2025 in Review

2025 turned out to be even more calamitous than I had feared. I couldn't bear to watch the news, as one horror followed another.

Orphan Fansubs

Despite the adverse conditions in real life, Orphan released a near-record number of projects, primarily thanks to prolific translator Perevodildo and the many staffers and helpers from across IRC and Discord. The team subbed several outstanding movies, crushed the backlog of untranslated Young Animator OVAs, revisited some old favorites, and laid the groundwork for interesting new and ongoing projects in 2026.

1. Gakkou no Yuurei volume 3. More ghost stories, mixed animation and live action.
2. Seirei Tsukai. Gods versus superpowered humans. Most of the planet ends up as collateral damage, and no one seems to care much.
3. Gakkou no Yuurei volume 4. Even more ghost stories, mixed animation and live action.
4. Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai: Tsuyoshi no Time Machine de Shikkari Shinasai. A side OVA from long-running (112 episodes), totally forgotten sitcom. Put-upon elder brother Tsuyoshi and a pal travel back in time and discover, accidentally, why his family life in the present is so broken.
5. Mikosuri Han Gekijou. A collection of dirty jokes, strung together around themes. You'll like it, or you won't.
6. Sakyou Komatsu's Animation Theater. Outstanding science fiction and satire from a noted Japanese author. This show is always interesting, often thought provoking, and sometimes spooky.
7. Toraemon. A paean to the 1985 championship baseball team, the Henshin Tigers. Filled with topical references and satires on real characters, it is impossible to understand without a decoder ring.
8. Zetsuai 1989 v2. The grand-daddy of BL OVAs, in a new, shinier encode.
9. Tistou Midori no Oyayubi. A wondrous full-length movie about the power of goodness and beauty to alter lives for the better. Its fairy-tale like artwork and story soothe the soul.
10. Utsu no Miko (1989). This rarity is the prequel to the better-known OVA series of the same name. Utsu no Miko and his friends battle greed and perfidy on Earth, ultimately concluding they must take their battle to the heavens.
11. Tenjou Hen: Utsu no Miko (1990). A summary movie for the OVA series, covering the first five chapters.
12. Tanjou Debut. This OVA showcases four wannabe idols/actresses performing in unrelated TV dramas.
13. Cello Hiki no Gauche 1998. A highly abbreviated version of the classic, made to be shown in school classrooms. Faithful to the original but nowhere near as good as the Takahata Isao version.
14. Hashire Melos 1979. Another abbreviated version of a classic for the educational market. It is much shorter than the (later) movie but again, not as good.
15. Mahjong Hishouden: Naki no Ryuu 1988. An enigmatic mahjong player, known only as the Calling Dragon, tangles with various yakuza factions, all of whom want him for his legendary luck. An expanded version of the OVA that was subbed in 2024.
16. Kimu no Juujika. An excellent movie about the kidnapping of Korean workers for forced labor on the Japanese mainland during World War II. A religious overlay does not mask the brutality of the Japanese regime.  
17. Heart Cocktail Colorful episodes 1-5. A modern version of Watase Seizou's classic short tales of love found, lost, or regained. This set of five stories is set in spring. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser.
18. Magma Taishi, episodes 1-4. A Tezuka Osamu series that had been on my radar for a long time. Aliens led by the evil Lord Goa intend to seize Earth and destroy humanity. Only a handful of people, aided by a giant golden robot named Magma, stand in his way.
19. Tooyamazakura Uchuuchou: Yatsu no Na wa Gold. A complete clusterfuck of a sci-fi show, in which samurai themes are transplanted into an interplanetary future. Joint with Inka.
20. Gakkou no Yuurei volume 5. Still more ghost stories, mixed animation and live action.
21. Junk Boy. An ecchi, not to mention sketchy, story about a young boy who lands his dream job at men's magazine Potato Boy, only to find that life surrounded by beautiful (and sometimes naked) women is not quite what he expected. I originally edited this show for Erobeat. The new translation and encode are a significant improvement.
22. Heart Cocktail Colorful episodes 6-10. Five summer stories from Watase Seizou. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser.
23. Heart Cocktail Colorful episodes 11-15 and batch. The final set of five stories, set in late fall and winter. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser. 
24. Gakkou no Yuurei volume 6 and batch. The last of the original series.
25. The First Line. A recent web short, showing the tribulations of a young animator trying to find his own style. The anime plays with framing as a way of showing the young man breaking out of his constraints.
