Brief Hiatus

I will be out of town and without PC/Internet access until Wednesday night (GMT-6). So no more releases until then.

To Heart ~Remember my Memories~ Extras pack

I know you're all craving for more Touka Gettan, and possibly more Strawberry 100% OVAs. I'm currently editing the next episode of those two projects. But To Heart ~Remember my Memories~ was originally going to be my first project. And since I've had the raws and subs sitting around for a few months, I wanted to release something for it. I'll probably get some more of Touka Gettan out before I launch into the main series, though. Let me know if you think I should do something differently on the karaoke fonts/colors/sizes, and also if I'm "doing it wrong" when it comes to the anamorphic scale compensation. (I set the Y scale to 91%, since the video is being compressed horizontally from 704 to 640.)

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Extras include:

Included in this torrent:
Clean OP
Clean ED
Clean ED (Alternative Version)
Clean ED (Episode 13 Version)
Heart Fighters Omakes 01-07 [Contains some ecchi content, especially omake 7.]

Source: DVD (Zero-Raws, transcoded from .wmv)
Container: .mkv
Video: h264, 704x480 (anamorphic 4:3), 24fps*
Audio: Japanese, 2.0 Stereo AAC
Subtitles: English, soft, styled .ass.
Subtitle Source: Anime-Keep&Anime-Faith (OP/ED), yu (Heart Fighters)

*24fps is a bit odd, since 23.976 is the norm. However, I suspect that the raws were also 24.000 fps, since I didn't change any frame rate settings when I ran them through HandBrake. So it's beyond my ability to fix, unless somebody can dig up the .isos and encode new raws.

Touka Gettan 01v2 - Let's End This Again

Nobody likes to do v2s, but this one is for a good cause. If you've been watching the shoutbox lately, you know that Seto_Sun's been passing me better raws than the ones I originally had. And at the suggestion of an anon in the ep 01v1 comments, I made some changes to the OP translations. Honestly, they're probably still not perfect, due to my middling translation abilities. So I hope you'll allow me some artistic license as I tried to make them somewhat coherent in English. I didn't do a full watch of the v2; the timing seemed close enough that a little keyframe snapping should have brought things into line. If you spot any major errors, let me know and I'll go about learning how to create a v3 patch.

Torrent [CRC=BA458FD5] || DDL

Vital stats, once again:
Source: DVD
Video: 864x480 ~16:9, h264, 23.976 fps, 1036 kbps (ep 1 has this bitrate, haven't checked later eps)
Audio: Japanese, 2.0 Stereo, 448 kbps AC3
Subtitles: English, soft, styled .ass.
Subtitle Source: OCRed from the Serin TV-rips, but heavily modified.

Strawberry 100% OVA 00 & updates

So, I've been slacking on posting Strawberry 100% OVA info. And who could blame me, with a show as compelling and conclusive as this one? Anyway, the main focus of this post is "OVA 00," which is also known as the 2004 Shounen Jump Festival OVA. For you manga readers, this takes place at around chapter 70. It's funny, back in late 2005 when I first saw this, I didn't automatically associate "guy + girl together in outdoorsy area" with "nearly-naked taking shelter from the rain." Later, there's some Junpei X Tsukasa service with a test of courage.

Again, subtitles for the Jump Festival and all future OVAs are based on DigitalPanic's translations. Good thing I had yesy's release of OVA 00 sitting around, since dp didn't translate the ED.

Some updates on other fronts: I've sent MDC the script for the true "first" Strawberry 100% OVA episode, the one where Junpei and Aya get trapped in a room and wind up nearly naked. Wait, deja vu anybody? On Touka Gettan, I'm hopefully going to get better raws, and try to improve my translation of the OP a bit. It's just like TG to throw weird archaic poetic words into its songs...

Touka Gettan 01 - The End

Throwing caution to the winds, I've decided to launch into this project, with Touka Gettan episode 01. I would try and release it with an English title, but it means something like "Peach Blossoms in Awe of the Moon"... and that's just too unwieldy. Now, the first thing about this show is that it is told backwards, aside from episode 25. So this first episode is really the end of the story. Needless to say, it can be quite confusing. So if you don't like series like Fafner and Shin Mazinger Z because they didn't lay out and explain every little thing in the first episode, this might not be a show for you. I found it fascinating and compelling the whole way through, despite not know what the hell was going on at first.

Vital Stats:

Source: DVD, unknown raw. The raws unfortunately have an uncropped black bar at the top of the image. But since the bitrate/quality is already so-so, I didn't want to risk re-encoding and reducing the quality further.
Video: 704x480 anamorphic 16:9 (853x480 displayed), 23.976 fps, ~850-1100 kbps.
Audio: 2.0 Stereo AAC, ~260 kbps.
Subtitles: Based on the only existing English translation, by Serin-Fansubs. Let's just say they were a bit too literal for my tastes, not to mention fraught with translation and editing errors. In fact, improving on them was my main impetus for doing this project. The TV -> DVD audio/video quality upgrade is just a convenient bonus. So expect to see a major overhaul in terms of translation, editing, styling, phrasing, and localization. As usual, I'll respect the honorific and naming conventions of the original group. Things like "TL Note: Neko means cat", not so much.

So whether you're a first-time or repeat visitor to the land of Kamitsumihara, I hope you'll enjoy Touka Gettan as I'm presenting it. You may also want to check out Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito (2003), which shares some production staff with and hasother connections to this series.

Torrent [CRC=751B9DCD]

Touka Gettan Advance Goodies Release!

Torrent || DDL

I've been wanting to get something related to this series released for awhile, and here it is. This torrent contains:

Creditless OP (Standard Version)
Creditless OP (Black & White Version from episode 21)
Creditless ED
136 trailer (standard staff, story, & production info)
104 sec trailer (ECCHI!!!)

Video: h264 704x480 (853x480 anamorphic 16:9)
Audio: Japanese AAC 2.0 Stereo

OP/ED have English subs, but subs should be off by default for your viewing pleasure. I started with the lyrics in the Serin TV-rips (which made it into this gallery), but wound up almost completely re-translating them from Japanese lyrics I found online. If you have any suggestions for different fonts or colors for the karaoke subs, post them here so I can consider them for the kara in the actual episodes. Also, let me know if I screwed up the anamorphic scaling on the subtitles.

Overall progress on Touka Gettan:
Karaoke is complete, obviously enough. OCR for all episodes 01-26 is complete. Spell-check and visual checks for OCR-related and obvious spelling/grammar errors in the original subs is complete. Next step is to fast-forward scan through all the episodes to add in signs, missing lines, and relevant translation notes. I may do this scan in chronological order rather than airing order, to help keep things consistent. However, the actual release will be in the normal 01-26 order.

I must say, I'm excited to start working on a great show like this, after the incomplete mediocrity of Strawberry 100%. But there's still those pesky 4 OVAs to go...