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.

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 surgical 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 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.

 

Shibuya Honky-Tonk

Orphan started on the 1988 OVA Abe George Kattobi Seishun Ki: Shibuya Honky Tonk, or Tales from Abe George's Stormy Youth: Shibuya Honky Tonk (for brevity, Shibuya Honky Tonk), almost a year ago. However, after preparing scripts, the translator pronounced anathema on the project: "I found this very hard to even watch, let alone work with, and hated every second of it." That seemed sufficiently damning to me. I shelved the project and released the encodes in raw form. Well, Translator's Remorse (a cousin of Editor's Remorse) soon made its appearance. It seemed the scripts weren't so bad, after all. With a little more work, a usable release was possible. Accordingly, the project was restarted.

Shibuya Honky Tonk purports to be the autobiography of young Abe George, an author and TV personality, who died in 2017. As he himself admitted, "About 10% of it is true, and the rest is exaggerated and dramatized." The anime claims that he joined a yakuza gang as a teenager and then had various scrapes and adventures, as dramatized in the OVA's four episodes. Each episode is introduced by the author himself.

1. "Young Yakuza Wannabe." Naoya is an oversized, precocious, and crooked high-school student. He wants to join a yakuza gang, because it looks exciting, and he'll have a better chance at hooking up with girls.
   
   
   
   
   He manages to impress an underboss named Kingo at the Todo Group, and he meets a pretty (and willing) girl named Yuko.
   
   
   
   
   But when she is threatened by a rival gang, he draws a weapon and wounds one of his antagonists. This makes him a liability, and he's sent to the UK (he has rich and influential parents) until the affair blows over.
   
   
2. "Digression: Studying in the UK." Enrolled in a public (that is, private) school, Naoya blows off his studies and spends his time fleecing his fellow students and screwing available girls.
   
   
   
   
   Expelled for his antics, he winds up as a gofer at a Japanese news bureau. He's promoted to assistant photographer and shows real zeal to get scoops. This allows a senior reporter to entice Naoya into infiltrating a secret British air force base as an unwitting spy.
   
   
   
   
   Naoya wreaks havoc and ends up getting expelled from the country.
   
   
3. "First Fight Back Home." Naoya is now a full-fledged underling (goon) for the Todo Group. Reunited with Yuko, he nonetheless finds time to bed other girls and get into scrapes. He undertakes various enforcement missions in the company of other young Todo hoods, eventually attempting to coerce a rival group's profitable poker game.
   
   
   
   
   This almost ends in a shootout, but Naoya bluffs his way out.
   
   
4. "Introduction to Yakuza Economics." Naoya starts specializing in cons and scams.
   
   
   
   
   He forges and sells counterfeit tickets to a popular event. He shakes down courting couples in the park. He organizes a fake recruiting event for a non-existing host club, pocketing the application fees. Eventually, he organizes a truly large-scale fraud, but the scheme falls apart.
   
   
   
   
   As the show closes, he's sent to a juvenile detention facility.

It's not in the least believable, but there's plenty of violence, nudity, and sex to keep the audience diverted from the implausibility of the plot. In addition, the show exudes a sort of smugness, from the live-action introductions by Abe George himself, to the glamorization of yakuza life. Still, Abe George wasn't all piss and wind. Based on his experiences as a young prisoner, he wrote the manga Rainbow: Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin, which won the 51st Shogakukan Manga Award and was made into a first-rate anime. (Full disclosure: I edited the show for Frostii.)

A few translation notes.

• Ep 1, "176cm." Naoya was 5' 9" tall at age 14. The average Japanese man in the early postwar period was 161cm tall.
• Ep 1, "Like the Toyama novels?" A series of historical novels by Jinde Tatsurou about a legendary Robin Hood-type character. 
• Ep 2, "...a game of See-Low?" A gambling game played with a set of three dice.
• Ep 2, marks at the head of the bed. The kanji 正 is used for tally marks, with each stroke representing one. There's a prescribed order for the strokes, allowing representation from one to five.
• Ep 3, "Don't forget the pride of Sakura Sogoro, you dunce." Sakura Sogoro was a legendary Japanese farmer. 
• Ep 4, "First, we had Seven Faces, then Thirteen Eyes, and now they follow up Twenty-one Fingerprints with Twenty-four Eyes?!" The first three are crime dramas about detective Tarao Bannai, played by Kataoka Chiezo. The fourth is an anti-war film based on a novel by Tsuboi Sakae, which was also made into an anime.
• Ep 4, "Boss Kingo is a sadist!" "So Boss Kingo is from Niigata?" Nao calls Kingo sado, which the other underlings think is an island in Niigata prefecture.
• Ep 4, ""I wish I could enjoy the rest of Spring..."  Death poem of Asano Nagori, feudal lord of the forty-seven ronin.

