That Digimon Adventure 01 poster in Last Evolution - Kizuna-Style |
The German dub of the entire Digimon Adventure-series is a hyper super masterpiece, even until this day. I say this not only as nostalgist who grew up with the German dub but also as someone who can levelheadedly analyze and evaluate either. From a present-day perspective, it's still good.
The Digimon Adventure-series has been released in Germany in the year 2000. Even in the entire six-parted film series Digimon Adventure tri. (2015-2018), in the movie Digimon Adventure tri. (2015-2018), in Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution - Kizuna (2020) as well as the movie Digimon Adventure 02: THE BEGINNING (2023),
most of the German voice actors has been retained and furtherly cut a fine figure.
For the case the German voice actors in charge will read this article as well:
I wanna let them know that I'm impressed by their commitments. They made the childhood of mine and of my generation awesome and even now, I admire them. Even the German dub of the Digimon Adventure tri.-movies were, thanks to their commitment, a great pleasure. They should keep it up!
Short background info: Concerning the German dub of the Digimon Adventure-series, the dubbing for Digmon Adventure 01 and 02 had been produced by the German company MME Studio GmbH (who had become insolvent long ago) on behalf of the German TV channel RTL2 but since the Digimon Adventure tri.-series, the German distribution company KSM Anime is in charge for the dub.
Despite the German dub is based on the Japanese version (i.e. neither scenes or dialogues had been altered or censored), unfortunately, the americanized names of the characters and some Digimon had been adopted due to marketing issues. In the concrete sense, the americanized names had been predefined by the licensor CTM Concept- TV & Merchandising GmbH being located in Munich in Germany back then.
However, everytime when I tell something about Digimon, I use the names from the Japanese original version because the americanized names ain't considered being exonyms. Therefore, please forgive me when I say, for instance, Tailmon (instead of Gatomon) or Takeru (instead of T.K.).
Anyways, without further ado, let's get started:
1. The voice actor cast
The voices of the characters (especially the DigiDestined) and the Digimon were selected in a magnificent way. Even now, the voices are still suitable. As already implicated, the voice actors have magnificently converyed even the very emotional scenes authentically. So, you as viewer, you shared the thrill with the characters.
Particularly, following voices have excited me and I still appreciate them:
Yamato Ishida (石田ヤマト): This blondhaired DigiDestined is voiced by Robin Kahnmeyer who had also dubbed Adult Gohan in the Dragon Ball-series (safe for Dragon Ball Kai and the Dragon Ball Super TV show). Particulary, those scenes from Digimon Adventure 01 where he gets more emotionally had been conveyed by Kahnmeyer powerfully. It's really top-notched. Moreover, he also dubbed the goalkeeper Genzō Wakabayashi in the anime series Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 which wasn't, however, released until 2005 here in Germany and thus, renamed Super Kickers 2006 - Captain Tsubasa on occasion of the FIFA World Cup 2006 - but this is another matter. So, let's continue:And don't ask if
Yamato's Gabumon
can beat Gohan's dad
Goku, haha
Ken Ichijōji (一乗寺賢): Either Ken itself or his alter ego, the Digimon-Kaiser (as whom he was the main villain in the first Digimon Adventure 02 - until he recognized his failure and turned into a good person): His German voice actor Timmo Niesner (also known, for instance, as steady voice actor for the actors Elijah Wood and Tom Welling) has really breathed life into Ken while dubbing him. Also those scenes where Ken cried after recognizing how horrible his evil acts as Digimon Kaiser was has been conveyed authentically by his German voice actor Timmo Niesner. And by the way, Wormmon has been dubbed by the German voice actor Karlo Hackenberger who also dubs, for instance, Wataru Takagi from Detective Conan and Yamcha from the Dragon Ball-series (safe for Dragon Ball Classic).One of the saddest moments
when Wormmon dies in Ken's
hands (but a few episodes later,
Wormmon is resurrected)
Blackwargreymon: Axel Lutter (e.g. also known as the German voice of Slug from the non-canon movie Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug) really knew how to convey Blackwargreymon powerfully. Particulary in the scenes where Blackwargreymon talks with Agumon about the purpose of life or where he fights against Agumon (digivolved into Wargreymon), Lutters dubbing skills came to light.Blackwargreymon
2. The magnificent management in cases of redeployments of certain roles
Here and there, some voice actors of the maincast had been reshuffled but it's not that bad because the successors had proven being worthy succeeding their predecessors:
Kōshirō Izumi (泉 光子郎) had FOUR voice actors in total in the German dub:
- Julia Blankenburg (who is, for instance, also known as the German voice of Chiaotzu in the Dragon Ball-series, with exception of Dragon Ball Classic) dubbed him in Digimon Adventure 01.
- Hannes Mauer (e.g. also known as Astro in the Astro Boy-movie being released 2009) in Digimon Adventure 02. Due a hiatus and his world cruise, some of this roles have had to be reshuffeld since 2015. For the same reason, Maurer was when it came to dub Kōshirō in the Digimon Adventure tri.-movies.
Christian Zeiger (for example, also known as the German voice of Armin Arlert from Attack on Titan; Red from Pokémon Origins and as steady voice of Nathan Kress and Tom Holland) replaced Hannes Maurer and dubbed Kōshirō in Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1-3. He is one of my favourite voice actors from Germany and always conveyes his roles magnificently. But due to artistic differences, from he doesn't dub Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 4 onwards, Zeiger doesn't dub Kōshirō anymore.These three characters have
the same voice in the
German dub- Thus, Christopher Kohn dubs Kōshirō from Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 4 onwards but he is a worthy successor for Christian Zeiger - even when I was disappointed that Zeiger doesn't dub Kōshirō anymore despite he breathed life into him.
Hikari Yagami (八神ヒカリ) was affected from a sudden voice actor replacement too but she had in total only TWO voice actors:
Marie-Luise Schramm who dubbed, for instance, Arale from Dr. Slump as well dubbed Taichi's younger sister Hikari, from the very beginning to Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 3 and from Digimon Adventure 02: THE BEGINNING (2023) onwards. Notabene, this voice actress is also the daughter of the late voice actor Bernd Schramm (1951-2005) who dubbed, for example, Kibito in Dragon Ball Z and Vamdemon in Digimon Adventure 01 as well as in 02.Hikari has the same voie
like Arale in the German dub
but in between times, she was voiced
by the same person like Hanji Zoe- Josephine Schmidt, e.g. also known as the German voice of Hanji Zoe from Attack on Titan, succeeded from tri. Chapter 4 onwards the role of Hikari after her predecessor Marie-Luise Schramm withdrew from dubbing Hikari due to private reasons before she returned for dubbing her again from THE BEGINNING onwards.
Nevertheless, these voice actor replacement didn't harm either by quality or persuasiveness of the German dub of the entire Digimon Adventure series. They've seemly know how to act according to the motto "The show must go on". At least, most of the German voice actor cast could be maintained through the years.
The German dub of the movie THE BEGINNING has amazed me either. |
And now, I ask you: For the case you also have watched the German dub of the Digimon Adventure-series before, what do you think about it? And for the audience from all over the word (particularly the audience from the anglophone areas): What do you think about your respective countries' dub without regarding it with the nostalgic glasses? And do you prefer the Japanese dub or any other dub? Don't hesitate writing it in the comment section below.
PS: Here you can go to my other Digimon related articles:
PPS: Here you can go to my other reviews: