Gurren Lagann (partially found English dubs of anime series; 2007)

Title card from the Bandai dub.

Status: Partially Found
(ADV Films Dub);
Lost (Animax Dub)

Gurren Lagann, also known as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in Japan is a mecha anime that aired in Japan from April 1 to September 30, 2007. Upon its release, the Gurren Lagann was a success and an English dub was announced by ADV Films. Financial troubles would plague ADV Films causing a new distributor to redub the anime.

Background

ADV Films was founded in 1992 as a way to bring anime into the English speaking market. The company would go onto dub various anime titles such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and ROBOTECH. As time went on, the company would start to distribute for Germany and the United Kingdom as well as start their own magazine. Eventually, the profitability of the animes varied with many not making back what ADV had hoped to. To remedy this, ADV started to only get the rights to popular and successful anime as opposed to obscure anime.

The Dub

ADV Films announced at Anime Expo 2007 that they would dub Gurren Lagann in English. ADV Films was facing financial troubles around the time they had announced that they would dub Gurren Lagann. In January of 2008, ADV Films website updated and removed any mention of fourteen anime titles including Gurren Lagann. This caused many to speculate that the dub would be canceled.

Cancellation and Redubbing

On September 9, 2009, A.D. Vision the parent company of ADV Films announced that ADV Films would shut down and its assets would be transferred. Bandai Entertainment would end up acquiring the license to dub Gurren Lagann into English. Bandai Entertainment ended up releasing their own dub of Gurren Lagann with a new cast as opposed to using ADV's cast. Though it was currently unknown how many episodes ADV Films had dubbed before shutting down.

Availability

Little footage of the ADV dub for Gurren Lagann can be found and has not resurfaced in its entirety. Allegedly a test disc had been sent out by ADV films to select audiences and or networks with the first few episodes of the dub though this cannot be confirmed. As of 2018, only a few clips from the ADV dub for Gurren Lagann had surfaced, and due to the complications of Bandai Entertainment now holding the rights for Gurren Lagann and the closure of ADV films, it was currently unsure if the ADV dub will ever resurface.

On June 22nd, 2019, A user by the name of AshleyAshes obtained the first five episodes of the ADV Films dub of Gurren Lagann and subsequently uploaded them on the torrent site, nyaa.si, though the upload for the third episode was mistakenly a repeat of the fifth episode. Another user, fujito10, obtained the third episode after contacting AshleyAshes on Twitter and provided the third episode, which was subsequently uploaded on nyaa.si as well. It is currently unknown if there are more episodes dubbed by ADV Films aside from these five episodes before shutting down, and will see the light of day.

The first five episodes would be later reuploaded to the Internet Archive by user trouiblesomeTome on the 19th of December, 2020.

ADV Dub Cast

• Brett Weaver as Kamina
• Josh Grelle as Simon
• Luci Christian as Nia Teppelin
• Tiffany Grant as Yoko Ritona
• Brittney Karbowski as Kinon
• Chris Patton as Rossiu
• Greg Ayres as Gimmy
• Hilary Haag as Darry
• Jason Douglas as Kittan
• John Gremillion as Dayakka Ritona
• Kira Vincent-Davis as Kiyal
• Mark X. Laskowski as Leeron
• Monica Rial as Boota
• Monica Rial as Kiyoh
• Vic Mignogna as Viral

Gallery

The original ADV Films trailer for Gurren Lagann.

More footage (from Mike Toole's "Dubs that time forgot" panel at Otakon Vegas 2014).

Clip of ADV's dub.

Lost Animax Dub

• On June 22nd, 2019, A nyaa user named AshleyAshes obtained and uploaded the first five episodes of the ADV Films dub. Aside from these five episodes, they would also upload the 11th episode of a previously unknown Animax English Dub of Gurren Lagann. With the Animax English dub having only a few mentions around the internet due to it only airing at the East Asia region, it is unlikely that more episodes would resurface. As of 2024, the link for this Animax Dub was removed, meaning any footage from the Animax Dub is seemed to be lost, unless or until it resurfaced.

External Links

• Internet Archive link for the first five episodes of Gurren Lagann dubbed by ADV Films.
• Internet Archive link for the 11th episode of Gurren Lagann dubbed by Animax. (Link no longer works, copyright take-down.)

See Also

• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Chōzetsu Hakkutsu ONLINE (lost online video game based off anime; 2007) (online game based off the series)