Sangokushi movie 2

The second movie of the Sangokushi trilogy is 1993's Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! (Sangokushi: The Yangtze Is Burning!). It covers roughly 13 years, from Cao Cao's victory over Lu Bu in 198 CE, through the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE, and the aftermath up until 211 BCE. As other players are swept from the board, the story focuses on Liu Bei and his increasingly desperate attempts to prevent Cao Cao from seizing all of China. The turning point is Liu Bei's recruitment of the best strategic mind of that generation, Zhuge Kongming, the Crouching Dragon. Kongming orchestrates an alliance of convenience between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the ruler of the emerging southern kingdom of Wu, as they seek to stop Cao Cao's "million man army" from rolling over all of China. Their victory over Cao Cao at Red Cliffs and Liu Bei's seizure of the southwest as his realm create the Three Kingdoms that give the era its name.

However, reaching that point is not easy. Liu Bei experiences setback after setback, even after recruiting Kongming. At more than one point in the story, with his fortunes at a low ebb, he describes himself as a failure. Still, he is able to retain the loyalty of his core set of warriors and even expand their number, when the mighty Zhao Yun enlists to serve the cause. Kongming first has to engineer multiple escapes from Cao Cao's hordes, but then he is able to seize the initiative and pull together the coalition that would finally check Cao Cao's ambitions... and create the opening for Liu Bei's ambitions to rule.

Like the Sangokushi television specials, the movies are based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms rather than the actual historical records themselves. This makes Liu Bei and his retainers more prominent than perhaps they were in history. It also allows the creators to pick and choose the story they want to show for Liu Bei's wife, named Lihua here. The TV specials modeled Lihua after Liu Bei's third wife, Lady Sun, sister to Sun Quan of Wu. However, the real Lady Sun did not meet the tragic fate depicted in Sangokushi 2; she simply went back to her brother in Wu. The movies' Lihua is based on Liu Bei's second wife, Lady Mi. Again, her tragic fate is not historical; she simply disappeared from the historical record after Cao Cao captured her in 200 CE. But Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a novel, not history, and its authors took considerable liberties with actual events, just as modern historical romances do.

Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! retains the same actors for Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu as the first movie. The major new seiyuu are:

• Yamaguchi Takashi (Kongming) was primarily an actor and a presenter. The Sangokushi movies are his only anime roles. 
• Shibata Hidekatsu (Sun Quan) played Baron Ashura in Mazinger Z, Kenzou Kabuto in Great Mazinger, King Bradley in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, and the Third Hokage in Naruto. He played the hero's father in Dragon Fist and the voice of God in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, both Orphan releases.
• Hori Hideyuki (Zhao Yun) played Zach Isedo in Al Caral no Isan, Sid in Ai no Kusabi, Falk Green in Hi-Speed Jecy, and Baraba in Eien no Filena, all Orphan projects. He played the title role in Baoh, Phoenix in the Saint Seiya franchise, and Tezuka Osamu himself in the Black Jack TV series.
• Sugiyama Kazuko (Xiulan, Kongming's housekeeper and eventual wife) played Heidi  in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Ganmo in Gu-Gu Ganmo, Ten-chan in Urusei Yatsura, Akane Kimidori in Dr. Slump and Arale-chan, and Korosuke in Kiteretsu Daihyakka.
• Yara Yuusaku (Zhou Yu, Wu's commander-in-chief) played the destroyer captain in Zipang. He had many featured roles, appearing in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Narudesho, Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Eien no Filena, Hidamari no Ki, Nozomi Witches, both Sangokushi OVAs, Prime Rose, and both What's Michael? OVAs, all Orphan releases.

As with the first movie, the supporting cast is vast, but most are onscreen only for a short time. The musical score for all three movies is by Yokoyama Seiji, a prolific composer of anime scores, including the Saint Seiya franchise and Magical Taruruuto-kun.

The Orphan staff is the same as for the first movie. Iriliane translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, and BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed. M74 encoded from an R2J DVD. Because of the length and complexity of the movie, it was a mammoth effort by all concerned. Unfortunately, the third movie is even more complicated. And as with the first movie, you may need to fiddle with your player to get the signs to display correctly.

