Laughing Target

Orphan concludes (for now) its Rumiko Takahashi festival with the third Rumic World OVA, 1987's Warau Hyouteki (Laughing Target). This is a supernatural suspense yarn centering on a high-school student Shiga Yuzuru and his cousin (and childhood fiancée) Shiga Asuzu. Yuzuru has forgotten all about this childhood betrothal and is going steady with his classmate and fellow archery club member Satomi. After the mysterious death of Asuza's mother, Yuzuru's father brings the girl home to live with them. Yuzuru expects that Asuza has forgotten all about their childhood promise, but Asuza has not. She is determined to marry Yuzuru, by any means at her disposal, even if this means disposing of Satomi. And since Asuza is a demon, or at least possessed by demons, she has some rather scary powers available.

Laughing Target is a tightly knit story, essentially a three-hander (Asuza, Yuzuru, and Satomi), so the voice cast is small:

• Tsuru Hiromi (Asuza) debuted as Perrine in Perrine Monogatari. She went on to play Kashima Miyuki in Miyuki, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, and Mikami Reiko in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Sara in Mother: Saigo no Shoujo Eve, Sonnet Barge in Blue Sonnet, Fengji in the third Sangokushi movie, Keiko in Hiatari Ryoukou, Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Milk in Karuizawa Syndrome, Kiyomi, the motorcycle rider, in Sotsugyou: Graduation, and big sister Shizuka in Tomoe's Run!, all Orphan releases.
• Shioya Yoku (Yuzuru) played Triton in the Umi no Triton TV series and movies, Ryouta in Slam Dunk, Jinpei the Swallow in Gatchaman, Cosmo Yuki in Space Runaway Ideon, and the title role in Kariage-kun. He played Mickey in Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro and Zhuge Jun in the first Sangokushi movie, both Orphan releases. He also did sound direction on many series.
• Matsumoto Iyo (Satomi) was primarily an actress and an idol, with only a few other anime credits. 
• Sawada Toshiko (Asuza's mother) has played teachers, mothers, or grandmothers in numerous shows, including Maison Ikkoku, The girl from Phantasia (an Orphan release), The Big O, Usagi Drop, the Magi franchise, and Hinako Note.
• Satou Ai (Satomi's mother) played many maternal roles, including Light's mother in Death Note, Masami's mother in Wedding Peach, Misaki's mother in Dear Brother, Ban's mother in Getbackers, Shigeru's mother in Noramimi, the unnamed mothers in Cinderella Express, Ai Monogatari, and Guyver: Out of Control, as well as Kristin Adams in Yawara!. Other roles include the refined mother in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Ibuki's mother in Kiss wa Me ni Shite, Taichi in The Cake Tree in the Ruins, the narrator in The Boy and the Sea Turtle, The Mother Who Became a Kite, and Kiku and the Wolf, and the unnamed girlfriend in Lunn Flies into the Wind, all Orphan releases.
• Hirai Takahiro (Yuzuru's father) appeared in Area 88, Castle in the Sky, and They Were 11. He worked mostly as a sound director.

The director, Takahashi Motosuke, founded his own studio, Studio Dootaku. He directed the first three Rumic World OVAs among numerous other projects.

I didn't like Laughing Target as much as Fire Tripper or Maris the Choujo. There's no great suspense about Asuza's nature; that's made clear in the prologue. The archery motif is a sort of a "Chekhov's arrow"; the emphasis on it at the beginning of the show means it will feature prominently in the climax. Nonetheless, the feeling of creeping dread builds steadily, and Asuza's stalking of Satomi has the relentless terror of a nightmare.

The original subtitles are from Kotomi. They probably derive from the US Manga Corp subtitled VHS release in the 1990s. tenkenX6 checked the dialog and revised the songs from official lyrics. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset (more on that anon). Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Intrepid encoded from a Japanese laserdisc ripped on the Domesday Duplicator. The source is a mess of blended frames and worse, so Intrepid encoded it at 59.94 fps to minimize the visual awfulness. There are still places that don't look great, but it's the best that can be done with the source material.There is no English audio track this time. US Manga Corps did release dubbed versions, but only the UK audio track is currently online. Maybe someday.

