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| Psychiatrist Irabu series | |
 Cover of the first Japanese edition ofIn the Pool, the firsttankōbon of the Psychiatrist Irabu stories | |
| 精神科医・伊良部シリーズ (Seishinkai Irabu shirīzu) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Psychological[1] |
| Other book | |
| Written by | Hideo Okuda |
| Published by | Bungeishunjū |
| English publisher | Stone Bridge Press (In the Pool)[2] |
| Imprint | Bunshun Bunko (bunkobon)[3] |
| Magazine | All Yomimono |
| Original run | August 2000 –January 2006 |
| Volumes | 3 |
| Live-action film | |
| In the Pool | |
| Directed by | Satoshi Miki |
| Written by | Satoshi Miki |
| Music by | Osamu Sakaguchi |
| Released | May 21, 2005 |
| Runtime | 101 minutes[4] |
| Live-action television film | |
| Kūchū Buranko | |
| Directed by | Shōsuke Murakami |
| Produced by | Shizuo Sekiguchi Fumi Hashimoto |
| Written by | Hiroshi Hashimoto |
| Studio | Kyōdo Television |
| Released | May 27, 2005 |
| Live-action television film | |
| Kūchū Buranko | |
| Directed by | Masahiko Kawahara |
| Produced by | Yukio Yoshimura |
| Written by | Yutaka Kuramochi |
| Music by | Masahiro Hasegawa |
| Studio | Atelier Duncan |
| Released | July 11, 2008[5] |
| Runtime | 130 minutes[6] |
| Anime television series | |
| Welcome to Irabu's Office | |
| Directed by | Kenji Nakamura |
| Produced by | Masato Jōno Kōji Yamamoto Takashi Washio |
| Written by | Manabu Ishikawa |
| Music by | Hideharu Mori |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | Fuji TV (Noitamina) |
| Original run | October 15, 2009 – December 24, 2009 |
| Episodes | 11[8](List of episodes) |
ThePsychiatrist Irabu series (精神科医・伊良部シリーズ) is a series ofshort stories by theJapanese writer Hideo Okuda that features the fictionalpsychiatrist Dr. Ichirō Irabu (伊良部 一郎,Irabu Ichirō).
The stories were originally published in theliterary magazineAll Yomimono from August 2000 to January 2006 and later collected in threetankōbon:In the Pool (イン・ザ・プール,In za Pūru),Kūchū Buranko (空中ブランコ, "Flying trapeze") andChōchō Senkyo (町長選挙, "Mayoral election"). Of these,Kūchū Buranko is particularly acclaimed, having won Okuda the 131stNaoki Prize (given for a book published in the first half of 2004). However, as of January 2011, onlyIn the Pool has been published in English, though the other collections have been published in other languages, including German[9] and French.[10]
Works in other media based on the stories include afeature film,television drama,stage play andanimated television series.
Ichiro Irabu (伊良部 一郎) is a psychiatrist of the Irabu General Hospital. He is pale-skinned, overweight and is overzealous in administering injections to patients. An unreasonable and rather immature person, he ignores Yamashita's plights while challenging him to mid-air trapeze flying due to his self-proclaimed "light-weightedness" in the story "Kūchū Buranko". During his student days, he frequently misunderstood his lectures. Treated as a general nuisance at the School of Medicine, he enteredpediatrics soon after graduation. However, due to claims of tantrums and quarrels with child patients, he switched to psychiatry instead. Doubts remain about his actual grades.
In the Pool (イン・ザ・プール; stylized asIN THE POOL) is a 2005 feature film directed bySatoshi Miki, based on three of the stories by Hideo Okuda collected in the book of the same name, which starsSuzuki Matsuo as Irabu,Joe Odagiri as Tetsuya Taguchi andSeiichi Tanabe as Kazuo Ōmori. It was released in cinemas in Japan on May 14, 2005.[12]
Kūchū Buranko (空中ブランコ) is a 2005 one-off television drama based primarily on the story of the same name by Hideo Okuda, which starsHiroshi Abe as Irabu. It was produced byFuji Television and broadcast by them on May 27, 2005.
Kūchū Buranko (空中ブランコ) is a 2008 play by Yutaka Kuramochi based on the story of the same name by Hideo Okuda. The original production by theatre company Atelier Duncan was directed by Masahiko Kawahara and ran for 21 performances from April 20 to May 5, 2008 at theTokyo Metropolitan Art Space, then toured for the remainder of the month starting inKōchi, Kōchi on the 8th and ending inKamisu, Ibaraki on the 29th. The original cast includedHiroyuki Miyasako as Dr. Irabu,Eriko Satō as Mayumi, Kenji Sakamoto as Kōhei Yamashita,Yumiko Takahashi and Takashika Kobayashi, with supporting roles performed by, among others, the maleidolsTakashi Nagayama as Haruki,Ryūji Kamiyama and Ire Shiozaki and members of the G-Rocketsacrotroupe. It was produced withDentsu[5] and sponsored by Dentsu andTV Asahi.
A video recording was made, which premiered on July 11, 2008 on the television stationWOWOW and has since been rebroadcast several times and released onDVD-Video on October 24, 2008.[5]
Welcome to Irabu's Office (空中ブランコ,Kūchū Buranko) is a 2009Japanese animated television series of 11 episodes based on the psychiatrist Irabu stories by Hideo Okuda, produced atToei Animation under the series direction ofKenji Nakamura forFuji Television'snoitaminaprogramming block. Though ostensibly an animated series, its visuals are more specifically a mélange oftraditional animation withrotoscoped or otherwise processedlive-action video and other imagery.[8] Manabu Ishikawa's series composition adapts the stories to be set inTokyo during about one week from December 17 toChristmas (corresponding with the original broadcast, which concluded onChristmas Eve) and for the chief characters of each story to appear also as supporting players in each other's narratives.
The plot of each episode follows a common thread. Irabu is consulted by a patient suffering from a psychological problem or a problem for which other medical approaches have been exhausted. Each of the patients' heads is morphed into an animal head in some scenes after Mayumi administers the vitamin shot to them. Each patient somehow ties into one another; for example, the first patient meets the second and seventh patients the first episode.
The series won thePulcinella award for Best Television Series in the "Young Adults" (14–17 years) division at the 2010Cartoons on the Bay international animation festival in theprovince of Genoa,Italy. The jury of that year, presided over byGary Goldman, commended it as a "unique representation of the complex inner world of adolescents."[8] Noted animationblogger Benjamin Ettinger found it to be lacking in interest in the animation itself. In his opinion, the extreme eclecticism of the visual design was no substitute for the finely crafted world of Nakamura and character designer and chiefanimation director Takashi Hashimoto's earlierAyakashi: Samurai Horror Tales andMononoke. However, the series was still highly enjoyable thanks to excellence on the part of Nakamura and the episode directors.[14] The series highlighted the incorporation of real-lifegravure idolYumi Sugimoto as Mayumi as a welcome subversion ofmoe.[15]