26. Usagi-chan de Cue!!. This very funny and very ecchi sci-fi caper posits a fusion between a schoolboy's pet rabbit and curvaceous girl delinquent. The resulting hybrid is very affectionate toward her keeper, and more than combative enough to fend off the various baddies. The third episode was my first attempt at rescuing an orphan, as part of C1. This version has a better translation and new encode.
27. Magma Taishi, episodes 5-7. The plot thickens. The aliens infiltrate by posing as humans, protected by various shady government agencies more interested in alien technology than saving humanity. 
28. Shin Gakkou no Yuurei. A sequel to the original series, fully animated for the first time since volume 1. 
29. Magma Taishi, episodes 8-10. The good guys' attempts to fend off Lord Goa seem increasingly futile. 
30. Magma Taishi, episodes 11-13 and batch. The Slough of Despond™ and the eventual victory of humanity. However, the outcome is not as clear-cut as one might expect in a shounen sci-fi series. 
31. Tezuka Osamu Works: Kyoto Animation Theater. A collection of short films that were shown in the Tezuka Osamu Kyoto Animation Theater, now closed. Shorts about familiar Tezuka characters - Astro Boy, Unico, Princess Knight, Leo the white lion, Black Jack, the Phoenix - alternate with humorous looks at key episodes in Kyoto's history.
32. Aoi Kioku. An excellent movie about Japan's attempts to colonize Manchuria during World War II. Teenage boys are lured to Manchuria with the promise of free land, only to find themselves unprotected and at the mercy of Russian soldiers when the Soviets invade in August, 1945.
33. Hello WeGo! A Young Animator's OVA. The protagonist is a lonely boy whose only companion is his mobile robot, named WeGo. A fairly routine coming-of-age story, but not offensive.
34. Kicks and Punk. Another Young Animator's OVA. The main character is a girl who loves to run in an age when everyone else uses automated propulsion. She discovers a shared mania for sneakers with an unlikely older woman.
35. Midnight Crazy Trail. A Young Animator's OVA. A young witch is sent to our world for training, but all she wants to do is get rid of her magic and be ordinary. Sort of a cross between Kiki's Delivery Service and Getbackers and not very original.
36. Hoshizora no Violin. A movie about a young boy whose quest to become Japan's Stradivarius is interrupted by World War II. Moving, but it whitewashes the Japanese regime in Manchuria; Aoi Kioku is more realistic.
37. Charanpo Land no Bouken. A Young Animator's OVA. Animals live in a fantasy world where a magic baobab tree provides all the necessities of daily life. When the tree suddenly becomes barren, three youngsters must race against time and other interests to restore the tree's essence.
38. Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills. A Young Animator's OVA. A fast-moving and subversive sci-fi story, in which a wannabe "Vtuber" slacker suddenly receives an overpowered baby as a present.
39. Shibuya Honky Tonk. The purported autobiography of George Akayama, ex-yakuza, author, and raconteur. Exaggerated and more than a bit smug, it's an entertaining comedy in spots.
40. Adesugata Mahou no Sannin Musume. Princess Persia, Minky Momo, and Creamy Mami hang out at a hot springs, make prank calls to their boyfriends, and review highlights from their TV series.
41. The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra (Pilot). A short promotional film for an Oshii Mamoru series that was never made. An intriguing premise.
42. Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 9 - 12. Once again, more Cat-Eyed Boy for Halloween. Subsequently, we've learned that the complete series will be released on DVD in 2026. 
43. Shin Takarajima DVD. An early Tezuka Osamu TV special, retelling Treasure Island with animal characters. It features a new, improved encode.
44. Heavy. A movie about a karate fighter who is recruited by a dying sports doctor to contend for the heavyweight title.
45. Animated Classics of Japanese Literature: The Izu Dancer. This collection of stories based on classic Japanese literature has been on my radar for a long time. The first is an oblique tale of a student's encounter with, and unfulfilled love for, an itinerant entertainer.
46. Ashita Genki ni Naare! This movie starts with the firebombing of Tokyo in March, 1945, but it mostly focuses on the plight of Japanese orphans immediately after the war.
47. It Rained Fire. This outstanding movie is tightly focused on the firebombing of Fukuoka in June, 1945. It's juxtaposition of children's carefree lives prior to the air raid, and the horrors they went through during it, is very effective. 
48. Animated Classics of Japanese Literature: The Sound of Waves. This second story in Animated Classics is a coming of age story about a young fisherman's romance with a local girl, and the obstacles both must overcome to reach their mutual happiness.
49. Animated Classics of Japanese Literature: The Dancing Girl. Episode ten of Animated Classics is another star-crossed romance, this time with tragic results.

Okizari, Orphan's h-anime label, was also active this year.

