Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 16 - The Kid who Stays in the Picture

We've arrived at the bittersweet epilogue episode of Wind ~ A Breath of Heart, wherein our happy couple enjoy the school festival while reflecting on what they've lost. Or is it lost? While the airship and the abilities it conferred seem to have vanished, one tormented figure seems to be enjoying life in a different vessel. This episode was originally DVD-only episode 12.5 ("When Feelings Are Answered"), but has been renumbered as 16. Guess that just leaves the full-series recap episode 13/17 now.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 15 - To Make Kazune City Great Again

After a busy couple of months and some setbacks in the form of lost Internet connections, I bring you episode 15 of Wind ~ A Breath of Heart. Turns out you can't put ancient curses and traditions to rest without some losses along the way, and Makoto is about to find out what they are.
Re-numbering note: this episode is known on most sites as episode 12, "With the Wind."

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 14 - I Invite You to Burn

This episode of Wind offers a look back into the dark, tragic past of Hikari and Kazune City alike, with a shocking conclusion. Maybe six feet ain't so far down. Astute viewers may note that this episode is nearly twice the size of any other episode of the series. Well, I hope you like extended flickering-light film-grainy flashbacks complete with artificial scanlines, weird flower overlays, and dark scenes punctuated by fire and sparks. In other words, it's a tremendous bitrate hog, perhaps on par with the sandstorm flashback in Iriya's Sky, Summer of UFOs ep 02. Fortunately, the GFE encoder wisely allowed this episode to break filesize consistency with the other eps. On the other hand, Static-Subs kept it at 99 MB (CD-R/7?), and the results were rather lacking, as can be sampled below. I don't even want to think about how this ep looked at 75 MB (CD-R/9??) in Anime-Keep's release.

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As with previous episodes, this has been renumbered; it's better known as episode 11, "Destiny from the Ancient Times."

Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 13 - Resistance is Futile

After everything turned out for the best in the previous episode, Makoto finds Hikari up to her old tricks: making people disappear and doing vaguely violent things to them. Apparently the more interaction a girl's had with the male lead, the more danger she's in.

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Renumbering note: this is elsewhere considered ep 10.8/S3, "Uncertain Feelings".

My Wife is a High School Girl 13 - Twilight of the Cockroaches

Well, what better use for a 6-day weekend than to put the final QC touches on the final episode of My Wife is a High School Girl? No doubt the manga story continues on, but the current crisis of Iwasaki-sensei finding out about the secret marriage is resolved reasonably enough. And for as much flak as this show gets, from its original subbers and others, I still came to appreciate it in the end. A lot of romance anime end at the love confession, or maybe a first-kiss scene, so it's quite rare to see the ups and downs and the conflicts and reconciliations of a married couple. It's especially rare in the ecchi/harem genres; this show, Rizelmine, and Godannar are the only three examples I can think of off-hand, as most shows involving married life tend to be less otaku-oriented, like Human Crossing or Rumiko Takahashi Anthology. It's just a pity we never got a flashback showing how their relationship got started.

Torrent || Batch (Nyaa)

As usual, if you see subbing mistakes (as opposed to subjective editing/localization decisions) in these releases, please let me know so that I can correct them. In addition, credit also goes to xess, Riza|Hawkeye, and the rest of the crew at the now-defunct fansubbing/DVD-ripping group LIME-Anime for soldiering through this series back in 2005. While they weren't able to get me the original scripts due to FTP/HDD crashes, I still would've been hard-pressed to release this series without their contributions.

Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 12 - Gonna Need a Nicer Boat

In this starkly intense episode of Wind, Minamo's feelings of grief, jealousy, and rejection boil over into a concoction most perilous. I get the feeling this is what happens when you trip a few flags for other girls by doing nice things for them, while generally/half-heartedly heading down one particular game route. Luckily, things turn out a little better for this Makoto than for that other one. Or maybe this Makoto's results are just as good as the other one's were, until they weren't.

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Once again, this episode and all others after 09 have been renumbered in my release to remove decimal/fractional values. Although I'm numbering it 12, this episode is listed on AniDB and elsewhere as episode 10.4, "Tell me your Feelings......"

My Wife is a High School Girl 12 - Fight for your right to Party!

Sadly I can't achieve Sakura's goal, but I can bring you the penultimate episode of My Wife is a High School Girl. Part A features an argument over messy white liquids being spilled in the wrong place, while Part B features a standard near-fatal minor respiratory ailment causing mass chaos and a comedy of errors. However, both parts set the stage for the crisis that will unfold at last in the final episode.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 11 - The Final Sacrifice

After several false starts and frame shifts that I'm not sure I ever needed to do, I present you episode 11 of Wind ~ A Breath of Heart, which is generally listed as episode 10 on database sites. Things get real this time around, and somebody's on the ultimate chopping block with no Rowsdower around to save them. Some of the scene connections and transitions don't exactly make sense, but I assume there's some game information I'm missing out on here. At some point, there will be a v2 of my ep 10, though it will only change the title of the next episode at the very end of the video.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 11 - The Toxicity of Our Masculinity

For the first half of this episode, we have a stalker with a Showa-era mentality going after Asami, and some unwitting pointers from Kyousuke just make matters worse. Then we return to the school social setting for part B, with some actual plot threads from previous episodes surfacing again. The school field trip, among other things, brings a bathtime fanservice scene that is still no different from the TV broadcast. Thank goodness this isn't a recent SHAFT anime, or we could be looking at additional steam for our viewing displeasure.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 10 - The Toxicity of Our City

The script for this episode exhibits the peculiar property of having the least dialogue of any episode so far, but the largest total amount of lines. Thank goodness the fine folks at GFE took care of a whole lot of frame-by-frame typesetting. At any rate, I've decided to renumber the remaining episodes of Wind to remove fractional/decimal episode numbers. So, this episode is better known as episode 9.5, the first of the DVD-only episodes that were translated by Shinsen-Subs rather than Static/Keep. Minamo's father confronts Hikari about the more sinister side of Kazune City, and, well... not a whole lot else happens, I guess?

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My Wife is a High School Girl 10 - Cruel Intentions

A series of bad ideas by Kyousuke leads to yet another person finding about his connection to Asami, though Iwasaki does not yet grasp the true form of their relationship. Though she does reveal herself to be a liar and a hypocrite, if you've been paying close attention. Needless to say, Asami's not pleased with the general situation...

Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 09 - Power Perversion Potential

For some reason the image uploads aren't working, but take my word for it -- Wind TV 09 features the darker side of a city where everyone possesses special abilities; as it turns out, some choose to use them for nefarious and/or creepy purposes. And on top of that, it seems like everyone's abilities are becoming inconsistent and unstable, not just those of wannabe raepists.

My Wife is a High School Girl 09 - Iwasaki v. Onohara

Love squares rule the day in the first half of this episode, as Iwasaki-sensei attempts to help her brother get his 20 minutes of action with Asami while conveniently clearing away an obstacle that she suspects lies between her and Ichimaru-sensei. Later, in Part B, enjoy some lolarious misadventures in the classic mold of "husband bewildered by domestic work." But given the state of gender relations in Japan, I guess we shouldn't be surprised to see this kind of "straight out of the 1950s" material.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 08 - Two Girls for Every Boy

After the shocking turn of events at the end of the previous episode of Wind ~ A Breath of Heart, our hero finds himself on a summer festival date with Minamo, highlighted by an enchanting encounter with the ever-enigmatic Hikari. I have to hope that in a city where everyone has special abilities, festival-goers can even the odds against those cheating carnival game operators.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 08 - Baby, it's Cold Outside

This exciting and controversial episode of My Wife is a High School Girl actually features some plot continuity between its two halves, although that doesn't mean we'll be skipping the obligatory self-introduction monologue. But we also learn that all it takes to get a girl all hot and bothered is to ask if you can film her, apparently. Too bad Asami's classmate "Erosaki"'s notion of consent doesn't extend to keeping a girl at your house increasingly against her will, among other rather questionable acts. But it's okay, because you can still come out of the whole affair with her opinion of you being higher than it was before. And try as I might, I haven't been able to find scenes where the TV broadcast was more censored than this DVD version. But at least I managed to fix a fair number of glaring translation errors.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 07 - A Bridge to Starry Skies

Well, whaddaya know, two beach episodes in a row, and I'm not even working on RahXephon! Feast your some obviously performance-enhanced beach volleyball and jealousy-generating sequences, and then get ready for some shocking advancements in the show's romantic threads after nightfall.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 07 - Climate Crisis Arrives

In this summer-themed episode of My Wife is a High School Girl, the main couple and their neighbors attempt to combat the heat with binge eating, with mixed results. Later, enjoy a sports-day segment with plenty of bloomer shots to complement this show's trademark laydown-panchira imagery.

Torrent (v2) || v2 Patch

** v2 released to correct one "Liberal Overreach" line. I know a translator's (or editor's) not supposed to be a scriptwriter, but sometimes the temptation is just so strong. I throw myself upon the mercy of the court of 8thsin!

Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 06 - I know now why you cry

This latest outing of Wind ~ A Breath of Heart manages the feat of combining two mostly-distinct stories into one half-length episode, involving a shopping not-a-date and a movie sorta-date. Also of note: the use of Edvard Grieg's "Death of Ase" as the public-domain soundtrack for the movie, and the random tricks people in the park are doing with their town-given powers for the sake of amusement. Nice to have a "people with powers" series without any tournaments or "confrontations with random thugs in a restaurant" scenes.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 06 - The Trouble with Travels

In this episode, Asami and Kyousuke try to get away from the city and all their prying friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family members for some alone time. Guess how many of these obstacles they don't encounter! But at least they have time for some unerotic asphyxiation play and reenacting a classic scene from Lady and the Tramp, albeit with an Asian twist on things.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 05 - Regally Blonde

