Cool Cool Bye

When a laserdisc of the 1986 fantasy OVA Cool Cool Bye turned up in a pile of discs the team bought in Japan, I thought it would be nice to redo the show. Up until now, all releases have been based on VHS tapes; a Domesday Duplicator (DdD) rip ought to be considerably better. Simple, right? Not so fast.

The laserdisc itself had the usual (and some not so usual) issues, and this exposed problems in both the DdD decoding software (ld-decode) and the encoding process. In one moving pan, a glitch on the disc caused ld-decode to mangle a frame entirely. This was patched over with a freeze frame; it's barely detectable. At another point, a one-frame video emphasis to highlight a crash - a negative frame accompanied on the soundtrack by an audible accent - was removed by a filter in the encoding process, which thought the negative frame was an IVTC error. Ultimately, it required seven tries to get an acceptable encode, and the laserdisc's improved fidelity highlights the film burn, burn through, and scratches of the original film source.

The OVA itself is nothing special. Our heroes are two Han warriors, Lek and Flene, who ride around on hoverbikes and have seemingly insatiable appetites. They're accompanied by a miniature strategist named Gege (species unspecified), who lives in Flene's hair and isn't much use. A local village commissions them to fight a monstrous mobile fortress called Tanguin, which has been kidnapping all of the tribe's women. Aided by two tribesmen, Syril and Corola, and a mysterious fairy named Klee, who can transform into a mecha warrior, and motivated by the promise of a feast if they succeed, Lek and Flene set out to confront Tanguin in its lair. After a suitable action sequence, the impregnable fortress is impregnated, and everyone lives happily ever after, sort of.

Cool Cool Bye is sort of an appendage to the previous year's fantasy OVA Greed - same creator, same staff, same animation studio. Greed was in many ways incomprehensible, but at least it had something on its mind: the power of human greed to warp reality. Cool Cool Bye omits all the philosophical and moral agony in favor of a simpler quest story. Still, the plot arc and character designs are very similar to its longer predecessor.

The voice cast includes a cross-section of well-known 80s seiyuu:

• Nozawa Masako (Lek) is a legend. She played the leads in 30000 Miles Under the Sea, The Adventures of Gamba, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry no Bouken, Billy Inu nan demo Shoukai, and Hey! Bumboo. She was Enma-kun in the original Dororon Enma-kun, Son Goku in the original Dragonball, and Kitarou in the 1968 and 1971 versions of GeGeGe no Kitarou, as well as Hakaba Kitarou. Even though her first role was in 1965, she is still active, appearing as Obaba in Ping Pong the Animation, Madame Curie in Marie & Gali, and of course, Medama Oyaji in the most recent version of GeGeGe no Kitarou. She won a lifetime achievement award in 1997. She played the title role in Manxmouse and Costar in 15 Shounen Hyouruuki, both Orphan releases.
• Tanaka Mayumi (Flene) 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, Kuririn in the original Dragonball, and of course, Monkey D. Luffy in every incarnation of One Piece. She also played Mit-sah in White Fang, Rocco the fox in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, and Son Gokuu in Tezuka Osamu Monogatari, all Orphan projects.
• Akiyama Runa (Klee) played Dole in 15 Shounen Hyouruuki and the young Yuno in Midori no Neko, both Orphan releases, as well as Kuniko in Yawara! and Ignasia in The Humanoid.
  
• Hori Hideyuki (Corola) played Zach Isedo in Al Caral no Isan, Sid in Ai no Kusabi, Falk Green in yHi-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.
• Yamada Eiko (Syril) played Vee in Al Caral no Isan, an Orphan release, Tarou in the Captain Tsubasa franchise, as well as numerous other featured roles.
• Mori Katsuji (Tanguin) played Atlas in the 1980 Astro Boy, Seiji Hayama in Cutie Honey, Wolfgang Mittermeyer in LOGH, Haru in Real Drive, Robespierre in Rose of Versailles, Alcan in Amon Saga, Cemen Bond in Bagi, and Shiina in Stop!! Hibari-kun! The last three are Orphan releases.
• Anzai Masahiro (Gege) debuted in White Fang. He played Ryuunosuke's father in Urusei Yatsura, Mutsuda in Dokushin Apartment Doukudami-sou, Cherenkov in Starship Troopers, and Chaashu in Wild 7. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Yada Minoru (village chief) played Tamaranch (the IOC President) in Yawara!, the elder in Bavi Stock II (an Orphan release), and Hemulen in Tanoshi Moomin Ikka.
  

The auteur, Kogawa Tomonori, was mostly an animation director. Cool Cool Bye and Greed are his only directing and writing credits.

The original script is from Random Masters via GutsySubs. tenkenX6 did a full translation check. Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset (very little to do), and Nemesis and new staff member Rezo QCed. Intrepid encoded, and as I described, it turned out to be a lot more arduous that expected. I fear that after 30 to 35 years, we're fast approaching end-of-life for laserdisc media; more and more of Orphan's purchases have bit rot issues.

So here's Cool Cool Bye, in a somewhat better-looking and somewhat more accurately translated version (YMMV). Orphan has a host of resubbing opportunities based on DdD laserdisc rips of earlier fansubs, including Love Position: The Legend of Halley, Who's Left Behind, Stardust Paradise (encoded by Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions), Laughing Target, Fire Tripper, and The Choujo (encoded by Intrepid), but the source issues in Cool Cool Bye and other discs, as well as the need to translation check the original fansub scripts, has caused me to hit the "pause" button for now. In the meantime, you can get this show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

At some point, Orphan might release the documentary bonus that came with Cool Cool Bye, but don't hold your breath.