The core cast included:

• Ishimaru Hiroya (Abe George/Naoya) played Sabu, another yakuza, in Koiko no Mainichi and gave a bravura performance as the "interpreter" dog Allegro in Bremen 4, an Orphan release. 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.
• Aomori Shin (Kingo Tanaka) played Solomon in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, Kurokawa in Meisou-ou Border, and Wailing Man in Cat-Eyed Boy episode 5, all Orphan releases. He played Basque Grand in both versions of Full Metal Alchemist and Gonzo in the currently airing Oi! Tonbo. He appeared in Perrine, Oishinbo, Sousei no Aquarion, the Dragon Ball franchise, and numerous other roles in a career that has spanned almost 50 years.
• Sasaki Yuko (Yuko) played the title role in Desert Rose and Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANCTUS. She played Sayoko in Aoki Honoo, Akiko/Keiko in Wolf Guy, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Exper Jiff in Exper Zenon, and she appeared in OL Kaizou Kouza, Amaama to Inazuma, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and Yousei-ou, all Orphan releases.
• Nishimura Tomomichi (Todo boss) appeared as the narrator in YuYu Hakusho, Anzai-sensei in Slam Dunk, Shibaraku Tsurugibe in Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru, and Jamitov Hymem in Mobile Suit Z Gundam. He played Ryuuichi's father in Aoki Honoo, had a cameo as Don Dracula in Bremen 4, and appeared in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Goro Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoka Naru Desho!, Fire Tripper, Fumoon, Hi-Speed Jecy, A Time Slip of 10,000 Years: Prime Rose, Tezuka Osasmu's Tales from the Old Testament, Wild 7, Wolf Guy, and Yamataro Comes Back, all Orphan releases.

Others appeared in episode-specific roles: 

