Senya Ichiya Monogatari Blu-ray

Here is the Orphan's third version of Tezuka Osamu's 1969 "erotic cartoon" Senya Ichiya Monogatari, usually translated as 1001 Nights. The first was based on topfh's excellent but upscaled DVD rip; the second on a high-definition web stream; and this one on the UK Blu-ray. Each version has improved over the previous one, but as with Cleopatra, three versions of the same anime is a lot. I hope this release is definitive.

I'm not going to rehash my previous blog posts about Senya. It has the virtues and defects of later Tezuka Osamu "entertainments," with a lot more nudity and sex. The plot meanders all over the place, and the movie could have been shortened without much loss. However, the stylistic variability helps to keep it visually interesting, and the individual set pieces are usually engaging. There are frequent "easter eggs" to reward the movie buff. For example, the titanic confrontation between the three-eyed giant and the equally gigantic bird Loplop is a direct tribute to the fight between King Kong and a pterodactyl in the original 1933 movie. For me, it's best to treat Senya Ichiya Monogatari like a chapter book, taking it in small doses. This helps to tame its extreme length and makes it possible to appreciate the scenes and set pieces individually.

So what's new in this version that makes it worthwhile to download and watch it yet again? Several things.

1. A long and informative interview with Yamamoto Eiichi, the director of both Senya Ichiya Monogatari and Cleopatra. Yamamoto has great stories to tell about the movies themselves and his collaboration with Tezuka Osamu. His portrait of Tezuka is not always flattering, but it's always interesting.
2. The original trailer. This makes it clear that the erotic content was front and center to both the creation of and the marketing campaign for the Animerama movies.
3. The commentary track by Helen McCarthy, author of the excellent and informative The Art of Osamu Tezuka. She provides insightful comments on the movie and its individual scenes. She is particularly good in highlighting the (for the time) innovative imagery.
4. "Remastered" video and audio. Frankly, I don't find either of them an improvement over the prior releases. The video did not look good at "full HD", despite the alleged remastering, so this release still uses 1280 width.
5. Official subtitles. And therein lies a story.

The official subs for Cleopatra are quite good, so I had high hopes for the official subs for Senya. The fansub translator, convexity, thought they could be the default... until we looked at them. They're terrible: stilted, awkward, and, most surprisingly, full of grammar and translation errors. A sample:

• "Miriam" is translated as "Milliam." There's no excuse for this: Japanese has an "r" sound but no "l".
• "He might've been a guinea pig in his before life." Not "previous life"?
• "This will do to every women." Uh, "This will do for any woman" or "This will do for all women"?
• "So shall be it." How about something in English like "It shall be so" or "So shall it be"?
• "They both said same thing." What happened to "the same thing"?
• "We both seem lost." This is a fine sentence, but it's clear from context that the line is "We both seem to have lost."
• "All hell is going to break lose." No, it's loose.
• "I'll witness like that." Do they mean "testify"?
• "So what you say a big thing is this, huh?" I'm not sure I can even parse this one. Maybe "So this is what you meant by something big, huh?"

I could go on and on.

Accordingly, Orphan's fansubs are the default subtitles. For those who want to get the full BD experience, the official subs are included in two versions: untouched PGS and extensively edited and styled. This means the movie has six tracks:

1. Video (default).
2. Japanese audio (default).
3. English commentary audio.
4. English fansubs (default).
5. Edited and typeset English official subs.
6. Original PGS official subs.

The interview and trailer have four tracks: video (default), Japanese audio (default), edited and typeset official subs (default), and PGS official subs.

For this release, M74 obtained the Blu-ray, ripped and OCRed the official subtitles, and encoded the movie and features. ninjacloud retimed the fansubs and the features; Yogicat retimed the official subs. I edited the official subs and features and typeset (mostly in the trailer). BeeBee QCed. The fansub credits are unchanged.

So here's the Blu-ray version of Senya Ichiya Monogatari. Even if you found the previous versions sufficient, you'll want this version for the extras and the commentary track. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.