A Long Time Coming: King Fang

About four years ago, a gentle Swede who goes by the handle GouNoKen found a rare VHS tape of the 1978 TV special Daisetsuzan no Yuusha Kibaou, known in the English-speaking world as King Fang. He reached out to two of his fansubbing penpals, Nanto of The Skaro Hunting Society (TSHS) and me, and suggested we collaborate to get it subbed. We agreed to a joint project, and by fall of 2018, the script was essentially done. And then everything fell apart.

Fansub joint projects are fragile ventures. Minor differences in styles, methods, and preferences can get blown up out of proportion. The project stalled on various issues - mostly about what I would call "house style"- and we retreated to our respective corners. At the time, I thought that stuff just happens. Or as Jimmy Buffet put it in Margaritaville, "But I know it's nobody's fault." Then... Covid.

There's nothing like a worldwide pandemic to put matters in perspective. I realized that I'd become old (I'm almost 75), cranky, and too used to getting my own way. (There was a reason why I'd chosen a grumpy panda as my avatar.) My world view was perfectly summed up by Lou and Peter Berryman song:

And I don't get it and I don't like it
Oh, I’d be the first to admit
That I don't get it and I don't like it
And you can put that in my obit

I started to think, pace Jimmy Buffet, "It might be my fault."

About a year ago, I systematically began to revisit projects that had stalled out. In the spring of 2021, I went back to the King Fang script archive and did the QC/RC I was supposed to have done. The script was in good shape, and whatever issues I might have had were unimportant. I wrote to Nanto and GouNoKen and said that we should mux the script and release the project. Both graciously agreed to proceed. Covid and Real Life complicated communications, but eventually we got to a release point. As for the three year delay... "And I know it's my own damn fault."

Anyway... Orphan and TSHS are proud to present the first English version of Daisetsuzan no Yuusha Kibaou (King Fang). The show seems to be another canine/lupine story in the mold of White Fang and Run! White Wolf, but it precedes both of them as an anime. It is based on the 1960s manga Kiba Ou by Togawa Yuko.The title character is the offspring of a Hokkaido hunting dog, Tetsu, and a European wolf, Devil, that had run away from a circus. He is raised by a little girl, Sanae, who names him Taki. However, he proves too wild for a domestic setting and ends up with Tetsu's owner, the hunter Kaneto and his son Yoshito. Ultimately, though, Taki's allegiance is to the laws of the wild.

He runs away to become leader of a pack of wild dogs. Eventually, he must face the existential challenge of confronting Gon, the one-eyed monster bear that had killed his mother.

The voice cast is from a previous era:

• Ueda Miyuki (Sanae) played Marie Antoinette in The Rose of Versailles and Erika in Toushou Daimos.
• Kinshiro Iwao (Kaneto) played Gyuumaou, the pig demon, in 1960's Saiyuuki and Vulfran Paindovoine in Perrine Monogatari, both Orphan releases.
• Yasuhara Yoshito (Yoshito) played the title role in the 1986 version of Botchan,
  Scarecrow in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (TV), Ranze's father in Tokimeki Tonight (which Orphan finished), Louis XVI in The Rose of Versailles, and the Black Knight in Tobira o Akete. He starred as Kyousuke in Techno Police 21C, an Orphan release. He continues to work and was featured recently in Golden Kamuy.
  
• Kawakubo Kiyoshi (Yoichiro, Sanae's father) played Kevin Yeager in D.gray-man and Guame in Tengen Toppe Gurren Lagann. He appeared in Rain Boy and Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: I Am Son Gokuu, both Orphan releases.

The director, Okabe Eiji, also helmed the 1979 version of Anne Frank, which is not available in English.

Moho Kareshi did the original translation, and laalg checked it, one of her last projects for Orphan. Nanto edited, timed, typeset the credits, and did the final mux. I styled, QCed, and typeset the signs. GouNoKen ripped the VHS tape, and M74 encoded it. It is truly a joint project, so it has been released as [Orphan - TSHS].

This blog post seems to consist of nothing but song quotes, so I'll close with one more: "It's been a long time coming." Nonetheless, here's King Fang at last. Nanto, GoNoKen, and I hope you enjoy it. You can download the movie from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.