UTOPA (1080p)

Recently, a fellow who goes by the handle Ioroid has been uploading high-quality 1080p webstreams of a number of Orphan's releases. We've already re-released Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori in full HD. Now, it's the turn of another gorgeous show, UTOPA, one of the OVAs from the 2016 edition of Anime Tamago. It's a sci-fi offering from STUDIO4°C, a veteran company known for adventurous fare like Tekkon Kinkreet and Ani*Kuri 15 as well as utter sellouts like PES: Peace Eco Smile. (Gotta earn a living, I guess.)

Utopa is set in the far future, as a longish voice-over at the beginning explains. After ruining the Earth's surface with biological and nuclear war, mankind has retreated to cities in the sky. There, for no particularly compelling reason, they have crossbred with the surviving animals to produce intelligent hybrid species. When a seed drifts into the sky city, three youngsters - Kui, a dog boy, Hiruma, a cat girl, and Ruto, a lizard boy - venture down to the Earth's surface in search of more seeds and new adventures. The biosphere has indeed regenerated, in a new, almost alien way:

Giant jellyfish float through the air, zapping potential prey with bolts of electricity. And nothing seems to be edible (except for the three of them). Hiruma befriends or adopts an oversized caterpillar, which is promptly seized as food by a giant talking bird. The three friends challenge the bird to a contest, with the caterpillar as the prize. All's well that ends well, as you might expect.

The voice cast has just five actors:

• Ueda Reina (Hiruma) played Mikan Akemi in Jitsu wa Watashi wa, Ayumi in Bakuten!, Hane in Bakuon, Melfina in Black Summoner, Mira in Dimension W, Ruri in the Dr. Stone franchise, Kisa in the updated version of Fruits Basket, Julia Doma in How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Karen in No Guins Life, Peta in Null & Peta, Akane in SSSS.Gridman, and many other recent roles.
• Tanaka Aimi (Kui) played the titular little sister in Himouto! Umaru-chan, Kagami in Mononogatari, Yuri in So I'm a Spider, So What? and Hiyori in the Wasimo franchise.
• Fukaya Yuu (Ruto) was only 12 when UTOPA was made. He also appeared in PriPara and Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.
• Hoshino Takinori (giant eagle) played Shibuya in Gurazeni, Nobuyuki Kai in the Haiykuu! franchise, Serizawa in the Mob Psycho 100 series, and numerous other roles.
• Maeda Toshiko (narration) had small roles in the original Astro Boy, Ninku, Pollyana, Nobody's Boy Remi, Treasure Island, and other shows.

The director, Tanaka Takahiro, has been a key animator on many projects and animation director on a few; this is his directorial debut, and it's gorgeous.

Iri translated and ninjacloud timed. I edited, and Calyrica and Xenath3297 did QC. For this release, I retimed and Uchuu did a release check. The script is mostly the same, but I did clean up a few lines that were too long. The raw is a webrip from Ioroid.

UTOPA is cliched in a many ways, including the "Everything's better if we work together!" conclusion, but it's very pretty too. You can get this release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.