2019 in Review

After three years of continuous project growth, Orphan cut back this year. Many people on staff, particularly the translators and encoders, were snatched up by that dread event called Real Life; others retired or went missing or comatose. Still, there were quite a few interesting releases this year, ranging from a children's classic (Manxmouse) to epic historical drama (the Sangokushi movies).

Orphan Fansubs

Orphan's original projects for 2019 were:

1. Majo Demo Steady. A sexy sci-fi comedy. Laserdisc encode.
2. Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoka Narudesho! The second (and much worse) of Eguchi Hisashi's anthology shows. Hard to watch and harder to unsee. Laserdisc encode.
3. Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament: In the Beginning, episodes 1-6. Tezuka Osamu's take on the Bible, featuring substantial textual liberties and a lot of cute animals. DVD encode.
4. DAYS: Touin Gakuensen. The true continuation of the DAYS TV series, documenting a high-tension match between rival teams. DVD encode. 
5. Maze Movie promo. The Maze movie is probably lost forever; only this tantalizing fragment remains. Laserdisc encode. 
6. Fukuyama Gekijou - Natsu no Himitsu. A charming anthology of stories for children, ranging from comedic to poignant. Laserdisc encode. 
7. Oedo wa Nemurenai! The last of the Margaret shoujo OVAs, and by far the best. Set in the Shogunate era, it tells a fast-moving tale of a intrigue and romance. VHS encode. 
8. Akatsuki no Yona OADs. The concluding episodes (alas) of Yona on anime, providing the background of Zeno, the last of the four dragons to be introduced in the TV series. DVD encode; joint with FFF.
9. Manxmouse. The Paul Gallico children's classic about a misshapen ceramic mouse that comes to life and ventures off to see the world. Laserdisc encode.
10. Amaama to Inazuma. An utterly charming slice-of-life series about a widowed father of a six-year-old girl, and their joint quest to escape an endless fate of store-bought meals. BD encode; joint with Godless Fansubs.
11. Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake. The first movie in the Sangokushi trilogy, documenting Cao Cao's rise to power. DVD encode.
12. Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! The second movies in the Sangokushi trilogy, covering the events leading up to and immediately following the Battle of Red Cliffs. DVD encode.
13. Tezuka Osamu Ga Kieta?! 20 Seiki Saigo no Kaijiken. A tribute to the godfather of manga, bringing together his most famous characters to solve a mystery. DVD encode.
    
14. Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi. The final installment in the Sangokushi trilogy, covering the deaths of the major protagonists and the continuing stalemate in the battle for supremacy in China. DVD encode.
15. Let's Nupu Nupu. A series of racy comedy shorts more or less centered around an inept talking cat. Laserdisc encode; joint with Beatrice-Raws. 
16. AWOL Compression Remix. A ragtag team of specialists from the Allied planets must defeat a seemingly unstoppable terrorist organization. Laserdisc encode. 
17. Hiatari Ryoukou 25-48. The completion of Adachi Mitsuru's classic slice-of-life romcom-with-baseball from the 1980s. DVD encode; joint with ray=out.
18. Karuizawa Syndrome. A sexy, slice-of-life seinen show about a happy-go-lucky photographer and the women in his life. DVD encode.

The availability of new sources, as well as Orphan's significantly improved transcription capability for analog media, resulted in a record number of reissues:

1. Hashire Melos v2. A new encode, with proper scaling and better color equalization. Laserdisc source.
2. Tomoe's Run (v3?).  A new encode, at the proper frame rate, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source.
3. Singles v2. A new encode, based on an uncompressed VHS capture. The improvement over the original ARR capture is significant.
4. Meisou-ou Border v2. A new encode, based on an uncompressed VHS capture. The improvement over the previous capture is amazing.
5. Boyfriend OVA. This is the "full length" version of Boyfriend, two parts totaling 110 minutes, versus the 94 minute TV special. New material and a vastly improved encode. Laserdisc source.
6. Al Caral no Isan v2. A new encode, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source.
7. Tsuki ga Noboru made ni v2. A new encode, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source; a substantial improvement over the VHS raw used previously.
8. Ultra Nyan (theatrical version). A new encode, using the Domesday Duplicator. Laserdisc source.

A big shout-out to our intrepid media maven, for setting up the media transcription capability in Japan, and to Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions, for his continual help and support. I also want to thank the Arutha foundation, which has hosted all of Orphan's releases on IRC. 

The Audio Side

Orphan released a lot of audio projects this year. Unless otherwise indicated, the sources were CDs and were ripped by Orphan's intrepid media maven.

1. Majo demo Steady image album.
2. Fukyuyama Theater original soundtrack.
3. Oedo wa Nemurenai! original soundtrack.
4. Singles original soundtrack.
5. Kiss wa Me ni Shite original soundtrack. 
6. Oshare Kozou wa Hanamaru original soundtrack.
7. Capricorn image album.
8. Project A-Ko 2 expanded soundtrack. Laserdisc source (Pony Canyon dual disc).
9. Boyfriend OP/ED single.
10. Hashire Melos ED single.
11. Boyfriend original soundtrack.
12. POPS original soundtrack.
13. Tomoe ga Yuku! music collection.
14. AWOL original soundtrack.
15. A-Girl original soundtrack (from Meisen).
16. Fighting Beauty Wulong OP/ED collection.
17. Majo demo Steady original soundtrack. Laserdisc source (Pony Canyon dual disc).

This shows where most of my media budget was spent this year...

Work for Other Groups

There seems to be less each year.

• Frozen-EviL. I continued to edit the Blu-Ray version of Yawara!
• Saizen. I continued to edit and typeset Laughing Salesman.
• Soldado. I QCed this year's Ninku releases. I'm actually finished, but the last five episodes haven't been released yet.
• Kiteseekers. I finished typesetting Idol Densetsu Eriko... and right glad I am about that.

Laughing Salesman continues to be a useful diversion; I find its exceedingly dark humor appropriate for the times. The end is in sight, and the team is doubling back to redo the first 25 episodes in HD. Yawara! continues to be fun, and I'm getting to see all the episodes I missed by coming in at the middle of the story in the DVD project.

