Tezuka Osamu: The Secret of Creation

Another first for Orphan: a live-action documentary about (who else?) Tezuka Osamu. A raw for this showed up recently on the anime community's favorite torrent site, and one of the team members recommended it to me. When I watched it, I realized I'd seen it before: it had been included as a bonus DVD in Helen McCarthy's marvelous book, "The Art of Osamu Tezuka" - with English subtitles. Here was an opportunity to present this intriguing glimpse into the working life of the "God of Manga" to an English-speaking audience.

The documentary was filmed in 1985, when Tezuka was in his late 50s. He was nearing the end of his life, although no one realized it at the time. The camera crew was allowed remote access to Tezuka's "secret sanctum" - an apartment where he drew his manga in grueling work sessions consisting of long days with little sleep. Even at the height of his fame, when he was honored at home and abroad for his pioneering work, Tezuka still had to grind out new material and cope with hounding from anxious editors trying to meet deadlines. 

His schedule was always tight. For example, he is seen drawing manga on the way to the airport and on a plane to France, where he was going to be a guest of honor at a conference. In addition, he also had to meet the demands of his public persona, chairing an anime conference in Hiroshima, greeting fans and dignitaries, and presenting a cheery face to the world. Yet he retained the spirit of the boy who was fascinated by insects and drawings, who loved nature and silly jokes, and who hated war and environmental destruction.

There are intimate glimpses of Tezuka with his guard down - listening to classical music as he works on a manga (Walter Gieseking's performance of Mozart's last piano sonata); exhausted and asleep at his desk; looking at the very dark works he created after Mushi Productions collapsed and he was being hounded by creditors; and musing on the effects of age and the impact on his drawing abilities. The gaps can between the man and the slapstick entertainments he created at times can be startling. But genius is unaccountable.

I expected this to be an easy project, as I had assumed that the English subtitles were a professional translation. They were, but with serious omissions. Significant dialog sections - particularly of asides between Tezuka and others - were not translated. (We filled in some of the gaps, but not all of them.) None of the signs were translated either. So there was work to do.

M74 ripped and encoded the DVD and extracted and OCRed the English subtitles. Yogicat timed. A host of people helped fill in dialog gaps and translated signs: TougeWolf, Iri, kokujin-kun, and for some scattered lines of French, sangofe from Saizen (merci, mon frère). I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed.

Some notes:

• Tezuka meets French animator Paul Grimault at an anime conference in Hiroshima. Grimault was one of the most famous and influential animators in France, but he only made one feature-length film, Le Roi et l'oiseau, which has been dubbed in several languages, including English. It has never been released in North America, but there was, apparently, a European BD release with the original French dialog and English subtitles. Let me know if you come across a copy.
• In Japanese, Tezuka is almost always called "Tezuka-sensei," probably in the sense of "Master." However, the English subs translate "sensei" as "Doctor," because Tezuka was, in fact, a medical doctor, although he did not practice.
  

So here is a glimpse of the great man himself, a workaholic to the end of his days, determined to tell as many stories as he could before his time ran out, as it did all too soon. You can get this fascinating portrait from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Toei's Kitten

Several major themes run through Orphan's releases: rescuing shows stranded on the wrong side of the Digital Divide; rescuing shows abandoned by other groups (orphans); and the works of Tezuka Osamu. But there's are minor themes as well. One of them is cats, and another is the early works of Toei Douga, the pioneering Japanese animation studio. Orphan has released Saiyuuki, Wan Wan Chuushingura, Horus: Prince of the Sun, and Kaitei 3-man Mile, among Toei's feature-length films, and we'd like to do more. Today, we're releasing a double feature, a pair of short Toei cartoons from the late 1950s that are part of both themes: Koneko no Rakugaki (The Kitten's Doodles) and Koneko no Studio (The Kitten's Studio), from animator Mori Yasuji. Both feature an artistically-inclined kitten and a pair of mice antagonists/sidekicks. Doodles is black-and-white, without dialog; Studio is in color, with some dialog.

With a cat as protagonist and mice as adversaries, I was expecting a Japanese version of Tom and Jerry, but the Konekos doesn't resemble standard 1950s Hollywood fare. For one thing, both are longer - about 15 minutes vs the Hollywood standard of 8. For another, there's no real violence. The kitten bosses around the mice, and the mice tease the kitten, but they're all just having a good time.

In The Kitten's Doodles, the kitten is penciling doodles on the white wall of Grandpa Bear's house, much to the displeasure of the owner. The doodles come to life, and kitten and mice have a slapstick chase on trains and in automobiles (no planes).