1. Bouken Shite mo Ii Koro. A reworking of a show first released by Erobeat, with improved encode and translation. It's about the (mis)adventures of a young man whose desire to be in films leads him to work as an AV actor for a porn video company.
2. Angel. A new translation of an OVA first released by Erobeat. This release uses the first edition Japanese laserdisc, which includes a smidgen of content cut from later home-video versions.

My personal favorites included Tistou Midori, Sakyou Komatsu's Animation Theater, Kimu no Juujika, Aoi Kioku, It Rained Fire, and Galaxy Apartment Cosmo Hills. The ultra-short The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra was very intriguing. Mikosuri Han Gekijou and Junk Boy were guilty pleasures.

A big "thank you" to all the team members, including translators Perevodildo, Skr, and Yume (who also time), editor and QC Paul Geromini, timer ninjacloud, QCs Nemesis, Uchuu, Topper3000, VigorousJammer, Eternal_Blizzard, bananadoyouwanna, MartyMcflies, Muzussawa, and True Noobow Gamer,and encoders anonymous1, anonymous2, "coffee," and WOWmd. I must also thank the Arutha foundation, which hosts all of Orphan's releases on IRC and reseeded all of our past releases. Finally, I'd like to thank our joint-project collaborators: Inka, DarkWispers, and LonelyChaser. But whether mentioned or not, every staff member has contributed to the work this year.

The Audio Side

Nothing this year.

 
Work for Other Groups

Some old, some new.

• Frozen-EviL. Yawara! reached a major milestone with the completion of the Blu-ray version of the show and the release of the batch torrent. I also edited the live-action movie. Sayona, Yawara-chan!
• Blasphemboys. I QCed more of Ningen Kakumei. I edited or QCed several other shows as well.
• Darkonius. I finished editing and typesetting a new version of Damekko Doubutsu (Useless Animals). This is one of my favorite short series, and I look forward to its release.

Favorites of 2025

I'm not an anime critic, so I don't try to compile a "best of" list for the anime year. Instead, I'm listing my favorites of the year and why they kept me watching all the way through. As usual, shows with lots of "action" (i.e., violence) mostly don't make the cut.

In alphabetical order:

• Ame to Kimi to. This low-key comedy about an introverted young woman who adopts a smarter-than-the-average-bear tanuki was very soothing. As is often the case with pets, the tanuki helps his(?) "owner" grow and come out of her shell.
• Apocalypse Hotel. An absurdist comedy about a high-end Tokyo hotel staffed completely by robots after the human race disappears. The humor gets very "out there" at times, but it worked for me.
• Ballpark de Tsukamaete! A feel-good comedy about the fans and staff at a mid-tier baseball team's stadium.
• Dandadan S2. It doesn't get more over-the-top than this show, and the the second season amped up the shenanigans to eleven. 
• Dekin no Mokura. An oddball show about college students awakening to the world of spirits after interacting with a generous, and perhaps immortal, recluse.
• Kowloon Generic Romance. An intriguing sci-fi/slice-of-life show, with an underlying premise that wasn't clear even after it ended.
• Kuroshitsuji: Midori no Majo Hen. This is the first Kuroshitsuji series I was able to watch all the way through. Although totally absurd in its science (tanks in the 1880s?), the human drama seemed more compelling and grounded.
• Kusuriya no Hitorigoto S2. The further adventures of Xiomao and Maomao and company. Although showing signs of "light novel syndrome" (i.e., spinning events out for the sake of more volumes), it still hits my historical shoujo sweet spot.
• Okinawa de Suki ni Natta Ko ga Hougen Sugite Tsura Sugiru. This lightweight, likeable comedy about a Tokyo boy smitten with an Okinawan girl but unable to understand her dialect never set a foot wrong.
• Shabake. Youkai and mysteries. For me, an unbeatable combination. The self-effacing, quiet protagonist proved much stronger than he appeared. 

Quirky personal favorites:

• Me and the Alien MuMu. Alien cats obsessed with consumer appliances trying to save Earth from destruction? What's not to like?

I continue to enjoy the Ranma 1/2 reboot, rather more than original. And I watched the extended epilogue of Boku no Hero Academia, which is a masterclass on how to conclude a long-running battle shounen.

 

Looking Ahead

Orphan ends 2025 with a significant backlog of projects. We intend to finish the DVD episodes of Animated Classics of Japanese Literature and continue to search for other sources for the rest. There will be more Cat-Eyed Boy, hopefully from the DVD remasters. And we're starting a new project to revisit the early Toei Douga movies, using the best sources available.

