Okama Hakusho (Okama Report)

This one needs warning labels: Borderline hentai! Outdated stereotypes! Nudity! Sex, mostly gay, some straight, some consensual, often not! Watch at your own risk! So it's an Okizari release.

Okama Hakusho (Okama Report) is a three-part OVA from 1991-1992. It's based on Yamamoto Hideo's manga of the same name about gender confusion and the gay scene in Japan. Because Hachimitsu Scans translated the manga completely, I thought it would be a lighthearted gender-bender. However, as the Hachimitsu team delicately phrased it, "There certainly are some controversial elements in this manga, and it may not be for everyone." Or to put it differently: when you're working on the only "comedy" from the author of Ichi the Killer, you've stepped in deep yogurt.

Okama Shinya is a second-year college student, longing for love but basically drifting through life. At a party, his friends get him sloshed, dress him in drag, and take pictures. To everyone's amazement, Shinya is surprisingly attractive as a girl - so attractive, in fact, that he falls in love with "her" when shown the pictures from the party. In order to meet "her", Shinya's friend (exploiter) Tanaka takes him to a gay bar, Maurice, and has a professional cross-dresser (okama), Yamazaki Tarou, make up Shinya's face and hair.

When Shinya realizes that his love is actually himself in drag, he is both appalled and intrigued. He goes to work at Maurice as an okama, calling himself "Catherine." He quickly becomes a favorite of the owner, Mama-rin, and the customers as well. While dressed as Catherine, he meets and falls in love with a first-year co-ed at his college named Miki, who is almost Catherine's twin.

The two become fast friends, but Shinya wants to be Miki's friend (and lover) as a man. However, Miki already has a boyfriend and is preparing to sleep with him for the first time. Can Catherine sabotage Miki's relationship without giving herself away? Can Shinya, as a guy, find a way to become Miki's new boyfriend? And can Catherine/Shinya fend off Tarou's increasingly aggressive advances?

This summary makes Okama Hakusho sound like a gender-confused romantic roundelay, but there are lots of problems with the show. It starts with the title's use of okama (pot), a Japanese derogatory term originally denoting the passive partner in anal sex, which became a derogatory term for cross-dressers; the closest English analog would be "faggot." (For a discussion about Japanese LGBT terms, see this article.) It continues with the portrayal of gay life in Japan. In Okama Hakusho, every gay man is an okama. Rather than the camp chic displayed by drag queens in the US, most of the okama in Okama Hakusho are portrayed as unattractive. They are also shown as sexual aggressors against unsuspecting or unwilling men: Tarou basically rapes Shinya/Catherine at one point. All this is played as "comedy," which only makes it worse. It's not only bad sexual politics, it's bad comedy too. There are more laughs in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and a more sympathetic portrait of an okama in Okane ga nai!

The dialog also presents issues. A lot of the language is either explicit or highly suggestive, filled with slang terms and puns for body parts and sex acts. The argot is dated and hard to parse. For example, how should okama be translated? The show uses the term interchangeably for cross-dressers, transgender women, and homosexual men. Three different translators pulled their hair out about it, and editing it was no easier. Ultimately, the term was left untranslated.

The controversy actually began with the manga itself. According to Wikipedia,

Its title is a parodic reference to "Gay Report", a report published by the LGBT rights group Japan Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement (also known as OCCUR), noted as the first large-scale survey of gay life in Japan conducted by gay men. OCCUR protested Okama Report for containing what it argued were stereotypical and inaccurate depictions of LGBT people, particularly its failure to distinguish between gay male sexual orientation and transgender gender identity. In response, publisher Shogakukan ceased publishing collected tankoubon editions of the manga, discontinuing the release of the series after two volumes.

Perhaps that's why the OVA series simply stops, even though the manga had been completely serialized by the time episode 3 was produced.

