Oedo wa Nemurenai! v2

The uncompressed VHS ripping setup that Orphan's Intrepid Raw Hunter™ uses has been down for a couple of months. A couple of capacitors on the vintage 2004 motherboard went up in smoke (literally), and the unit wouldn't boot. He finally got a soldering iron and some replacement capacitors, and after board-level surgery, the setup is operational again. So Intrepid is now systematically revisiting Orphan's early VHS encodes with the repaired setup and improved encoding techniques. And there are few shows we've released that I'm as happy to revisit as the 1992 shoujo OVA Oedo wa Nemurenai! (Edo Never Sleeps!).

Oedo wa Nemurenai! was the last of the Margaret shoujo OVAs to be finished, and the only one that wasn't a routine modern shoujo romance. Oedo is set in 18th century Edo (old Tokyo), during the prime years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The story focuses on three principal characters: Usugumo, the "number one girl" at Miura-ya, a Yoshiwara brothel, and still a virgin at 14; Aoto Touichirou, nominally a western doctor but really a secret agent; and Bentenkozou Kikunosuke, a chivalrous thief. Usugumo is actually the daughter of the Shogun and a Christian courtesan; Aoto has been assigned to protect her. Usugomo attracts the unwanted attention of the heir to the Kaga clan, who wants to ravish her, and of court assassins, who want to bury the Shogun's secret forever. The two men in her life must protect her life and future. For more information on the show and the cast, as well as translation notes, see the original blog entry.

For the original release, Sunachan translated, ninjacloud timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis and Topper3000 QCed. For this release, Intrepid ripped and encoded the VHS tape and time-shifted the script. The original rip was done on a D-VHS deck; that produced a compressed result. This rip used a vintage All-in-Wonder card to capture the video without compression. Uncompressed capture allows for better software post-processing. The resulting encode was many fewer blended frames, so I was able to add a bit more typesetting. I also cleaned up the timing and a few lines and did a release check.

If you watched the original release of Oedo wa Nemurenai!, then you'll want to archive this version for its improved video. If you missed it the first time around, you're in for a treat. And after you watch the OVA, you can read the complete manga, in English, to get the rest of the story. Oedo wa Nemurenai! is available from the usual torrent site or on IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, Ep 7-9

It's been more than a year since the previous release, but here at last are the next three episodes of Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament. These episodes tell the stories of the descendants of Abraham.

Episode 7 ("Isaac and Ishmael") touches on one of the important themes of the Patriarchal era - the question of succession. Do the father's land, goods, and spiritual inheritance go to the eldest son or the most deserving son? (It was always a son; this was called the Patriarchal era for a reason.) Was the succession determined by God or by more human factors, like schemes and plans? Isaac succeeds Abraham because Isaac's mother Sarah arranges for older brother Ishmael and Ishmael's mother Hagar to be banished. Jacob succeeds Isaac because his mother Rebecca arranges for Isaac to steal his father's blessing from Esau. And Joseph is set on his path to glory because his jealous brothers sell him into slavery.

Although this episode relates the facts of Ishmael's banishment, there's not much tension about or insight into the events. Ishmael's a good and dutiful son; Isaac is still an infant. Sarah is jealous of the younger and prettier Hagar and wants her gone. Abraham agrees because God tells him that everything will work out. Ishmael and Hagar agree to leave for the same reason. Hagar and Ishmael almost perish in the desert but are saved by God' intervention. Ishmael becomes the legendary founder of the Arabs. Rocco the fox puts in his usual cameo. It's all rather anodyne; Bible stories for children.

Episode 8 ("The Sacrifice of Isaac") retells one of the most profound and confounding stories in Genesis, the Binding of Isaac. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham submits. Father and son set off to a distant mountain. When Isaac asks, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?", Abraham only replies, "God himself will provide the lamb." Abraham binds his son and prepares to kill him. At the last minute, God stays Abraham's hand and provides a ram to be sacrificed in place of the boy.

The account in Genesis is terse, ambiguous, and terrifying. Isaac's feelings about the matter can be surmised from the fact that he never speaks directly to his father again. Here, Isaac is shown as submitting to God's will. In fact, Genesis says nothing about Isaac submitting; that's a later interpolation in Christian and Islamic traditions. Rocco again makes multiple appearances for comic relief. They feel more out of place than usual.

The Binding of Isaac has inspired great art, including some of the greatest paintings of the Renaissance:

In contrast, the artwork here is anime-standard; Isaac seems asleep:

The story has inspired poets and singers, such as Leonard Cohen's haunting Story of Isaac. Here there is pathos, but no poetry.

Scholars of all the western religions have argued about the Binding of Isaac for centuries: Was it a sham? Was it real? Was it a test of Abraham's faith? Of Isaac's submission to God? Here, it's just another anecdote, on par with Rocco's pursuit of a rabbit. One translation note: the episode title is literally "Abraham Sacrifices/Offers/Dedicates Isaac," but I've used the more familiar Western name for the story.

Episode 9 ("Joseph's Dreams") seems more comfortable terrain for the series. Joseph and his brothers has been a staple children's story for years (for example, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), and the series is very comfortable telling it at that level. All the discordant details, such as Potiphar's wife and her attempted seduction, are omitted. Joseph is sold into slavery, becomes known for his dream interpretations, shows Pharoah what the future holds in store for Egypt, and is rewarded with a position of prominence. The stage is set for the story of Moses, the Exodus from Egypt, and the giving of the Ten Commandments, which will occupy the next six episodes.

