The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra (Pilot)

In 1981 - before Ghost in the Shell, before Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!, even before Dallos - Oshii Mamoru proposed a sci-fi anime series called The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra. He wrote, storyboarded, and directed a pilot film,with character designs by Takeda Akemi, but the show was not picked up. The pilot film is the only remaining trace. It was included as an extra in the Gosenzo-sama box set. Orphan is pleased to bring you a new version, based on the DVD source.

The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra combines sci-fi ideas with Hindu mythology, creating an interesting hybrid about a group of adventurers led by Shudra, a descendant of the military goddess Indra. 

 They journey to the "Moon Gate" in order to purify their home world of Purusha. The pilot shows a battle with a hydra,

 

plus various conflicts and interactions; but with no dialog and a very short run time, it's impossible to know what the series would have been about. When Oshii tried again in 1983 with Dallos, at least he got four episodes completed out of the proposed series.

Because the show is based on Hindu mythology, it requires extensive notes even though it has less than 30 lines of dialog:

• "The planet Purusha is a wasteland walking the path to destruction."
• "... a long forgotten spherical city called Shurti." Perhaps a mispelling of Śruti, revealed truth.
• "...a curious and fearless boy named Shudra..." Shudra was a social caste.
• "...a brilliant learned priest, Brahmana..."
• "...an unparalleled shaman healer, Rajani..." Most likely Laskshmi.
• "...a petty villain, Vaishya..."
• "...and a girl as fair as winter snow, Soma..." Probably the ritual drink soma.
• "...by the mysteriously beautiful King Ashura..." Ashura is clearly female, but the Japanese term used is "king" not "queen".
• "...and challenge the guardian deities of the Moon Gate, Varuna and Mitra..." 
• "...with the holy sword given to them by King Ashura." Nandaka, the sword of Vishna.
• "Shudra, a descendant of Indra, the god of military prowess." 

It's interesting to note that Oshii's obsession with the Coca Cola logo is evident here, long before Gonsenzo-sama Banbanzai!

Perevodildo translated and timed this fragment from scratch. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The encoder wishes to remain anonymous. The provenance of the source is, perhaps, a pointer to future projects.

There's a lot of discussion on social media about "lost" anime, such as the Maze movie,a. The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra falls into a different category, "never made" anime. With "lost" anime, there's always hope, however faint, that something will turn up, as the lost masters for Project A-Ko did. With "never made" anime, there's no hope. Like the second season of Sanada 10, we will never see any more of The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra. So I urge you to take a look at this tantalizing fragment. 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.

 

Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro

In for a penny, in for a pound. Knack's 1989 OVA Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro (A Good Time for an Adventure) is the second back-catalog show I persuaded (or traded with) Erobeat to do; the first was Junk Boy. By coincidence, Bouken Shite is sometimes called "Junk Boy II," for no particularly good reason. They're derived from comics by different mangaka; they come from different studios; and they carry different ratings (R vs X). Perhaps the common factor is the prominent role of the protagonist's oversized junk in both stories.

Bouken Shite was an example of a now-vanished category, the hentai comedy; others included Lunatic Night and Karakuri Ninja Girl. It had a lot of nudity and sex and even required some censorship, although it was tame by current standards. But it was also full of incidents, characters, and jokes. As with Junk Boy, I suspected that the translation needed improvement. I asked a friend to make new raws from R2J DVD ISOs and Perevodildo to rework the Erobeat scripts. This release is the result. Because it is quite NSFW, it's being released under the Okizari sublabel.