• Sawaki Ikuya (Naoya's father, ep 1; male teacher, ep 2; Yajima, ep 3) played Gooley in the Dirty Pair franchise. He also played Kentaro in Ushiro no Hyakutaro, Samuel Hunter in Wolf Guy, Masayoshi Hotta in Hidamari no Ki, Barry in Joker: Marginal City, Alan in Mother: Saigo no Shoujo Eve, Itakura Shirouemon in Sanada 10, the Kaiser in Apfelland Monogatari, and Gonbei the cat in Satsujin Kippu wa Heart-iro, as well as bit parts in Dallos, Heart Cocktail, and Chameleon, all Orphan releases.
• Hirose Masashi (Morio, ep 1; Okamoto, ep 4) appeared in Tengai Makyou, Al Caral no Isan, Dallos, Nora, Kage, Wolf Guy, Junkers Come Here: Memories of You, and Kageyama Tamio's Double Fantasy, all Orphan releases.
• Arima Mizuka (Naoya's mother, ep 1) played Grandma Setsu in Oi! Tonbo, Zara in Bio Armor Ryger, Miriam in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, Mary in Starship Troopers, and a dentist in Don Dracula. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Ono Kenichi (Naoya's friend, ep 1) 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 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, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.
• Akimoto Yousuke (bartender, ep 1) played Principal Ikebe in Mellow, Nalerov in Plastic Little, Ookubo Sagaminokami Tadachika in Sanada 10, and appeared in Apfelland Monogatari, Genji, Part 1, Wild 7, and Dokushin Apartment Dokidami-sou, all Orphan releases. He also appeared in Stratos 4, Sisters of Wellber, Princess Lover, The Sacred Blacksmith, and Black Summoner.
• Takada Yumi (Susan, ep 2) played Yoshinaga-sensei in many of the Crayon Shin-chan movies and Ayeka in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She played Saya and Monmo in Cosmic Fantasy, Purinpurin in Hoshi Neko Full House, Atover in Exper Zenon, Yumi the barkeep in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Kumaba in Body Jack,(Kurokawa Satomi in Doukyuusei: Climax, and bit parts in Cool Cool Bye and Nora, all Orphan releases. She appeared in many classic h-anime, including Adventure Kid, Angels in the Court, Balthus: Tia's Radiance, Bizarre Cage, Black Widow, La Blue Girl, Countdown, the Demon Beast and Darkness series, Dragon Knight, F3, Fencer of Minerva, Lyon Flare, Trouble Evocation, Twin Dolls, and Venus 5.
• Oikawa Hitomi (Nishina Kurumi) played Ami in the Cream Lemon franchise, Katri in Katri the Cow Girl, and Yasuko in Miyuki.
• Ishimori Takkou (principal, ep 2) played Jodu in Murder Princess, Yoshimune in Buzzer Beater, and Master Luo Wu in Cooking Master Boy. He had small parts in Fire Tripper, Akai Hayate, Aoki Honoo, Nagasaki 1945: The Angelus Bell, Hoshizora no Violin, and Wild 7, all Orphan releases.
• Arimoto Kinryuu (bureau manager, ep 2) had featured roles in numerous shows, including Psycho-Pass, Tokyo Ravens, Joshiraku, Chihayafuru, Un-Go, and Moonlight Mile. He played Kenji's father in Aoi Kioku, Ichijo Yuji in Princess Army and Ogata Kouan in Hidimari no Ki, all Orphan releases.
• Ootaki Shinya (Aoki, reporter/spy, ep 2) played Beat in Scoopers. He appeared in Aoki Honoo, Wolf Guy, Elf ,17, Hoshizora no Violin, Gakkou no Yuurei volume 1, and Hi-Speed Jecy, all Orphan releases.
• Amano Yuri (Chinese girl, ep 2) played the title role in The Legend of Snow White, Julia in Daddy Long Legs, Kiyone in the Tenchi Muyo franchise, and Moemi in Video Girl Ai. She appeared as Lady Freeze in Bakuen Campus Guardress, Catherine in Okama Hakusho, Kuzunoha in Akuemon, Angie in Condition Green, Elthena in Eien no Filena, Kitagawa in Nozomi Witches, Noriko in Singles, the teacher in Tanjou: Debut, Tonto in the Blue Knight segment of Tezuka Osamu: Kyoto Animation Works, and Yuko in St. Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, as well as multiple roles in Fukuyama Gekijou and Gakkou no Yuurei, volume 1, all Orphan releases.
• Nakamura Daiki (Otake) 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 Mikeneko Holmes, Condition Green, AWOL Compression Remix, and Sanada 10, all Orphan releases. 
• Yamadera Kouichi  (Ushiji) played many leading roles, including Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Sukeroku in Shouwa Ginroku Rakugo Shinju, Ryouga in all the Ranma 1/2 properties, and the nameless hero of Otaku no Seiza. He played the title role in Hashire! Melos, Benten in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, Almarick Aswaer in Nana Toshi Monogatari, Happyaku in Wild 7, Chiryuu in Bakuen Campus Guardress, Matsu in Koiko no Mainichi, Tsuri in Utsu no Miko, and Ryouan in Hidamari no Ki, all Orphan releases.
• Shinohara Emi (Yoshie) played B-Ko in the A-ko properties and Sailor Jupiter in the Sailor Moon franchise. She appeared as the goddess in the Unico segment of Tezuka Osamu: Kyoto Animation Works, Yuri Onagara in Blue Sonnet, vulgar daughter Stephanie in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Reiko in Akai Hayate, Lady Manthrum in Hayou no Tsurugi, a newscaster in Junk Boy, and Android 1025 in Oz, all Orphan releases.
• Tobita Nobuo (Akiyama, printer, ep 4) played Lumial in the Angelique franchise, Ken Wakashimazu in the Captain Tsubasa franchise, Randy in Fake, Sinistra in Kiddy Grade, the title role in Locke the Superman, and Dayon in Osomatsu-san. He starred as Kenichi in Houkago no Tinker Bell and appeared in Princess Army, Genji, Part 1, Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Condition Green, Eien no Filena, Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: MISSING 99, and Ore no Sora, all Orphan releases.
• Yamaguchi Ken (detective #1, ep 4) appeared in Asatte Dance, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Yamato 2520, Hoshi Neko Full House, Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu!, and Condition Green, all Orphan releases.
• Umezu Hideyuki (detective #2, ep 4)(Kobayakawa-sensei) played Akadama-sensei in Uchouten Kazoku and Uranos Corsica in Gangsta. He had featured roles in 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, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.  