 

On the down side, the Arutha foundation is closing down early next year. Orphan is collaborating with Saizen for a new torrent seeding and archiving solution, but the IRC XDCC capability will disappear. If you use IRC XDCC, please get your files before January 31, 2026.

 

Meanwhile, thanks, everyone, both team members and fans. Have a happy and safe 2026. 

 

2024 in Review

A year of retreads and repeats, none of them good: War in Ukraine. War in the Middle East. Famine in Sudan. Famine in Gaza. Covid and flu and RSV, oh my. Donald Trump, the once-and-future president. It's all downhill now.

Orphan Fansubs

Orphan's output maintained its strong pace, primarily thanks to new translator Perevodildo and "veteran" team member Skr (he's decades younger than I am). An orphan series, Kingdom of Chaos: Born to Kill, was redone and completed, and another, Gakkou no Yuurei, set in motion.

1. Fruit Brains. This set of shorts, about Orange attempting to complete various missions while Pineapple pesters him with pointless questions, is just plain hilarious.
   
2. Mellow. A philandering layabout poses as his sister, a teacher, to escape retribution. His "lessons" continuously land him in hot water.
   
3. One Pound Gospel. Takahashi Rumiko at her finest. A failing fighter with too large an appetite is taken in hand by a novice nun and put on the road to success.
   
4. DAYS OAD (2017). A set of omake for the series, set at a summer training camp. Joint with Saizen.
5. Asatte Dance. A young man awakens in bed with a nubile naked girl. He has no memory of who she is or how she got there. Is she after his body, his inheritance, or both?
   
6. Nayuta. A young girl takes in a refugee with a strange artifact and finds herself on the front line of liberating humankind from aliens. Life, The Universe, and Everything explain in less than 90 minutes.
   
7. Satsujin Kippu wa Heart-iro v2. A lighthearted mystery set in Nagasaki, featuring a truant girl, her perceptive cat, and several mysterious and/or tragic strangers..
8. Heart Cocktail Again. More Watase Saizou shorts about romance found, lost, and regained. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaster. 
9. Science Saru x MBS Original Short Anime Daisakusen. More shorts, mostly funny, one enigmatic.
   
10. Boku no Oldies wa All-Color. A Watase Saizou "manga with music," first of three. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser.
11. Bakuen Campus Guardress. One of the first OVAs ever subbed, and a wicked parody of the "schoolkids save the world" genre.. 
12. Captain Bal. This Anime Tamago OVA is a warmhearted looked at an inept band of impoverished children trying to be pirates.
    
13. Chalk-iro no People. Another Watase Saizou "manga with music," mostly set in the "chalk-colored" apartment house of the title. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser. 
14. Bride of Deimos. A gothic tale of orchids, incest, and murder. 
15. Chuck Shimezou. Another charming Anime Tamago OVA, about a young "zipper youkai" trying to accomplish his first "closing."
16. Ore no Sora. The scion of the richest family in Japan decides to become a policeman and puts his fortune to work collaring fiendish criminals. Not one frame is believable. 
    
17. Koiko no Mainichi. A charming slice of life romance, but the life being sliced is that of a young Yakuza enforcer and his curvaceous bride.
    
18. Dragon Slayer Eiyuu Densetsu: Ouji no Tabidachi. Swords and sorcery and not much else.
19. Houkago no Tinker Bell. A "high school mystery," in which a bickering pair of friends try to solve the disappearance of a classmate..
20. Garden of Remembrance. An explosion of color and imagination, set to a melancholy song.
21. Michite Kuru Toki no Mukou ni. A sweeping reincarnation romance, spanning millennia. Two lovers in ancient Mongolia are separated by fate, but their shared red deer talismans strive to bring them together across time.
    
22. Princess Army. Yawara Lite. A young judoka becomes an object of romantic contention between her adoring coterie and an arrogant stranger.
    
23. Nijuushi no Hitomi. A look back at pre-war Japan, as seen through the eyes of a pacifistic teacher. She tries to remain true to her beliefs as war encroaches..
24. Nemurenu Yoru no Chiisana Ohanashi. Soothing short stories about a cat (named Cat) and his friends. They have simple adventures or just hang out and enjoy life.
    
25. Ryokunohara Labyrinth. A shounen-ai sci-fi tale, innocuous and baffling. 
26. Tottoi. A young boy returns home to Sardinia with his family. There, he discovers that a supposedly extinct seal species may not have vanished as completely as everyone thinks.
    
