It Must Be Halloween (Cat-Eyed Boy, Ep 15-16)

Well, it already is, in Japan. 

Orphan returns again to its "tradition" of Halloween releases of Cat-Eyed Boy; in this case, episodes 15-16. 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 youngsters trying to fight a supernatural creature that threatens their family or village. To help his new-found friend, Cat-Eyed Boy must find 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 15 - Wet Woman Crying in the Moonlight. A villager, Senzo, stumbles across a ghostly woman hovering over a nearby swamp. When he tells his daughter Kayoko about it, he starts sweating profusely and falls into a coma. Determined to help Kayoko, Cat-Eyed Boy investigates and discovers that the ghost is a woman named Mistako, who killed herself after her daughter drowned in the swamp. Possessed by her daughter's restless spirit, Misako is doomed to curse anyone who encounters her. She wants Cat-Eyed Boy to free her from her evil fate.
  
  
  
  
  
• Episode 16 - The Temple Bell's Vengeful Grudge. A village's temple bell rings at night. The villagers think widow Miyoko is responsible and bully her and her son, Shigeru. Cat-Eyed Boy wants to help. He discovers that Miyoko's husband Sazuko had cast the bell, to ward off a series of disasters, and was then buried alive. (A village rule, apparently.) Sazuko's spirit is ringing the bell. Cat-Eyed Boy must pacify the father's restless soul and set it free.

These two episodes are more elegiac than the preceding ones. The "villains" are not monsters per se but wronged souls, and Cat-Eyed Boy doesn't dispatch them so much as set them free.

The credits, so carefully translated, only have room for five or six voice actors. Two are always Junko Hori (Cat-Eyed Boy) and Katsuhiko Ikeda (Narrator). The others in episode 15 are: 

• Reiko Kimura (Wet Woman) appeared  Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 4 and 10.
• Mami Kingetsu (Kayoko) played Nagisa in the Yume de Aetera shows, Miharu in Gasaraki, Misao in Peach Girl, Izumi in Princess Nine, and Carrie in Labyrinth of Flames.
• Masaya Taki (Monk) appeared in Chou Kousoku Galvion, Daddy Long Legs, Gasshin Sentai Mechander Robo, Madou King Granzoart, and Robot King Daioja.

In episode 16:

• Kyoko Kano (Miyoko (Mother)) appeared in Yatterman and Cat-Eyed Boy episode 7.
• Yuji Shikamata (Shigeru (Son)) appeared in Raccoon Rascal and SPT Layzner, as well as Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 10 and 13.
• Michiro Okada (Monk) appeared in Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 9, 11, 12, and 14.
• Yoichi Mitsuhashi (Villager) played Cygnus in the St. Seiya franchise, Naoki in Dragon Fist, and Ma Chao in Sangokushi 3. The last two are Orphan releases.

Once again, Skr was the driving force behind this release. He checked Perevodildo's translation as well as edited, typeset, and encoded. I did a little actual typesetting and additional editing. Nemesis and Skr QCed.

So for the sixth Halloween in a row, Orphan is pleased to bring you more Cat-Eyed Boy. You can get these episodes from the usual torrent site. We still haven't been able to check out the recently released DVD box set to see if the episodes are remastered. If you have access to it, please let us know. Or if you'd like to buy it for us... even better.