Rehab Assignment (Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori Full HD)

When it came to Covid, I was pretty lucky, considering my age. No hospitalization required, no lingering after-effects. Still, it knocked me flat on my back for almost a month and created a mental fog that lasted longer than that. Working my way back into fansubbing has been a slow process. Mostly, I've done editing and typesetting on other groups' projects (Yawara! and the Laughing Salesman specials). I'd lost the instincts and processes for galvanizing the Orphan team into action.

When a baseball player is injured, they're often sent to the minor leagues to retrain their skills: a rehab assignment. I figured that's what I needed to regain my release reflexes. Fortuitously, a series of full HD (1080p) rips has recently been posted, including several titles than Orphan released at lower resolution. So I've selected one of my absolutely favorite Orphan shows - Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori (Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Golden Bird) - as my "rehab assignment." It didn't require much at all to scale the subs; this is all about release mechanics.

Kin no Tori is based on a fairy tale (number 57) collected by the Brothers Grimm. As is often the case, the original tale includes grim elements - such as attempted fratricide - not considered suitable for modern audiences, so the anime is considerably toned down. In this version, a wicked witch sends out her tame golden bird to steal the golden apples of the king of Kaiser Castle. He sets this three sons to watch for the thief, but only the youngest, Hans, stays awake and sees the bird. He tries to shoot it and succeeds in dislodging a golden feather. The three brothers are sent to pursue the bird, but only Hans really takes the task seriously. After many adventures and hazards, Hans reaps his reward. And they all lived happily ever after... sort of.

The summary can't convey the movie's humor, its imaginative visuals, and its outstanding voice cast. Madhouse not only did the animation, but the head of the studio, Maruyama Masao, did the layout.

Is it "worth" 1080p? I have no idea. It's clearly hand-drawn, and it looks gorgeous on my monitor. It will look even better on a big-screen TV.

The voice cast ranges from very good to amazing.

• Miwa Katsue (Hans) played the title roles in the Unico movies, Asari-chan Ai, the Perman franchise, and Wonder-kun no Hatsu Yume Uchuu Ryokou, as well as Olga in Hi no Tori 2772 and Hirami in Jarinko Chie TV.
• Fujita Toshiko (Lulu) played the title roles in the Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken properties, Fujiko Fujio no Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Ikkyuu-san, Tomcat's Big Adventure, and Ganbare Genki. She starred as Rui in Cat's Eye and Ryoko in Goku: Midnight Eye. She also played Takao in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, Cyborg 1019 in Oz, Gordon in Hitomi no Naka no Shounen: 15 Shounen Hyouryuuki, Sharaku in Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru, and Princess Iron Fan in Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: I Am Son Goku, all Orphan releases.
• Legendary seiyuu Tomiyama Kei gave a bravura (and cross-gender) performance as the wicked witch. He played the title roles in Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae, Roppou Yabure, and the original Tiger Mask, as well as Lingham in Genmu Senki Leda, Sir Jogo  in SF Saiyuuki Starzinger, Susumu in the Yamato franchise, and Wen Li in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He also played leading roles in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Bremen 4, Sugata Sanshiro, the Sangokushi TV specials, and Yousei Ou, all Orphan releases. He won a posthumous Special Achievement Award in 2007.
• Yanami Jouji, the wine-loving Big Bird, played Ozora Ibari in Stop!! Hibari-kun!,  Akahatsu (Red Shirt) in Bocchan, Lump in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Murphy in Maris the Choujo, and the cart vendor in Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru, all Orphan releases. He narrated most of the Dragon Ball Z properties. He played Ittan Momen in several of the GeGeGe no Kitaro series and movies and Chuta Ban in all the Kyojin no Hoshi TV series.

Takiguchi Junpei, who played the villainous king of Kanemacchi Castle, and Miyauchi Kohei, who played the more virtuous king of Kaiser Castle, also each appeared in one episode of Stop!! Hibari-kun. The music, by Kawachi Kuni, is mostly lighthearted and fits the mood well, and the songs are a lot of fun, particularly the witch's insert song. The director, Hirata Toshio, directed numerous other movies and TV shows.

Iri translated the movie. M74 did the pre-timing before translation, and ninjacloud did fine timing after translation. I edited and typeset (there are only two signs, although one of them accounts for 80% of the script). Nemesis and konnakude QCed. The raw is a web rip from Ioroid.

Whether you watched this show when Orphan first released it in 2017, or you've never seen it before, this full HD release is the perfect excuse to dip into this marvelous and lighthearted fantasy. You can get the show at the usual torrent sites or bot Orphan|Arutha in IRC channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net