Favorites of 2019

I'm not an anime critic, so I no longer try to compile a "best of" list for the anime year. These days, I don't watch enough anime, outside of the genres I like (slice-of-life, comedy, sci-fi, seinen, josei, cats), to be knowledgeable enough to make a "Top 10" list. Instead, I'm listing my favorites of the year and why they kept me interested all the way through.

My choices this year, in alphabetical order, are: 

• Dororo. Although this seems to violate my preference for shows without violence, I simply could not look away. This updating of the Tezuka Osamu classic improves on the source material while remaining faithful to the master's humanistic spirit.
• Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. (My Roommate Is a Cat.) Well, it has cats, so need I say more? In fact, it's a remarkably complex story about how the interaction between a damaged man and his wary feline helps heal them both.
• Fukigen na Mononokean: Tsuzuki. A totally unexpected sequel to a modest fantasy series that I really enjoyed. It was wonderful to see Abeno, Ashiya, and of course Fuzzy, again.
• GeGeGe no Kitaro (2018). Still running after two years, and consistently excellent. It's made me look at earlier incarnations of the franchise, none of which, alas, are completely subbed.
• Kanata no Astra. A damned near perfect space opera. Not ponderous like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, not totally goofy like Hoshi Neko Full House, it blends adventure, danger, comedy, and camaraderie perfectly.
• Kono oto Tomare! A sports anime of sorts, but laser-focused on its characters rather than the typical shounen challenges.
• Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin. Another supernatural sleeper that hit it out of the park, despite limited production values. A humanist take on human-youkai relations, rather more optimistic than GeGeGe no Kitarou.
• Sarazanmai. This show that grabbed my interest from the opening frames and never let go. I did not like Ikuhara Kunihiko's previous series; I found them pretentious and depressing. This one has all of Ikuhara's trademark idiosyncrasies, but it tells a coherent and compelling story despite (because of?) the quirks.

I don't have any honorable mentions, but my Guilty Pleasure list is filled with detective shows, including anything with Tsuda Kenjirou, like Cop Craft and Special 7. And I liked the short series Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki, for no discernible reason.

I know I should watch a broader range of anime. I'm missing out on terrific shows like Vinland Saga, Mix, and Beastars, but I Yam What I Yam - a confirmed old curmudgeon and likely to remain so. At least this way, I don't have to watch isekai or idol shows.

Looking Ahead

Orphan Fansubs will continue to focus on The Shows That Time Forgot™, probably at a slower pace than before. There's no shortage of good material to work on, and interesting raws are more abundant than ever; but qualified staff is in short supply. If you're a translator, encoder, QC, or yes, even an editor or typesetter, with an interest in the back catalog, please get in touch. We're a harmonious group of cats, if a bit old-fashioned; a team without Discord, so to speak.

Thanks, everyone - both team members and fans. Have a happy and safe 2020.

Karuizawa Syndrome

Here's another OVA with a bit of a checkered past, 1985's Karuizawa Syndrome. As originally made, it included live-action sequences of nude AV models. The sequences had nothing much to do with the actual story, and as a result, the OVA was rather poorly received. An anime-only version was released on VHS in 1986, and amazingly, it crossed the analog-digital divide and got a DVD release in 2002. That's the version Orphan used for this release. Sorry, AV fans.

Karuizawa Syndrome tells the story of Aizawa Kohei, former leader of the biker gang Deep, now turned freelance photographer specializing in nudes. (Maybe that was the justification for the live-action sequences.) Kohei has nothing much more on his mind than having fun and getting laid. He and his best bud Matsunama Sumio hoped to bum their way across the U.S. in a jeep, but that fell through. Now the pair, flat broke, are forced to flee creditors in Tokyo and take shelter in Karuizawa (a mountain resort town in Nagano province) with Sumio's sister Kaoru, who is also Kohei's childhood friend. There, Kohei meets a number of other women, including Kuonji Noriko (known as Non), the former leader of a girls' biker gang. She's brought Kunoshita Kumiko with her, in hopes of settling the score with Deep, whose members gang-raped Kumiko's older sister and drove her to suicide. Also in the picture are the proprietor of the local coffee shop La Cuca, the proprietor's sister, Minowa Milk, a local girl named Tsunoda Eri, and the current leader of Deep, Onda Jiro. Kohei tries to score with anything female, succeeds with both Non and Kaoru, and apparently gets both of them pregnant. (Non's actually just late.) The stress causes Kohei to flee the scene and take up with one of his models, Yukari, but she's sick of her aimless life and intends to return home and get married. Kohei realizes that he can't continue drifting. He returns to Karuizawa and Kaoru, apparently ready for a steadier relationship... maybe.

It's hard to characterize Karuizawa Syndrome; perhaps it's best described as a seinen slice-of-life. There's comedy, there's angst, there's drama, and there's lots of nudity and sex. However, all the sex scenes are done with super-deformed (chibi) characters - a stylistic decision that seems weird at first but that helps to keep the scenes light and frothy.

The character designs are also a mix of realistic and chibi styles. The younger siblings (Sumio and Kumiko) are drawn as chibis, with massive mops of hair, making them look about eight years old. In fact, they're both grown-ups.

The voice cast is a who's who of 1980s seiyuu stalwarts, and there's a staggering amount of overlap with previous Orphan releases:

• Shiozawa Kaneto (Kohei) played Shin in Hiatari Ryoukou, Iason in Ai no Kusabi, Rock Holmes in Fumoon, Shiina in Chameleon, Sanzou in I am Son Goku, and Kurahashi Eiji in Nine, all Orphan releases. He also played Joe in Tokimeki Tonight, Yoshio in Miyuki, Takeshi in Touch, D in Vampire Hunter D, Narsus in Arslan Senki OVA, Rosario in Dragon Half, and Abriel senior in Crest of the Stars.
• Toda Keiko (Noriko Kuonji, Non) played Hitomi in Cat's Eye, Iczer-2 in Iczer-One, Blinky in Fushigi ga Koala Blinky, Kitarou in Gegege no Kitarou (1985), Nina in High School Agent, Kiki in the Kiki no Lala series, Anpanman in the Anpanman franchise, Karara in Space Runaway Ideon, Sophia in A Wind Named Amnesia, Kate Jackson in Bavi Stock, and Eterna in Hoshi Neko Full House. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Sakakibara Yoshiko (Kaoru) played Sybil in Black Magic M-66, Sylvia Stingray in Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, Sir Integra Hellsing in both versions of Hellsing, Paula in Condition Green, Melinda Hearst in Dallos, and Mimau in Greed. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Matsuya Yuji (Sumio) played Margu in God Mars, Tatsuya in Touch, Pen Pen in Mr. Penpen, Kouji in Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Irabu in Kuuchuu Buranko, Jecy in Hi-Speed Jecy, Yuusaku in Hiatari Ryoukou, and Daisuke in Stop!! Hibari-kun. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Tsuru Hiromi (Milk) 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 Keiko in Hiatari Ryoukou, Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and big sister Shizuka in Tomoe's Run!, all Orphan releases.
• Tanaka Hideyuki (La Cuca's manager, Minowa Takanari) played Terryman in the Kinnikuman franchise and Rayearth in Magic Knight Rayearth. He also played Harmer in Al Caral no Isan, Sammy in Bavi Stock, Sawamura in Nozomi Witches, Ronron in Greed, Aoto in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Katze in Ai no Kusabi, and Ma Su, Fengji's lover, in Sangokushi 3, all Orphan releases.
• Tominaga Miina (Eri) played Ritsu in Fruits Basket (2002), Persia in Magical Fairy Persia, Rollpanna in the Anpanman franchise, Misaki in Tsuritama, Muuma in Bavi Stock, Hikaru in Chameleon (2-6), Kamiya in Tokimeki Tonight, and Karen in Yuukan Club. The last four are Orphan releases.
• Hironaka Masashi (Jiro) played Ihika in Yousei-Ou and Kazusa in Tomoe's Run!, both Orphan releases, as well as Siegfried in Legend of the Galactic Heroes
• Ogata Kenichi (Jiro's father) played the put-upon father in Gosenzosama Banbanzai! and Maroko, as well as Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken and, most recently, Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. He played the Lord of Kaga and narrator in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, the governor in Akuemon, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga Nai!, the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, and the ruthless rival cyborg in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call, all Orphan releases. 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.
• Miyuki Sanae (Kumiko) played Lynn in Lady Lady!! and  Botan in Yu Yu Hakusho. She also played Namiko in Akai Hayate, the Star Cat in Hoshi Neko Full House, and Kotetsu in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, all Orphan releases.
• Yokozawa Keiko (Yukari, the model) is probably best known for her starring role as Sheeta in Castle in the Sky. She played the title roles in Charlotte (1977), the Dorami-chan properties, and ESPer Mami, as well as leading roles in Plastic Little and Legend of Lemnear. She also played Pandora in Akuma-tou no Prince Mitsume ga Tooru, an Orphan release.
• Yamada Keaton (Naruse Dai, head of the modeling agency) played the narrator in Master Keaton, Kanako's father in Boyfriend, and Xun Yu in Sangokushi 1 and 2. The last two are Orphan releases.

The director, Nishikubo Mizuho, also helmed Miyuki, Purple Eyes in the Dark (an Orphan release), and most recently, Giovanni's Island. The music is by Kazato Shinsuke, who also wrote the scores for Urusei Yatsura, the Kinnikuman franchise, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes (OVA version).

A few translation notes:

• After Kaoru loses her virginity with Kohei, she makes an enormous breakfast, including red bean rice. That dish is a dead giveaway to her friends, because it's often used to celebrate a significant milestone in a woman's life.
• When Milk is wondering why Kohei is so popular, she uses the word kei-haku-tan-sho, which refers to a trend in consumer products for "smaller, lighter, better." Kohei mishears it as houkei tansho, meaning "small and uncut."
• Milk tries to teach Kumiko to resist Kohei's advances with the phrase, "I want to have a platonic relationship." Kumoko mishears "platonic" as "plastic" and proceeds to mangle the phrase totally, producing "I want to halve a plastic relay stripper."
• Eri tells Kaoru that Non is also pregnant by Kohei; this seems to precipitate Kaoru's miscarriage. Eri isn't messing with Kaoru. The manga makes it clear Eri hadn't heard that Non's pregnancy was a false alarm.

Moho Kareshi did the original translation. convexity checked the dialog and signs and translated the songs. ninjacloud timed, I did editing and typesetting, and Nemesis and VigorousJammer did QC. The encode is by fong, from an R2J DVD. The raw includes a six-minute promo at the end.

So Orphan is ending 2019 on the same note as it began, with an ecchi OVA. (Our first release of the year was Majo Demo Steady.) I quite enjoyed Karuizawa Syndrome, although it's a bit dated in its attitudes. It's available from the usual torrent sites as well as IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Hiatari Ryoukou

Every now and then, I remember that Orphan Fansubs was started to complete series  abandoned (orphaned) by other groups. Simultaneous streaming has reduced the likelihood of abandoned series, so the original mission has been complemented, or perhaps overtaken, by a focus on shows stranded on the wrong side of the analog-digital divide. However, I do keep an eye on my "orphan series list," and occasionally an opportunity arises to check one off. Here, without further ado, is Hiatari Ryoukou. 

Hiatari Ryoukou (48 episodes, 1987-1988) was the fourth of Adachi Mitsuru's manga to be adapted for anime, and his fourth baseball rom-com, following Miyuki, the much shorter Nine, and the much longer Touch. It took over Touch's TV slot, thereby providing Japanese audiences with three continuous years of Adachi Mitsuru.  It bears more of a resemblance to Nine than to Touch, but it has many of the same stock Adachi character types and plot situations.

The Hiatari Ryoukou project began in ray=out in 2012. I was asked to edit on a freelance basis. The project struggled to maintain a consistent release cadence: an initial set of releases in 2012, almost nothing in 2013, a burst up to episode 24 in 2014, and since then, nothing, even though the basic script work - translation, timing, editing, encoding - was finished in early 2014. (I documented my frustrations with the project in this blog post.) Well, the wait is now over. Starting just after Labor Day, I went back to the Hiatari Ryoukou scripts, revisited the editing, typeset where necessary, and asked the Orphan team to help with additional translation and QC. It took just about three months to get everything in reasonable shape. So here, at long last, are the final 24 episodes of Hiatari Ryoukou. I have not revisited the first 24 episodes, nor do I intend to, but they are included in the batch for convenience.