The director, Ochiai Masamune, also directed Don Dracula, Asatte Dance, Bouken Shite mo Ii Goro, and the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVA series. The OP and ED are by a group called BORO and are suitably downbeat and melancholy. There's an insert song, with the only lyric apparently being, "Do it, do it, lucky boy." If there's more to the song, no one found it.

Perevodildo translated and timed; he went over the scripts multiple times, trying to parse the gangster argot. Paul Geromini edited. I typeset. Uchuu and I QCed. ImAWasteOfHair also QCed episode 1 but then dropped out. ProxyMan purchased the R2J DVDs, and an anonymous friend encoded them. The encode turned out well, with VFR used to accommodate the live-action prologues. ProxyMan got left off the fansub credits, for which I must apologize profusely.

I'm not all that fond of Shibuya Honky Tonk, but it may be some viewers' bowl of rice. (They probably like Chameleon too.) There's plenty of eye candy, it has some good comedy, and it's definitely NSFW. You can get the show from the usual torrent site and from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

 

Asatte Dance

Here's another ecchi OVA from Knack: 1991's Asatte Dance (Dance till Tomorrow), adapted from a seven volume manga by Yamamoto Naoki. It's NSFW, but it's quite funny in its R-rated way.

Our protagonist, Terayama Suekichi, is nineteen years old, an unmotivated college freshman. The morning after the funeral of his great-grandfather Daikichi, he wakes up hungover, with a splitting headache and a near-naked girl in his bed. 

Although he's in college, his real interest is an amateur theater group, particularly its pretty, somewhat older director, Shimomura Masami. But his unrequited crush is interrupted when the unknown girl, Hibino Aya, and the Terayama family lawyer,Tachimi Tadamori, drop by his apartment. 

Tachimi repeats what he had told Suekichi at the funeral: great-grandfather Daikichi has left him an off-the-books stamp collection valued at more than 400 million yen, provided that Suekichi finishes university, gets married, and finds a job. Aya, it turns out, was also at the funeral, overheard the conversation, and has glommed onto Suekichi. Perhaps she's after the inheritance; perhaps not.

Complications aplenty ensue. The stamp collection may have been intended for Suekichi, or it may have been intended for his younger cousin Sue, who looked very much like a boy when she was young. The theater company is perpetually in debt and relies on "dues" from its members to fund performances. Suekichi is in charge of collecting these dues, but he's not very good at it. The theater company's upstairs neighbors are yakuza loan sharks. 

They, of course, are very good at collecting debts. They get increasingly involved in the company's affairs. Aya brings a penniless Southeast Asian refugee to freeload at Suekichi's apartment, not particularly caring that he is broke.

She also inserts herself into the theater company's problems, She turns out to be quite a good actress and not the least inhibited about using her assets on Suekichi's behalf. 

The OVAs only show the beginning of the story. Fortunately, the manga is available in English, so you can see how it turns out. Or just read the Wikipedia summary.

The characters are a bunch of goofballs. One of the actors wears a frog's head and never takes it off, even in bed. Aya teaches Freddy that the standard Japanese greeting is "chinpo" (penis or dick). The yakuza boss is a fierce, menacing gangster, except when his toupee slips off; then he turns into a simpering okama, straight out of Okama Hakusho. In either mode, he is besotted with theater. Great-grandpa Daikichi conveys his bequest in a lavish video, in which he re-enacts his encounter with a con-woman who offered him late-life companionship, including sexual healing. He also keeps coming back as a ghost, not so much to haunt Suekichi as to taunt him.

Aya is a bit of an enigma throughout. Is she a gold-digger, out for Suekichi's inheritance? Is she a young wife recently set free by divorce, out for a good time? A bit of both? Even the manga never quite answers the question, and it takes a very long time for Suekichi and Aya's story to play out. More than that would be spoilers.

The voice cast includes:

• Kikuchi Masami (Terayama Suekichi) starred as the male leads in the Tenchi Muyo, Aa! Megami-sama!, and Comic Party franchises. He played Makoto in Doukyuusei 2 and Taira no Kiyomori the younger in Genji, Part 1, and he appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou, all Orphan releases.
• Ooizumi Akira (Terayama Daikichi) appeared in Cat's Eye and Korogashi Ryouta. He played Ichiji in Mellow and Mama-rin in Okama Hakusho, both Orphan releases.
• Orikasa Ai (Hibino Aya) made her debut in Shoukoushi Cedie. She played the title role in Romeo no Aoi Sora, Fee in Planetes, Seguchi Touma (the record company president) in Gravitation, Quatre in Gundam Wing, and Ryouko in the Tenchi Muyo franchise. She also played Enrico in Dioxin no Natsu, Carrie in Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Sara in Eien no Filena, Toryune in Al Caral no Isan, Katchan's mother in Tako ni Natta Okaasan, the narrator in Boku no Boukuugou, Made, Ayuuru's sister, in B.B. Fish, and young Mars in Fire Emblem, all Orphan releases. 
• Ootsuka Houchu (Ikezu Daisuke, the lead actor) played Satou in the Ajin properties, Bookman in D.grayman: Hollow, Rob in Shinigami no Kuro Maid, Ziggy in Edens Zero, Tsurumi in Golden Kamuy, and the announcer in Yawara!
• Sasaki Yuko (Shimomura Masami, head of the troupe) played Akiko/Keiko in Wolf Guy, Sayoko in Aoko Honoo, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Exper Schiff in Exper Zenon, all Orphan releases. She also played Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANTCUS and Hitomi Nomura in Piano.
• Ogata Kenichi (Tadinori Tachimi, the Terayama family lawyer) 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, 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. 
• Umezu Hideyuki (Freddy) played Akadama-sensei in Uchouten Kazoku and Uranos Corsica in Gangsta. He had featured roles in 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, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.
• Fukuda Nobuaki (Yakuza Boss) played Yasufumi in the Haikyuu!! franchise. He appeared in Kage, Wolf Guy, and Hashire Melos, all Orphan releases.
• Yamaguchi Ken (Yakuza sidekick) appeared in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Yamato 2520, Hoshi Neko Full House, Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu!, and Condition Green, all Orphan releases.
• Sakurai Toshiharu (Frog Man) played Hanson in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and Innocentius VII in Arslan Senki TV. He appeared in Akai Hayate, Exper Zenon, and Mellow, all Orphan releases.

Episode 1 was directed by Kogure Teruo. He also co-directed several Naniwa Yuukyouden OVAs. Episode 2 was directed by Ochiai Masamune. He also co-directed the Naniwa Yuukyouden OVAs, as well as Don Dracula and Crows. The background music consists of bluesy harmonica and guitar riffs, which suits the material perfectly. The score is credited to Nakamura Tatsuya, of whom nothing is known.

Some translation notes:

• Asatte means the day after tomorrow, so the title Dance Till Tomorrow isn't quite right; but that's what Viz titled the English version of the manga.
  
• The theater company is called Sankakumokuba, or triangular wooden horse. This is a BDSM punishment device, so the troupe's name is translated as Bondage Horse.
• The yakuza run the Akumu Salary Loan Company. Akumu means nightmare.
• The woman in Great-Grandpa's video is named Kimiko Matsushita, a parody of a real porn star, Kimiko Matsuzaka.
• When Aya dresses as a female yakuza of the "Shooting Star Family" to confront the loan sharks, she uses formal, almost ceremonial speech patterns. There's a similar scene in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, when Hibari's yakuza-obsessed teacher comes to meet the family.
• "...49 days since my great-grandfather died." In Buddhism, a memorial service is held on the 49th day after a person's death. 
• "Women join massage parlors..." She actually says "soapland," a unique form of prostitution that exploits a loophole in Japanese law.
  

I should mention (warn? tout?) that the show has a lot of nudity and sex. Suekichi and Aya get it on frequently and enthusiastically, despite his suspicions about her motives. When the troupe members have to raise cash to escape the yakuza, the men end up as "hosts" at a sketchy host club that is actually a male brothel of sorts. It's not hentai, or even close, by current standards, but you have been warned, or at least notified.

Asatte Dance was released on VHS tape, but only the first volume was released on laserdisc as well. The raws were encoded several years ago. Moho Kareshi made an initial translation, but the project languished until Perevodildo did a thorough translation check, with the Japanese manga raws as a reference. Perevodildo timed as he checked, and I did a cleanup pass. I edited and typeset. ics- and Nemesis QCed. The first volume was ripped on the Domesday Duplicator, the second on a lossless capture VHS setup. Both were encoded by Orphan's anonymous media expert.

Asatte Dance is good, dirty fun. It's not particularly coherent, but the ride is the point, not the story. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Mellow

Another year, another ecchi OVA about cross-dressing from Knack. This time it's 1993's Mellow, which is based on a manga by Kasahara Rin that has not been translated. Like Okama Hakusho, it poses its share of problems, although for very different reasons.