27. Ushiro no Hyakutaro. Three parts supernatural thriller, one part spiritualist claptrap. 
28. Two on the Road. The last of Watase Saizou's "manga with music." This one tells a complete story about two lovers who split up but eventually come back together. Joint with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser.
29. Kingdom of Chaos: Born to Kill. An amnesiac young man joins forces with two other outcasts to overthrow a bloodthirsty tyrant. But why is he the tyrant's spitting image?
    
30. Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 4 to 6. Three new episodes, now using laserdiscs rather than DVDs. The roughness of the source suits the material.
31. Aoki Honoo v2. The story of a heel (or psychopath) and his steady ascension by using (and discarding) the women in his life. 
32. Gakkou no Yuurei volume 1. Ghost stories set at schools. 
33. Gakkou no Yuurei volume 2. More ghost stories set at schools, including some live-action segments. 
34. Naki no Ryuu - Hiryuu no Shou (1991). An enigmatic Mahjong gambler, known only as The Calling Dragon, is caught up in a Yakuza war.
35. OL Kaizou Kouza. A ripe piece of Japanese misogyny, purporting to show through comic skits the superiority of male workers to "office ladies."
36. Cat-Eyed Boy episodes 7 and 8. More adventures of our half-cat-youkai hero.
37. Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas. A Christmas shoujo that is neither a typical Christmas story nor a typical shoujo, but rather a character study of two deeply flawed individuals.
38. Natsufuku no Shoujo-tachi. An anime and live-action documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima, focusing on three teenage schoolgirls who perished in the blast.
39. Plastic Little. Urushihara Satoshi's character designs on unfettered display. What else do you need to know?
    

My personal favorites included One Pound Gospel, Captain Bal and Chuck Shimezou, Nemurenu Yoru no Chiisana Ohanashi, Nijuushi no Hitomi, and Michite Kuru Toki no Mukou ni. Plastic Little was the group's guilty pleasure for the year. The two ultra-shorts, Fruit Brains and Science Saru x MBS Original Short Anime DaisakusenI, tickled my funny bone.

A big "thank you" to all the team members, including translators (and timers) Perevodildo and Skr, timer ninjacloud, QCs Nemesis, Uchuu, Rezo, Topper3000, VigorousJammer, and ImAWasteOfHair, and encoders anonymous1, anonymous2, "coffee," Rezo, and WOWmd. I must also thank the Arutha foundation, which hosts all of Orphan's releases on IRC and reseeded all of our past releases. Finally, I'd like to thank our joint-project collaborators: Inka, DarkWispers, and LonelyChaser. But whether mentioned or not, every staff member has contributed to the work this year.

The Audio Side

Orphan released one additional soundtrack this year, Boku no Oldies wa All-Color, as well as the OP/ED EP from OL Kaizou Kouza.

 
Work for Other Groups

Some old, some new.

• Frozen-EviL. I continued to edit the slow-moving Blu-Ray version of Yawara! Maybe next year.
  
• Perevodildo. I edited and typeset a new version of Guskou Budori. I started editing and typesetting Ningen Kakumei (The Human Revolution), a long series about a Japanese religious movement. Because of Orphan's backlog, I'll only be doing typesetting after episode 1.
  
• Darkonius. I started editing and typesetting a new version of Damekko Doubutsu (Useless Animals). This is one of my favorite short series.
• WasteofBlindness. I continued typesetting Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko.
  

Favorites of 2024

I'm not an anime critic, so I don't try to compile a "best of" list for the anime year. Instead, I'm listing my favorites of the year and why they kept me interested all the way through. As usual, shows with lots of "action" (i.e., violence) mostly don't make the cut.

In alphabetical order:

• Boku no Kokoro no Yabai season 2. This exploration of two mismatched junior high students stumbling toward friendship and even romance is one of the best romcoms ever. Season 2 showed the relationship progressing toward a key milestone.
  
• Dandadan. Balls out (literally) batshit craziness from start to finish. Exhausting and exhilarating at the same time, and wonderfully animated by Science Saru. More to come.
  
• Dungeon Meshi. Comedy, fantasy, and food combined with a crazy cast of goofballs. More to come.
  
• Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai. If you like high fantasy, it doesn't come much better than this. A fascinating premise and deep plot mechanics work smoothly with a boy's coming of age drama.
  
• Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. I'm very partial to historical shoujo (such as Saiunkoku Monogatari and Akatsuko no Yona), so this should be no surprise. A quirky heroine, an apparently hopeless love interest, a complex plot with many subplots; what's not to like? Starts again in early 2025.
• Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san. A real sleeper, with a farcical sci-fi plot (panda-loving alien general fights directionally-challenged red ranger, except on their days off) cloaking a wistful and melancholy slice-of-life about the importance of stopping to smell the roses.
  