Our hero is nineteen-year-old Kogane Junpei, an aspiring filmmaker and, alas (from his point of view), a virgin. In the first episode, his high-school senpai, Ishikawa Toshio, persuades Junpei to postpone college and go to work for Apollo Productions, a debt-ridden AV (adult video) company - not in a technical role, but as an actor. When he arrives at the company, he is met by a beautiful, brisk young woman named Wakaba Miwa. She measures him for the job. When his adolescent reflexes behave as hoped, she reveals that she is directing Apollo's next production, "Love Juice Angel," which will pair Junpei with established porn star Shinohara Chie. When filming starts, Junpei is unable to perform. He has fallen in love with Miwa and doesn't want to lose his virginity in front of her. Chie takes Junpei off-site and seduces him. Now properly experienced, Junpei and Chie complete filming. "Love Juice Angel" is a success and rescues Apollo from the clutches of its moneylenders.

However, it doesn't last. By the second episode, Apollo is out of cash again. All the men go to work as "hosts" in a seedy club, where Junpei attracts the eye of actress Mina Yoshiko. She promises to help him. He also rescues a young idol, Mikami Shoko, from some street punks. Mina proposes making a movie, financed by her current lover, zillionaire Nanbu Daigo, and directed by her ex-husband, "grand fromage" director Shibuya Shozo. Daigo is unconvinced that the mature Yoshiko has the sex appeal to power a major movie. He challenges her to get young Junpei aroused. When a session of near-public sex demonstrates the strength of both her appeal and Junpei's equipment, Daigo agrees to finance the movie. Mina hires Mikami as the ingenue, Shibuya Shozo as director, and the entire Apollo team as crew. The male lead's inadequate endowment fails to get method actress Mina into the mood; Junpei replaces him. Then Shozo collapses; Miwa steps is an director and replaces him. The Apollo team saves the movie, which becomes a major success. Junpei has realized his dream of working in mainstream films, if not exactly in the way he imagined.

Again, it doesn't last. In the third episode, Apollo is reduced to "guerilla filming" (filming without permits) in Tokyo trains. But then director Shibuya's secretary, Ogawa Masako, still a virgin at 20, asks to co-star with Junpei is Apollo's next AV film. After she demonstrates her sex appeal to Apollo President Ujiki Masami, a film is planned around her defloration. However, both Shozo and his assistant, Gonda, are secretly in love with Masako. They kidnap and imprison her. The Apollo crew mount a rescue operation. After martial exchanges and secret moves, in which Shibuya threatens Miwa's virtue as retaliation for the proposed film, Gonda and Masako show that they are joined by the red string of fate, as well as by outright lust. Despite all the fetish fanservice, the episode ends happily. Gonda and Masako get married, while Junpei demonstrates, in his usual unsuitable way, that Miwa is the only girl for him. 

One indicator that Bouken Shite is "old school" that it requires translation notes. In episode 1:

• "But he's pretty shy. How cute!" Miwa calls Junpei's junk houkei-chan. Houkei means phimosis and the condition leading up to it (abundant foreskin). Here, she likely means "You're not circumcised, and the head hides under the foreskin], but Junpei mistakes it for the actual medical condition, which requires medical intervention.

Episode 2:

• "I chased after rabbits on that mountain"... A children's song.
• "And also complement it with a hag and a newbie." Literally, "And her costars are an obatarian and a clear." Obatarian is "a rude, selfish middle-aged woman", a blend of おばさん and バタリアン. "Clear' probably means that her CV is clear.
• "This is the terrifying Ashura for you!" She says {恐怖の阿修羅だ, literally "Ashura of horror." Ashura has hands and faces on all sides, as Mina does when she's spinning.

Episode 3:

• "Like, for example, a girl who says, 'You're kiwi, papaya, and mango." Another song reference.
• "I always play that 'Virgin Search' game in magazines." A section that ran in the men's magazine "Weekly Jewel" from 1981 to 1996. It included pictures of a dozen girls, and the reader had to guess by the photo alone whether the girl was a virgin or not. The results were printed on a separate page. More information here.
• "Where are you from? From Higo..." More information here. 
• "It's 'Captain'! Call me Captain." A pun on shacho (president) vs taicho (captain).
• "Wh-What's that? It wasn't in the original manga!" Breaking the fourth wall to comment on changes anime adaptations make to source material.

