"There's only one truth!"
-Conan Edogawa and Shinichi Kudo Detective Conan is a highly-popular Japanese anime and manga franchise that is still ongoing in Japan to this day. The manga was released in 1994, while the anime was released two years later. It has recieved three English dubs. The first dub was made in 2003 in Singapore for Channel I, the second dub was made in the United States in 2004 for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, and the third dub was made in Hong Kong in 2006 for Animax. There was even a failed English dubbed pilot made in Canada in 2000.
Before Funimation Entertainment got the rights to dub the series for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, There was an attempted English dub made in Canada by Optimum Productions in 1999 for airing on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in the summer of 2002. Over 30 episodes were dubbed and the first and second episodes of the dub aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami block on July 12, 2002. Unfortunately, despite being edited for content, the series was pulled after this airing due to complaints from viewers about the show being "too violent", "too scary", "too disgusting", and "too mature" to air on Toonami. This isn't the only attempt to air the anime in English, as only one episode of an earlier dub made in the same year (1999) by an unknown studio (possibly Animaze or Studiopolis) aired on Toonami one year later and all 350 episodes have been released on seperate out-of-print VHS's and DVD's, but was also discontinued due to the content, despite it being edited. All the 350 episodes of the "second" attempted dub aired on Jetix India in the late 2000's when you change the audio to "English", and in South Africa on Cartoon Network.
Cast[]
| Character | English Voice Actor (Optinium) | English Voice Actor (Animaze/Studiopolis?) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shinichi Kudo | Vincent Corazza (personal, thoughts, ep 10-25)
Michael E. Rodgers (thoughts, ep 1-10) |
Lex Lang (personal)
Michael E. Rodgers (thoughts, retained from Canadian dub) |
|
| Conan Edogawa | Michael E. Rodgers (episodes 1-10)
Vincent Corazza (episodes 10-25) |
Stephanie Nadolny (ep 1-10 only)
Bridget Hoffman (ep 10-20) Wendee Lee (ep 20-100) ??? (one episode only, voice in voice-changing bowtie) Michael E. Rodgers (ep 1-350, thoughts from 1-100, both voice and thoughts from 101-350, singing voice from ep 81 to 82 only) |
When Michael voiced Conan, he used a cheerful, high-pitched voice to fit Conan's age perfectly, and to sound similar to his original Japanese voice. When Michael voices Conan when he's thinking, on the other hand, he uses his normal voice.
The reason why Michael did not return to voice Conan, nor his thoughts, after episode 10 was because he was not impressed with the show's violent content, since the animation footage was uncut during voice recording, although he still mentioned that he still loved working on this. Starting with episode 11, he was voiced by Vincent Corazza, who also voiced Shinichi Kudo. In the second attempted dub, he returned to voice Conan's thoughts in all episodes, and voiced Conan from episode 101-350. While voicing Conan's thoughts, Michael improvised most of his lines to make Conan's opinions funnier. |
| Ran Mori | Julie Lemieux | Bridget Hoffman | |
| Kogoro Mori | Michael E. Rodgers (episode 1 and 2 only)
Robert Tinkler (episode 3-30) |
Steve Blum (ep 1-10)
Richard Cansino (ep 10-350) Michael E. Rodgers (ep 2, retained from previous dub) |
The reason why Michael did not voice Kogoro after episode 2 was because his voice imitation of Kogoro irritated his throat. Starting with episode 3, he was voiced by Robert Tinkler.
