Canadian Dub Cavalcade: Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, Vanguard Will+Dress, World Trigger
A Canadian anime dub isn’t the most common of sights nowadays. This year, there’s been the unsurprising Bakugan: Evolutions and the very surprising Pokétoon short series, but nothing else. That’s about to change as a comparative avalanche of dubs debut.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai debuts in the United Kingdom
BBC quietly began streaming the first 25 episodes of Toei Animation’s 2020 remake of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai on September 26th in their children’s section. Currently available only in the United Kingdom, the dub was produced by Ocean with production done at their Vancouver studios and Blue Water in Calgary/Edmonton. The series joins the British broadcaster’s limited selection of anime titles, including Toei’s Dragon Ball Super, Pokemon The Series: Sun & Moon, and Ronja: The Robber’s Daughter.
Due to geo-restrictions, I’ve only been able to go through one episode’s credits, but the lead voice director appears to be Karl Willems. The cast includes Sabrina Pitre as Dai, Cole Howard as Popp, Diana Kaarina as Maam, Kelly Sheridan as Leona, and Vincent Tong as both Hyunckel as well as Avan. Like World Trigger, Ocean and Toei’s previous dub collab, Dai features English-language opening and ending theme songs.
The dub first became known in the weirdest of ways: SAG-AFTRA, the primary U.S. actor’s union issued a “Do Not Work” notice in April 2021. This reportedly came as Ocean attempted to hire American actors without a union contract. This led to speculation that the production was shelved, but most claiming that seemed to be unaware that Canada has its own acting unions who’d be unaffected by that.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai began airing in Japan on October 3, 2020. The show is a complete adaptation of Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada’s 1989-1996 Weekly Shonen Jump series inspired by Square Enix’s video game franchise. The show is set to wrap up after episode 100 airs on October 21st. The manga previously inspired a 46-episode series by Toei in 1991. Square Enix will publish a console game adaptation globally.
Cardfight!! Vanguard: Will+Dress dub to debut this weekend … maybe
Sentai Filmworks’ Hidive anime streaming service announced yesterday that the English dub of Cardfight!! Vanguard: Will+Dress will launch on October 1st. The series is a follow-up to last year’s brand reboot, overDress. While Hidive’s announcement was lacking in details, the franchise has typically been dubbed in Alberta by Blue Water. overDress starred James Higuchi as Yu-yu Kondo, Josh Meredith as Danji Momoyama, Daniel Fong as Tohya Ebata, and L.A.-based actress/internet personality Lily Pichu as Megumi Okura.
Produced by Kinema Citrus, the first cour of Will+Dress began airing on July 4th and concluded this week. The show will resume in January.
I’m making an assumption that Blue Water will return for this. Maybe I’ll eat crow, but they’ve dubbed the franchise for the last 10 years. Curiously, Bushiroad has been silent about this announcement, which makes me wonder if Hidive made a mistake. Maybe they have a limited period of exclusivity? Bushiroad usually streams their shows on as many platforms as they can, including for free on YouTube.
World Trigger’s second and third seasons finally get an English dub
Teased in January 2021, announced in October 2021 and released in October 2022? That’s the story of the English dub for World Trigger’s second and third seasons. Toei Animation confirmed that the 26 episodes will drop on October 4th on digital storefronts. The company has previously utilized the “download-to-own” release strategy with dubbed One Piece episodes. In that franchise’s case, those episodes would stream on Funimation sometime later. It remains to be seen if Toei gets these up on Crunchyroll in the near future. Hopefully, they’ll get it in front of a wider audience faster than they did with the first season’s dub.
While Toei hasn’t issued any formal announcement regarding the cast, some Canadian actors have confirmed their involvement. Like Dragon Quest, the show was dubbed at Ocean in Vancouver with additional work done at Blue Water in Calgary and Edmonton. Texas-based actor Ian Sinclair will play Gatlin. He’ll be a guest at next month’s New York Comic Con, where Toei will screen the newly dubbed episodes.
Toei Animation originally adapted Daisuke Ashihara’s ongoing World Trigger manga into a 73-episode series that ran between October 2014 and April 2016. The anime returned for 12 episodes in January 2021, before running for an additional 14 in October.
I Miss Bionix 