Hiatari Ryoukou is as standard an Adachi Mitsuru story as you can imagine. Kishimoto Kasumi lives in her aunt's boarding house with four (male) students from Meijou, her high school: Takasugi Yuusaku (the good-natured one), Ariyama Takashi (the heavy one), Mikimoto Shin (the conceited one), and Aido Makoto (the invisible one). She has an older boyfriend, Muraki Katsuhiko, who is often off the scene, in college in America. Yuusaku, Ariyama, and Shin all end up playing for Meijou's fairly pathetic high-school baseball team, which is managed by Kasumi's friend Seki Keiko. Shin and Ariyama have a yen for Keiko. Yuusaku, although attracted to Kasumi, believes that he should defer to Katsuhiko, particularly when the latter returns to coach the Meijou team. The messy romantic relationships overlap with the baseball team's quest to become contenders and reach Koshien. Stir and repeat for 48 episodes. It's lighthearted fun. However, the ending is very rushed and abrupt, and the baseball side of the story is never resolved.

The voice cast includes many veterans of Adachi Mitsuru world, as well as some newcomers.

• Morio Yumi (Kasumi) played Akimoto Reiko in the long-running Kochikame franchise.
• Mitsuya Yuuji (Yuusaku) played Tatsuya (the lead, a Yuusaku clone) in Touch, Pen Pen in Mr. Penpen, Kouji in Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Irabu in Kuuchuu Buranko, Jecy in Hi-Speed Jecy, Seki in Majo demo Steady, and Daisuke in Stop!! Hibari-kun. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Shiozawa Kaneto (Shin) played Iason in Ai no Kusabi, Rock Holmes in Fumoon, Shiina in Chameleon, Sanzou in I am Son Goku, and Kurahashi Eiji, the ace pitcher, in Nine, all Orphan releases. He also played Joe in Tokimeki Tonight, Yoshio in Miyuki, Takeshi in Touch, D in Vampire Hunter D, Narsus in Arslan Senki OVA, Rosario in Dragon Half, and Abriel senior in Crest of the Stars.
• Hayashiya Kobuhei (Ariyama) is a Humanities professor and rakugo artist. His anime credits include Koutarou (the Ariyama clone) in Touch and Yoichi in the Kochikame franchise.
• Tsuru Hiromi (Keiko) 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, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and big sister Shizuka in Tomoe's Run!, all Orphan releases.

The chief director, Sugii Gisaburou, needs no introduction to readers of this blog. His many credits include other Adachi Mitsuru series (Touch and Nine); Nozomi Witches and Hidamari no Ki (both Orphan projects); and several recent movies. The songs are by various artists, including Serizawa Hiraoki, who did many of the songs for Nine. Just to emphasize the continuity, the last insert song in Hiatari Ryoukou is a variation on Midsummer Runner, the ending song for Nine.

This completion of Hiatari Ryoukou retains the styling decisions (dialog and song styles, the use of honorifics, the inconsistent romanization of long vowels) from the ray=out episodes. Compared to the state of the scripts in 2014, the main changes are:

• Translation of missing lines and more signs.
• Translation checking on the insert songs.
• An additional editing pass.
• Timing cleanup.
• Additional QC. 
• Wider horizontal margins and more frequent line breaks.
• Typesetting with motion capture to compensate for image instability.

The credits for these 24 episodes are a bit complicated. Athanor provided the DVD raws. For ray=out, AgitoAkito encoded, tacokichi translated, nollarg timed, alchemist11 styled, and first Saji and then Samika did QC through episode 38. For Orphan, I edited, checked, and typeset, Nemesis did QC, and Skr, Iri, and convexity translated missing lines and signs. convexity translation checked the insert songs.

With the success of Mix, Adachi Mitsuru is experiencing another revival, and several of his properties have shown up in high-definition on Japanese streaming sites. Mostly, they look like upscales - sometimes laserdisc upscales - but we can always hope for remastered versions done from original sources. In the meantime, here's Hiatari Ryoukou. You can get the episodes from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Orphans Dashboard

Except for short-runtime shows, few current series are left orphaned, because almost everything gets streamed and captured. Thus, orphaned series are mostly a matter of the back catalog.

Orphans rescued since I started this blog (aka, the Honors List):

• 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (Marco) (neo1024)
• Aim for the Ace! (Bluefixer)
• Akai Hayate (Orphan)
• Alps Stories: My Annette (Licca)
• Amuri Star Ocean (mixed groups)
• Before Green Gables (ARR)
• Black Jack: the last OVAs (Bluefixer)
• Blue Dragon (Takeo84)
• Busou Chuugakusei - Basket Army  (Migoto/anon)
• Captain Tsubasa (Frenchies/Saizen)
• Code Breaker OVAs (Orphan) 
• Corrector Yui (OldCastle)
  
• Cutie Honey (TSHS)
• D4 Princess (tipota & Orphan) 
• Daa! Daa! Daa! (Aozora & TMUsubs) 
• Dash Kappei (Shindoi) - although it's a bit of a "do it yourself" project
  
• Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora (OnDeed)
• Gallery Fake (Muji) 
• Gyagu Manga Biyori S2 (sulez_raz) 
• Haita Nanafa second series (Omen then Glitch)
• Hakugai: The Legend of Moby Dick (tipota)
• Hakuouki - Otogisoushi (YouTube)
• Hal & Bons - last episode found subtitled on YouTube
• Hell Teacher Nube (ARR)
• Hiatari Ryoukou (ray=out-Orphan)
• Hidamari no Ki (Orphan)
• Hi-Speed Jecy (Orphan)
• Hyouge Mono (Doremi)
• Idol Densetsu Eriko (Kiteseekers & Licca) 
  
• Kakyuusei (1995) (Orphan) 
• Kakyuusei (1999) (C1) 
• Kiss Dum (Doutei)
• Kyou Kara Ore Wa!! (Saizen & Yabai)
• Jang Geum's Dream (ARR)
• Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette (Licca & Wasurenai) 
• Lime-iro Ryuukitan X Cross (Kiteseekers) 
• Little Women II (Licca)
• Love Get Chu (Oyatsu, Yoroshiku)
• Maicching Machiko-sensei (streaming on CR)
• Maple Story (Linguistic) - Korean audio
• Marginal Prince  (aarinfantasy)
  
