Crying Freeman (クライング フリーマン Kuraingu Furīman) is a 6 episode anime OVA series based on the manga series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. It was released on home video in Japan from September 1988 to January 1994.
|
Dubbing History[]
Prior to the better known American made dub of the series, Manga UK acquired the series and provided their own dub, covering all 6 episodes on 5 VHS tapes released from 1993-1995.
In the United States, Streamline Pictures acquired the rights to the series, dubbing the first 5 episodes and releasing them on VHS in 1995. However, due to Streamline's problems with its distribution company, Orion Pictures, the sixth episode was not initially covered until the rights were picked up by ADV Films in 2003. While ADV picked up and later redubbed many titles originally dubbed by Streamline, ADV went another route. Rather than redub the series with their own cast, Steve Bulen and Edie Mirman were flown out to Houston to reprise their roles, while the rest of the cast (fortunately, none of which appeared in prior episodes) were voiced by ADV's regular talent pool. As Carl Macek was working for ADV Films during this time, he also returned as the voice director for the sixth episode.
Cast[]
Main Characters[]
| Image | Character | Seiyū | Dub Actor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Manga Dub
|
 Streamline/ ADV Dub | |||
|
Yō Hinomura / Crying Freeman |
Toshio Furukawa | Steven Tremblay | Steve Bulen |
|
Emu Hino / Hu Qing Lan |
Chiharu Kataishi | Edita Brychta | Edie Mirman |
Secondary Characters[]
| Image | Character | Seiyū | Dub Actor | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manga Dub
|
Streamline / ADV Dub | ||||
|
Hu Feng Ling | Nobuyo Tsuda | Rosemary Miller | Catherine Battistone | 1-3 |
|
Bai Ya Shan | Dump Matsumoto | Debora Weston | Barbara Goodson | 2-3, 5 |
|
Huang De Yuan / Koh Tokugen |
Ryūsei Nakao | Vincent Marzello | Jeff Winkless | 1-2 |
|
Ron Fu / Baiba Long |
Kōhei Miyauchi | John Baddeley | Edward Mannix | 1-3 |
|
Detective Nitta | Yūsaku Yara | Bob Sherman | Michael McConnohie | 1, 4 |
|
Kimie Hanada | Masako Katsuki | Liza Ross | Catherine Battistone | 1, 4 |
|
Bagnag / Dark Eyes | Yoshiko Sakakibara | Nicolette McKenzie | Melanie MacQueen | 2-5 |
Episodic Characters[]
Additional Voices[]
Manga Dub
|
Streamline Dub (1-5) |
ADV Dub (6)
|
Notes[]
- Peter Marinker is credited under the alias "Peter Wiseman" in the Manga UK Dub. Likewise, Jay Benedict is credited as "James Hathaway" and Pamela Merrick as "Pamela West". Shelley Thompson is credited both as "Katherine Pierce" in Episode 2 and as "Sara Murphy" in Episode 5. Graydon Gould is also credited under his real name in Episode 3, while being credited as "Graham Parker" in Episode 5.
- In the Manga dub of Episode 1, when Nitta says "The gangster’s expected to come after you, so they’ll be waiting for an opportunity to kill him." the last part ("kill him") sounds to have been spliced in using a different voice actor (likely Peter Marinker).
- A Screen Actors Guild database listing also reveals that another dub of Crying Freeman was produced in the United States by Pretend Productions, possibly an alternate dub of episode 6, indicating that Orion likely had plans to dub the series to completion after taking over Streamline's catalog.
Video Releases[]
| Distributor | Year | Format | Contents | Dub | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manga Entertainment | 1993-1995 | 
|
The Complete Series | Manga | PAL | United Kingdom |
|
| 5 Volumes | |||||||
| Streamline Pictures | 1995 | Episodes 1-5 | Streamline | NTSC | United States |
| |
| 5 Volumes | |||||||
| ADV Films | 2003 | 
|
The Complete Series | Streamline / ADV |
1 NTSC | ||
| 3 Volumes | |||||||
| 2004 | The Complete Series | ||||||
| 2 Discs | |||||||
| Discotek Media | 2011 | The Complete Series | |||||
| 2 Discs | |||||||
| 2023 | 
|
The Complete Series | All | A DVB-T | |||
| 1 Disc | |||||||
External Links[]
- Crying Freeman (anime) at the Anime News Network.
- Crying Freeman at the Internet Movie Database.