Turning Mecard premiered on Teletoon this afternoon … and I’m astonished at what I’ve seen. Given the show’s international roll out appears to begin with Canada, I had assumed this was going to be a Canadian production. Maybe I’m vastly overestimating my countrymen, but I refuse to believe this was created here. I can’t believe this was produced anywhere in North America. That is not hyperbole. This is Turning Mecard’s English dub:

This dubbing, as you can hear, is quite… special. pic.twitter.com/oCR3mQq1Tf — Squeak Squeak Seacow (@GeorgeQGreg) May 28, 2017



Anyone able to pick out the accents? I know some Korean cartoons are doing their English dubs locally. Is this another one of those? Maybe another Asian country like Hong Kong, the Philippines or Singapore? I ask because Turning Mecard’s Teletoon premiere lacked any sort of credits for the English production. Not a hint of who produced this thing. Even the Chinese cartoons with English dubs recorded locally (like this Beyblade ripoff) do that.

It took 10 years, but Battle B-Daman: Fire Spirits has finally been dethroned as the worst English anime dub to ever air on Canadian television, in my opinion. I had long assumed that was an Asian production until finding out recently it was actually recorded in Florida. Take a bow Florida man, you had a good run at #1.

The opening (at least there's one of those) is really something. pic.twitter.com/fxXxqfWHBc — Squeak Squeak Seacow (@GeorgeQGreg) May 28, 2017

I now completely understand why Mattel did no pre-release promotion for this show. How did they think this was okay? This is in stark contrast to BattleClaw, a Chinese toyline and animated series Mattel is releasing internationally. It silently debuted as a Youtube-exclusive show in the west last month. Its dub? A completely serviceable one done in Los Angeles. Hilariously, that dub retains the show’s very Chinese character names, while Mecard’s possibly Asian one attempts to make some of the character more western. It really drew the short stick.

At least we’ve established that Corus has no standards for what they’ll air on their channels.

UPDATE (5/29/2017): A Twitter user and I seem to have recognized Hong Kong regular Sarah Hauser in Turning Mecard. Compare Jibanyan from the Asian production of Yo-Kai Watch to Dabi (the boy who says he’s “the cool guy” from Team Goblin) in this show. That was a short lived mystery.

Mark on Facebook has pointed out to me that many of Alpha Animation’s shows, including Infinity Nado, actually have their English dubs recorded in the Philippines. The credits are from the original Chinese version. My mistake.

Teletoon also uploaded a Mecard video onto their Youtube channel today. That’s more than Beyblade Burst has received since its October debut … As well, Cartoon Network Canada’s website is currently running a banner image promoting the show’s encore run on the channel.

UPDATE (6/4/2017): Teletoon even has a series promo for Mecard…

Shifting gears onto something I hope is on another level of quality (the amount of roles attached to a single VA has me uneasy), a number of Vancouver-based voice actors revealed in March their involvement in an English dub of Black Jack. Yes, the 2004 revamp of Osamu Tezuka’s 1970s manga about a rogue doctor is getting a North American English dub thirteen years later. I specify North American because the series previously received an English dub produced by Red Angel Media in Hong Kong for broadcast in South East Asia.

The new Vancouver track appears to be have been done at the behest of Tezuka Productions. However, it isn’t being produced by the anime adaptation experts at Ocean Media. Nor is it being done by Azur Productions, the studio behind last year’s dub of the Kingdom anime (released on home video by Funimation), who previously did Little Astro Boy for Tezuka. No, it appears all 78 episodes of Black Jack and Black Jack 21 were recorded at Burnaby, BC’s Digital Sound Magic Recording Studios. The dub was directed by the company’s owner, Richard Dolmat.

I’ve got no idea when or how this dub will be released, but given Tezuka included the English version of Little Astro Boy on the show’s Japanese DVD release, it might be worth keeping an eye out for any re-releases of 2004’s Black Jack.

The failed Anime Sols service previously attempted a sub-only release of Black Jack on DVD in the west.

Also in things that happened in March that I’ve only just found out; remember when I said I feared HMV’s closure would hurt the few Canadian physical media publishers? Well, it did. DEP Distribution declared bankruptcy shortly after the retailer’s announcement. HMV accounted for nearly a third of their business and the loss of that money meant the end for the Quebec-based distributor. This leaves the province with one music distributor, Quebecor Media’s Distribution Select.

Why is DEP relevant to Canadian anime fans? The company was owned by Unidisc and Universal Music Canada. Unidisc purchased the assets of long time French Canadian anime distributor Imavision in 2014. Their latest anime release appears to be Shinji Aramaki’s 2013 Captain Harlock CG film. While Unidisc appears to be continuing operations, I’m not sure where you’ll be able to track their home video products as their social media and websites focus exclusively on music. DEP’s website was the only way to track their DVDs and Blu-Rays.

Speaking of Quebec, TVPassport is listing the French Canadian premiere of Pokémon The Series: Sun and Moon on June 10th at 2PM on Télétoon. The English version began its run back in March.



Capping off this edition of Odds & Ends, the June 2017 issue of TFE Licensing (page 72) confirms Beyblade Burst Evolution, the English version of Beyblade Burst God, will air on “Corus Entertainment” channels sometime this fall. Maybe YTV will be one of them? Hasbro Canada is currently running a Beyblade Burst toy tour (presumably to replace YTV’s Weird on Wheels – which appears to have ended in 2013) that lists the broadcaster on the bottom, alongside Teletoon and Disney XD Canada – the channels actually airing it. Of course, that could easily be a mistake. It’s been a while since YTV has aired anything anime.

In a press release promoting its upcoming comics from Dark Horse, Corus Entertainment has confirmed Mysticons will air on Teletoon in Canada. The series is set for a summer debut on Nickelodeon in the US, with Canada expected to get it in the fall. This marks at least the third non-toddler Nelvana series in a row to debut in the US before its native country.

UPDATE (6/4/2017): The newest Yu-Gi-Oh! series, VRAINS, is currently being simulcasted on Crunchyroll. The first in the franchise to get a same day subtitled release in the west is also the first Yu-Gi-Oh! on the service to be lock out Canada. It’s not a blanket “US-only” stream, either. Canada is one of a small handful of countries being excluded here. Makes me wonder if 4K Media is holding out on that until after they land a TV deal. In the US, recent Yu-Gi-Oh! series have struggled to stay on a TV schedule after the closure of the Vortexx SATAM block in 2014, while the franchise is one of the few anime mainstays on Canadian television.

Josh, from our Facebook group, actually shared the Black Jack news when it was timely. The info was vague and I figured it was just some voice actor blabbing when they shouldn’t. Given the last time I reported on something like that ended with me receiving an email from someone claiming to be a lawyer, I thought best to leave it alone. As three separate voice actors have had that up for months, I think it’s safe to post about. Check back next week when each of those Facebook links mysteriously leads to a 404 page!

The Odds & Ends posts were supposed to be short …

Thanks Greg and Josh.

All times listed in Eastern.