Ultraman Z Dub
 

Was not expecting this tbh. But I'm really excited cause this looks like it going to be a good dub. And this is going to help expand accessibility so much.

Just shows again how popular Z is and how much faith they have in it. For good reason, the show rules!

Hope this leads to many new Ultra-fans.

*drops mug and faints*

I'm glad this is happening, dubs are actually a great way to get people in to your shows and while I doubt this will be a massive hit for potentially new fans, I hope the crew does there best, Zeno Robinson as Haruki is great and Z's actor sounds pretty good too

How appropriate that they got a huge piece of shit to voice Juggler.

In my time zone, it should be the 9th at 10:00 am.

I’ve heard Z’s VA in Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.
FROM THE SHADOWS, THE FALCON SOARS ON WINGS OF COURAGE, TALONS READY FOR THE REBELLION!

This is cool. I'm down for watching a dub of Z

I approve. Most of the time I personally would not want to watch a dub of live action, but I am pretty sure the english dub of Squid Game is what catapulted it to such success on Netflix. I think Tsuburaya is very smart to try this out with one of their shows. I guess they must be pleased with the numbers on the Ultra Galaxy Fight dubs.

Hopefully this reaches a wider audience. Z is a great show to try this out on too.

If Tsuburaya are committed to dubbing their Ultra content and trying to reach a wider audience, I'm glad they're actually using a professional English dub studio and VA's for it...and it gives me an excuse to re-watch Z, so that's appreciated!

I'm curious to see who they cast for Zero, Riku, Ace, and Yapool.

I hope this turns out well, even if it'll be surreal watching Ultraman dubbed. I understand dubbing Z because it's one of the best modern Ultra shows but will they do Trigger and Decker next? Will this team do the Ultra Galaxy Fight dubs moving forward? Or Regulos' series?

It looks like I'm definitely planning to watch Ultraman Z somewhere down the line both in Japanese and in English. Wonder if this means the English dub would be included whenever this series makes its official US release via Blu-Ray.

I'm pretty interested in this conceptually. Dubs are great for accessibility (notably this dub of a show meant for kids will make it more accessible for english speaking kids).

While I'm a very subs over dubs person for live action specifically, and I love the cast and acting in Z as it is... This certainly will introduce more people to this excellent show, which is great.

The casting sure is... something alright... Z's actor seems very prolific, but seems to have more small roles than major ones, and I'm not familiar with any of his work really, so I'm curious to see how he does... Same goes for Yoko and Yuka's voices who I'm not familiar with either...

Zeno Robinson is an actor I've liked a lot in other shows, and I think he'll do a good job of delivering some Haruki's emotional beats.

Christopher Sabat is really interesting and kinda weird, him producing the dub makes me very curious though.

On the other hand Mick Lauer... To put it nicely, this is a guy who I don't really like personally..... And he's voicing one of my all time favourite characters from the Ultra Series.......... Yaaaaaaayyyy...........

Still I'm interested nonetheless, if the dub is any good it could be something I could show some of my younger family members someday (who are too young for subtitles), which could be fun

Guess we'll see

Z is a really great show and very much worth the watch! It was the entry that finally got me into the ultra series, and i've now completed 12 entries in the series since then, and am currently in the process of watching 2 others :D

As far as I know, currently Mill Creek (who does the blu rays) only has a contract that goes from Ultra Q to Ultraman R/B, since R/B was the newest show at the time the deal was made.

Hopefully Tsubaraya will update their deal at some point so we can get some of the newer shows physically though (I would love to watch Z with blu ray quality bit rate and no web-upload compression!!)

I’ve seen some of Z’s work before. Hehehe…

Even though Eli Jay’s out of the business, Z’s still voiced by an Xyz user. I find this hilarious.

That does make sense. I've been wondering why we still haven't gotten Taiga or Z blu-rays.

I'm still surprised we don't have any legal streaming for Taiga.

The Taiga situation is very odd... It's extra funny when you consider that Taiga Episode 0, and the Taiga movie do have official subs.

Generally there's a lot of context to take in........

This is gonna be highly editorialized, but here's a sort of summary of the context.