This episode of Wind focuses on "doomed to be a side character" Nozomi as she battles her weak constitution to compete in the Obligatory Sports Festival, albeit one marred by rampant special-power-aided cheating. At least Kazune City is probably free of PED and HGH scandals. Meanwhile, Mysterious Girl Hikari is skipping out on athletics, but she is participating in strange and arcane miko rituals.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 05 - I'M A-FIRIN' MAH LAZOR

If you've ever seen the above .gif and wondered where it came from, then you can wonder no more. Asami and Kyousuke's secret is found out by neighbors who have the high ground, and she resorts to feline firearms in a vain attempt to explain things away. Though I do like how Kuri the kitten is frequently used in this series, both in focus and as background. Later, we meet an old woman who for some reason might object to a 17-year-old girl marrying and having children, even though such things were probably completely normal in her youth.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 04 - Stray Cats Underrun

In another CG-filled episode of Wind, Makoto dodges some potentially lethal cuisine, learns a bit about his family's history with the city, and spends some time philosophizing about a cat with mysterious shopkeeper Hikari. Not a bad slate for a 12-minute episode.

Funny story -- the Static-Subs translation (which has probably not been as available as A-E's for a long time, due to BakaBT hosting A-E) for Hourglass of Summer 02 called Koutarou's best friend "Tsutomu" instead of "Takeshi" on several occasions. Clearly they were working on this series at the same time, and the team got their "VN adaptation MC's male best friend whose name starts with T" mixed up. It baffled me for awhile after I first transcribed SS' Hourglass subs, until I started working on both of these shows at roughly the same time myself.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 04 - Secrets and Lies

Happy Valentine's Day to all, or at least those of you on the west coast of the US where it's still 2-14 for another ten minutes. But despite significant amounts of booze, I bring you the fourth episode of My Wife is a High School Girl, where female empowerment takes a turn for the aggressive in the form of a fellow teacher who won't take no for an answer. (Whether she actually says the line pictured above is another matter.) But still, I never thought I'd have to research gravitational lensing effects for a romance dramedy anime in a distinctly mundane setting, but stranger things have happened.

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Hourglass of Summer 02 - Time Enough for Love

Pictured: an alternate OTP that has no basis in game or anime canon, sadly. And just as quickly as it began, Hourglass of Summer is now over. After a virtually random scene involving hot teacher Tomomi Yanagihara, Koutarou continues bobbing and weaving through time in an effort to save the girl he loves from her fate, her father, and her own startling lack of self-preservation instincts. Unfortunately, this episode seems to have more video issues with aliasing and rainbowing than episode 01, but short of re-encoding (which could make things worse), I'm afraid there's not much I can do.

If you happen to spot any subbing mistakes, please let me know so that I can patch them.

Batch (Nyaa)
Mega Folder with Hourglass of Summer artbook and other anime liner notes scans

Hourglass of Summer 01 - But... The future refused to change.

Ah but you're wrong, Koutarou Makimura -- this is both an anime and a game, specifically the 2004 OVA adaptation of the VN known in Japanese as Natsuiro no Sunadokei. Unfortunately, this two-episode OVA doesn't do the sprawling, time-traveling game a whole lot of justice, as three of the five routes are barely touched on at all, and many events are heavily compressed and rushed. I definitely recommend checking out the game if you can find it.

This release uses some old WMV3 raws that I finally managed to get ahold of via some arcane miracle. Not the greatest quality, but they should at least be marginally better than the old Anime-Empire and Static-Subs hardsubbed XviD .avi releases. Of course, if anybody happens to have the .isos sitting around and wants to re-use these scripts, they're welcome to do so ::winkwink::. Subs are based on the SS and A-E translations, with the usual ambiguous mix of corrections and liberal rewrites that you've no doubt come to expect from me. Stay tuned for episode 2 and some special bonus material!

Batch (Nyaa) || Mega

Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 03 - To Kill or Save the Animals

I'm sure it seems strange to see a landline being used in 2016, but that just goes with the territory of working with series from 2004. For Makoto, integrating his childhood friend into his social circle leads to a whirlwind tour of shopping and parties, but not before he meets an independent businesswoman with a quiet demeanor and an odd view of morality.

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My Wife is a High School Girl 03 - Double Deception

I wanted to title this post some variant of "[Feline] on Display," but figured Blogger has software to flag that kind of thing, even with censor asterisks or substituted characters. Anyway, this episode of My Wife is a High School Girl features yet another teacher living a secret life, and an amorously willing new neighbor who isn't quite what she seems, whether at home or on the job.

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Wind ~ A Breath of Heart 02 - Singlular Fist Strike Male

In this perhaps-long-awaited episode of Wind, our male lead re-connects with his childhood friend, much to the jealous consternation of the non-bald individual above. Then, they find out that parental absences may have more than mere story convenience behind them. One technical observation I've made of this series: there's a tradeoff between having more dynamic camera angles and rotations than a typical school romance series would have, but at the expense having of some noticeable and low-detail CG in use.

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