High School of the Dead Dub Cast Revealed!

As I'm sure you've all realized previously, I'm a bit pro-fanservice. Interestingly enough, I've actually been anti-zombie for a while after watching a particular zombie movie and discovering that there was a limit to the amount of gore a man can take in before he loses his taste for it. (The scene in question involved a lawnmower and quite a few zombies. Gooey ewwie.)

When I heard about High School of the Dead, I found myself at first not interested. Then I read a bit about it and started getting interested. Then I heard who the artist was and I just HAD to check it out. I was quite happy when Section23 decided to do an English dub for it. I've wondered for a while who would be cast.

Well, we've got the answer now!



Additional details claimed in this post on Mania.com's AoD section, official status unverified.

I think this is one of best casts I've seen in a while. I especially like seeing Illich Guardiola for Kouichi Shido. His voice was the very first one that came to mind when I started thinking about an English voice for that character. (No offense whatsoever for Mr. Guardiola, I just think his voice will be perfect.)

I'm also extremely pleased by the casting of Taylor Hannah as Saeko Busujima. Having enjoyed her voice work in a number of other series, I think she's going to just kick ass in this role. Listen to a clip here. Check out all the clips and decide for yourself!

My only negative is for Hisashi Igo being voiced by David Matranga. I don't know exactly why but I REALLY thought Chris Patton would be superlative casting for that role. Sadly, I think he's dropping off the anime radar a bit. (Mr. Matranga is very talented though. I'm sure he'll achieve something great with this.)

I hope to see some High School of the Dead DVDs or Blu-Rays before too long.

So what do all of you my dear readers think about the casting? Are you pleased or pissed? Comment before They get you!

Bye-ni!

A Certain Scientific Railgun, Hellsing and Black Lagoon are Fun. (Update 3!)

From the Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan industry panel (think they've made the company name long enough?) comes several surprisingly under-reported announcements. Additional information makes these seem like full licenses too!



Apparently, A Certain Scientific Railgun/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun has been apparently licensed and marked for distribution via Funimation! Here's the quote from the remarkably vague report:

Black Lagoon, Hellsing, and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun will all be released by FUNimation in the United States, the latter of which is the only new announcement. High School of the Dead will be announced "sometime at this event," but when exactly is a "secret."

Follow ups came fairly soon though and now we have confirmation! A Certain Scientific Railgun is great all by itself, but the new Black Lagoon OVAs AND the rest of the Hellsing OVAs?!? Damn awesome news!



So that's a whole pack of new anime that will be coming to the US, via Funi, which hopefully means an English dub will happen for it. (Seems much more likely now that these appear to be proper licenses!) At the same time, I'm sure we don't have to wonder "wait, do they mean the new Black Lagoon OVAs and the rest of the Hellsing OVAs or just the old stuff they're already doing?" They've got them, don't worry!



I figured they wouldn't bother to act like it's news if it were the old stuff and I was right. Funimation's made some recent comments about big news and getting some shows fans were clamouring for, and they weren't kidding. I believe we can be certain now that these fan-favorite (and profit-making) anime are about to be in our hands. The only questions really are "will we get steelbook cases again?" and "will we get awesome English dubs with the same casts" again. This remains a crucial quesiton, though hopefully one that will answered during a certain upcoming panel.

Also, the Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works movie may be announced as licensed before the con is over! Not to mention High School of the Dead. Heck, that's going to be a first-run Hybrid release via Sentai! Plus a simulcast!



Ooh, things are heating up and I'll keep on bringing you my silly commentary on it! I'll also hopefully be able to report many more English dubs! Already, things are getting better for we English dub preferring fans!

Bye-ni!

*Update 1: An ominous line from a live-blog of the events:

10:48:56 For the dubs, we will discuss those with funimation but we don't want to

I'd like to think that is a miscommunication but if it isn't, then it would appear that the Japanese don't think English dubs are a good idea. (Fortunately, they'll be talking to the one R1 company that most strongly disagrees!)

*Update 2: Funimation confirming via Twitter that Hellsing Ultimate 5-7, Black Lagoon and A Certain Scientific Railgun are theirs! Sentai grabs High School of the Dead, plans English dub. Added more pics.

Holy Hannah, talk about a good day! Major fan favorites are coming back and we've some awesome new titles! I'm very excited and pleased by this turn of events, though I hope this doesn't completely ruin Funimation's upcoming panel! (Will they have anything left to announce?!?)

*Update 3: Should have checked my PMs (why aren't I getting E-mail notification of them?) because I have word from Cliff/ExcelGenerations:

A couple of the QA was wrong as well. Geneon said they WANT do dub all those shows they have to discuss. And also the dvd/blu ray question was they have the blu ray quality but it's up to the distributor if they will release.

So, Update 1's info is fooey. English dubs are desired!