I was completely duped by a fan dub, an incredibly high-quality one, and to this day, I still wish the team had gone on to dub every season. Or better yet, can we please get an official English dub already? Strike the Blood is a popular vampire-action anime that first aired in 2013–2014, but its journey with English dubbing has been anything but straightforward. Fans like me have long wondered if an official English dub ever existed, why later instalments never got dubbed, and how a high-quality fan-made dub filled the void. In this post, I’ll delve into the verified facts about Strike the Blood English Dub status, both official and fan-made, and clarify the confusion.
I’ll also highlight the story of a remarkable fan dub of Season 1, including who created it, when and why it was made, how it circulated, and why it ultimately stopped, clearly distinguishing between official content and passionate fan efforts.
Official Status of the Strike the Blood English Dub
Despite the anime’s international fanbase, no official English-dubbed version of Strike the Blood has ever been released. The series was initially licensed for the West in Japanese with subtitles. Crunchyroll streamed the show with English subtitles, and Discotek Media later put out a Blu-ray/DVD set (subtitled only) in North America. As of today, there is still no authorised English audio track for any season of Strike the Blood. In fact, one fan who scoured official channels for a dub and I both came up empty-handed: “A dub came out only to check VRV, Crunchyroll, and Funimation to no avail, only to come back and the tag ‘FanDub’ is just sitting there.” reddit.com This underscores that any “English dub” floating around was not from the licensed distributors.
No Animax English dub was ever confirmed. The lack of an English dub is somewhat unusual for a modern anime, and it led to confusion when at least one entertainment site erroneously claimed an English dub did exist. In late 2019, an article on TheCinemaholic described Strike the Blood as having “a good English dub with a great cast,” which baffled readers. Fans quickly pointed out this was a mistake, there was no official dub, and the reference was likely in error or perhaps inspired by the fan dub.
Why Wasn’t Strike the Blood Dubbed in English?
Several factors contributed to Strike the Blood’s officially undubbed status. First, licensing beyond the first season was limited. While Crunchyroll and Discotek handled Season 1, the subsequent sequels (released as OVAs titled Strike the Blood II, III, IV, and Final) were not immediately licensed in the West. Without a Western distributor pushing those instalments, there was little impetus to fund an English voiceover. Even for Season 1, the home release was by Discotek Media, a company known for rescuing titles and often releasing them sub-only. Discotek announced the license in 2015 and released Season 1 on disc in 2016 with Japanese audio and English subtitles, opting not to create a dub.
Another aspect is market demand and timing. When Strike the Blood first aired (2013–2014), Crunchyroll was primarily a subtitled streaming platform and had not yet dived deeply into producing dubs. By the time dubbing became a bigger priority for Western licensors, Strike the Blood was an older title with multiple OVA seasons, making it a less attractive, costly catch-up prospect. An English dub seemed “doubtful” at that point. Even after all seasons eventually rolled out in Japan, no English distributor stepped up to relicense and dub them. Fans speculated that the show’s heavy fanservice content and niche appeal might have made companies hesitant to invest in an English dub, especially when subtitle releases already catered to the core audience.
Over the years, fan enthusiasm for an English dub remained high. Viewers often expressed that Strike the Blood “deserved” a dub and would attract more fans if it had one. A small online petition was even launched in 2019 asking Discotek or Funimation to consider dubbing the series on change.org. However, with only a few dozen signatures, it wasn’t enough to move the needle. As of 2025, neither Crunchyroll (which merged with Funimation) nor any other company has announced plans for an English-language dub of Strike the Blood. The official Western releases of all seasons remain subtitle-only.
Bottom line: Strike the Blood never got an official English dub, likely due to licensing delays and cost-benefit calculations. This gap, however, set the stage for dedicated fans to create their own dub, one so convincing that it fooled many into believing it was official.
The Fan-Made English Dub of Strike the Blood (Season 1)
In the absence of an official dub, a group of passionate fans took on an ambitious project: dubbing Strike the Blood Season 1 themselves. This unofficial endeavour is often lauded as a “high-quality” fan dub and has become a legend in the fan community, even tricking some viewers (and me) into thinking it was an official release for years. Here are the verified details of this fan-made production:
Who made the Strike the Blood Fan Dub?
The dub was created by an independent group called Devani Pictures, operating under the label “AniDub Production.” Devani Pictures describes itself as “a non-profit fan-based production… created in 2017 dedicated for fandubs and other entertaining content”. Essentially, it’s a team of hobbyist voice actors, editors, and anime fans. Their Strike the Blood dub cast has never been officially credited with real names in public sources, but it consists of amateur English voice actors (not associated with any anime licensing company) collaborating online.