New voice actors include:

• Toriumi Katsumi (Ishmael) played the male lead, Wakamatsu, in Miyuki. He appeared as Shigeru in Yume Kakeru Kougen, an Orphan release.
• Doi Mika (Hagar) played the title roles in Angel Cop and Explorer Woman Ray, Hayase Misa in the Macross franchise, the empress (Lafiel's grandmother) in the Crest of the Stars saga, Tabitha in the Zero no Tsukaima properties, Eclipse in Kiddy Grade, the narrator in Mushishi, and Nanase in Natsume Yuujinchou. She appeared as Yukari in Mikeneko Holmes no Yuurei Joushu, Rosa in Seikima II Humane Society, Captain Deladrier in Starship Troopers, and multiple roles in Kage, all Orphan releases.
• Iwanaga Tetsuya (Isaac) played the male lead, Mizuhara, in the El Hazard franchise, as well as Aida in the Evangelion franchise. He appeared in Yamato 2520, an Orphan release.
• Yanaka Hiroshi (Joseph) played Shiba in the recent revival of Piano and Gorou in the Free! franchise. He played Yuurakutei in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinji and appeared in Noragami, Nanbaka, Terraformars, Wild 7, and Hidamari no Ki. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Okabe Masaaki (Pharoah) had featured roles in Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Sanctuary, an Orphan release.

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

I hope it won't be a year until the next set of episodes, but I can understand why Skr is more motivated to work on Crayon Shin-chan than this series: Shin-chan has a lot more laughs. In any case, you can get these three episodes from the usual torrent site or IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Exper Zenon

Does the world really need another version of Exper Zenon, a 1991 one-shot science fiction OVA? Probably not, but here it is anyway.

Piyo Piyo Productions did a first version in 2011 - one of Erik's relatively few ventures into subtitled anime. DOMO modified the script and release its own version, basically uncommenting the interjections. Now, Erik has revisited the show with the Domesday Duplicator and modern encoding techniques. Orphan's version is based on PPP-Raw's new encode and a modified version of the original PPP-Sub scripts.

Exper Zenon tells the story of high school game whiz Zenno Hiroshi. One day, he receives a mysterious offer on his PC to participate in a 3D virtual simulation game, EXPERS. Thanks to a Cat on Keyboard incident, he inadvertently order an Exper suit, which shows up at his school along with a beautiful naked girl named Atover. Before he can be beaten to a pulp by his jealous male friends and outraged female classmates, a kaiju appears outside the school. Atover tells Zenno, now known as Exper Zenon, that he is inside a game and, as the main character, must fight the kaiju. With Atover by his side, Zenon confronts and fights an increasingly strong set of opponents, until he finally faces off with the time-traveling Final Boss who set the whole game in motion.

Exper Zenon seems to lie squarely within the "trapped inside a virtual reality game" genre, but it has other sources as well. For example, the time travelers who use the past for their own selfish ends and cut off any timelines that don't suit them is straight out of Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity. Still, it's an entertaining 90s blend, with lots of action, some shiny explosions, and the occasional glimpse of Atover's bare bod.

The voice actors include:

• Matsuno Taiki (Zenno Hiroshi) played the lead role in the second Kindaichi movie (an Orphan release) and every subsequent show in the franchise. He appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou, also an Orphan release. He played Kouga in Inuyasha and the title role in The Adventures of the Little Prince.
• Takada Yumi (Atover) played Yoshinaga-sensei in many of the Crayon Shin-chan movies and Ayeka in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She appeared as Saya and Monmo in Cosmic Fantasy, Purinpurin in Hoshi Neko Full House, and Yumi the barkeep in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, all Orphan releases.
• Hayami Shou (Exper Kain) starred as Nanjou in Zetsuai: 1989 and Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989, and Kushinige Hodaka in Oshare Kozou wa Hanamaru. He also played an angel in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, Iason's friend Raoul in Ai no Kusabi, Hojo in Sanctuary, Pat Leivy in Starship Troopers, Junoichi in Blazing Transfer Student, and Seichii in Mikoneko Holmes. All of these shows are Orphan releases.
• Sasaki Yuko (Exper Shiff) played Sayoko in Aoko Honoo, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Akiko in Wolf Guy, all Orphan releases. She also played Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANTCUS and Hitomi Nomura in Piano.
• Yanada Kiyoyuki (Exper Venom) played Kuroda in Akai Hayate and Ooniwa in Nozomi Witches, both Orphan releases. He also played Black Bear Cat in Chii's Sweet Home.

The director, Moriyami Yuuji, did the character design as well. He filled the same two roles on Project A-ko 2, 3, and 4 and the first All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku OVAs. He has done animation direction on numerous shows.

For this release, the original PPP-sub script was retimed, given some modest amount of checking, and augmented with signs and the ending song. Iri translated the signs; convexity translated the ending song. Yogicat did the fine timing. I edited and typeset. (There's substantial frame-blending, which throws off the motion tracking in spots.) Nemesis and Topper3000 did QC. The encode, like the translation, is from Piyo Piyo Productions. This is a joint release.

So fasten your seat belts, sit back, and enjoy the ride. You can find Exper Zenon at the usual torrent site or on IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net