Nine 2: Koibito Sengen HD

 Here's a high definition version of the second installment in the Nine trilogy, Nine 2: Koibito Sengen (Nine 2: Declaring Love). Once again, the raw is a 1080p web rip, downscaled to 720p with the black bars removed.

When we last saw our main characters, Niimi Katsuya and Nakao Yuri were beginning to see themselves as a couple, but Katsuya was being pursued by a rising track star, Yasuda Yukimi, and Yuri by rival Bunan's third-year pitching phenom, Yamanaka Kentarou. New complications arise in this episode, as Kentarou's younger brother Jirou joins the Seishuu baseball team and promptly falls for Yukimi.

 Except for Katsuya, most of the characters are fairly clear about their feelings. However, out of diffidence or immaturity, Niimi doesn't want to disappoint Yukimi by saying he likes someone else or to be forthright with Yuri about his feelings. This causes problems for everyone else, particularly Yukimi, who nurtures hopes that cannot be realized. Even Katsuya's wingmen see what's going on and tell him, fairly forcefully, to get his act together. Meanwhile, the team must once again face arch-rival Bunan in a pivotal game.

For more information, see my blog post on the standard definition release.

The credits are the same as for the HD release of Nine: Original-ban. Moho translated; laalg checked the dialog and signs, and Sunachan checked the songs. ninjacloud timed the original release and this one. I edited and typeset; all the signs had to be redone because of the changed color balance. BeeBee, Topper3000, and VigorousJammer QCed the original version; getfresh and Uchuu QCed this release. bananadoyouwanna encoded. I like this HD episode better than the first, because the original 4:3 aspect ratio is unchanged.

You can get Nine 2: Koibito Sengen HD at the usual torrent site, or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Nine: Original-ban HD

HD raws of Nine have been floating around the web for a while now. They were streaming rips, and they were letter-boxed or pillar-boxed. I wasn't prepared to transplant Orphan's Nine subs to these raws without a re-encode to strip off the black borders. It took a while to find a willing encoder, and even longer to move the copious typesetting to the new raws. But at last it's done. Here is the first of the three Nine OVAs, Nine: Original-ban.

Nine: Original-ban tells the story of two friends who are just entering Seishuu High School: record-setting middle school sprinter Niimi Katsuya and prefectural middle school judo champion Karasawa Susumu. Dropping by the school's baseball field, they see a beautiful girl staring forlornly at the school team's miserable performance. On impulse, they decide to join the baseball club, in order to cheer her up. She turns out to be Nakao Yuri, the baseball coach's daughter and soon to be team manager. They also meet Kurahashi Eiji, a middle school baseball phenom, and persuade him to join the team as well. Thus begins their athletic and romantic odyssey, which will take them from the agony of defeat to the hallowed grounds of Koushien, Japan's high school baseball championships.

 

Of course, there are complications. Niimi's running skills attract the attention of Yasuda Yumiki from the track club. She thinks Niimi would make a great coach for her and an even better boyfriend. Yuri is being courted by Yamanaka Kentarou, a slightly older rock-star pitcher for rival Bunan High School. And Karasawa would also like to court Yuri, although Niimi, as the designated hero, has the inside track. You can get more details, including notes on the cast and staff, in the original blog post.

 

So what's different in this release, besides the higher resolution? For one, the color balance, which tends more towards blues and greens than browns and purples. As a result, the stylistic choices - featureless backgrounds, limited color palette, lack of detail - are more obvious. For another, the audio track sounds different. But most importantly, this release of Original-ban is the widescreen movie version, 1.85:1, instead of the classic TV version, which was 1.33:1. Was Original-ban made as Open Matte, to be viewable in both ratios? It's hard to tell, but I think not. In some shots, the cropping is obvious and damaging to the scene. The three Nine OVAs were made for TV viewing in the pre-digital era. The movie was cobbled together to exploit the popularity of Adachi Mitsuru.