So gird your loins, pad your bottom, and go watch Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! in its full 148-minute glory. You can get the movie from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

No Safe Harbor

In the bad old days, like the mid-00s, getting subtitled anime to play properly was an exercise in frustration. The new Matroska (MKV) format was barely supported. There were many players, each with its own idiosyncrasies. Every codec was standalone and had to be installed separately. Codecs often stole each other's identities or registry entries, producing chaos. It was every subber for him/herself, and God against all.

Then a group of fansubbers got fed up and decided to set a de facto standard. They created the mischievously-named Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP, the Cyrillic acronym for the USSR) to dictate how fansubs should be decoded. They assembled a player, a set of filters, and a subtitle renderer into a coherent package, and it basically all worked. Peace and stability returned, to Windows at least. But in 2016, the CCCP project disbanded.

Personally, I barely noticed. True, the last CCCP didn't handle PGS subs correctly; I didn't care much. PGS subs are for (lazy) BD rips, not fansubs. However, Commie recently released its batch of Chihayafuru S1, and it didn't play. When I complained about this, I was peremptorily told that CCCP was "really old" (3 1/2 years!), and I should upgrade to the latest and greatest version of MPC-HC or MPC-BE or mplayer or some other playback gadget. So I did. Chihayafuru played correctly. PGS subs played correctly. Victory!

...until I started my release check on the second Sangokushi movie. To my horror, signs that I had set in Aegisub and that had played correctly before no longer looked right. Correct in VLC and CCCP; incorrect in MPC-HC and -BE. After some digging, I traced it to a bug (feature?) in the internal subtitle renderer in MPC-HC. Sangokushi is encoded anamorphically. The correct display aspect ratio is set during Matroska muxing. The subtitle renderer is ignoring the Matroska aspect ratio and using the encode aspect ratio. CCCP overrode the default MPC-HC renderer setting and forced use of an external package called vsfilter. Viewers using later versions of MPC-HC/BE must do that as well.

So, if you have abandoned CCCP and want to use MPC-HC/BE, then you  must first install xy-vsfilter separately (look it up on Google). Then, in MPC-HC/BE, override the default internal subtitle renderer and choose xyfilter instead. The option to do this is in different places, so you'll need to poke around. Once you've changed the subtitle renderer, Orphan's anamorphically encoded videos will play properly. Chaos tamed, at least temporarily, and at least on Windows. Everyone else will have to use VLC unless/until the internal renderer starts to respect the Matroska aspect ratio.

In the longer term, Orphan will stop making anamorphic encodes. They're only an issue for DVDs anyway, not VHS tapes, laserdiscs, or Blu-rays. They're an incredible PITA for typesetting, as well as a fruitful source of playback errors. In the meantime, here's a list of affected releases:

• Alice in Dreamland
• Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989
• Cosprayers
• Code Breakers OVAs
• DAYS OVAs
• Hidamari no Ki
• Okane ga nai!
• Sangokushi movie 1
• Seikima II: Humane Society
• Stop!! Hibari-kun!
• Ultra Nyan 2
• Wild 7
• Yume Tsukai

It is, unfortunately, very unlikely that we'll ever re-encode these shows. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, Ep 4-6

Here are the next three episodes from Tezuka Osamu no Kyuuyaku Seisho Monogatari: In the Beginning (Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament: In the Beginning). For general background on the series, see the blog post for the first three episodes.

The second DVD includes the last of the mythical stories from Genesis - the Tower of Babel - and the beginning of the history of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

4. The Tower of Babel. The Genesis portion is very short, basically the verses where God "confuses" the tongues of men as punishment for their hubris in trying to build a tower to heaven. The episode is told from the perspective of a non-Biblical character, a boy named Asaph, who runs away from his desert home to see the wonders of the "town of stone" and is nearly killed in the destruction of the tower. Rocco the fox plays the role of Asaph's dog.
5. Father Abraham. This episodes tells the story of Abraham's summons from God, his departure from his homeland with his family for parts unknown, and the miracle of the birth of his son Isaac despite his wife Sarah's advanced years. Rocco functions as Sarah's pet and comfort for her barrenness.
6. Sodom and Gomorrah. This episode relates the story of the decadent towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham's nephew Lot and his family have settled. God is determined to destroy the towns for their wickedness, but in a remarkable sequence, Abraham argues with God not to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Rocco provides comic relief.

