Kachikenee!

If two decades of working in anime taught me anything, it should have been, "Never say never." In the post on Trust, a 2025 Anime no Tane OVA, I wrote, "Actually, this is the end of our work on all instances of the Young Animator's Training Project." Now, less than three months later, here's another, Kacchikenee! (Much Obliged!), from the 2016 edition of Anime Tamago.

Kacchikinee! is basically a rom-com with time-travel trappings. The protagonist is the 17-year-old daughter of a temple priest in modern Tokyo, named Aiko. She's an aspiring artist. Unfortunately, her creations are labeled "original" - not a good thing in an art cram school. 

She is thinking about giving up when, out of nowhere, a man pops out of a well in the temple courtyard.

His name is Souji, and he insists that he is from Edo - Shogunate Tokyo - from 250 years in the past. Aiko doesn't believe a word of it and finds his incredulous responses to the modern world annoying. 

Things begin to change, though, when she discovers that he's an accomplished artist.

Further, he is connected to the unfinished sliding doors in the temple. He was supposed to add a Celestial Maiden, but he was inexperienced and never found the right inspiration for his drawing. 

No points for guessing who the inspiration turns out to be.

Still, the absurdities of the plot don't really interfere with the light atmosphere. It's a fine rom-com, with perhaps more com than rom.

The voice cast includes:

• Akaneya Himika (Aiko) played the title role in Izetta: the Last Witch. She played Lada in the PriPara franchise, Ritsuka in Dance with Devils, and Minoho in Katana Maidens.
• Kako Rion (Souji) played Tsuneto in the Cardfight!! Vanguard G franchise.
• Ootake Hiroshi (Juushoku, Aiko's grandfather, the temple priest) played Nezu in Akira, Dayon in the first Osomatsu-kun, 004 in the first Cyborg 009 movie, and Boss in the Mazinger franchise. He also played Fox in Shounen Jack to Mahou Tsukai, Vailly in Greed, Takeshi in Yukuguni no Ouji-sama, Michael in the What's Michael? OVAs, and Director Hiruta in Ojisan Kaizou Kouza, all Orphan releases.
• Shibahara Chiyako (Aiko's grandmother) played Liquid in Captain Bal, an Orphan release, and appeared in Nana, Nodame Cantabile, Bakugan, and Hyper Police. 
• Ai Ichitarou (Takefumi, Aiko's brother) appeared in Tiger & Bunny, Hyouka, and Happy ComeCome.
• Koga Aoi (cafe owner) played the title roles in Komi Can't Communicate and Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy, Chima in Fairy Gone, and Kaguya in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War.
• Makiguchi Mayuki (Miwa, Aika's schoolmate) played Marin in 12-sai, Serena in Pokemon XY, and Yuuki in Beyblade: Metal Fury.
• Kajikawa Shouhei (Aika's teacher) played Magnus in the Bakugan franchise and Hien in Log Horizon.
• Ueda Yuuji (Souji's master back in Edo times) played Nakane Kisaburo in Ashita Genki ni Naare!, 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, and he appeared in Heart Cocktail Again, all Orphan releases.

The director, Yoshimura Fumihiro also directed Kumi to Tulip and the Jungle Emperor segment of Tezuka Osamu Works: Kyoto Animation Theater, an Orphan release.

This project happened because Darkonius was infuriated by a recent release of the OVA, done with AI. He did a new translation and asked if Orphan would finish it. I edited and typeset the script - the typesetting of a long text-message conversation was a a bit of a nightmare. 

Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The raw was encoded by Ohys from an Animax broadcast. It is watermarked in a few places, but it's the only source available.

Kacchikenee! was fun - not world-beating or thought-provoking but appropriately comic and airy. I  enjoyed it quite a lot. Still, this is not the start of a new project to go back to the Young Animator corpus. But... one never knows, do one? Meanwhile, you can get the show from the usual torrent site. 

 

Knackered (Korogashi Ryota)

Knack was an anime company founded by former employees of Toei Douga and Mushi Productions. Despite the number of anime-industry notables who worked with Knack over the years (including Go Nagai, Ken Ishikawa, Kazuyuki Okasako, Masayuki Kojima, Tetsuro Amino, Shunichi Yukimuro, Yoshikata Nitta, and Fumio Ikeno), the studio developed a dubious reputation for the low quality of its productions, particularly in regard to animation quality, and for copying the premises of other, more popular shows. It struggled hard even to reach mediocrity, frequently resorting to ecchi comedy or softcore porn; its shows were often forgotten or stranded in analog format. So naturally, Orphan/Okizari has done a bunch of them:

• Shibuya Honky Tonk
• Asatte Dance 
• Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro
• Mellow
• Okama Hakusho 
• Lunatic Night (ep3)
• Submarine 707 (joint with M74) 

It's well documented that I have low tastes.

