This Is Where I Came In...

I just had the pleasure of editing the Blu-ray version of episode 58 of Yawara! - the last one I had never touched (or seen) before - and then picking up the Blu-ray version of episode 59, where I started on the project more than ten years ago. Now I've seen (and edited) all 124 episodes, the movie, and the TV special. It's been a fun ride.

I've written more than enough about Yawara! In my post on the Blu-ray version of the Atlanta special, I described the main voice actors in the series. Here I'd like to focus on some of the smaller parts. These include some of Yawara's competitors at events and the members of Fujiko's scratch judo team at Mitsuba Women's College:

• Satou Ai (Kristen Adams) played many maternal roles, including Light's mother in Death Note, Masami's mother in Wedding Peach, Misaki's mother in Dear Brother, Ban's mother in Getbackers, Shigeru's mother in Noramimi, the unnamed mothers in Cinderella Express, Ai Monogatari, and Guyver: Out of Control, as well as Kristin Adams in Yawara!. Other roles include the refined mother in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Ibuki's mother in Kiss wa Me ni Shite, Taichi in The Cake Tree in the Ruins, the narrator in The Boy and the Sea Turtle, The Mother Who Became a Kite, and Kiku and the Wolf, and the unnamed girlfriend in Lunn Flies into the Wind, all Orphan releases.
• Mine Atsuko (Tohdoh Yuki) played Miwa, the artist's wife, in Lunn Flies into the Wind and Maris' mother in Maris the Choujo, both Orphan release, as well as numerous featured roles in other series.
• Ichijou Miyuki (Jody Rockwell) played Akane in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, an Orphan release, and appeared in several Detective Conan movies.
• Sasaki Run (Belkens) played Himiko in Izumi (1991), an Orphan release.
• Mizutani Yuko (Anna Tereshkova) played Pinoko in all the Black Jack properties, as well as Rika in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, Lila in Eien no Filena, Hitomi in Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro, and Dr. Uematsu Kikue in Yume Kakeru Kougen, all Orphan projects.
• Suzuki Mei (Minamida Yoko, aka Paddyfield) played Cross in Hitomi no Naka no Shounen: Juugo Shunen Hyouryuuki, an Orphan release, and had a recurring role as Masao-kun in the Crayon Shin-chan franchise.
• Touma Yumi (Kyonkyon) played the title roles in Emma: A Victorian Romance and Baby Felix and Urd in the Aa! Megami-sama franchise. She appeared in numerous Orphan releases, including Boyfriend, Condition Green, Fukuyama Gekijou, Tezuka Osamu ga Kieta?!, Gude Crest, and Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Nareudesho.

I could go on and on. For example, Hayashibara Megumi, arguably the most famous female seiyuu of the 1990s, appears in a small role, as does Hara Eriko. Like other long series of the time, Yawara! graces the resume of many seiyuu from the 80s and 90s.

Although I've now come full circle on the project, I don't have any intention of dropping out, but... It's taken six years to get this far on the BD project - less than ten episodes per year. At this rate, the project won't finish for another seven years. By then, I'd be 82 or thereabouts. No one can foretell the future, but that's really pushing the demographic odds. The Blu-ray project simply has to move faster - or it has to get a different editor. I'm not being alarmist; I'm being realistic. Maybe the second half will go faster, because the scripts are in better shape. But one never knows... do one?