English dub

Sakura Wars the Animation to receive an English Dub from Funimation

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Sakura Wars the Animation, the animated sequel to Sakura Wars (2019), will be receiving a full English dub of all 12 episodes on Funimation’s website starting tomorrow (Feb 2nd). The series follows the division as they face a renewed demonic invasion and deal with a tournament, all while working to keep their beloved Imperial Theater open and operating. Here is the full English voice cast of the Sakura Wars the Animation dub:

English Voice Cast

Sakura: Cherami Leigh
Anastasia: Stephanie Young
Azami: Sarah Wiedenheft
Clarissa: Amanda Gish
Elise: Emily Neves
Hakushu: Luci Christian
Hatsuho: Amber Lee Connors
Kamiyama: Ian Sinclair
Kanzaki: Michelle Ruff
Kaoru: Monica Rial
Klara: Lindsay Seidel
Komachi: Tia Ballard
Lancelot: Felecia Angelle
Leyla: Terri Doty
ADR Director: Stephen Hoff
Mix Engineer: Rawly Pickens
ADR Scriptwriter: Terri Doty

Note that one of the voice actress, Michelle Ruff, is returning her role as Sumire Kanzaki from Sakura Wars: The Movie. What are thoughts on the cast for the animated series, do you think we’ll see the cast return for a new Sakura Wars game in the near future? Let us know in the comments below!

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Funimation acquires English dubbing rights to BAYONETTA: Bloody Fate

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bayonetta-bloody-fate
FUNimation® Entertainment announced today that the company has acquired U.S. & Canadian rights to the full-length feature film BAYONETTA: Bloody Fate. BAYONETTA: Bloody Fate, which was produced by GONZO animation studio and internationally acclaimed director Fuminori Kizaki, was released in theaters on DVD & Blu-ray in Japan last year and faithfully retells the story of the first BAYONETTA game in full anime glory.

Director Fuminori Kizaki will also be making an appearance as a guest of honor at this year’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles, July 3-6 where a “sneak peek” of the English dub of BAYONETTA: Bloody Fate will be shown for fans at the convention, along with a special Q&A with Director Kizaki following on Saturday, July 5th, at 8:15pm in Video 1.

FUNimation plans to release the animated movie on DVD and Blu-Ray sometime this year with a released date that has yet to be announced. BAYONETTA 2 is also set for a release this year in October, so be sure to check out our E3 impressions on the sequel sometime this week.

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The guy behind the “shrill” NPC voice in Shenmue II explains how it came to be

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The Shenmue series may be known as a pioneer in a lot of ways…none of those ways includes the quality of its English dub. Shenmue Dojo yesterday posted a story from a voice actor who did some NPC voices from Shenmue II. Not a whole lot about the process we hadn’t heard from Jeremy Blaustein’s revealing interview a while back, but I still got a few chuckles out of this.

The actor, who asked to be anonymous (though Shenmue Dojo attests to his legitimacy), explained to his agent that he was not capable of altering his voice convincingly, but he was then asked to do just that when he showed up for the Shenmue II recording session.

For the next role, I was asked to do the voice of an old man.
My agent, who was in the control room, did not say anything at all. In fact, I saw the agent ducking out of my line of sight. Nothing from the agent about the fact that I had accepted the job on the condition that I not have to alter my voice. Because my voice characterizations are not good and game players will notice the poor quality. And no clearheaded game producer wants to put bad voices on their project. Right?

Once again, I was on the spot. Well, it’s their game, I figured. One standard elderly-man voice coming up.

My favorite part of this story would have to be when this actor reveals that he was also the one responsible for that quirky NPC with the high-pitched voice, and I actually have a feeling that I know which voice it was.

One of the characters was described to me as an especially weird fellow and they needed an appropriately weird voice. They played some scenes on the monitor. They gave me a moment to think of a voice style.

They didn’t like my first attempt and neither did I.

The next attempt was a shrill, scratchy concoction that actually hurt to do. “No way will they want this voice,” I thought.

They loved it.

I had a created a voice that sounds like a cross between Clint Eastwood and Richard Simmons.

As I was recording, I remember thinking to myself “This character voice is terrible. If I were playing this game and heard this voice, I’d turn off the sound.”

He also discusses how he and a couple other actors improvised the background chatter of the Heavens gang, the small studio in which the recording was done, and his declaration that he will never accept video game voicework again. Pretty entertaining.

[Source: Shenmuedojo]

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