Digimon Dub Composer Paul Gordon Dead at 52

Original image uploaded by Jennifer Nettles.

On February 18th, 2016, Digimon: Digital Monsters dub theme composer Paul Christian Gordon died in Nashville after battling with an unstated illness. He was 52 years old. Having composed soundtracks for Saban's dubs of Digimon and Power Rangers, he also played for the B-52s from 2007 until his death. His works for Digimon include the DigiRap used in Digimon: The Movie, Hey Digimon used in the film and Adventure dub, and the Digital Monsters main theme used in the first three seasons.

The news was broken by country singer Jennifer Nettles over Instagram; Gordon had been touring with Nettles' band in January. Gordon is survived by his wife, Jennifer Lysak Gordon, and his two sons.

Dianamon Has No Entry in the English Cyber Sleuth's Field Guide (Vita & PS4)

Dianamon is normally #195 in Cyber Sleuth, but is nowhere to be found in either version of the English localization.

February 3rd, 2016. Soon after Cyber Sleuth's North American launch yesterday, it was uncovered that several voiced dialogues in the English localization were absent from the Vita version of the game, along with a line of DLC quests and the unlockable Dianamon. Barring closer examination of the dialogue sequences, at this time the missing voice tracks seem to be confined specifically to chapters 4 through 6. Further reports from players across GameFAQs, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit have attested that Dianamon and the quests to unlock her are not available in some copies of the PlayStation 4 version of Cyber Sleuth. As between physical and digital there are currently several versions of Cyber Sleuth for each system in circulation, exactly what content is missing on each version of the game has not been concretely established.

The first of the purple DLC quests, which have been available on some PS4 copies of Cyber Sleuth.

At least one individual has reported that the purple DLC quests were available in their physical PS4 copy of the game, though many more have attested otherwise. YouTube user RespDMO showed the first of the Mirei quests being played on their PS4 copy. Thus far no one has reported Dianamon being available. While the Digimon was shown in one of Bandai US' official English Cyber Sleuth streams prior to launch, her entry in the in-game Field Guide (#195) is skipped in both Vita and PS4 versions. The Field Guide goes from 194 to 196, with no space between them. Additionally, some players have been unable to utilize the cross-save features between the PS4 and Vita versions.

Bandai Namco Entertainment has not yet made any public statements on these issues. Some fans have been quick to put the blame on the company, tying the difficult launch to old wounds involving the Vita version of Sword Art Online: Lost Song. The exact origin of theses problem is currently uncertain. Whether the absence of the quests and Dianamon is a bug or intentional is still unclear; Bandai may have intended for the missing Digimon and its line of DLC quests to be made available later, though some users being able to access those quests on PS4 versions of Sleuth contradicts this.

Voice Acted Scenes Removed in English Localization of Cyber Sleuth (Vita Only)

02/03/16 Update: Further investigations by fans have demonstrated that Dianamon and the Mirei quests are also not available on some copies of the PlayStation 4 version, though the voice issue has still only been documented on the Vita.

February 2nd, 2016. Several hours after the North American launch of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, it has become apparent that many minor and major scenes that originally had a voice track in the Japanese edition of Cyber Sleuth have had those tracks removed in the Vita version of its English localization. An exact count is hard to pin down at this time, but one scene that stands out is when the player meets with Yuuko in chapter 4; during this sequence Yuuko tries to act like a "normal high school girl," leading to her voice actor Itou Kanae putting on a stellar performance pretending to be a bad actor. ("You're *so* late... I got *ultra-super* worried.") Other scenes with removed dialogue include a confrontation with a major boss in chapter 6, and the player’s formal introduction to police detective Date Makiko. The removed voiced sequences are still present in the PlayStation 4 version of the game, as are several purple downloadable quests not available in the Vita game. These quests were available in the Japanese edition of Cyber Sleuth, which was exclusively on the Vita.