The story of the Patriarchs begins in Genesis 12, with God's command to Abram, as he was originally known, "Go forth..." (In Hebrew, "Lech lekha...") This passage is a turning point in the tone of the text, from mythical to historical, and is a watershed moment in the Old Testament. (It has been commemorated in a beautiful children's song by the late Debbie Friedman, Lechi Lach.) But the story of Abraham and Sarah is not without its controversies; for example, Sarah's laugh. When God informs Abraham that he and Sarah will have a son, he laughs. When the heavenly messengers repeat the same thing in Sarah's hearing, she too laughs. Centuries of censorious (male) commentary interpreted Abram's laughter as joy and Sarah's as disrespect, even though the Hebrew word used in both places is the same. Yet the messengers seem unperturbed by Sarah's laughter, even after she denies it, and tell the couple that their son will be named Yitzhak (Isaac), "the laughing one."

The episode order is a bit strange. Episode 6 really occurs in the middle of episode 5, when Abraham leaves the land of Haran and Isaac has not yet been born. It also omits the many seamy details included in the original text:

• When Abraham and Sarah are in Egypt, he passes her off as his sister, and she ends up in Pharoah's harem for a while.
• When the angels come to Lot to announce the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the townspeople demand that he bring them out. Instead, he offers them his virgin daughters to do with "as they like."
• When Lot and his daughters are living in a cave after the destruction, the daughters get their father drunk and sleep with him, to guarantee the continuation of his line.

In the anime, the principal "sin" of Sodom and Gomorrah seems to be that the women wear fox furs.  Well, the series was intended for all ages.

The new additions to the voice cast were veteran seiyuu.

• Sakaguchi Daisuke (Asaph, episode 4) starred as Shimura in the Ginpachi franchise, Kousuke in Kamen no Maid Guy, Tadayashu in Moyashimon, Manabu in Tokimeki Memorial 4, Kaoru in Welcome to the NHK, Kenji in Yoiko, Shikimori in Maburaho, and Jin in Aoyama-kun.
• Hirao Jin (leader, episode 4) had featured roles in many shows.
• Katou Seizou (Abraham) 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 appeared in Kage and Perrine Monogatari, both Orphan releases.
• Midori Junko (Sarah) had featured roles, mostly as aged women.
• Hayami Shou (Angel) starred as Nanjou in Zetsuai: 1989 and Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989, and Kushinige Hodaka in Oshare Kozou wa Hanamaru, all Orphan releases. He has had many featured roles, including Iason's friend Raoul in Ai no Kusabi, Hojo in Sanctuary, Pat Leivy in Starship Troopers, and Junoichi in Blazing Transfer Student, also all Orphan releases.
• Nakagi Ryuji (Lot) appeared as Coach Yuutenji in Yawara! and in other featured roles. 

The Orphan staff credits are the same. Skr did the heavy lifting: translation, timing, typesetting, and encoding. I edited. Nemesis and Topper3000 QCed.

You can get this batch of episodes from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Sangokushi movie 1

As I've noted before, the Japanese are fascinated with chaotic historical eras, like their own Warring States and Bakumatsu periods, and China's Three Kingdoms era. The latter was the subject of a 60-volume manga epic, Sangokushi, by Yokuyama Mitsutera, which has been animated at least four times:

• A 1982 TV special, Sangokushi, for which no raw is available.
• Two movie-length TV specials, Sangokushi (1985) and Sangokushi 2 (1986), already subbed by Orphan.
• A 47-episode TV series, Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi, already subbed by Crossfade.
• Three theatrical movies, released in 1992, 1993, and 1994, currently not subbed.

Orphan will be releasing the first English-subtitled version of all three theatrical movies.