The voice cast is quite distinguished:

• Horikawa Ryou (Shinya) played Shutendou in Shuten Douji, Vegeta in Dragon Ball, Naoto in Slow Step, Anthony Brown in Candy Candy, Reinhard in LOGH, Tadao in Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Kai in Kizuna, and Andromeda in Saint Seiya. He also appeared in Chameleon, Hi-Speed Jecy, Lunn no Kaze, and the first two Sangokushi movies, all Orphan releases.
• Amano Yuri (Catherine) 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 Kuzunoha in Akuemon, Angie in Condition Green, Elthena in Eien no Filena, Kitagawa in Nozomi Witches, Noriko in Singles, and Yuko in St. Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, as well as multiple roles in Fukuyama Gekijou, all Orphan releases.
• Morimura Asuka (Miki) was an AV actress. Other anime credits include Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro and Korogashi Ryouta.
• Futamata Issei (Kouji Tanaka) is best known for his roles as Godai Yuusaku in Maison Ikkoku, Akira (Chibi) in Urusei Yatsura, and Saburo in Sazae-san. He played the main character, Yoshio, in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou and the psychopathic brother, Cross, in Hi-Speed Jecy, and he appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou, all Orphan releases.
• Ogata Kenichi (Inoue, president of a business) 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, 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. 
• Shimada Bin (Lily, former pro wrestler) played Ken Nakajima in the You're Under Arrest franchise and numerous other roles, as well as played Konaki Jijii and Wally Wall in the most recent version of GeGeGe no Kitarou. He appeared in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Fukyukayama Gekijou, Tomoe's Run, and Sangokushi, all Orphan releases.
• Gouri Daisuke (Mimi, former JSDF soldier) played Yamazaki Hiromi in Patlabor. He had numerous featured roles. He appeared in Condition Green, Bavi Stock I, Hashire Melos, Rain Boy, all three Sangokushi movies (Xiahou Dun), Submarine 707R, Tokimeki Tonight, Wolf Guy, Hi-Speed Jecy, Hidamari no Ki, and Kage, all Orphan releases.
• Yamada Eiko (Yamazaki Tarou), played Syril in Cool Cool Bye and Vee in Al Caral no Isan, both Orphan releases, and Tarou in the Captain Tsubasa franchise, as well as numerous other featured roles.
• Ouizumi Akira (Mama-rin) had prominent roles in Dame Oyaji and Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro.
• Kobayashi Kiyoshi (Keiko, a yakuza turned okama) is best known for playing Jigen in the Lupin the Third TV shows and specials since the inception of the franchise. He also played Sekai in Wild 7, an Orphan release.
• Meguro Kousuke (Banana) appeared in Kage and Izumo, both Orphan releases.
  

The director, Kogure Teruo, directed the slapstick gross-out OVA Mellow as well as several h-anime. There is no information on the scriptwriter.

The video quality is so-so. The source is used VHS tapes, and there are lots of artifacts. (The show was never released on laserdisc or digital media.) The first episode intersperses live-action scenery shots with the animated sequences, perhaps to convey the locale without the need to animate it.

Okama Hakusho, like many recent projects, has taken a long time. First, it took several years to find all three VHS tapes. Moho Kareshi translated the dialog initially, but it was another two years before Perevodilldo came on board and revised it substantially. I edited and typeset, as usual. The timer, song translator, QCs, and encoder refused to be associated with the result and are anonymous. Because the show includes nudity and sex, gay and straight, consensual and not, it's very NSFW. You've been warned, if the Okizari label was not a sufficient clue.

I'm not going to offer any apologies for Okama Hakusho. I'd like to believe it's a relic of another era, but Japanese anime is filled with gay-bashing to this day. You can get the series from the usual torrent site as well as IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Lunatic Night 03v2

Here's an updated version of episode 3 of the late 90s h-anime comedy Lunatic Night. This version was made possible by Internet pen-pal known as ProxyMan. He's has been systematically collecting R2J DVDs of older Japanese h-anime - including most of Orphan's output in the field. Kakyuusei (1995) and Beast City 3 have been released; Lunatic Night 3 is next. There will be more (sorry).

Lunatic NIght belongs to the now-vanished category of knockabout comedy h-anime, in which the sexual hijinks are subordinated to utter silliness. (Karakuri Ninja Girl is another example.) The nominal plot is about the struggles of the lost king of Atlantis, Kanzaki, to defeat the evil machinations of a powerful otaku, Mutsuki, who wants to fill the universe with his obsessions (e.g., girls in sailor suits). In the third episode, Mutsuki's sailor-suited minions are attacking a village of Penguins in Devil Word, kidnapping the residents for nefarious purposes. Kanzaki and his servants must defeat the Sailor Suits and rescue the villagers. This involves insane mecha battles of "rock, paper, scissors" as well as (needless to say) lots of sex. Kanzaki's stamina is more than up to the challenge of satisfying the Sailor Suit girls, and everything ends happily, if inconclusively. In short, the show is completely bonkers.

