I've been waiting to see "Shamanic Princess" ever since I first saw fansubs of the first two episodes five years ago. So I was overjoyed when Central Park Media released the entire series on one DVD for a low price. As I always do these days, I let the dub play when I first put the disc into my player. I was very pleased with what I heard. The dub of "Shamanic Princess" represents a vast improvement over previous CPM dubbing debacles such as "Maze" or "Photon". When I did my formal research, listening to specific segments of the dub and comparing them against the Japanese voices, the dub actually improved with the comparison. I realized how close many of the voices were in tone and performance.

A brief overview of the anime: "Shamanic Princess" is the story of Tiara, a magic user from "the guardian world" who comes to Earth to retrieve the stolen Throne of Yord, a powerful magical item. The story starts out in the middle, with Tiara about to find the item and being forced to fight former friends. The necessary exposition is delivered as the anime progresses, and, if you're attentive, you should have everything figured out by the time the story concludes at the end of the fourth episode. A two-episode "prequel" follows, detailing the events prior to the first episode.

Tiara is one of the most intentionally unlikable heroines I've seen in recent years. She's initially portrayed as temperamental and egotistical. In short, she's a bitch. Tara Jayne (Filia in "Slayers Try"), who plays Tiara, does her best to make this aspect of the character come through in her performance. However, she mostly does this by shouting and using a snotty tone of voice. It works, but in such a way that I found myself truly hating the character rather than "loving to hate her". Part of Tiara's appeal comes from watching her "tough girl" persona break down as the story progresses. Jayne settles into the character by the time this happens, and is able to soften her performance to present Tiara's more appealing side in a believable manner.

Tiara's partner is a wisecracking magical ferret named Japolo, played by P.M. Lewis (four different roles in "Photon"). Lewis plays Japolo with an accent that hovers between a French sophisticate and "Dexter's Laboratory". You will either be so annoyed by this voice that you'll run screaming to your remote to change audio tracks, or, as I did, you'll find it utterly charming. I thought the accent fit the well-bred little animal and his mannerisms to a T.

Lena, Tiara's former friend who turns against her, is played by Suzy Prue (Rapier in "Maze"), whom I initially thought was miscast. Prue gives Lena a deep, mature voice that I had at first thought made the character sound older than she looks. Then I heard the Japanese performance, which was, by Japanese standards, also rather deep and mature in tone. (It's important to keep in mind that the voices of Japanese women are, on the average, higher than those in the US, and thus a voice that sounds cute to us may sound deep to them.) Lena's partner, Leon (Alvaro J. Gonzalez), is also nearly dead-on in performance, given a gentle, youthful voice.

Fan-favorite actor Crispin Freeman (Zelgadis, "Slayers") plays Kagetsu, a sympathetic character pegged as the "villain" at the beginning of the program. Kagetsu is driven by his love for his sister, Sarah, who is imprisoned within the magical Throne of Yord. Freeman plays Kagetsu as gentle and caring, yet determined. Both Lena and Tiara are in love with Kagetsu, which is why I actually preferred Freeman's performance to his Japanese counterpart. Freeman's gentle Kagetsu seems more like the type to thrill a lady's heart than the deeper, more dramatic original.

Mary Anne Towne plays Sarah, but the character gets too little screen time for me to fairly review her. Towne does well, however, as the voice of the Throne of Yord, which is quickly revealed to be the true enemy. The Throne of Yord appears in the guises of the main characters, which means Jayne, Prue, and Freeman also get a turn at portraying the villainous talisman. The consistency in the performance between the actors is excellent, but then the Throne of Yord doesn't sound like a particularly difficult character to play, being little more than evil and contemptuous. When the time comes for the Throne of Yord to speak in its own voice, that voice is supplied by Tristan Goddard (Papacharino in "Photon", Woll in "Maze"), who shouts and pontificates and essentially goes completely over the top, contrasting with the more reserved performance on the Japanese track.