• Marie & Gali S1 (Wasurenai)
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (KiteSeekers) 
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure (Licca & Wasurenai) 
• Miyuki (FroZen-EviL)
• Mizu Iro Jidai (Kiteseekers)
• Neon the Animation (Migoto & ray=out)
  
• Ninku (SolZen), using the new Blu-Ray release 
  
• Onara Garou (Kaitou, Double, and anon)
• Perrine Monogatari (Licca & KiteSeekers & Wasurenai)
• Porphy no Nagai Tabi (Licca)
• Rakugo Tennyo Oyui (ARR)
• Saint October (ReDone)
• Shinshaku Sengoku Eiyuu Densetsu Sanada Juu Yuushi (Sanada 10) - Orphan
  
• Showa Monogatari (GotWoot)
• Sonic Soldier Borgman TV (Mushin) - based on HK subs
• Sonic Soldier Borgman: New Century 2058 (Orphan)
• Souten Kouro (Gotwoot & Doutei) 
• Stop!! Hibari-kun! (Orphan)
• Tetsuko no Tabi (m.3.3.w) 
• Tokimeki Tonight (Orphan-Saitei)
• Tono to Issho S2 (anonymous)
• Ultraviolet Code 44 (KiteSeekers)
• Yamato 2520 (Orphan)
• Yawara (FroZen-EviL)
• Yoshimune (ARR)

Note that the list only includes series that were started by one group and abandoned and then picked up and redone or finished by a different group. Subbing old series that were never done before doesn't count; nor does resuming a series after a long pause. ARR's subs are often derived from Hong Kong or Malaysian DVDs.

Orphan rescues in progress (aka, the Fingers-Crossed List):

• Patalliro (aarinfantasy) 
• The Kobocha Wine (Flapsubs)
  

The note from the previous list applies here as well.

Orphans stuck in limbo (aka, the Series Broiler list):

• 3-Choume no Tama: Uchi no Tama Shirimasenka? 
  
• BAR Kiraware Yasai
• Chikkun Takkun
  
• Dibetagurashi
• Gene Diver
• Kuruneko
  
• Lady Georgie 
• Magnerobo Ga-Keen
  
• Oh! Family
  
• Onegai My Melody S3
• Piroppo
  
• Puu-neko
• Robin Hood no Daibouken 
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms (2010)
• SuzakiNishi
  
• Tanoshi Moomin Ikka
  

(Updated 10-Sep-2023)

Hashire Melos (1992) v2

I was a bit unhappy with Orphan's original release of the 1992 movie Hashire Melos (Run, Melos). First, it was very big - 2.3GB for a movie that wasn't even full SD. Second, the encode was in two parts, because of differences between the framing on the first and second side of the laserdisc source. Third, I wasn't sure about the ratio. The rip came from a letterboxed laserdisc, but it was packaged in a DVD ISO container. The encoder assumed it was anamorphic at 1.85:1 after the top and bottom black margins were cut off. I don't think is. Laserdiscs are 640 x 480 (NTSC resolution). Even if the top and bottom letterboxing is removed, the horizontal width is still 640.

Earlier this year, a copy of the Hashire Melos laserdisc was offered on Ebay. I bought it and sent it to Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions for ripping and encoding. Erik was able to handle the changes in framing between the two sides, as that's a common problem with laserdiscs, and created a new raw. Orphan is releasing a new version of Hashire Melos using his new encode The principal changes are:

1. All in one file.
2. Laserdisc aspect ratio (borders included).
3. Smaller file size.
4. Better color balance.
5. Short extra (a promo for the film) at the end.

As is his usual practice, Erik left the letterboxing in place. This allowed the karaoke and subtitles to be moved out of the video area. If that doesn't float your boat, you should stick with the previous version.

Hashire Melos is based on a beloved short story by Japanese author Osamu Dazai and has been made into an anime multiple times. It tells the story of Melos, a shepherd who crosses (either deliberately or inadvertently) the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius the Younger (called Dionysius II in the movie), and is condemned to death. He requests time to return home and settle his affairs, but the king refuses, believing that Melos will run off and never return. Melos' friend Selinuntius volunteers to take Melos' place. The king agrees but warns Melos that Selinuntius will be executed if Melos fails to return in three days. After numerous trials, Melos returns in the nick of time. The king is so astonished by this display of true friendship that he releases both men.

I find this version of Hashire Melos overstretched. There isn't enough content in the original short story to justify 100+ minutes of screen time. There's a lot of padding throughout. On the other hand, I like the look of the film, as well as its character designs. The main characters have distinctive faces and body types, with real noses and realistic eyes. Melos looks like an overgrown lunk of a shepherd, Dionysius has the "lean and hungry" demeanor of a habitual schemer, and Selinuntius has the balanced appearance befitting a classical sculptor. The animation is fluid, set against very detailed backdrops of the city of Syracuse and the Sicilian countryside.

The voice cast is excellent.

• Yamadera Kouichi (Melos) played many leading roles, including Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Sukeroku in Shouwa Ginroku Rakugo Shinju, Ryouga in all the Ranma 1/2 properties, the nameless hero of Otaku no Seiza, Benten in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Happyaku in Wild 7, and of course, Ryouan in Hidamari no Ki. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Ogawa Shinji (Selinuntius) played Johnny's father in Starship Troopers and Douglas MacArthur in Junod, both Orphan releases, as well as Hyou in Hokuto no Ken. However, I remember him best as the lecherous ojii-san, Maestro Stresemann, in Nodame Cantabile.
• Kobayashi Akiji (Dionysius) played Tachibana throughout the Kamen Rider franchise.
• Hayashibara Megumi (Clair, Melos' sister) was arguably the most famous seiyuu of the 1990s. She starred as Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop, Ayanami Rei in Evangelion, Rune Balot in the Mardock Scramble movies, Rebecca in One Piece, Lina in the Slayers franchise, female Ranma in Ranma 1/2, and Miyokichi in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. She also played a number of feline roles, including including the title roles in the All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku and Hello Kitty franchises, as well as "lead cat" Iruinedo in Oruorane the Cat Player, an Orphan release. She played Navi in Izumo (1991), another Orphan release.
• Nakamori Aina (Raisa, a prostitute who helps Melos) is primarily a singer. Hashire Melos is her only anime role.
• Aono Takeshi (Calippus, a garrulous old man who helps Melos) was an industry veteran. He played Nurarihyon in every incarnation of GeGeGe no Kitarou through 2007, Billy Bones in Treasure Island, Bookman in D.grayman, Dracule in One Piece, Katsuhiko Masaki in the Tenchi Muyo franchise, and Shiro Sanada in the Yamato franchise. He also appeared in A Penguin's Memories, Ginga Tansa 2100: Border-nen, Fire Emblem, Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, Amefuri Kozou (Rain Boy), the three Sangokushi movies (as Guan Yu), and Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, all Orphan releases.

