Only now I remembered that the thread for Hiatari Ryoukou was "washed away" after animesuki's hacking. So it's time to re-create it.
Hiatari Ryoukou MJN's project is not dead. As some of you might have probably noticed, episodes 5 and 6 have been released very recently.
For those who have already heard about this series but never downloaded MJN's releases, I suggest you do so. (Specially because there aren't any other english subbed releases anywhere.
Just kiding, MJN's releases are very good by themselves.
) The only thing I have against is the video studder that occurs sometimes, but that's only due to the raw used. Since there's probably no more raw of this series, I can't really complain. ^^
For those who have never heard about the series itself, I strongly recommend it. It's a shounen romance with sports, by Mitsuru Adachi, the creator of
Touch. Hiatari Ryoukou anime is very similar to Touch anime in character design, story set, OST style, witty humour - even almost all of Touch's seiyuus performed in Hiatari Ryoukou, which I find to be a spectacular idea.
The only major difference is that this time baseball is not a main key in the story development.
But this doesn't mean Hiatari Ryoukou is just a shorter copy of Touch. Instead, Hiatari Ryoukou's is a gem of an anime all by itself - another one by Adachi. The story may be not as brilliant as Touch's, but it's not too far away. The fact that more effort was put into scenery design quality shows that the producers weren't kidding aroud; for 1987, the sceneries are perfectly drawn (all hand-made), most of the times better than Touch's, having that nice warm feel of summer, for their "brightness". Add to that the awesome OST and seiyuu and we have a gem.
Some trivia: Hiatari Ryoukou's manga was released during the late 70's, while Touch's manga only appeared some years later. The manga never had a true ending, and it was a lot shorter than its anime. The anime, however, made its debut right after Touch anime ended in 1987, probably profiting from Touch's huge popularity at the time. The story was extended and completed (a lot than the original, IMO). Hiatari Ryoukou's anime lasted 48 eps and had a movie: I think this shows the favourable acceptance of the viewers.
To make things short: if you like the genres Hiatary Ryoukou is inserted in, then by all mean download this (and Touch, BTW
). You won't be dissapointed.