Korogashi Ryota (Rolling Ryota), a 3-part OVA released in 1990 and 1991, is in every way a typical Knack release: ecchi, sketchy, with lots of low comedy and grossly offensive humor. Based on a manga by Murata Hiroyuki, it tells the story of Takao Ryota, a fearsome biker turned bus driver, who uses his (publicly owned) vehicle to compete with and stomp on other current and former bikers who want revenge or just to raise hell.

He is supported by his long-suffering "younger brother" Ono Takashi and enjoys the explicit admiration of Umeko, Aki, Maruko and lots of other women.

There's no through story. Rather, each successive OVA was made to exploit the success of the previous one, until the series fortunately ran out of steam. The first episode is one long story; the second and third have three stories each. The action gets more outlandish and more explicit as the series proceeds; the third episode needs some censorship, which is deliberately prominent, a la Karakuri Ninja Girl.

• Ep1 - Ryota breaks all the rules to deliver a pregnant woman to the hospital. Afterward, he is challenged by members of the Panther biker gang. They kidnap Takashi to lure Ryota into an ambush. The episode includes a musical interlude.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• Ep2, "The Appearance of Konjac Sanji" - Sanji, a former biker, now working in his family's konjac business, uses his truck to challenge Ryota's bus.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ep2, "The Mysterious Sumo Wrestler" - A plus-sized woman, trained as a sumo wrestler, beats up everyone, until Ryota shows her the joys of sex.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ep2, "Hypnosis Is Scaaaary" - Risa, mama-san of the Sisters Snack Bar, hypnotizes Ryota to be her barkeep, masseur, and sex slave. Ryota's disappearance allows his rivals to run rampant.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ep3, "Otaki Appears" - Otaki, a former biker, tries to take over Ryota's and Takashi's women, only to be put in place by his own fearsome wife.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ep3, "When Sube Changes into a Swimsuit" - Two girls want Ryota to take them to the beach, but their swimsuit attire makes them a target for other bikers. Eventually, Ryota rescues them and gives them what they want.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ep3, "Clash" - Yoshimoto, another former biker, challenges Ryota by kidnapping Takashi's squeeze Miki. Ryota and his bus face off against Yoshimoto's armored car, with predictable results.

A translation note:

• In episode 1, Kawada thinks that Umeko's "idol Ryo-chan" is Ryotaro Sugi, a Japanese singer and actor, rather than Ryota. 

The voice cast is large and sometimes changed between episodes.

