Fruit Brains

This one is literally hot off the presses - well, hot off the airways. Fruit Brains (Kudamonou) appeared on a Japanese variety show a few nights ago.  It's so new that it doesn't appear in any anime database.

The title is a portmanteau on kudomono (fruit) and nou (brains). The anime consists of three two-minutes skits, with basically the same structure. Orange and Pineapple are in Hong Kong, Ancient Egypt, Outer Space. Orange is trying to accomplish something - watching a drug deal go down, taking a break from work, trying to defuse a bomb outside a space station - while Pineapple pesters him with pointless and increasingly obscure questions. 

Eventually, Orange goes ballistic, calling Pineapple a "fruit brain.". They both peel down their skins to expose their brains and launch into a dance number with the locals - the subjects of the stakeout, Egyptian laborers and gods, astronauts and aliens. 

Orange's task is forgotten, with the expected results. Stir and repeat.

Skr saw this on TV a few nights ago. It tickled his funny bone, so he captured it, translated, timed, and typeset. I edited and QCed. Nemesis and banana QCed. This is Orphan's first and only approximation of what fansubbing must have been like in the Good Old Days, when groups competed to see how quickly they could release subbed versions of the latest anime.

There are no credits, but Skr found out some information, mostly on Twitter. The show was animated by Shin-Ei Animation, a venerable studio responsible for many major works, including the Doraemon franchise, the Crayon Shin-chan franchise, the Oishinbo properties, the Laughing Salesman series, and the Sensou Douwa (War Fables) specials, an Orphan release. The writer, Utsumi Terako, has written several notable shows, including Sarazanmai and Ryman's Club. The production company, Lapin Track, was involved with many good recent shows, including Sarazanmai, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suri, Skip to Loafer, and Undead Girl Murder Farce. And then there are the seiyuu...

• Tsuda Kenjirou (Orange), he of the gravelly voice, starred as Matoba in Cop Craft, Nicholas Brown in Gangsta., Manji in Blade of the Immortal (2019), Nina in the ACCA properties, Johnny Bolt in Super Crooks, and Tatsu in The Way of the Househusband. He has had numerous featured roles over the last 20+ years and appeared in Hidamari no Ki, an Orphan release.
• Hanae Natsuki (Pineapple), the "it" seiyuu for juveniles, starred as Tanjirou in the Kimsetsu no Yaiba franchise, Makoto in Tsuki ga Michibuku, Hiroshi in Odd Taxi, Miko in Sabakui Bisco, Ryou in Love All Play, Haruichi in Ace of the Diamond, Shuichi in Gleipnir, and the title roles in Vanitas no Karte, Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid, and Appare Ranman, among numerous other lead turns.

An incredible pedigree for such a short set of skits.

For viewers who are as baffled as Orange by Pineapple's set of questions, here is quick answer sheet, with references.

Hong Kong

• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. A set of islands in the southern Caribbean Sea.
• Soursops. A tropical fruit.
• Pachycephalosaurus. A dinosaur famous for having a large, bony dome on top of its skull, up to 25 cm (10 in) thick, which safely cushioned its brain.
• Zuppa di Pesce. Itallian seafood stew.
• Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. The capital of Sri Lanka.

Ancient Egypt

• Thousand-Tailed Fox's Sake Cups. Popular name for microstoma aggregatum, a cup fungus from Hokkaido.
  
• Grímsvötn. A volcano in Iceland.
• Hornussen. An indigenous Swiss sport.
• Ryugu-no-Otohime-no-Motoyui-no-Kirihazushi. The "longest word" in Japanese. It means a type of seaweed known in English as eel grass.
• Patlican Imam Bayildi. A Turkish stuffed eggplant dish.

Outer Space

• Kelvin-Heimholz Instability Clouds. Wave-like clouds that appear in unstable air.
• Waldspirale. An apartment house in Darmstadt, Germany.
• Hairless hairy crab. The crab genus glabropilumnus.
• Unonoctium. A transuranic element, now known as Oganesson, atomic number 118.
• The Trulli of Alberobello. A UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern Italy.
  

So enjoy your New Year with an appropriately silly/crazy Japanese short anime. You can get Fruit Brains from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. Happy New Year!