G-On Riders... halp?

So, apparently I have a weakness for Master of Entertainment (M.O.E.) anime. Generally speaking, they're so bad, so cheap, and so trashy, yet I can't help but like them on some level. So in addition to the upcoming Rizelmine, I'd also like to release the show that M.O.E. sandwiched between the two seasons of Rizelmine back in the Summer 2002 season: G-On Riders. It's got Nobuyki Hiyama as a harem lead, aliens, robots, a warrior nun, a warrior androphobic miko, a ninja girl, Rie Kugimiya in a rare evil role... what's not to like, other than everything?

As you know, the TV version of the series was subbed by Mugen back in mid-2002. In addition to the DivX3 video being blocky as hell (more so on non-ancient monitors, i.e. monitors bigger than mine), the subtitles are dreadfully inaccurate in many places.

EDIT: Thanks to ma121hnter, I got eps 4/7/9 through DDLs, thus finishing the set and getting the torrent reseeded. Now all that's left is to transcode them...

Soul Link 08 - Stuck in a Moment

If you've seen AMV Hell 4 but not this series, you now know the source of the above image. We're back on Space Station Aries, where the group is about to gain another yet another uneasy friendship with a mysterious girl. Also, naíve loli is naíve, and Sayaka shows you don't want to mess with her when she's a woman on a mission. And this is to Soul Link's credit; in most other shows, a girl in Sayaka's position would be a gentle, soft-spoken Yamato Nadeshiko type who never raises her voice against anybody, least of all the male lead. But we have to remember that this is the same game company who brought us Shuffle!'s Kaede Fuyou...

It's probably not just me who thinks the quality was off in this episode. Maybe it only being 144 MB with a video bitrate of 622 kbps has something to do with it. See also the shower scene at 20:00, where I can't tell if it's added DVD censorship or just overbrightness/blur obscuring the image. The episode is mostly "talking heads," but not completely. Maybe I should look into HKG's rips or something. As always, I encourage people with the ability to find and encode R2J DVD .isos to use my scripts to create better encodes. There will be a script archive DDL made available after all episodes are released.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa)

Tonagura! 08 - It's Time to Duel!

And no doubt the old-timers out there will remember the Sailor Jupiter definition of "talent." Sorry for the delay on this episode; I've been a bit sick lately, though luckily not sick of Tonagura! It's just such a complicated show to work on, due to all the text typesetting and dialogue styling. So between getting sleep and working on Tonagura!, the former sometimes wins out. But I managed to avoid the "LazySign" approach in almost all cases.

At any rate, this episode features a clash of the aquatic titans in a monumental (yet meaningless) swimming race between Kazuki and Hatsune. So while it's not a beach episode, there's certainly no shortage of swimsuit service.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa)

Soul Link 07 - Healing Factor

What do these lovely ladies want Ryouta Aizawa for? You'll have to watch Soul Link 07 to find out. But aside from the answer to that question, you'll also see stuff blowing up, people getting out of maintenance vehicles, people getting into maintenance vehicles, people eating, and a number of revelations about the true nature of the threats faced by our plucky cadets. Finally, a routine supply run has some surprising(ly cute) results.

I swear, there's always those one or two lines per episode that I can't satisfactorily render. I guess it goes with the territory of only being a "pretty good" translator, not a great one.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa)

Tonagura! 07 - My Big Sister Can't Be This Perfect

In this episode, Marie spearheads an effort to find Hatsune's weak point. Presumably they intend to attack it for some amount of damage. Meanwhile, Kazuki starts helping out with the household chores for ::reasons::, and winds up failing epically in a way that only she can pull off. But as always, her losses are Yuuji's and the viewers' gains, as seen above.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa)

Soul Link 06 - It's Zombie Time!

The cadets in Sheratan suffer a devastating loss in Soul Link 06, as their beloved Cellaria-sensei makes a bold and heroic sacrifice to keep the enemy out. She will be missed. Shuuhei experiences strange visions, and is even driven to \wrist at one point. Meanwhile, Yuu's identity is uncovered, Morimoto fails industrial tech, and love or something like it is in the air. I think some people are going to regret not practicing safe sex. Or will they?

Speaking of sex, you will notice some differences between this release and the TV-rips at about 21:45. And I think you'll find these differences to be in favor of the DVD version, if only a little.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa)

Tonagura! 06 - Death From Above

So, I'm back from Anime Detour (as of Sunday), and have almost recovered from three days of copious, almost-free alcohol and scarce, expensive sleep. Judging from conversations with another fansubber I happened to run into, I'm apparently famous. So, it's time to add to that fame with another episode of Tonagura!. This time, Kazuki and Yuuji are in a deadlocked, uncommunicative state, while Chihaya and the others attempt to play damage control.

It seems like Chihaya calls Yuuji "Yuu-chin" rather than "Yuuji," which is something that Ryoumi never caught on to. I know I didn't catch it in earlier episodes, so I might go back and fix it at some point. After reading some of the manga, I know there's a few things about the airplane in ep 02 that I got wrong, as well.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa)