Nayuta

Nayuta is a 1986 sci-fi OVA, based on a three volume manga by Sasaki Junko. (The manga is not available in English.) It's another show that attempts to explain the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything™ in less than 90 minutes; that is to say, it's rushed and somewhat incoherent. I didn't particularly care for it, but it seems to have an avid fan base in Japan.

Nayuta is an ordinary, first-year high school girl. One day, she meets a young boy, Kiro, who is trying to help his sick mother. Kiro runs away but later shows up at Nayuta's house. A refugee from the Pamir Mountains, he has supernatural powers (which don't seem to faze Nayuta's parents in the least), seemingly granted by a golden tiara/ring that he wears, called a Jarun. 

Nayuta tries the ring on. It doesn't do anything for her, but it does attract a horde of ring-wearing aliens, who attack her.

She is saved by another ring-wearing human, Ryotaro. He takes her back to a hideout, created by a woman named Sozu (actually a 3000-year-old guardian spirit) and filled with other ring-wearing humans, including some red-shirts named Maki, Mizuki, and Yu.

There, in the first of several infodumps, Nayuta learns that the aliens are called the Azadd. Their mission is to kill any human that has managed to acquire a ring, for reasons unknown. Nayuta wants nothing to do with Sozu's Territory (as the hideout is called) and returns home, only to find that the Azadd have attacked her house and killed her parents; Kiro has vanished. She and Ryotaro flee as the Azadd attack and destroy Sozu's Territory. Soon, they find themselves on an alien spaceship, where a now grown-up Kiro is revealed to be the leader of the Azadd. Kiro kills all the surviving ring-wearers except Nayuta, whom he secretly loves. She rescues Ryotaro by telling his not-quite-vanished spirit to teleport into her.

That's only the halfway point. With spirit Ryotaro's help, Nayuta tracks down Sozu and persuades her to help attack the Azadd base on Pluto. There, in a really massive infodump, a Mysterious Voice informs her that "Orn" (God? willpower?) created the Big Bang but, disgusted by humanity's behavior, isolated the Solar System behind a barrier and started the Big Bang over. The Azadd exist to prevent humanity from acquiring Jaruns and thereby learning the truth of their situation. 

But the voice is lying. He is actually Senai Zyler, Orn's first creation. In his jealousy, he has imprisoned humanity in the Solar System. When Nayuta scoffs at this explanation and states her intention to break through the barrier, Zyler orders Kiro to kill her. His refusal costs him his life, but just before dying, he also teleports into Nayuta. With the added strength of Ryotaro and Kiro, Nayuta is able to break through the barrier and see the Universe as it really is, on behalf of humanity.

Are you getting this? There are so many abrupt shifts, breaks in continuity, and made-up terminology that it's almost impossible to follow the players without a program. For example, Nayuta seems to have no superpowers, and then suddenly she can exist in space without a space suit and recover from fatal hits from Azadd weapons. Japanese Wikipedia helpfully explains that Nayuta's initial superpower allows her to experience past events in a simulated manner. After losing this ability, she is able to freely control parts of her body that cannot be controlled consciously, such as healing wounds in minutes and intentionally stopping her heart. Kiro disappears as a boy and reappears as a young man, more or less instantly, because his desire to rule the Azadd overcomes physical barriers and normal time.

A few notes:

• Nayuta explains that Kiro's teleportation uses willpower. Her mother says, "Fueled by willpower, huh?" and her father comments, "Fuel has sure been expensive lately." This is a pun: nenriki means willpower, nenryo means oil.
• Nayuta's combining with Ryotaro almost feels like the "civilized" sex scene in Barbarella. She and Ryotaro touch hands, and suddenly Nayuta, sans clothes, is drifting through space with a blissful smile on her face.

Actually, Nayuta loses her clothes fairly often during the show, which is a bit sketchy since she's supposedly 16.