The premise revolves around a brother and sister, both named Haijami Akira. They are descended from a long line of teachers, and their father's will mandates that they continue the tradition and become teachers. Otherwise, their inheritance is forfeit. The sister has assumed the burden of becoming an educator, but the brother has other plans.

As the story open, Akira (m) is running down a street in Osaka, chased by gangsters.

He has been caught in flagrante delicto with a yakuza boss's daughter. The boss is demanding an anatomical sacrifice; you can guess which part. Akira (m) escapes and returns home to Tokyo. He tries to borrow 500,000 yen to go abroad from the family servant, Ichiji, who is the executor of the family trust. But while Akira (m) was dallying, Akira (f) suffered a horrible breakdown from getting dumped by her boyfriend and is too depressed to teach.

Ichiji offers the loan, provided that Akira (m) cross-dresses as his sister and starts her job as a teacher while she recovers her composure. Akira (m) agrees readily - too readily. He needs money to escape and a hiding place in the meantime. And so, disguised as his sister, he becomes a high-school English teacher. (All this m/f stuff is too boring, so our "hero" will be plain Akira from now on.)

Akira, in female dress, starts teaching English. He has no training, and the only English he knows is from an American girl he lived with a few months back. What could go wrong? 

He tangles with student after student - a delinquent student, a suicidal student, an English-fluent transfer student, a hostile student with a mommy complex, a malingering student with a crush on the busty PE teacher. In each case, he gets the better of the encounter by letting his natural cunning and repressed rage run rampant. The OVA ends with Akira, still disguised as a woman, rescuing the PE teacher from an aggressive Lothario. They end up very friendly. 

What happens after that? Read the manga.

Mellow seems like a typical, not (too) offensive comedy featuring a cross-dressing male character. It has a some (female) nudity and (heterosexual) sex, like many 80s and 90s OVAs. So you might ask, where are the problems? They're all in the language: the story depends on subtle nuances of Japanese, both written and spoken.

Let's start with the title: 女郎, romanized right on the VHS box as Mellow. It's actually pronounced "merou," and it means "bitch." 女郎 is a multi-purpose insult against women; an alternate reading is "jorou," meaning "prostitute." Then, the two Akiras use different spellings of their name: male Akira is 日明, while female Akira is 晶. When Akira writes his name on the blackboard at school, he uses the masculine form and has to erase the "dangling bits" to make it feminine.

There are lots of puns and references in the story.

• When Akira writes the masculine form of his name, one of the students exclaims, "Akira? Like in Meada Akira?" Maeda Akira was a pro wrestler and a mixed martial-arts fighter.
• When Akira recites the English alphabet to demonstrate his readiness to teach, he follows up ABCDEFG with "You do H to her so that she does I!" This is based on a proverb, "After sex (ecchi or H) comes love (ai or I)."
• When the English-proficient student has asked a series of difficult questions in English, Akira curses her out with "Hey, bitch! I'll stab you in the butthole  and get your shit out and clean you up! You are my hostile. Want me to murder your butt again? Huh?!" The Japanese "translation" in subtitles is even worse. "I'll stick my hand up your asshole and mess up your guts, and do you want me to tell you about vagina cooties? You chronically full-throttle girl, want me to kiss your flapping vagina? Huh?" It doesn't make much sense in either language.
• Fuwa dismisses Fukatsu's illness, he thinks, "He just wants to ogle some D-cups." Japanese bra sizes are different; these would be C-cups in the US.
  
• When Akira dismisses Fukatsu's illness, he says, "A stomachache! More like a sonic belch!" This is a pun: "haraita" is stomachache, while "kataharaita" means absurd.
• When Akira plunks himself down on the infirmary bed, he says, "Dusukoi!", the cry used by sumo wrestlers as they enter the ring.

In addition, there's quite a bit of Kansai- and yakuza-dialect, often difficult to follow.

