Cyborg 009 (1966)

If you were a US kid in the 1960s, you grew up watching non-stop blocks of cartoons on Saturday morning. Some of these were US productions; some, like Astro Boy and Speed Racer, were dubbed and re-edited Japanese productions. Simplified plots, simplified characters, and simplified animation prevailed. Thus, working on Toei's 1966 movie Cyborg 009 - the first work in what proved to be a durable franchise - felt like deja vu all over again. I was watching a 1960s Saturday morning cartoon, albeit in color and high definition.

This was not an accident. After the relative failure of Gulliver no Uchuu Ryokou, Toei decided to take a bifurcated approach to feature-length anime. They would still make expensive, fully animated features, but less frequently. To fill in the gaps in their release schedule, they would create features using TV animation techniques. TV animation saved money by using fewer unique frames, repeated sequences, and simplified backgrounds and character designs.The first movie released under this strategy was Cyborg 009. Orphan and Inka are pleased to bring you a new version, is full high-definition, encoded from the Japanese Blu-ray.

Cyborg 009 is based on a sci-fi manga by Ishinomori Shoutarou. It tells a standard good guys/bad buys plot, but in this case, the cyborgs are the good guys. The villains are Black Ghost, a supranational crime syndicate dedicated to fomenting wars in order to sell weapons to both sides. 

Despite having an arsenal that would make a superpower green with envy, Black Ghost wants to have even deadlier weapons.

They coerce Professor Gilmore into creating a line of cyborgs, augmented humans with unsurpassed special powers.

They stage a fatal racing accident that kills driver Shimamura Joe and bring his corpse to Gilmore to become the ultimate cyborg, 009. Little Do They Know™, however, that Gilmore has been secretly programming the Cyborgs to be soldiers of justice. They revolt and escape.

Now with Joe as their leader, they work to bring about Black Ghost's downfall.

As the hero, Cyborg 009 is both Japanese and generally overpowered. The other eight come from other countries and have more specialized capabilities:

• 001, Ivan Whisky, a Russian baby, is super brainy with psychic powers.
  
  
  
  
  
• 002, Jet Link, an American, can fly at Mach 5.
  
  
  
  
  
• 003, Françoise Arnoul, a French girl, has super sight and hearing.
  
  
  
  
  
• 004, Albert Heinrich, an East German, is heavily armed with rockets and missiles.
  
  
  
  
  
• 005, Geronimo Jr, native American, is immensely strong.
  
  
  
  
  
• 006, Chang Changku, Chinese, can breathe fire.
  
  
  
  
  
• 007, Great Britain, an English child, is a shape-shifter.
  
  
  
  
  
• 008, Pyunma, Kenyan, can swim underwater indefinitely.
  
  
  
  
  

Thus, they have the right skills to confront Black Ghost's swarms of robot dinosaurs, manned submarines, unmanned jets, and red shirts.

In addition to the movie, this release includes the preview as well as the (wordless) non-credit OP and ED. The latter is just the last 20 seconds of the movie, with the concluding fanfare. The NCOP and NCED are SD resolution. The movie has a second audio track, with just the background music, suitable for making fandubs (not).

The movie seems to have been cobbled together from multiple sources. For example, there is a notable increase in grain at 22:20, for a few seconds. In addition, the animation errors are numerous as well. It also has numerous animation and continuity errors. My favorite is when 007 complains that they are out of fuel for their jet, when, in fact, the jet had been blown up a few scenes before.

The voice cast includes:

