Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonjaa (Chrono Trigger OVA)

Occasionally, I come across an OVA that is utterly baffling, because it requires too much context from the game, manga, or novel it is promoting. That's the case with 1996's Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonjaa (Time and Space Adventure Nuumamonjaa), familiarly known as the Chrono Trigger OVA. It's short, face-paced, and entertaining, but it makes no sense whatsoever, because it requires the viewer to be familiar with the insanely popular Chrono Trigger game... which I had never played, or even heard of, before this project.

I'll expand the ANN summary. A town in the Kingdom of Guardia celebrates the millennial anniversary of the kingdom's founding by throwing a a festival, which is crashed by a monsters. Two rather harmless monsters - the genki, fur-covered Momo and the round, dim-witted Nuu - try their best to recruit people into their little group, Nuumamonjaa. Eventually, they give up and go off to enjoy the festival. On a trip to pee in the woods, they run into a giant robot cat named Gonzalez that sings about beating him up and getting silver points. When the robot runs out of energy, Mamo and Nuu cover it with graffiti:

(Right arm: moron. Belly: outtie. White circle: idiot. Throat: tone-deaf.) Their taunting provokes the robot into chasing them around the countryside. They end up in the festival's climactic race, pursued and pursuing a motorcycle monster named Johnny. After the expected catastrophic climax, a few familiar faces show up.

Um... wtf? Even after reading the Wikipedia article on Chrono Trigger and the Chrono universe fan wiki, it doesn't make much sense. The OVA is apparently set just before the start of the game, which begins at the same millennial fair in Guardia. Momo, Nuu, Johnny, and Gonzales are non-player characters (NPCs) from the game. Mamo is a Kilwala. Nuu is an instance of creatures called Nuu. Johnny is a cyborg that can transform into a motorcycle. Gonzales (Gato) is a training robot. The Kilwala and Nuu are minor enemies in the game, but they've become comic figures in the OVA. The main characters of the game are only seen from the back in the very last scene and have no lines.

The voice cast includes:

• Tanaka Mayumi (Momo) made her debut at age 10 in Kimba the White Lion. She's probably best known for her roles as Pazu in Castle in the Sky, Giovanni in Night on the Galactic Railway, Mao in Cooking Master Boy, and of course, Monkey D. Luffy in almost every incarnation of One Piece. She also played Mit-sah in White Fang, Son Gokuu in Tezuka Osamu Monogatari, and Rocco the fox in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, all Orphan projects.
• Chafuurin (Nuu) played title role in Barbapapa Around the World, Inspector Megure in the Detective Conan franchise, Scotch Jii-san in the Hello Kitty franchise, Isono in Sazae-san (since 2014), and Kamoda in Yawara! He also appeared in Yamato 2520 and Izumo (1991), both Orphan releases.
• Tachiki Fumihiko (Gonzales) played Taizou in Gintama, the narrator in Golden Kamuy, Ddraig in the High School DxD franchise, Ginpei in Nana, Gendou Ikari in the Evangelion franchise, and Daisuke in Oreimo.
• Miki Shinichirou (Johnny) played Kojiro in Pokemon, Fujiwara Takumi in Initial D, Urahara Kisuke in Bleach, Minamoto no Yorihisa in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de, Shintarou in Lime-iro Senkitan, Bruce Wayne in Batman: Gotham Knight, Roy Mustang in Full Metal Alchemist (2009), Katze in Ai no Kusabi (2012), Gintarou in Gingitstune, John Bishop (the sharpshooter) in AWOL Compression Remix, and Cyber-X in Hand Maid May. The last two are Orphan releases.

This OVA was Kawasaki Itsurou's first directing assignment. He went on to direct many more well-known shows, including Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989 (an Orphan release), Arc the Lad, Licensed by Royalty, Rental Magica, Sengoku Basara, and the entire Cardfight franchise.

Despite the immense popularity of Chrono Trigger and its successors, Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonja is its only anime incarnation, and the OVA was only released on VHS tape. Nemesis spotted a copy on a Japanese used media site, bought it, set the project in motion, and kept it moving. The original translation was done in 2003 by Jasconius of HnK (Hikari no Kiseki), one of the earliest digital fansubbing groups. Nemesis transcribed, timed, and checked the subtitles. I edited and typeset (I didn't do all the PITA graffiti). Nemesis QCed. Intrepid ripped and encoded the tape. There's evidence of wear and tape stretch in places, but it's passable.