Why and when was the Strike the Blood Fan Dub made?
The project appears to have been motivated by sheer fan enthusiasm. Strike the Blood has a compelling story and characters that many English-speaking fans wanted to experience in their own language. With no official dub forthcoming, Devani Pictures stepped in to fill the void. They began working on Season 1 sometime after its home release. The earliest evidence of the fan dub surfaced around 2019, with Episode 1 of the dub appearing online by that year. Over the course of 2019–2020, the team continued to dub more episodes in their spare time.
Quality and reception:
By all accounts, this was not a slapdash fandub; it was surprisingly well-produced. Fans who heard it were impressed by the voice acting and audio engineering for an amateur effort. One viewer commented, “I have to keep telling myself this is a fan dub – absolutely fantastic work!”, highlighting how professional it sounded. On Reddit and other forums, many people initially assumed it was an official English dub, only to be shocked that it was fan-made. In fact, the existence of this high-quality fan version likely fueled some of the confusion online. Multiple anime fans recall watching Strike the Blood in “English dub” on streaming sites and later struggling to find it again on official platforms. “I’m almost certain I watched this dubbed at some point but never found it since,” one user wrote, to which others replied: “Same here bro, I can’t find it anywhere. Thought I was going crazy.”. The mystery was solved once they realised that what they had seen was the Devani Pictures fan dub, which wasn’t available via the usual legal anime services.
How was it distributed?
The fan dub circulated informally on the internet. Devani Pictures initially uploaded episodes to YouTube (labelling them clearly as “Strike the Blood Episode 1 – English Dubbed (FanDub)”). However, those uploads ran into copyright issues; anime footage on YouTube is prone to takedown, so the team later migrated the videos to Odysee, a decentralised video platform more tolerant of fan projects. On their Odysee channel “AniDub Production,” they posted the dubbed episodes in HD. For example, Episodes 1 through 5 of Strike the Blood (Season 1) were released with English voiceovers by the group. A short sneak peek of Episode 6 was also shared as a teaser. Outside of the team’s own postings, the fan dub episodes were shared among anime pirating sites – users on Hentai©Anime (HAnime) and AniWave (unofficial streaming sites) had uploaded the dubbed episodes, which is where many fans stumbled upon them. Because these sites typically host official dubs, viewers had little reason to suspect that the Strike the Blood dub wasn’t official. This led to the scenario of fans searching Crunchyroll, Funimation, or Sentai Filmworks for a dub that, officially, didn’t exist.
Did they dub the whole season?
No, the fan dub project did not complete all 24 episodes of Season 1. As noted, the group managed to fully produce the first five episodes in English. Those are the episodes that circulated and garnered praise. By the time Episode 5 was released (circa 2020), the project began to slow down. An excerpt of Episode 6 was posted as a “coming soon” preview, but the full Episode 6 never materialised publicly. After that, there have been no further episodes released. So, effectively, the fan dub covers only the early arc of Season 1. No episodes beyond the first story arc were ever dubbed by Devani Pictures, and they did not tackle the later OVA seasons at all.
Why did the Strike the Blood Fan Dub stop?
The creators haven’t given a formal announcement (at least not in any archived public forum) about halting the project, but we can infer typical reasons. Fan dubbing an entire 24-episode series is an enormous undertaking. It requires voice actors to record tens of hours of dialogue, sound engineers to mix audio, and editors to sync voices to animation, all for free in their spare time. Such projects often start strong but are hard to sustain. It appears that after a few episodes, the Devani team either ran into burnout, scheduling conflicts, or perhaps increased real-life obligations (work, school, etc.). It’s also possible they were asked to cease the project through official legal channels. By around 2021, the trail goes cold. The group’s Discord server and Odysee remain online, but no new Strike the Blood dub episodes have been posted in roughly four years. In short, the fan dub stopped at Season 1 episode 5.
It’s important to emphasise that this dub was entirely fan-made and unofficial. The creators had no rights to Strike the Blood; their work was a labour of love meant to be shared freely with other fans, not sold. Anyone who watches it should understand it’s essentially like a fan fiction performance using the anime’s visuals and story. That said, its quality was high enough to stand alongside some professional dubs in the eyes of viewers, a testament to the talent and dedication in the fan community.
