Chameleon 4

What's this? Two episodes of Chameleon in the same calendar year? Is Satan gliding around his domain on ice skates?

In the blog post for episode 3, I opined hopefully that the series would be stalled indefinitely, because the songs for the last three episodes hadn't been translated and were unlikely to be. However, ninjacloud, the timer, refused to give up. He nudged and pleaded with various translators to get the songs done. Further, VigorousJammer did the detailed work of applying laalg's complex translation checks to Moho's scripts. So now, I'm out of excuses.

Episode 4 ("The Worst One-on-One Hell Ever!!") continues the saga of pint-sized wannabe hood Yazawa Eisaku. Having survived three near-death encounters, first with the Shadow Dance gang, then with psychotic thug Kyuu Akio, and finally with the ultra-violent Matsudo gang and its murderous leader, Matsuoka Eiji, the story continues with further interactions among Yawaza and his gang, Matsuoka and his gang, the ultra-powerful fighter Mishima Jun, and even Kyuu, who had been consigned to Juvenile Detention at the end of episode 2. The episode doesn't break new ground or introduce new characters. It's an extension of the previous episode and ends pretty much like episode 3 did. In short, it's filler.

Episode 3 ended with both Matsuoka and Mishima badly injured and recuperating. Matsuoka baits a trap by offering Yawaza "compensation money" for Mishima's injuries. Yawaza knows it's a trap but, opportunistic lowlife that he is, he's still unable to resist the lure of cash. When Mishima finds out (as Matsuoka intended), he's convinced that Yawaza has betrayed him (as Matsuoka also intended), Mishima comes after our "hero" with murder on his mind. Then Matsuoka comes after both of them. Only Kyuu's last minute intervention saves everyone from a fiery - and permanent - conclusion.

Moho Kareshi did the initial translation; laalg translation checked. convexity translated the songs and thus unjammed the project. kokujin-kun filled in a few blanks. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset; VigorousJammer provided valuable assistance by applying the translation check. Nemesis and Uchuu did QC. The raw is an ancient Internet rip (DivX505!), but there are no signs of original media on the second-hand market in Japan.

I still find Chameleon tedious in every respect - to edit, to typeset, or even to watch. Nonetheless, the team has put in a lot of hard work to get to this point. I owe it to them, and to the series' devoted fans (are there any?), to finish it... next year. Maybe. On the other hand, the next two episodes have many missing lines and NO TRANSLATOR. Mwahahaha...

So I'll refrain from further comments; you could guess what they'd be. You can get Chameleon 4 from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.