Anime Boston: Funimation
Anime Boston was held this past weekend in, well, Boston. FUNimation was on hand to make no less than two big announcements. The first was about a new license- Spice & Wolf! Kadokawa USA actually licensed the title for an American release last summer, but were looking for a distributor to take care of the dubbing & DVD releases for it & other titles (the others currently remain without a distributor). For fans of the series, Funi has stated that the official romanization of Horo/Holo's name is Holo. The license is only for the first season, with the second season premiering in Japan this summer.
FUNimation's other announcement was for the dub cast of the Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 movie. While most of the roles have been recast with Funi voice actors, the voices of Shinji, Misato, & Gendo will be the same as ADV's dub of the Evangelion television series. Actually the voice of Gendo is the one used in ADV's Platinum redub of the series, as the original VA left the industry some time ago.
Probably the most disappointing change for fans is that Amanda Winn Lee wont be returning to voice Rei Ayanami. & while I would prefer to have as much as the original English cast come back as possible, with the exception of Shinji & Misato, it really doesn't matter what the other characters sound like. Shinji & Misato have iconic voices in the dub & are impossible to replace, but the same doesn't really hold true for everyone else. & yes, that includes Rei. Sure she's a major character, but considering how quiet & soft spoken a character she is, her voice just isn't that memorable & is relatively easy to replace (of course Rei fans might argue otherwise).
One other iconic voice that is impossible to replace is that of Asuka, who doesn't appear in the first movie. The fact that so few of the original actors came back makes me a bit worried that Tiffany Grant might not be back as Asuka. But considering that dub Asuka IS Tiffany Grant, I can't see how FUNimation could get anyone else but her to do the role. Funi, you better do it!
Interestingly enough, Greg Ayres is back for Rebuild 1.0, but NOT as Kaworu, which he played in ADV's Platinum redub. Rather, he's now playing the role of Kensuke. Quite an odd decision, but considering that he only played Kaworu in the redub & not the original English dub, perhaps Funi believed it didn't matter as much to make a change. A change they most likely felt was for the better. (Having Jerry Jewell voice him actually fits pretty well, IMO, & is a closer match to Kaworu's original dub voice.) The entire cast list below:
- MISATO- Allison Keith-Shipp (Misato in Eva, Rena in .hack//, Mellisa in FullMetal Panic)
- SHINJI- Spike Spencer (Shinji in Eva, Rolo in Code Geass, Ginta in MAR)
- RITSUKO- Colleen Clinkenbeard (Luffy in One Piece, Rachel in Case Closed, Riza/Rose in FMA)
- IBUKI- Caitlin Glass (Winry in FMA, Triela in Gunslinger Girl, Vivi in One Piece)
- GENDO- John Swasey (Gendo in Eva, Gan Fall/Crocodile in One Piece, Ken in Kaleido Star)
- REI- Brina Palencia (Ai in Hell Girl, Chopper in One Piece, Georgie in Shin-Chan)
- HYUUGA, EVA- Mike McFarland (Roshi/Yajirobe in DBZ, Buggy in One Piece, Cain in Trinity Blood)
- FUYUTSUKI- Kent Williams (Tao/Gero in DBZ, Masaya in Witchblade, Jorge in YYH)
- KENSUKE- Greg Ayres (Kaworu in Eva, Negi in Negima, Alessandro in Trinity Blood)
- TOJI- Justin Cook (Yusuke in YYH, Bellamy in One Piece, Dietrich in Trinity Blood)
- AOBA- Phil Parsons (Kajima in Baki)
- KIEL- Bill Jenkins (Narrator in One Piece)
- HIKARI- Leah Clark (Maron in DBZ)
- KAWORU- Jerry Jewell (Jimmy in Case Closed)
- YUI- Stephanie Young (Robin in One Piece)