It's taken three tries, and fifteen months, but here at last is a complete and listenable version of the 1993 OVA A-Girl.
In 1992, Madhouse and Margaret Comics collaborated on an OVA of the shounen-ai romance Zetsuai 1989. This was successful, and in 1993, Madhouse issued six additional OVAs based on Margaret Comic properties:
- Oshare Kozou wa Hanamaru
- Singles
- Pops
- Oeda wa Nemurenai!
- Kiss wa Hitomi ni Shite
- A-Girl
Unfortunately,
these additional OVAs were not successful and quickly sank into
obscurity. None of them made it to Laserdisc, let alone DVD.
A-Girl
is based on a 1984 shoujo romance manga by Fusako Kuramochi. It tells a
very simple story: girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy.
High-school student Mariko and her elder sister Mayu are forced out of
their apartment by a fire and move in with their landlord. Mariko meets
the landlord's handsome son, Natsume, who is also a model. They fall in
love but break up when Mariko discovers that Natsume is seeing other
girls. Eventually, they are reunited, and the end credits roll.
The story of this release, however, is far from simple.
The first raw we found, back in September 2016, was defective: small
(512 x 384) and missing the end credits. Apparently, it was stitched
together from three pieces on YouTube. The second raw was based on a used VHS tape purchased in Japan. It wasn't perfect either: tape
stretch caused noticeable audio distortion in three places - but at
least it was complete. This month, the VHS ripper realized that the audio distortion could be overcome. He made a new audio track, and I spliced the new track over the old one in the three chapters that were broken. That brings us, at long last, to this "VHS v2" release.
A-Girl
was the directorial debut of Kousaka Kitarou. (He also did the
character designs.) He later worked for many years as an animation
director and key animator on Ghibli films before achieving prominence as
the director of the award-winning Nasu: Anadalusia no Natsu. For A-Girl,
he chose a novel approach: he made a "silent movie." A-Girl has no
dialog and is performed against a background of Japanese pop songs
composed by Okada Tooru and sung (in English!) by SEIKA. Dialog placards
provide continuity, like in old silent films. It works pretty well and
doesn't interrupt the flow of the story.
Iri bought the VHS tape for this release in Japan.He also translated and timed. I edited and typeset, Nemesis and
Eternal_Blizzard did QC, our media guy ripped the VHS tape (and the replacement audio track), and M74 encoded it (and the replacement audio track).
As usual, you can get this version of A-Girl from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. If you like the music, the soundtrack is available on BakaBT. If you already downloaded the previous version, you can get a patch to v2 here. It's rather large; the entire audio track gets replaced.
On behalf of all the dogs and cats and other critters of Orphan Fansubs...
Here's wishing you a joyous, and safe, holiday season.
(Yeah, it's last year's blog entry, but it's still cute.)
Just in time for Christmas, a digital version of the 1984 Stop!! Hibari-kun! Song Book - a collection of songs from the anime, including the opening, the ending, and various insert and character songs.
I like to find and release the soundtracks from the old shows that Orphan subs, but sometimes it's not easy. Like the shows themselves, the musical offerings are often stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide. Even when a CD version exists, it's usually out of print.
As with most of our analog media, this album comes from Yahoo Auctions in Japan. Skr bought it for me and photographed the album art and insert pages. (I bought the album to get the official lyrics for the insert songs.) Skr then shipped it to Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions as part of a massive shipment of laserdiscs. (It fits right in, format-wise.) Erik transshipped it to me. I ripped it on my vintage Panasonic SL-1200 turntable via a USB encoding gadget. Then I spent too much time figuring out how Audacity worked, separating the songs into tracks, adding metadata, and encoding the WAV files to FLAC and MP3. They're now released.
This is my first time ripping and encoding an LP, so please be gentle.
You can get the encoded versions, FLAC or MP3, from the usual torrent site. The torrent descriptions also include direct download links.
Orphan and M74 continue their high-definition survey of Tezuka Osamu's "Love Will Save the Earth" TV specials with the second show in the series, 1979's Kaitei Choutokkyuu Marine Express (Marine Express: Undersea Super Train, or just Marine Express for short). Like it's predecessor, Bander Book, it features time travel, a runaway computer, and a panoply of "stars" from past Tezuka Osamu works, including Black Jack, Ban Shunsaku, Duke Red, HamEgg, Rock Holmes, Atom, Don Dracula, Sharaku the Three-Eyed One, and even Kimba the White Lion. Tezuka Osamu himself has a a cameo in one of the last scenes of the movie.
