Sometimes there are Dueling Dubs, where a work is dubbed several times due to changing standards of qualities and values.
However, sometimes, a difference in dubbing is not due to Dueling Dubs, but instead due to different installments of a work being picked up by different studios, and thus getting different casts from their own in-house supply of voice actors and actresses. This can even apply to different seasons of the same work being dubbed due to a change in production or dubbing studios part-way into production.
This can cause debate over who redubbed the character best.
Common with a Long Runner, Sequel Gap, or when there's a change of production studios in the source nation.
A vocal variation of The Other Darrin. Compare with Two Voices, One Character when a character has two (or more) credited voices for the same production.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ah! My Goddess: Three different groups have dubbed the series, from the OAVs, the movie, and the TV series, with Juliet Cesario, Bridget Hoffman, and Eileen Stevens each taking a turn at voicing Belldandy for each work respectively. This is actually used for a scene in the TV series, where Juliet Cesario took up the role of Peorth, but does a spot-on imitation of Belldandy's voice. Each work also had different actors for the other lead roles for Keiichi, Skuld, Urd, Megumi, Otaki, and Tamiya.
- Di Gi Charat: The series has been covered by three different groups leading to voice changes for all the characters between installments:
- Synch-Point dubbed both the original series and Leave it to Piyoko! with Jessica Gee-George as Dejiko, Stephanie Sheh as Gema, Michelle Ruff as Rabi~en~Rose, and Sandy Fox as Piyoko. Puchiko had two voice actresses in this dub with Miyuki Sawashiro reprising her in ''Leave it to Piyoko'' and Karen Strassman taking over in the dub for the original series, as well as the last few episodes of Leave it to Piyoko as Miyuki was unavailable.
- ADV Films dubbed Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat with Luci Christian as Dejiko, Hilary Haag as Puchiko, Tiffany Grant as Gema, and Kira Vincent-Davis as Piyoko (outside of brief cameo, Rabi~en~Rose does not appear). Both Luci Christian and Hilary Haag would reprise their roles as Dejiko and Puchiko in Cromartie High School due to it also being dubbed by ADV.
- The Ocean Group dubbed Di Gi Charat Nyo! with Chris Simms as Dejiko, Mariette Sluyter as Puchiko, Lucas Gilbertson as Gema, Carol-Anne Day as Rabi~en~Rose, and Leda Davies as Piyoko.
- The Dragon Ball franchise is, by and large, more of an example of Dueling Dubs than this trope. At the very least, most of the franchise is dubbed by one cast, from beginning to end, some instances of The Other Darrin aside. Due to the circumstances of their production, however, Dragon Ball Z and the classic movies don't have a consistent cast from beginning to end, as much as releases since the Orange Bricks pretend otherwise. The first Dragon Ball movie, the first three Dragon Ball Z movies, and the first 66 and a half episodes of Z (cut down to 53) were dubbed by a Vancouver cast, with the Z stuff dubbed by The Ocean Group. Everything done afterwards was made when Creator/Funimation moved dubbing to Texas and gathered for itself a new cast. Later on the Vancouver dubbed sections were redubbed by the Texan cast, though there's a noticable quality difference between the earlier in house Funimation material and the later produced stuff, despite (or possibly made worse by) Funimation partially redubbing episodes (mostly from "season 3") to smoothe things over. This was at its worst with the redub of Curse of the Blood Rubies, as that was made later than the Z redubs with all the recastings made for Dragon Ball Z Kai, which contrasts strongly with the dubs of the two original Dragon Ball movies that came afterwards (among the earliest material dubbed by the Texan cast).
- Fate/stay night: In the anime adaptation, the dub has Kate Higgins as Saber/Arturia Pendragon. However, for The Movie version of Unlimited Blade Works, Michelle Ruff took over the role. When the later series for UBW came out, Saber was recast as Kari Wahlgren.
- Genocyber was dubbed by Manga UK for the first three episodes and Central Park Media for the last two. The difference in dubbing styles (Manga used relatively professional actors who had to cram in profanity every three lines while CPM used amateurs who just read from a literally translated script) is noticeable.
- Gundam:
- The Universal Century timeline has a storied history of dubs, which has resulted in most of the core cast of characters being voiced by different actors no less than four times.