So here's an improved version of Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonja. It's enjoyable as an absurd gag comedy, even if you, like me, know nothing about the game. You can get the OVA from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #new on irc.rizon.net

Chiisana Koi no Monogatari

Here's a wonderful TV special from 1984: Chiisana Koi no Monogatari: Chitchi to Sally Hatsukoi no Shiki (Little Love Story: Chitchi and Sally, Four Seasons of First Love). Adapted from a manga by Mitsuhashi Chikako, this a charming and gentle comedy about the trials of first love. Ogawa Chiiko (Chitchi to her friends) is a vertically-challenged short high school student. She's only 132 cm tall (4' 4"), and she's frequently teased by her classmates, except for her loyal friend Tonko. Chitchi's problems are compounded when she falls hopelessly in love with one of the most popular boys in her school, the 6-foot-tall Murakami Satoshi (Sally to his friends). 

Chitchi succeeds in becoming Sally's friend - he thinks of her as a kind of mascot - but she aspires to be something more. She follows him to his clubs, arranges similar vacations, and pursues her quest from the opening of school in the spring to spring of the following year. She experiences the joys and agonies of first love, while all too keenly aware that she is stuck, despite Tonko's encouragement and help, in Sally's "friend zone."

Chiisana Koi no Monogatari is a slice of life comedy. Chitchi's romantic longings are treated with respect, but her pursuit of a boy more than 50 cm (18 inches) taller produces one awkward situation after another. Sally is treated respectfully too. He's kind to Chitchi - kind enough to keep her on tenterhooks but not to provide any real romantic encouragement. Tonko provides loyal support, but she has her own romantic relationship, with Sally's sidekick Yamashita, to think about as well. There's a supporting cast of friends, teachers, and parents to provide more comedy throughout.

The voice cast includes:

• Furukawa Toshio (Sally) played Moroboshi Ataru  in Urusei Yatsura, Kagege in Keroro Gunsou, Kai Shiden in Mobile Suit Gundam, Shin in Fist of the North Star, Shinohara Asuma in Mobile Police Patlabor, and Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z.  
• Itou Tsukasa (Chitchi) played the heroine in the anime adaptation of the popular shoujo manga Hikari no Densetsu, for which she also sang the opening and ending songs.  
• Yoshida Rihoko (Tonko) 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.
• Suzuoki Hirotaka (Yamashita) played Bright Noa in Mobile Suit Gundam, Huga Koijiro in Captain Tsubasa, Dragon Shiryu in Saint Seiya, Tenshinhan in Dragon Ball, Kuno in Ranma ½, and Saito in Rurouni Kenshin. He appeared in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, as Karino Daisuke in Sei Michaela Gakuen, and as Abriel Nei Debrusc Larth Kryb Debeus in the Crest of the Stars franchise.
• Suzuki Reiko (Chitchi's mother) usually played elderly women. She appeared as Matsuda's mother in Yawara!, Megabaa in Dennou Coil, Jakotsu-baba in the 2007 version of GeGeGe no Kitarou, Kyousuke's grandmother in the Kimagure Orange Road franchise, and old lady Honke in My Neighbor Totoro. She also appeared in Tsuki ga Noboru made ni and Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Narudesho!, both Orphan releases.  
• Ogata Kenichi (Chitchi's father, English teacher) played the put-upon father in  Maroko, Suzuki in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance call, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga Nai!, the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, and the Narrator/Lord of Kaga in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, all Orphan releases. He also played Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken and Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. However, he's best known to me as the voice of Ranma 1/2's Sataome Gemna, whose alter ego - the grumpy panda - is my avatar on most anime forums. 
• Hara Eriko (Mayumi, a classmate) played Selene in Watt Poe, Patty in the Gall Force properties, Fana in Gldeen, Hiyami Hikaru in the Kimagure Orange Road properties, and Pyonkichi in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise. She starred as Ranze in Tokimeki Tonight and appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou - Natsu no Himitsu, both Orphan releases. 
• Horiuchi Kenyuu (drama teacher) has an extensive resume, including the title role in Guin Saga as well as Kubota in Meisou ou Border, Jin Akira in Wolf Guy, Lid in Greed, Nest in Eien no Filena, and the refined son in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show. The last five are Orphan releases.

The director, Hirata Toshio, was an anime pioneer. He joined Toei Douga in 1960 as an "in between" animator, graduated to key animation at Mushi Productions with Senya Ichiya Monogatari (an Orphan release), and took his first directing job on Tanpen Unico. Other directing credits include Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori (also an Orphan release), Barefoot Gen II, and Ohoshi-sama no Rail (Rail of the Star). Kazato Shinsuke's background music suits the gentle and whimsical mood of the story. He also composed the scores for Jarinko Chie, Urusei Yatsura, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Karuizawa Syndrome (an Orphan release).

Iri picked up a laserdisc of Chiisana Koi no Monogatari in a random sweep through Yahoo Auctions and sent it to our Intrepid Media Maven™ for ripping and encoding. Unfortunately, like a lot of discs Orphan has bought lately, it was badly rotted. Once again, it has required a lot of Intrepid's time to extract a usable encode. Despite extensive filtering, the video has visible dropouts, and the audio is quite distorted, particularly around 45 minutes in. To provide an alternative audio track, Intrepid synced up the audio from Gutsy-Raws' VHS release. It lacks base and has a lot of clicks and pops, but it is less distorted. (Pick your poison.) Once the show was encoded, Iri translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. If a better laserdisc shows up, we'll probably do a new encode. In the meantime, this version is what we have.

Chiisana Koi no Monogatari will lift your mood and make you smile, just the tonic we need in today's troubled times. It's available from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Wanted: Translation Checker(s)

I'm shelving an increasing number of projects because the fansub or R1 translation base is suspect. This didn't used to be a problem, but now I've learned enough Japanese to sense when a translation is off, although not, alas, enough to fix the translation myself.

Fansubs and R1 subs tend to have different issues. For fansubs, the problem is accuracy: lines that were misheard or not understood. For R1 subs, the problem is laxity: serious liberties that were taken to make the lines shorter or more appealing to Western viewers. Both bother the living daylights out of me. Oh, for the glorious days of blissful ignorance, when I wouldn't have known or cared!

Anyway, that's a long-winded way of appealing for translation checkers. Orphan has a raft of scripts that need translation checking before they can be used:

• Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume
• Bakumatsu no Spasibo
• Blue Sonnet
• Cool Cool Bye
• DAYS OADs
• Genji Part 1
• Hakujaden
• Kaitei Daisensu
• Maris the Choujo
• Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve
• Nayuta

If you're a translator, and any of these ring your chimes, please get in touch with us on irc.rizon.net.

Shin Dousei Jidai: Hawaiian Breeze

Shin Dousei Jidai: Hawaiian Breeze (New Era of Cohabitation: Hawaiian Breeze) is a 1992 OVA based on a manga by Saimon Fumi. It's an unusual project, even for the era: a seinen domestic drama, with a very limited cast (three characters) and a less-than-happy ending. It was only released on VHS tape.

Hawaiian Breeze follows two twenty-something adults, Peter Honda, an illustrator, and Eri Todani, a planner, who have been living together for two years since meeting on vacation in Hawaii. They seem reasonably happy, but there's an underlying conflict. Peter really loves children. He wants to get married and start a family. Eri doesn't want children and sees no reason to get married. Their happiness gradually erodes, and eventually Eri leaves to "think about things." Peter's editor, Reiko, who wonders if she'd be a better match for Peter, unravels the underlying reason for Eri's reluctance. Peter must then make a choice. Will he give Eri up, in order to have a family, or will he accede to her feelings, in order to be with her? There's no easy answer.

The voice cast has just three featured roles:

• Hori Hideyuki (Peter) played Zach Isedo in Al Carl 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. 
• Yamamoto Eriko (Eri) played Iczer 1 in the Iczer OVAs, Rumy in the Gall Force OVAs, Sally in Mahou Tsukai Sally 2, Sandybell in Hello! Sandybell, Georgie in Lady Georgie, Tomoe in Tomoe's Run!, Nora Scholar in Nora, Rihabi and Sayuri in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and Telenne in Hi-Speed Jecy. The last four are Orphan releases. 
• Nagahori Miho (Reiko) is best known as Lebia in Silent Mobius.

The director, Futukomi Hiroshi, was an industry veteran. Other shows include Kaibutsu-kun series and movies, Galactic Patrol Lensman, High School! Kimengumi, and Captain Tsubasa J. He also directed both Sei Michaela h-OVAs.

