We hope everyone’s having a good holiday period and stuffing themselves silly with good food and drink (It’s what this time of year is all about, right?). This episode isn’t particularly seasonal, with the boys and their dad going to a safari park to see a whole bunch of wild(?) animals, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it all the same.
[HyZen]_Baby_and_Me_-_32_[DVD_480p][605CF459].mkv
MD5: d7c4a4d5f09abc7b76204b64d14404f3
It’s Christmas Eve, and while all the festivities of the season are in full swing (We all hope you’re having a good yuletide. I’ve opened a box of chocolates if anyone wants some), Saizen and a few other groups celebrate the life of our much-missed fansubbing colleague, ConsiderPhlebas, on what would have been his birthday. This year marked 10 years since we lost our friend, but we still keep his memory alive as best we can by continuing the projects he had a hand in or would have enjoyed. It was only fitting that we finally finished our Yawara Blu-ray project this year (watch out for a batch release for that very soon), since CP was the one who bought the Blu-rays for us to work on, and this title meant a lot to him. We were very glad that we were able to see it through to completion.
But hold on! The Yawara team, ever the completionists, have gone one better and subbed the Yawara Live Action movie from 1989 too! This apparently came out a good half a year before the anime started and it seems to span the whole run-up to the Barcelona Olympics, which is some feat in such a short runtime. The staff list for this one is as follows:
Translation: kokujin-kun
Timing: sangofe
Editing: Collectr
Typesetting: kokujin-kun
QC: Ayanami-, Juggen, TougeWolf
Karaoke: kokujin-kun
Raw Provider: gamnark
Encoder: gamnark
Now would usually be the point where I say “Keep your eyes peeled for more releases throughout the day,” but I’m not sure how much we’ll actually get out today, so instead I’ll say keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the week. We do have more to bring you, we’re just not very good at working to schedules >.>
As with the anime series, this is a joint release with the very fine folk over at Live-eviL so be sure to go thank them too. I think they have also released some episodes for CP Day, and I have a sneaking suspicion Orphan Fansubs might be releasing some stuff later too, so go check all that out.
[FroZen-Evil]_Yawara_Live_Action_[LD][83E68C30].mkv
MD5: 2d30cba94c513bb6f977c0a019b2a9d6
After 14 long years, we’ve finally released what has to be the definitive edition of Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl for the English-speaking world. You can’t get this series anywhere else in this format thanks to licensing hell. And for this release post, what better way to commemorate this milestone than to engage in some painfully boring and navel-gazing oral history?
If you recall, the Yawara digital fansub project started with the 2003 release by Live-Evil. Those subs were based on earlier VHS fansubs released by the groups Newtype Animation and Neko Creations. Froth-Bite led by the translator Sylf joined the Live-Evil project partway through, then the series was officially suspended at the midway point in 2009, in deference to AnimEigo’s license. But AnimEigo released only one 40-episode DVD box set then quit, so that meant the fansubbers had to rescue the series again. (Thank god I bought the box set when it came out, because now the price has doubled or quadrupled in value depending on where you look, lel)
In 2011, Saizen decided to join the joint with Live-Evil and Froth-Bite, thus giving birth to the “FroZen-EviL” label. Because I was a fan of Yawara purely because I was an utter degenerate (if you know, you know), I jumped at the chance to join the new joint as a quality checker. Unfortunately, the previous translator Sylf was unavailable because he was burned out by K-On of all things (maybe). Another translator (Urasawa, aka blakbunnie27) stepped in and translated one episode before dropping it, so I volunteered to take over the translation and the rest was history.
Now fansubbing the DVD took a shorter amount of time (2011-2013) because there was no typesetting apart from the last episode—everything was \an8 just like the simulcasts. This project could have never gotten off the ground without the generous support of our quality checker ConsiderPhlebas, aka CP the ultimate anime fan who bought us the R2 DVDs that none of us unemployed NEETs could ever afford.
CP went ahead and did one better and bought us the R2 Blu-ray box set for some ungodly amount, so two years later in 2015, we decided to go ahead and redo the series in all of its 720 vertical pixel glory. By that time, I had learned how to typeset, so I stupidly agreed to take on that role and give the fansubs that added value (?) That was on top of the double duty of translation checking the scripts.
