Coluboccoro 2019

In the deep, dark past, an animator named Itoso Kenji created a one-man show called Coluboccoro. He did the story, the planning, the animation, and the direction. By 2015, he had formed an animation company, Kenji Studio. They ran a Kickstarter campaign to spruce up Coluboccoro, lengthen it to 30 minutes, and put it out as a Blu-ray. Commie Subs picked up this version and released it. The project leader, herkz, was not impressed:

Today we bring you part four in our series “Killing Anime by Subbing Successful Kickstarter Projects”! That said, the video quality in about half the scenes was quite bad in a way that can’t really be fixed, and I feel bad for people who backed this. RIP.

Fast forward another few years, and Kenji revisited Coluboccoro yet again, replacing the voice actors, changing the ending song, and lengthening the show by another five minutes. Orphan is now releasing an English-subtitled version of the most recent release.

Coluboccoro is a sci-fi, eco-friendly fantasy set in some sort of rural future. The 14-year-old heroine, Suzu, is a descendent of a distinguished shaman who saved her people from catastrophe in the past. Suzu finds and grows a strange seed that turns into a sort of winged plant, Coluboccoro.

They set out on a journey to the Forbidden Grounds, to find out what really makes her world tick. She is opposed by the village elder, known only as Ji ("old man"), who harbors a Dark Secret. You can take it from there.

Coluboccoro 2019 reminds me of another one-man project, Waza no Tabibito. That also features a mahou shoujo heroine, argues single- (and simple-)  mindedly against technology, and is rife with cliches and anime tropes. The additions in the 2019 version of Coluboccoro are just padding. The animation quality is highly variable; the older sections stick out. All in all, not a brilliant result.

The new voice cast includes:

• Nishino Nanase (Suzu or "bell") is primarily a fashion model and idol. Her only other anime credit is One Piece Film: Gold.
• Hara Natsuko (Suika or "watermelon") played the title role in Ame-iro Cocoa: Side G and Ameratsu in Onigiri. She is also a model.
• Oomori Nichika (Coluboccoro) played Chiya in the Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou series, Yurina in the Jashin-chan Dropkick series, Mokuku in the Otono no Bouguya-san series, and Keito in Ame-iro Cocoa: Side G.
• Omigawa Chiaki (Mikoto, the tutor) played Maka Albarn in Soul Eater, Jun in Natsu no Arashi, Hotori in Soredemo Machi wa Mawatte Iru, Sassa Maria in Double-J, Elena Peoples in Eureka Seven Ao, Nazuna in the Hidamari Sketch franchise, Naomi in the Bungou Stray Dogs franchise, and Mutsumi in the Seitokai Yakuindomo franchise.
• Chafuurin (Ji) 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 Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonjaa, Yamato 2520 and Izumo (1991), all Orphan releases.

The director, Itoso Kenji, is also responsible for Santa Company which, like Coluboccoro, has undergone revisions and expansions as funds became available.

The original subs were taken from Commie's release. Iri checked and revised them and translated the additional scenes and the new ending song. M74 timed. I edited; the original Commie typesetting and styling was retained. BeeBee and TougeWolf QCed. Skr found the raw, a 1080p web stream.

A note on the typesetting (or lack thereof). The additions in this version included a rather pointless argument between Suzu and her tutor about why certain Japanese condiments can take the "o-" honorific, denoting respected or higher quality, while others do not. Accompanying this exchange is a set of signs that wiggle, rotate, scale, and sheer. I couldn't figure out how to typeset them, nor could any other typesetter in the team. So for now, the signs are set with {\an8} notes. If anyone comes out with a decent-looking typeset for them, we'll do a v2.

You can probably sense that I wasn't all that impressed with Coluboccoro 2019, but YMMV. You can find it on the usual torrent site or download it from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.