In The Kitten's Studio, the kitten is trying to direct the mice in a samurai epic. Out of frustration with the ineptitude of the mice and the totally antiquated movie-making equipment, the kitten creates an automated studio with robot actors. With a little help from the mice, matters get totally out of hand.

In the tradition of Hollywood cartoons, all the voices are done by a single seiyuu, Nakamura Meiko. She played the title roles in Uchuujin Pipi and Shounen Jack to Mahou Tsukai, among other roles in early anime productions.

This project is Skr's brainchild. He found the high-definition TV streams (both are remastered), encoded, translated, typeset, and did the initial timing. I did a bit of timing and additional typesetting, as well as editing on Studio, and QC. Nemesis and Uchuu also QCed. The images are fairly wobbly, so the signs, although simple, all had to be motion tracked. (Skr also found this tweet, which clarifies that the kitten is named Miko and is doodling on Grandpa Bear's house.)

These short films are simply wonderful: gentle, humorous, and inventive. With the world engulfed in pandemic and war, they're a welcome break. You can download The Kitten's Doodles and The Kitten's Studio from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #new on irc.rizon.net

 

 

Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99

Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99 (Superdimensional Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99) is a 1986 sci-fi fantasy that makes no sense along most of its dimensions: its title, its plot, or even why it exists in the first place. It's the brainchild of Okuda Seiji, a veteran animator who worked on dozens of series, mostly as a storyboarder, but sometimes as episode director or scriptwriter. It seems to tell a story that's part of a much larger work, but there is no larger work. What you see is what you get.

Samy starts with a ponderous expository sign setting out the background: the war between Gods and Demons at the start of the universe, the Demons' plan to capture control of the next universe, the Gods plan to thwart them by embedding the potential for an "existence with immense power" in the human genetic code... you get the idea. And that existence turns out to be Samy Yoshino, a seemingly ordinary high-school girl. She is suddenly beset by vicious attackers on motorcycles, saved by a mysterious boy, and then whisked away through an interdimensional portal to another world, along with her dog Marlon.

There she encounters, among others, a White Rabbit, a witch, and a passel of monsters. The White Rabbit is actually Beat, a disguised minion of the evil Demon lord Noa (who is the twin brother of the biblical Noah, but that's another story, apparently). Samy is the prophesied "existence with immense power," and Noa wants to destroy her before she can thwart the Demons' plan.  Noa and his key warriors, Silver and Beat, pursue Samy with their huge dimensional warship. Suddenly, she is rescued by three heroes: Deus, Romus, and Cody. Together, they hold off Noa and his followers until Samy discovers her Bodhisattva-class powers and ends the conflict decisively, with lots of tasty explosions. Samy wakes up in her high-school classroom, unaware that her unusually vivid dream was real. Another ponderous expository sign suggests that further adventures will follow, but that's the end of the story. Make sense? Didn't think so.

My reaction as a viewer was simple: wtf? The density of the tropes, and the preposterous conflation of ideas from various traditions and other anime shows, is off the charts. Ideas and references are casually thrown off and immediately discarded or ignored. For example, the unnamed boy who saves Samy from the motorcycle gang is also sucked into the interdimensional vortex, but he's never seen again. Even the title makes no sense: who or what are the missing 99? (If you count the boy, maybe it's only 98.)

The voice cast has many well-known seiyuu of the era:

• Hirano Fumi (Samy) starred as Lum in the Urusei Yatsura franchise, Koiko in Koiko no Mainichi, and Princess Kahm in Outlanders. She also played La Midin Dimida in Tobira o Akete, Lihua in the two Sangokushi TV specials and Tsugumi in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases.
• Suzuoki Hirotaka (Deus, brown-haired, very brawny hero) played Bright Noa in Mobile Suit Gundam, Huga Koijiro in Captain Tsubasa, Dragon Shiryu in Saint Seiya, Tenshinhan in Dragonball, Kuno in Ranma ½, Abriel Nei Debrusc Larth Kryb Debeus in the Crest of the Stars franchise, and Saito in Rurouni Kenshin. He appeared in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Sei Michaela Gakuen, and Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, all Orphan releases.
• Horiuchi Kenyuu (Romus, green-haired hero) played the title role in Guin Saga and Oscar in the Angelique franchise. He also played the title role in Amon Saga, Ryuuichi in Aoko Honoo, Nest in Eien no Filena, Kubota in Meisou Ou Border, Jin Akira in Wolf Guy, Lid in Greed, and the refined son in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
• Wakamoto Norio (Noa) played the title role in The Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas, Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, Cell in the Dragonball franchise, Katakuriko in the Gintama franchise, Oda Nobunaga in Sengoku Basara franchise, Sakakibara in Sanada 10, Guren in Ushio to Tora TV, Shining Saotome in the Uta no Prince-sama franchise, and Oskar von Reuenthal in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He also appeared as York Denman in Apfelland Monogatari, Major Thrauza in Yamato 2520, Denon in Amon Saga, and the Narrator in Joker: Marginal City, all Orphan releases.
• Ikeda Shuuichi (Silver, Noa's wolf warrior) played Char in the Gundam franchise, Ptolemy in Alexander Senki, Quattro in Z Gundam, Kou Shouki (the heroine's father) in Saiunkoku Monogatari, Shuuichi Akai in the Detective Conan franchise, and Alex Liger in Dallos. The last is an Orphan release.
• Tobita Nobuo (Cody, red-haired hero) played Lumial in the Angelique franchise, Ken Wakashimazu in the Captain Tsubasa franchise, Randy in Fake, Sinistra in Kiddy Grade, the title role in Locke the Superman, and Dayon in Osomatsu-san. He appeared in Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Condition Green, and Eien no Filena, all Orphan releases.
• Ohara Noriko (Witch) had a long career, starting in the 1960s. She played Nobita in the Doraemon franchise, Doronjo in Yatterman, the title roles in Future Boy Conan and the original Sinbad no Bouken, Peter in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Oyuki in Urusei Yatsura, and Claudia La Salle in Choujikuu Yousai Macross. She played Makoto-chan's mom in Makoto and the mother bear in Katte ni Shirokuma, both Orphan releases.
• Furuya Tohru (Beat, aka the Rabbit) played the lead male roles in Kimagure Orange Road and Sailor Moon, the title roles in Casshern Sins and Kyojin no Hoshi, and recurrent roles in the Dr. Slump, Dragonball, and Mobile Suit Gundam franchises. He also starred as Niimi in Nine, Kosaku in Stop!! Hibari-kun, and the title role in Bavi Stock, all Orphan releases.
• Yamamoto Yuriko (Maki) played the title roles in Lady Georgie, Hello! Sandybell, Mahou Tsukai Sally 2, and the Iczer OVAs. She also played the title roles in Nora, Twinkle Nora Rock Me, and Tomoe's Run!, Rihabi and Sayuri in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and Telenne in High Speed Jecy, all Orphan releases.

Okuda Seiji also directed New Dream Hunter Rem, Crystal Triangle, and the Sangokushi TV series.

This project is another rework of a BOX Subs hardsub. A transcription of the subs was already floating around the web. Zalis did the original translation, and it required little revision. kokujin-kun translated the insert song, which had not been done before. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset; there were very few signs. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Intrepid encoded from a Domesday Duplicator rip of a second-hand Japanese laserdisc.

So for better or worse, here is a new version of Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99. To me, it bears a resemblance to Tobira o Akete, which was released about the same time and makes equally little sense. But if super-powered heroines fighting evil in another dimension is your thing, you'll enjoy the show. In any case, it's available from the usual torrent site or on IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. And if you catch sight of the missing 99, let me know, okay?

Baby Love

Baby Love is such a familiar shoujo romance that it seemed like a refugee from the Margaret Video Series, but it was actually made somewhat later. Dating from 1997, it retells the first nine chapters of the much-longer shoujo manga by Shiina Ayumi, which has been fully scanlated into English. Indeed, the only thing is has in common with Margaret OVAs is that it too was marooned on VHS tape, not even receiving a laserdisc release.

Baby Love is an age gap romance. When she's quite young, Seara develops a crush on Seto Shuuhei, who is three years older. He tells her brusquely to forget it, because she's just a kid.

Fast forward four years, and Seara, now 11, has grown 46cm and is unrecognizable. When her parents conveniently move overseas, she moves in with Shuuhei's family and starts planning how to ensnare her man. Because she has grown so much, Shuuhei, who is now in middle school, doesn't recognize her. Besides, he likes girls who are well-endowed, which the pre-puberty Seara certainly is not.

The OVA is a series of set pieces about Seara's machinations and how they go comically awry. She inveigles Shuuhei to take her to an amusement park, only to learn, first hand, the kind of girls Shuuhei is attracted to. She infiltrates his school, only to attract the unwanted attention of Shuuhei's friend Rai. She sets up a visit to a skating rink, only to run into a passel of Shuuhei's middle school friends. And finally, she accepts Rai's invitation to go shopping, hoping to make Shuuhei jealous, and ends up with more than she bargained for. Pretty standard shoujo stuff.

