Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!

Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo! (Wonderdog Liner 0011 Transform!) is a 1972 Toei sci-fi anime movie. It seems like a descendant of 1970's Kaitei 3-man Mile (30,000 Miles Under the Sea): same director, very similar character designs, bare-bones sci-fi plot. Maken Liner is even shorter, though, and rather clumsier in its execution.

Earth is being invaded by insect-descended aliens from Planet Devil. They plan to destroy the Earth and plunder its resources, or maybe the other way round. (All this is told by voice-over exposition.) Only Professor Hayashi recognizes that an invasion is in progress. However, his warnings are ignored, except by his loyal young son Tsutomu. When the evil aliens kill Tsutomu's dog Queen and her pups Ace, Jack, and Joker, Hayashi resurrects them as transforming cyberdogs. The dogs can transform and unite to form key parts of space attack ship Liner. 

However, Hayashi is killed, and Tsutomu must fight the invading Devilians on his own. The villains plan to use the Moon as a gigantic bomb to destroy the Earth (yet more voice-over). Will Tsutomu succeed in thwarting the aliens' evil designs? Well, we're all still here, so I guess the answer is clear.

As you might suspect, I don't think Maken Liner is one of Toei's stronger offerings. The clumsy exposition, the lack of character development, and the rushed plot and resolution, make the movie seem like a by-the-numbers alien invasion movie. The dogs are cute, but in cyborg form, they conveniently possess exactly the skills needed to defeat the particular villain or villains they face. Tsutomu shows no lasting grief over his father's demise. The songs are pedestrian. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

The voice actors include:

• Satomi Kiyoko (Tsutomu) played the title role in Rainbow Sentai Robin and Rune in Jungle Taitei Susume Leo.
• Kitahama Hiroku (Queen) played Ichimatsu and Todomatsu in the original Osomatsu-kun, Oman in Itoshi no Betty Monogatari, Baron Ashura in Mazinger Z, Panther Zora in the original Cutie Honey, and Rafflesia in Space Pirate Captain Harlock.
• Nozawa Masako (Ace) is a legend. She played the title roles in The Adventures of Gamba, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry no Bouken, Billy Inu nan demo Shoukai, and Hey! Bumboo. She was Enma-kun in the original Dororon Enma-kun, Son Goku in the original Dragonball, Taira no Tokuko in Genji Pt 1, and Kitarou in the 1968 and 1971 versions of GeGeGe no Kitarou, as well as Hakaba Kitarou. Even though her first role was in 1965, she was active in the early 21st century, appearing as Obaba in Ping Pong the Animation, Madame Curie in Marie & Gali, and of course, Medama Oyaji in the most recent version of GeGeGe no Kitarou. She played the title roles in Manxmouse and The Green Cat, Isamu in Kaitei 3-Man Mile, Lek in Cool Cool Bye, the wolf in Kiku-chan to Ookami, and Costar in 15 Shounen Hyouruuki, all Orphan releases. She won a lifetime achievement award in 1997.
• Matsushima Minori (Jack) had a storied career, starting with early Tezuka Osamu series. She played Dororo in the 1969 version of Dororo to Hyakkimaru, Jim in Animal Treasure Island, the title roles in Akane-chan, Candy Candy, and Lucy of the Southern Rainbow, Shun's mother in Dallos, Misako in Junkers Come Here: Memories of You, and Peach (Pinoko) in Fumoon. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Soga Machiko (Joker) played the title role in Obake no Q-taro and 007 in the Cyborg 009 franchise.
• Yamanouchi Masato (Professor Hayashi) 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, an Orphan release.
• Kobayashi Osamu (narrator) played the title role in Ogon Bat. He played the villain Hugo Stronburg in Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, an Orphan release. He had featured roles in Be Forever Yamato, Crusher Joe: the Movie, Zillion, Roots Search, Future War Year 198X, and many other shows.

The director, Tamiya Takeshi, moved into planning and production after 1975.

Maken Liner was one of Iri's BlueFixer releases. He wanted to release it again in order to correct some errors in the original script. ninjacloud retimed the release. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The raw is a 1080p webrip from Ioroid.

The English title is one of the key changes. Iri originally rendered "maken" as "Hellhound", because "ma" can mean devil or demon. But it can also mean "magic," so "maken" is now "Wonderdog." This is a better fit. The pups are not hell-hounds; they're the good guys.