- The Ocean Group in Vancouver took on the original dub of Mobile Suit Gundam, casting Brad Swaile as Amuro Ray, Alaina Burnett as Sayla Mass, Michael Kopsa as Char Aznable, Chris Kalhoon at Bright Noa, Kristie Marsden as Fraw Bow, Cathy Weseluck as Mirai Yashima, Richard Ian Cox as Kai Shinden, and Matt Smith as Hayato Kobayashi, among others.
- The anime was also given a trilogy of compilation movies that were sourced towards Magnitude 8 Post in Los Angeles, who had already been given the task of dubbing War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory, and would later dub The 08th MS Team. This now had a cast of Michael Lindsay as Amuro, Olivia Bardeau as Sayla, Steve Blum as Char, Wheat St. James as Bright, Melissa Fahn as Fraw, Leslie Buhr as Mirai, Eddie Frierson as Kai, and Richard Cansino as Hayato.
- The direct sequel Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam fell victim to a voice actor strike happening at the Ocean Group when it was scheduled to be dubbed, which meant that their sister company Blue Water Studios in Calgary (who had also dubbed Mobile Fighter G Gundam) had to take over. Matthew Erickson as Amuro Ray, Tom Edwards as Char Aznable, Dave Kelly as Bright Noa, Kristin Nowosad as Fraw Bow, Mariette Sluyter as Mirai Yashima, Scott Roberts as Kai Shinden, and C. Adam Leigh as Hayato Kobayashi.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack would be given back to the original cast at Ocean Group, meaning Brad, Michael, and Chris would return as Amuro, Char, and Bright respectively.
- Dubbing duties for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin were assigned to New York Audio Visual Post, which combined both Los Angeles and New York actors for all of the familiar characters. Lucien Dodge as Amuro Ray, Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Sayla Mass, Keith Silverstein as Char Aznable / Full Frontal, Christopher Corey Smith as Bright Noa, Alyson Rosenfeld as Fraw Bow, Fryda Wolff as Mirai Yashima, Kevin T. Collins as Kai Shinden, Kyle McCarley as Hayato Kobayashi.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has an interesting reason for changing dubbing studios.
- SEED and its sequel Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny was dubbed by The Ocean Group. Matt Hill voiced Kira Yamato, Samuel Vincent as Athrun Zala, Chantal Strand as Lacus Clyne, Vanessa Morley as Cagali Yula Athha, Matthew Erickson as Shinn Asuka, Marÿke Hendrikse as Lunamaria Hawke, and Kirby Morrow as Rey Za Burrel.
- The HD remaster of SEED Destiny necessitated a new dub due to technical changes in the animation that threw off the original dialogue track. Sunrise apparently took issue with Ocean Group's pronunciation of the character names, so New York Audio Visual Post would be given the dubbing rights for the HD remaster of Seed Destiny and later the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom movie. The cast now consisted of Max Mittelman as Kira Yamato, Chris Hackney as Athrun Zala, Stephanie Sheh as Lacus Clyne, Cherami Leigh as Cagali Yula Athha, Aaron Phillips as Shinn Asuka (Destiny HD), Kieran Regan as Shin Asuka (SEED Freedom), Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld as Lunamaria Hawke, and Kevin T. Collins as Rey Za Burrel. However, the Freedom dub also included one voice actor from the Ocean Group dub, Trevor Devall as Mu La Flaga.
- The Universal Century timeline has a storied history of dubs, which has resulted in most of the core cast of characters being voiced by different actors no less than four times.
- Ikki Tousen:
- Media Blasters' English dub of Dragon Destiny features an all-new voice cast. For example, Hakufu Sonsaku is voiced by Debora Rabbai instead of Carrie Savage.
- Dubbing duties for Great Guardians onwards were handled by both New Generation Pictures (Los Angeles) and DuArt Film and Video (New York City), retaining most of the first season's voice actors as well as the later cast from Dragon Destiny.
- Is This A Zombie?: All throughout the anime, Ayumu's imagine spots are used to portray the Elective Mute Eucliwood to talk to him and display her in a light-hearted silly manner. In both Japanese and English dubs, a conscious decision to cast every Delusion Eu with a different actress is used. 13 actresses in the English dub, and twice as many as that in Japanese.