The first movie is Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake (Sangokushi: Dawn of the Heroes), released in 1992. It starts further back in time than the Sangokushi OVAs, with the Yellow Turban rebellion that initiated the downfall of the ruling Han dynasty. At the start of the story, both Liu Bei, its eventual protagonist, and Cao Cao, its eventual antagonist, are minor players. Liu Bei is striving to find a way to bring order to a chaotic world. As he puzzles he way toward the correct course of action, he befriends two powerful warriors, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. Together, they take the Oath of the Peach Garden, to live and die together as warriors for justice. Meanwhile, Cao Cao is pondering how to fulfill his destiny as "a hero in a chaotic world or a villain in a peaceful one."

Initially, power seems to belong to usurping warlord Dong Zhuo and his right-hand man, the hero Lu Bu. But the two soon fall out over a woman, Diaochan, and the resulting power vacuum gives Cao Cao his chance. Even though Lu Bu is the stronger warrior, Cao Cao has the devil's own luck on the battlefield. Liu Bei tries to stick to the right course, but he is just a minor piece on the giant chessboard of China's warring states. War rages up and down the country, with inconclusive result, thus setting the stage for the next two movies in the series.

The voice cast includes:

• Aoi Teruhiko (Liu Bei) played relatively few roles, but they were all star turns, including the title roles in all the Ashita no Joe properties and the first Hashire Melos special.
• Han Keiko (Lihua, Liu Bei's future wife) 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 Queen Millennia and its numerous spinoffs and sequels, as well as Luna in the Sailor Moon franchise.
• The late Aono Takeshi (Guan Yu)  played Masaki Katsuhiko in the Techni Muyo franchise and Bookman in the original D.grayman. He appeared in Techno Police 21C, Grim Douwa - Kin no Tori, Fire Emblem, and Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases.
• The late Ishida Tarou (Zhang Fei) played Duke Red in Metropolis and appeared in numerous other movies and TV shows.
• Tsukayame Masane (Lu Bu) had many featured credits and is still active.
• The late Takiguchi Junpei (Dong Zhuo) brought his distinctive voice to the roles of Scratch in Techno Police 21C, the villainous king of Kanemacchi Castle in Grim Douwa: Kin no Tori, and the Mouse Thief in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases.
• Watase Tetsuya (Cao Cao) is primarily a film and TV actor. Sangokushi is his only listed anime role.
• Yoshida Rihoko (Diaochan) played Megu-chan in Majokko Megu-chan, Monsley in Future Boy Conan, Maria Grace Fleed in UFO Robo Grendizer, Michiru in Getter Robo, Clara Sesemann in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Rosalie Lamorliere in The Rose of Versailles, Kurama in Urusei Yatsura, and Machiko in Maicchingu Machiko-sensei. She appeared in numerous other World Masterpiece Theater series, including  Anne of Green Gables, Honoo no Alpen Rose, Katry the Cow Girl, Shoukoushi Cedie, Lucy May of the Southern Rainbow, Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, Perrine, and Pollyanna.
• Kayumi Iemasa (Chen Gong, who saves Cao Cao from Dong Zhuo) played the Puppet Master in Ghost in the Shell as well as Emperor Vince in Condition Green and Dokudami in Bander Book, both Orphan releases.
  

The director, Katsumata Tomoharu, is a veteran with many credits to his name, including Danguard Ace, Captain Future, the first few Yamato movies, Rokudenashi Blues, Odin, and the Saint Seiya Hades OVAs.

This project is Iri's brainchild, and he translated all three movies. They are inordinately long; the dialog in each movie is equivalent to six or seven anime TV episodes. It is also quite formal and deliberately a bit stilted, to convey the formulaic nature of many of the interchanges. Sunachan, who speaks Chinese as well as Japanese, checked the names and the signs. Yogicat went into overdrive to do the timing. I edited and typeset. The typesetting was a PITA, because of the large number of maps that are overlaid across action scenes and scale against the background. BeeBee and Topper3000 did QC. M74 encoded from a Japanese DVD.

