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akinoameOkay, so I wish that I had an actual rundown of the full cast, but alas, they've only revealed a few.
The English dub of Ultraman Z has premiered, and honestly, it's pretty damn solid so far. While I generally like anime dubs, I'm never particularly fond of live-action--something about the dialogue not matching the original actors' lip movements gives me a headache, and the fact that Ultra in particular doesn't like to dub over the grunts gets pretty irritating. So consider "pretty damn solid" high praise. And it's clear that the dubbing group, Okratron 5000, understands that, because whenever they can make a line fit the lip movements better, they do it.
Obviously, nothing changes storywise, so let me go straight into the performances.
We begin with Haruki, played by Zeno Robinson, who voices more characters that I've heard than I actually realized, considering I always think of him primarily as Alan Albright from Ben 10. But he's also Young Justice Cyborg, Nino from Miraculous Ladybug, Goh from Pokemon and the current voice of Tai from Digimon, proving 1) he won at the Battle of the 'Mons, and 2) I will never escape my old fandoms. But in all honesty, the moment he was announced, I said, "Yes, he's PERFECT for Haruki," and he is. His voice isn't as low as Kohshu Hirano's, but he's absolutely got the energy and understands that 90% of Haruki's dialogue is shouted with ultra-spirit. And honestly, I'd just love for both Harukis to be locked in a room full of puppies, partly because both Hirano and Robinson are adorable as all hell in the role, and partly because it's 2023 and I know what happens in the rest of the series. Just give the Harukis puppies, please.
...Sidenote, is the plural of "Haruki" "Harukis"? "Harukies"? "Harukii"?
STORAGE is the next, and honestly, it's harder to evaluate them because the people introduced in the first episode are not necessarily the people you get by the finale.I'm looking at you, Hebikura.
Mallorie Rodak voices Yoko, and I actually don't know any of the things she's been in. I mean, I've seen a little of the My Hero Academia dub because my brother's a big fan, but I don't think she was in those eps. Rodak brings a more mature voice to Yoko than the original performance by Rima Matsuda, which I wasn't sure about considering what we see of her later on...but I'll discuss that when I do review the series. Suffice to say, she does manage to pull off the girlish crush beginning in episode 2, and it brings out more of Yoko's personality, having her basically have to play the older and wiser pilot who's secretly thirsty for the old guys.
Mick Lauer voices Captain Hebikura, and that's all I'm going to say on that. No, this isn't a criticism, but it's really hard to judge his voice when...well, y'know. Like, if this were just a straightforward character who was coincidentally played by Takaya Aoyagi, I'd have more to say at this stage. At this point, however, there is an elephant in the room that's bigger than Sevenger (which, incidentally, rhymes with "anger" in this dub; I have no problems with this, but I've been trying to break myself of the habit of pronouncing it as rhyming with "avenger" for 3 years, with little success). And until episode 5 and that reveal, I can't say that I've got enough to work with.
And then, there's Yuka.
Macy Ann Johnson voices Yuka and holy fucking shit. I don't know if the voice direction involved giving her an entire bag of sugar and an encyclopedia of kaiju and asking her to pick which one was the best, but that's her performance in a nutshell. She squees, she geeks the fuck out, she loses her shit in episode 2 when Haruki says something nice about science that has nothing to do with her...she's perfect. I say this in the nicest possible way: if I want to just put Kohshu Hirano and Zeno Robinson in a room full of puppies, I want to keep Hikari Kuroki and Macy Ann Johnson the hell away from any puppies because they will not be able to keep up with this amount of energy.
Director Kuriyama and Shinya Kaburagi's voice actors have not been listed yet, and there's not a lot I can talk about with them right now anyway.
Moving on to Ultras, Ultraman Zero is on his...fourth English voice actor. First was Daniel Van Thomas, for the dubs of the Zero, Ginga, and X movies. And while he does absolutely get the character, I personally think he sounds a little too deep and makes a character who's supposed to come off as about 18-22 as too old. Jack Berluzzi took over for Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes, and I really didn't watch the dub of that one, but for whatever reason, Berluzzi was re-assigned to Belial for the subsequent UGF's: The Absolute Conspiracy and The Destined Crossroad. In those, Eric Kelso voiced Zero, and he brought out the youth and vulnerability that I'd felt was missing before, but he just couldn't seem to bring out Zero's energy, particularly in TDC (which I'll discuss when I review it).
Zero's newest voice actor is Sean Schemmel, Goku from Dragon Ball Z.
I have no problem with this.
He's...quite honestly my favorite of the four Zero VAs, and a good part of that is he's used to playing a character who has at least 80% of his dialogue being screaming and powering up (in Goku's case, it was 90% purely because of the power-ups). He's a little growly, but in context, it makes sense: he's fighting a ferocious space shark (or "spaceshark," as the dub writes it; I guess this makes it a very specific genus or family of monsters, in which case I expect more spacesharks, damnit!) and Zett is driving him insane.
