Heart Cocktail Vol 2

Heart Cocktail, based on a manga series by Watase Seizou, is a joint project between DarkWispers (Darkonius), Lonely Chaser (MartyMcflies), and Orphan. Here is volume 2.

This volume is basically just like the first: a series of vignettes, three minutes or less, each telling a short story of love found or lost, or sometimes both. The protagonists are mostly unnamed or have common names like Takeshi and Takeru, or Misako and Reiko. (On the other hand, subordinate characters, such as cafe owners, are usually named.) The animation is simple, with many still frames. There's a lot of music, most of it upbeat and jazzy. Each vignette is followed by some live-action footage that comments on the settings or the props of the previous story. The live-action sequences have sound but no music, so they act as breaks between stories. If this volume seems to have a few more stories about love lost to tragic death, that's only an impression.

Staff credits are unchanged from volume 1. Marty got the ball rolling by finding the manga raws and getting them scanned. Darkonius translated the show, using the manga as a reference, as well as prior partial scripts. Marty arranged for Yume to translation check the script. I then put the script through Orphan's normal back-end process: fine timing (ninjacloud), editing and typesetting (me), and QC (Rezo and Moelancholy).  6/10 provided initial or partial translations to the project. VigorousJammer scanned the manga volumes that provided the underlying references for the translation. Marty and I both underwrote the project financially, including media acquisition and other services. This is very much a team effort, rooted in the Discord community.

One note for this volume. Rengatei, in the vignette "Warmth That Lasts for Only One Generation," is the named for one of the first Western restaurants in Tokyo. The real one opened in 1895 and is still operating. It originated several now-classic Japanese dishes, including tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet), omurice (omelet rice), and yes, hayashi rice. There's more information here and here.

Heart Cocktail is a mood, an atmosphere, a lingering aftertaste. I really like it, and I hope you will too. You can get this volume from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.