#autober

Subject: French dub of Space Hare?

Alright, this is a far shoot, but I figured a lost medias forums might help me.

So, in 80s, 90s, France was importing all those Japanese animes, because Japan didn’t care about international market and sold them for pretty much nothing. They were heavily edited, the names changed, the translations were pretty… liberal, at times, and the voice actors didn’t help. But it still impacted a whole generation of kids- “Dorothée” generation, for that one TV presenter.

Among those animes were Space Hare. It never was much of a success in Japan- they did make three seasons, plus one OAV, but I don’t think they even sold figurines, which is pretty dire for a mecha anime. Now, in France, I guess they wanted to ride the wave of Goldorak’s success? But it was an even bigger failure. They only got the rights for 24 episodes, and the last 6 weren’t even broadcasted due to lack of audience. And then… no VHS, no DVD, no trace of it at all.

I tried looking to see if someone didn’t have an homemade VHS of any episode, but no luck, and the company that took care of the french release, ‘Couronne de Vie’, doesn’t exist anymore. I’m frankly at a loss. I’m not even that big on lost medias, but I hold this one dear. It may only have been for a small part of my childhood, but it truly comforted me, in a way that watching the original doesn’t do for me.

For context, in case this rings a bell:

Space Hare is supposed to take place in a future where the Earth is at war with aliens, and a few people are chosen to pilot those huge robots to protect the planet against them, nicknamed the “guardians angels” of humanity. One of those pilots, Gabrielle (‘Hakuto’ in the original dub), saved our protagonist (Jon? Jean? I can’t remember, but it’s ‘Yona’ in the original) when he was a little boy, which inspired him to become a robot engineer. Of course, by the miracle of plot convenience, he ends up working directly for Gabrielle.

There was a whole arc where she goes missing after a mission, and Jon has to help this other shady pilot to rebuild his old mecha (an oldie that went out of commission because it was too janky and expensive), so he can leave the space base incognito along with Gabrielle’s friend/communicator to search for a signal. Another story arc was with this other pilot (‘Camille’, I think? The redhead one on the illustrations) wanting to use an experimental robot that keeps changing form as it adapts to the enemy.

The original show went further on, but I don’t remember the french dub going further, and that seems to track with the number of episodes released.