 
The credits for the HD release are mostly the same as the original. Moho Kareshi translated the dialog and songs. laalg checked the dialog translation and added many additional signs. Sunachan checked the song translations. ninjacloud timed the original version and this one. I edited and typeset. The typesetting had to be redone completely, because of the change in aspect ratio and color balance. BeeBee, Topper3000, and VigorousJammer did the original QC. getfresh and Uchuu did a release check on this version. bananadoyouwanna encoded the 1080p raws down to 720p, stripping the letterbox bars in the process. He felt, and I concur, that the artwork doesn't justify 1080p.

 
So baseball may be hobbled until after the pandemic, but we'll always have Koushien. You can too, by getting Nine: Original-ban in HD from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro

Let's get 2021 started with a bang (so the speak), with another really obscure OVA, 1990's Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro (Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - The Castle of Love). Despite the somewhat suggestive title, this is not hentai but a romantic comedy, albeit one that's a bit more sexually charged because the protagonists are adults, not high school students.

Our heroine is Mishiba Hiromi, office lady, wallflower, and (apparently) virgin. She pines for an adult romance, like those of her sophisticated colleague Kubo-san, but she seems to have no prospects. Then suddenly, she is more or less kidnapped and taken to the Castle of Love, a love hotel on Dougenzaka hill (colloquially known as Love Hotel Hill) in Shibuya. There, the handsome manager, Fujiwara Takuma, informs her that she is the daughter of the hotel's deceased founder and thus the heir to the property. He asks the flabbergasted young woman to become president of the hotel. Hiromi is inclined to refuse, until she finds out that the job comes with a beautiful suite in the hotel, as well as fine clothes and accessories.

Returning to work utterly transformed, Hiromi catches the eye of the office Lothario, Ootsuki-san. He promptly asks her out to dinner, gets her tipsy, and takes her to a love hotel for a bit of post-prandial hanky-panky. Fortunately, his hotel of choice is the Castle of Love, and Takuma intervenes to save Hiromi from a sticky situation. Then Mickey, the son of an American hotel magnate, builds a flashy new love hotel, the El Dorado, in the neighborhood and tries to poach Takuma to be its manager. Hiromi goes to the El Dorado to plead with Mickey to stay away from Takuma, but she ends up in another dicey situation. Takuma again shows up in the nick of time. Now, with all rivals cleared out, Hiromi and Takuma can acknowledge what's been obvious to the viewer from the outset: they belong together.

The voice cast includes:

• Shiozawa Kaneto (Takuma) played Kohei in Karuizawa Syndrome, Shin in Hiatari Ryoukou, Iason in Ai no Kusabi, Rock Holmes in Fumoon, Shiina in Chameleon, Sanzou in I am Son Goku, and Kurahashi Eiji 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 the Arslan Senki OVAs, Rosario in Dragon Half, and Abriel senior in Crest of the Stars.
• Mizutani Yuko (Hiromi) played Pinoko in all the Black Jack properties, as well as Rika in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, Lila in Eien no Filena, and Dr. Uematsu Kikue in Yume Kakeru Kougen, all Orphan projects.
• Katsuki Masako (Kubo) played Maroko in Gosenzosama Banbanzai and its movie version, Maroko, Mira in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Queen Bee in Golgo 13: Queen Bee, and Tsunade (Fifth Hokage) in the Naruto franchise. She also played Arianna Wyszynska in Apfelland Monogatari, Kenbishi Yuuri in Yuukan Club, Hojo's lover in Sanctuary, Itchan's mother in Sensou Douwa: Tako ni Natta Okaasan, and Yamazaki's maintenance engineer Kiriko in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call, all Orphan releases.
• Seki Toshihiko (Ootsuki) was one of the leading male seiyuu in this period. He played the title role in Izumo, Riki in Ai no Kusabi, the hero Seitarou in Hoshi Neko Full House, the gang leader Hiba in Wild 7, Yoshitarou in Mikeneko Holmes, Miroku in Yuukan Club, Chuuta in Satsujin Kippu wa Heart-iro, the fighter Nagase Jun in Akai Hayate, the unnamed protagonist of Oruorane the Cat Player, and Sara's younger brother Junichiro in Kasei Yakyoku, all Orphan releases. He also played Matsuda in the Yawara! properties, Sanzo in the Saiyuuki TV series, and the title roles in Alexander (Reign the Conqueror) and Kaiketsu Zorro.
• Shioya Yoku (Mickey) played Triton in the Umi no Triton TV series and movies, Ryouta in Slam Dunk, Jinpei the Swallow in Gatchaman, Cosmo Yuki in Space Runaway Ideon, and the title role in Kariage-kun. He also played numerous featured roles, including Zhuge Jun in the first Sangokushi movie, an Orphan release. He also did sound direction on many series.

