So I'm walking down the hall at Anime Central after sitting on a semi-successful fan panel on the topic of anime websites, when I'm approached by this cute girl about two-thirds my height. The girl, Akadot.com web content manager Stephanie Sheh, says she loves my column, "Last Exit Before Toll," on the Anime Web Turnpike, and would I be interested in doing another column for a forthcoming website? Later, Stephanie would impress me with her professionalism and ability to stay organized in the face of situations that would drive lesser beings to tears. But at that moment, all I knew was that a cute girl was asking me to write something for her. So of course I said yes. The fact that I might actually get paid for something I wrote for the first time in my life also had something to do with it.

It took another convention, Anime Expo, to determine what exactly I had said yes to. You see, I'm not a particular expert on anything anime, nor do I have a vast network of contacts in the anime field. I'm essentially an anime fan with a big mouth, out of which fly opinions, opinions which I have shown talent at expressing intelligently. So what to do with me?

After the Akadot staff and I had proposed and rejected several different ideas, I put forth the concept of a dub-review column. Not reviewing the anime so much as reviewing the dub itself - the acting; the directing; how it compares to the original. I believe there's a need for such reviews. For one thing, dubs become more popular every year. Where it once was fashionable to proclaim that there's no such thing as a good dub, these days all but the crustiest of fans admit that at least some dubs are worth listening to. Several dubs are even accepted by many, if not most, to be superior to the original Japanese acting. We review everything else about anime. Why not focus some attention on the dubbing? I'm also of the opinion that there are quite a few actors out there talented enough that their appearance in a dub should be a point in favor of buying the title.

Lastly, and here I hope you'll forgive my ego, if this column takes off, I'm hoping my readers and I can help improve the quality of dubs further by praising the dubs that work and constructively criticizing those that don't.

Of course, the question needs to be asked, "What qualifies me to review dubs?" Let's see... I own a DVD player and a TV set and I watch a lot of dubs. That's about it. My qualifications for reviewing websites were just about as strong in 1997, but that didn't stop me from writing "Last Exit," and that's been going strong for over three years now, so I'm not too worried. If you disagree (or agree) with my review, feel free to write me. If all goes as planned, I hope to run the best responses in a letters column.

And with that, let's move onto my first review.