Unlike Fire Tripper, Laughing Target has a few signs, and they needed to be motion tracked. This did not work out well. Although all the tools claim to handle 59.94 fps, the tracked subtitles were out of sync. Accordingly, one moving sign is done "Yawara style": {\an8}Sign: The first three Rumic World OVAs deserve to be remastered and released on digital media.

So here's Laughing Target, completing Orphan's work on the Rumic World OVAs. The last two - Mermaid Forest and Mermaid's Scar - were released on DVD in North America and have been ripped several times. One Pound Gospel is sometimes included in the Rumic World OVAs, but it derives from a different manga series. You can get Laughing Target from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Late breaking news: a dual-audio version is now available. A patch to upgrade from single- to dual-audio is available in the torrent description. The audio track was provided by niki and is from the UK dubbed release, so be prepared for your Japanese characters to speak with English accents. A song-signs subtitle track is also included.

Fire Tripper

Orphan's Rumiko Takahashi mini-festival continues with 1985's OVA Fire Tripper. This is a terrific time-travel adventure, the first of the Rumic World OVAs. Orphan is proud to release a new version with a translation-checked script, encoded from a Japanese laserdisc. (The first three Rumic World OVAs have never been released on digital media. Why?)

The story opens in Warring States Japan. Bandits led by the villainous Akauma attack a peasant village, burning it to the ground. A little girl named Suzu is trapped in her burning house, but just as the flaming ceiling beams fall on her, she disappears. Miraculously, Suzu is found, unharmed, outside a modern Japanese city, where she is adopted by a local family. Fast forward a decade or more. Suzuko is now a normal high school student, watching over a youngster named Shu. She is walking Shu home when a gas explosion catapults her to her original era and home - although she doesn't remember them. She is about to be raped (or worse) by Akauma's bandits when she is rescued by a local boy named Shukumaru, who takes her home to meet his little sister Suzu.

Although shocked and confused by her new surroundings, Suzuko gradually figures out the truth. She is a "fire tripper", able to traverse time when she is in dire peril from flames. Shukumaru is the Shu from her era, thrown back by the gas explosion, and Suzu is Suzuko in the Warring States period, before she traveled forward during the bandit attack. Can she straighten out the time-line confusion? Is she really Shukumaru's sister? And above all, where in time does she actually belong?

The principal voice cast includes:

• Mizushima Yuu (Shukumaru) played played the title roles in Ai no Senshi Rainbowman, God Mars, and Guyver: Out of Control. He also played the title role in Bander Book, Makabe Shun in Tokimeki Tonight, and Dai-chan in Katte ni Shirokuma, all Orphan releases. He is still active, appearing in Golden Kamuy.
• Shimamoto Sumi (Suzuko, Suzu) debuted as Clarisse in The Castle of Cagliostro. She starred as Sara in Princess Sara, Nausicaa in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Otonashi Kyouko in Maison Ikkoku, and Dayan in Neko no Dayan. She also played Shokupanman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan no Bouken, Antoinette in Reporter Blues, Big Mama in Bakuretsu Hunter, Sue in Maris the Choujo, Elice in Fire Emblem, Miss Akiko in The Girl with Blue Eyes, and the mother in Kiku and the Wolf. The last four are Orphan releases.
• Genda Tesshou (Akauma) 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, and Rikiishi's trainer Kuroki and Kirishima in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
• Tanaka Mayumi (young Shu) made her debut at age 10 in Kimba the White Lion. She's probably best known for her roles as Pazu in Castle in the Sky, Giovanni in Night on the Galactic Railway, Kuririn in the original Dragonball, and of course, Monkey D. Luffy in every incarnation of One Piece. She also played Tokishima Gen in MAPS: Densetsu no Samayoeru Seijin-tachi , Flene in Cool Cool Bye, Mit-sah in White Fang, Rocco the fox in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, and Son Gokuu in I am Son Gokuu: Tezuka Osamu Monogatari, all Orphan projects.
  

The director, Takahashi Motosuke, founded his own studio, Studio Dootaku. He directed the first three Rumic World OVAs among numerous other projects.

