Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou

It's rare that I am totally baffled by an anime, but this one managed to do it. A one episode OVA from 1991, Mahjong Hishouden: Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou (Flying Legend of Mahjong: The Calling Dragon Soaring Dragon Chapter) is half about mahjong and half about yakuza machinations. I found all of it impenetrable. I don't understand mahjong, and I had a hard time untangling the doings of the gangsters.

To make matters more confusing, Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou (Mahjong Hishouden doesn't appear in the anime title, only on the box) is a remake of sorts of the second episode in the three volume 1988 OVA also called Mahjong Hishouden: Naki no Ryuu. Thus, it's missing the context that provided by the first episode, and the denouement provided by the third. Why was it remade? No idea. Different animation company, apparently. This one was done by Gainax, so at least it's stylish.

The show centers around a mahjong player known as the Calling Dragon. He is phenomenally lucky and always wins. His specialty is "calling": announcing how he will win before he has acquired the discarded tile he needs. (I think that's right.) Actually, his mahjong play is nothing to write home about, according to people who actually play), and he mostly sits around, smoking and looking cool:

He is so lucky that a yakuza named Kai Shouzou, head of a gang that's part of the Oudou Syndicate, wants to "acquire" the Dragon and his luck for the syndicate. 

The Oudou Syndicate is at war with the Miyoshi family. Shouzou starts hanging around where the Dragon is playing. During one of these games, Shozou is almost assassinated. He recovers but is confined to a wheelchair. Meanwhile, the Dragon has gone to ground, playing in anonymous Miyoshi gambling halls. Shouzou tracks him down while he's playing with the Miyoshi boss and kills all the Miyoshi players. Shouzou and the Dragon then play a climatic game to decide their fates. The Dragon wins, of course, but a Miyoshi underling appears and shoots the Oudo president, seriously wounding him. Shouzou succumbs to his wounds, and the Dragon is apparently free. But Shouzou has left his mission of revenge, and of acquiring the Dragon, to his underboss, Ishikawa. Another round of intrigue is about to begin.

Got that? All the Yakuza intrigues are interspersed with mahjong games where the Dragon trounces all comers from behind his cigarette (and sometimes his sunglasses too). There's some bloodshed, a bit of sex, and a whole lot of posturing and mahjong. As for the rest, read the manga or wait until we fansub the three-volume version. (Yeah, it's coming. Don't hold your breath.)

The voice cast includes:

• Ikeda Shuuichi (Dragon) played Char in Mobile Suit Gundam, Gilbert Durandal in Gundam Seed, Ulrich Kessler in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Alex in Dallos, and Azuma in Starship Troopers. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Jinnai Tatsuyuki (Kai) played Principal Kuno in the original Ranma 1/2 and Hans Hakase in the original Rurouni Kenshin.
• Kobayashi Kiyoshi (Narrator) is best known for playing Jigen in the Lupin the Third TV shows and specials since the inception of the franchise. He also played Sekai in Wild 7, Keiko in Okama Report, and Valhiss in Amon Saga, all Orphan releases.
• Kiyokawa Motomu (Miyoshi, rival gang boss) played Fuyutsuki Kouzou in the recent Evangelion movies, Walter Dornez in Hellsing Ultimate, Charles Auclair in the Nodame Cantabile franchise,  and Gouza in Ars no Kyojuu. He played a prophet in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from The Old Testament and Kosuke as an adult in Sensou Douwa: Boku no Boukuugou, both Orphan releases.
• Ishimori Takkou (Maruko, an Oudou Syndicate underboss) played Cesar in Perrine Monogatari and appeared inMikan Enniki, Usagi Drop, Akai Hayate, and Nagasaki 1945: Angelus no Kane. The last two are Orphan releases.
  
