Still More Raws from the Attic

Here's another raw I'd dearly love to translate: Noel no Fushigi na Bouken (Noel's Fantastic Trip), a 1983 children's movie. According to MyAnime List:

The film is centered around Noel, a young girl and her dog, Pup, who both live on the Planet Noel. While relaxing, Noel comes up with the idea to deliver ice cream to the sun. The two fly off and make their way toward the sun.

On their way, the two of them make a stop at the Planet Gaudy. Upon their arrival, the President steps out to welcome the two. The President invites them to a special party, in which the Emcees show off the planet's most beautiful designs. This does not impress Noel, who states that it doesn't matter what clothes one is wearing, they will still be beautiful and loved. This coaxes the President and the citizens of the planet to take their clothes off, as does Noel. Pup gently reminds Noel of their trip to the sun, and the two take off to find him.

When they find him, the sun warns of foul smog emanating from some unknown planet. The two leave the sun to find the source of the smog, but it quickly surrounds them. They escape underwater on another nearby planet. They appreciate the fine scenery underwater, but as they traverse further they notice the fish are ill...

It features nine songs by Iruka, a Japanese artist who wrote and performed songs for the Unico movie.

DVD rip, encoded by Rezo.

Arisa Good Luck v2

Now, this is embarrassing.

Almost as soon as I released Arisa Good Luck, a viewer posted a comment pointing out that the video was, to put it kindly, a mess: not only crawling with blended frames, but encoded to the wrong aspect ratio (16:9 instead of 16:10). It seemed strange that a 1999 OVA would be framed to the by-then obsolete 5:3 ratio, but the viewer was correct.

So the encoder, Rezo, went back to the drawing board. The DVD played smoothly enough, but all attempts to deinterlace it or deblend it at 23.976 fps, or even 29.97 fps, failed. So Rezo tried a solution that Intrepid has used before with bad sources: encoding at 59.94 fps (double speed). Sure enough, most, but not all, of the blended frames disappeared. And despite the much higher number of frames, the encode was smaller, because the disappearance of the blending allowed for more effective compression.

Of course, the typesetting had to be redone, both for the 16:10 aspect ratio and the much higher frame rate. There weren't many signs, but the only motion-tracked sign proved troublesome. No matter what I did, at various points the motion tracking seemed to lose synchronization, moving to the next position before the picture actually changed. I think the issue is a difference in rounding algorithms between Aegisub and the clips produced by x264, causing gradual frame drift. (See a previous blog entry on problems with 29.97 fps encodes.) I ended up having to fix the frame boundaries by hand - not easy because Aegisub doesn't carry enough precision in its millisecond times (it has two digits but needs three for 60fps). If an experienced typesetter has a solution - or if a later build of Aegisub fixes this problem - please let me know.

I also gave into Editor's Remorse™, so a few lines have been changed for this do-over.

Anyway, here is version 2 of Arisa Good Luck, at the right resolution. It's much easier on the eyes than the previous version. You can get it from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Arisa Good Luck

Here's a true bluebird: the 1999 one-shot OVA Arisa Good Luck. Last month, Tennouji, translator and proprietor of SakuraCircle, contacted me about doing this show. He had the DVD and a script but needed a team to do the back-end work. Would Orphan be interested? In a never-before-translated rare OVA starring the inimitable Horie Yui? You betcha! Tennouji sent over the ISO and his script, and off we went. After several viewings, maybe, just maybe, I understand what's supposed to be going on. I certainly understand why the OVA was lost in obscurity.

Nishizaka Arisa is an ordinary high school girl. She has a crush on ace basketball player Matsumoto Takayuki and decides to leave a confession note in his locker, asking him to meet her at the park after school. Her letter slips out of the locker into the briefcase of Hoshino Yuuki, delivery boy for a pizza shop named Pizza Shark. Little does she know (or care) that Pizza Shark is actually the local headquarters of an Evil Mastermind and his Minions™. The EM sends his minions to break up the date and kill Arisa in the process.

But little do they know that Arisa's siscon brother has been preparing for a confrontation with Evil. He has equipped Arisa with a magical(?) suit that turns her into a walking good luck charm. After Arisa transforms into a magi-girl, much to her embarrassment, she easily escapes every attack, knocking the Minions out in the process.

The EM is so impressed by her powers that he decides to kidnap Arisa's brother and extract the secret of the lucky suit. Arisa's brother is about to be dropped in the drink when Arisa, realizing that she'll never be able to get out of magi-girl outfit if her brother dies, shows up, ready for battle. Mayhem ensues, none of it believable, until Arisa's luck is victorious.