Back when he voiced Kogoro, Michael E. Rodgers thought it was a joke, so he improvised most of his lines while itimidating Kogoro's original Japanese voice. |
| Dr. Agasa | Robert Tinkler (episode 1 only)
Len Carlson (episode 2-30) |
Steve Kramer | It is unknown why Robert Tinkler didn't return to voice Dr. Agasa after episode 1. |
| Inspector Megure | Robert Tinkler | Michael McConnohie
Richard Cansino (ep 34 only) |
|
| Ayumi Yoshida | Julie Lemieux (episode 1 only)
Terri Hawkes (episode 2-30) |
Wendee Lee | It is unknown why Julie Lemieux didn't voice Ayumi after episode 1. |
| Mitsuhiko Tsburaya | Terri Hawkes | Laura Bailey (first episodes)
Michael McConnohie (ep 33-100) Wendee Lee (ep 100-350) |
|
| Genta Kojima | Kyle Herbert (all episodes except for episode 6)
Michael E. Rodgers (episode 6 only) |
Kyle Herbert (retained from previous dub) | Kyle Herbet wasn't available at the time of production of the English dub of episode 6. Since his role was only brief in this episode, Michael E. Rodgers took over for the voice of Genta. In the second dub, however, Kyle Herbert voiced Genta in all episodes, including episode 6 |
| Ai Haibara | N/A | Wendee Lee (introducion episode only)
??? (remaining episodes) |
Edits and Censorship[]
The English dubbed episodes of Detective Conan was based on it's original Japanese version, keeping the dialogue, music, Japanese wording, and sound effects from the original Japanese version. The promotional VHS tapes with this dub was uncut and uncensored, since TMS Entertainment didn't make the edits yet, but the television airings were censored.
The blood was discolored from red to black.
Cigarettes and cigars were changed into candy cigarettes with bubbles coming out instead of smoke.
Beer was changed to root beer or soda.
Although, the dailogue was strongly based on the Japanese version, some voice actors, including Michael E. Rodgers, improvised some of their lines to make them sound funnier. Some dialogue was also changed to remove profanity and references to death, even though the death references and threats were retained in the original English voice recordings. Although, some of the profanity was kept in the Animaze/Studiopolis dub despite the dub being aimed for kids, just like the previous dub, despite the show not having a lot of swearing in general in the original Japanese version. The profanity was removed in that one Toonami airing of the first two episodes and the Jetix airings.
The theme song and the opening was changed.
When the episodes aired on Jetix in India, they had to cut/edit some scenes to make it suitable for their audience. The nudity was cut/blurred, the sharp objects were blurred, the profanity was muted, and any instance of smoking was blurred.
Content retained from the original Japanese version in both dubs[]
The names were never changed.
The dialogue was kept, with some minor changes and improvisations from some voice actors.
The music was kept.
The Japanese wording was kept.
The setting and the Japanese food was kept.
The sharp and dangerous weapons, including guns, were kept.
The smoking was kept in the Animax/Studiopolis dub.
Trivia[]
Most, if not all, voice actors have done voices in the English dub of Sailor Moon.
Michael E. Rodgers and Kyle Herbert were the only non-Canadian voice actors to be involved in the English dub of this anime. The reason why Michael was hired was because he was spotted in Toronto while he was in the middle of filming the 2000 film Thomas and the Magic Railroad and the voice director thought his voice would fit Conan very well when the he heard Michael giggling in a high-pitched, adorable voice. It is unknown why Kyle was hired, possibly because he was spotted in Toronto, too.
Kyle Herbert and Michael E. Rodgers' voices was kept in the latter dub, but Herbert recorded further lines for Genta for the remaining episodes that weren't dubbed by the previous studio. Rodgers later on recorded his lines as Conan's singing voice in episodes 81 and 82, and did some additional voices, including some of the voices in Conan's voice changing bowtie in some episodes.
Both of the dubs use the same theme song.
The latter dub is based on the previous dub, but it was less edited in dailogue and kept the smoking and some of the blood untouched.
Michael E. Rodgers and Robert Tinkler both starred in Thomas and the Magic Railroad as live action characters.
Michael E. Rodgers was not impressed and was disgusted by the violent content of the anime during voice recording. He mentioned that almost every time he saw a gory scene or heard a disgusting and violent word, he would gag, feel disgusted/uncomfortable, or cover his eyes with his hands. Although, when he returned to do Conan's singing voice in the second dub, he wasn't bothered at all.
In episode 3 of the second English attempted dub, it is unknown who voices Conan when he used his voice-changing bowtie to tell Inspector Megure that there is something under the sofa.