The voice cast includes:

• Kasahara Hiroko (Seara) played the title roles in Armitage III and Mahou Angel Sweet Mint, Maron in Assemble Insert, Nanako in Dear Brother, Ami in DNA^2, Fuu in the Rayearth properties, Tama in the Tama and Friends franchise, and Hinako in Ultimate Teacher.
• Okada Tatsuya (Shuuhei) was primarily a stage actor and has only a few credits. He appeared in Whisper of the Heart and You're Under Arrest.
• Takeuchi Junko (Koharu, Shuuhei's sister) starred as Naruto in the Naruto franchise, Gon in the original Hunter x Hunter series, Kuromi in the Onegai My Melody properties, and Rin in the Eiga Precure franchise. She played the title role in Photon, Sabo in One Piece, and Tina in the Sisters of Wellber series. She appeared in Shirokuma Cafe, an Orphan release.
• Madono Mitsuaki (Rai) played Charlie in the Angelique franchise, Kon in the Bleach franchise, Aichou in Ninku, and Kou Reishin in the Saiunkoku Monogatari series. He appeared in the first Ultra Nyan OVA, an Orphan release.

The director, Kudou Susumu, helmed projects as diverse as some of the Angelique OVAs, K the TV series, the Mardock Scramble movies, and They Are My Noble Masters.

The project has an interesting origin. blindrezo wanted a new raw of the series for Masterpiece Fansub, a Brazilian fansub team. He asked Intrepid to buy a used VHS tape and rip it on Orphan's non-compressing capture setup. blindrezo then encoded the rip for the Masterpiece team, while Intrepid encoded it for Orphan. Masterpiece did a new, direct translation from Japanese to Brazilian Portuguese, while Orphan translation-checked and heavily modified the existing English subs. Thus, there will be two new versions, with different translations, in different languages, using different encodes, from a common source tape. It's a funny world.

Orphan started with the fansub version by Fivestar. M74 transcribed and rough timed the subs. ninjcloud fine timed. convexity translated the ending song, which had not been done, and found enough problems with the original subs to do a complete translation check; significant changes were made. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Intrepid encoded from an uncompressed rip of a second-hand Japanese VHS tape.

So on the one hand, Baby Love is pretty generic shoujo fare. On the other hand, it's not terrible, and the age gap is probably not big enough to make a Western audience squirm. This version looks better than the previous English release, it's more accurate, and it's softsubbed. What's not to like? You can get Baby Love from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament Ep 13-15

Here is volume 5 of Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament: In the Beginning, which continues the Exodus story through the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Episode 13 ("Moses and Pharaoh") retells the fated confrontation between Moses and the current Pharaoh, his stepbrother (at least, according to the apocryphal legends). Moses demands that Pharaoh let the Israelitesgo. When Pharaoh refuses, God brings ten plagues upon Egypt, culminating in the death of all male firstborn Egyptians - a deadly echo of a previous Pharaoh's orders to drown newborn male Hebrew children.  Rocco witness Moses first meeting with the Hebrew slaves and follows him throughout the episode.

Episode 14 ("Escape from Egypt") recounts the departure of the people of Israel, the pursuit by Pharaoh, and the ultimate demonstration of God's power at the shores of the Red Sea. On the far side of the sea, the Israelites suffer from hunger and thirst until God again demonstrates his power by providing mana from the sky. This episode includes a flashback montage of Joseph's life, done with director Dezaki Osamu's famous "postcard memories." Rocco continues as the audience's point-of-view character, mostly accompanying one young boy, and has one of the best sight gags in this mostly serious - not to say solemn - series.

Episode 15 ("The Ten Commandments") brings the story to Mount Sinai. The Hebrews continue to suffer from hunger and thirst, and God again provides miraculous sustenance. Quarrels among the people fester, and Moses, on advice from his father-in-law Jethro, appoints judges to lead subsections of the population. God instructs Moses to climb Mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments. These are greeted with joy and amazement. Moses continues to receive instructions on Mount Sinai. However, after one trip, he fails to return, and the people lose faith in the Lord. Rocco continues to act as a witness and, occasionally, get into foxy mishaps..

Episode 15 has a video glitch at 6:17; it's in the sources, both DVDs and TV broadcasts.