The seiyuu do their best with this nonsense:

• Horie Yui (Nishizaki Arisa), affectionately known as Hocchan, needs no introduction to anime fans. She started as Tooru in the original Fruits Baskets, Naru in Love Hina, Haruka in Kurogane Communication, Catherine in Sci-Fi Harry, Sakuya in Sister Princess, Ayu in Kanon, Eri in the School Rumble franchise, Cross Yuuki in the Vampire Night series, Tsubasa Hanekawa in the *monogatari franchise, Hoozuki in Otome Youkai Zakuro, Millhiore in the Dog Days franchise, Kouko in Golden Time, and a personal favorite, Yuuko in Inukami! She starred as Suzu in Nagasarete Airantou, an Orphan release.
• Ueda Yuuji (Shuichi, her brother) played Johannes Krauser II in Detroit Metal City (OVA), Fuuma Yousuke in Wedding Peach, Sagara Sonosuke in Rurouni Kenshin, Tenkata Akito in Kidou Senkan Nadeseico, Keitarou in Love Hina, Makoto in Futari Ecchi, and Takeshi in Pokemon. He also voiced Takagi-kun in Let's Nupu Nupu and Nanbara in Hand Maid May, both Orphan releases.
• Ichijo Kazuya (Toujo, the villain) played Raoh in DD Fist of the North Star and Zafira in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise. He appeared in Kakyuusei (1995) and Doukyuusei 2, both Orphan releases, as well as other h-animes.
• Chiba Susumi (Hoshino Yuuki, the delivery boy) played Seiji in Cutie Honey Flash, Fujiwara no Sai in Hikaru no Go, and Kondou Isao in Gintama.
• Tsurunu Kyouko (Mirei, one of the minions) had only a few featured roles.
  
• Kozakura Etsuko (Touka, the other minion) played Ryou-Ouki in the Tenchi Muyo franchise, Youhei in the Chi's Sweet Home franchise, and Nanami in the Nanami-chan franchise.
• Ittou Miki (Toujo Maiko, the villain's wife) played Eiko in the Project A-Ko franchise, Reimi in the Burn-Up franchise, and Touko (Natsume's adoptive mother) in the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise. She appeared in Adachigahara, Chameleon, Greed, and Cool Cool Bye, all Orphan releases.

The director, Kageyama Shigenori, also directed Bavi Stock I, Hi-Speed Jecy, and Yamato 2520, all Orphan releases, as well as The Humanoid, Windaria, Kakyuusei 2, Himawari!, and numerous h-animes (under an alias).

Tennouji translated and timed. I tweaked the timing, edited, and typeset. Nemesis, Rezo, and Topper3000 QCed. Rezo encoded from Tennouji's R2J ISO. The source is a mess of blended frames, and there's not much Rezo could do about it.

Arisa Good Luck is a trifle, but any trifle starring Horie Yue has some redeeming qualities. You can get it from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Lunatic Night 03v2

Here's an updated version of episode 3 of the late 90s h-anime comedy Lunatic Night. This version was made possible by Internet pen-pal known as ProxyMan. He's has been systematically collecting R2J DVDs of older Japanese h-anime - including most of Orphan's output in the field. Kakyuusei (1995) and Beast City 3 have been released; Lunatic Night 3 is next. There will be more (sorry).

Lunatic NIght belongs to the now-vanished category of knockabout comedy h-anime, in which the sexual hijinks are subordinated to utter silliness. (Karakuri Ninja Girl is another example.) The nominal plot is about the struggles of the lost king of Atlantis, Kanzaki, to defeat the evil machinations of a powerful otaku, Mutsuki, who wants to fill the universe with his obsessions (e.g., girls in sailor suits). In the third episode, Mutsuki's sailor-suited minions are attacking a village of Penguins in Devil Word, kidnapping the residents for nefarious purposes. Kanzaki and his servants must defeat the Sailor Suits and rescue the villagers. This involves insane mecha battles of "rock, paper, scissors" as well as (needless to say) lots of sex. Kanzaki's stamina is more than up to the challenge of satisfying the Sailor Suit girls, and everything ends happily, if inconclusively. In short, the show is completely bonkers.

 

Only the first two episodes of Lunatic Night were released in R1. The third episode appeared, uncensored, in R2E, but the mastering is a complete mess. So the choice is between a censored R2J source or an uncensored but frame-blended R2E source. Okizari's original release in 2014 used a random Internet raw; this release is encoded directly from the German DVD. It's still a mess. Further, it only had a German soundtrack, so the Japanese soundtrack has been interpolated from the original release.

The original translation was by Moho Kareshi; the translation checker wished to remain anonymous. I edited and typeset. CP of late lamented memory helped with QC. The encoder of the new version also wishes to remain anonymous. I've touched up the script in a few places and updated the typesetting. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same as before.

You can get Lunatic Night 3v2 from the X-rated side of the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.