- Leijiverse: Lacking any formal continuity and with installments spanning decades, there have been many actors to play the various recurring characters. For example, Maetel of Galaxy Express 999 has been voiced by Kathlyn Barr, Lisa Ortiz (Harlock Saga and Maetel Legend), Emeraldas has been played by Nicole Oliver and Veronica Taylor, and Harlock has been voiced by Scott McNeil, Dan Hoverman, and Steve Blum.
- Pokémon the Series: The English dub switched over from 4Kids Entertainment to being directed in-house by the Pokémon Company three-fourths of the way through Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, recasting pretty much every single role in the series up to that point. The most notable change was recasting Ash Ketchum's voice from Veronica Taylor to Sarah Natochenny.
- Shakugan no Shana: The entire English voice cast was replaced for season 2 and beyond with Dallas-based voice actors, since Funimation chose not to have the series recorded in Vancouver due to a two-year long delay resulting from the Geneon/Universal merger red tape. For example, Yuji Sakai and Shana, respectively voiced in the original dub by Kristian Ayre and Tabitha St. Germain, are now voiced by Jessie James Grelle and Cherami Leigh.
- Slayers:
- While the series proper tends to have a consistency in voice actors for English dubs, the OAVs and movies went to different studios. Thus while Lisa Ortiz, Veronica Taylor, and Eric Stuart voice Lina, Amelia and Gourry for the dubs of the series, Cynthia Martinez, Luci Christian, and Chris Patton handle the roles of the ADV dubs of such works as Slayers Premium. Interestingly, Crispin Freeman voices Zelgadis in both works, but he was not the first dub choice for Zelgadis in the series, replacing the original dub actor mid-season 1.
- Stacia Crawford voiced Sylphiel in Seasons 1 and 2 of the TV series, but was replaced by Stephanie Sheh for Slayers REVOLUTION.
- The English dub of Tamagotchi! that aired in Australia has a cast of then-new voice actors who had no experience in the television industry beforehand; for instance, Sean Morse as Mametchi. Finding information on those actors is hard compared to the later dub of Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream called Tamagotchi Friends, which instead stars a cast of prominent anime and video game actors, such as Erica Mendez who takes over the role of Mametchi.
- Teasing Master Takagi-san: Each season was dubbed by a different company. Season 1 was dubbed by the Dallas-based Funimation with Aaron Dismuke and Sarah Wiedenheft as the two main characters. Season 2, licensed by Netflix, received a different, Los Angeles-based dub cast with Billy Kametz and Kayli Mills taking the lead parts of Nishikata and Takagi respectively. Season 3 and the Movie were dubbed by Sentai Filmworks. While it did bring back the majority of original Dallas-based dub cast including Dismuke (however he too would be replaced by Bryson Baugus in later episodes due to being unavailable) and Wiedenheft, some characters were replaced yet again with Houston-based voice actors.
Video Games
- Final Fantasy XIV was initially dubbed primarily by American actors at a Los Angeles studio feigning British accents during the release of the A Realm Reborn expansion following the disastrous 1.0 launch. For the Heavensward expansion onward, almost all of the existing actors (save those introduced in the immediate lead-up to it) were replaced by actual British actors working out of a London studio because of criticism over the accents and voice direction.
- Persona:
- Persona 4: Most of the Investigation Team would end up being recast primarily due to scheduling conflicts throughout the releases of the game's spinoffs. Only Johnny Yong Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal, and Amanda Winn-Lee would end up reprising their respective roles as Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, and Yukiko Amagi up through spin-offs like Persona 4: Dancing All Night and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
- The roles of Chie Satonaka and Teddie were initially played by Tracey Rooney and Dave Wittenberg respectively, yet for Persona 4: The Animation they were recast with Erin Fitzgerald and Sam Riegel respectively; both of them would end up retaining the roles afterwards.
- The role of Kanji Tatsumi is a zig-zagged example. Troy Baker was the one initially cast for the role, and would play him up until the first half of the anime, where he was replaced by Matthew Mercer for the second half due to Baker going on honeymoon. While Baker would return for the Updated Re-release Persona 4 Golden, Mercer would take over the role for good beginning with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.