The director, Imanishi Takashi, has many credits, including Capricorn, The Cockpit, The Violinist of Hamelin, Zegapain, Yamato 2199, and multiple series and movies in the Gundam franchise. 

Iri bought a second-hand laserdisc of this show. Intrepid ripped it on the Domesday Duplicator and encoded it. Iri then translated and did initial timing; Yogicat fine timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Rezo QCed. As with Yume kara Samenai, the audio is FLAC. In Yume kara, that was a recognition of the deficiencies in analog audio decoding in the current version of the Duplicator software. With FLAC, it's possible to use the uncompressed audio track for filtering experiments, if anyone is so inclined (I'm not). In Milky Passion, the audio is digital, so it's just bloat.

Milky Passion tells a complete story. It's not a teaser for another media property. I found it quite enjoyable. The show does include some nudity and sex; it's a 1990s OVA, after all, and it's set in a love hotel. If that doesn't discourage you - or if that does encourage you - you can download the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Ideas for 2021

After 2020, "plans" seems altogether too strong a word for Orphan Fansubs' projects in 2021. So rather than write down some impossible set of goals, or even an aspirational set, I'm listing some of the ideas that the team has for work in this new year. None of it, aside from actual projects that are underway, is guaranteed or even likely.

As I've written before, Orphan's work is governed by two primary factors:

1. The availability of, and the interests of, the staff, particularly the translators. No script, no subtitles. It's as simple as that.
2. The availability of good media. The Japanese market in second-hand analog media continues to be very lively, and more old shows appear on streaming every day; but some titles are only available as low-quality Internet raws.
   

So please, don't ask Orphan to translate or work on your favorite unsubbed show. And don't ask about a long series. Paraphrasing the immortal words of Danny Glover, I'm too old for that shit.

Work in Progress

This is the only part of the agenda where eventual release is pretty much a lock. However, the release schedule depends on resources, including editing, typesetting, and QC.

• Nine HD. A resub of Orphan's SD releases, using an HD web stream. In QC.
• Sangokushi movies HD. A resub or Orphan's SD releases, using an HD web stream. In editing and typesetting.
• Ohoshi-sama no Rail (Rail of the Stars). A resub with a revised script derived from the R1 subs. In QC.
• Coluboccoro 2019. An expansion of the TV special, using Commie's subs as a base, with five minutes of new footage and a new ending song. In typesetting.
• Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro. Not a hentai, despite its title. In typesetting.
• Sensou Douwa: Chiisai Sensuikan ni Koi o Shita Dekasugiru Kujira no Hanashi. In timing.

Typesetting is a bottleneck for many shows, because the signs tend to be hand-drawn and thus more difficult to set.

Lost in Translation (Check)

By far the largest group of potential projects are stuck in translation check limbo. A few are original scripts, but most are resubs; all need checking. DdD means the "Domesday Duplicator" laserdisc direct capture system; AIW means the All-in-Wonder VHS uncompressed capture system.

• Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume. DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
• Bakuen Campus Guardress. DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
  
• Bakumatsu no Spasibo. AIW VHS source; new script.
• Blue Sonnet. DdD laserdisc encode; R1 script.
• Fighting Beauty Wulong. R2J DVD encode; "professional" script but done for dubbing, not subtitles.
• Genji Part 1. DdD laserdisc encode; new partial script.
• Gude Crest. DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
  
• Hakujaden. Blu-ray source; fansub script.
• Kaitei Daisensou. Web stream source; fansub script.
• Love Position: The Legend of Halley. PPP DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
  
• Megami Paradise. DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
  
• Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve. AIW VHS source; new script
• Nayuta. Laserdisc source; fansub script.
• Okama Hakusho. AIW VHS source; new script.
• Rumic World OVAs: The Choujo, Fire Tripper, Laughing Target. DdD laserdisc encodes; fansubs scripts.
  