Marine Express' plot is so convoluted that it makes Bander Book look like a masterpiece of cohesion. Private detective Ban Shunsaku has been hired by the chairman of the Marine Express corporation, Scrooge Shylock, to investigate a possible arms smuggling plot. Before Ban can get started, the chairman is murdered and then vanishes before Ban's astonished eyes. Ban tackles the assassin but is badly injured. He is rescued by Black Jack, who save his life and then bills him five million yen for medical services. The penniless Ban notices that the murderer is boarding the inaugural run of the Marine Express, an undersea train that runs in an elastic tube from the US to Japan. Both he and Black Jack follow suit. The train is mostly populated with test dummies, but the live passengers include the corrupt American Secretary of State Credit and his daughter Milly, an equally corrupt Japanese prime minister and his aides, the Marine Express's embittered designer, Dr. Nasenkopf, and his two sons, Rock and Adam, and of course, Ban, Black Jack, and the assassins.
The train sets out on its run, with Rock at the helm, and almost immediately runs into trouble. An extinct undersea volcano erupts near the tracks. At the first stop, an altercation between Credit and Nasenkopf over Credit's nefarious schemes and the likelihood of the Marine Express creating oceanic pollution leads to Nasenkopf being seriously injured. Black Jack demands the train be delayed so he can operate, but the assassins force the train to start up again, in order to finish Nasenkopf off. The train is attacked by giant sharks. (Seriously? The train is traveling at 400km/hour. The top speed of a shark is 50km/hour. But facts never got in the way of a good story - just look at our President!) Meanwhile, Nasenkopf's younger son, Adam, who is actually a robot, has been programmed to blow up the train. He seizes control of the master computer and locks the controls. Everyone is hurtling towards DOOM when the train is suddenly diverted 10,000 years into the past, to the Mu Empire. And those are just a few of the highlights.
Tomita Kousei, who played Ban Shunsaku, voiced the same role in the TV special Fumoon, the 2001 movie Metropolis, and in several Astro Boy properties. He also played Watson in Sherlock Hound. Ohtsuki Chikao ("Duke Red" Credit) voiced the same role in Fumoon and in the TV special Bremen 4. He also played Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Hound. Katsuta Hisashi (Dr. Nasenkopf) voiced the same role (as Professor Ochanomizu) in Astro Boy and Fumoon. He also played Louis XV in Rose of Versailles. Kimotsuki Kaneta (Sharaku) played the same role in Bander Book. She also had recurring roles in the Doraemon and Galaxy Express 999 franchises. The late Nozawa Nachi (Black Jack) played the same role in the TV special Bremen 4. He also appeared in Tezuka's ill-fated Cleopatra, as Octavian. The director and composer are also familiar names from Tezuka Productions.
Yogicat
transcribed the subtitles, which were professionally done, and M74
timed them. I edited and typeset, and Calyrica, Nemesis, and M74 did QC. M74
encoded from a BDMV graciously provided by Beatrice Raws. This is a
joint Orphan-M74 release. The encode has an odd aspect ratio: 1040 x 720 instead of 960 x 720, as one would expect. Comparing against the 640 x 480 DVD release, it's clear that the DVD was clipped horizontally to make it fit in a square frame. Still, I find it hard to believe that the show was animated at a non-standard resolution. Was there a mastering error in the transfer to digital format? Perhaps we'll never know. You can force playback at a 4:3 aspect ratio if it bothers you.
Marine Express was the apotheosis of the Tezuka Osamu star system and also an exemplar of his tendency to let his plots wander seemingly at random. Still, it's entertaining. You can get this release from the usual torrent sites or
from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
Shortly after Orphan finished the second Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo movie, heponeko returned to the web and uploaded a 480p encode of an Animax hi-def broadcast of the show. After weeks of painful rework, we're pleased to bring you the movie in "full 480p."
This version has several advantages over the original, laserdisc-based release:
- It's not letterboxed.
- The colors are more vivid.
- There's much less frame-blending and blurring.
Look at how clear the lettering is here, for example...😁
It has some disadvantages as well:
- The wonderful trailer isn't included.
- The Animax logo is visible in the corner throughout.
On the whole, I think this version is an improvement, but I sure would like to see Blu-ray releases of both movies. I don't plan on doing any further work on the Kindaichi movies for a while; the typesetting it too much of a PITA unless the encode has been image-stablized.
I won't rehash the movie or the voice cast; read the original blog entry for those details. Yogicat transposed the timing of the original script; I did all the rest. There have been a few tweaks to the scripts, because the letterbox margins are no longer available for the subtitles. A couple of additional signs have been typeset. Otherwise, it's the same convoluted story you loved before.
You can get this release from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
After years of languishing in limbo, Oishinbo seems to be getting its moment in the sun. The entire series and its two TV specials have been remastered in high-definition and released on Blu-ray. An ambitious translator (Moho Kareshi) worked through all 136 TV episodes and allowed his translations to be released for general use. The remastered episodes are streaming on Japanese web sites, with closed captions, which can help with translation checking.
