!Discussion: Japanese Dubbing for "The Spirits Within (2001)"

[weber_dubois22]

Its been a common misconception of mine, ever since watching Advent Children, that since all those involved with Square [Pictures] animated and directed The Spirits Within, that there would be an option for a Japanese audio track on the DVD release(s). Well, there is one, but its the Japanese audio commentary for the co-director and animators, which, for the life of me, continues to surprise me whenever I pop the disc into my player and I'm dying to hear this film dubbed in Japanese.

(The problem is further reinforced whenever visit the Final Fantasy Wikia and see list of Japanese VA's next to the English ones. My brain automatically assumes "Oh, cool, I'll watch TSW in Japanese today.") To my disappointment the only language options are the default English and French --- French! --- audio tracks. Another funny thing about the DVD release is the option of Spanish subtitles but no Spanish audio track (and this is something I've seen often in other DVD releases).

With that said, has anyone ever found out if Spirits Within was ever released on DVD overseas in Japan with a Japanese dub option at all --- or did they just provide Japanese subtitles and maintain the same audio options on the North American release?