So if you're ready for another plunge into the complex world of the Three Kingdoms, this time with a much more detailed and complex story line, you can get Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake on the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Doldrums (Recruiting)

Orphan has had a marvelous run for the past three years thanks to new additions to the staff, particularly translators and QCs. But lately, staff members have been reclaimed by Real Life (the true Final Boss of fansubbing), and the number of new projects has dwindled. This is particularly aggravating because the availability of excellent raw material has never been greater, due to our media gurus' work on buying and ripping analog material.

The group desperately needs the following, more or less in order:

1. Encoder(s). Orphan needs one or more encoders who can work with "thorny" sources. We have lossless capture for both laserdiscs and VHS tapes, but the original sources are imperfect. Consequently, the filtering and encoding has to be handcrafted for each project individually. Even our digital sources (like Sanada 10) tend to have issues - interlacing, 30fps segments, etc. Right now, there's a substantial backlog of captures needing encoding, with more on the way. You must like encoding challenges, and you must have experience in solving them.
2. Translator(s). Orphan needs one or more translators/translation checkers. Almost all of our projects are properties that has never been subbed; but even resubs require translation checking. Right now, we have a substantial backlog - more than a dozen properties - waiting for translation or checking. Experience is essential. These shows are not for novices.
3. QCs. Orphan needs one or more QCs. See this blog entry for an overview of the QC process. Experience required.

Here are just some of the titles stalled for lack of resources:

• Need encoding: Meisou-Ou Border v2 (lossless VHS capture); Oedo wa Nemurenai v2 (lossless VHS capture); Singles  v2(lossless VHS capture); Shin Dousei Jidai Hawaiian Breeze (lossless VHS capture); Okama Report (lossless VHS capture); Let's Nupu Nupu (LD capture); Yume kara Samenai (lossless LD capture); Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de 2 v2 (R2J DVD); Amatsuki v2 (R2J DVD); Sanada 10 (R2J DVD).There are even more lossless VHS and LD captures queued up behind these, including a lossless LD capture of MAPS: Densetsu no Samayoeru Seijin-tachi.
• Need translation: Bocchan; Ambassador Magma; Mellow; Raiyantsuuri no Uta; Sanada 10 ep10-12; Tengai Makyou; Ziggy Sore Yuke: R&R Band; Tezuka Osamu Ga Kieta! 20 Seiki Saigo no Kaijiken; Tezuka Osamu Works: Kyoto Animation Theater.
• Need translation checking: Blue Sonnet; Bakumatsu no Spasibo; Genji Pt 1; Karuizawa Syndrome; Mother: Saigo no Shoujo Eve; Nayuto; Genji Monogatari movie; Kashou no Tsuki.

With such a huge backlog, you might rightfully ask, which projects are actually moving forward? The answer is, just a handful:

• Sangokushi movies. Movies 1 and 2 in release checking. Movie 3 in QC. 
• Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament. Episode 4 in release checking. Episodes 5 and 6 in QC.
• Boyfriend, OVA version, from laserdisc. Waiting for translation of added scenes and song verses.

Under current constraints, Orphan can only consider projects where translation and encoding are already done. Even most re-releases are stalled at encoding.

So if you like the work Orphan does, or you're intrigued by some of the titles in the backlog, and you have experience and are willing to work, please get in touch. I hang around on IRC (irc.rizon.net) pretty much all time, or you can leave contact information in the comments.

Amaama to Inazuma (Blu-ray)

I'm a sucker for slice-of-life shows about children and parents (or parental figures), like Usagi Drop and Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari. So when Godless Fansubs asked me to edit and typeset the Blu-ray version of their Amaama to Inazuma release, I jumped at it. I ripped through all twelve episodes in two months, and Godless released the first six episodes at the beginning of 2017. After that... silence. It's been more than two years since the last release. Today, Orphan is releasing the rest of the series, including revised versions of the first six episodes.

