I am unable to credit any of the actors for this dub, as Bandai didn't see fit to include any credits on the DVD, at all. Unless you can read Japanese, any questions regarding the production go unanswered. I find this to be shoddy treatment indeed. One wonders why they would bother to do a dub if they care so little about the actors that they fail to list them in any way.

This dub is unique among the three in that some reengineering took place for the Spanish language version. The name of the anime was changed to "Chica Marionette J". The names of two of the female androids were changed as well. Lime became "Lima", and Bloodberry became "Zarzamora". "Lima" means "lime", that's obvious enough. But "zarzamora?" As it turned out, Blanca was unable to help me. She was certain it was some kind of berry, but she didn't know what kind, much less the English word. Thankfully, the wondrous resource that is the Internet turned up an online Spanish-to-English dictionary. It turns out "zarzamora" is Spanish for "blackberry!" I guess that's close enough. What I find surprising is that "Cherry" remained "Cherry". I can only suppose that "Cereza" wouldn't have been a sufficiently feminine name.

Blanca absolutely hated Lima, but not because of the voice, which she thought was dead-on for such a pushy, hyperactive character. I asked her if any of Lime's childlike speech patterns in the Japanese were replicated with Spanish equivalents. Blanca said she couldn't find anything childish or wrong about Lima's grammar. If so, that would be a major strike against the dub in my book.

Cherry's voice got high marks from Blanca, who described it as "calm, sweet, and patient." Zarzamora, on the other hand, could have stood to sound a little tougher.

Blanca and I had a long discussion about Hanagata, the idiot of the show who moves next door to the hero, Otaru. Blanca absolutely loved Hanagata, calling his voice "excellent... goofy, yet mature." There is a scene where Hanagata attempts to rescue Otaru from having to eat Lima's cooking by offering to share his "Mexican cuisine" ("French cuisine" in the original), then follows it up with something along the line of "Do you want some tacos?" I was convinced that the dialogue was written this way to emphasize what a buffoon Hanagata is, in that tacos are the best example of "Mexican cuisine" he can come up with. Surprisingly, Blanca didn't see it that way -- she thought Hanagata didn't look foolish at all in that scene. After some discussion, she admitted that if I walked into a nice restaurant in Tijuana and ordered a taco, I'd look a bit stupid. I'd be interested in hearing any opinions readers may have about that scene.

I hope this won't be the last column I write about non-English dubs. The anime distributors will have to cooperate by releasing more of them, however. Until then, I'll have to be satisfied with reviewing dubs recorded in my own language.

I couldn't possibly write this column without the help of the Dub Seiyuu Database.

Agree? Disagree? Have a comment about a dub, or just about dubbing in general? Let me know!