• Ryukonohuno Labyrinth. DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
• Stardust Paradise. PPP DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
• Who's Left Behind. PPP DdD laserdisc encode; fansub script.
  

Orphan really needs translation check help. If you are a translator and one or more of these projects appeal to you, come help out, please!

 

Interesting Raws

 

The pile of interesting raws gets larger and larger, far exceeding Orphan's ability to deal with them. The team went on a holiday buying spree for media, and that only makes the problem worse. All of these are original media rather than Internet raws:

• Asatte Dance. Mixed DdD laserdisc/AIW VHS encode. 
• Ascending the Clouds. PPP DdD encode. This looks utterly batshit, in a good way.
• DAYS OAD. This is the two episode OVA. R2J DVD encode. The existing script is useful only for timing.
  
• Kentauros no Densetsu. AIW VHS encode.
• Koiko no Mainichi. AIW VHS encode.
  
• Magma Taishi. Tezuka Osamu! R2J DVD encode. Need I say more?
• MAPS (1987). PPP DdD encode.
  
• Mellow. AIW VHS encode.
• Ore no Sora. AIW VHS encode.
  
• Raiyantsuurii no Uta. VHS encode.
• Sugata Sanshiro. HD web source. A companion piece to Botchan.
• Takamaru and Shin Takamaru. PPP laserdisc encode.
  
• Tengai Makyou.
• Tezuka Osamu Kyoto Animation Theater. R2J DVD encode.Ten short works by the master. Japanese closed captions available.
• Tottoi. AIW VHS encode.

There are more, but the FTP is out of space to host them all.

If you are a translator and one or more of these projects appeal to you, come help out. Alternately, if you're a fansub group and want to work on one or more of them, let us know, and we'll put the raw out under the [Orphan-raw] label.

Encoder(s) Wanted

Source material that needs encoding, often posing knotty problems:

• Animated Classics of Japanese Literature. R1 DVD. These are the 12 episodes that CPM released in the US before it went bankrupt. I'd love to find the R2J DVDs, but no luck.
• Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de 2: Shiroki Ryuu no Miko. Orphan's release, which used another group's R2E encode, has multiple video glitches. We have the R2J DVD. For some reason, the Japanese release is really desaturated compared to the R2Es. The encoder will have to make a judgement call about color correction. 
• Sanada 10. R2J DVD. Complex issues around deinterlacing and variable frame rates. Dmon404 created a template for the work, but the last three episodes are not encoded.
• One Pound Gospel. R2J DVD. Like other Rumic World releases, it suffers from blending and interlacing issues.
• Mars OVA. R2J DVD.
  

It's Raining, I'm Stalling...

A few shows are stalled because I have lost the will to work on them or Real Life has overtaken other team members. These include:

• Chameleon. I've lost interest in this show, because it's gross-out humor doesn't work for me. All the scripts are translated, and transation checks are available but not integrated. It needs a dedicated editor and typesetter other than me.
• Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai! I've always been a bit suspicious of the early Ureshii scripts, and translation checks have validated my concern. The translation checks need to be integrated and edited, and the typesetting needs to be redone. Again, someone else needs to take this on.
• Perrine movie. I don't have fond memories of the World Masterpiece Theater projects I've worked on, so I can't bring myself to do the detective work required to find and extract the movie's scenes from the 50(!) TV episodes. If you like this show and want to pore over the TV scripts to assemble a movie script, the raw is published, and I'll provide the TV scripts.
• Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament. This needs a new translation resource.

Summary: Orphan Wants You!

Fansubbing is a shrinking hobby. Simultaneous streaming has taken away the primary impetus that fueled fansubbing a decade ago (and also absorbed some of the resources into paid professional work). Like every other group that persists in subtitling old shows, Orphan needs more good people: translators and translation checkers, but also editors, typesetters, QCs, and encoders.

If you'd like to help out, and you know what you're doing, then please contact me on IRC. Due to the pandemic, I spend most of my time in front of my computer screen these days, so I'm easy to find during normal Eastern time zone (GMT-5) hours.