Piyo-Piyo Productions presents: Fukuyama Theatre: Secret Summer 3/11/18 https://www.otakubell.com/ https://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=5318 Source: Laserdisc Everything PPP-Raw releases is from laserdisc source. Somebody keeps uploading data to anidb saying its from DVD source when the DVD conversion clearly states, in plain English, that its from a laserdisc, and submitting corrections to anidb is a pain-in-the-ass because unless you do it JUST so the folks who run that place will reject your correction, so its better to give them the right info from the outset, thank you. Project notes: An excellent collection of short stories and music videos based on the works of Keiko Fukuyama. “Literally WHO?” you might ask? Well... she made a lot of manga, but was only involved in two animated works: This, and the character designs for Appleland Story. She might be best known for her artwork on Pokemon Trading Game cards, maybe. Based on this OVA, I’d say she got short-changed. Some of what you’ll see: A little girl rescues a tiny mermaid from being eated by a fish. An Arabian-styled musical number that kinda sounds like Dead Can Dance swapped out Lisa Gerrard for a Japanese singer. A story about a caveman artist and his very 80s-looking love interest. A music video about a little black dog named “Kuro.” But the story that stuck out to me the most was the final story, Origami Princess. I’m gonna try not to spoiler it too much here, and bear in mind I only understand enough Japanese to catch a few sentences here and there. It is presented with the same level of cuteness as the other stories – not overdone, but cute. But my levels of dread kept rising with every minute, because the entire thing is based around a premise that has one inevitible conclusion, and although that premise is not visually carried out at the end, it allowed my imagination to kick in and I teared up a bit. And this is over a character who has had less than ten minutes of screentime, whose dialogue I can’t fully understand. That’s quality. Unfiltered high bitrate DVD conversion included for archival purposes.