Bobby ni Kubittake (1985)

 

https://nyaa.si/view/1648255
Fansub credits can be found in the link above.

So, a lot of you might be shocked at the fact that I went and released this...especially given my recent comments on the anime that I had posted onto Twitter.

"Marty, I thought you hated this anime? Why did you work on it?"

GOOD QUESTION! Long story short, I didn't know about the anime's quality until after I watched it. But I'll gladly explain below anyways how this entire project came to be:

Bobby ni Kubittake, or as I like to call it, Bobby's Down Bad (yes, this translation actually works—not sure where Bobby's Girl came from anyways), was one of many 80s anime titles that had been on my watchlist for quite some time now. Several years now! Naturally, because I get distracted easily (and because I have too many projects to work on), I had not yet found the time to actually sit down and watch it.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. I get a few DMs from Tanks, with a new project proposal:
A new fansub version of this anime.

I thought it was just gonna be a simple matter of transferring the old subs onto a newer release, but nope. Was more than that. As it turns out...the old (and existing) English fansub needed a lot of improvements? Or so I've been told. I still haven't seen it, but according to Windii (who helped re-translate the whole thing for this release), several of Bobby's internal monologues had lines that were borked, and one additional line that's not in the book was translated incorrectly on said old release and somehow managed to make it onto every release that followed—even the Italian & Russian ones!

Based off short clips and screenshots I saw, nothing was wrong with the typesetting on the old release, but Windii also wanted to use this opportunity to cook up new typesetting for the anime. I think it looks better IMO!

Anyways, with that being said—I'm a sucker for releasing new versions of anime depending on what it is, so I said "Yes" to Tanks' proposal. Once Windii finished the re-translation I got the chance to finally watch this for the first time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifaoKZfQpdA

Never had I been so disappointed in my life. I already complained about this before so I'm not gonna repeat it again. But anyways, I made my final edits on the anime and was ready to submit it for release, when suddenly...

A change of the main source occurs. Originally the plan was to use a Domesday-capped version of the JP LD but we decided to go with the Taiwanese DVD release since, upon closer inspection, was slightly better than the LD/VHS. I don't know the video mumbo jumbo behind this so go bug Tanks if you want to know.

Unfortunately, since it was decided to use the DVD instead...that meant I had to re-watch the whole anime for a SECOND time. Can you believe it?! So much suffering...

That's really it. As I've said elsewhere, check this out if you're a sakuga fan, but otherwise I wouldn't expect much from this anime. Despite my comments, I can assuredly promise you though that this release is not half-assed. Far from it.

Ginga no Uo - URSA Minor Blue (MUSE HD LD)

https://nyaa.si/view/1644650
Fansub credits can be found in the link above.

This OVA's an odd one, though I don't mean that in a bad way. It tells the story of an elderly man and his grandson (Yuri), both of whom live in a laboratory near a lake. While viewing the Little Dipper, they begin to notice that the stars are disappearing one by one, seemingly caused by a huge fish in the sky who's eating them—both Yuri and his grandfather travel across the Milky Way to take down the fish before it eventually begins to consume nearby planets 

I was first introduced to the existence of this title through its original soundtrack release from 1994—I had listened to the OST for a while but had never really checked out the anime until fairly recently. This was already subbed by Fong using a DVD source...but guess what?

Oddly enough, the LD version for this title is in HD! That's right, it was a MUSE release—which, judging by a quick glance on the internet, allowed for LDs to be displayed in high-definition. To date, this anime's HD version has not yet been re-released via streaming services nor modern physical means (Blu-Ray).

The LD was carefully capped by HuffaloBuffalo—this is not a Domesday recording, as MUSE LD decoding still needs more work. Fong's subs were re-timed to this new raw, and several lines have been changed/fixed. Also added in this release are lyrics to the (short) insert song that the stone-men sing—this was previously left unsubbed in Fong's release.

I think that's all I got for now. I think this release (visually) looks good enough for now, but if MUSE LD decoding improves in the future, I'll be happy to re-release this again when that time comes. Enjoy!