• Oota Hiroyuki (009) had no other voice acting roles.
• Toriyama Kyouko (001) played Romy in the first Jungle Emperor Leo TV series.
• Ishihara Ryou (002) played the same role in the 1960's Cyborg 009 TV series. He narrated Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, Future War Year 198X, Ningen Kakumei, and Uchuu Kuubo Blue Noah.
• Judy Ongg (003) was an actress, singer, author and woodblock-print artist born in Taiwan. She had no other voice acting roles.
• Ootake Hiroshi (004) played the same role in the 1960's Cyborg 009 TV series. He also 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, Director Hiruta in Ojisan Kaizou Kouza, and (Juushoku,  the temple priest) in Kachikenee!, al Orphan releases.
• Masuoki Hiroshi (005) played the same role in the 1960's Cyborg 009 TV series. He also played Fuguta Masuo in Sazae-san until 2019, Minami's father in Touch, and Ojisan Jam in the Soreike! Anpanman frachise. He played Wujing Sha in Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: I am Son Goku and appeared in Shounen Jack to Hidamari no Ki, King Fang, Mahou Tsukai, Meisou-ou Border, Nine, Fumoon, and Bremen 4, all  Orphan releases.
• Fujimura Arihiro (006) also appeared in Hyokkori Hyoutan-jima and Andersen Monogatari.
• Soga Machiko (007) played the same role in the 1960's Cyborg 009 TV series. He also played he title role in Obake no Q-taro Joker, Totto in Hyppo and Thomas, and Joker in Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!, an Orphan release.
• Utsumi Kenji (008) 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 played Ishikawa in Mahjong Hishouden: Naki no Ryuu and appeared in Nora, Bavi Stock, Stop!! Hibari-kun!, Techno Police 21C, Don Dracula (title role), 15 Shounen Hyouruuki, and Sanada 10, all Orphan releases. appeared in Nora, Bavi Stock, Stop!! Hibari-kun!, Techno Police 21C, Don Dracula (title role), 15 Shounen Hyouruuki, A Ghost Story, and Sanada 10, all Orphan releases.
• Yanami Jouji (Dr. Gilmore) played Jumbo in Kikansha Yaemon: D51 no Daibouken, Ozora Ibari in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, Akahatsu (Red Shirt) in Bocchan, Lump in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Murphy in Maris the Choujo, the wine-loving Big Bird in Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, Gen-san in Yukiguni no Oujisama, and the cart vendor in Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru, all Orphan releases. He narrated most of the Dragon Ball Z properties. He played Ittan Momen in several of the GeGeGe no Kitaro series and movies and Chuta Ban in all the Kyojin no Hoshi TV series.
• Kawakubo Kiyoshi (Beagle) played Kevin Yeager in D.gray-man and Guame in Tengen Toppe Gurren Lagann. He appeared in Rain Boy, King Fang, and Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: I Am Son Gokuu, all Orphan releases.
• Yamanouchi Masato (Black Ghost leader) appeared in Casshan, Future Boy Conan, Racoon Rascal, and Shounen Santa no Daibouken. He played the prophet Samuel in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament and (Professor Hayashi in Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!, both Orphan releases.
• Hase Sanji (Ösel/Easel) played Shuunen in the Ikyuu-san properties, Kazuo in The Kabocha Wine, Nanako-san in the Kinnikuman franchise, and Yoshikawa in Botchan (1986), an Orphan release.

The director, Serikawa Yuugo, also directed several other Toei releases, including Wanpaku Ouji no Orochi Taiji, Chibikko Remi to Meiken Kapi, Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru, an Orphan releaseand a GeGeGe no Kitarou movie.

This version of Cyborg 009 started with BlueFixer's script for his SD release many years ago. TougeWolf translation checked and rough-timed. ninjacloud fine-timed. I edited and typeset (very little). VigorousJammer, AGundam, and WasteOfHair QCed. The encode was by an anonymous friend. This is another Inka-Subs and Orphan Fansubs collaboration, and like all our partnerships to date, it went very smoothly.

There's no point in looking at Cyborg 009 rationally. The villains are straight out of the James Bond movies: the chief villain even has a lap cat. (The opening credits, with their silhouetted Cyborgs in action poses, salutes the James Bond movies too.) The Cyborgs are impossibly good-hearted and dedicated. The show jumps from one confrontation to another, with the shortest of breaks. The cartoon violence is bloodless, and the action sequences are interspersed with slapstick comedy.

I fell under its spell right away, as did the other staffers who worked on it. I hope you will too. You can get Cyborg 009 from the usual torrent site.

 

Cool Cool Bye v2

You were maybe not expecting this. Then again, neither was I.

Cool Cool Bye is a 1986 fantasy OVA. Orphan subbed it back in 2020, based on the original Random Masters script and a new Domesday Duplicator laserdisc rip. As I wrote at the time, the hardest part was wrestling a workable encode from rotted discs and buggy DdD software. The OVA didn't make much of an impression, and I didn't bother to release the 15 minute extra, which focused on a short-lived animation studio called Bebow, the principal animation house for Cool Cool Bye and Greed.

But someone did care a great deal more: MartyMcflies, proprietor of LonelyChaser Fansubs. He inveigled me into finding the extra in archival storage and then commissioned a translation of it. The translator also looked through the OVA script, found some significant errors, and fixed them. Marty then made me a deal: if I would typeset the extra, he would give me the revised script for the OVA. Unlike the claims of certain world leaders, we had a deal.