After Tsubaraya wrote up the deal with Mill Creek, Taiga aired on TV in Japan, a bit before this Tsubaraya had cut their deal with Crunchyroll after Geed finished airing. And likely behind the scenes they were brainstorming ways to keep releasing the series outside Japan... However Taiga was already airing before they came to any concrete decision, and I think it essentially got tossed aside in a "well, we missed our chance with this one" sort of way.

At some point they decided on the YouTube release method we've become used to in recent years, but decided to go all in on beginning that process with their next show so they could have it release simultaneously with Japan.

Some important context for why Z was a better choice than Taiga... While I think people often think of simul-subbing as just "a convenient thing", and don't give it much thought nowadays, a big context for why it's become popular with big companies is that it can deter piracy (sort of). Back in the day official anime subs could be weeks, months, or years behind their release in Japan, and often by the time they made it out, fans of that series had already watched a fansub and may not be as likely to pay for often pricey physical releases. But now with simul-subbing, official releases come out ahead of any pirated versions that appear, so if you want to get to see the new episode of your favourite show as soon as possible, official is now the clear best option.

So this was likely a big factor in choosing to skip Taiga, the mentality at Tsubaraya was likely that most existing fans of the franchise had simply already seen it, and releasing it late would not generate "maximum revenue". Consider that, even with blu ray releases of old series, official physical media mostly sells to existing fans (especially as physical media collecting becomes more and more of an enthusiast hobby). Just generally, people don't usually buy a whole show on a whim without knowing if they like it first.

All in all Z was their best choice to drum up hype and attention... The show is brand new, the sub is official, it's release is nearly simultaneous, AND it's free on YouTube! That's gonna generate buzz!

I still think they may release Taiga eventually, but it would require producing new subtitles, which may slow down that process (Most Mill Creek releases have used existing subs from previous releases... I may be wrong but I believe the majority of new subs from them have been for Showa Era series?)

For streaming specifically, Tsubaraya likely doesn't think it will generate as many views or as much revenue as a "brand new show" would. They may be wrong about this as to a lot of their existing subscribers Taiga would be a new show, but it's very possible this is how they think about it. It costs money to make subs, and releasing on YouTube already isn't the best way to monetize content generally, so they probably want to play things as safe as they can.

Overall, Taiga is likely just not a high priority.... Honestly, even if they extend their deal with Mill Creek and Taiga does get a physical release, I would not be shocked if we saw Z, Trigger, and Decker releases way before Taiga, because those shows already have existing official subs, so the process for them is basically just clicking and dragging sub files into the disc burning processing lol

This was basically just a very long way of saying "Tsubaraya's marketing team probably said this would be better", and at the end of the day Tsubaraya is here to make money.

Huh, that is a surprise, but a welcome one.

Okay choice for a show as well; even if it's incredibly average as a show, it's not bad.

Yeah, I'm up for this and quietly hoping it does well enough that we'd get to Decker.

Very informative! Thank you!

So saw roughly the first ten minutes of episode 1 and two scenes have given me the assurance that I was hoping for to consider this a success. First, Haruki and the puppy scene. Second, when Haruki is scolded. The voice acting in these two scenes were perfect.

So I checked out the first episode dubbed.

First things first, it definitely has to be commended how much more professional and effective this dub is compared to the Ultra Galaxy Fight dubs. You can tell this was produced by people who know what they're doing in voiceover and who have experience dubbing. Granted it might be a little jarring watching English lines come out of live-action Japanese actors mouths (and it's probably a lot harder to match lip flaps for live-action than anime), but it's still seems very well-produced so far.

Zeno Robinson is really solid as Haruki. He does a good job of capturing Haruki's enthusiasm and endearing innocence so far. His Haruki is a little more high-pitched compared to Kohshu Hirano, but I adjusted pretty well.

Mick Lauer voice for our favorite sword-wielding alien sounds less laidback as Hebikura than I remember, though I might just be thinking of how he is in later episodes. I think the real test for his character will be when he gets to play Juggler because of how different he presents himself there compared to as Hebikura and the contrast between the two.

Mallorie Rodak captures Yoko's serious and mature lady vibes quite well, though I'm curious how she'll handle the "Zett-sama!!!" stuff.