The original subtitles are from Kotomi. They probably derive from the US Manga Corp subtitled VHS release in the 1990s. tenkenX6 checked the dialog and revised the songs from official lyrics. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset (very little to do). Nemesis and Rezo QCed. Intrepid encoded from a Japanese laserdisc ripped on the Domesday Duplicator. The source is a mess of blended frames and worse, so Intrepid encoded it at 59.94 fps to minimize the visual awfulness. There are still places that don't look great, but it's the best that can be done with the source material. niki provided an English dub track, taken from the US Manga Corps dubbed VHS release. There is a signs-and-only-songs subtitle track to go with it.

Fire Tripper is a great watch, showing Rumiko Takahashi in a dramatic rather than comedic mode. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. The torrent post also contains a patch for updating the single-audio release to dual audio, and the dual-audio version can be downloaded from the IRC bot directly.

(Maris) The Choujo - Dual Audio

So... a dual audio version of Maris the Choujo, that is, an updated release including an English dub track. You may be asking yourself, "Has Collectr finally lost his marbles?" The answer is no; that happened years ago. However, my initial distaste for dubs has softened over time, as I documented in this blog post. If a dub makes an anime more accessible to an English speaking audience, that's all to the good.

The origins of this release stem from an Internet pen-pal who uses the handle niki. He's been extracting English dubs from 90s VHS tapes and synchronizing them to Orphan's releases. This must be a fairly tricky process. VHS tapes are analog, and player speeds can vary. Orphan's sources are also usually analog and are ripped on different VHS or laserdisc players. Getting an audio track to match the particular idiosyncrasies of our release is audio editing magic, at least to me. niki has produced English audio tracks for Fire Emblem, Amon Saga, Hitomi no Naka no Shounen: 15 Shounen Hyouryuuki, and other shows.

I would have left the tracks as do-it-yourself muxing projects except for one other development: Orphan is working on more Rumiko Takahashi releases. I wanted to start this mini "Rumic World" festival with something completely different, and a dual audio release of Maris the Choujo, the second OVA in the series, fit the bill perfectly. It's no secret that I loved the show, and I'm happy to have an excuse to bring it to an audience again.

I've already covered Maris the Choujo in detail, and I won't rehash the release post here, except to provide a new screencap of Maris at her best:

niki created the dub track, which is taken from the 1994 US Manga Corps VHS release. I created a signs and songs subtitles track to go with the English dub track. The new release is about 120MB bigger, so don't bother downloading it unless you really want the dub. (There's a patch available to convert single audio to dual audio, if you prefer.) This release is available from the usual torrent site and from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Hameln no Violin Hiki

Here's a project that everyone on the team loved: the 1996 short movie Hameln no Violin Hiki (The Violinist of Hamelin). Based on a 37-volume manga series by Watanabe Michiaki, Hameln tells the story of a motley band of adventurers, led by Hamel, who plays a magical violin the size of a double bass to fight monsters. His party includes Oboe, a crow; Flute, a beautiful young maiden; Raiel, who plays a golden piano; and Sizer, an angel who wields a magic scythe. It all sounds a bit formulaic, except... Hamel is inept and has a costume fetish, the party bickers among themselves constantly, and the demon fighting takes a back seat to comedy.

The nominal story centers around retrieving Bell Lyra, the Princess of Antiphon, who has been kidnapped by the undead soldiers of the Mozoku. After Raiel saves Antiphon from the Mozoku invasion, with no help from Hamel, the party ventures north to find the enemy. There they must confront the minions of Lord Bass, led by the legendary monster Medusa, and save the imperiled princess without getting turned to stone. Not one second is believable, and much of it is a hoot. The TV series strikes a different tone, but it is ruined by shoddy animation, probably caused by budget limitations. The movie doesn't suffer from that problem; it was made first and apparently received most of the budget.

The voice cast is well known and has already appeared in many of my blog posts:

• Yao Kazuki (Hamel) played Franky in One Piece, the lead in Makyou Gaiden Le Deus, the title role in Rance, Dark Schneider in Bastard!!, Chivas in Sorcerer on the Rocks, and Yoki in Fullmetal Alchemist (both versions). He also played Morbridge Jr in Nana Toshi Monogatari, K.K. in Elf 17, Date Ikkaku in Akai Hayate, Ryougaku in Wild 7, and Sofue Akira in Boyfriend, all Orphan releases. 
• Yokoyama Chisa (Flute) played the title roles in Galaxy Fraulein Yuna, Iron Virgin Jun, and the Sakura Taisen franchise, as well as Sasami/Pretty Sammy in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She played Hu Ssu, the were-tiger, in Wolf Guy and Mami in Boyfriend, both Orphan releases.
• Satou Masaharu (Oboe) played the villainous Professor Jason in Al Caral no Isan, an Orphan release. He had numerous featured roles in the Dragonball, Dr. Slump, and Transformers franchises
• Seki Toshihiko (Raiel) played the title role in Izumo, Riki in Ai no Kusabi, the hero Seitarou in Hoshi Neko Full House, the gang leader Hiba in Wild 7, Miroku in Yuukan Club, Chuuta in Satsujin Kippu wa Heart-iro, the fighter Nagase Jun in Akai Hayate, Hayata in Call Me Tonight, Ootsuki in Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro, Junichiro in Kasei Yakyoku, Shouji, the guitar player, in To-Y, and the unnamed protagonist of Oruorane the Cat Player, all Orphan releases. He also played Matsuda in the Yawara! properties, Sanzo in the Saiyuuki TV series, Mousse in Ranma 1/2, and the title roles in Alexander (Reign the Conqueror) and Kaiketsu Zorro.
• Sakuma Rei (Sizer) played Batako in Soreike! Appanman, April in Sol Bianca, Peorth in Ah! My Goddess, the title role in Aika, Shampoo in Ranma 1/2, Vena in Dragon Half, Kitty White in Hello Kitty, and Mii in Muumin. She also played Naru, Lan's school friend, in Blue Sonnet, Carmencita in Starship Trooopers and Belga the pirate in Cosmic Fantasy, all Orphan releases.
• Ogata Kenichi (Lord Bass) played the put-upon father in  Maroko, Suzuki in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga nai!, the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, Chichi's father in Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, two unnamed characters in Kageyama Tamio no Double Fantasy, and the Narrator/Lord of Kaga in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, all Orphan releases. He also played Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken and Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. However, he's best known to me as the voice of Ranma 1/2's Sataome Gemna, whose alter ego - the grumpy panda - is my avatar on most anime forums.
• Tange Sakura (Bell Lyra) played the title role in Card Captor Sakura and Android Anna Maico 2010, Princess Milli in Maze, Angela in Melty Lancer, Saber in Fate/Extra: Last Encore, Izumi in Infinite Ryvius, and Sheeda in Fire Emblem, an Orphan release.
• Kazue Komiya (Medusa) played Ran in Urusei Yatsura, Youshi in Gin Rei and Giant Robo, and Aunt Chigusa in Hiatori Ryouko, an Orphan release.
• Yuu Shimaka (boss monster) had featured roles in Cowboy Bebop, Ergo Proxy, Code Geass, Apfelland Monogatari, and Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Chafuurin (King of Antiphon) played the title role in Barbapapa Around the World, Inspector Megure in the Detective Conan franchise, Scotch Jii-san in the Hello Kitty franchise, Isono in Sazae-san (since 2014), and Kamoda in Yawara! He also appeared in Kageyama Tamio no Double Fantasy, Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonjaa, Yamato 2520, Colobuccoro, and Izumo (1991), all Orphan releases.
• Inoue Kikuko (Queen of Antiphon) played Kasumi in Ranma 1/2, Chigusa in Kekko Kamen, Mizuho in Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins, Yayoi in the Happy Lesson properties, Momozono Mei in Mouse, Maria in Gungrave, Emeraldas in Space Symphony Maetel, Belldandy in the Ah My Goddess franchise, Lust in Full Metal Alchemist, Goei in Ikkitousen, and the mother in the Uchouten Kazoku series. She also played Satomi in Nemure Omoigo, Chamberlain, Guilford's executive officer, in Nana Toshi Monogatari, Stasia in Megami Paradise, Shouta in The Girl from Phantasia, Narusawa in Doukyuusei 2, Doria in D4 Princess, and Mai in Hand Maid May, all Orphan releases. 

The director, Imanishi Takashi, has many credits, including Capricorn, The Cockpit, Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro, Zegapain, Yamato 2199, and multiple series and movies in the Gundam franchise.