• Make Heroine ga Oosugiro! This show played with the tropes of the harem light novel, with the self-aware hero more an observer and facilitator than protagonist.
  
• Natsume Yuujinchou season 7. I love this show. Its moodiness and melancholy, as well as its fundamental decency, never pall. Long may Nyanko-sensei thrive.
• Ramen Aka Neko. Cats! Ramen! Cats making ramen! This slice-of-life comedy went far beyond its basic gag. More to come.
  
• Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid season 3. A wonderful fantasy romcom that received a complete, albeit cheap, adaptation. The story is heartwarming, the ending, deserved.
  

Quirky personal favorites:

• Dungeon no Nako no Hito. This very low-key comedy answered a burning question: how do all those damned fantasy dungeons actually work? The heroine's deadpan reactions to one ridiculous revelation after another never palled.
• Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru. This show will be on no-one else's "favorites of 2024" list, except mine. Very soothing, and excellent proof of the maxim, "Youth is wasted on the young."
  

Ooi! Tonbo also made me rethink my aversion to golf - almost. I'm enjoying the Ranma 1/2 reboot, rather more than original. Dosanko Gal wa Namara Menkoi was a good romcom but a bit generic. Re: Monster was a guilty pleasure, the one isekai I didn't toss right away. Sousei no Frieren fell off the list, because the second half's "exam" arc wasn't nearly as compelling as the first half.

 

Personal Milestones

I've been fansubbing for a long time. Since I started, I've kept track of all the projects I've worked on and all the scripts I've touched, mostly as an editor, but sometimes as a QC, a typesetter, or even (under duress) a timer. This year, I reached some significant milestones:

• I've worked on more than 750 projects
• I've worked on more than 3000 scripts
  
• I've edited more than 2800 scripts
• I've typeset more than than 1000 scripts

Now the caveats: a few of the projects are v2s, so scripts that have been edited may have been edited a second time. Most of the projects I've typeset I've also edited or QCed. On the other hand, I don't count the release checks I do on all Orphan releases. No matter how I count, it's a lot. Fingers crossed for even more.

 

Looking Ahead

Orphan ends 2024 with a significant backlog of projects. Additional translators, editors, typesetters, and QCs are always welcome.

Meanwhile, thanks, everyone, both team members and fans. Have a happy and safe 2025.

 

There Are Places I Remember...

I turn 77 today, reinforcing my title as Oldest Living Fansubber™. It reminds me how long I've been doing this (17 years - not as long as some, however), how many groups and people I've worked with (dozens, hundreds, respectively), and how few I've met in person (one). Most of my early colleagues have left the scene. Simultaneous streaming dominates anime. That's not a bad thing; anime is more accessible than ever before, to a wider audience. But fansubbing has shrunk to a fraction of what it once was.

I started in 2006, quite late in life. I had never watched anime as a child, because there wasn't any available in the US in the early 1950s. The arrival of cable TV in my rural town in the late 1980s ignited my interested in anime, thanks to the SciFi channel's annual anime movie festival. Then, in 2005, broadband Internet became available here, and I tapped into the proliferating fansub community via Internet Relay Chat (IRC). I was mostly a lurker, but one I day I offered some suggestions about improving Anime-United's release of REC. The group leader replied that if I thought I could do better, I should join their team. I did, working in QC.

Anime-United broke up almost immediately. The remnants, including me, were absorbed by a larger and better group named Yoroshiku. My first project there was again REC. With a few months, I had started editing; my first editing project was Tactical Roar, still a sentimental favorite. Later in 2006, I joined C1, again as a QC, and moved into editing there in 2007. For the next few years, I worked wherever I could, including now-defunct groups like Black Order, Animanda, GotWoot, Mendoi, Ureshii, and Erobeat (where I edited 80+ hentai scripts). However, I refused to take any competency tests. Believe it or not, in those days, major groups tested applicants for translation, editing, typesetting, or QC positions. I thought my work spoke for itself. Or to paraphrase the great Danny Glover, I was too old for that shit.

Working across so many groups, and accepting any and every script that was thrown at me, dimmed my initial enthusiasm, and at one point, I took a six months' "sabbatical" from fansubbing. When I started again, I worked with fewer groups - mostly Ureshii/Frostii/Monokage, FFF WhyNot, Kiteseekers, and Saizen. The tighter focus also allowed me to learn some additional skills: I picked up some basic timing and typesetting from the experienced staff at these groups.