Iri translated the show and did initial timing. Yogicat fine-timed. I edited and typeset. BeeBee and VigorousJammer QCed. Our Intrepid Media Maven™ encoded from a VHS tape ripped on his All-in-Wonder capture setup. The colors are very muted, which seems appropriate for the tone of the show.

The audio track is also muted, with long periods of silence as the unanswered (and unasked) questions grow into a barrier between Peter and Eri.

Shin Dousei Jidai: Hawaiian Breeze is easy to summarize but less easy to categorize. It's challenging, and its challenges resonate even today. 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.

Late breaking news: here's a patch to fix a typo in one of the lines.

Greed v2

The 1985 OVA Greed was always an odd duck, an amalgam of sword-and-sorcery fantasy with hard sci-fi. I was rather negative about it in my blog post about Orphan's first release, but it's grown on me (a bit) with time. It's not the best OVA I've ever watched, but it's not Twinkle Nora Rock Me! either. It's competent, if not exactly coherent.

This second release of Greed stems from problems with the first: it was encoded from a damaged laserdisc, and part of the ending was cut off. The source for this new release is also damaged, with serious bit rot, but that mostly affects the audio track. The release is complete.

Greed tells the story of Lid Kyle, a young man living in a dank jungle forest inhabited by ferocious monsters. His dying father tells him to undertake a journey north in order to fix the "distortion" that has twisted reality. Lid leaves the jungle and immediately encounters a desert area. There he meets a young woman, Kii Mi, and her small sentient pets, known as Weakies. They're attacked by mechanical monsters and saved by a large man called Baguda, who can transform, briefly, into a dragon. After fighting off giants, they enter a land of mushrooms and light gravity, where they encounter a mute warrior named Rongun. They journey through the land of the Innocents, fairy-like creatures, and end up in a kingdom dominated by machines that have gone mad. Its ruler, Mimau, completes their company. Together, they go to confront the ultimate evil in the universe, the reality-twisting demon Vailly.

Greed is episodic and at times incoherent - the translation checker, a Japanese native, said that some of the lines made no sense in Japanese - but the individual sections are interesting and at times original. The ending made no sense to me when I was first editing the show, but I see how it might work now. (Of course, I could be wrong.) And the voice cast is very good.

[Spoiler alert!] So what actually happens? Lid and his comrades discover that their world is a dome Vailly made from the greed and selfish desires of people in the universe. Individually, Lid's band can't defeat Vailly, so they combine their powers to form a super-creature. The creature does indeed defeat Vailly, but the dome doesn't disappear, because the band's greed to defeat Vailly makes it just as much a monster:

(Shades of Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet: "Guilty! Guilty! My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it! ") Fortunately, the tears of the Innocents break through their greedy egos and liberate them to be individuals again. The dome disappears, and its inhabitants fly off to his or her home world. [End spoiler.]

A lot of the work on Greed v2 was done by Orphan's Intrepid Media Maven, who wrestled for quite a while to get a workable encode out of the Domesday Duplicator rip of the rotted source. It looks reasonable. What couldn't be corrected was the analog audio track. It was clipped, with a strong background hum. I put it through Audacity's noise reduction filter twice and deliberately reduced the amplification to tame the clipping, but it still wasn't great. So I went back to the original release and extracted its audio tracks. I equalized the volume levels between the two audio tracks. Then I copied the initial bumper and the concluding song from the new audio track into the original audio track. I also had to insert a small split, to account for some extra frames at the side change. Finally, the initial bumper still sounded bad, so I used the bumper from another Pony Canyon disc with a working digital audio track. As a result, this release is a hybrid: new video and mostly old audio.

For the original release, Moho translated, laalg checked the translation, ninjacloud timed, I edited and typeset (very little to do there), and Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. For this release, Intrepid encoded and shifted the script, and I did the audio editing and cleanup, fine timing, and release checks. Aside from timing and resetting the signs, and a few tweaks to chapter boundaries, the script is essentially unchanged.

Despite the bit rot, this version replaces the first. It's complete. It has better color fidelity.  So this release of Greed is the one to archive, even if you don't intend to watch it again. You can get Greed v2 from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channel #nibl or #news on irc.riczon.net

Polishing a POS: Twinkle Nora Rock Me v2

Here is exactly what the world doesn't need at this critical moment, a revised version of the 1985 candidate for Worst Anime of All Time™, Twinkle Nora Rock Me! From the excruciatingly awful animation to the idiotic plot to the moronic music, this is an OVA with no redeeming social importance or qualities. So what is heaven's name possessed Orphan to do this show again? And no, "It seemed like a good idea at the time" won't cut it.