If you're not familiar with Oishinbo, it tells the story of a competition between two Japanese newspapers for supremacy in the food world. On one side is Supreme Menu, led by Kaibara Yuuzan, traditionalist, potter, sculptor, and cultural arbiter. On the other side is Ultimate Menu, headed by his estranged son, Yamaoka Shirou, a lazy reporter with a strong competitive streak, and his long-suffering co-editor, Kurita Yuuko. Father and son butt heads about what is important in cuisine, while their despairing friends try to patch up their broken relationship. Stir and repeat for 136 episodes and two TV specials.
Orphan plans to release the two TV
specials (only), as translated by Yoroshiku Fansubs, in high-definition. First up is Ultimate vs Supreme: Dishes for Longevity. This 1992 TV special documents a single match between Ultimate Menu and Supreme Menu, on the topic of dishes that promote long life. This gives the Ultimate Menu team an excuse for a field trip to Okinawa, whose inhabitants have some of the longest lifespans in the world. There they get to sample everything from aged awamori (distilled rice liquor) to irabu (sea snake), as they consult with gourmands, professors, and locals about what makes Okinawan cuisine special. They also get involved with local resistance to proposed development of a new airport on Ishigaki-jima, a small Okinawan out-island with a pristine coral reef. Then they must return to Japan for their showdown with Supreme Menu.
Inoue Kazuhiko played Yamaoka Shirou throughout the series. He is perhaps better known as Ryou, the hero of Tezuka Osamu's Bagi, Nyanko-sensei, the marvelously comic youkai cat in the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise, and Yuki Eiri, the seme in Gravitation. He is still active, appearing this year in ACCA and Isekai Shokudou. Shou Mayumi, who played Kurita Yuuko, appeared in Aoki Honoo and Hoshi Neko Full House, both of which Orphan translated. Ootsuka Chikao, who played Kaibara Yuuzan, has had a lengthy career, starting back in 1963 in Astro Boy. He appeared in several Tezuka Osamu specials and played Captain Hook in Peter Pan no Bouken, among numerous other roles.
I have very fond memories of Yoroshiku Fansubs, which was my earliest training ground (along with C1) in the craft of fansub editing and QC. Their releases have withstood the test of time, and I see no reason to redo them unless better source material comes along, as is the case with the Oishinbo specials. For this release, the Yoroshiku subs have been used with some changes. The word "savoriness" has been replaced with "umami," now that the latter has passed into general use. Lines have been broken up for easier reading in high definition. In addition, more signs are translated, and the signs are fully typeset. As a result, the new script is ten times longer than the original.
laalg (who later worked with Orphan) did the original translation; izam translated the OP and ED. Yogicat retimed the subs for the Blu-ray encode; the original OP/ED timing, by Nanne, was retained. I edited and typeset both the original Yoroshiku release and this new one. Saji and MisterK did QC on the original release, Calyrica on the new one. Skr did the encode, from a BDMV.
With the passage of 25 years, we now know the end of the Ishigaki-jima airport saga. Local resistance did stop construction of the new airport at the site extending into the Sea of Shiraho. However, a new plan was devised around a site further inland, and construction began in 2006. The new airport opened in 2013. Ishigaki-jima is still a prime scuba diving destination in Okinawa, but climate change and invasive fishing techniques have decimated the coral coverage on the reef.
Oishinbo is from a different era than today's anime. (For one thing, it uses real company names, like ANA and Southwest Airlines, instead of today's "off by one letter" substitutes.) Although nominally about cooking competitions, like today's Shokugeki no Souma, Oishinbo has none of Souma's frantic shounen trappings or knockabout comedy. Depending on your tastes, you may find Oishinbo soothing or boring. Either way, you can get this release from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net
Michael the orange tiger cat returns for another 40+ minutes of vignettes and parodies in the 1988 sequel, What's Michael? OVA 2. This OVA actually came out in the middle of the What's Michael? TV series but is apparently unrelated: the OVAs use a different voice actor for Michael than the series.
The sketches this time include a three-part sendup of The Fugitive, the famous 1960's TV show (the movie didn't come out until 1993).
Richard Kimble is now a veterinarian on the lam (lamb?), running from a false conviction for a murder committed by "a man with overbite." Despite the omnipresent danger, he must stop and intervene whenever he sees a cat (always Michael) suffering; after treating the patient, he plays a trick on the cat and runs away. (He's a fugitive, after all.) Another sketch draws parallels between wandering husbands and wandering housecats, who seem to have similar proclivities. Two more point out what happens when a cat's instincts run up against the requirements of baseball or pro wrestling. (You can guess which side loses.) Once again, there's no continuity or plot, but the skits are pretty funny.
Iri translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis and VigorousJammer did QC. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions encoded from his own Japanese laserdisc. As with the first OVA, there were a fiendishly large number of signs, many requiring seemingly endless hand clipping and typesetting. (There's one sign I couldn't do. You'll know why when you see it.) Still, the quality of the laserdisc was better this time around, and the encode clearly demonstrates that.
So this ends our cat-centric endeavors, at least for a while. If you want to see more of Michael, he's hanging around on the usual torrent sites. He can also be downloaded from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.