The localization has been far from perfect, with punctuation errors abounding in the script, from missing periods to uses of "it's" instead of "its." There are also several questionable translation choices, like choosing to call one of the core dungeons of the game "Kowloon" instead of the more accepted "Coulomb" or "Cron." (All three are written クーロン Kuuron in Japanese, and the area is officially written in English as "Cool-wrong" in one area of the Japanese game, which phonetically approximates how the name is said aloud.) The localization translates the Garakuta (Junk) Park as "Galacta Park," yet retains a dialogue in which an NPC says that the park is made of junk, resulting in the character claiming the park to be "made of Galacta." At another point, Shiramine Nokia says "Looks like he's not here" rather than "they're" while looking for two Digimon. As a whole the text appears not to have been proofread. Jarringly, Detective Matayoshi still refers to Kuremi Kyoko as "Kyo-chan" in the English script; thus far no other honorifics have been found to be used.

Soul Chaser Asks Korean Chosen Children to Return to the Digital World

Special thanks to @fuzzleyan for acting as our Korean consultant.

On November 24th, 2015, Bandai Namco Korea uploaded the first trailer for Digimon Soul Chaser, an upcoming smartphone RPG formerly known as Soul Hunter. The trailer plays heavily on Korean nostalgia for the first season of Digimon, using the anime's Korean dub opening theme Digimon Adventure by Hong Jongmyeon, and prominently features the Digimon partners of Adventure's Chosen Children. (Known in Korea as the Seontaek-badeun Ai-deul, a literal translation of the Japanese terminology.) A translation of the trailer's narration is provided below, in both English and Japanese, with Korean transcription.

Although the Korean dub was generally more faithful to the script of Digimon Adventure than the now-infamous American dub, it was extremely harsh on the series' setting, removing all references to Japan and renaming Japanese characters to be either Korean or ambiguously foreign (i.e. Takaishi Takeru became "Ricky"). Political tensions over Japan's colonization of Korea, and refusal to admit to war crimes or compensate the victims, have lead to strong cultural censorship of Japanese products in Korea, particularly anime. While Korea has been one of the strongest advocates for Digimon in the world, even joining in the 2002 D-1 Grand Prix and dubbing every anime up through Young Hunters, this policy of censorship continues. In part due to Japan's proximity, the Koreanization of Digimon appears paper-thin to Korean fans, who are are well aware of the series' Japanese roots.

The narration in the trailer is done by Jeong Misuk, the Korean dub voice of Yagami Taichi, while the theme song Digimon Adventure is the original version aired with the TV series.

Thanks to Dimensão Digimon for the tip.

English Translation

Another crisis comes to the Digital World!
Chosen Children!
Come back to the world of Digimon!
An RPG to restore your Digimon to Ultimate.
Help us! Greymon!
Greymon, evolve: Metal Greymon!
—Evolution—
—Raising—
—Leveling up—
Let's make our own super-powerful Digimon team!
Through many battles, you'll get stronger and stronger~
Let's complete a collection of the best Digimon!
Please make your reservation for Digimon Soul Chaser!
Advance reservation! Let's go!

Japanese Translation

デジタル世界にまた危機が来た！
選ばれし子供よ！
デジモンの世界に戻って！
完全体に戻ったデジモンRPG
助けてくれ！グレイモン！
グレイモン進化！ メタルグレイモン！
進化
育成
レベルアップ
極強のデジモンチームを作ろう！
多くの戦闘を介して
きみはますます強くなるだろう〜
最高のデジモンコレクションを完成しよう！
今すぐデジモンソウルチェイサーを予約してください！
事前予約！Let's go!

Korean Transcription

디지털 세계에 또다시 위기가 왔어!
선택받은 아이들아!!
디지몬의 세계로 돌아와!
완전체로 돌아온 디지몬 RPG
도와저! 그레이몬!
그레이몬 진화!
매탈그레이몬!
진화
육성
레벨업
극강의 디지몬 팀을 만들자!
수 많은 전투를 통해
넌 점점 더 강해질거야~
최고의 디지몬 컬렉션들 완성하자!
지금 바로 디지몬 소울 체이서를 예약하세요!
사전 예약! Let's go!

Meet the Seiyuu: Hanae Natsuki

Ichimichi Mao, Hanae Natsuki, and Mimori Suzuko at tri.'s prescreening. Original image uploaded by @Digi_advntr15th

With less than ten days remaining until the Japanese premier of Digimon Adventure tri., it's an appropriate time to learn about the men and women behind the film. Hanae Natsuki is the new voice of Yagami Taichi ("Tai" in the English dub), selected along with seven other seiyuu to replace the aging human voice cast of Digimon Adventure. Born in 1991, Hanae grew up watching Adventure while in second grade, being seven years old when the series began its Japanese run in March '99, and eight when it ended in 2000.