So here's a revised, full HD version of Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo! It's both a critter-feature and a creature-feature, so it kills two aliens with one stone. You can get this new version from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net

Wan Wan Chuushingura (Full HD)

Another re-release in full HD, courtesy of Ioroid's raws. Wan Wan Chuushingura is a 1963 feature-length cartoon from Toei Douga. It tells the story of Rock, an Akimi pup who lives in a mountain forest. His mother, Shiro, is a fierce defender of the local fauna from the depredations of Killer the tiger and his evil but clever sidekick, Akamimi the fox. (Never mind that tigers live in jungles, not on mountains, and are solitary except when mating.) When Akemimi lures Shiro into a fatal encounter with Killer, Rock vows revenge. However, he is too young and small to achieve much. He sets out for the city to recruit allies and falls in with a rough but lovable gang of street mutts. After many adventures, Rock eventually leads the city dogs into battle against Killer and Akamimi, with predictable results, if not exactly in a predictable way.

In the title, "wan wan" is Japanese onomatopoeta for a dog's bark, as "nyan nyan" is for a cat's meow. "Chuushingura"  (Treasury of Loyal Retainers) refers to a famous Japanese historical episode, the 47 Ronin, which is frequently dramatized in Japanese movies and plays. Except for the dogs seeking revenge against Killer, the anime doesn't draw on any part of the actual incident. But it's a good ride, fluidly animated, and with few of the saccharine interruptions that wrecked Toei's earlier Saiyuuki. It's also notable for its distinguished staff: original story and series composition by Tezuka Osamu, and the first anime assignment of Miyazaki Hayao, as an in-between animator.

The voice cast is from an earlier era of animation:

• Hori Junko (young Rock, girl at the lighthouse) played the protagonists in three Fujiko Fujio works, Obake no Q-tarou, Ninja Hattori-kun, and Chinpui. She also appeared in Taiyou no Ouji: Horus no Daibouken, Rain Boy, Time Slip Ichimannen Prime Rose, and Makoto-chan, all Orphan releases, as well as Moomin, Akage no Anne, Cinderella Boy, and Unico.
• Konshita Hideo (adult Rock) played Cho Hokkai in Saiyuuki and the title role in Sindbad the Sailor.
• Kamo Yoshihiro (Akemimi) appeared in Gigantor, Perman, and Planet Prince.
• Nishimura Kou (Killer) appeared in Jack and the Beanstalk, Lupin III: The Mystery of Momo, and Nutcracker Fantasy.

The director, Daikuhara Akira, worked on several Toei Douga features. He received a Lifetime Achievement Prize in 2006.

For the original release, Iri translated, M74 timed. I edited and typeset (not much to do there), and Nemesis and bananadoyouwanna did QC. For this release, Uchuu did a release check. Very little needed to be changed. The raw is a full HD web rip from Ioroid. The dimensions (1080 x 800) aren't quite right, but they're close enough. There's no visible distortion, and the images are noticeably less grainy.

Whether that's good or bad is for you to decide. And the opening and closing song ("The Doggie March")  is still an earworm.

I'm not sure Wan Wan Chuushingura needed a full HD release, but it's a fun "all ages" anime, one of the best of Toei's 1960s films. If you missed it before, you should watch it now. You can get the new version at the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Junkers Come Here v2 (Laserdisc)

In my original blog post for the 1994 OVA Junkers Come Here:Memories of You, I wrote, "The show was never released on laserdisc, let alone DVD." Well, I was wrong. The OVA was released on laserdisc and, thanks to the generosity of a colleague, WOWmd, Orphan is releasing a new version with much better visuals.

This fortuitous event is entirely due to my involuntary presence on Discord. As a technology Luddite and a social media-phobe, I refused to use Discord for a long time, preferring to stay with tried-and-true (that is, ancient and obsolete) Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Discord has voice chat, group meetings, graphics, and other features that I dislike; IRC is text only, which is as it should be. (I stopped playing computer games when text adventures like Zork went out of fashion in the 1980s.) But one of Orphan's newer team members refused to use IRC. He said he'd be on Discord and sent me an invite, so I could get in touch with him. And Inka Subs, with which we did several joint projects, only works on Discord. So now I'm in both worlds.

Discord has allowed me to meet a new generation of fansubbers interested in the back catalog, not just from Inka but from other teams as well (DarkWisper, LonelyChaser, etc.) Some of them have their own Domesday Duplicators and rip their own laserdiscs. They're happy to share, and this project is the result.

