Well, thanks! We are finished dubbing – it just needs to go through the final edits and voila! Before you know it!

Use whatever technical definition of "dubbing" and "editing" you like, I won't be able to extrapolate a release date.

By the way, this tweet was posted on December 18th. Paul Dobson had a recording session on the 23rd. Do these contradict each other? Not necessarily, but it's something to think about.

Source: http://twitter.com/richardiancox/status/16215130882703361

That is, don't believe any date without a solid source attached to it. I'm really sick and tired of this "January 21st" rumor floating around.

That date has no source and the first place I found it was on Wikipedia, added by some random guy from Georgia.

I don't want to see it pop up anywhere else unless a reputable source confirms it.

BTW, I will be in Israel for most of January, so I may not be around if  there is an official dub announcement.

Trevor Devall has done it again. He's gotten yet another Ocean regular to spill the beans on Final Act during a podcast. This time it's Paul Dobson (Naraku).

After Kirby Morrow (Miroku) blabbed to Trevor about Michael Daingerfield replacing David Kaye (Sesshoumaru), I didn't think Ocean or Viz would permit further on-the-record statements about the dub. Anyway, Paul mentioned that he is still recording lines for the dub and that he has a session on the 23rd to finish up.

I was honestly hoping that the dub would be in post-production by now. But alas, it isn't and Viz has nothing of substance on their solicitations slate for January, February, or March according to AoD/Mania. That pretty much guarantees no dubbed DVDs/BDs until at least April unless there is an out of sequence announcement.

As for a televised dub, no chance before February if we take the newest Adult Swim schedule as gospel. Still. Final Act still has a decent shot before Spring. It's also worth noting that the Durarara!! dub production has been going along at highly-publicized and break-neck pace. I wouldn't be surprised if AS grabs rights to air it as well.

Edit: Kudos to Dox for being less lazy than I am and actually listening to the whole podcast.

A thought just occurred to me.

Amid all of speculation surrounding Viz's upcoming announcement and the expectation of simultaneous Japan/US manga releases (either by volume or chapter), something critical has been overlooked. That something is the effect it would have on combating scanlators.

There are two answers and they depends wholly on the magazine the manga is published in.

For the sake of argument, let us assume that Viz licensed every manga published in Weekly Shonen Jump, Weekly Shonen Sunday, and Weekly Shonen Magazine.

In the case of Shonen Magazine (represented by Negima, Zetsubou Sensei, and Fairy Tail) and Shonen Sunday (Rinne, Hayate, and Kenichi), the effect of simulscans would be huge.

Yet for Shonen Jump (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Bakuman, Psyren, etc…) the effect would minimal to none.

The reason is quite simple. Shonen Jump leaks early, way early. I don't know whether to attribute this to Shueisha or to their distributors, but its been like this for years. Sunday and Magazine leak too, but only by a few hours and usually only just text spoilers and camera pics from 2ch, not full-blown chapters like Jump.

If you were to ask me, "Hey Starks! When does the new Bleach come out? You'd expect the answer to be Wednesday, but it's actually the following Monday for those who desire a legal copy.

Herein lies the problem for licensing companies. They can't break the street date. Therefore, Jump scanlators cannot be deal with until Shueisha and its distributors crack down on the leaks.

Edit: I stand corrected regarding Fairy Tail and Kenichi. It's not common for chapters of both to leak days early. Both series, along with the Big 3 Shonen Jump series are scanlated as part of the superhuman efforts of Manga Stream. I don't know how they do it.

The online anime community has been abuzz over the past few days ever since Viz posted this on their Twitter account:

HUGE news coming from VIZ next week!
The office is buzzing with our latest TOP SECRET developments.
This changes everything!!
Can you guess what it could be?

I've heard everything from an Inuyasha Final Act dub announcement, rumors of a new Dragon Ball manga, and a Viz/Funi fusion dance; but none seem all too plausible.

This will probably be digital manga on the Kindle/Nook/iPad/Android/etc. or more manga simulscans.

Viz has be experimenting with Kyoukai no Rinne (RIN-NE) simulscans for over a year now and I assume its been doing well since they're still doing it. Expanding this to other titles will be a logical progression of that, but I can't imagine any ongoing titles deserving it other than the Big 3 (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece). If even one of those got a simulscan, that would be earth-shattering.

Stay tuned. I'm following this closely.

Edit 1: No, I don't have anything new regarding the Final Act dub other than the fact that Chiara Zanni did an interview recently with Trevor Devall and reminded us that she's alive.

Edit 2: inuyasha211 pointed me towards a rather new Blu-ray RAW of Black Tessaiga. Enjoy.

Kirby Morrow reveals in a podcast with Trevor Devall that Sesshoumaru will be voiced by Michael Daingerfield (Johann – Gundam 00).

Some 18 hours later, Michael tells me in an email that Moneca Stori will not be reprising her role as Kagome and has been replaced by Kira Tozer. To the best of my knowledge, she has no experience in anime, but the clips of voice that I've heard are pretty good.

Thank you to Mugen for the tip about Daingerfield.

On an unrelated note, happy 23rd birthday to me,

That was quick. Richard B. posted a link to a video featuring Richard Ian Cox at Anime Evolution in Vancouver which was held a few days ago. Cox confirmed his role as Inuyasha and gave us a little preview of how he handles the most ridiculous attack name in the entire series.

This doesn't completely eliminate my concern regarding how far into recording he is, but whatever.

Is Richard Ian Cox recording his lines for Final Act? From his twitter account and Facebook account.

"Is in studio recording stuff – yay!"

"Is in studio, studio-ing it up!"

What could he be recording? He doesn't get much work these days. If it's Final Act and he's only just started, then a late September dub premiere seems almost ludicrous to me. If he started with Kelly, Willow, and the others back a few months ago, things should be fine. At any rate, the silence from Viz and countless missed panel opportunities at conventions is getting frustrating.

Credit to LoverDemon for the tip.

In a move that should really surprise nobody, David Kaye announced at TFCon that he will not be reprising his role for Final Act.

Over the past few years, David has pretty much retired from anime voice acting on moved onto sports, moving to California in the process. This development is a bit disappointing considering his intention to be a part of the dub as per a statement last July at Mechacon and does not bode well for the participation of other VAs like Willow Johnson (Kikyou) and Moneca Stori (Kagome).

I don't sympathize with the now-screaming Sesshoumaru fanbase, but I will admit that David Kaye is a great VA who was vastly underused.

Source: My good friend from GameFAQs and administrator of the "Behind the Voice Actors" website, Pokejedservo

Edit: Kelly Sherridan (Sango) remains the only confirmed voice actor.

Edit 2: I'd like a more concrete confirmation, but Willow will be reprising her role as Kikyou: http://blog.willow-johnson.net/index.php?itemid=49