all rather weird. Lid fights with a sword, which doesn't do much good against mechanical monsters. The longest section, in Mimua's kingdom, is full of rambling explanations that make little sense. (They reminds me of the pseudo-scientific explanations that used to show up in sci-fi movies.) And the ending seems to come out of left field. Well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it just rains.

The voice cast includes many familiar actors:

• Horiuchi Kenyuu (Lid) has an extensive resume, including the title role in Guin Saga, as well as Jin Akira in Wolf Guy and Nest in Eien no Filena (both Orphan releases). He is currently appearing in Sirius the Jaeger.
• Minaguchi Yuko (Kii), with her unmistakable nasal delivery, starred as the eponymous heroine in Yawara!, among numerous other roles. She also played Felicia in Oz, an Orphan release.
• Baguda (Gendo Tesshou) played Colonel Muto in Joker Game, Moloch in Yondemasu Azazel-san, Rei in the Urusei Yatsura franchise, Moguro Fukuzou in New Laughing Salesman,  and "Oyaji" in this year's Mitsuboshi Colors, as well as Dog McCoy in Dallos and Galbreath in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, both Orphan releases.
• Tanaka Hideyuki (Rongun) has had a long career, including featured roles as Terryman in the Kinnikuman franchise and Rayearth in Magic Knight Rayearth, as well as Sammy in Bavi Stock, Sawamura in Nozomi Witches, and Katze in Ai no Kusabi, all Orphan releases.
• Sakakibara Yoshiko (Mimau) played Sir Integral Hellsing in both versions of Hellsing, as well as Melinda in Dallos and Paula in Condition Green, both Orphan releases.

The director, Tomonori Kogawa, also wrote the story outline and co-authored the screenplay. He must have known what everything was supposed to mean. The rest of us are kind of in the dark.

Moho translated the show. In checking the script, laalg noted that many of the lines didn't make sense in Japanese, so it's not surprising that the English doesn't either. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset (very little to do there). Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. M74 encoded from a laserdisc rip donated by an anonymous source. As with the rip of Twinkle Twinkle Nora Rock Me, which came from the same source, the last minute or so of the disc is irretrievably damaged. I've used order chapters to stop the end credits before things get out of hand and provided a complete version of the ending song from a VHS source (at lower resolution, unfortunately).

So here's Greed. It's not the best OVA I've ever seen, and it goes a long way towards explaining why sword-and-scifi hybrids are rare. You can get it from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news in irc.rizon.net.