The voice cast includes:

• Matsumoto Yasunori (Haijima Akira, male) starred as 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 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.
• Okamoto Maya (Haijima Akira, female) played played Maya in the Burn Up! series, Harumi in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor franchise, Saiko in the Silent Mobius properties, and Puck in Yousei Ou, an Orphan release.
• Ooizumi Akira (Ichiji) appeared in Asatte Dance, Cat's Eye, and Korogashi Ryouta. He played Mama-rin in Okama Hakusho, an Orphan release.
• Morikawa Toshiyuki (delinquent student Fuwa) took over the role of dad Nohara Hiroshi in the Crayon Shin-chan franchise. He played lead roles in Gallery Fake, Yami no Matsui, 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 Inspector Kendo in the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series. He delivered a scene-stealing performance as Panda Mama in Shirokuma Cafe. He also appeared in Al Caral no Isan, Akai Hayate, Dragon Fist, Kiss wa Mi ni Shite, Blazing Transfer Student, and Wild 7.
• Katsuki Masako (busty PE teacher Utako) played Maroko in Gosenzosama Banbanzai and its movie version, Maroko, Mira in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Queen Bee in Golgo 13: Queen Bee, and Tsunade (Fifth Hokage) in the Naruto franchise. She also played Arianna Wyszynska in Apfelland Monogatari, Kenbishi Yuuri in Yuukan Club, Hojo's lover in Sanctuary, Itchan's mother in Sensou Douwa: Tako ni Natta Okaasan, Kubo in Milky Passion: Dougenzaka, Yamimama in Megami Paradise, and Yamazaki's maintenance engineer Kiriko in Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call, all Orphan releases.
• Akimoto Yousuke (Principal Ikebe) played Ookubo Sagaminokami Tadachika in Sanada 10 and appeared in Apfelland Monogatari, Genji, Part 1, Wild 7, and Dokushin Apartment Dokidami-sou, all Orphan releases. He also appeared in Stratos 4, Sisters of Wellber, Princess Lover, The Sacred Blacksmith, and Black Summoner.
• Umezu Hideyuki (Vice-Principal Noboru) played Akadama-sensei in Uchouten Kazoku and Uranos Corsica in Gangsta. He had featured roles in 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, and Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, all Orphan releases.
• Okiayu Ryoutarou (suicidal student Yamazaki)  starred as the title roles in Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya, Toriko, and Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun, Mitsui Hisashi in Slam Dunk, Matsura Yuu in Marmalade Boy, Jinnai Katsuhiko in the El-Hazard franchise, Nueno Meisuke in the Hell Teacher Nube series,Samejima Ranmaru in Kizuna, Souma Shigure in Fruits Basket (2003), Berserker in Fate/Zero, Hideyoshi in Sengoku Basara, and Atsushi in Recorder to Ransel. He also played Takao-san in Let's Nupu Nupu, Abel in Fire Emblem, Gion in Okane ga nai!, Akram in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de 2 (a repeat of his role in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de: Hachyoushou), and Hakuryuu in Haruka Naru Toki no Nake de 3, all Orphan releases.
• Shimamura Kaori (English-proficient student Kumiko) appeared in Hanaukyo Maid Team: La Verite and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation.
• Fujiwara Keiji (hostile student Fumio) took over the role of Dad in Crayon Shin-chan. He played Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist, Kenchirou in Antique Bakery, Hannes in Shingeki no Kyojin, Shirou in Blue Exorcist, Nue in Karas, Hinahono in Magi, and Shigure in Ushio to Tora TV. He played Hattori Hanzo Masanari in Sanada 10, Gentaku in Hidamri no Ki, Yoshitoki in Genji, Part 1, and the title role in Uchuu Neko: Mardock no Bouken, all Orphan releases.
• Sakurai Toshiharu (malingering student Fukatsu) played Hanson in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and Innocentius VII in Arslan Senki TV. He appeared in Akai Hayate and Exper Zenon, both Orphan releases.
• Yanada Kiyoyuki (yakuza underboss Bito) played Takenori in Slam Dunk, Gateau Mocha in Bakuretsu Hunter, and Kuroinu the black cat in Chii's Sweet Home. He appeared in Nanatoshi Monogatari, Hidamari no Ki, Hayou no Tsurugi, Exper Zenon, Akai Hayate, Nozomi Witches, and Ai no Kusabi, all Orphan releases.

The director, Kogure Teruo, also directed Okama Hakusho and Lunatic Night for Knack.

I don't know where the VHS tape came from or why we bought it; best not to think about it. Moho Kareshi did the initial translation. Perevodildo translation-checked, with extensive changes. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Rezo QCed. Orphan's anonymous media maven encoded. The source is a mess, with lots of blended frames. The show was never released on laserdisc or digital media, a common outcome for Knack's OVAs.

So here's Mellow. It's excessive, ecchi, and reasonably funny. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.