• Kosugi Juurouta (Takao Ryota - ep 1-2) played Murakami Atsushi in Magma Taishi, Mochizuki Rokurou in the Sanada 10 special, Utsubushi in Amatsuki, Aizman in Bavi Stock, Takanesawa in Hiatari Ryouko, Daisuke in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, Gisuke in Shadow, Dr. Bayfam in Joker, the yakuza leader in Ashita Genki ni Naare!, and a bit part in Hi-Speed Jecy, all Orphan releases. He also played as Krest in Ariel, Fernand in Gankuutsou, Hertz in Marie and Gali, and Touji in Ninku.
• Ishimaru Hiroya (Takao Ryota - ep 3) starred as Abe George/Naoya in Shibuya Honky Tonk, played Sabu in Koiko no Mainichi and gave a bravura performance as the "interpreter" dog Allegro in Bremen 4, all  Orphan releases. He also played Rodimus Prime in the various Transformer TV shows, Sengoku Shunsuke in Cyber City Oedo 808, and Kabuto Kouji in the Mazinger Z franchise. 
• Kobayashi Yuuko (Mika, Ryota's girl) played Washu in the Tenchi Muyo franchise, Rapier in the Maze properties, Rin in Otaku no Seiza, and Benten in female guise in Oedo wa Nemurenai!, an Orphan release. 
• Kikuchi Masami (Ono Takashi, Ryota's "younger brother") starred as the lead in the Tenchi Muyo, Aa! Megami-sama!, and Comic Party franchises. He starred as Murakami Mamoru in Magma Taishi and played Iwayma Genzaburo in Princess Army, Terayama Suekichi in Asatte Dance, Makoto in Doukyuusei 2, Yukino Hiro in Houkago no Tinker Bell, and Taira no Kiyomori the younger in Genji, Part 1, and he appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou, all Orphan releases.
• Morimura Asuka (Yuki, Takashi's girl) was an AV actress. Her anime credits include Wakaba Miwa in Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro and Miki in Okama Report, both Orphan/Okizari releases. 
• Hirano Masato (Tajima, another biker - ep 1) played Zolf in Slayers and Dr. Gabou in Wonder Beat Scramble, and he appeared in numerous other shows, including Tomoe ga Yuku!, Blue Sonnet, Samurai Gold, Kimama ni Idol, and the second and third Sangokushi movies, all Orphan releases.
• Ono Kenichi (Tajima - eps 2-3) played Toujirou in Mikan Enikki, Shiro Shirota in Dai-Guard, Asurada in the Future GPX Cyber Formula franchise, and Touma in Dirty Pair Flash. He played Jack Redmond in Heavy, Abe no Yasuna in Akuemon, and Sugawara in Kindaichi movie 2, and he appeared in AWOL Compression Remix, Bavi Stock, Seikima II Humane Society, Wolf Guy, Shibuya Honky Tonk, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.
• Umezu Hideyuki (Yoshimoto, Tajima's buddy) played Akadama-sensei in Uchouten Kazoku and Uranos Corsica in Gangsta. He had featured roles in Shibuya Honky Tonk, Asatte Dance, 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, Ushiro no Hyakutaro, Heavy, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.  
• Oizumi Akira (Koji, the "okama biker") played Terayama Daikichi in Asatte Dance, Ichiji in Mellow, and Mama-rin in Okama Hakusho, all Orphan (and Knack) releases.
• Nakamura Daiki (Kawada, Komuro) played the title roles in Dangerous Jii-san Ja and Demon Beast Resurrection, Dayakka in Gurren Lagann, Seiji Date in Ronin Warriors, and Liu Bei in Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi. He also appeared in Shibuya Honky Tonk, Mikeneko Holmes, Condition Green, AWOL Compression Remix, and Sanada 10, all Orphan releases.
• Yamaguchi Ken (Henmi, leader of the Panther biker gang) appeared in Shibuya Honky Tonk, Asatte Dance, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Yamato 2520, Hoshi Neko Full House, Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu!, and Condition Green, all Orphan releases.
• Mitsuishi Kotono (Aki, a waitress at the Sisters Snack Bar) played the title roles in Excel Saga, Birdy the Mighty, and the Maze TV and OVAs, Mink in Dragon Half, Katsuragi Misato in the Evangelion properties, Rosalia in the Angelique franchise, Kagura in the original Fruits Basket, Eri in Love Get Chu, and of course, Sailor Moon in the Sailor Moon franchise. She played the leads in Mother: Saigo no Shoujo Eve and Oshare Kozou wa Hanamaru, as well as Imai Midori in Magma Taishi, Watanabe Yumi in Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai: Tsuyoshi no Time Machine de Shikkari Shinasai, Oshina in Hidamari no Ki, and appeared in Gakkou no Yuurei volume 1, Blazing Transfer Student, Nagasarete Airantou, and Yamato 2520, all Orphan releases.
• Tomizawa Michie (Umeko, one of Ryota's female admirers) played Linna Yamazaki in Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, Matsuzaka-sensei in Crayon Shin-chan, the nameless Office Lady in Oruchuban Ebichu, Sailor Mars in Sailor Moon, Mihoshi in Tenchi Muyo, Airi Komiyama in Those Who Hunt Elves, and Emi Ogasawara in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Shitara Yuri in Let's Nupu Nupu and female Joker in Joker: Marginal City, both Orphan releases.
• Uemura Noriko (Maruko, the female sumo wrestler) played the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland and Nodame's mother in Nodame Cantabile. She appeared in Nayuta, Nozomi Witches, Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and It Rained Fire, all Orphan releases.
• Wakamoto Norio (Sanji, an antagonist from Ryota's past) played the title role in The Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas, Kan in the Hoozuki no Reitetsu franchise, Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, Cell in the Dragonball franchise, Katakuriko in the Gintama franchise, Oda Nobunaga in the Sengoku Basara franchise, Guren in Ushio to Tora TV, Shining Saotome in the Uta no Prince-sama franchise, and Oskar von Reuenthal in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He also appeared as Joshua Balboa in Plastic Little, Sakakibara in Sanada 10, Noa in Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99, York Denman in Apfelland Monogatari, Major Thrauza in Yamato 2520, Denon in Amon Saga, the Tengenji underboss in Koiko no Mainichi, and the Narrator in Joker: Marginal City, all Orphan releases.
• Matsumoto Yasunori (Toshi, Panther gang member) starred as Guy Hyuga in Heavy, Ichitaro in Ushiro no Hyakutaro, Akira in Mellow, Johnny in Starship Troopers, Kaname in Singles, and Tooru in Every Day Is Sunday, all Orphan releases. He was in numerous OVAs in the 1990s, including Houkago no Tinker Bell, Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Seikimatsu: Humane Society, Fukuyama Gekijou: Natsu no Himitsu, and Al Caral no Isan, also Orphan releases. Among his other notable roles were Wataru Akiyama in Initial D, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist, Gourry Gabriev in Slayers, Ryou in Sonic Soldier Borgman, and a personal favorite, Dick Saucer in Dragon Half.
• Kojima Yuri (Maya, Ryota's niece) appeared in Fencer of Minerva and Fobia, among other roles.