Hanae was strongly influenced by Taichi's character as a child, and consequently his voice actress Fujita Toshiko. At the 2015 DigiFes event, Hanae admitted to having difficulties stepping into the role of Taichi because the character was such a big hero to him as a child. Sakamoto Chika, voice of Agumon, encouraged him by reminding him that as the new Taichi, Hanae is himself a "chosen child." (The Japanese equivalent to the dub's "DigiDestined.")

Hanae first began working as a seiyuu in 2011 and 2012, playing minor and supporting roles. His first leading role was as Haimura Kiri in 2013's The Severing Crime Edge. Outside of voice acting, Hanae is also a gamer and fan of League of Legends, having done voicework for the game in addition to playing it.

Concerns Rise Over "Engrish" in Cyber Sleuth

October 8th, 2015. Several hours ago Bandai Namco EU streamed an early English-language build of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth to Twitch, giving a first look at its translated script and confirming the previously announced cross-buy option between the PlayStation 4 and Vita editions of the game. The English script is drawing some concern however, as the Cyber Sleuth shown during the stream wavered between professionally-edited dialogue and translation that was spotty at best. In several of the game's cutscenes character's lines were improperly represented, with core cast member Shiramine Nokia's subtitles memorably reading "I'm late" rather than what her spoken Japanese indicated--"You're late." Bandai EU stated in a response to one comment that the game would not be "early" 2016 for Europe as has been said for North America, but confirmed a physical release of the game on PlayStation 4 in select European countries in addition to the established digital download option.

Several errors in the script caught the attention of viewers. In particular, one of the main dungeons of the game Kuuron クーロン--translated in our Let's Play as "Cron" from the software utility--had no consistent name in the stream's script, which alternated between referring to Kuuron as "Coulomb" (from the unit of electrical charge) and "Kowloon." (Also used as the name for a location in Digimon Story Sunburst & Moonlight.) The area of Kuuron visited was also inconsistently referred to as either Junk Park (Garakuta Kouen) or Galacta Park, drawing from the same phonetics. (In-game Kuuron is spelled out in English as "Cool-wrong," to the derision of Cyber Sleuth's fanbase.) However, Bandai EU assured viewers that this was only an early version of the game. The stream's script most likely does not represent the finalized incarnation of Cyber Sleuth's English edition.

10/9/15 update: In response to questions regarding the script, Bandai EU has stated that the CS build streamed was not final, and is not representative of the game's commercial release.

More than six hundred people tuned into the stream, at its peak bringing in 681 live viewers. Chat comments were focused on the game's lack of an English dub, which has proved particularly controversial with the American gamers tuning in. Some would call it entitlement rather than genuine criticism, a belief that Cyber Sleuth is somehow not good enough for gamers unless it has a dub. However, the decision to retain the original Japanese voiceover has found praise elsewhere, as Cyber Sleuth has several extremely talented actors on board, with special regard to Han Megumi's rapidfire mouth-running performance as Nokia. Finding an appropriate match for this show stealer in the English dub industry would be both incredibly difficult and expensive, as would matching voices to several other characters like Duftmon (Wakamoto Norio), and tracking down a diverse cast to voice the game's numerous Digimon. A recording of Bandai EU's stream can be viewed here.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth will launch in English in early 2016 in North America, and 2016 in Europe.

Bandai Namco Publishes English Cyber Sleuth Trailer

September 16th, 2015. Bandai Namco Entertainment America has uploaded their official English-language Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. Although the final game will only have Japanese audio with subtitles, the trailer features a dub of Kuremi Kyouko's (localized as Kyoko Kuremi) introductory dialogue. The trailer is a generally accurate dub of the original Japanese Cyber Sleuth trailer, which can be found subtitled here. Certain liberties taken to change the pace of the trailer, and to cut specific segments for time. The English trailer is approximately half the length of the Japanese trailer, greatly abridging the original content.

Previously an English gameplay demo of Cyber Sleuth was made available at a Brazilian press event last month. The international game will feature more difficulty options from the Japanese release, as well as a new game+ feature not found in the original. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth will launch in both English and Chinese on the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 in 2016.