Osami Misaki directed and also did the storyboards and the screenplay. His use of dark interiors and shadows is striking. Oda Kazumasa composed all the music, including the excellent ending ballad. The background music is subtle and used sparingly.

For the original release, M74 transcribed the ACR subtitles and did the initial timing; ninjacloud did timing cleanup. Iri translation checked, I edited and typeset, Juggen created the wonderful ending karaoke, and Calyrica, konnakude, and Xenath3297 did QC. For this release, Iri translated the extra dialog, signs, and song verse in the promo. ninjacloud retimed the script. I cleaned up the script and redid the typesetting for the new raw and the added promo. Juggen redid his karaoke to fit the narrower width. BeeBee and Nemesis checked the release. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions encoded from a laserdisc I bought on Ebay.

Hashire Melos is still too padded for my taste, but it's excellent artwork and music make it quite watchable. You can get this new version from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.




 

Imperfect Raws

Streaming services in Japan are republishing classic anime series and movies in record quantities, often in high definition, sometimes remastered. That's good news for fans of old anime, because many of these shows have been unavailable or available only on imperfect sources like VHS tapes, laserdiscs, or hastily mastered DVDs. For example, the streaming source for the original Laughing Salesman looks vastly better than the DVD box set.

However, the streaming raws can also have problems. Sometimes, the high-definition stream is just an upscale of an old laserdisc or DVD, with no attempt at remastering. They result looks grainy and crude, with thick, jagged lines and blotched textures. Sometimes, the streaming service skimps on bandwidth. This introduces blocking and other artifacts. And sometimes, the streaming raw has encoding mistakes - incorrect frame rates (29.97 fps instead of 23.976 fps) or unnecessary black borders.

Orphan has a pile of high-definition raws for shows it has already released, but many of them have issues that introduce problems in the subtitling process:

• Incorrect frame rate. The high-definition Sangokushi movie streams are at 29.97 fps. This can't be correct: the originals were movies and must have been created at 23.976 fps. The incorrect frame rate not only bloats the encode, it also wrecks all the motion-tracked typesetting. Because the Sangokushi movies required months of typesetting, this is a big deal, at least for me as the typesettter. So far, no one has been willing to re-encode them back to the proper frame rate.
• Lack of cropping. The high-definition raws for the Nine OVAs are at the correct frame rate but are not cropped. The first OVA has been released as though it were a wide-screen movie, with horizontal black bars to achieve the movie aspect ratio of 1.85:1 instead of the HD standard of 1.77:1. The second and third OVAs are square but have been padded with vertical black bars to widen the 1440 x 1080 resolution to 1920 x 1080. In both cases, this wrecks the typesetting from the laserdiscs, which are 4:3.
• Ugly upscaling. The original high-definition releases of all the 60's Toei animation films appear to be simple upscales of DVD sources. They look terrible at 1080p and need to be downscaled to 720p to be tolerable, as was done for Wan Wan Chuushingura. (Toei is now remastering some of its best known titles, like Horus and Hakujaden; we'll see if they keep going.)

So I have a question to my readers (all three of you): would you like to see high-definition releases of our past shows, even if the raws have black bars or look terrible? Or should Orphan hold out for properly encoded/cropped raws? Of course, if we had a few more encoders, this would not be an issue...

AWOL Compression Remix

The 1998 series AWOL is infamous in anime history because of its lethargic pacing. It was so poorly regarded that the original TV series was never released on home media in Japan. Instead, the series was re-edited, compressed by a third, and released as four double-length OVAs under the title AWOL Compression Remix. Even that version never made it past VHS tapes and laserdiscs.

The series would have languished in obscurity except for a fortuitous chain of events. First, the original TV series was licensed and released in the United States on VHS tape, with English subtitles; it is now rather hard to find. Second, the author of the Land of Obfuscation blog wrote two detailed reviews, the first on the original TV series and the second on AWOL Compression Remix. These provided a guidebook to how the two were related. Third, a rip of the subtitled VHS tapes came Orphan's way. Last, Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions had most of AWOL Compression Remix in his collection, and I was able to buy the missing volume for him. All the pieces for subtitling the show were in place.

That was almost two years ago. The project languished, for a variety of reasons. To me, the script assembly process looked rather daunting. Most movie specials or "compressions" - like the Dallos Special - are done by assembling all the scripts in order and then knocking out lines corresponding to deleted scenes. AWOL Compression Remix, on the other hand, jumped around. The Land of Obfuscation guidebook provided a general outline, but like the Technical Challenge in The Great British Baking Show, a few important details were missing. With lots of new and complete scripts available from the Orphan translators, AWOL Compression Remix was a challenge I could cheerfully duck, and no one else in the team was interested in playing script detective.

As I've mentioned in other blogs, starting a year ago, Real Life carried off Orphan's translators, and the backlog of new scripts ran out. I continued to procrastinate by doing revised versions of several shows with new raws, but then the backlog of encodes ran out too. I had to tackle AWOL Compression Remix, at long last. The first episode was very difficult. I couldn't find the cold open. Quite a lot of the first two episodes had been cut (the third episode was cut entirely). The subs and the audio on our copy of the TV series were badly out of sync. Gradually, I was able to develop a rhythm and put a script together. It became easier as the series progressed and I stumbled across missing pieces. (For example, the cold open of Remix episode 1 came from TV episode 6.) There were some additional challenges. Remix added signs to keep the viewer grounded about scene changes; they were not in the TV series. Each volume of Remix had a promo video at the end; they were not in the TV series either. But with a little help from my friends, the scripts came together.