Ochiai Masamune, director of the first two episodes, also directed Don Dracula, Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro, Asatte Dance, and the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVA series. The third episode was directed by Agawa Chouou, who has no other credits.

Perevodildo translated and timed. I edited and typeset. Paul Geromini and MartyMcflies QCed. ProxyMan supplied the R2J ISOs for the project. The encode was by an anonymous friend from the R2J ISOs. He wrote:

A rather fine source, all things considered, especially given the vintage of the source material... I was... able to reduce many of the frame blends from the source.... Otherwise I also reduced the aliasing and haloing more, though at the slight tradeoff of softening the image some and performed slightly less horizontal cropping. VFR was employed to preserve smooth motion of the scrolling credits... Interestingly, only the first episode includes a full opening, and I wasn't really expecting a traditional enka solo from such a program. 

So all in all, Korogashi Ryota is another typical Knack venture, fully of nudity and sex. It requires some censoring and is very much NSFW. For that reason, it's being released under the Okizari label. There are more untranslated shows in the Knack oeuvre, but enough's enough. You can get the show from the X-rated side of the usual torrent site.

But the Cat Came Back (Cat-Eyed Boy, Ep 13-14)

Orphan returns again to its intermittent releases of Cat-Eyed Boy; in this case, episodes 13-14. These episodes don't differ materially from the previous ones, except for the monster of the week. Cat-Eyed Boy is continuing his lonely journey to find his mother. In these episodes, he lends support to plucky young boys trying to fight a supernatural creature that threatens their family or village. To help his new-found friend, Cat-Eyed Boy must find, fight, and defeat the monster(s). But his triumph is short-lived, as he has to hit the road and continue his search.

Two reminders. First, Cat-Eyed Boy is done with gekimation, hand-manipulated paper cutouts paired with simple live-action special effects. Second, the episodes are from the laserdisc box set and are very primitive, with lots of grain, jittery images, noisy soundtrack, and film burn at scene changes. With those caveats, the episodes in this release are:

• Episode 13 - Wrath of the Stone Demon. Nobuo and his grandmother live in a remote village at the base of Mount Tengu. When a will-o'-the-wisp appears on the mountain, a white powder falls that puts everyone to sleep and eventually kills them. Nobuo sets off to find the source of the evil, so Cat-Eyed Boy rushes after him in support. They find a fallen goddess, who became a demon after a human stole her sacred mantle and is determined to be revenged on all humans.
  
  
  
  
  
• Episode 14 - Eerie! The Woman Who Lives in the Mirror. Sentaro's village is plagued by multiple murders. The victim is always drained of blood and nearly mummified. Sentaro believes it's caused by the Blood-Sucking Woman, who lives in abandoned houses. He goes to investigate a derelict inn and falls into the monster's clutches. Meanwhile, Cat-Eyed Boy finds a sick traveler who needs a place to rest and escorts him to the inn, placing everyone in peril.

The credits, so carefully translated, only have room for six or seven voice actors. Two are always Junko Hori (Cat-Eyed Boy) and Katsuhiko Ikeda (Narrator). The others in episode 13:

• Midori Kanbe (Stone Demon) appeared in Cat-Eyed Boy ep12.
• Yuji Shikamata (Nobuo) appeared in Raccoon Rascal and SPT Layzner, as well as Cat-Eyed Boy epidsode 10.
• Michiro Okada (Villager A) appeared in Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 9 and 11.

In episode 14:

• Midori Kanbe (Yukiko) appeared in Cat-Eyed Boy episodes12 and 13.
• Yoichi Mitsuhashi (Kazuhiko, Father) played Cygnus in the St. Seiya franchise, Naoki in Dragon Fist, and Ma Chao in Sangokushi 3. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Endo Yoshinori (Sentaro, Son) - no information.
• Michiro Okada (young traveller) appeared in Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 9, 11, and 12.

Once again, Skr was the driving force behind this release.For episodes 13 and 14, he checked Perevodildo's translation, edited, typeset, and encoded. I did additional editing and added a lot of typesetting in episode 14. Nemesis and Skr QCed.

So Orphan is pleased to bring you more Cat-Eyed Boy. You can get these episodes from the usual torrent site. See you again on Halloween, if not sooner!