The Unreleased English dubs of Ojarumaru

 

Ojarumaru is an anime series that's very obscure outside of Asia. What's even more obscure is the fact that there at least 2 English dubs of the show and none of them were ever released. Not even a sample of these dubs can be found online. While it hasn't been officially stated why these dubs went unreleased, it's possible that companies in the Anglosphere just didn't think that the show would be very successful. The history of slice-of-life comedy kids anime, such as Hamtaro, Doraemon, and Yo-kai Watch, underperforming in the Anglosphere might've influenced this decision. 
The first English dub, entitled Prince Mackaroo, was probably produced sometime back in the early 2000s. It was dubbed in Canada at Ocean Sound. Enoki Films USA most likely commissioned the dub, as they held the master license for the show in Western territories at the time. The only known dub staff are voice actors David Kaye and Saffron Henderson. Kaye voiced Denbo (renamed Cyberfly) and Great King Enma (renamed Demon King), along with doing additional voices. Henderson voiced Akane (renamed Scarlett) and Ai Tamura (renamed Amy). It's unknown exactly how many episodes were dubbed. 


The second English dub was the 2015 special Ojarumaru Special: Wasureta Mori no Hinata (Ojarumaru Special: Hinata of the Forgotten Woods). It was dubbed in the United States at Elastic Media Corporation, while WowMax Next was in change of the localization. The only known dub staff are Elastic Media co-founder Rod Boaz and voice actor Finnigan Morris. Boaz probably served as the ADR director. Morris voiced Aobei, Tommy, and Donzou. Unlike Prince Mackaroo, this dub seems to be more faithful to the original Japanese version since the character names were retained.

Will these dubs ever surface online? Considering that a sample of the long-lost English dub of the Doraemon 1979 series entitled The Adventures of Albert and Sidney was uploaded online last year, maybe. But in the meantime, one can only hope that NHK, or another company, will take on the task of dubbing/subbing Ojarumaru into English and actually manage to get it released in the Anglosphere someday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ojarumaru 24th Series Episode 11 Review

Image
  Aenai Ojarumaru (会えないおじゃる丸 "Ojarumaru Can't Meet") is about the Little Oni Trio confronting Ojarumaru once again, only to find him just staring blankly. Denbo explains to them that the Full Moon Road, which connects Moonlight Town and the Heian era, is being inspected, meaning that Ojarumaru can't go back home to see his parents. Thinking that Ojarumaru is sad, the oni try to cheer him up. In the end, it turns out that Ojarumaru wasn't sad at all. He was just staring blankly for no particular reason. He uses the scepter to scratch his back, and then the oni seem both shocked and annoyed because of all the time that they wasted.  During the episode, the Little Oni Trio goes to an onsen called "Oni Mountain Onsen" and comes back with some souvenirs. I wonder what the Onsen Manjuu and Oni Mountain Tea taste like.  In one scene, Kisuke draws a really good portrait of Ojarumaru. Supposedly, he has many hidden talents throughout the show and drawing seems t
Read more

Ojarumaru 24th Series Episode 10 Review

Image
I'm starting off with this particular Ojarumaru episode because, as of this writing, it's the most recently aired episode. I might go back and review the previous 24th series episodes some other time.  Anyway, Kisuke no Hatsukoi  (キスケの初恋 “Kisuke’s First Love”) is about Kisuke having a crush on a little girl after accidentally bumping into her on his way home from grocery shopping. His siblings Akane and Aobei, Ojarumaru, and Denbo find out about this and spy on them.  I find the little girl cute because of her design and voice (though she is only heard laughing and gasping). I like how during the scene when Kisuke and the girl bumped into each other, she seemingly doesn't mind the fact that Kisuke accidentally broke her hair accessory and is more interested in the fact that a carrot landed on his horn.  My favorite scene is when Aobei and Akane imagine Kisuke and the girl marrying each other. I find it pretty cool seeing cameos of various characters, such as Asako, Tommy,
Read more

I'm Doraemon Pop-Up Store Limited Items at Flowering

Image
  Some of the Doraemon limited items that were previously sold at the I'm Doraemon Pop-Up Store are currently available at the Flowering online store in Japan. Items (from left to right in the image): Acrylic magnet (7 types); 990 yen ($9.07) Antiviral cloth face mask (3 types); 1,980 yen ($18.15) Hand towel; 825 yen ($7.56) All prices include tax. Sources: Sanrio's official website , Doraemon Channel's official website
Read more