New cast members include:

• Takeshi Watabe (Pharaoh) had featured roles in numerous shows, including Condition Green, Twinkle Nora Rock Me!, and Sanctuary (all Orphan releases), as well as Gunparade Orchestra, Maze, Ninku, Oishinbo, Wrath of the Ninja, and You're Under Arrest.
• Saka Osamu (Aaron) played Daisuke Aramaki in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex franchise and Oohara in the Oishinbo properties. He appeared in Aoki Honoo, Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Fire Emblem, Kasei Yakyoku, Oz, and the third Sangokushi movie, all Orphan releases, as well as numerous other anime.
• Aizawa Keiko (Miriam) appeared in Emma, Saiyuki, and Sakura Taisen, among other shows.
• Nakata Jouji (Joshua) is best known as Alucard in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate and as the Count of Monte Christo in Gankuutsuou. He also played Ashen Eye in The Ancient Magus Bride, Bandou in Elfen Lied, Hijikata in Golden Kamuy, Vladimir Putin (!) in Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku, Jin Kunugi in Rahxephon, Otou in Working!, and Diethard Ried in Code Geass. He played Nelson the Bomb, Hyatt's criminal bomber, in AWOL Compression Remix and Shamon, the priest, in Amatsuki, both Orphan releases.

One of the oddities of this set of episodes is the music that accompanies the miracle at the Red Sea. The Bible has an entire chapter devoted to Moses' (and Miriam's) song of praise and wonder. This is discarded in favor of a ponderous and pretentious hymn, sung in English by a massed chorus. I can't find any references for this hymn, so it may have been composed for the series. In any case, I'm offering a prize (of some sort) to anyone who can trace down this piece of music. Don't expect anything great, though.

Nutella translated these episodes. Yogicat timed. I edited and transposed Skr's original typesetting to these episodes. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Skr encoded from Japanese DVDs. The team continues to shrink.

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.

Salvaging an Investment (Cherry no Manma)

Many, many years ago, members of the team were interested in translating Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage, a three-part horror OVA from 1989. The raws available at the time weren't great, so the team purchased a set of second-hand video tapes in Japan to make new encodes. The tapes turned out to have serious wear and stretch issue, and the project was abandoned. In late 2019, R-Raws captured a stream broadcast in excellent quality. The folks over at OldCastle, bless 'em, promptly subbed the show, and that was that.

After Orphan had resubbed a couple of BOX Sub releases, including Body Jack and Elf 17, I was idly looking through the group's page on AniDB, to see if any other releases would benefit from an update. I saw a short film called Cherry no Manma, just the sort of amuse bouche that would be quick to toss off.  However, I couldn't find a raw by that name on Japanese second-hand media sites. The reason, of course, was that it wasn't a separate show but a bonus appended to the first volume of Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage. I asked Intrepid if the tapes we had were good enough to rip this short film. They were.

To my surprise, the video is not identical to the BOX version, which used the laserdisc release. The VHS tape has a "promo" for Ano Ko ni 1000%, the bonus on the next volume of Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage. So they are slightly different. Is that enough to justify a new release? Dunno, but here it it anyway.

Cherry no Manma is a teaser - a very short one - for Sugi Emiko's shoujo manga of the same name. Kanoko (nicknamed Nocco) is a young girl, living alone with Yuzuru and Yuuki, two young male housekeepers, who could not be more different. While Yuzuru is kind and refined, Yuuki is rude and crude. They try to keep their unusual family together in the face of a conflict over Yuuki's ogling of Nocco's cherry-print panties. That's the whole show; now go buy the manga.

As a three-hander, the voice cast is small:

• Kawata Taeko (Nocco) played Arale in the Dr. Slump franchise, Tanpopo in Seraphim Call, Leo in the 2009 special Jungle Taitei, and Shypre in the Precure franchise.
• Anbe Atsushi (Yuuki) appeared in Ano Ko ni 1000% and Ryokunohara Labyrinth.
• Tsukui Kyousei (Yuzuru) appeared in many featured roles, including Meisou-ou Border and Call Me Tonight, both Orphan releases.

The director, Nagaoka Yasuchika, directed the Crest of the Stars franchise (a personal favorite) and Kiss Dum: Engage Planet. He did a key animation on Stop!! Hibari-kun! and the first Sangokushi special, both Orphan releases, as well as numerous Lupin III specials and movies.

The original translation was by Zalis of BOX and Redone Subs and needed few changes. kokujin-kun filled in the preview lines. M74 transcribed the BOX hardsubs and did the initial timing. I fine-timed, edited, and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Intrepid encoded from a used Japanese VHS tape.

So here's a quickie - quick to do, quick to watch, quick to forget. You can get Cherry no Manma from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.