- Rise Kujikawa is voiced by Laura Bailey all throughout the Persona 4 release cycle, up until Dancing All Night, where Ashly Burch replaces her.
- Naoto Shirogane is voiced by Anna Graves in the original game and Persona 4 Arena, but would then be replaced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn for The Animation, only for Graves return to the role for Golden. Valerie Arem would then play Naoto from Ultimax onward.
- Persona 3 Reload: Downplayed. Sega (Atlus' publisher and parent company) mandated a Younger and Hipper voice cast for the Video Game Remake of Persona 3, yet most of the previous voice actors (including those who had taken over their respective characters for spin-offs such as Wendee Lee and Cindy Robinson, who voiced Fuuka and Ken respectively in the Arena games) were recast as other roles within the newer game.
- Persona 4: Most of the Investigation Team would end up being recast primarily due to scheduling conflicts throughout the releases of the game's spinoffs. Only Johnny Yong Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal, and Amanda Winn-Lee would end up reprising their respective roles as Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, and Yukiko Amagi up through spin-offs like Persona 4: Dancing All Night and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
- Puyo Puyo: Due to the franchise having very sporadic releases outside of Asia, the English cast has changed three different times:
- Puyo Puyo (1992): It is unknown what company was responsible for dubbing this game, with many believing it to be an unofficial bootleg until Sega confirmed its legitimacy by releasing it alongside the Japanese version on the Nintendo Switch.
- Puyo Pop Fever: Coming out twelve years later, this game's dub was handled by WebTone, Inc. who were responsible for dubbing many other first-party Sega games.
- Puyo Puyo Tetris: Being localized thirteen years after Fever, Cup of Tea Productions, Inc. took over for dubbing this game, as well as future games in the franchise, with the company returning for Champions, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, and Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- From Sonic Adventure to Sonic Advance 3, Ryan Drummond voiced Sonic the Hedgehog, brothers Corey and Connor Bringas for Miles "Tails" Prowler, Michael McGaharn and Scott Dreier as Knuckles, Jennifer Douillard as Amy Rose, Deem Bristow as Dr. Eggman, David Humphrey as Shadow the Hedgehog and Lani Minella as Rouge the Bat.
During production of Shadow the Hedgehog, Deem Bristow suddenly passed away and Sega decided that they wanted their video game works to be voiced by the same cast, thus they recruited the Sonic X cast, which included Jason Griffith as Sonic and Shadow, Amy Palant as Tails, Dan Green as Knuckles, Lisa Ortiz as Amy, Mike Pollock as Eggman, and Kathleen Delaney as Rouge, among many other voice cast changes for characters like Big the Cat and Team Chaotix. This cast would last until Sonic and the Black Knight. - During production of Sonic Colors, Sega decided to change voice actors again, dumping everyone outside of Pollock for a new cast from Studiopolis. In their place, Roger Craig Smith now voiced Sonic, Kate Higgins and later Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Tails, Travis Willingham and later Dave B. Mitchell as Knuckles, Cindy Robinson as Amy, Kirk Thornton as Shadow and Karen Strassman as Rouge.
- From Sonic Adventure to Sonic Advance 3, Ryan Drummond voiced Sonic the Hedgehog, brothers Corey and Connor Bringas for Miles "Tails" Prowler, Michael McGaharn and Scott Dreier as Knuckles, Jennifer Douillard as Amy Rose, Deem Bristow as Dr. Eggman, David Humphrey as Shadow the Hedgehog and Lani Minella as Rouge the Bat.
Western Animation
- The first two seasons of The Cramp Twins were dubbed in Polish by Start International Polska (now Hiventy Poland). Inexplicably, the third and fourth seasons were dubbed by a different company, Toya Sound Studios, and every character was recast (and renamed) as a result.
- Sonic Boom: The first season of the Arabic dub was done a Lebanese company and was broadcast on Cartoon Network Arabic. The second season was dubbed by Venus Center in Syria and broadcast on Spacetoon.
- VeggieTales:
- In Italian, only The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie and Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie were dubbed, both using different voice casts for the characters both movies shared (except for Mino Caprio as Pa Grape).
- As the Japanese dub of the Direct-to-Video episodes of the show occured in the 90's and the Japanese dub of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie occurred in The New '10s, both dubs use different voice casts for the main characters.