As if often the case with Knack's productions, the voice cast is laced with aliases, and some of the seiyuu don't appear in anime databases or come from the AV world.

• Morimura Asuka (Wakaba Miwa) was an AV actress. Her ther anime credits include Okama Report, an Orphan/Okizari release, and Korogashi Ryouta.
• Aoyama Hiroshi (Kogane Junpei) played Captain Jun in Blood Royale. Otherwise, he did storyboards and direction.
• Ooizuma Akira (Ishikawa Toshio, Junpei's senpai) played Daikichi in Asatte Dance and Mama-san in Okama Report, both Orphan/Okizari releases.
• Gouri Daisuke as Iguchi Satoru (Ujiki Masami, CEO) played Hoshinaga in Koiko no Mainichi, Kei Saijou in Wolf Guy, Mimi in Okama Report, Bancho in Rain Boy, Jubei in Maris the Chojo, the bartender in Nora Twinkle Rock Me, Bazoo in Bavi Stock, Fatty in Condition Green, the Public Safety Director in Dallos, Sabatini in Hi-Speed Jecy, Taki Seisai in Hidamari no Ki, Ryuusaku in Stop! Hibari-kun, and a bit part in Doukushin Apartment Doukudami-sou, all Orphan releases. He also played Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball Z, Judge in Enma Ou, and Robin Mask in the Kiniikuman franchise.
• Ogata Kenichi, alias Ozaki Junichi, (Boss Kanekura, the yakuza loan shark, and director Shibuya) 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, Tadinori Tachimi, the Terayama family lawyer, in Asatte Dance, 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.
• Toyomaru (Mina Yoshiko) was an AV actress. She appeared in Yaruki Manman, another hentai.
• Fujisawa Marino (Mikami Shoko, Ogawa Masako) was an AV actress and illustrator.

Ochiai Masamune, the director of episodes 1 and 3, also directed Don Dracula, Asatte Dance, and the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVA series. Nitta Yoshikata, the director of episode 2, also directed Eien no Filena and Haru o Daite Ita. The OP and ED are by a group called Paris Texas and are very appropriate.

The original Erobeat scripts were credited to Voldemort. I shifted them onto the new raws. Perevodildo revised them extensively and fixed the timing. I edited and typeset. Paul Geromini and an anonymous contributor QCed. The encoder also wished to remain anonymous. He noted:

Footage was pretty good with only slight treatment for errant halo'ing and rainbowing applied. There was also some moderate dot-crawl throughout that was reduced to the extent possible without harming detail. VFR again to preserve smooth motion in parts as there were some interlaced video-processed text effects and various live action cam footage mixed in to the telecined main film, particularly in episode 01, which included a fair bit of chroma key compositing (green screen) effects. Filesize is a bit heavy, but keep in mind each episode has a roughly ~45 minute runtime. 

He also wrote, "I was [a] bit surprised to see a homage to Yasunori Kato (Teito Monogatari / Doomed Megalopolis) during the climax of episode 03; however, upon reflection, it makes sense, as the novel series and film adaptation had been very popular domestically within the year or two prior to this OVA's production. Funny enough, the novel's OVA wouldn't be released for another year after this series, which may mark it as the actual first time the character's likeness would be animated. A rather dubious honor."

So... a new version of Bouken Shite mo II Koro, with an improved translation, much more typesetting, better encodes, and the same plethora of slapstick, nudity, and sex. If this appeals to you - and you wouldn't still be reading if didn't - you can download the show from the NSFW side of the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume

Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume (Charming Magical Girl Trio) is a 1986 crossover special between three canonical 1980s mahou shoujo series from Studio Pierrot: Magical Star Magical Emi, Magical Fairy Persia, and Magical Angel Creamy Mami. This OVA has no reason to exist, and Orphan had no reason to sub it, but here it is anyway. Orphan has rarely dipped its keyboards into the mahou shoujo genre. I have never watched any of Adesugata's parent series. So what gives?