The voice cast includes:

• Fujishiro Minako (Nayuta) was primarily an actress. Sukeban Deka is her only other anime credit.
• Kamiya Akira (Kiro as a young man) is best known for the title roles in the City Hunter properties, the Kinnikuman franchise, and Babel II. He played Kazamatsuri in Yawara!, Roy Focker in Macross, and Mendou in Urusei Yatsura. He also played Abe Edinburgh, in MAPS, Sergent Zim in Starship Troopers and Musakato Taira in Elf 17, and he stole the show as the lecherous robot Chiraku in Hoshi Neko Full House, all are Orphan releases.
• Fujita Toshiko (Kiro as a boy) 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 the bunny in Heart Cocktail, Lulu in Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, 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.
• Furukawa Toshio (Ryotaro) played Kimball Kinnison in Galactic Patrol Lensman, Ataru in Urusei Yatsura, Kagege in Keroro Gunsou, Kai Shiden in Mobile Suit Gundam, Shin in Fist of the North Star, Shinohara Asuma in Mobile Police Patlabor, and Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z. He also played Inumaru in Maroko, Koganemaru in Maris the Choujo, Tree Kangaroo in Shirokuma Cafe, Prince Croyler in Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, the Spartan Dragon in Stop!! Hibari-kun! and Sally in Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, all Orphan releases.
• Yoshida Rihoko (Sozu) played the title role in Majokko Megu-chan and Maicchingu Machiko-sensei, Monsley in Future Boy Conan, Maria Grace Fleed in UFO Robo Grendizer, Michiru in Getter Robo, Clara Sesemann in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Rosalie Lamorliere in The Rose of Versailles, and Kurama in Urusei Yatsura. She appeared in numerous other World Masterpiece Theater series, including  Anne of Green Gables, Honoo no Alpen Rose, Katry the Cow Girl, Shoukoushi Cedie, Lucy May of the Southern Rainbow, Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, Perrine, and Pollyanna. She played Holy Mother in Gude Crest, Takako in Sugata Sanshiro, Deborah in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, and Diaochan in the first Sangokushi movie, all Orphan releases.
• Mikimoto Yuuji (Maki, another ring-wearer) had featured roles in AWOL, Giant Robo, Oishinbo, Elf 17, and the second Sangokushi special. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Shioya Yoku (Mizuki, another ring-wearer) played the title roles in Kariage-kun and the Umi no Triton TV series and movies, Ryouta in Slam Dunk, Jinpei the Swallow in Gatchaman, and Cosmo Yuki in Space Runaway Ideon. He played Yuzuru in Laughing Target, Mickey in Milky Passion: Dougenzaka - Ai no Shiro, and Zhuge Jun in the first Sangokushi movie, all Orphan releases. He also did sound direction on many series.
• Hironaka Masashi (Yu, another ring-wearer) played Musashibo Benkei in Genji, Part 1, Anshu in Hayou no Tsurugi, Bird Torigai in Blue Sonnet, Jiro in Karuizawa Syndrome, Ihika in Yousei-Ou, Kanou in Nine, Kazusa in Tomoe's Run!, and the hijacker in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases, as well as Siegfried in Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
• Nagai Ichirou (Senai Zyler) starred in numerous shows, playing grandfather Jigoro in Yawara!, the off-the-wall narrator in Gosenzosama Banbanzai!, Professor Hajime in Queen Millennia, and Happosai in the Ranma 1/2 franchise. He appeared in One Pound Gospel, Rain Boy, Manxmouse, Nora, Hidamari no Ki, Yuukan Club, Amon Saga, Botchan, Ipponbouchou Mantaraou, Tengai Makyou, and Yamato 2520, all Orphan releases.

The director, Hata Masami, was a veteran who started at Tezuka Osamu's Mushi Productions. He also directed Sirius no Densetsu, Fairy Florence, Little Nemo, and several Hello Kitty and Kiki to Lala offerings.

The project germinated back in 2017, when Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions ripped his own Japanese laserdisc of Nayuta. As he noted, the existing English subs were suspect, so I hoped to release a more accurate version. Moho Kareshi did another translation, but the project languished until Perevodildo did a thorough translation check, substantially revising both sets of subs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset (not much to do there). Rezo and Uchuu QCed. Rezo pointed out that the raw had a strange aspect ratio - 640 x 460 instead of 640 x 480. Erik had made a typo in his encoding script and resized the final result incorrectly. The release specifies the correct aspect ratio, but what you actually see depends on what player you use:

• If you use MPC-HC with its default renderer (EVR), the specified 4:3 resolution is achieved by shrinking the horizontal dimension; the show displays as 613 x 460.
• If you use VLC, mpv, or MPC-HC with a better renderer (MadVR), the 4:3 resolution is achieved by stretching the vertical dimensions; the show displays as 640 x 480.