As I've documented elsewhere, I also started my own group, Orphan, tentatively at first. It became my main focus when simultaneous streaming made fansubbing of weekly shows irrelevant, and mainstream fansub groups began to wither. Orphan flowered in the mid teens, releasing up to forty shows a year. It has now slowed down considerably, as have I, but the team still manages to crank out a project once a month or so.

The list of people to whom I am indebted - for teaching me the ropes, for giving me opportunities to try my skills, for supporting my efforts to subtitle old shows - is very long. I'm not going to list names (or handles, rather, since I rarely know real names), because I don't want to slight anyone by inadvertently forgetting to include them. You know who you are. I'm immensely grateful that you afforded me the opportunities to participate, contribute, and learn.

This is not a valedictory. I've worked on more than 3,000 scripts so far, and I don't intend to stop. I'm set in my ways, but I can still, under protest, learn new tools and techniques; for example, I use Discord now as well as IRC. The anime back catalog is far from fully explored. In short, subtitling anime remains a diverting hobby. Maybe it's even useful.

2023 in Review

A year of retreads and repeats, none of them good: War in Ukraine. War in the Middle East. Covid, flu, and RSV. Donald Trump and Joe Biden running for President. I want my year back.

Orphan Fansubs

Orphan's output this year was lower and included lots of reissues, continuing a trend that started with the pandemic. Joint projects with the back catalog kairetsu flourished. One lengthy series, Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, was finished, and an orphan series, Shinshaku Sengoku Eiyuu Densetsu Sanada Juu Yuushi The Animation (aka Sanada 10), was redone and completed.

1. Tengai Makyou: Ziria Oboro Hen. A delightful fantasy OVA set in an alternate Japan. Interesting characters, plus lots of comedy and action.
   
2. Doukyuusei: Climax v2. A new version of the ecchi OVA. ProxyMan bought the DVDs, so...
   
3. Sotsugyousei v2. A new version of the ecchi OVA. ProxyMan again.
4. Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, the last five episodes and the batch torrent. The series strayed into New Testament territory at the end, to please its sponsor, the Vatican.
   
5. Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori full HD. This reissue was my "rehab" assignment after being down and out with Covid for a month. It is absolutely delightful. Go watch it.
   
6. Shinshaku Sengoku Eiyuu Densetsu Sanada Juu Yuushi special. This release was a test to see if it would be possible to finish the Sanada 10 TV series. It is a stand-alone tale and, because it's complete, better than the TV show.
   
7. Noel's Fantastic Trip, DVD (wide-screen) version. A wonderful children's environmental fable, full of color, songs by Iruka, and Easter eggs for adults. A joint project with LonelyChaser.
   
8. UTOPA full HD. Another reissue in full HD. I liked this sci-fi OVA more the second time around. 
9. Noel's Fantastic Trip, LD (full-frame) version. Requested by MartyMcflies because of its unretouched soundtrack and somewhat larger video frame. A joint project with LonelyChaser.
   
10. Wan Wan Chuushingura full HD. A third full HD reissue. This 60s Toei cartoon is delightfully goofy, entertaining for children without talking down to them.
    
11. Shinshaku Sengoku Eiyuu Densetsu Sanada Juu Yuushi. This was Orphan's major series for the year. The first nine episodes were reworked DigitalPanic/AonE subs. The last three were original. When completed, the show was still an orphan: there was supposed to be a second season, but it was never made.
    
12. Heart Cocktail. This six-episode OVA was a joint project with DarkWispers and LonelyChaser. It consisted of short vignettes about love - started, stopped, lost, found. It suited me down the ground: a show about adults, clear-eyed and not overtly sentimental, yet profoundly optimistic.
    
13. Dallos Blu-ray. Why not? Fourth time's the charm.
    
14. Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo! This reissue used a full HD web rip and BlueFixer's (Iri's) subs. One of the more awkward of the early Toei cartoons, with too much narrated exposition and too little character development.
    
15. Genji, Part One. An absolute mind-fuck, based on a sci-fi manga that was never (and never will be) completed. Part romance, part samurai flick, part sci-fi, with a little bit of BL thrown in.
    
16. Cat-Eyed Boy (1976) ep3. This was the last episode released on DVD, so it was supposed to be the end of the project. Afterward, Skr and I bought the laserdisc box set, so perhaps there will be more "gekimation" in the future.
    
17. Inochi no Chikyuu: Dioxin no Natsu. This docu-drama about the dioxin spill in Seveso, Italy, was appropriately alarming but not altogether dramatically compelling.
    
