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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ah, I remember working on this a long, long time ago, until it got stalled due to some missing lines. Has it really been 5 years already? Nice to see this finally finished, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteYou're always welcome to come work on other stalled/old/forgotten projects. And yes, it has been five years.
DeleteHm... I seem to remember there was an old analogue subber who called himself "Marek..." I don't remember the group name though.
Delete