As far as I can recall with my imperfect memory, Adesugata was one of the first laserdiscs that Orphan's media maven worked with after acquiring a Domesday Duplicator in early 2020. VobSubs were available from ARR's 2011 release. It was easy enough to OCR the subs, shift them to the new raw, and style. And then the project stalled out for five years. No one wanted to translation check, and I didn't want to put more work into the project. Finally, after running through Orphan's entire translation backlog, including all the Young Animator Training Project raws, Perevodildo turned in a new script out of the blue. (I think he was inoculating himself against ever working on mahou shoujo again.) I was out of excuses and did my share. I still don't understand exactly what I watched.

The story begins with the three principals relaxing at a hot spring, enjoying some well-earned rest, relaxation, and hot pot. 

As they eat, they randomly transform into teenagers. They have to run to the baths and incant a tongue twister to transform back. They then take turns presenting brief excerpts from their respective series. 

The pretext is that they'll each call their boyfriend and introduce him to the other two girls. All three boyfriends were played by the same seiyuu, the three magical girls sound alike, the same jokes get repeated, the video isn't related to the dialogue at all, and when the dialog runs out, the last couple of minutes of each flashback video are play over genki background music. It's hard to follow if you're not a fan.

The voice cast is drawn from the three parent series.

• Tominaga Miina (Hayami Persia) played Ritsu in Fruits Basket (2002), Rollpanna in the Anpanman franchise, and Misaki in Tsuritama. She also played Ito Aki in I, Muuma in Bavi Stock, Kamiya in Tokimeki Tonight, Hikaru in Chameleon, Karen in Yuukan Club, Cresson in Star Dust, Eri in Karuizawa Syndrome, and Kaguya-hime in Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko, all Orphan releases. 
• Oota Takako (Morisawa Yuu/Creamy Mami) played Rikimaru in Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama: Konpeitou no Ryuu, an Orphan release.
• Obata Youko (Kazuki Mai/Magical Emi) only appeared in the Magical Emi franchise.
• Mizushima Yuu (Riki, Persia's boyfriend; Shou, Emi's boyfriend; Toshio, Mami's boyfriend) played the title roles in Ai no Senshi Rainbowman, God Mars, and Guyver: Out of Control. He also played the title role in Bander Book, Makabe Shun in Tokimeki Tonight, Shukumaru in Fire Tripper, and Dai-chan in Katte ni Shirokuma, all Orphan releases. 

The director, Annou Takashi, directed all of the Magical Emi franchise, as well as Maison Ikkoku and the magnificent Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.

Just for reference, the tongue twisters are:

• "Blue scroll, red scroll, yellow scroll!" (Aomakigami, akamakigami, kiimakigami) 
• "Bamboo bush got burned." (Takeyabu yaketa, actually a Japanese palindrome) 
• "The other guest eats persimmons." (Tonari no kyaku ha yoku kakikuu kyaku da)
• "Toukyou patent office." (Toukyou tokkyo kyokakyoku)
• "Frogs hopping, three hops, gather hopping, six hops." (kaeru pyokopyoko mi pyokopyoko awasete pyokopyoko mu pyokopyoko)

The last apparently does the trick.

The base script is from ARR, from an R1 VHS release. Someone lost in the mists of time OCRed the subs and shifted them to the new raw. Perevodildo translation-checked and fine-timed. I edited and typeset. Muzussawa, in her first Orphan project, Nemesis, and Uchuu QCed. The encoder wishes to remain anonymous. It's early DdD, and there are artifacts from the decoding process.

Not much else to say about this show. If mahou shoujo is your jam, you might find this an interesting pendant to the classic 1980s series. If not, it will have no appeal. (You can guess where I fall.) In either case, you can get Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.