Today’s news will have Skip Beat! fans all like:
Earlier today, Pied Piper announced that they will produce English songs for their Skip Beat! dub. Four songs will receive English versions:
- Dream Star (OP, Episodes 1-19)
- Renaissance (OP, Episodes 20-25)
- Burnin’ Down (Insert Song, Episode 11)
- Prisoner (Insert Song, Episode 19)
All four songs will receive new vocal recordings, as well as new instrumental tracks by western musicians. The crew on each song is as follows:
Dream Star
- Vocals: Mela Lee (feat. Cristina Vee)
- Guitar: Michael Fish Herring
- Drums: Neal Daniels
- Bass: Dan Antunovich
- Synth/Keyboard: Dan Antunovich
- Add’l Keyboards: Alexander Burke
Renaissance
- Vocals: Magnolia Memoir with Erica Lindbeck
- Backup Vocals: Mela Lee
- Guitar: Michael Fish Herring
- Drums: Neal Daniels
- Bass: Dan Antunovich
- Synth/Keyboard: Dan Antunovich
- Add’l Keyboards: Alexander Burke
Burnin’ Down
- Vocals: Nathan Sharp
- Guitar: Michael Fish Herring
- Drums/ Bass / Keyboards: Dan Antunovich
Prisoner
- Vocals: Nathan Sharp
- Guitar: Michael Fish Herring
- Drums/ Bass / Keyboards: Dan Antunovich
Dan Antunovich will produce both Dream Star and Renaissance. Nathan Sharp will be the producer on Burnin’ Down and Prisoner. Mela Lee and the dub team collaborated on the lyric rewrites, which were approved by TV Tokyo’s music division.
Pied Piper was unable to acquire the rights to adapt ending themes Namida and Eien.
Company head Ann Yamamoto posted a Kickstarter update to announce the news. In the piece, they noted that the new songs were made possible by additional funds from BackerKit orders. Pied Piper raised $15,163 through BackerKit add-ons, 60% of which are being used to fund the new song recordings.
In the update, Yamamoto also explained the approvals process for the new recordings:
[TV Tokyo] warned me from day 1 that music rights are close to impossible to negotiate. But, we are lucky that the Skip Beat! songs are handled by TV Tokyo Music, and they were willing to tackle the approval process for us. We had to submit the EXACT English lyrics in advance, and TV Tokyo Music in turn had to get those lyrics approved by the Japanese lyricist.
Skip Beat! is based on Yoshiki Nakamura’s manga of the same name. The 25-episode series originally hit Japanese TV in the Fall 2008 broadcast season. Kiyoko Sayama (Princess Tutu, Vampire Knight) helmed the project at Hal Film Maker, with Tetsuya Kumagai (Log Horizon Season 2, Slayers Premium) providing character designs. Mayori Sekijima (Saber Marionette J, CLAMP School Detectives) was in charge of series composition, while Akifumi Tada (Tokyo Underground, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki) scored the soundtrack.
The English dub cast for the series includes:
- Kyoko Mogami: Caitlin Glass
- Sho Fuwa: Grant George
- Ren Tsuruga: Robbie Daymond
- Kanae Kotonami: Erica Lindbeck
- Yukihito Yashiro: Vic Mignogna
- Lory Takarada: Richard Epcar
- Maria Takarada: Mela Lee
- Takenori Sawara: Keith Silverstein
- Shoko Aoki: Karen Strassman
- Kuniko (ep 1): Dorothy Fahn
- Kimiko Kamio (ep 4): Dorothy Fahn
- Matsushima (eps 2-3, 8, 14): Kaiji Tang
- “Love Me” Male Voice: Kaiji Tang
- Nakazawa (eps 2-3, 5): Joe Zeija
- Seiji Shingai (eps 5-7): Todd Haberkorn
- Shinichi Ishibashi (eps 10-12): Todd Haberkorn
- Ruriko Matsunai (eps 5-7): Kira Buckland
- Eiko (eps 8-9): Erika Harlacher
- Yoshimi (ep 9): Dorothy Fahn
- Yusei Ishibashi (eps 10-12): Bryce Papebrook
- Hikaru Ishibashi (eps 10-12): Kyle McCarley
- Erika Koenji (eps 12-14): Cristina Vee
- Ushio Kurosaki (eps 10-12): Jason Charles Miller
- Imai (eps 12-14): Nathan Sharp
- Nao (eps 12-13): Lauren Landa
- Yumiko (eps 15-16): Lauren Landa
- Funada (eps 12-14): Kyle Hebert
- Tecchin (ep 14): Kyle Hebert
- Mimori Nanokura (eps 17-19): Christine Marie Cabanos
- Haruki Asami (eps 17-19): Kate Davis
- Hiroko Iizuka (eps 21-23): Erin Fitzgerald
- Hiroaki Ogata (eps 20-25): Chris Patton
Sources: Pied Piper (Press Release), Kickstarter