So in this case, you mileage, or at least your displayed dimensions, will truly vary.

Nayuta may appeal to you, or it may not; reactions among the staff were mixed. You can get the OVA from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

Asatte Dance

Here's another ecchi OVA from Knack: 1991's Asatte Dance (Dance till Tomorrow), adapted from a seven volume manga by Yamamoto Naoki. It's NSFW, but it's quite funny in its R-rated way.

Our protagonist, Terayama Suekichi, is nineteen years old, an unmotivated college freshman. The morning after the funeral of his great-grandfather Daikichi, he wakes up hungover, with a splitting headache and a near-naked girl in his bed. 

Although he's in college, his real interest is an amateur theater group, particularly its pretty, somewhat older director, Shimomura Masami. But his unrequited crush is interrupted when the unknown girl, Hibino Aya, and the Terayama family lawyer,Tachimi Tadamori, drop by his apartment. 

Tachimi repeats what he had told Suekichi at the funeral: great-grandfather Daikichi has left him an off-the-books stamp collection valued at more than 400 million yen, provided that Suekichi finishes university, gets married, and finds a job. Aya, it turns out, was also at the funeral, overheard the conversation, and has glommed onto Suekichi. Perhaps she's after the inheritance; perhaps not.

Complications aplenty ensue. The stamp collection may have been intended for Suekichi, or it may have been intended for his younger cousin Sue, who looked very much like a boy when she was young. The theater company is perpetually in debt and relies on "dues" from its members to fund performances. Suekichi is in charge of collecting these dues, but he's not very good at it. The theater company's upstairs neighbors are yakuza loan sharks. 

They, of course, are very good at collecting debts. They get increasingly involved in the company's affairs. Aya brings a penniless Southeast Asian refugee to freeload at Suekichi's apartment, not particularly caring that he is broke.

She also inserts herself into the theater company's problems, She turns out to be quite a good actress and not the least inhibited about using her assets on Suekichi's behalf. 

The OVAs only show the beginning of the story. Fortunately, the manga is available in English, so you can see how it turns out. Or just read the Wikipedia summary.

The characters are a bunch of goofballs. One of the actors wears a frog's head and never takes it off, even in bed. Aya teaches Freddy that the standard Japanese greeting is "chinpo" (penis or dick). The yakuza boss is a fierce, menacing gangster, except when his toupee slips off; then he turns into a simpering okama, straight out of Okama Hakusho. In either mode, he is besotted with theater. Great-grandpa Daikichi conveys his bequest in a lavish video, in which he re-enacts his encounter with a con-woman who offered him late-life companionship, including sexual healing. He also keeps coming back as a ghost, not so much to haunt Suekichi as to taunt him.

Aya is a bit of an enigma throughout. Is she a gold-digger, out for Suekichi's inheritance? Is she a young wife recently set free by divorce, out for a good time? A bit of both? Even the manga never quite answers the question, and it takes a very long time for Suekichi and Aya's story to play out. More than that would be spoilers.

The voice cast includes:

• Kikuchi Masami (Terayama Suekichi) starred as the male leads in the Tenchi Muyo, Aa! Megami-sama!, and Comic Party franchises. He played Makoto in Doukyuusei 2 and Taira no Kiyomori the younger in Genji, Part 1, and he appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou, all Orphan releases.
• Oizumi Akira (Terayama Daikichi) appeared in Cat's Eye and Korogashi Ryouta. He played Ichiji in Mellow and Mama-rin in Okama Hakusho, both Orphan releases.
• Orikasa Ai (Hibino Aya) made her debut in Shoukoushi Cedie. She played the title role in Romeo no Aoi Sora, Fee in Planetes, Seguchi Touma (the record company president) in Gravitation, Quatre in Gundam Wing, and Ryouko in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She also played Enrico in Dioxin no Natsu, Carrie in Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Sara in Eien no Filena, Toryune in Al Caral no Isan, Katchan's mother in Tako ni Natta Okaasan, the narrator in Boku no Boukuugou, Made, Ayuuru's sister, in B.B. Fish, and young Mars in Fire Emblem, all Orphan releases. 
• Ootsuka Houchu (Ikezu Daisuke, the lead actor) played Satou in the Ajin properties, Bookman in D.grayman: Hollow, Rob in Shinigami no Kuro Maid, Ziggy in Edens Zero, Tsurumi in Golden Kamuy, and the announcer in Yawara!
• Sasaki Yuko (Shimomura Masami, head of the troupe) played Akiko/Keiko in Wolf Guy, Sayoko in Aoko Honoo, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Exper Schiff in Exper Zenon, all Orphan releases. She also played Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANTCUS and Hitomi Nomura in Piano.
• Ogata Kenichi (Tadinori Tachimi, the Terayama family lawyer) played the put-upon father in Maroko, Suzuki in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance call, the crooked casino boss in Okane ga Nai!, the Hong Kong chef in Yuukan Club, Chichi's father in Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, the business chief in Okama Hakusho, and the Narrator/Lord of Kaga in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, all Orphan releases. He also played Smee in Peter Pan no Bouken and Gran Torino in Boku no Hero Academia. However, he's best known to me as the voice of Ranma 1/2's Sataome Gemna, whose alter ego - the grumpy panda - is my avatar on most anime forums. 
• Umezu Hideyuki (Freddy) played Akadama-sensei in Uchouten Kazoku and Uranos Corsica in Gangsta. He had featured roles in Star Dust, Apfelland Monogatari, Blue Sonnet, Hashire Melos, Hi-Speed Jecy, Hidamari no Ki, Nana Toshi Monogatari, Neko Neko Fantasia, Singles, the What's Michael? OVAs, Yamato 2520, Genji, Part 1, Mellow, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.
• Fukuda Nobuaki (Yakuza Boss) played Yasufumi in the Haikyuu!! franchise. He appeared in Kage, Wolf Guy, and Hashire Melos, all Orphan releases.
• Yamaguchi Ken (Yakuza sidekick) appeared in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Yamato 2520, Hoshi Neko Full House, Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu!, and Condition Green, all Orphan releases.
• Sakurai Toshiharu (Frog Man) played Hanson in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and Innocentius VII in Arslan Senki TV. He appeared in Akai Hayate, Exper Zenon, and Mellow, all Orphan releases.

Episode 1 was directed by Kogure Teruo. He also co-directed several Naniwa Yuukyouden OVAs. Episode 2 was directed by Ochiai Masamune. He also co-directed the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVAs, as well as Don Dracula and Crows. The background music consists of bluesy harmonica and guitar riffs, which suits the material perfectly. The score is credited to Nakamura Tatsuya, of whom nothing is known.

Some translation notes:

• Asatte means the day after tomorrow, so the title Dance Till Tomorrow isn't quite right; but that's what Viz titled the English version of the manga.
  
• The theater company is called Sankakumokuba, or triangular wooden horse. This is a BDSM punishment device, so the troupe's name is translated as Bondage Horse.
• The yakuza run the Akumu Salary Loan Company. Akumu means nightmare.
• The woman in Great-Grandpa's video is named Kimiko Matsushita, a parody of a real porn star, Kimiko Matsuzaka.
• When Aya dresses as a female yakuza of the "Shooting Star Family" to confront the loan sharks, she uses formal, almost ceremonial speech patterns. There's a similar scene in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, when Hibari's yakuza-obsessed teacher comes to meet the family.
• "...49 days since my great-grandfather died." In Buddhism, a memorial service is held on the 49th day after a person's death. 
• "Women join massage parlors..." She actually says "soapland," a unique form of prostitution that exploits a loophole in Japanese law.
  

I should mention (warn? tout?) that the show has a lot of nudity and sex. Suekichi and Aya get it on frequently and enthusiastically, despite his suspicions about her motives. When the troupe members have to raise cash to escape the yakuza, the men end up as "hosts" at a sketchy host club that is actually a male brothel of sorts. It's not hentai, or even close, by current standards, but you have been warned, or at least notified.

Asatte Dance was released on VHS tape, but only the first volume was released on laserdisc as well. The raws were encoded several years ago. Moho Kareshi made an initial translation, but the project languished until Perevodildo did a thorough translation check, with the Japanese manga raws as a reference. Perevodildo timed as he checked, and I did a cleanup pass. I edited and typeset. ics- and Nemesis QCed. The first volume was ripped on the Domesday Duplicator, the second on a lossless capture VHS setup. Both were encoded by Orphan's anonymous media expert.

Asatte Dance is good, dirty fun. It's not particularly coherent, but the ride is the point, not the story. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.