Hameln no Violin Hiki was a passion project for Rezo. He got the ball rolling by acquiring and transcribing a Japanese laserdisc of the show and locating a softsub script. The script (and all previous releases) derive from 3NA's 2003 release. The subs left much to be desired; for example, the composer of the Light Cavalry Overture is identified as Franz Von Supezak instead of Franz von Suppe. Fortunately, tenkenX6 did a thorough translation check and added the songs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. ImAWasteOfHair and Rezo QCed. Intrepid encoded from Rezo's Domesday Duplicator rip of the laserdisc. They think it looks better than the DVD, but YMMV.

So here's a treat: a goofy fantasy that focuses on comedy rather than power trips or bloodshed. You can get Hameln no Violin Hiki from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net

Kaitei 3-man Mile SD

Here's a standard-definition version of Kaitei 3-man Mile, encoded from the R2J DVD. There's not much to say about this release; it's a smaller version of the movie Orphan already released in high-definition. 

The DVD release was not remastered. As a result, the colors are darker than the HD release:

The sound is muddier too. So why bother? Although this version is one-seventh the size of the HD release, is there really demand for small encodes anymore? I don't know. This is intended to honor M74's work on the show, including his initial encode. This release may not be strictly necessary, but it was certainly earned.

The script is basically the same as the HD release. The typesetting has been adjusted to the different color tones and anamorphic encode, and one typo has been found and fixed. (No prizes if you find it.) M74 did the initial translation from a European language, and the initial timing as well. Sunachan checked against the original Japanese. Yogicat did final timing. I edited and typeset. Uchuu, VigorousJammer, and Nemesis QCed. M74 encoded. This is a joint Orphan and M74 release.

If you'd like this release, it's available from the usual torrent site and on IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. The HD release is there too.

Wolf Guy v2

When Orphan released Wolf Guy back in 2016, I noted, "The laserdiscs came from two sources. The first three volumes are from Erik's collection and were encoded by him as Piyo Piyo Productions. The last three volumes are from an anonymous collector and were encoded by M74. The significant differences in color and brightness reflect the sources as we received them and were probably a result of different players and capture setups." This was before the days of the Domesday Duplicator, which removed player calibration from the equation altogether. Thanks to Rezo, Orphan is now releasing a new version of Wolf Guy, ripped on the Duplicator, with uniform encoding and colors.

Wolf Guy is a six part OVA from 1992. It's an action/adventure/sci-fi story about immortals who can transform into wolves battling the Phoenix Group, a hideous conspiracy led by an American company called Biomeasure. It's quite baffling at times, because it starts in the middle of a complex situation and ends without reaching much of a conclusion. The nominal hero is fighting not only the Phoenix Group but also Chinese Intelligence's Tiger Corps (immortals who can transform into tigers) and Japanese Cabinet Intelligence. Add to this four-sided battle characters who change allegiance and appearance, and you've got quite an explosive and confusing story.

The protagonist and immortal "wolf guy" of the title is Inugami Akira, who transforms at full moon and when he needs to into a golden wolf. He's deeply attached to his high-school teacher, Aoshiko Akiko, whom he has saved on more than one occasion. The Phoenix Group is aiming to seize the secret of immortality from the wolf-men, wipe out most of planet's population, and then rule the world. Their agents kidnap Akiko, drug and rape her, and use her as bait to try and catch Akira. He in turn seeks an antidote for the drug and to defeat the Phoenix Group.

After some initial hostility, Akira is aided by Hu Ssu, a tiger-woman from the Tigers Corps. She gradually falls in love with him, to the detriment of her loyalty to the Corps. He's also aided by another wolf-man, Jin Akira, a journalist who is out to uncover the truth about the Phoenix Group. Occupying a more villainous role is Saijou Kei, the Phoenix Group agent who, among other bestial acts, raped Akiko. After he is betrayed and left for dead by his bosses, Saijou starts working as an agent of Japanese Cabinet Intelligence, but he's really out for himself.

With all these combatants, there's a lot of action, bloodshed, and death, but the series is surprisingly calm in spots, allowing time for character development and interaction. Saijou has as prominent a role as the two Akiras and Hu Ssu. Akiko, reduced to dazed obedience by the Phoenix Group's "Narcotic 800," is mostly a cipher, but her doppelganger, Keiko (a Cabinet Intelligence agent remade by plastic surgery), figures prominently in the second half.