Actually, Twinkle Nora Rock Me!, Greed, and Majo Demo Steady are on a list of Orphan laserdisc releases with source problems. Twinkle and Greed are missing part of the ending credits. Majo is missing an audio channel. By sheer coincidence, all three were offered in a bundle of eleven laserdiscs on Yahoo Auctions Japan. I snapped them up in the hope of releasing better versions. And then, all three proved to have serious bit rot issues. Our Intrepid Media Maven managed to get the digital audio track off Majo, but the video was unusable. Twinkle and Greed had their own issues ("cloud rot" and "green rot"), but Intrepid did manage to extract usable encodes with the Domesday Duplicator. And after he put in all that effort to encode the discs, how could I not support his work by putting the old subtitles on the new raws?

I don't want to rehash my original blog post about this wretched show; the less time I spend thinking about it, the better. However, I should mention the voice actors, whose careers somehow survived this debacle:

• Yamamoto Yuriko (Nora) played Iczer 1 in the Iczer OVAs, Rumy in the Gall Force OVAs, Sally in Mahou Tsukai Sally 2, Sandybell in Hello! Sandybell, Georgie in Lady Georgie, Tomoe in Tomoe's Run!, Rihabi and Sayuri in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and Telenne in High Speed Jecy. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Nojima Akio (Max) played Aramis in Dogtanion and the Three Muskehounds, Richard Jones in the Emma properties, and Bernard in The Rose of Versailles.
• Nagai Ichirou (Fucherou) starred in numerous shows, playing grandfather Jigoro in Yawara!, the off-the-wall narrator in Gosenzosama Banbanzai!, Professor Hajime in Queen Millennia, and Happosai in the Ranma 1/2 franchise. He appeared in Nora, Hidamari no Ki, Yuukan Club, Manxmouse, and Yamato 2520, all Orphan releases.
• Watabe Takeshi (Touchino) had featured roles in numerous shows, including Condition Green (an Orphan release), Gunparade Orchestra, Maze, Ninku, Oishinbo, Sanctuary (another Orphan release), Wrath of the Ninja, and You're Under Arrest.

Almost all the work involved in this release was squeezing a usable encode out of the rotted source. Our Intrepid Media Maven did yeoman's work on the video, trying out every combination of filters he could think of to deal with the noise. He also had to work through a series of bugs in the Domesday Duplicator software's newly implemented Automatic Gain Control (AGC). Still, it turned out pretty well; as he said, "It's like a well-polished turd." However, the bit rot really distorted the analog audio. I took the audio track from the original release, equalized the volume between original and new audio tracks, and spliced the initial bumper and concluding song into the original track from the new one. Now, Twinkle Nora Rock Me! can be seen and heard in all its glory. As I said about the original release, don't all rush to thank us at once.

Except for the encoding, the staff credits are the same as the original release. In order to spare the staff another immersion in this ordure, I did the retiming and QC myself. There's almost no typesetting; the built-in Engrish signs are more than sufficient:

Of course, it could be a dedicated entrance for Robby the Robot, but... probably not.

So here is Twinkle Nora Rock Me!, complete at last. We're not releasing a revised encode of the accompanying special; the first encode was good enough. You can get this OVA, if you dare, from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Ninku Ninku!

My colleague Eternal-Blizzard has just released the last two episodes of Ninku, thus completing a fansub odyssey that began back in 2004. Ninku was started and dropped by no less than six fansub groups, which must be close to a record among orphan series. The English-speaking anime community owes Eternal-Blizzard a debt of gratitude for persevering and finishing the series - from Blu-rays, no less.

Ninku is a fairly standard shounen story set in a fantasy world. "Ninku" is a martial art combining ninja and karate techniques. Ninku masters are the strongest warriors imaginable. However, in the recent past, the evil forces of the Empire have defeated and dispersed the Ninku and now rule tyrannically over the land. Only former Ninku captain Fuusuke and his tiny band of surviving Ninku warriors now oppose the might of the Empire.