Then, tragically, on this month in 2015, our friend Olle Morell (CP) lost his lengthy battle with bladder cancer and departed from this earthly realm. With his passing, the Yawara BD fansub became a memorial project in celebration of his life and legacy.
This project took a full decade to complete in large part because I stopped being a quasi-NEET and became a full-time salaryman with less hours and energy to spare. But I’m glad I kept at it, and it was a small miracle that most of the team we had back in 2015 remained intact to this present day, despite the delays. I truly hope CP is proud that we kept his memory alive to the end.
So without further ado, my shout-out to the teams who made the Yawara fansub a reality. The list, which may or may not be exhaustive, includes those from the Live-Evil solo project and the Live-Evil/Froth-Bite joint:
• Translation: Hiroko Hatanaka-Sukoenig, Anastasia Shimabuku Moreno, tofusensei, Sylf, blakbunnie27, kokujin-kun
• Timing: Juggen, sangofe, ninjacloud, Skr, Neko-chan, Sylf
• Editing: Collectr, Mamo-chan, Yoshu-sama, Neko-chan, Michael Studte
• Typesetting: tanman508, tofusensei, gumbaloom, kokujin-kun
• QC: CP, Juggen, Mamo-chan, Saji, Rosti, TougeWolf, sangofe, Moelancholy, Ayanami, retro, Skr, tlynnec, it06128, BeeBee, Ironman, konnakude
• Karaoke: Juggen, tanman508
• Muxing and release: Sqall, Juggen, FD
• Encoding (DVDs): Skr, toster, gumbaloom, digitize
• Encoding (BDs): Suzaku
• Raws: CP (R2J DVDs and BDs)
• Special thanks to: convexity
• Not-so-special thanks to: bmfrosty
[FroZen-EviL]_Yawara_-_118_-_124_[720p][Blu-Ray].mkv
MD5: n/a
And now, as they say, for something completely different. Way back through the mists of time (2019 if this website is to be believed), Saizen randomly subbed Hoozuki no Reitetsu OAD 4, only to find that we’d been beaten to the punch by a couple of familiar faces over in FFFansubs. This obviously left a few people looking like our Hell-residing friend in the picture above, and naturally marked our last foray into Hoozuki no Reitetsu. That is, until we noticed that FFFansubs had basically gone into hibernation before finishing up the OADs. With the group seemingly mostly retired, we prodded the familiar faces of convexity and Collectr to see if they wanted to do the remaining OADs for Saizen instead (where we’re just about still alive enough to put together a subbing team). They said okay, and the rest is history. So here are the fine people to thank for this release:
Translator: convexity
Timer: sangofe
Editor: Collectr
TS: kokujin-kun
Encoder: Eternal_Blizzard
QC: Eternal_Blizzard, Uchuu, MasterNemesis
There are plans afoot to do the final OAD as well, but as with most things we do, that might be in the works for a little while longer yet.
[Saizen] Hoozuki no Reitetsu OAD - 06 [1080p][D9A73A82].mkv
MD5: cc96391154b96c2670cb4699a5d80a1d
Here at Saizen, we may be getting older, but we can still show the kids a thing or two. Like, check out our sweet yo-yo skills. Bet that’s impressed you, hasn’t it?
On another, more sombre note, today marks exactly 10 years since we lost our much missed friend and fansubbing bro, CP. While this isn’t an official CP memorial day (we do that on the 24th December each year), I figured it would be remiss of us not to do something for it, so I’m pushing a couple of releases out of the door now. As always, we carry his memory with us in everything we sub, especially these older series, which we know he would have loved.
[HyZen]_Baby_and_Me_-_31_[DVD_480p][FD59F2FF].mkv
MD5: a0c02a4fda2c8c6d002683e66c4770f0
What’s this? Another present? So soon after the last one?
Oh, and an important note on this episode, pointed out by our eagle-eyed QCer, TougeWolf: The car looks to be modelled on a Honda CRX Del-Sol. Just in case you were wondering.
[HyZen]_Baby_and_Me_-_30_[DVD_480p][ACE981C7].mkv
MD5: 8137260bb358f6e6f4b490fa8bd5f9d1