There's no need to rehash Cool Cool Bye itself; the blog post covers the plot, the seiyuu, and the encoder's travails in getting to a workable encode. In brief, it tells the story of two "Han warriors," Len and Fleke, who are enticed by offers of food to take on a gigantic monster that's been terrorizing a village and kidnapping its women. 

They're joined by villagers Syril and Coron, who have lost loved ones, and an enigmatic woman named Klee, who is actually some sort of fairy or flying spirit.

This revision tightens the dialog considerably. It corrects a major error in the old script, which conflated the villain's name (Tanguin) with the name of his monster fortress (Penguine), as well as other translation mistakes. It also corrects an error in the ordered chapters that caused a ten-second repeat at 22:10.

The extra is a brief look at Bebow in its brief heyday, starting with its founder, Kogawa Tomonori, who was director, character designer, and story author for Cool Cool Bye and Greed. It showcases Kogawa's philosophy, everyday activities at the studio, and the young animators on the staff.

 

Each staff interview starts with a caricature, continues with a couple of sentences from the animator, and concludes with a short animation of perhaps 15-25 seconds. The shorts vary widely in level of finish and tone. 

 

The staffers are engaging, and their short animations quite interesting. One translation note: there's a running gag among the staff about Yuki Saito, an actress and singer.

 

The OVA started with the Random Masters script. This version was translation checked and heavily revised by justj22. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. imatu QCed the revision. The encode is unchanged. justj22 also translated the extra. I edited and typeset. imatu and MartyMcflies QCed. The encode is also from 2020, but it was not previously released. Because of Marty's pivotal role in getting the extra subbed, the extra is a joint Orphan-LonelyChaser release.

 

So here's a new version of Cool Cool Bye, with a considerably improved script and the same old encode, as well as its extra. I was too harsh on the OVA when I first worked on it. It has likable characters, some good comedy, a bit of nudity, and a ton of shiny explosions. (The ending is a great example of what Roger Ebert used to call "the impregnable fortress impregnated.") 

 

The extra features the Bebow animators before they went their separate ways when the company dissolved and gives them a chance to showcase their talent. You can get the new release from the usual torrent site. Because this version of the OVA is just a script and chapter change, the original can be patched; a patch file can be found here.

 

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P.S.A. If you have version 1 of Cool Cool Bye, you may find that it doesn't play correctly in recent versions of MPC-HC. (It plays fine in VLC, mpv, or MPC-BE.) This is due to a bug in MPC-HC about the interpretation of tags in scripts that started as SSA and were converted to ASS in Aegisub 3.2.2. This same problem also affects Orphan's releases of Ai no Kusabi, Aoki Honoo, Cathexis, and Megami Paradise. If your playback of these releases is malfunctioning, you can either use an alternate player, or wait until the bug is fixed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damekko Doubutsu

Damekko Doubutsu (Useless Animals) is a short-form anime comedy from 2005. It was originally hardsubbed by Ryuu-Rogue back in the day. Darkwispers redid the show in 2022, with translation-checked softsubs and new encodes, but Darkonius was never completely happy with the result. In particular, the styling and typesetting were bare-bones. He decided to revise the scripts and asked me to do the typesetting. I couldn't have been more delighted to help.

The premise of Damekko Doubutsu is that there's a forest for "useless animals" - animals that don't measure up to the requirements of their species. It's populated by a menagerie of misfits, including:

• Uruno, a timid wolf. He can't run down or attack prey; he can't even skip without tripping.
• Usahara, an aggressive, chain-smoking rabbit. He reflexively pounds anyone in his path, Uruno in particular.
• Yunihiko, a sly unicorn. He enjoys drinking with and trolling the other forest inhabitants,
• Peganosuke, a winged horse and Unihiko's twin brother. He is very shy and wants to be friends with Uruno.
• Chiiko, a clumsy cheetah, the object of Uruno's unrequited affections.
• Takaoka, a short-sighted eagle. 
• Kumanee, a genki and enterprising bear, a traveling salesbear. 

The list goes on and on: for example, the orca in the cast can't swim and uses an inflated tube. In any given episode, the characters bounce off one another to great comic (and no other) effect. It's a fine example of the short-form comedy, with far less of the snark that seems mandatory in modern examples of the genre. I loved it with it when it first came out, and my opinion still stands.

The characters in the show are not drawn as animals but as people in kigurumi costumes. Most of the time, the characters are drawn as chibis, but occasionally, their faces turn adult(ish) to emphasize the joke.

The voice cast includes:

• Takagi Motoki (Uruno the wolf) played Nozomi in Futakoi, Renji in the Ef properties, Ooba Youzou in Aoi Bungaku, and Kamanosuke in Brave 10.
• Sugiyama Noriaki (Usahara the rabbit) played Sasuke in the Naruto franchise, William T Spears in the Kuroshitsuji franchise, Shirou in the Fate franchise, England in the Hetalia franchise, and Sasaki in Ramen Aka Neko.
• Morikawa Toshiyuki (Yunihiko the unicorn) took over the role of dad Nohara Hiroshi in the Crayon Shin-chan franchise. He played lead roles in Gallery Fake, Yami no Matsuei, Kyou Kara Maou, and numerous other shows. He's also a regular in Orphan's releases. He played the lead role in Ear of the Golden Dragon, Wolf Guy, and Nozomi Witches, as well as delinquent student Fuwa in Mellow, Kazuma in Bakuen Campus Guardress, Bluebone in Tezuka Osamu Works: Kyoto Animation Theater, and Inspector Kendo in the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series. He delivered a scene-stealing performance as Panda Mama in Shirokuma Cafe and also appeared in Al Caral no Isan, Akai Hayate, Dragon Fist, Kiss wa Mi ni Shite, Blazing Transfer Student, and Wild 7.
• Narita Sayaka (Chiiko the cheetah) played Melon in Akikan, Mayu in Ai Yori Aoshi, Mirumiru in Pururun! Shizuku-chan, and Kusukusu in the Shugo Chara franchise.
• Kamiya Hiroshi (Peganosuke the flying horse) played the title roles in The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. and Natsume Yuujinchou franchises, Araragi Koyomi in the *monogatari franchise, Ataru in Urusei Yatsura reboot, Beelzebub in the Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san franchise, Levi in the Shingeki no Kyojin franchise, Shunpei in Ace of the Diamond, Kou in Arakawa under the Bridge, Mephisto Pheles in the  Ao no Exorcist franchise, Ranpo Edogawa in the Bungo Stray Dogs franchise, Kinshirou in the Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! franchise, Zain in Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid, Izaya in the Durarara!! franchise, Shinji Matou in the Fate franchise, Takeda in the  Haikyuu!! franchise, Michel Blanc in Macross Frontier, Choromatsu in Osomatsu-san, Kawai in Ring ni Kakero, and my favorite, Penguin in Shirokuma Cafe, an Orphan franchise.
• Aoki Makoto (Takaoka the eagle) played Taiichi in Showa Monogatari and Ryuunosuke in Smash Hit!, an Orphan release.
• Takeda Naha (Kumanee the bear) played the title role in ANNA, Pegitan in the Precure franchise, and Kyocho in the Ikkitousen franchise.
• Shintani Ryoko (Fukurou the owl) played Sugai Hinata in Amaenaide yo!, Sakurai Rihoko in Amagami SS, Tetsuro in Arawaka under the Bridge, Milfeulle in the Galaxy Angel franchise, Sae in the Hidamari Sketch franchise, Fujimiya Konomi in the Non Non Biyori franchise, and Anna in Henzemi.

The director, Shibuichi Setsuko, did character design and direction for Magic Bus. Her character design credits include Tobira o Akete, Aoi Kioku, and Bakumatsu no Spasibo, all Orphan releases. Her directing credits include Yuukan Club and Chuumon no Ooi Ryouriten (1994), also Orphan releases.

This is Darkonius' project, so you'll have to read his release post for staff credits. I styled and typeset and did a bit of editing. (I can't help myself.) As a digipainted SD release, the images are very stable, and the signs use mostly recognizable fonts; but it was often difficult to make the English fit in the limited available area. The R2J DVD release bundled two episodes together, except for 13 and 14, which were kept separate to make the episode count per disc work out.

Late in the project, Darkonius detected issues in the original encodes that couldn't be fixed. The original encoder had bowed out, so work stalled for almost a year. Eventually, I asked an anonymous friend for new encodes, which were promptly supplied. New encodes meant that the typesetting and timing had to be reworked, yet again. And that uncovered a host of problems that had gone undetected the first time around, particularly with the preview signs. Release candidates pinged backed and forth, but eventually, it was done. In addition, the new encode included the non-credit OP and ED, a compilation of the TV previews, and two live action "extras." These will be released separately at a later date.

