Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu

Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu (Kosuke and Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island) is a 1988 OVA from Toriyama Akira, the creator of Dragon Ball. According to AniDB and other sources, it is a sort of Dragon Ball Mini-Me, "featuring villains that could have stepped out of the Red Ribbon Army, typical Toriyama mecha, and a clone of Son Gohan's Haiya Dragon." However, I've never watched Dragon Ball or any of its sequels, and now, apparently, I don't have to.

The story is set in a faraway island, home to a small population of fishermen and to Kosuke and Rikimaru, the children who guard the island's last dragon. Rumors of the dragon's existence attract a professor from Tokyo, Tanukikouji Sakurako, who wants to study it, and a dastardly villain, Yamada Daihachirou, who wants to steal the gemstone from its forehead. Sakurako brings nothing but her curiosity and a city-girl's naivete about the rustic life, as exemplified in this exchange:

Sakurako: Excuse me, Kosuke-sama, do you have a bathroom?
Kosuke: Yeah, there's a river behind the house. Watch out for snakes.

or this close encounter with breakfast:

Yamada, on the other hand, brings his Hitler mustache, some vicious mecha, including a mechanical sumo wrestler, and a mercenary hired gun named Michael Commando. Neither the professor nor Yamada's mecha give Kosuke and Rikimaru much trouble, but Michael Commando is another story. Yamada gets the dragon's stone, at least for a while, but Kosuke and Rikimaru are not easily defeated. Yeah, the story sounds lame, but the show is good-natured, with flashes of humor and decent action scenes. It's over quickly, and there are no sequels. That's a plus.

The voice cast includes:

• Matsuoka Youko (Kosuke) played the title role in Huckleberry Finn Monogatari and the 1990s iteration of GeGeGe no Kitarou. She played Ralph in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show and the unnamed boy in Tsuki ga Noboru made ni, both Orphan releases.
• Oota Takako (Rikimaru) played the title role in the Creamy Mami franchise.
• Nishihara Kumiko (Professor Tanukikouji) played Iris in the Sakura Wars franchise and Renko in Kujibiki Unbalance, both OVAs and TV series. She appeared in Zetsuai 1989, Dragon Fist, Tenkousei, and Blazing Transfer Student, all Orphan releases.
• Ootsuka Chikao (Yamada, the villain) played Nezumi in the first GeGeGe no Kitaro series, Zenigata in the Lupin III pilot film, Goemon in Lupin III Part 1, Hook in Peter Pan no Bouken, Tora in the Ushio to Tora OVAs, Joseph JoeStar in the first JoJo's Bizarre Adventures OVAs, and Yoran Pailsen in the Armored Trooper Votoms franchise. He appeared in several Tezuka Osamu TV specials, all released by Orphan.

The director, Ashida Toyoo, started at Tezuka Osamu's Mushi Productions and eventually founded his own company, Studio Live. He did character design on many series, including the Minky Momo franchise, and directed numerous series, OVAs, and movies, including Hokoto no Ken, Vampire Hunter D, Gulliver Boy, World of Narue, and Souten Kouro.

Up until now, English-language releases of Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu have been based on VHS tapes. Intrepid found a second-hand laserdisc of the show, which could provide a significant upgrade in video quality. The project used the MusicWizard subs pretty much as is, except for the ending song, which benefited from the availability of official lyrics. ninjacloud timed the subs to the new raw. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Intrepid encoded from his own Domesday Duplicator rip of a Japanese laserdisc, with FLAC audio because of the digital soundtrack. There are some dropouts and scratches. A 3-disc median stack would have helped, but the budget only stretches so far.

The name Konpeitou seems to be based on a popular Japanese sugar candy, although it's also a pun (-tou means island). It was also the name of an asteroid in the Gundam franchise. (A tip of the hat to Uchuu and Intrepid for this research.)

So here's a new release of Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu. If, like me, you have never watched Dragon Ball, save yourself the trouble of watching 800+ episodes and God only knows how many movies and OVAs and watch this instead. (It's sort of like scanning the Classics Illustrated version of some fat novel instead of reading the book.) You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net