In 2001, one
of the most intriguing late-night anime series on the WOWOW cable system
was I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, the story of a man who is rejected for a
teaching job by a school that doesn't want male teachers. Upset, the teacher
dresses as a woman and gets the job, then has to hide his true gender.
Strawberry Eggs will be an English-language release in North America from
Pioneer. Crispin Freeman, whom this site saw one week earlier at Anime
Central, wrote the English-language script, directed the dub and will play
part of the lead role of Hibiki, the frustrated teacher.
"Part of the
lead role" is correct. The male teacher had a female actor for the part
where he dressed as a female, and that will be the case in the dub. Freeman
said that'll mean a little less acting work for him because the female
actor carries much of the role during the dub. "It's like Ben-Hur, it's
got a cast of thousands," Freeman joked. Added Jonathan Klein of New Generation
Pictures, producer of the dub, "It's got everything. It's got fan service
and a great story." And it has a lot of Japanese phrases, untranslated
honorifics dealing with social status. "That was one of the most challenging
things, to bring in all of these poor American actors and give them these
Japanese phrases," said Freeman. "Even I screwed up."
The fascinating
part of the Strawberry Eggs story is the speed of its production into an
English-language version. The first four episodes were finished just before
Fanime Con. That doesn't sound special until you consider that less than
one year has passed since the original first was cablecast on WOWOW. Klein
noted that the U.S. home video arm of Pioneer paid for part of the production
costs before the series was animated. Another series that New Generation
is producing, Helsing, is getting to North America in dubbed form even
quicker than Strawberry Eggs. To the author that's significant because
it shows the attraction of anime and its power as a home video product
even in less than perfect economic times.
In 2001, one
of the most intriguing late-night anime series on the WOWOW cable system
was I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, the story of a man who is rejected for a
teaching job by a school that doesn't want male teachers. Upset, the teacher
dresses as a woman and gets the job, then has to hide his true gender.
Strawberry Eggs will be an English-language release in North America from
Pioneer. Crispin Freeman, whom this site saw one week earlier at Anime
Central, wrote the English-language script, directed the dub and will play
part of the lead role of Hibiki, the frustrated teacher.
"Part of the
lead role" is correct. The male teacher had a female actor for the part
where he dressed as a female, and that will be the case in the dub. Freeman
said that'll mean a little less acting work for him because the female
actor carries much of the role during the dub. "It's like Ben-Hur, it's
got a cast of thousands," Freeman joked. Added Jonathan Klein of New Generation
Pictures, producer of the dub, "It's got everything. It's got fan service
and a great story." And it has a lot of Japanese phrases, untranslated
honorifics dealing with social status. "That was one of the most challenging
things, to bring in all of these poor American actors and give them these
Japanese phrases," said Freeman. "Even I screwed up."
The fascinating
part of the Strawberry Eggs story is the speed of its production into an
English-language version. The first four episodes were finished just before
Fanime Con. That doesn't sound special until you consider that less than
one year has passed since the original first was cablecast on WOWOW. Klein
noted that the U.S. home video arm of Pioneer paid for part of the production
costs before the series was animated. Another series that New Generation
is producing, Helsing, is getting to North America in dubbed form even
quicker than Strawberry Eggs. To the author that's significant because
it shows the attraction of anime and its power as a home video product
even in less than perfect economic times.
