Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, Ep10-12

In my blog post on the third set of episodes, I piously hoped that there wouldn't be a year gap again, as there had been between the second and third sets. In fact, it's been more than 18 months. The delay wasn't related to the pandemic. Rather, key staff members had been sidelined by personal issues. Now, with new staffing, the project has resumed, and Orphan is releasing the next DVD's worth of episodes.

Episode 10 ("Jacob's Family Reunited") brings Joseph's story (and the book of Genesis) to a close. The episode hews fairly closely to the Bible, with only a brief appearance by Rocco as another victim of the terrible famine sweeping Egypt and the rest of the Near East. All ends well. Joseph and his brothers are reunited, and Jacob moves the family to Goshen in Egypt. When he is near death, Jacob asks his sons to bury him in the family crypt in Canaan, but he allows them to remain in Egypt, where they will prosper... for a while.

Episode 11 ("The Birth of Moses") tells the story of Moses' birth and then attempts to fill out the Bible's bare-bones story of his upbringing. In this version, Moses' Hebrew origins are not a secret. However, his adoptive grandfather, the pharaoh, insists that Moses must choose between his ancestral roots as a Hebrew and his adoptive identity as an Egyptian. Rocco has a prominent role as Moses' pampered pet.

Episode 12 ("Fire in the Desert") recounts Moses' fateful journey to the slave cities of Pithom and Rameses. There, he is so overcome with anger at the treatment of a Hebrew slave that he kills an Egyptian overseer. He is forced to flee into the desert, where he marries Zipporah, the daughter of a shepherding family. After many years, he is drawn to the upper reaches of Mt. Sinai, where he encounters God in the form of a burning bush and is directed to free the Israelites from bondage. Rocco has a cameo during Moses' initial encounter with Zipporah.

New cast members include:

• Genda Tesshou (Moses as an adult) played Colonel Muto in Joker Game, Moloch in Yondemasu Azazel-san, Rei in the Urusei Yatsura franchise, Moguro Fukuzou in New Laughing Salesman,  and "Oyaji" in Mitsuboshi Colors. He also played Jin Kiryu in Blue Sonnet, Zigong in Eiyuu Banka Koushi-den, Paul Rusch in Yume Kakeru Kougen, Jim Hyatt in AWOL Compression Remix, the loyal lieutenant Galbreath in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, the dragonman Baguda in Greed, the narrator in Akai Hayate and Meisou-ou Border, Dog McCoy in Dallos, Hebopi in Wild 7, rebel leader Oosukune in Izumo, Momo, the drummer in To-Y, and Rikiishi's trainer Kuroki and Kirishima in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
• Ino Manabu (Moses as a youth) appeared in Arc the Lad and Case Closed.
• Okabe Masaaki (Pharoah during Moses' childhood) had featured roles in Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Sanctuary, an Orphan release.
• Miyata Hikaru (Jethro) had featured roles in Naruto, Kyojin no Hoshi, and Heat Guy J, as well as a lead role in the notorious h-anime The Maiden Diaries. 
• Takeguchi Akiko (Zipporah) appeared in The Alps Story: My Annette, The Book of Bantorra, and other shows.
  

Because the series is intended as a G-rated children's show, much of the tension of the Bible is lost. Exodus opens with a chilling and understated line: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph." The new ruler says, "Come, let us deal wisely with them," i.e., enslave and kill them. The biological son of Pharaoh is never named. He doesn't appear in the story of Moses' youth, and there is no rivalry between the two boys. I guess even Rocco didn't provide enough padding for the episode. Once the story reaches Mt. Sinai, it adheres more closely to the Biblical text.

New translator Nutella joined the team for these episodes; Skr translation checked episode 10 but then had to drop out. Yogicat timed. I edited and transposed Skr's original typesetting to these episodes. Nemesis, Topper3000, and Uchuu QCed. Skr encoded from Japanese DVDs.

A word on translation process and text. There are four possible sources: Nutella's translation; the Japanese closed captions; the English dub; and the Bible itself. When the episodes are inventing freely, the translation, cross-checked with the closed captions, has been used. However, when the episodes are adhering to the Bible, I have tended to interpolate from the Biblical text where appropriate. For example, when God calls to Moses from the burning bush, Moses responds in Japanese with a simple "Hai" (yes, okay, I will). I've transposed that to the Biblical response, "Here I am." You can consider either the Japanese line or my edit as another case of "lost in translation."

While I hope Orphan can finish the Exodus story (which runs through episode 17) in a timely fashion, there are no guarantees. Meanwhile, you can pick up this batch of episodes from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.