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.