Fan Reactions and Lasting Impact
The existence of the Devani Pictures fan dub has become a bit of modern anime fandom lore. Many Strike the Blood followers have stories of mistaking the fan dub for a “lost” official dub, demonstrating how convincing it was. For years, posts have popped up like: “Back when I downloaded anime, Strike the Blood had an English Dub, but now I can’t find any?”. The confusion was so widespread that some thought they had imagined it. Only by comparing notes online did fans realise that what they watched was the fan-produced version. Comments like “I remember watching it in dub, but now I can’t find it, I thought I was going crazy” became common. In retrospect, it’s quite remarkable that a fan project was so well done that it effectively inserted itself into the collective memory of the anime’s history.
This fan dub also kept interest in Strike the Blood alive for dub-preferring audiences. People who cannot easily watch subtitles or who simply enjoy English voice acting were grateful for the effort. Some even held out hope that the “pretty good” fan dub might spur an official company to do the same. As of now, that hasn’t happened. But the fan dub remains accessible on the internet (via Odysee and shared files), serving as a rare example of a full-length anime fan dub that gained traction.
Why Further Seasons Likely Won’t Be Dubbed (Officially or Otherwise)
Between the official silence and the fan project’s premature end, it seems Strike the Blood’s later seasons will remain undubbed. Officially, the chances have grown slimmer over time: the franchise concluded in 2022 with Strike the Blood Final, and dubbing older OVAs years later is not common unless there’s a surge of new popularity. The merger of Crunchyroll and Funimation (now under Sony) raised fans’ hopes that past sub-only titles might get new dubs, but Strike the Blood has not been among those lucky few. Content considerations (the show’s mature/ecchi elements) and the sheer volume of episodes across five instalments may make it a low priority for dubbing when compared to newer hits.
On the fan side, no other group has stepped in to continue what Devani started. High-quality dubbing is far harder for fans to coordinate than, say, fan-subbing. Devani Pictures themselves moved on to other projects and never announced plans to resume Strike the Blood. Given the effort required and the fact that even the original fan team didn’t finish Season 1, it’s unlikely we’ll see a complete fan-made dub of the entire series. The first season’s fan dub now stands as a unique, self-contained piece of fandom history.
In summary, Strike the Blood never had an official English dub, a fact that surprised many, especially in the early 2010s when most notable anime did get dubbed. The reasons boil down to licensing and economics, leaving dub fans out in the cold. However, a group of devoted fans took matters into their own hands and produced a top-notch unofficial dub for Season 1, which circulated widely and even caused years of confusion among viewers who believed it to be official. That fan dub project eventually stopped after a few episodes, and no further seasons were ever dubbed by either professionals or fans.
What remains is the subbed version (the only way to enjoy the show in English officially), and, for the curious, the first five episodes dubbed by Devani Pictures as a testament to what passionate fans can achieve. Strike the Blood’s English dub saga is truly a tale of fandom creativity stepping in where the industry chose not to tread, blurring the line between official and fan-made content for a time.
My Memories of the Fan Dub
One line has been seared into my memory forever: “No, senpai…it’s our fight.” I hear Yukina saying it every time Strike the Blood is mentioned, clear as day. That’s because I first watched the series in English, without knowing it wasn’t official. I started it with my then-boyfriend (now husband) while we were housesitting. We were curled up on the couch, completely immersed in this supernatural world, and honestly, we were stunned when the dub disappeared partway through the series and we had to switch back to subtitles. The shift caught us totally off guard.
From that point on, I’ve been searching for the full dub. For years, I’ve held onto the hope that it existed somewhere, hidden or lost. I recently stumbled across the truth while rereading my very first ecchi recommendations post from 2016, where Matt had left a comment that reignited my curiosity. That led me down the rabbit hole again, scouring the internet for answers, reading Reddit threads, forum posts, and anything I could find.
Eventually, I pieced it all together, how the dub I remembered wasn’t official, how it was made by fans, and why it stopped. It was bittersweet to have closure finally. I had such strong memories tied to that experience, and finding out it was a labour of love by a passionate group of fans only made me respect it more.
But still… part of me wishes they’d finished it.
Did you watch the Fan Dub, and did you also get duped like I had been?
Sources: Verified information was gathered from anime news databases, fan community discussions, and official licensee statements. Key references include: Crunchyroll/Discotek licensing news en.wikipedia.org; Reddit discussions confirming no official dub exists reddit.comreddit.com; comments about the fan dub’s quality and limited episode count reddit.comodysee.com; and first-hand fan accounts of confusion over the dub reddit.comreddit.com. These sources are cited in-line to ensure accuracy and clarity.
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