 

Only the first two episodes of Lunatic Night were released in R1. The third episode appeared, uncensored, in R2E, but the mastering is a complete mess. So the choice is between a censored R2J source or an uncensored but frame-blended R2E source. Okizari's original release in 2014 used a random Internet raw; this release is encoded directly from the German DVD. It's still a mess. Further, it only had a German soundtrack, so the Japanese soundtrack has been interpolated from the original release.

The original translation was by Moho Kareshi; the translation checker wished to remain anonymous. I edited and typeset. CP of late lamented memory helped with QC. The encoder of the new version also wishes to remain anonymous. I've touched up the script in a few places and updated the typesetting. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same as before.

You can get Lunatic Night 3v2 from the X-rated side of the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Beast City (Inma Daitoshi) 3v2

sxales has recently released a new dual audio encode of the US version of the 1990's h-anime Beast City (Inma Daitoshi), which includes the first two episodes. Completing the update, here's a new version of the third episode, which was only released in Japan and is, therefore, censored and single audio.

This version was made possible by an Internet pen-pal known as ProxyMan. He's has been systematically collecting R2J DVDs of older Japanese h-anime - including most of Orphan's output in the field. Kakyuusei (1995) was the first to be released; Beast City 3 is next in line. There will be more (sorry).

The third episode of Beast City followed the first two after a considerable time lapse; perhaps that explains why it was never released in the US. It begins with a comical recap of events to date, which obviates the need to watch the first two episodes for plot continuity. (That's why everyone watches h-anime, isn't it?) Horrible alien beasts have invaded Earth and are ravishing and killing its women. Vampires from another planet previously ruined by the beasts have come to Earth to save it. Violence and sexual hijinks ensue. Well, at least it has a plot.

Okizari's original release in 2014 used a random Internet raw, encoded in DivX5, which causes playback issues these days. Moho Kareshi translated; the translation checker and timer remained anonymous. I edited and typeset. CP of late lamented memory helped with QC. This new version is encoded from an R2J DVD by an encoder who also wishes to remain anonymous. I've touched up the script in a few places and updated the typesetting. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same as before, just shinier.

You can get Beast City 3v2 from the X-rated side of the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Body Jack (Laserdisc Version)

I wasn't planning on doing any more of the Pink Noise series after Call Me Tonight, but the laserdisc for the fourth and last show in the series, the 1987 OVA Body Jack: Tanoshii Yuutai Ridatsu (Body Jack: Sublime Separation), was lying around, so I thought, "Why not?" Well, it turns out there were good reasons why not, but I didn't know them when the project began.

Pink Noise was a series of unrelated OVAs released by C.Moon, the "adult" label of Bandai Visual. It consisted of four titles:

1. Call Me Tonight (1986)
2. Gakuen Tokusou Hikaruon (1987)
3. Maryuu Senki, 3 episodes (1987-1989)
4. Body Jack (1987)
   

It's not clear what they had in common, except perhaps some sexually suggestive material (hence "Pink"). In Japan, they were only issued on analog media (VHS and laserdisc). Some encodes claim to be DVD sources, but they are probably based on laserdisc rips in a DVD ISO container.

Body Jack tells the story of a typical horny high-school boy, Asagaya Takaya. He lusts after the vivacious Ikenoue Komaba, but he also has a yen for his childhood friend, the tall and athletic Koenji Nakano. His pursuit(s) are going nowhere when he is suddenly approached by Dr. Tomaya, a typical mad scientist with a Frankenstein-like helper. Tomaya offers the boy a machine that will provide an "out-of-body experience." Takaya snaps it up and promptly tries it out. It works.

Now a disembodied spirit, Takaya invades and takes over Komaba's body. He then indulges in all the typical adolescent male fantasies: going swimming with Nakano, going into the girls' changing room with Nakano, and ultimately going home with Nakano for some yuri action, followed by furious masturbation. The erotic antics overload the out-of-body machine, and it blows up. Takaya's spirit is wafted back to his own body, now seriously injured. Back in high school, he tries to approach Nakano as himself, with mixed results.

All this seems harmless enough, if rather mindless. So what are the issues? First, the laserdisc video is just terrible - the worst mastering the encoder has ever seen (although it's better than the VHS tape). Second, the laserdisc is censored, not by adding mosaics (unnecessary) but by cutting an entire five-minute scene present in the VHS tape. Third, even with the censoring, the OVA is just pointless sexcapades, "a 13-year-old's wet dream," as one QC described it. For that reason, it's being released under the Okizari label.

