Lunn Flies into the Wind v2

One of Orphan's earliest Tezuka Osamu projects was the set of six OVAs known as the Lion Books:

1	The Green Cat	1983
2	Rain Boy	1983
3	Lunn Flies into the Wind	1985
4	Yamatarou Comes Back	1986
5	Adachigahara	1991
6	Akuemon	1993

The project took 18 months, from the middle of 2013 to the end of 2014. Except for Adachigahara and Akuemon, Orphan used existing raws from other teams. I've always been less than happy about the quality of those raws. Last month, I was able to purchase a complete set of the Lion Books R2J DVDs, and Orphan will be redoing the OVAs with new encodes. This is the third episode, Lunn Flies into the Wind (Lunn wa Kaze no Naka).

Lunn is sometimes described as a "low-key" look at adolescent first love. While it certainly lies on the sentimental end of the Lion Book spectrum, there's more to the show than teen romance. The hero, Akira, is a middle-school loner and underachiever, bullied at school by both his fellow students and his teacher. He finds an imaginary friend in the picture of a beautiful girl on a coffee advertising poster. He names her Lunn. She becomes his companion and consolation, but he regards his situation as so desperate that he almost kills himself twice - hardly "low-key" children's fare. Eventually, he becomes strong enough to formulate a goal and a dream for himself. By the end of the show, he is on his way to his first real friendship.

 

The voice cast includes:

• Inoue Kazuhiko (Akira Toyoda) starred as Yamaoka Shirou in Oishinbo, Yuki Eiri in Gravitation, the title role in Cyborg 009, and my favorite role, the irascible, sake-swilling Nyanko-sensei in the Natsume Yuujichou franchise. He also played Iori in Tomoe's Run!, Kanuma Hayate in Akai Hayate, Ryousuke in Daishizen no Majuu Bagi, Kitten Smith in Starship Troopers, Liu Bei Xuande in both Sangokushi TV specials, and Nakatsugawa in Boyfriend, all Orphan releases.
  
• Shimazu Saeko (Lunn)  played Shinobu in Urusei Yatsura, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, Yuri in the Dirty Pair franchise, and Chocola in Don Dracula. She played Sanae in Izumi (1991), the title role in Bagi, and Kyouko in Hiatari Ryouko, all Orphan releases. She also had featured roles in the other Rumiko Takahashi series of the era, Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, and Inuyasha.
• Tomiyama Kei (Miwa Minamidaira) played leading roles in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Bremen 4, Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, the Sangokushi TV specials, and Yousei Ou, all Orphan releases.
• Ogata Kenichi (poster expert) played the put-upon father in Gosenzosama Banbanzai and Maroko, Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken, and, most recently, Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. He played the grandfather in Ohoshi-sama no Rail, Suzuki in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance call, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga Nai!, and the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, all Orphan releases. He's also the voice of Ranma 1/2's Sataome Gemna, whose alter ego - the grumpy panda - is my avatar on most anime forums.
• Kitamura Kouichi (language teacher) played Coach Nakao in the Nine OVAs, Paolon, the intelligent spaceship, in Hi-Speed Jecy, Professor, the wise old cat, in the Ultra Nyan OVAs, Professor Lenholm in Apfelland Monogatari, and appeared in Hidamari no Ki and Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou. All are Orphan releases.
• Izuka Shouzou (math teacher) played "K" in the What's Michael? OVAs and appeared in The Green Cat, Hidamari no Ki, and Fire Emblem. All are Orphan releases.

Tezuka Osamu directed.

convexity redid the original Viki translation, and the changes were extensive. Eternal_Blizzard timed the original release, and Yogicat retimed this one. I edited and typeset both releases. CP, Calyrica, and konnakude QCed the original release, and Nemesis and Uchuu QCed this release. Skr encoded the raw from an R2J DVD. Because of the improved image stability over the image release, I was able to typeset a few more of the coffee posters.

All six Lion Books begin with a credit sequence featuring some Tezuka Osamu's best-loved characters. Today's trivia quiz: can you name all the characters in the closing shot?

This release brings Orphan to the halfway point in the Lion Book series. You can download Lunn Flies into the Wind from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.