Wolf Guy was originally a two-volume manga by Hirai Kazumasa; it has not been published inEnglish. Hirai worked the manga into a novel series than ultimately included 19 volumes. (The OVA appears to start in the middle of book two and covers through book four.) In 2007, the story was re-adapted as a longer and more violent manga known as Wolf Guy: Ookami no Monshou. This later manga version is available in English but diverges considerably from the plot of the original manga and from the OVAs.

The voice cast includes:

• Morikawa Toshiyuki (Inugami Akira) played lead roles in Gallery Fake, Yami no Matsui, Kyou Kara Maou, and numerous other shows. He's also a regular in Orphan's releases. He played the lead role Ear of the Golden Dragon and Nozomi Witches, as well as Inspector Kendo in the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series. He delivered a scene-stealing performance as Panda Mama in Polar Bear Cafe. He also appeared in Al Caral no Isan, Akai Hayate, Dragon Fist, Kiss wa Mi ni Shite, Blazing Transfer Student, and Wild 7.
• Yokoyama Chisa (Hu Ssu) played the title roles in Galaxy Fraulein Yuna, Iron Virgin Jun, and the Sakura Taisen franchise, as well as Sasami/Pretty Sammy in the Tenchi Muyo franchise and Flute in Hameln no Violin Hiki. She played Mami in Boyfriend, an Orphan release.
• Mugihito (Commander Lin, Hu Ssu's father) played the elderly Tomosuke in Fune o Amu, Kaseki in Dr. Stone, and Wombat in the Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei Bu Love! franchise. He appeared as Gaius in Amon Saga, an Orphan release.
  
• Gouri Daisuke (Saijou) played Yamazaki Hiromi in Patlabor and Mimi in Okama Hakusho; he also had numerous featured roles. He appeared in Bagi, Dallos, Condition Green, Bavi Stock I, Dokushin Apartment Dokudamisou, Hashire Melos, Rain Boy, all three Sangokushi movies (Xiahou Dun), Submarine 707R, Tokimeki Tonight, Hi-Speed Jecy, Hidamari no Ki, and Kage, all Orphan releases.
• Horiuchi Kenyuu (Jin Akira) 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, Lid in Greed, Romus in Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99, and the refined son in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, all Orphan releases.
• Ootaki Shinya (Chiefson) played Pete, the male lead in Scoopers. He also appeared in Oishinbo: Japan-America Rice Wars, Aoki Honoo, and Hi-Speed Jecy, all Orphan releases.
• Sasaki Yuko (Akiko/Keiko) played Sayoko in Aoko Honoo, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Exper Schiff in Exper Zenon, all Orphan releases. She also played Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANTCUS and Hitomi Nomura in Piano.
• Kawamura Maria (Hu Liang, Hu Ssu's sister) played Naga the Serpent in the Slayers franchise, the title role in Fujiko Fujio A no Mumako, Eluza in the Gall Force OVAs, Interpreter in the Compiler OVAs, Luna and Tiger Lily in Peter Pan no Bouken, Kate in Hitomi no Naka no Shounen: 15 Shounen Hyouryuuki, Shirin in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de 2, and Houjou Masako in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de 3. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Sawaki Ikuya (Samuel Hunter, a Phoenix Group executive) played Gooley in the Dirty Pair franchise. He also played Masayoshi Hotta in Hidamari no Ki, Barry in Joker: Marginal City, Alan in Mother Saigo no Shoujo Eve, and the Kaiser in Apfelland Monogatari, as well as bit parts in Dallos and Chameleon, all Orphan releases.

The director, Yoshonaga Naoyuki, worked on several classic shows, including Maison Ikkoku and Patlabor. The music is by the peerless Kenji Kawai; for some reason, Wolf Guy doesn't show up in his English discographies. I'm still looking for the two soundtrack albums.

The scripts haven't changed much in this release, although all the typesetting had to be redone because of the color differences. Iri translated the original episodes, and ninjacoud timed them. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Calyrica QCed the original releases; ImAWasteOfHair and Rezo release checked the new version. Rezo encoded from this own DdD rip of the Japanese laserdiscs. The audio was taken from the digital track and is FLAC.