Macy Anne Johsnon is perfect as Yuka. Literally no complaints there. She's as cute and likeable as she is with Hikari Kuroki.

The fact that they got Sean Schemmel, literally Goku himself, to voice Ultraman Zero is amazing. It wouldn't be a voice I would normally associate with Zero, but for the meme potential...I can only imagine who this team would cast as Ultraseven. Christopher Sabat? Although we're probably a ways off from them having to worry about casting the Ultra Brothers outside Ace.

I think the voice I'm least sure about is Matt Shipman as Z. It's like the performance is fine, he sounds solid, it just doesn't sound like Z to me. He doesn't have the youthful energy and pomposity that I expect from Z after Tasuku Hatanaka's performance. He sounds like more of a straight-laced and serious Ultra than I remember Z being, though maybe that's just because it's the first episode. Though a part of me thinks they should've switched the voices around between Haruki and Z.

I'm curious who is voicing Kuriyama and Kaburagi/Celebro.

The fact they kept the name pronunciations right is already a great sign on how they're handling the dub

That's how Z was in the first two episodes before he opened up to Haruki. He wanted to sound like a serious warrior before his goofy personality shows up and became the norm with him.

We have casting details for other Ultras who appear in Z, Sean Schemmel as Zero, Kevin K Gomez as Geed, Jim Foronda as Taro and Patrick Seitz as Belial

Kevin Gomez (Riku’s English VA) got the toys needed to assume Galaxy Rising. That’s dedication to the role if I ever saw it. If Geed gets its own dub and he gets the Geed Riser and Capsules…

I can’t wait for the 23rd!!!

Taro has lines in Z?

He briefly shows up in Episode 6 in a flashback. The original Japanese episode simply reused Saburo Shinoda voice. So I’m assuming redubbed that.

I appreciate that they're subbing the OP and ED for the dub release now.

Updated Dub Opinions:

Juggler - I think Mick Lauer knocked it out of the park here. Honestly he sounds wayyyy more natural as Juggler than he does as Hebikura, which I guess makes sense though I feel like the JP sub handled it a bit more convincingly. All the same I could totally just hear him doing some of Juggler's lines in Orb, which left me happy.

Riku - He sounded like Riku to me, which is the best compliment I can give. At times it even felt like he was trying to imitate Tatsuomi Hamada's natural inflection as Riku. He did a good job capturing Riku's innocence, awkwardness, and determination, and he delivered his catchphrase phenomenally (I forgot he literally says it 3 times in one episode).

Also they went with how the JP side pronounce Belial which I think is different from how they pronounced it in the Ultra Galaxy Fight dubs.

Pega also sounded solid from what little we got with him.

Taro - I mean, he basically just says "Strium Beam" so it's really hard to gauge much from the performance, but he reminded me of Hiroya Ishimaru, so I guess that's a good thing. I kind of wonder if he'll get an opportunity to do more with Taro in, say, a future Ultra Galaxy Fight.

I've been really enjoying the dub so far. I hope whenever Tsubaraya releases BDs for Z they include both audio tracks.

Absolutely. They'd be fools not to. :rock:

A thousand times, yes! I find myself loving this show because of its English dub. :D

It's great how natural the dub feels, especially the scenes where they chit-chat with each other. But my favorite scene that sealed the deal for me was when Haruki tried to rescue a dog. Nothing impressive as a scene but in terms of dubbing it was great. Zeno Robinson and whoever is in charge of the English dub should get awards for what they did. :rock:

Yeah, how they translated that scene and Zeno Robinson's own voice-over performance as Haruki in it is effectively the moment where the show's own English dub piqued my interest and made me love Haruki as the show's main character as an added bonus and I have been watching the episodes on every Saturday and Sunday ever since. What's even funnier is that I haven't watched even a single episode of Ultraman Z in its original language at that point and I still haven't.

And that's totally fine given how good the dub turned out. It's not like they're treating it like the Japanese dub of Beast Wars. :lolol
In case you're wondering what I mean the Japanese dub of the 3D animated Beast Wars series was full of ad-libs and jokes.