• Hazumi Jun (Murota, an underboss) played Nerigun in Ziggy Soreyuke! R&R Band, an Orphan release. He also appeared in DNA^2, Kemonozume, and the Guyver properties.
• Hosoi Shigeyuki (Sakurada, the Oudou president) played Gopp in Mobile Suit Gundam (the original series).
• Utsumi Kenji (Ishikawa, Kai's successor) played Roah in Fist of the North Star, Kaioh in Fist of the North Star 2, Senbei Norimaki in Dr. Slump and Arale-chan, the village chief in Watt Poe, and Alex Louis Armstrong in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist. He appeared in Nora, Bavi Stock, Stop!! Hibari-kun!, Techno Police 21C, Don Dracula (title role), 15 Shounen Hyouruuki, and Sanada 10, all Orphan releases.

The director, Dezaki Satoshi, is the older brother of Dezaki Osamu and directed some of the Urusei Yatsura OVAs and movies, as well as Dioxin no Natsu, Yume Kakeru Kougan, Bakumatsu no Spasibo, Boyfriend, and Time Slip Ichimannen Prime Rose, all Orphan releases.

Iri bought the laserdisc for this eons ago but never got around to it. Perevodildo picked it up from Orphan's infinite backlog and translated it. He also did initial timing. Muzussawa, a new contributor to Orphan, consulting on the Mahjong terms and play. Paul Geromini, another new contributor, edited. I typeset and QCed. Eternal_Blizzard fine-timed and QCed. The raw is from a Japanese laserdisc, ripped on the Domesday Duplicator and encoded by an anonymous friend.

As you can probably tell, I'm not enamored of Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou. It prioritizes style over substance, and it's about a game I find incomprehensible. Still, it has great style, and that counts for something. You can get your dose of pons, kans, and riichis from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net

Gakkou no Yuurei (School Ghosts), Volume 2

Starting with volume 2, Gakkou no Yuurei began including live-action segments. Why? No idea. Perhaps live-action is less expensive to make. However, I find it disconcerting, and the special-effects are unconvincing. 

As one of the QCs wrote, "Gotta say, this makes the Goosebumps TV show look like fine art."

Volume 2 includes quite a few short segments, both animated and live-action, and some longer stories.

1. Girl Scrambling Up a Wall (animated, short). A girl goes to the music room in a most unusual manner.
   
2. Teke Teke and Bun Bun (live action, short). Three boys investigate a basement that's off-limits for a good reason.
   
3. Hair Tangled in the Horizontal Bar (animated, short). The dangers of gymnastics.
   
4. The Wrath of Kokkuri-san (animated, short). Three girls try their hands at Kokkuri-san. They should have watched Ushiro no Hyakutaro first.
   
5. Sealed Spirits (live-action, short). A school toilet is off-limits, and not because Hanako-kun lives there.
   
6. A Sticky Girl Laughs (animated). Three girls discover a ghost who seemingly just wants to play.
   
   
   
7. A Sad Father's Love Story (live action). A piano teacher helps a deceased father who missed his daughter's ballet recital find peace.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Yellow Hand (animated, short). The severed hand of a girl killed in a traffic accident returns.
   
9. A Ghost Holding a Baby (animated, short). A girl is attacked by the ghost of a deceased mother.
10. Late Night Locker (live action, short). A schoolgirl is attacked by spirits while retrieving her homework.
    
11. Boy Drowned in the Pool (animated, short). A drowned boy tries to ensnare other swimmers.
    
12. The Eternal Staircase (live action, short). A teacher encounters a staircase that never ends.
    
13. A Ghost Kicking Its Own Head (animated). A boy killed in a sporting accident haunts the soccer field.
    
    
    
14. The Spirit of the Music Room (live action). The spirit of a suicidal pianist haunts the music room.

I liked "A Sad Father's Love Story" best, probably because it has a happy ending.

The show has separate casts for the live-action and animated segments. I didn't bother with the live-action actors. Some of the seiyuu in the animated segments include:

• Honma Yukari played Mikako in Kazu & Yasu Hero Tanjou, Ayu in Mermaid Forest, and Yugo in Project Arms.
  