Junkers Comes Here: Memories of You centers around the four sisters of the Arimura family. Their mother disappeared on a trip to Paris, and their father died of a broken heart soon afterward. Now, eldest sister Haruka, 30, is the head of the household, having put her own hopes and plans on hold to raise her sisters. Next in line is Natsuno, an office lady in her 20s, obsessed with romance. Third is the nominal protagonist, Akimi, in middle school, undergoing the trials and tribulations of adolescence. Youngest is Fuyuko, 10, an elementary school student with no memories of her mother at all.

Akimi is trying to escape the constant teasing she gets at school when she encounters Junkers on a riverbank. When the dog starts a conversation, Akimi is gobsmacked. She takes the dog home to her sisters, who are skeptical or disinterested, until Junkers miraculously fixes a broken tree and swing. Natsuno wastes one of Junkers' miracles on her love life, and the family starts squabbling about the last one. Then, a TV news program reports about a "mysterious Asian fashion designer" in Paris. It's clearly their mother Misako, and the girls set off to France, Junkers in tow, to find her. There will indeed be one more miracle, although not the obvious one.

The improvement in visual quality is significant and obvious. New:

Old:

The original blog post includes the voice credits, so I won't repeat them here. For the original release, Iri translated, ninjacloud timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis, Topper3000, and Uchuu QCed. For this release, WOWmd ripped his own laserdisc on the Domesday Duplicator, as well as the digital audio track, and Orphan's media maven encoded.(in honor of the digital origin, the audio track is FLAC.) I shifted the subs and release-checked. Almost nothing had to be changed. Even the typesetting simply worked.

Junkers Come Here: Memories of You is straightforward and heartfelt. It's a welcome dose of positive feelings in the midst of our daily horror show. Dogs are good for the soul, Junkers especially. The new version has substantially better video than the original release, so whether you've seen Junkers Come Here: Memories of You already or are new to the show, you should download this version. You can get the it from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. No, Orphan doesn't have Discord-based distribution.

King Fang v2

In November of 2021, Orphan's timer ninacloud noticed that an uploader going by the handle of fabrebatalla18 had torrented a group of "rare raws" ripped from the web. One of them was King Fang. I downloaded the batch and was delighted to discover that the new raw was significantly better than the VHS tape Nanto and I had used for the original release: far less blurry, with better colors. I wrote to Nanto suggesting that we get the gang back together to make a new version, and he agreed. It took a while to redo the timing and typesetting, and the long-distance working relationship also slowed things down, but two weeks ago, TSHS released a new version - and I neglected to note it in the blog. I've now remedied that oversight.

I don't think this new version needs much justification. Here's a screencap from the original release:

 Here's the same frame from the new release:

Although the new raw is slightly overcropped, the gains is clarity, detail, and color balance are more than sufficient compensation.

I covered the show and the cast in my original blog post, so I won't repeat the information. For this version, I transposed the timing, redid the typesetting, and tweaked the dialog. Nanto did the fine timing, QCed and tidied up the dialog, and released the new version. Just like last time, this is a joint Orphan-TSHS release.

If you downloaded the original version, you'll want to archive this one instead, for the video alone. If you skipped the original, perhaps this version will convince you to watch. 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.

Junkers Come Here: Memories of You

Stop me if you've heard the one about the talking dog...

Junkers Come Here and its sequel were novels by Kine Naoto. They featured a Schnauzer named Junkers, who could speak and also work miracles (limit three per family). The novels were made into a 1995 anime movie, Junkers Come Here. Despite critical acclaim, the movie was not a box-office success and was not released on home media for some time. Eventually, it received a DVD release in both Japan and North America. Today, it is readily available to an English speaking audience. 

Before the movie was released, there was a 1994 OVA entitled Junkers Come Here: Memories of You. It first aired as part of TV Asahi's drama series Kuni-sanchi no Witches. The OVA featured a completely different plot and characters than the movie or the novels. The only common element was Junkers and his abilities.

Memories of You centers around the four sisters of the Arimura family. Their mother disappeared on a trip to Paris, and their father died of a broken heart soon afterward. Now, eldest sister Haruka, 30, is the head of the household, having put her own hopes and plans on hold to raise her sisters. Next in line is Natsuno, an office lady in her 20s, obsessed with romance. Third is the nominal protagonist, Akimi, in middle school, undergoing the trials and tribulations of adolescence. Youngest is Fuyuko, 10, an elementary school student with no memories of her mother at all.