So here is the third, and hopefully definitive, version of Damekko Doubutsu. Its principal task is to make the viewer laugh, and it does that very well. The closest it comes to subtext is a gentle push about accepting oneself, Mr. Rogers style, and that is barely noticeable. I was glad to work on it, and I strongly recommend it. You can get this version of Damekko Doubutsu from the usual torrent site.

Miyuki Forever

After Miyuki was finished back in 2014, the team basically disbanded. When a viewer pointed out that the DVD box set contained an AMV called Miyuki: Forever Selection, there wasn't much enthusiasm to work on it. I threw together a set of dialog subs and signs around an existing raw and fobbed it off. Eventually, I decided that this was (more than) a little lazy, so I cajoled Skr into making a new encode, redid the signs, and released that as the FroZen-EviL version. It was still a lazy release, though; none of the songs were translated.

Fast forward a decade. WOWmd found a laserdisc of a longer version of the AMV, called simply Miyuki: Forever, and encoded it. It not only had more songs, it looked better too. (The Miyuki DVDs, like the Yawara! DVDs, were pretty bad. Maybe Miyuki will get a Blu-ray remaster too, someday.) The passing years had erased any frustrations with the project, leaving only my affection for the series itself. Accordingly, I was eager to do a proper sub of Forever. Happily, darkcart, proprietor of Inka-Subs, also loved the series; it was the first one he ever watched. He organized a project to sub the show and enlisted me to do typesetting, QC, and general kibbitzing, for another smooth Inka-Orphan joint project.

Miyuki: Forever is a collection of songs set to scenes from the series. It is stitched together with a small amount of dialog, but it doesn't really follow the plot. It isn't a proper superset of Miyuki: Forever Selection, although when the same song occurs in both, the same scenes from the series are used. The songs are:

1. 10% Chance of Rain (10% no Ame Youhou) - H2O. Series opening song. Selection uses the full song with scenes from the series. This show uses the shorter series opening and animation. 
2. Hello Vibration - H2O.
3. Goodbye, Highway of Youth (Saraba, Seishun no Highway) - Virgin VS. Not included in Selection.
4. Hold On, Make Love (Chotto Matte, Make Love) - Smart Looking. Not included in Selection.
5. Sensual Girl (Kannou Shoujo) - Takao Kisugi
6. Summer Holiday - Michiko Kawai. Series second ending song.
7. The Foghorn is Calling Me (Muteki ga Ore wo Yonde Iru) - THE SPOILE. Not included in Selection.
8. Goodbye Season - H2O. Series third ending song.
9.  Lily Collection (Yuri Collection) - Virgin VS. Not included in Selection.
10. Howl at the Moon (Yoru ni Hoero) - White Dragon. Not included in Selection.
11. Goodbye Day - Takao Kisugi.
12. Dream Radio City (Yume no Radio City) - Virgin VS. Insert song in series episode 33.
13. Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl - Hakuryuu. Insert song in series episode 26. Not included in Selection.
14. Memories Overflowing (Omoide ga Ippai) - H2O. Series first ending song.

Selection includes a song, "Furimukeba Broken Heart", that is not present in this AMV; the Miyuki fanatic will need to have both. I liked many of the songs on the AMV, particularly the ones by H2O and Takao Kusugi. Note, however, that several are earworms. You have been warned.

The original dialog subs and the signs are from FroZen-EviL's release of the TV series.  (See my blog post on the series for staff credits.) The song translators were:

• FroZen-Evil (laalg): 10% Chance of Rain.
• darkcart: Lonely Girl, Lonely Boy, Hello Vibration, Sensual Girl, Summer Holiday, Dream Radio City, Goodbye Season, and Memories Overflowing.
• Perevodildo: Lily Collection and Howl at the Moon.
• Jimmy: Goodbye Day
• perry dimes: Goodbye, Highway of Youth, Hold On, Make Love, and The Foghorn is Calling Me.

TougeWolf checked the translations and filled in some missing dialog.. I typeset, QCed, and did a bit of editorial tweaking (I can't help myself). imatu also QCed. WOWmd encoded from his own Domesday Duplicator rip of a Japanese laserdisc. This is a new encode, not the one released as a WOWmd-raw.

So here, a decade later, is proper version of Miyuki: Forever, courtesy of Inka and Orphan, with a little help from our friends. This is probably my last word on the show. darkcart and I would like to redo the series from better sources, but the laserdiscs are unlikely to get encoded soon, and there's no sign of a Blu-ray box set. Meanwhile, you can get Miyuki: Forever from the usual torrent site.