It sort of sounds like a fantasy version of Star Wars, with Ninku power substituting for the Force, but it's not taken anywhere near as seriously. Fuusuke is a total goofball, a chibi who looks even younger than his 12 years. His tongue is always hanging out, and he's interested as much in a good meal as the pursuit of justice. His companions include Touji, who likes to fight in just a fundoshi; Aichou, who pilots a rickety biplane that crashes at the start of many episodes; Rihoko, Touji's sister, who is infatuated with Aichou; and Hiroyuki, a penguin whose explosive farts provide propulsion at critical moments. Together, they meander around the countryside, supposedly in order to rescue Fuusuke's mother from the villains, but mostly as an excuse to have single- or short-arc adventures.

The voice cast includes many well-known seiyuu:

• Matsumoto Rika (Fuusuke) played Satoshi in the Pokemon franchise, Jim Hawking in Outlaw Star, Satoshi in the Pokemon franchise, Jinno in Bakuen Campus Guardress, Kei in Dirty Pair Flash, Sushi Tori in Let's Nupu Nupu, and Okon in Hidimari no Ki. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Madono Mitsuaki (Aichou) played Prince Touma in the Ranma 1/2 movie Nihao My Concubine, the hero Takeru in the Dragon Knight h-OVA series, and Marron Glace in the Bakuretsu Hunters series.
• Kosugi Juurouta (Touji) made his debut at the villainous Eyesman in Bavi Stock I, an Orphan release. He played Lantis in Magic Knight Rayearth, Tooyami in Tales of Seduction, and de Morcerf in Gankuutsuou. He also played Oguma in Fire Emblem, Dr. Bayfarm in Joker: Marginal City, Utsubushi in Amatsuki, Kannou in Okane ga Nai!, and Gisuke in Kage, all Orphan release. 
• Hayashibara Megumi (Rihoko) was arguably the most famous seiyuu of the 1990s. She starred as Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop, Ayanami Rei in Evangelion, Rune Balot in the Mardock Scramble movies, Rebecca in One Piece, Lina in the Slayers franchise, female Ranma in Ranma 1/2, and Miyokichi in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. She also played a number of feline roles, including including the title roles in the All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku and Hello Kitty franchises, as well as "lead cat" Iruinedo in Oruorane the Cat Player, an Orphan release. She played Navi in Izumo (1991) and Clair in Hashire Melos!, also Orphan releases.
• Suzuki Katsume (Hiroyuki) played numerous featured roles, most recently in Brand New Animal.
• Taniguchi Takashi (Kouchin, the final boss) played God in the Yondemasu Yo, Azazel-san series, among other roles.
• Hiramatsu Akiko (Mekira an antagonist) played Nene Romanova in Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crash, Tom Kusanagi in Mikan Enikki, Konoe (the security maid) in Hanaukyo Maid Tai, and Miyuki in the You're Under Arrest franchise. She played Ninomiya, the police chief's reckless daughter, in Every Day Is Sunday, an Orphan release.
• Ishida Akira (Sekirei) has had a storied career. He starred as Sasuke in Samurai Deeper Kyou, Chrno in Chrno Crusade, Howard in Uninhabited Planet Survive, Rion in Galerians: Rion, Komugi in Hen Zemi, and Arima in Princess Lover. He played Gaara in the Naruto franchise, Shinichi in Nana, Athrun Zala in the Gundam Seed Destiny properties, Cho Hokkai in the Saiyuuki franchise, Xellos in the Slayers franchise, Natori in the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise, Tsukasa in the Shokugei no Souma franchise, and Kuchiki in the Genshiken series. He played brother Oomori in Let's Nupu Nupu and Gordon in Fire Emblem, both Orphan releases.

The director, Abe Noriyuki, is best known for directing Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Flame of Recca.

Eternal-Blizzard and his Soldado-Saizen crew picked up from where Dattebaiyo broke off more than a decade ago. They re-released the DB episodes on a new Blu-ray source and continued on to finish the series. As usual, the staff list draws from across the "back catalog kairetsu" - Soldado, Saizen, Orphan, and more. I got roped into doing QC back around episode 30. Shounen's not my favorite genre, but Eternal-Blizzard has helped Orphan a lot, and I was happy to repay the favor.

The project isn't quite done. There will be batch torrent, to fix up whatever issues have turned up over 55 episodes. The batch will also include a drama CD. Still, the main story is over - in fact, it finished at episode 50 - so you can watch Ninku through and get the whole story. Fuusuke and friends will be waiting for you.