Akimi is trying to escape the constant teasing she gets at school when she encounters Junkers on a riverbank. When the dog starts a conversation, Akimi is gobsmacked. She takes the dog home to her sisters, who are skeptical or disinterested, until Junkers miraculously fixes a broken tree and swing. Natsuno wastes one of Junkers' miracles on her love life, and the family starts squabbling about the last one. Then, a TV news program reports about a "mysterious Asian fashion designer" in Paris. It's clearly their mother Misako, and the girls set off to France, Junkers in tow, to find her. There will indeed be one more miracle, although not the obvious one.

The four sisters were played by the actresses from Kuni-sanchi no Witches, so they are relatively unknown in the anime world. The other roles were filled by professional voice actors.

• Kuroki Hitomi (Haruka) worked in the Takarazuka Review and is primarily as a stage and screen actress.
• Tamura Shouko (Natsuno) is an actress and model.
• Hosokawa Fumie (Akimi) is a gravure model and singer.
• Oda Akane (Fuyuko) is a TV actress and yoga instructor.
• Furumoto Shinnosuke (Junkers) played the same role in the Junkers Come Here movie. He starred as Hiro in H2 and as Akihiro in The Girl from Phantasia, an Orphan release.
• Matsushima Minori (Misako) had a storied career, starting with early Tezuka Osamu series. She played Dororo in the 1969 version of Dororo to Hyakkimaru, Jim in Animal Treasure Island, the title roles in Akane-chan, Lucy of the Southern Rainbow, and Candy Candy, Shun's mother in Dallos and Peach (Pinoko) in Fumoon. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Hirose Masashi (Father) appeared in Al Caral no Isan, Dallos, Nora, Kage, Wolf Guy and Kageyama Tamio's Double Fantasy, all Orphan releases. 

The ending song is Happy Birthday by Kenjiro, a well-known tune available on YouTube. There are also some silent promos for the novels and the movie.

The director, Satou Junichi, helmed the Junkers Come Here movie, the Akuma-kun TV series and movies, Sailor Moon and several follow-on series, the Mahou Tsukai Tai TV series and OVAs, Gate Keepers, Kaleido Star, Aria and its sequels, Tamayura and its sequels, and numerous other well-known properties.

Iri translated the show, ninjacloud timed, and I edited and typeset. Nemesis, Topper3000, and Uchuu QCed. Intrepid ripped a Japanese VHS tape on his All-in-Wonder setup. The show was never released on laserdisc, let alone DVD.

Junkers Come Here: Memories of You is straightforward and heartfelt. It's easy to be cynical about it, but I found it a welcome dose of positive feelings in the midst of a seemingly endless stream of horrific events. Dogs are good for the soul, Junkers especially. 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.

Bremen 4 (Blu-ray)

With the release of the 1981 TV special Bremen 4, Orphan and M74 have completed their high-definition survey of Tezuka Osamu's feature length anime movies for NTV's annual telethon. The eight Tezuka Production specials were:

1978: Hyakumannen Chikyuu no Tabi: Bander Book
1979: Kaitei Choutokkyuu Marine Express
1980: Fumoon
1981: Bremen 4 
1983: Time Slip Ichimannen Prime Rose
1984: Daishizen no Majuu Bagi
1986: Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet
1989: Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: Boku wa Songoku

The 1985 special, Akuma Shima no Prince – Mitsume ga Touru, was based on a Tezuka Osamu character but was produced by Toei Animation. It has not been released in high-definition. Maybe someday...

Bremen 4 seems to have an official subtitle, Angels in Hell, although that does not appear in the anime itself. It tells the story of four animals - a cat named Coda, a donkey named Largo, a dog named Allegro, and a chicken named Minuet. 

(That's either a very big cat or a really small donkey.) The four are stranded or abandoned when their peaceful country is conquered by ruthless, Nazi-like invaders. Wandering the countryside, the animals save the life of a visiting alien, Rondo. In return, she gives them devices that transform them into humans. In this form, they become musicians, bringing some joy to their war-ravaged land. Eventually, they come to the attention of the invader's commander, Karl Presto. He falls in love with Coda in her human form, but she and her friends reject his overtures and, returning to animal form, help the resistance to fight the invaders. Eventually, the villains are defeated and peace returns.

Bremen 4 was the last of the TV specials that made heavy use of Tezuka's Star System, although the stars made cameo appearances in the later specials. The villainous, Wagner-loving commander, Karl Presto, is Rock Holmes, returning to his usual role as a heavy. Presto's father, an even more heinous warmonger, is Lamp, the guy with the candle on his head. Duke Red plays Count Lento, the hapless (and soon posthumous) leader of the invaded country. Ban Shunsaku is Adagio, the manager of a puppet theater who also leads the resistance. Black Jack is a mysterious figure who cares for the orphans of war. Astro Boy appears in a musical sequence, Don Dracula is an announcer at a concert, and Unico and Leo have cameos in the final triumphant march of the animals.