Wolf Guy is a terrific show, entertaining, compelling, and exceedingly violent. (It has a tiny bit of nudity, which will deter exactly no one from watching it.) There was really nothing wrong with the original release, aside from the color variability, so if you're satisfied with that version, you can stay with it. On the other hand, if you've never seen Wolf Guy, you're in for a treat. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni (HD)

When we released Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni, a nyaa downloader asked why we hadn't used the high resolution R-Raws encode instead. There were three reasons:

1. I wanted to finish the original project, which had sat on the shelf for almost six years.
2. The R-Raws encode required redoing all the motion tracked typesetting, because it was encoded at 30fps instead of the DVD raw's 23.976fps
3. After redoing the typesetting, I couldn't get subs in the final mux properly synchronized.

These rationalizations/excuses/problems have all been overcome, and Orphan and M74 are now releasing a 1080p version of Nemure Omoigo. The higher resolution allows a bit more typesetting to be done. It also makes source issues, like aliasing in thin lines, more obvious:

Otherwise, the two versions are the same.

I've already discussed the show in great detail, so I won't rehash the previous blog post. Instead, to fill out this post, I'll present a boring and overly long explanation of the technical issues that delayed the release.

Typesetting

When raws have different frame rates, motion tracking from one raw won't work on the other. Inter-frame object motion depends on the frame rate, so all the motion tracking must be redone. But there was another, more subtle problem. The DVD raw was anamorphic (720x480, played back as 853x480). The R-Raws web rip was flat (1920x1080). As I've found out to my cost in the past, Aegisub cannot do proper transformations on angled signs between anamorphic and flat raws; the angle is invariably wrong. (Letters angled with \fax also tend to be wrong.)

This is a simple matter of geometry. If the base of a triangle is stretched by 18.4% (the anamorphic stretch factor), then the angle of the hypotenuse to the base will change. Aegisub cannot calculate the change because it cannot be sure what the display resolution will be. The display resolution in the MKV file may or may not be correct; Aegisub has to rely on the resolution of the video stream. And in an anamorphic encode, that's wrong.

The moral of the story is simple. Kids, don't do anamorphic encodes of DVDs. Your typesetter will thank you for it, if not right away, then eventually.

Subtitle Synchronization

I wear many hats in Orphan - editor, typesetter, QC/RC, cat herder - but one job I never touch is encoding. I simply don't understand the process or the nuances of the numerous filters, post-processors, and voodoo spells that good encoders apply to fix source problems. Many times, with my senior eyes, I can't even see the issues. Even the basics are a mystery. So when subtitles don't play properly in a muxed softsub file, even though they do play properly in the subtitling tool Aegisub, I'm utterly at sea. Which brings me to the issue of timecodes.

Timecodes are simply a list of the time, in milliseconds, for frame boundaries. Here's an example from a 23.976fps raw:

# timecode format v2
0
42
83
125
:

Basically, the times increase monotonically at 1000/23.976 = 41.7 msec. If this seems excessively verbose, the format allows for precise specification of frame boundaries in raws with variable frame rates (usually mixed 23.976fps and 29.97fps).

I first encountered timecode issues with the initial release of Tomoe's Run! The raw was at 29.97fps. At the time, Aegisub rounded differently from later tools in the chain. As a result, subtitle synchronization gradually drifted off, eventually by a couple of frames. The solution at the time was to mux in Aegisub's version of the timecodes. (I didn't realize that this solution threw off audio synchronization.) The ultimate solution was a new encode as 23.976fps. After that, I'd occasionally find raws missing one timestamp, so I always checked the timecodes in the raw and replaced them if necessary.

The HD raw for Nemure Omoigo has subtitle synchronization problems in spades. Every subtitle was off by three frames. The timecode file was strange. It should have had timestamps at 33.33msec intervals (1000/30). Instead, it began:

# timecode format v2
0
109 <- two frames missing (33 and 66); and off by 9?
133 <- extra frame?
142 <- back to "correct cadence", but still off by 9
176
209
242
276
309
:

I tried editing the timecodes file to add the missing frames; that didn't work. I tried splitting the raw at the 1 second mark (it had 1 extra second of black screen); that didn't work. I tried generating a correct 30fps timecode file; that didn't work. Finally, after a good night's sleep, I realized what to do: if every subtitle was off by three frames, I could simply add three frames (100ms) worth of delay to the subs during the mux. That worked, and it's what I will do in the future. Any experienced encoder would have hit on this solution immediately.

Summary

tl;dr. Here's the high resolution version of Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni. You can get it from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.