“Flying Witch” dubbing of the Tsugaru dialect version was a great success. A report from AnimeJapan 2016.
Anime Japan was held at Tokyo Big Sight from 25th to 27th March. Here comes the story about “The Pre-Broadcast Cast Talk Show” of the new animation aired from next April called Flying Witch.”
The animation is a manga adaptation of a manga with the same name and drawn by Chihiro Ishizuka. It appeared in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine published by Koudansha. The story begins with an apprentice witch named Makoto Kowata who gets 15 years old and sets out on a journey for training in witchcraft from Yokohama to Aomori, where she lives rent-free in with the Kuramoto siblings’ family.
There were three main voice actors on the stage; Minami Shinoda, as the protagonist Makoto Kowata, Eri Suzuki as Chinatsu Kuramoto, and Shinsuke Sugawara as Kei Kuramoto. These three walked on the stage under great applause.
After the brief explanation of the story they talked about their feelings when they received the offer. Shinoda as Makoto got in heaven when she suddenly heard she was designated to the protagonist. Suzuki as Chinatsu was happy to hear she got the leading role but was a bit anxious about playing an elementary schoolgirl. Sugawara, as Kei shook off his sleepiness when he heard he got the main character role for the first time in his career. All of them contacted their parents immediately.
After that the voice actors introduced their favorite scenes and lines of the already dubbed episodes. Shinoda explained how Makoto’s sister Akane is natural and free and Suzuki mimicked a line of Kuramoto’s father in Tsugaru dialect. Sugawara told the audience to keep an eye on the rich emotional expressions of the animals as well as of the Kuramoto family’s mother. Sugawara told the audience that his parents made fun of him because of his intonation of the Tsugaru dialect in the story because they are both from Iwate Prefecture, and the Touhoku Region would be the stage of the animation.
In honor of the Tsugaru dialect, the producer from Aomori Broadcasting, Sasaki, came on stage and held a live dubbing performance in the Tsugaru dialect. The dubbed movie revealed at the event was part of the first episode. It shows two different dubbings. The first version uses regular Japanese accent, but the second one was dubbed in Tsugaru dialect. It was almost perfect in quality and the visitors seemed surprised. The winner for the best dubbing in Tsugaru dialect got chosen by the accoustic level of applause. It was Sugawara who won, he got a tapestry and some sweets.
At the end of the event the voice actors of the story made some individual comments and the stage closed at last. “Flying Witch” will be on the air as follows; Nihon TV on 10th, Sun TV on 14th, Aomori Housou on 16th, and BS Nihon TV on 20th.
The first season of the new year is just one month away from its finale. It was a great start with many amazing titles that made these past months worth the extra hours we put in front of our sets. Now, it is time for the cold wind to give way to the pink hues of the sakura tree and for the Winter 2018 season to give the anime baton to Spring 2018.