Okamoto Mari (Coda the Cat) played the female leads in Fumoon, Prime Rose, and The Wizard of Oz movie. The incomparable and now sadly deceased Tomiyama Kei (Largo the Donkey) stole the show as the wicked witch in Grim Douwa: Kin no Tori, an Orphan release. Kyouda Hisako (Minuet the chicken) has had a long career, with some unusual roles, such as the father in Shouwa Monogatari. Ishimaru Hiroya gave a bravura performance as the "interpreter" dog Allegro, speaking Donkey, Chicken, or Cat as required. He also played as Rodimus Prime in the various Transformer TV shows. Tomita Kousei and Nozawa Nachi reprised their roles as Ban Shunsaku and Black Jack, respectively, from Marine Express.

The eight specials exemplify Tezuka Osamu's style - the wandering plots, the use of anachronisms for humor, the obvious fanservice (in Bremen 4, Rondo's cleavage defies gravity). I think the later specials were better, with tighter plots and less overt preaching, but they're all very watchable. (Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet remains my favorite.) They also make me more forgiving of Tezuka's earlier Mushi Production movies, the so-called adult cartoons Cleopatra and Sen'ya Ichiya Monogatari. There's a lot of continuity between the Animerama releases and the later specials; the former just have a lot more fanservice. While Tezuka Osamu could work in a much more serious vein (Hidamari no Ki, Hi no Tori), he reveled in the possibilities that his lighter works allowed.

This subtitles for this release were professionally translated. Yogicat transcribed them, and M74 timed them. I edited and typeset (not much). Nemesis and Calyrica did QC. M74 encoded from a BDMV provided by Beatrice Raws. I'm truly grateful to them for sharing their source material. The source material has a a variety of video mistakes. In one scene, the background disappears; in another, the foreground characters. Transitions are rough, and mouth movements are sometimes poorly animated. Still, this is the best source out there.

You can get Bremen 4, and all the other Orphan (or M74) HD releases of the Tezuka Production TV specials, from the usual torrent sources or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

White Fang (100th Release)

After a run of cat-themed shows (Neko Neko Fantasia, Neko Nanka Yondemo Nakai, Space Neko Theater, What's Michael? etc), Orphan Fansubs is going to the dogs, following up our earlier release of Wan Wan Chuushingura with the 1982 TV special, Shiroi Kiba: White Fang Monogatari (White Fang). Based on Jack London's 1906 adventure novel, White Fang tells the story of an Alaskan wolf-dog adopted by an Inuit boy, Mit-sah. After encountering and surviving all kinds of hardships, some natural and some man-made, White Fang eventually finds peace, contentment, and warm weather with the family of wealthy mine-owner Weedon Scott in northern California. This is Orphan's 100th release, counting by titles rather than files.

White Fang was a kind of sequel to London's 1903 book, Call of the Wild. The latter told the story of a domesticated dog that is forced into the wilderness and has to get in touch with its inner wolf in order to survive. White Fang told the reverse tale: a wild wolf-dog is gradually tamed and brought into civilized society by the power of friendship and love. (London thought of it as an allegory of his own life's arc, from teen-aged hoodlum to middle-class successful writer.) Both books were wildly popular in their day and have remained in print ever since. Although accused of portraying the natural world in an overly sentimental light by President Theodore Roosevelt, no less, London studiously avoided attributing thought and motivation to his animals, and he included the seamy and violent side of life on the frontier in the books.

The anime adaptation of White Fang is more overtly intended for a younger audience and provides more character continuity to simplify the plot. For example, the young Inuit who first finds White Fang, Mit-sah, remains the central character throughout the story. In the book, he drops out part way through. The villainous dog trainer Beauty Smith, who tries to turn White Fang into a fighting machine, follows Weedon Scott to California to provide the antagonist for the final segment. In the book, it's an entirely different character. Mit-sah's father, Grey Beaver, is almost a parody of the noble native. In the book, he's more rough-hewn, losing White Fang in a drunken gambling game. Nonetheless, the anime is reasonably faithful to the structure and major incidents of the book. Although White Fang has a few too many facial expressions for my taste, he's never portrayed as a Disney-esque anthropomorphic hero.

The movie isn't a sanitized G-rated adventure, either. It has graphic scenes of fighting, bloodshed, death, and animal abuse.