AWOL (and Compression Remix) was a follow-on project from the team that did Next Senki Ehrgeiz, and it was also intended to be an action-oriented sci-fi thriller. Vicious terrorists calling themselves Solomon attack the Allied Planets, stealing weapons of mass destruction called Planet Destroying Bombs (PDB) and gaining control of a network of satellite-based laser weapons called the Planet Link Plan (PLP). The lasers render the Allies' space navies useless. The terrorists proceed to blow up one planet after another and to destroy fleet after Allied fleet. In desperation, the Allies put together a small counterstrike team under Major Jim Hyatt. He recruits not only capable pilots and soldiers but also criminals with special skills, like computer hacking and bomb making. Hyatt's team must find and take out the terrorists before the terrorists blow up the Earth. The show plays a bit like a cross between Condition Green and The Dirty Dozen.

The plot will not withstand scrutiny, of course. Solomon is run by a former military officer, Duran Gash. His motives are never spelled out; he behaves like a comic book villain who likes really big explosions. His ally is Peat Culten (yes, that's how it's spelled), the operator of the laser satellite network. The Allied Planets' military built the network secretly, without informing the civilian government. Further, they gave Culten total control, with no oversight and no backups. (What would happen if he was asleep or on vacation during an emergency is not specified.) Culten has control not only of the satellite network but of every one of the military's computers. Early in the show, an Allied anti-terrorist team successfully boards Gash's ship, but instead of blowing it and all of Solomon up, they try to recapture the PDB missiles. When it's Jim Hyatt's turn, he has recruited exactly the right people to meet every emergency and unforeseen problem that arises during his mission. And so on.

The science is a bit dicey too. The speed of light limit is sort of honored - it requires "hyper-drive" to get around space - except when it gets in the way of the plot. Communications are instantaneous, so that Pete Culten can control the PLP satellites in real time from light-years away. Hyatt's pilot can see laser beams coming, so she can dodge them. Well, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds anyway.

AWOL Compression Remix is nowhere near as slack as the original TV series, but it still has some pacing problems. In particular, the endless bickering between the representatives of the civilian government and the military leaders brings the show almost to a dead stop whenever it happens. Much of this was cut, but even more should have been. In addition, the show ends very abruptly; there's no epilogue to show what happens after. Mission accomplished, followed immediately by THE END. Do the criminals get pardoned? Is the military punished for its stupidity? Do the civilian and military officials who wrangled pointlessly all through the show finally strangle each other? We'll never know.

The voice cast includes many notable names:

• The redoutable Genda Tesshou (Jim Hyatt) 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 Mitsuboshi Colors. He also played Paul Rusch in Yume Kakeru Kougen, the loyal lieutenant Galbreath in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the dragonman Baguda in Greed, the narrator in Akai Hayate and Meisou-ou Border, Dog McCoy in Dallos, Hebopi in Wild 7, rebel leader Oosukune in Izumo, and Rikiishi's trainer Kuroki and Kirishima in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
• Nakamura Daiki (Chris Sheldon, Hyatt's criminal hacker) played Keith Winter in Condition Green (an Orphan release), the 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.
• Nakata Jouji (Nelson the Bomb, Hyatt's criminal bomber) is best known as Alucard in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate and as the Count of Monte Christo in Gankuutsuou. He also played Shamon in Amatsuki (an Orphan release), Ashen Eye in The Ancient Magus Bride, Bandou in Elfen Lied, Hijikata in Golden Kamuy, Vladimir Putin (!) in Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku, Jin Kunugi in Rahxephon, Otou in Working!, and Diethard Ried in Code Geass.
• Nakata Kouji (Duran Gash, the terrorist leader) played the title roles in Kamui Gaiden, Ninpu Kamui Gaiden, and Seton Doubutsuki, the narrator in Dallos, and Admiral Maskanen in Yamato 2520. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Nakao Ryuusei, who gives a virtuoso performance as the cackling terrorist hacker Peat Culten, played the lead in Igano Kabamaru, King Falke in ACCA, Hephaestion in Alexander's Decision, Freeza/Cooler in Dragon Ball, and Akio in Chameleon, an Orphan release.
• Adachi Shinobu (Amanda Kessler, Gash's second in command) played Rabi in Madou King Granzort, the title roles in Calimero and Jagainu, Tom (Sawyer) in Huckleberry Finn, Kayra Su in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, and Chou of Benten in Usagi-chan de Cue.
• Miki Shinichirou (John Bishop, Hyatt's sharpshooter) played Kojiro in Pokemon, Fujiwara Takumi in Initial D, Urahara Kisuke in Bleach, Minamoto no Yorihisa in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de, Shintarou in Lime-iro Senkitan, Bruce Wayne in Batman: Gotham Knight, Roy Mustang in Full Metal Alchemist (2009), Gintarou in Gingitstune, and Cyber-X in Hand Maid May, an Orphan release.
• Tanaka Atsuko (Dana McLaren, Hyatt's ace pilot) played Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell and Lisa Lisa in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventures TV series.
• Ootomo Ryuuzaburou( Zack Landis, Dana's trusted mechanic and copilot) played Crocodile in One Piece and Bear Walken in Gungrave.
• Kazuki Yayoi (Rachel Hurst, Hyatt's communications expert) was a stage actress and had no other significant anime roles.

The director, Kawase Toshifumi, also directed Next Senki Ehrgeiz. The music is by prolific anime composer Hamaguchi Shirou, who is best known for his work on One Piece, Girls und Panzer, and Ah! My Goddess; it's quite good. As with Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the opening song is a driving rocker, and the ending song a more soulful ballad.

Because of the origin of the shows, the staff credits are a bit unusual. Yogicat transcribed the VHS subtitles. convexity translated the songs, Sunachan translated the signs, and Iri filled in a couple of lines that were simply missing. I assembled the scripts and did very rough timing. ninjacloud did the fine dialog timing and the song timing. I edited and typeset; the signs are not difficult. BeeBee, Nemesis, and Topper3000 QCed. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions encoded from his own Japanese laserdiscs. So lots of people had their hands, or at least their fingers, in this one.

In the end, is AWOL Compression Remix an improvement on the original AWOL? Yes, definitely. Is it enough of an improvement to be considered good? Not so sure. The old adage about silk purses and sow's ears applies. The creators of Remix were constrained by the original AWOL scripts. No new animation was added, only a few signs. The motives of the terrorists are never explained. The characters remain one-dimensional and functional. And the boring and pointless bickering among the Allies remains boring and pointless. On the other hand, there are lots of explosions, good action scenes, and some standout vocal performances. If you watch AWOL Compression Remix, it may not leave a lasting impression, but you won't tear your hair out either: Twinkle Nora Rock Me or Bavi Stock II it's not (thank the stars).

