Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament: Batch

So here, four years after we started, is Orphan's final word on Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament: In the Beginning. The batch contains four revised episodes: 4, 5, 6, and 12. Two of them are missing a font, one has an incorrect style, and one has an artifact from image stabilization that causes black lines to appear at the top of the screen. Patches are available for all four.

The project was Skr's brainchild, and he did much of the work on the series, including encoding, styling, and credit typesetting, He translated many of the episodes, until Real Life forced him to take a hiatus. His return enabled Orphan to finish the series fairly quickly in 2022 and 2023.

Staff credits:

• Translation: Skr (ep1-10); Nutella (ep10-16); Skr and Moho Kareshi (ep17-26)
  
• Timing: Skr (ep1-6); Skr and Collectr (ep7-9); Yogicat (ep13-16); Skr and ninjacloud (ep17-26)
• Styling and base credit typesetting: Skr (all)
• Editing: Collectr (all)
• QC: Nemesis (all), Topper3000 (ep1-12), Uchuu (ep10-26)
• Encoding: Skr (all)

Skr also provided the R2J DVDs for the series.

In the individual volume reviews, I've already made clear my views (and reservations) about the series. It is entertainment, aimed at a general audience, including children. The unsavory aspects of the Old Testament are simply omitted. The great stories, such as the binding of Isaac, don't achieve the artistic heights and emotional depths they require. The music is pedestrian, with a portentous orchestral opening, a vapid ending ballad, and faux biblical choruses at inappropriate points. Finally, I'm not enamored of ending a series explicitly titled Tales from the Old Testament with tales from the New Testament.

On the other hand, the series bears many of Tezuka Osamu's hallmarks, emphasizing a good story line while mixing in doses of comedy, mostly provided by Rocco the fox. It also shows many of director's Dezaki Osamu's trademarks, which keeps it visually interesting. It won't replace Hidamari no Ki as my all-time favorite Tezuka Osamu series, but it's a notable addition to Orphan's translations of his works.

I'll close with two images from the last episode. First, a tender portrait of mother and child:

And second, the last glimpse of Rocco the fox:

You can get the complete series from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #new on irc.rizon.net. Thanks for watching.