Space Dandy Gets An English-Speaking Cast
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The creators behind Cowboy BeBop and Samurai Champloo have a new anime series coming out this January. Called Space Dandy, it will exclusively air on Adult Swim at the same time it premieres in Japan. Yes, for the first time ever, a new Japanese anime will air simultaneously around the world.
Some of you probably think Space Dandy will air in the U.S. in Japanese with English subtitles. Nope. The series has an English-speaking cast that will dub each episode. Crunchy Roll reports that FUNimation, the U.S. distributor of Space Dandy, has released the full list of voice actors for the English version. Check it out for yourself.
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<Character> |
<Japanese Cast> |
<English Cast> |
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Dandy |
Junichi Suwabe |
Ian Sinclair |
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QT |
Uki Satake (9nine) |
Alison Viktorin |
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Meow |
Hiroyuki Yoshino |
Joel McDonald |
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Dr. Gel |
Unsho Ishizuka |
J. Michael Tatum |
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Bea |
Kosuke Hatakeyama |
Micah Solusod |
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Perry |
Banjo Ginga |
Kent Williams |
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Honey |
Yurin |
Alexis Tipton |
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Scarlet |
Hoko Kuwashima |
Colleen Clinkenbeard |
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Narrator |
Masaaki Yajima |
R Bruce Elliott |
While it’s unclear why Bones (the studio behind Space Dandy) is producing and launching the anime series this way, a dual launch will cut down on piracy. Since the series will air on Adult Swim, it’s also likely that it will pop up for home consumption much sooner.
FUNimation also released a new promo to get fans excited for its January premiere. The video features plenty of anime fan service, and highlights much of the action and comedy. The style for Space Dandy is eye-popping. The visuals are so full of color and excitement that they makes Cowboy BeBop and Samurai Champloo muted and dull by contrast.
Screenwriters Dai Satō and Keiko Nobumoto wrote the show, and Shinichirō Watanabe will direct. This is the creative team behind the widely popular Cowboy BeBop, and rarely watched Samurai Champloo.
While Cowboy BeBop combined space pirates with jazz, and Samurai Champloo combined feudal Japan with hip-hop, it looks like Space Dandy will pair a foppish space hero with catchy disco music. It’s a strange juxtaposition, but Satō, Nobumoto, and Watanabe seem to pull it off pretty well.
While anime isn’t as successful in the U.S. as it is in its native Japan, perhaps the simultaneous launch of Space Dandy could bridge the gap between the two different cultures. After all, Hollywood studios keep talking about adapting anime for American audiences with Akira, Gaiking, Battle Angel, and now Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) all in the works.
There is not much known about the series, but it follows Dandy, an alien hunter who is, as you might expect, “a dandy guy in the space.” He searches for aliens with his robot assistant QT and a cat alien named Meow. It all sounds very Japanese to me.
Space Dandy premieres on Adult Swim’s Toonami on January 4, 2014 at 11:30pm/12:30c. In Japan, the new anime series airs on January 5, 2014 at 11:00pm on Tokyo MX.