• Yajima Akiko played the title role in Idol Densetu Eriko, Lemon in VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fresh, Takami in Geobreeders, Dorothy in The Big O, Pino in Ergo Proxy, Kogitsune in Natsume Yuujinchou, Mipple in the Futari wa Precure franchise, and the title roles in Shin-men and of course Crayon Shin-chan. She played Lesser Panda (Red Panda) in Shirokuma Cafe, Maijima Karen in Sotsugyousei, and Hikari in Kakyuusei (1995), all Orphan releases.
• Okamura Akemi played Nami in the One Piece franchise, Hinoe in the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise, Fio in Porco Rosso, Risa in Lovely Complex, Mayaya in Kuragehime, Shusui in Saiunkoku Monogatari, and Shiina in Tales of Symphonia, among many other roles.
  
• Hiramatsu Akiko played Nene Romanova in Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crash, Mekira in Ninku, Tom Kusanagi in Mikan Enikki, Konoe (the security maid) in Hanaukyo Maid Tai, and Miyuki in the You're Under Arrest franchise. She played Ninomiya, the police chief's reckless daughter, in Every Day Is Sunday, and Tano Keiko in Houkago no Tinker Bell, both Orphan releases.
• Hiyama Nobuyuki played Madarame in the Genshiken franchise, Viral in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Date in Lime-iro Senkitan, Murata in the Gundam Seed series, Kouyuu Li in Saiunkoku Monogatari, Shin in Cowboy Bebop, and Kiei in the Yu Yu Hakusho franchise. He also played Tokugawa Hidetada in the Sanada 10 special, Kain in Fire Emblem, Roddy in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, and King Penguin in Shirokuma Cafe, all Orphan releases.
• Watanabe Misa played Nefertiri in the One Piece franchise, Akeginu in Basilisk, Queen Beryl in Sailor Moon Crystal, and Nozomi in the World Trigger franchise.
  
• Takahashi Miki starred as Asami in Majo demo Steady (an Orphan release), but she is best known as a singer (she sang all the songs in the show). She had featured roles in MAPS (1994) and Tenamonyo Voyagers. She also appeared in Doukyuusei: Climax, an Orphan release.
• Masuda Yuki played Yuki in the two Ultra Nyan OVAs, both Orphan releases. She also played Yanagi in Flame of Recca, Yuri in the Sakura Wars shows, and Nami in La Corda d'Oro.
  
• Arakawa Tarou appeared in Blue Sonnet, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, all Orphan releases.
  
• Miura Tomoko appeared in Project Arms and Reideen the Superior.
  
• Kuramochi Ryouko appeared in Gilgamesh and Naruto.
  
• Okamoto Akiko had a few other minor roles.
  
• Nomura Kenji plays Gorou in the current Ao no Miburo and Jinun in Sengoku Youko. Past roles included Tatsuuma Ushiyama in Golden Kamuy, , Reystov in The Faraway Paladin, Sol in Isekai de Mofumofu, Kugayama in Genshiken, Sanosuke in Peace Maker Kurogane, and Kunio in Tactical Roar.
  
• Ogihara Hideki played Toshiya in the Mahoromatic franchise, Ryouta in Soul Link, Ma-kun in Gravitation, and Yamane in the Major franchise. He appeared in two stories in Gakkou no Yuurei volume 1.

The animated segment director, Awai Shigeki, mostly worked in h-anime.

Because the series had been abandoned after one episode, Perevodildo translated volume 2 from scratch. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and ImAWasteOfHair QCed. The caffeinated encoder chose "cafe au lait" as his pseudonym for this episode.

Ghost stories are always going to be a mixed bag, and this volume is more mixed than most. I miss the lack of tonal variation; the stories are always serious and downbeat. But if you want more ghostly doings, you can get this volume of School Ghosts from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.