So unless someone wants to clean up and rip the rather rare VHS tapes of the complete series, this is as much of AWOL as we're likely to get. You can get AWOL Compression Remix from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Let's Nupu Nupu

I have a secret (well, maybe not so secret) weakness for ecchi gag shows; for example, Hanaukyo Maid Tai. Here's one of the ecchiest and sketchiest, 1998's Let's Nupu Nupu. This is the first release based on a laserdisc source; previous releases used VHS sources.

Let's Nupu Nupu is a series of short sketches gathered into short episodes, with very little continuity and no through plot. The vignettes are organized around characters and situations:

• Takagi-kun and Shitara-sensei. Lustful school nurse Shitara Yuri repeatedly attempts to get into the (literal) shorts of uninterested and disgusted sixth-grader Takagi Fumio. In the US, this would be an episode of Law & Order: SVU. In Japan, it's a comedy.

• The Adventures of Sushi Neko. A mangy cat tries (and fails) at a series of jobs, including sushi chef, convenience store clerk, superhero, English teacher, hard-boiled detective, and office boss.

• The communications problems of a pet hamster in a family where every person calls it by a different name.

• Takao-san and Kobato-chan. Two high school students turn collecting the garbage into a trashy mess of double entendres.

• The Omori Family Drama Series. Brocon and siscon siblings exchange charged utterances about home media electronics.

• Happy Family Center. Kitamura Kumi, 26-year-old single kindergarten teacher, is brought to the edge of despair by a precociously insightful brat, Asami.

Because the episodes are only five minutes long, even the longest sketch goes by in a flash. If it's not funny, there's another one right behind it that may be better... or worse. There's some nudity, because Shitara-sensei strips at the slightest excuse, and lots of suggestive dialog, but no sex.

The voice cast includes quite a few distinguished seiyuu:

• Tomizawa Michie (Shitara Yuri) played Linna Yamazaki in Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, Matsuzaka-sensei in Crayon Shin-chan, the nameless Office Lady in Oruchuban Ebichu, Sailor Mars in Sailor Moon, Mihoshi in Tenchi Muyo, Airi Komiyama in Those Who Hunt Elves, and Emi Ogasawara in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played female Joker in Joker: Marginal City, an Orphan release.
• Ueda Yuuji (Takagi-kun) played Johannes Krauser II in Detroit Metal City (OVA), Fuuma Yousuke in Wedding Peach, Sagara Sonosuke in Rurouni Kenshin, Tenkata Akito in Kidou Senkan Nadeseico, Keitarou in Love Hina, Makoto in Futari Ecchi, and Takeshi in Pokemon. He also voiced Nanbara in Hand Maid May, an Orphan release.
• Takana Urara (Sushi Neko) played Mowgli in Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli, Tiger in Saber Marionette, and Maria Tachibana in Sakura Wars. She also voiced Sister Yumiko in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki and Ken in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, both Orphan releases.
• Okiayu Ryoutarou (Takao-san) starred as Aoyama-kun in Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun, Mitsui Hisashi in Slam Dunk, Matsura Yuu in Marmalade Boy, Jinnai Katsuhiko in the El-Hazard franchise, Nueno Meisuke in the Hell Teacher Nube series, the title roles in Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya and Toriko, Samejima Ranmaru in Kizuna, Souma Shigure in Fruits Basket (2003), Berserker in Fate/Zero, Hideyoshi in Sengoku Basara, and Atsushi in Recorder to Ransel. He also played Abel in Fire Emblem, Akram in Harukanaru Toki and 2, and Gion in Okane ga Nai!, all Orphan releases.
• Araki Kae (hamster, Marimo) played Yuuki Miagi in Fushigi Yugi, Minnie Mae Hopkins in Gunsmith Cats, Ann in Juliet, and chibi Sailor Moon in the Sailor Moon franchise.
• Ishida Akira (brother Omori) played Makoto in Boys Be, Cho Hakkai in the Saiyuuki franchise, Sasuke in Samurai Deeper Kyou, Gaara in Naruto, Chrono in Chrno Cursade, Judas in Saint Beast, Ahrun in the Gundam Seed franchise, Kuchiki in the Genshiken franchise, Komugi in Hen Zemi, Natori in the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise, and of course, Yakumo in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu.
• Himomi (sister Omori) has done numerous eroge. In anime, she appeared in Shuffle, Happiness, Koihime Mushou, Carnival Phantasm, and several h-anime.
• Katou Seizo (Sushi Neko's sushi mentor) played Putyatin in Bakumatsu no Spasibo, Oz in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz TV series, Okaa-san in Tokyo Godfathers, and Aran in Freedom. He played Abraham in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament and appeared in Kage, an Orphan release.

Multiple directors were involved, each scripting his own skits. The original manga is by Mitsumori Akira.

The original subtitles were by RiP. They did a good job bringing out the lewd jokes in the dialog and the titles, but a few errors have been corrected.  ics- transcribed the subtitles, originally for use with his own laserdisc. Iri translated the opening song, and Sunachan translated some additional signs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. ics- ripped the show from his own Japanese laserdisc. The encoding is by Urotsuki of Beatrice-Raws, and it looks great. This is a conventional rip, not a Domesday Duplicator rip, so massive props for making the show look so good. (It's been upscaled to 768 x 576, but I don't think that's noticeable.) So this is an Orphan-Beatrice joint release. I hope there will more in the future; Orphan needs all the encoding help it can get.

On TV, each episode had an opening and ending song. For the home video releases, these were chopped off. The laserdisc includes an opening song for all sixteen episodes; it is probably the original ending. The laserdisc ending is an instrumental that includes credits for all the episodes. There is no sign of the TV opening (Maybe True by Fanatic Crisis). The torrent includes a "play all" option. On a player that supports ordered chapters, this will play the OP, the sixteen episodes, and the ED, in laserdisc order.

So here's Let's Nupu Nupu with significantly improved video, which allows Shitara-sensei's, ah, lessons to be admired in greater detail. As usual, you can pick up Let's Nupu Nupu from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.