Orphan's first release for 2019!
Although Erik at Piyo Piyo Productions is the most prolific ripper and encoder of Japanese anime laserdiscs that have been stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide, he was not the only collector aiming to preserve the anime past. Another was Macross2012, who worked in the BakaBT community and then abruptly vanished. (One could say of the Internet what Dorothy says about Oz: "People come and go so quickly around here.") He encoded a number of interesting and unique raws, and Orphan has now used one to provide the first English version of the 1986 ecchi sci-fi comedy, Majo demo Steady (My Steady Is a Witch).
Majo demo Steady begins with a classic anime plot hook: Hisashi Seki, ordinary working guy, wakes up one morning to find a naked, and very amorous, girl in his bed. (This is carrying the Sudden Girlfriend Appearance trope to a whole 'nother level.) Because he's a grownup, and not an anime harem lead, he's happy to take advantage of the situation, to their mutual satisfaction. However, the girl's appearance leads to all sorts of increasingly strange phenomenon.
The cause lies, sort of, in Jungian psychology. The girl, whom he has named Asami, is from a parallel dimension where people's ideal partners - the anima to their animus, or vice versa - reside. Asami's longing has allowed her to cross dimensions to be with Seki, but her presence in his world upsets the natural order. She goes back, and Seki must venture to her world to save her. The lovers are reunited. However, matters don't turn out quite as they hoped.
I need to mention a couple of points. There is a lot of nudity. Asami spends most of her time without clothes, and Seki joins her in that state whenever he can. There is a lot of under-the-covers sex, never shown; this is ecchi, not hentai. And there's a subplot about Seki's boss, Sugiyama, who is gay and lusts after his subordinate. This part starts to look a lot like typical anime gay-bashing, but it takes an unexpected turn. Sugiyama too has an ideal partner in the parallel world, and he is allowed an unexpectedly upbeat ending to his quest for love.
The voice cast includes:
Moho Kareshi translated, and laalg checked the dialog, added more signs, and translated the songs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. BeeBee and Nemesis QCed. The raw is from Macross2012. He included two Japanese audio tracks, one AAC, the other AC3. Neither includes a right channel, so the sound is in effect monaural.
Majo demo Steady is not a world-shaker, but its heart is in the right place. If you'd like a light ecchi comedy with sci-fi overtones, it will do quite well. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
Update: in response to complaints, I've muxed the AC3 track down to mono and removed the AAC track. As a result, v2 is about 100MB smaller. A patch to create the new version can be found here. We've been outbid twice trying to buy the LD of this show, so v2 will have to stand for now.
Although Erik at Piyo Piyo Productions is the most prolific ripper and encoder of Japanese anime laserdiscs that have been stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide, he was not the only collector aiming to preserve the anime past. Another was Macross2012, who worked in the BakaBT community and then abruptly vanished. (One could say of the Internet what Dorothy says about Oz: "People come and go so quickly around here.") He encoded a number of interesting and unique raws, and Orphan has now used one to provide the first English version of the 1986 ecchi sci-fi comedy, Majo demo Steady (My Steady Is a Witch).
Majo demo Steady begins with a classic anime plot hook: Hisashi Seki, ordinary working guy, wakes up one morning to find a naked, and very amorous, girl in his bed. (This is carrying the Sudden Girlfriend Appearance trope to a whole 'nother level.) Because he's a grownup, and not an anime harem lead, he's happy to take advantage of the situation, to their mutual satisfaction. However, the girl's appearance leads to all sorts of increasingly strange phenomenon.
The cause lies, sort of, in Jungian psychology. The girl, whom he has named Asami, is from a parallel dimension where people's ideal partners - the anima to their animus, or vice versa - reside. Asami's longing has allowed her to cross dimensions to be with Seki, but her presence in his world upsets the natural order. She goes back, and Seki must venture to her world to save her. The lovers are reunited. However, matters don't turn out quite as they hoped.
I need to mention a couple of points. There is a lot of nudity. Asami spends most of her time without clothes, and Seki joins her in that state whenever he can. There is a lot of under-the-covers sex, never shown; this is ecchi, not hentai. And there's a subplot about Seki's boss, Sugiyama, who is gay and lusts after his subordinate. This part starts to look a lot like typical anime gay-bashing, but it takes an unexpected turn. Sugiyama too has an ideal partner in the parallel world, and he is allowed an unexpectedly upbeat ending to his quest for love.
The voice cast includes:
- Mitsuya Yuji (Seki) played the leads in Yousei-Ou and Hi-Speed Jecy, both Orphan releases, and in two Adachi Mitsuri properties, Touch and Hiatari Ryouko. He has appeared in many other shows, including Oz, Ranma 1/2, and the Stitch! franchise.
- Takahashi Miki (Asami) is best known as a singer (she sang all the songs in the show). She had featured roles in MAPS (1994) and Tenamonyo Voyagers. She appeared in Doukyuusei: Climax, an Orphan release.
- Kokontei Shinsuke (Sugiyama) has only one other anime credit.
Moho Kareshi translated, and laalg checked the dialog, added more signs, and translated the songs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. BeeBee and Nemesis QCed. The raw is from Macross2012. He included two Japanese audio tracks, one AAC, the other AC3. Neither includes a right channel, so the sound is in effect monaural.
Majo demo Steady is not a world-shaker, but its heart is in the right place. If you'd like a light ecchi comedy with sci-fi overtones, it will do quite well. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
Update: in response to complaints, I've muxed the AC3 track down to mono and removed the AAC track. As a result, v2 is about 100MB smaller. A patch to create the new version can be found here. We've been outbid twice trying to buy the LD of this show, so v2 will have to stand for now.
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