The folks at Sentai Filmworks brought out the original 1998 Orphen TV series as an SDBD release during the summer of 2019 but even then they forgot to slide a trailer onto their YouTube channel for it. That’s now been done, giving us a chance to reconnect once again with the classic work. The release is still available at retail and from the distributor and the show is also streaming on HIDIVE at the moment. Check out the trailer below and reconnect some about the history of the show and its production.
Check out our review of the series.
The series was directed by Hiroshi Watanabe based on the screenplay by Masashi Kubota and Mayori Sekijima. Masahiro Aizawa handled the character design adaptations with J.C. Staff working on the animation.
The Japanese cast includes Mayumi Iizuka as Cleao Everlasting, Omi Minami as Majic Lin, Showtaro Morikubo as Orphen, Emi Shinohara as Azalie, Hekiru Shiina as Dortin, Jouji Nakata as Childman, Kazue Ikura as Volkan, Konami Yoshida as Reki, and Ryotaro Okiayu as Hardia.
The English dub was directed by Steven Foster with a cast that includes David Matranga as Orphen, Shelley Calene-Black as Cleao, Spike Spencer as Majic, Christine M. Auten as Azalie, Hilary Haag as Dortin, Jason Douglas as Childman, John Swasey as Volkan, Karen Coffer as Stephanie, and Randy Sparks as Hartia/Black Tiger.
The light novel series for this began in 1994 as written by Yoshinobu Akita with illustrations by Yuuya Kusaka. It completed in 2003 with its original run at twenty volumes while the second story began in 1996 and finished in 2003 with thirteen volumes. An additional two-volume series ran in 1997 and 1998 as well. With an eight-volume manga adapted by Hajime Sawada, there were a few other spinoffs and manga that cropped up over the years and a new light-novel series in 2011 that ran for ten volumes through 2015. Multiple single-volume light novels have also been released since 2019, coinciding with the new two-cour anime adaptation.
Plot Concept: When an experiment goes horribly awry and transforms the Sorceress Azalie into a monstrous dragon, the sorcerers of the Tower of Fang callously decide to pretend that Azalie died in order to preserve the Tower’s reputation. And to make sure that the magic beans never get spilled, they also decide that Azalie needs to be destroyed. Disgusted by their cravenly actions, Azalie’s friend Krylancelo renounces his allegiance to the Tower, changes his name to Orphen and sets forth to save the damsel/dragon in distress. It won’t be easy: there’ll be minions with nefarious plans to defeat, and along the way Orphen will pick up an apprentice, a spoiled rich girl and a couple of trolls. But it wouldn’t be a heroic journey without a few bumps in the road, would it? The epic quest is on in Sorcerous Stabber Orphen!
