Well, I *am* the Russian version of Dr. Saruta. Nearly everyone who saw a Russian dub of Hi No Tori 2772 in the last 13 years heard me as him. This gives a certain claim
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Two Russian dubs exist. The first was shown once in or around 1993 on Russian TV - and then vanished into obscurity. The second was made in 1998 by a team which I called together and led. This one is still making the rounds on torrents - despite being rather inexact. We only had the English for the source
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The backstory. I lived in Moscow then. saw the movie on TV in 1993 and was deeply impressed, but at that time acquiring a copy was impossible. I did get it, in English on VHS, in 1998 - and watched it many, many times.
Some months later the Japanese embassy screened some Tezuka movies in Moscow. I went there with a lady. It tuerned out they forgot to invite an interpreter, so I started translating for the lady. Cries of "louder" ensued - within 10 minutes I was pushed into the translator box. Without understanding a word of Japanese I rendered a passable version - simply because I knew it by heart.
After a hearty applause and a small Moscow Times interview, I was able to build a team for the dub. We started off to a rather simple standard, even tried going with an entire scene at once. We soon went to full-scale "professional" with each line being recorded separately, sometimes a few times. So I became the voice of Saruta, Bun, and Ban - with computer effects to differentiate (but Saruta was least distorted).
We released it anonymously (as this was technically a copyright violation). We did not make one ruble of money on this, as a matter of principle - we were fans, not "pirates". We just gave away copies and they were copied on VHS by people who would never have access to a licensed version... I am more open now as this was over ten years ago.
As I became older, I found I'm much more like Saruta himself, not just the voice on that dub
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Now the honest part, I did this because I was quite in love with Olga. I still don't know why she is never included in Tezuka character list, and generally ignored by "the community" small as it is, along with the entire movie.
Perhaps it's because it does not fit into the Phoenix arc. Tezuka apparently planned a retrofit, but we all know how Phoenix ended without being finished
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Well, as we won't have any from the Author, perhaps I'll publish a fic that does a kind of retrofit. Without stepping one jot from the movie canon. I have the idea, anyhow - and of course it's through Saruta, who is the central character anyhow. Being kinda Saruta, I'd better take my responsibilities seriously
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(Of course, Tezuka fan fiction is a bit touchy because he was a genius - but then, so was Tolkien.)
P.S. I live in Ireland since 2006. Nothing political, just career. Not Iceland, sorry
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