The creators seem to have realized that Body Jack was a step too far, compared to the other Pink Noise shows, because the entire cast used pseudonyms based on baseball players. Only the three leads have been convincingly identified:

• Futamata Issei (Asagaya Takaya) is best known for his roles as Godai Yuusaku in Maison Ikkoku, Akira (Chibi) in Urusei Yatsura, Onizuka in Shonen Jumai-gumi, and Saburo in Sazae-san. He played Yoshio in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, Cross in Hi-Speed Jecy, Guy in Greed, the announcer in Elf 17, and Sakigami in Doukyuusei: Climax, and he appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou - Natsu no Himitsu, What's Michael? OVA 2, and Tokimeki Tonight, all Orphan releases.
• Takada Yumi, aka Iijima Saki (Ikenoue Komaba), 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, and bit parts in Cool Cool Bye and Nora, all Orphan releases. She appeared in many classic h-animes, including Adventure Kid, Angels in the Court, Balthus: Tia's Radiance, Bizarre Cage, Black Window, 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.
• Aoba Miyoko, aka Kubo Miyoko (Koenji Nakano), appeared in the first Sangokushi movie, an Orphan release.

The director also used a pseudonym.

So what made everyone shy away getting their names in this production, even after appearing in actual hentai anime? Perhaps it was the deleted scene. Komeba (Tayaka) is masturbating furiously out of frustration when her stepbrother and some of his friends burst in. They all have sex with her, sequentially and together, possibly against her (his) will. Why the scene was cut from just the laserdisc is a mystery. Maybe laserdiscs were considered "higher class." They certainly cost more than VHS tapes at the time (and still do).

The translation is from Box Subs. In the spirit of the cast members' names, I'll attribute transcription and timing to Yogi Bear, editing and typesetting to Hoardr, QC to Nyx's Daughter and Topper's Ghost, and encoding to Foolhardy.

Anyway, if you want to see this mess, it's available on the usual (adult) torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Okizari Reloaded

At the end of 2014, Orphan did a couple of hard-core h-anime that had been left unfinished. They didn't go through the same process as normal projects, and none of the staffers who worked on them wanted to be identified. Accordingly, Orphan established an h-anime "sub-brand", Okizari (which means "deserted" in Japanese), for these shows. They got uploaded to various torrent sites and forgotten.

Orphan has been quite inconsistent about using the Okizari label. Shadow (Kage) was released as Orphan; in fact, it was Orphan's first release. "Softer" h-anime like Kakyuusei, Dokyuusei 2, Tenkousei, etc. have also been released under the Orphan label. The distinction was always pretty arbitrary, and I don't see any reason to deny that Okizari releases are Orphan projects.

The five Okizari titles to date are:

• Inma Daitoshi (Beast City), episode 3 - censored.
• Kaguya-hime: Taketori Monogari - can't tell; the raw is really bad.
• Kunoichi Bakumatsu Kitan, complete - second episode censored.
• Lunatic Night, episode 3 - uncensored.
• Kininaru Kimochi, episode 4 - censored.

I'm not going to provide an "analysis" of the single episode releases; what's the point? In any case, they're now all available on the Orphan IRC bot. This fulfills a request made nearly a year ago in the comments section of the blog.

Kaguya-hime: Taketori Monogatari

So... Princess Kaguya hentai. Because...well, why, Japan?

The idea of subbing the 1987 hentai OVA Kaguya-hime: Taketori Monogatari (Princess Kaguya: The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) has been floating around for two years, ever since a raw turned up. I commissioned a script from an h-anime translator, but this OVA actually has a plot, drawn directly from the folktale, and a fair amount of complicated, non-hentai dialog. (It even includes poems in kobun, or old Japanese.) Accordingly, it stayed on the shelf until another translator was willing to check the script. Now, it's ready to be released on an unsuspecting world that is only familiar with Princess Kaguya through Isao Takahata's masterpiece Kaguya-hime no Monogatari.

Kaguya-hime: Taketori Monogatari is not a masterpiece or anything near it, but it's not the otaku fap-bait that modern hentai anime has become. It has a plot, the sex scenes aren't fetish-of-the-month, and there's even some erudition about the origin of Japanese idioms. The story is carried through from the discovery of Kaguya-hime in a glowing bamboo shoot to her tearful departure for the Moon. The principal change from the folk tale is that the full moon doesn't make Kaguya melancholy, it makes her horny, with predictable consequences.