Amaama to Inazuma (Sweetness and Lightning) is the story of a widowed high-school math teacher, Inuzaka Kouhei, trying to raise his kindergarten-age daughter, Tsumugi, as a single parent. In addition to the constant demands on his time, as a professional and a parent, he lacks certain basic life skills; in particular, he doesn't know how to cook. By accident, he meets one of his students Iida Kotori, the shy daughter of a famous restaurateur, Iida Megami. Kotori doesn't know much about cooking either, but the two team up to master the basics of Japanese cooking and liberate Tsumugi from a life of convenience store bentos and precooked meals.

The setup - a high-school teacher meeting his student at home while raising an adorable moppet - sounds like it could go disastrously wrong, but Amaama to Inazuma sidesteps all the traps. There's no romance between Kouhei and Kotori, or even a hint of one. Tsumugi is a sweet, happy child, but she's also a real one - she can be moody, throw tantrums, or get upset about childish misunderstandings. The show is filled with the minor crises of parenthood, not the major manufactured incidents of anime, and most of the issues are resolved around the kitchen counter at Kotori's mother's restaurant. The show will make you hungry. 

It's a good thing that the subject matter is engrossing, because the animation is nothing to write home about. Much of it is done at 8 frames per second (some of the OP is at 6, perhaps as a stylistic choice), and there are lots of signs to cover up the essentially static nature of the backgrounds. In contrast, the voice cast is very good:

• Nakamura Yuuichi brings a strong presence to the role of Kouhei. His love for Tsumugi is palpable, as is his reticence about expressing emotion and his sadness over his limits as a parent. Yuuichi starred as Shinkaku in the two Bakumatsu series, Tada in Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai, Kyousuke in Ore no Imouto, Hotarou in Hyouka, and Okitsu in DIVE!!, to name just a few of his star turns. He showed his comedic flair as Grizzly-san in Shirokuma Cafe, an Orphan release. He also played Hoshina, Touin's captain in DAYS: Touin Gakuensen, another Orphan release.
• Hayami Soari makes Kotori's shyness and love of food believable. She starred as Saki in the Eden of the East properties, Chiriko in the AnoHana franchise, Ikaros in the Sora no Otoshimono franchise, Leviathan in Leviathan: The Last Defense, Ayase in the OreImo franchise, Shirayuki in Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, and many other roles.
• Endou Rina endows Tsugumi with realism and charm, perhaps because she's a child actress. (She was 10 when the show was made.) She also starred as the scene-stealing Hina in Barakomon.
• Tomatsu Haruka gives the role of Shinobu, Kotori's genki wingman, the upbeat energy it needs. She starred as Anjo in the AnoHana franchise, Manami in Asobi ni Ikuyo!, Nagi in Kannagi, Corticart in Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica and its sequel, Lala in the To Love-ru Franchise, Haruka in Mitsudomoe, Mayu in Nekogame Yaoyorozu, Ichika in Ano Natsu de Matteru, Shiho in Zettai Karen Children, and numerous other roles.
• Seki Tomokazu nails the role of Yagi, Kouhei's morose wingman, concealing a deep attachment to Tsumugi under a gruff exterior. He starred as the title roles in Maze and Keniichi, Kyou in the original Fruits Basket, Yotaro in Showa Genroku Rakugo, Dee in Fake, Rentarou in Futakoi: Alternative, Ryuuiki in Saiunkoku Monogatari, Shuichi in Gravitation, Nobu in Nana, and my personal favorite, Chiaki in Nodame Cantabile. He appeared in Sanctuary and Haruka Naru Toki de Naka de 2, both Orphan releases.

The director, Iwasaki Tarou, also directed the tug-on-the-heartstrings Ishuukan Friends. The OP is a relentlessly genki Japanese earworm; you have been warned.

Godless Fansubs was responsible for the initial TV scripts, the encodes, and the timing of the first four episodes. Yogicat timed the last eight. I edited and typeset all of them. BeeBee QCed. The revisions to the first six episodes are numerous - typos, more signs, consistency fixes. Patches are available if you have the original release.

Although this is labeled as a Godless-Orphan release (a great name for a joint, don't you think?), the Godless team has not participated in finishing the series. I don't have the Godless 1080p raws, so this release is 720p only. If anyone wants to fit these scripts to a different 1080p encode, feel free. You can get Amaama to Inazuma from the usual torrent site or IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.