Tanaka Mayumi provided the voice of Mit-sah. She made her debut at age 10 in Kimba the White Lion. She's probably best known for her roles as Pazu in Castle in the Sky, Giovanni in Night on the Galactic Railway, and of course, Monkey D. Luffy in every incarnation of One Piece. She also played Son Gokuu in Tezuka Osamu Monogatari, an Orphan project. The late Naya Gorou (Weedon Scott) played Inspector Zenigata in the Lupin III properties prior to this death. The director, Yoshikawa Souji, has a number of other credits, including Garon and Space Oz no Bouken.

Iri was inspired to translate White Fang after finding a 576p raw of a hi-def TV broadcast. (The TV logos are not intrusive.) M74 timed, I edited and typeset (very few signs), and bananadoyouwanna and Nemesis did QC. The encode is from heponeko. Given its age, White Fang must be cel-based and is thus a candidate for a true HD remaster, but it's probably not popular enough for that.

So let's go "North to Alaska" with Mit-sah, White Fang, and London's other colorful characters. You can get White Fang from the usual torrent sources or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #new on irc.rizon.net.

Wan Wan Chuushingura

Wan Wan Chuushingura (The Doggie March) is a 1963 Toei Douga feature-length cartoon (they weren't called anime in those days). Starting in 1960 with Saiyuuki, Toei put out a feature-length color cartoon every year. These movies were aimed at children and have been characterized sometimes as faux Disney, with G-rated plots, lots of sidekicks and hijinks, and interpolated songs. In the hands of a master, like Takahata Isao, the formula worked brilliantly (1968's Horus no Daibouken); in less inspired hands, it produced mediocre results. Wan Wan Chuushingura is better than most. It is one of just two Toei productions from the 1960s that has not been translated into English. (The other is Andersen Monogatari.) It is best known for two things: first, it's based on a manga by Tezuka Osamu; and second, it was Miyazaki Hayao's first film as an animator (he did in-between animation).

Wan Wan Chuushingura tells the story of Rock, a country pup who lives in a mountain forest. His mother, Shiro, is a fierce defender of the local fauna from the depredations of Killer the tiger and his evil but clever sidekick, Akamimi the fox. (Never mind that tigers live in jungles, not on mountains, and are solitary except when mating.) When Akemimi lures Shiro into a fatal encounter with Killer, Rock vows revenge. However, he is too young and small to achieve much. He sets out for the city to recruit allies and falls in with a rough but lovable gang of street mutts. After many adventures, Rock eventually leads the city dogs into battle against Killer and Akamimi, with predictable results, if not exactly in a predictable way.

In the title, "wan wan" is Japanese onomatopoeta for a dog's bark, as "nyan nyan" is for a cat's meow. "Chuushingura"  (Treasury of Loyal Retainers) refers to a famous Japanese historical episode, the 47 Ronin, which is frequently dramatized in Japanese movies and plays. Except for the dogs seeking revenge against Killer, the anime doesn't draw on any part of the actual incident. (There aren't even 47 dogs.)

The animation in Wan Wan is fluid, and the action sequences are both exciting and good-looking. The movie is mercifully free of the soulful and romantic songs that periodically wrecked the pace of 1960's Saiyuuki. Aside from the opening and ending, the only other song is a lullaby that Shiro sings to Rock, and it's entirely appropriate in the context. On the other hand, there are a couple of "poetic" dream sequences that seem to be padding. Perhaps they were intended to give younger viewers time to calm down before the next thrill ride.

Because Wan Wan was made more than 60 years ago, the voice actors belong to a different era and are little known to modern audiences. Hori Junko, who played young Rock, had an amazing career, starting in the 1960s and appearing as recently as the last decade. The late Kamo Yoshihisa, who did a great comic turn as the clever but craven Akamichi, worked mostly in the 1960s. The fluid and engaging animation was directed by the late Daikuhara Akira, who worked on several Toei Douga features. He received a Lifetime Achievement Prize in 2006. The musical score is functional, but the catchy opening and closing song, The Doggie March, is a total earworm.

Iri translated the show, and M74 timed it. I edited and typeset (not much to do there), Nemesis and bananadoyouwanna did QC, and Skr encoded from a high-definition stream. The video is full of grain, which led to a large encode; of course, it might just be dirt on a non-remastered print rather than true film grain:

Maybe we'll get a real Blu-Ray someday.

So fall in line with the 47 (well, 31 or so) doggies and march, march, march to see this entertaining story. You can get it from the usual torrent sites and from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.