From what I can tell, Kaguya-hime: Taketori Monogatari was never released on laserdisc, let alone digital media. The only raw is a truly awful VHS rip. If the artwork needed censorship, the lack of definition and the frequent encoding defects in this raw make it unnecessary. No better copies have surfaced, either encoded or on the VHS second-hand market, so I think that WYSIWYG. If you find a better raw or an actual tape, please let me know.

There are no credits in the raw, other than a production credit to Tokyo Studio, so I don't know anything about the cast or staff. Tokyo Studio has no other releases, although there's an announcement at the end of Kaguya-hime about an anime of Yuki-onna (The Snow Woman); apparently, it was never made. The narrator's voice is very familiar, but I'm no expert at identifying seiyuu by voice alone. On the other hand, the opening and closing theme, played under jerky live action shots of a real bamboo forest, is an oriental spin on the second movement of Rodrigo's famous Concierto de Aranjuez. I guess the mountains of Spain and the bamboo forests of Japan are spiritual cousins. Who knew?

This is an Okizari release, rather than an Orphan project, so there are no staff credits. Frankly, I've forgotten who did the original translation, and everyone else who worked on it declines to be identified. The raw is from eMule; no credits there either. If you're interested in this twist on the classic folk tale, you can find it on the usual (h-)torrent sites or download it from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Kunoichi Bakumatsu Kitan

Kunoichi Bakumatsu Kitan (The Bakumatsu Ninja Mystery, but known in North America as The Last Kunoichi) is a 2003-2004 hentai anime. It was licensed by Adult Source Media, but only the first episode (of two) was released. The second episode has never been subtitled in English, until now.

Kunoichi Bakumatsu Kitan takes places during the late Bakumatsu, after the opening of Japan in the 1850s. The forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and its military bureaucracy, the bakafu, are struggling against a rising tide of revolt, triggered by the shogunate’s weak response to foreign intervention. To quell rebellion, they have formed an elite samurai police force, known as the Shinsengumi. On the other side are an assortment of rebels, including Imperial nationalists who want to expel the foreigners (known as the Ishin Shinshi), idealists, republicans, and others. It was a period of intrigue, bloodshed, assassinations, and the occasional pitched battle. It culminated in the defeat of the Shogunate and the restoration of Imperial power (the Meiji restoration).

The first volume of Kunoichi deals with events leading up to the Ikedeya incident, at which units of the Shinsengumi broke up a meeting of nationalists, killing several of them and driving others to suicide. The second volume deals with the assassination of Sakamoto Ryouma, which was never solved. Into these real events Kunoichi inserts a fictional female ninja team made up of Ayame, Kikyou, and Kaede. The series was meant to continue, but it breaks off abruptly at the end of the second volume.

Historical characters 

Masuya Yuasa Kiemon (aka Furutaka Shuntaro) was a samurai from Oumi. He was captured and brutally tortured by the Shinsengumi and revealed the location of the Ishin Shinshi meeting at Ikedaya.

Hijikata Toshizou was the Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi.

Okita Souji was Captain of the First Unit of the Shinsengumi.

Yoshida Toshimaro of Choushu – Ayame’s lover in the anime – committed suicide in the aftermath of the Ikedaya incident.

Okada Izou was an assassin.

Shimado Sakon, regent in the Koujo clan, was killed during the Bakumatsu.

Sakamoto Ryouma – Kikyou’s lover in the anime – was a nationalist and an idealist. He hoped for a Japan without feudal distinctions. He was assassinated by unknown assailants.

Miyabe Tezou, a nationalist and an alleged ringleader of a plot to burn Kyoto, was killed in the Ikedaya incident.

Mochizuki Kameyata, a nationalist, committed suicide in the aftermath of the Ikedaya incident.

Yamanauchi Youda was daimyo of Tosa.

Goto Shoujirou was a nationalist in Tosa. He survived the Bakumatsu to become a prominent politician in post-restoration Japan.

Kondo Isami was the other Vice-Commander of the Shingengumi and the leader of the raid on Ikedaya.

Ito Kashitaro was a staff officer in the Shinsengumi.

Harada Sanosuke was Captain of the Tenth Unit of the Shinsengumi.

Yamazaki Susumu was an officer and spy in the Shinsengumi. 

Fictional characters 

Ayame, Kaede, Kikyou – female ninjas