Makoto-chan the Movie

Some western anime audiences are familiar with Crayon Shin-chan, a very long running Japanese anime series about a five-year-old boy with lecherous proclivities and a tendency to run around without his pants. The humor tends to be broad, ecchi, and sometimes gross. The first 52 episodes were given a US dub release, with scripts that were totally rewritten to emphasize "adult" humor. BuriBuri (Orphan's very own Skr) has been doing yeoman's work providing accurate, and just as funny, translations of the show.

Far fewer people know about Makoto-chan, a manga by Umezz Kazuo. Sawada Makoto is a kindergartner who gets into all sorts of trouble, often involving toilet and adult humor. He sometimes dresses in his mother's and sister's clothing. He usually has a long strand of green mucus dangling from his nose. He uses nonsense catchphrases like "Sabara!" and "Gwashi!" If Crayon Shin-chan is ecchi, Makoto-chan is sketchy. It was animated only once, in 1980, as a feature length movie. Now, on its fortieth anniversary, it is at last available to an (aghast) English-speaking audience. Don't all rush to thank us at once.

The movie has an interesting release history. For a long time, it was only available on VHS tape and laserdisc. At Skr's request, Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions ripped the laserdisc. While Skr was working on translations, a Blu-ray of the movie was released. The Blu-ray had some additional material, like the movie trailer and a promotional teaser, but it lacked the live action intro and outro, featuring Umezz Kazuo himself, from the laserdisc. So this release is a hybrid. The movie itself, the teaser, and the trailer are in glorious high definition, from the Blu-ray; the intro and outro sequences are in measly standard definition, from the laserdisc.

Makoto-chan doesn't have a through plot. Instead, it consists of five sketches of about 15 minutes each:

1. "My Little Lover." Makoto-chan, dumped by his kindergarten girlfriend, develops a crush on an older woman named Tomoko, who has broken up with her boyfriend.
2. "A Present for Mother's Day." To win the Best Child Award in his kindergarten class, Makoto-chan and his sister Mika-neesan develop a set of skits so unintentionally gross that the neighbors invited in to watch pee their pants (and worse).
3. "The Sparrow Egg." Makoto-chan rescues a sparrow egg from a demolition site and devotedly guards it until it hatches, only to find that the baby bird has imprinted on him as its mother.
4. "The Lunch of Love." When Makoto-chan's mother mixes up his and his father's lunches, he finds a series of lovey-dovey messages in his bento. This convinces him that his mother is harboring very inappropriate feelings toward him.
5. "The Best Child Award." In another attempt to win the Best Child Award, Makoto-chan helps a salaryman look for a lost paycheck, with disastrous results.

The voice cast includes:

• Sugiyama Kazuko (Makoto-chan) played Heidi in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Akane in the Dr. Slump franchise, Maria in The Royal Tutor, Ten in Urusei Yatsura, and Wendy H. Troy in Manxmouse (an Orphan release). She appeared in Sangokushi movies 2 and 3, also Orphan releases.
• Okamoto Mari (Tomoko,) played the title role in Hana no Ko Lunlun and Ai-chan in Time Bokan Series: Yatterman.
• Yoshida Rihoko (Mika, Makoto-chan's sister) played Megu-chan in Majokko Megu-chan, Monsley in Future Boy Conan, Maria Grace Fleed in UFO Robo Grendizer, Michiru in Getter Robo, Clara Sesemann in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Rosalie Lamorliere in The Rose of Versailles, Kurama in Urusei Yatsura, and Machiko in Maicchingu Machiko-sensei. She played Tonko in Chiisana Koi no Monogatari, an Orphan release.
• Ohara Noriko (Makoto-chan's mom) had a long career starting in the 1960s. She played the title roles in Future Boy Conan and Arabian Nights: Sindbad no Bouken, Nobita in the Doraemon franchise (through 2004), and Oyuki in the Urusei Yatsura properties. She played the mother bear in Katte ni Shirokuma, an Orphan release.
• Mizusawa Yumi (Makoto-chan kindergarten teacher) appeared in City Hunter and Space Adventure Cobra.
• Umezz Kazuo appears as himself in a few spots and acts as the guide for the intro and outro segments.
  

The director, Shibayama Tsutomu, was an industry veteran who started at Toei. His directing credits include Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!!, the first 18 episodes of Ranma 1/2, the Chibi Maruko-chan TV series and movie,  many of the Doraemon series and movies, and the long-running TV series Nintama Rintarou.

Skr was the principal propulsive force throughout the project. He translated, timed, typeset the movie logo (which is half the movie script), and encoded the movie, teaser, and trailer. Erik did all the translation raws; Intrepid reripped the intro and outro on the Domesday Duplicator and encoded them. Sunachan helped with translation issues in the intro and outro. I edited and did the rest of the typesetting. BeeBee alone QCed; perhaps the other QCs were put off by the dangling strands of mucus. Skr and I have also checked everything as best we can, but I'm sure some errors got through. Please be merciful.

Makoto-chan is definitely an acquired taste. It is gross, bizarre, and in spots, wickedly funny. If this sounds like your cup of... well, whatever, you can find the movie on the usual torrent site or on IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. Gwashi!