Also, remember how when Zero got pulled into the wormhole and I joked about him being Ankh? Well, it's 2023, baby, and I can't believe that Zero got sent to the Home For Infinite Losers like that.
...Kids, ask your folks.
I am old.
So, that all brings us to Matt Shipman's performance as Zett.
It's more difficult to explain than anything else, but I think I can make it make sense like this: You know how Zett talks very differently between the series and the voice dramas and UGF? He's very stilted with Haruki and it's clear he doesn't speak Japanese very well, so his voice doesn't go in all the places it goes when he's presumably speaking his native language with Zero?
It's like that, but with his accent.
Zett with Zero sounds very young, energetic, eager to please and way out of his depth. Zett with Haruki, attempting to speak "Earthese" sounds like he's picked up a Mid-Atlantic accent from watching old movies, and he tries to sound older and wiser, when he is decidedly not. Seriously, he calls Haruki "dude" like someoneZero told him it was an honorific that needs to be used in formal conversation. It sounds like he's trying to emulate the way Ultraman and Zoffy spoke in the original 1966 series, minus Ultraman's creepy-ass laugh. Like, if Ultraman's original-original voice was an unconvincing "Yes. I am just like you human. ha ha ha ha," Matt Shipman's Zett-to-Haruki voice is an equally unconvincing "Yes. I am just like my seniors. ...why are you laughing?"
No, Zett, you are not cool yet. This is why I love you.
So going forward, my plan is to finish off at LEAST Ultraman 80 and maybe Tiga before resuming the Orb reviews, and go back into the comments to add some commentary that I missed before when I didn't have as complete a view of the franchise. Mind you, Orb doesn't have prerequisites, but I appreciate it more now that I've seen, say, Ultraman Leo and how that has completely changed the entire Black Star Cafe episode forever. There's a part of me that also feels like maybe I should watch Dyna and Cosmos before I do The Origin Saga, even though Gaia is definitely enough to work with, but I'll have plenty of time to get to that anyway. I'll also be reviewing the Zero chronicle before Ultra Fight Orb because SURPRISE, ZERO AND ORB'S LEGACIES INTERTWINE IN A LATER SEASON, and then go into Geed, Z, and the UGFs somewhere in there. Not sure if I'll review Regulos, but I might do some select episodes of Seven and Leo because they're helpful with all of the series I'm doing anyway.
But anyway, yeah. Check out the dub on Youtube or Ultraman Connection. That's all.
The English dub of Ultraman Z has premiered, and honestly, it's pretty damn solid so far. While I generally like anime dubs, I'm never particularly fond of live-action--something about the dialogue not matching the original actors' lip movements gives me a headache, and the fact that Ultra in particular doesn't like to dub over the grunts gets pretty irritating. So consider "pretty damn solid" high praise. And it's clear that the dubbing group, Okratron 5000, understands that, because whenever they can make a line fit the lip movements better, they do it.
Obviously, nothing changes storywise, so let me go straight into the performances.
We begin with Haruki, played by Zeno Robinson, who voices more characters that I've heard than I actually realized, considering I always think of him primarily as Alan Albright from Ben 10. But he's also Young Justice Cyborg, Nino from Miraculous Ladybug, Goh from Pokemon and the current voice of Tai from Digimon, proving 1) he won at the Battle of the 'Mons, and 2) I will never escape my old fandoms. But in all honesty, the moment he was announced, I said, "Yes, he's PERFECT for Haruki," and he is. His voice isn't as low as Kohshu Hirano's, but he's absolutely got the energy and understands that 90% of Haruki's dialogue is shouted with ultra-spirit. And honestly, I'd just love for both Harukis to be locked in a room full of puppies, partly because both Hirano and Robinson are adorable as all hell in the role, and partly because it's 2023 and I know what happens in the rest of the series. Just give the Harukis puppies, please.
...Sidenote, is the plural of "Haruki" "Harukis"? "Harukies"? "Harukii"?
STORAGE is the next, and honestly, it's harder to evaluate them because the people introduced in the first episode are not necessarily the people you get by the finale.
Mallorie Rodak voices Yoko, and I actually don't know any of the things she's been in. I mean, I've seen a little of the My Hero Academia dub because my brother's a big fan, but I don't think she was in those eps. Rodak brings a more mature voice to Yoko than the original performance by Rima Matsuda, which I wasn't sure about considering what we see of her later on...but I'll discuss that when I do review the series. Suffice to say, she does manage to pull off the girlish crush beginning in episode 2, and it brings out more of Yoko's personality, having her basically have to play the older and wiser pilot who's secretly thirsty for the old guys.
Mick Lauer voices Captain Hebikura, and that's all I'm going to say on that. No, this isn't a criticism, but it's really hard to judge his voice when...well, y'know. Like, if this were just a straightforward character who was coincidentally played by Takaya Aoyagi, I'd have more to say at this stage. At this point, however, there is an elephant in the room that's bigger than Sevenger (which, incidentally, rhymes with "anger" in this dub; I have no problems with this, but I've been trying to break myself of the habit of pronouncing it as rhyming with "avenger" for 3 years, with little success). And until episode 5 and that reveal, I can't say that I've got enough to work with.
And then, there's Yuka.
Macy Ann Johnson voices Yuka and holy fucking shit. I don't know if the voice direction involved giving her an entire bag of sugar and an encyclopedia of kaiju and asking her to pick which one was the best, but that's her performance in a nutshell. She squees, she geeks the fuck out, she loses her shit in episode 2 when Haruki says something nice about science that has nothing to do with her...she's perfect. I say this in the nicest possible way: if I want to just put Kohshu Hirano and Zeno Robinson in a room full of puppies, I want to keep Hikari Kuroki and Macy Ann Johnson the hell away from any puppies because they will not be able to keep up with this amount of energy.
Director Kuriyama and Shinya Kaburagi's voice actors have not been listed yet, and there's not a lot I can talk about with them right now anyway.
Moving on to Ultras, Ultraman Zero is on his...fourth English voice actor. First was Daniel Van Thomas, for the dubs of the Zero, Ginga, and X movies. And while he does absolutely get the character, I personally think he sounds a little too deep and makes a character who's supposed to come off as about 18-22 as too old. Jack Berluzzi took over for Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes, and I really didn't watch the dub of that one, but for whatever reason, Berluzzi was re-assigned to Belial for the subsequent UGF's: The Absolute Conspiracy and The Destined Crossroad. In those, Eric Kelso voiced Zero, and he brought out the youth and vulnerability that I'd felt was missing before, but he just couldn't seem to bring out Zero's energy, particularly in TDC (which I'll discuss when I review it).
Zero's newest voice actor is Sean Schemmel, Goku from Dragon Ball Z.
I have no problem with this.
He's...quite honestly my favorite of the four Zero VAs, and a good part of that is he's used to playing a character who has at least 80% of his dialogue being screaming and powering up (in Goku's case, it was 90% purely because of the power-ups). He's a little growly, but in context, it makes sense: he's fighting a ferocious space shark (or "spaceshark," as the dub writes it; I guess this makes it a very specific genus or family of monsters, in which case I expect more spacesharks, damnit!) and Zett is driving him insane.
Also, remember how when Zero got pulled into the wormhole and I joked about him being Ankh? Well, it's 2023, baby, and I can't believe that Zero got sent to the Home For Infinite Losers like that.
...Kids, ask your folks.
I am old.
So, that all brings us to Matt Shipman's performance as Zett.
It's more difficult to explain than anything else, but I think I can make it make sense like this: You know how Zett talks very differently between the series and the voice dramas and UGF? He's very stilted with Haruki and it's clear he doesn't speak Japanese very well, so his voice doesn't go in all the places it goes when he's presumably speaking his native language with Zero?
It's like that, but with his accent.
Zett with Zero sounds very young, energetic, eager to please and way out of his depth. Zett with Haruki, attempting to speak "Earthese" sounds like he's picked up a Mid-Atlantic accent from watching old movies, and he tries to sound older and wiser, when he is decidedly not. Seriously, he calls Haruki "dude" like someone
No, Zett, you are not cool yet. This is why I love you.
So going forward, my plan is to finish off at LEAST Ultraman 80 and maybe Tiga before resuming the Orb reviews, and go back into the comments to add some commentary that I missed before when I didn't have as complete a view of the franchise. Mind you, Orb doesn't have prerequisites, but I appreciate it more now that I've seen, say, Ultraman Leo and how that has completely changed the entire Black Star Cafe episode forever. There's a part of me that also feels like maybe I should watch Dyna and Cosmos before I do The Origin Saga, even though Gaia is definitely enough to work with, but I'll have plenty of time to get to that anyway. I'll also be reviewing the Zero chronicle before Ultra Fight Orb because SURPRISE, ZERO AND ORB'S LEGACIES INTERTWINE IN A LATER SEASON, and then go into Geed, Z, and the UGFs somewhere in there. Not sure if I'll review Regulos, but I might do some select episodes of Seven and Leo because they're helpful with all of the series I'm doing anyway.
But anyway, yeah. Check out the dub on Youtube or Ultraman Connection. That's all.
Cast updates
Date: 2023-04-12 12:58 am (UTC)Mike Dent/Mach Dent as the STORAGE A.I. (a.k.a. "Fourth Gate Open")
Brittany Lauda as Kanegon (coming later on)
Howard Wang as Shinya Kaburagi/Celebro
Kamran Nikhad as Gillvalis (later)
Ben Phillips as Director Kuriyama
Kent Williams as Bako
Jim Fordona as Ultraman Taro ...which is weird because he has like just ONE second of screentime...