Well, the odds are about equal either way, I'd guess... it depends on who has the most commitments when they get around to dubbing it. That may very well be a point in Juliet and Scott's favor, since Bridget Hoffman is freaking everywhere. She's like the Kevin Bacon of voice acting, she's been in almost everything. It may be that her schedule ends up too full to take on the part. Don't get me wrong, I do think she's a great voice actress, but she just isn't right for Belldandy in my opinion.
I know Juliet and Scott would jump at the chance to play those characters again. They are fans, and playing those roles led to their real life marriage, so I think that would add an extra dimension to the translation. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them.
I'll also point out that it is really cool of Media Blasters to even make the attempt. ADR work is a lot like early hollywood, where people typically only work for one company. This is why when Pioneer got the rights to the AMG movie, they used their own people instead of getting the originals (just in case anyone wondered why Skuld suddenly sounded like Sasami from Tenchi Muyo!). Fortunately, this is changing. Many companies have realized that the original cast will typically develop a following and try to recast them. ADV did a great job getting the originals back for the You're Under Arrest Movie and Mini-specials (they probably just farmed out the ADR work to AnimEigo and handled the distribution themselves). I think Bandai has learned their lesson after the Tenchi Muyo GXP fiasco (I heard from someone that they got so much hate mail over the poor voice casting for the original characters in disc 6 that they announced they would find a way to get the original cast back for OVA 3). The fact that ADV got Juliet for the YUA movie and mini-specials is a very good sign!
Larry
07-Mar-2005