Heart Cocktail Again

Twenty years after the original Heart Cocktail manga, Watase Seizou released another anime collection, Heart Cocktail Again. Unlike the original series, which languished on the wrong side of the Digital Divide, Heart Cocktail Again was released on DVD, with an English dub and English subtitles. Although the DVD sells for exorbitant prices in Japan, it has been available as a DVD remux for a while.

The Heart Cocktail team was not happy with the timing or accuracy of the English subtitles, so we decided to do a new version with a new translation. The result is this release: eight new stories, a prologue, an epilogue, and a dialog-free special. It's good to be back in the Heart Cocktail universe again.

The format hasn't changed. The stories are four or five minutes long, typically involving a nameless man and nameless woman exploring the contours of romance - found, lost, or regained. If this set seems a bit more wistful and melancholy - with more emphasis on the lost than the found - that's only an impression. I still find the stories immensely appealing. The last story, "The Station I Passed in Two Seconds," is a particular favorite.

Chapters 1, 6, and 8 use the leads from the original Heart Cocktail volume 3:

• Okuda Tamiyoshi (man) is primarily a narrator. He also appeared in the recent reboot of the series, Heart Cocktail: Colorful.
• Shimamoto Sumi debuted as Clarisse in The Castle of Cagliostro. She starred as Sara in Princess Sara, Nausicaa in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Otonashi Kyouko in Maison Ikkoku, and Dayan in Neko no Dayan. She also played Shokupanman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan no Bouken, Antoinette in Reporter Blues, Big Mama in Bakuretsu Hunter, Sue in Maris the Choujo, Elice in Fire Emblem, Miss Akiko in The Girl with Blue Eyes, Suzuko and Suzu in Fire Tripper, and the mother in Kiku and the Wolf. The last five are Orphan releases.

In the other chapters, the unnamed male and female leads are played by new actors:

• Yamadera Kouichi (man) played many leading roles, including Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Sukeroku in Shouwa Ginroku Rakugo Shinju, Ryouga in all the Ranma 1/2 properties, and the nameless hero of Otaku no Seiza. He plaued the title role in Hashire! Melos, Almarick Aswaer in Nana Toshi Monogatari, Benten in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Happyaku in Wild 7, and Ryouan in Hidamari no Ki, all Orphan releases.
• Tanaka Atsuko (woman) played Mauve in ACCA, Nena Hargen in Aika, Cassandra in Alexander: Reign the Conqueror, Caster in the Fate franchise, Motoko Kusanagi in the GITS franchise, Bynas in Ozma, Claudette in Queen's Blade, and Jagara in Wolf's Rain. She also played Yuri in Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni, new Mamamega in Megami Paradise, and Dana in AWOL Compression Remix, all Orphan releases.

The nameless extras are played by well-known seiyuu too:

• Imai Yuka starred as Jinto in the Crest/Banner of the Stars franchise. She also played Ranchiki in Maze, Otani in the Saber Marionette franchise, Shibuya in the Uta no Prince-sama franchise, and Sugimoto in Doukyuusei 2, an Orphan release.
• Koyama Takehiro had featured roles in Cowboy Bebop, Demon Lord Dante, Project Blue Earth SOS, and Robotics; Notes. He appeared in Nagasaki 1945: The Angelus Bell, an Orphan release.
• Ueda Yuuji played Johannes Krauser II in Detroit Metal City (OVA), Fuuma Yousuke in Wedding Peach, Sagara Sonosuke in Rurouni Kenshin, Tenkata Akito in Kidou Senkan Nadeseico, Keitarou in Love Hina, Makoto in Futari Ecchi, and Takeshi in Pokemon. He also voiced Shuichi in Arisa Good Luck, Takagi-kun in Let's Nupu Nupu, and Nanbara in Hand Maid May, all Orphan releases.
• Yasamura Makoto played Fumihiko in REC, Johnny Beppu in the Aikatsu franchise, Shouji in Ookiku Furikabutte, the father in Chii's Sweet Adventure, Shouzou in the Rinne no Lagrange franchise, Gasteau in the Galaxy Angel franchise, and Will Davis in Heroman.
• Shimamoto Sumi debuted as Clarisse in The Castle of Cagliostro. She starred as Sara in Princess Sara, Nausicaa in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Otonashi Kyouko in Maison Ikkoku, and Dayan in Neko no Dayan. She also played Shokupanman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan no Bouken, Antoinette in Reporter Blues, Big Mama in Bakuretsu Hunter, Sue in Maris the Choujo, Elice in Fire Emblem, Miss Akiko in The Girl with Blue Eyes, Suzuko and Suzu in Fire Tripper, the female lead in volume 3 of the original Heart Cocktail, and the mother in Kiku and the Wolf. The last six are Orphan releases.
• Okuda Tamiyoshi is primarily a narrator. He is listed as a 友情出演 (friendship performance). This usually indicates that the director, original creator, or the actor himself requested the performance, and that it was probably done at a "friendship price".

The director, Nishikubo Mizuho, also directed the Miyuki TV series, as well as some of my favorite Orphan OVAs - Karuizawa Syndrome, Purple Eyes in the Dark, and Ourorane the Cat Player.

The release has a plethora of tracks to choose from:

• Japanese 5.1 surround audio (default)
• Japanese 2.0 audio
• English 5.1 surround audio
• Music-only 5.1 surround audio
• Styled subtitles (default)
• Official English subtitles (VOBsub)
• Official Japanese subtitles (VOBsub)

So you can "pick a path" to create your own experience; for example, music-only plus subtitles, for a "silent movie" experience; or English dub, for a subtitle-free viewing.

The credits are basically the same as Heart Cocktail. This is a joint project from Orphan Fansubs, DarkWispers, and LonelyChaser Fansubs. Darkonius translated. ninjacloud cleaned up the timing. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. Darkonius (for DarkWispers), Collectr (for Orphan) and MartyMcflies (for LonelyChaser) did the planning and coordination. Rezo encoded the raw from the aforementioned DVD remux. There are no animated credits - quite a departure from the lengthy (5 minute+) credit sequences in the original Heart Cocktail. Instead, the credits are displayed interactively in a special section of the DVD menu; the extracted frames can be found here.

This is not the end of the team's exploration of Watase Seizou's work. He released three dialog-free OVAs, Chalk-iro no People, Boku wa Oldies na All-Color, and Two on the Road. The stories are similar to Heart Cocktail, but the dialog is presented as signs rather than spoken aloud. We'll be getting to them in due course, if we find sources.

Meanwhile, here is Heart Cocktail Again, for your enjoyment. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.