18. Raiyantsuuri no Uta. A wonderful movie about trauma, isolation, and the redeeming power of human interaction.
19. Okama Hakusho. A comedy about gender confusion and the gay scene in Japan. NSFW but not (quite) hentai.
20. Ai to Ken no Camelot: Mangaka Marina Time Slip Jiken. A time-travel adventure in which a young mangaka, Ikeda Marina, and her bishie friends travel to Camelot to save it from civil war.
21. Uchuu Neko: Mardock no Bouken.  Four short episodes about Mardock the space-going cat and his pal, Lt. Chuui. Charming, with cats. 'nuff said.
    

My personal favorites included Tengai Makyou, Heart Cocktail, and Noel's Fantastic Trip. Plus, I was really pleased to have finished Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, as well as Sanada 10, orphaned more than a decade ago..

A big shout-out to new translator Perevodildo, who helped drive several long-stalled projects to completion. Skr, tenkenX6, Iri, and purpleparrotkin also made major translation contributions. I want to thank the Arutha foundation, which has hosted all of Orphan's releases on IRC. The timing regulars, ninjacloud and Yogicat, and the QC regulars, Nemesis, Uchuu, Rezo, and Topper3000, continue to carry the bulk of the group's projects in their respective fields. Rezo and Intrepid run media acquisition and encoding and are very active. But whether mentioned or not, every staff member has contributed to the work this year.

The Audio Side

Orphan released one additional soundtrack this year, the Genji, Part One music collection.

 
Work for Other Groups

Some old, some new.

• Frozen-EviL. I continued to edit the slow-moving Blu-Ray version of Yawara!
  
• Saizen. In a sudden burst of energy, Saizen finished the Laughing Salesman specials. I QCed the Sand Land promo. I also finished editing Baby and Me, although the episodes have only just started to trickle out.
  
• Inka kairetsu. I typeset the Danguard Ace movies, all of the Tekkaman TV series, the "hard" signs in Shounan Bakusouzoku, and the first eight episodes of Starship Girl Yamamto Yohko. I will be calling in favors next year...
  

I will miss Moguro Fukuzo. I strongly suspect he's going to have the last laugh.

Favorites of 2023

I'm not an anime critic, so I don't try to compile a "best of" list for the anime year. Instead, I'm listing my favorites of the year and why they kept me interested all the way through.

In alphabetical order:

• AI no Idenshi. A thought-provoking look at AI and robotics, done with great integrity and without sensationalism. I really want more, because the underlying mangas have not been translated.
• Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu. This was a great year for romcoms, and none delved more deeply than this examination of the unlikely friendship (or perhaps more) between a popular girl and a deeply introverted boy. Second season starting soon. Yay!
• Jijou wo Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru. This comedy about a relentlessly genki elementary school boy and the ultra-shy object of his attention could be considered a romcom too. No second season, alas.
  
• Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia. Another terrific romcom about a mismatched pair of lovers. Second season in 2024. Yay!
  
• Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi. More romcom hi-jinks, with characters supposedly descended from Japanese mythological creatures.
• Mairimashita! Iruma-kun S3. Thank goodness this isn't a "top ten list." This comedy was the salvation of my Saturday mornings.
  
• Pluto. Tezuka Osamu and Urasawa Naoki and Maruyama Masao, oh, my. Sky high expectations met and exceeded.
  
• Revenger. This violent show ought to be quite outside my wheelhouse, but it made compelling, and ultimately tragic, viewing, with its violence in service to the underlying message.
• Rurouni Kenshin. The grand-daddy of battle shounen returns in a new, faithful, altogether excellent adaption. While I prefer the sort-of goofy early Kenshin to the later, more serious version, I will continue to watch, that I will. And be sure to check out the Takarazuka Review's Rurouni Kenshin the Musical...
  
• Tomo-chan Is a Girl! More romcom, very well made, with sharply delineated characters, great gags, and a conclusive ending.
• Undead Girl Murder Farce. Another mystery series, with terrific kinetic energy. It needs a follow-on, through, and probably won't get it.
  

Sousou no Frieren and Kusuriya no Hitorigoto would both have made the list, but they continue into next year.

 

I watched Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu. Yes, it's a trifle, but it has a human-sized talking cat. Of course I'd like it. I also really enjoyed the second tranche of Nights with a Cat. I recognize my own cantankerous critter in its devious dark eyes.

Looking Ahead

Orphan ended 2023 by clearing its backlog of active projects, but several new ones are getting started. Translation remains the key bottleneck, but every sort of skill is in short supply. Volunteers are always welcome.

Meanwhile, thanks, everyone - both team members and fans. Have a happy and safe 2024.