Morgan Watchorn is a manga translator for Seven Seas Entertainment. Titles she’s worked on include Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire?, Desire Pandora, and Call to Adventure! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board.
She chose to talk about the English dub adaptation for the 2005 anime Black Cat, which was translated by Masako Ollivier, then adapted by Andrew Rye and Eric Vale for dubbing.
“Completing every job with ruthless accuracy, Train Heartnet is an infamous assassin with no regard for human life. Donning the moniker “Black Cat” in the underground world, the elite killer works for the powerful secret organization known only as Chronos.
One gloomy night, the blasé gunman stumbles upon Saya Minatsuki, an enigmatic bounty hunter, and soon develops an odd friendship with her. Influenced by Saya’s positive outlook on life, Train begins to rethink his life. Deciding to abandon his role as the Black Cat, he instead opts to head down a virtuous path as an honest bounty hunter. However, Chronos—and particularly Creed Diskenth, Train’s possessive underling—is not impressed with Train’s sudden change of heart and vows to resort to extreme measures in order to bring back the emissary of bad luck.
This assassin turned “stray cat” can only wander so far before the deafening sound of gunfire rings out.”
Additional Information
Anime dubs involve the translator but then a whole bunch of people who are in charge of the dubbing itself. When a voice actor records a voice to a set video, this is called automated dialogue replacement (ADR). The translated script must therefore be adapted for ADR so the lines will match the lip flaps of any on-screen characters.
As discussed in the episode, here are the credits for the people involved in the Black Cat anime dub.
Masako Ollivier – translator
Andrew Rye – ADR writer
Eric Vale – ADR writer
Tyler Walker – ADR director / line producer
Caitlin Glass – assistant ADR director
Jeremy Inman – assistant ADR director
Tara A. Williams – talent coordinator
Scott Garner – assistant talent coordinator
Chris Cason – assistant ADR writer
Morgan Watchorn
Twitter: @mwatchornbooks
Website: morganwatchorn.com
Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.
Hosted by Jennifer O’Donnell
Music by Alex Valles
Logo by Katherine Soldevilla
