I've seen scattered references to there being a Japanese dub of SatAM, but nothing concrete, a cast list and which channel it aired on at most. I'm extremely curious what this version may have sounded like, has it been preserved anywhere?
Just a quick Google search turns up many similar questions to yours, with people unable to find any concrete sources, so my guess is there never was one. It probably just gets an undue amount of speculation since Sonic was originally a Japanese property, and I feel like Japanese dubs of Western cartoons generally get more attention anyway since so many animation fans are familiar with the phenomenon of English anime dubbing that they get a kick out of seeing how Japan handles our stuff (the Japanese dub of King of the Hill is GOAT).
Yeah this was my understanding coming across comments on the X-Men cartoon dub is a lot of US cartoons got a run on TV with basically no media release, so if it exists it is on old VHS recordings or some nonsense. The thought of SatAM with Japanese intro/ed/bumpers does bring a smile to my face, so it would be cool
According to our wiki: https://info.sonicretro.org/Princess_Sally_Acorn Looking at Yuka Shioyama's filmography on her Japanese Wikipedia page (where there's no mention of Dic's Sonic), it would appear that Yuka Shioyama's voice acting career took off in the early 2000s, so the claim she voiced Sally is a little dubious. The show itself has a page on JP Wikipedia, with a list of voice actors, but no citations regarding the Japanese release. It's claimed to have aired on Japanse TV from 1995-02-03 to 1996-06-30. It isn't specified which channel it aired on. For Sally, it lists two voice actors: Yuka Shioyama and Rikako Aikawa. It doesn't elaborate on why there are two VAs. It could make sense if Yuka Shioyama provided the voice of Young Sally (from Blast to the Past), but it isn't specified at all. It's all unsourced, so could all be bullshit. (According to JP Wikipedia's Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog page, Sonic's name is Juice Sonic "Rodent" Kintobor the Hedgehog, which should indicate how unreliable this stuff is.)
I'm convinced someone just posted lots of false info, almost like a fantasy roster of voice actors if the show ever got aired in Japan. Megumi Hayashibara, who was like the most prominent voice actress in Japan back then, is listed for Nicole, but the show isn't listed in any of her bios anywhere. Considering she's one of the most popular voice actresses out there it surely would be documented somewhere. As Pengi noted you can look up any of the voice actors, it's listed nowhere. Here's one instance of a voice actor name being changed to a completely different one on the wiki entry. It's all likely just made up. Then on the other end we have that Juice Rodent thing in the previous post, which really lead to a rabbit hole for the AoStH page. Someone definitely was having some fun here. You can go back into the edit history and find this one individual who was constantly modifying their made up info starting from August last year. All of the badniks were being edited so their names started off with Humpty Dumpty Prime, even Robotnik currently has Humpty Dumpty in his name. Grounder was once named Sam, Scratch was once even called "Century Swatbot II X-13 Scrachette 'Scratch'" And that's only the tip of the iceberg, far too many to list here. Both of the US Sonic cartoons just seem to be trolling bait by some bored individuals.
I can confirm that the Japanese wikipedia isn't as good as the English one at spotting troll edits, I once wrote "二猫 was born" (yes, with the latter part in English) on their page of things that happened on April 1st, and not only it's been up for years until someone finally took it down, someone even turned the 二猫 into a (red) wikilink at a certain point. So yeah, for all we know, Japanese dubs of the Sonic cartoons are as likely as myself being a key figure in Japanese history.
Also, this doesn't necessarily preclude them from getting Japanese dubs (since he was a grown man already and well out of the target demographic), but I do recall reading that Naka had no idea that there were Sonic cartoons until they were putting together the "history of Sonic" stuff for Sonic Jam (and even that only mentions AoSTH). Seems like it would have shown up on his radar if either of them were dubbed/localized for Japan, since Sega of Japan seemed to have a tighter grip on their properties than Sega of America who'd just license them out to anyone.
In the end, it seems to me that western Sonic series and comics may've never gotten japanese localization.
Damn, I was hoping that there’d be some sort of clue if this thing really even existed. Based on what others have said here, it does seem that it was all made up. Oh well. I appreciate your help guys, I’m not nearly as familiar with this kind of stuff as you are and wouldn’t have known where to look.
Have you checked Sonic News Network? The Sonic Wikia. I'm not sure how trustworthy it may be, but it's a choice to consider.
I know that Sonic isn't as popular in Japan as he is in USA and Europe, but isn't there any Japanese Sonic community that we can contact for this info? Sorry if the question is stupid or something, I always wondered why there aren't many Japanese fans reaching out to the English community. I always see a lot of people from different countries creating accounts and chatting on Sonic related groups, but Japanese fans? Not really.
According to the Japanese Wikipedia page, it did at least have a run in Japan in 95. The only video I could find on NicoNico was just of the normal intro, and it is entirely possible based on that it was only subtitled. Ed: But even that edit came later, and there is even one guy in the talk saying he hadn't heard of it being broadcast. <_< It is a heavily downvoted comment, though. So if that is a troll, it is an elaborate one. Still, more info probably needed, and don't really have the patience or time right now to keep digging.
Yes. About the only thing it has any real use for is Archie and that's largely because no-one here's gone into it with as much depth - it's slowly happening though. I'd never recommend the Sonic Wikia for literally anything else.
Ouch, that sure sucks. I've actually relied on the Wikia for plot, lore and character background stuff ^^" Then I guess there's no decent way to verify if the Sonic cartoons ever aired in Japan. On the surface, that is...
IIRC didn’t Naka and Oshima seem to have no idea some of these things even existed? I remember at Summer of Sonic 2011 Naka being asked questions about SatAM and/or Archie (can’t remember which) and he seemed like he had no idea what that was. With that in mind I’d almost be certain those shows or whatever never made it to Japan.
Nah fam. SatAM getting a run on Japanese TV while those people are at work in pre-internet-being-what-it-is days is actually pretty believable. Japanese TV historically isn't like US where it is all reruns all the time. If it was there it had its run and then was done. Whether or not they even bothered dubbing it is what the real question is since it is basically confirmed that if it did see a JP release, it still has the same intro.
I think the best bet would be finding some kind of news paper listing for what would be playing on TV during the alleged airing dates. That may list some actors, but it isn't guaranteed, I guess.
