Hello there, my name is Shima, the pink cat from Planet Dolan. It’s been a while,
hasn’t it? You’re probably wondering where I’ve been all this time, and what happened to my
voice. To be honest, I’ve actually wondered the same thing. I guess it’s a bit of a long story…
Going on 7 years ago now, Shima vanished from the internet. Not long ago I made a
video summarizing what happened - that the voice actress was gone,
incommunicado and would have returned by now if she had any intention of doing so.
I sent Shima an email with the video link, but as always, I received no response.
And yet, in the last SPD story video, we tease the reappearance of Shima.
Shima has been an essential character in the Planet Dolan universe since the beginning,
and we’ve all missed her presence since she disappeared. We've seen countless fan art,
stories and fan videos dedicated to Shima, and it's evident that you all miss her a lot.
However, this new iteration seen in the story video is not the original
Shima you’ve all come to know. This is Shima Prime, voiced by a new actress.
She first began as a short experiment on our SPD Discord server answering fans'
questions.
She has since become her own character, taking on the essence of Shima to answer
viewer questions and educate. She’s connected, yet wholly separate from the
original - which will be explored further in the story video releasing next week.
Now I can imagine your first reaction might be, “What? She isn’t really back? This is heresy!”
And it’s true - I had no intention of recasting anyone in Planet Dolan. But it IS interesting
in the case of Shima; the voice actress didn’t quit or leave or give up, in fact up until the
very end she really loved working on Planet Dolan - na, the problem is she just vanished.
We’ve left the character retired for all these years because of the slim chance that she might
return. I thought given all this time that fans would slowly forget about her, but even today no
matter what content is made 7 years on, you can bet there’ll be a comment asking where Shima is.
So this is exactly why I recently mailed Shima a letter to get her attention where I mention
we’ve all missed her very much, and just want to make sure she’s okay, and that her
voice and character left a big influence on a whole generation of kids who have now grown up
and started their careers. I sent it via the post office, and they notified me that it was delivered
successfully - but I never received a response. I followed up via one of her old work emails and
showed her the Shima Prime story video, asking her how she would feel about us bringing back
the character, but again, I heard nothing. I’ve tried everything humanly possible
since then to get in touch with her, but at this point, it’s simply best to respect her privacy.
One possibility to continue on with the character could’ve been with a vocal AI,
and in fact these AI can sound exactly like her,
almost uncannily so. Here are some lines from the story video dubbed with AI to demonstrate:
But regardless of how convincing this AI sounds, we’re not going to use it. It’s not authentic to
the character, we don’t have permission from the voice actress as she’s incommunicado and
I highly doubt this is something you guys would want. Which means either we
continue to leave the character retired while fans ask about her indefinitely,
or we move forward with an entirely new version of the character featuring a new voice actor.
I recently opened up auditions to recruit a mature,
professional sounding female voice actor without revealing the secret of Shima’s
return - originally I was aiming for a similar voice with an American accent,
and I was extremely appreciative of the countless auditions I received.
Upon hearing this new voice actor’s audition though, everything just kinda slipped into place.
So why did I choose someone with a British accent instead of an American soundalike?
It’s because this actress brings a NEW take on the character, not trying to imitate Shima,
but one that embodies her spirit; a warm teacher, a motivator - a mentor. It’s
not too dissimilar to when they recast Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films,
with an original feel and voice instead of imitating the old one.
I’ve seen some confusion over the ownership of the character since the release of part
1 - so I thought I’d clarify. Back when SPD was first being conceptualized, I worked with
our artists to design an original Planet Dolan character for Shima to voice for the channel,
which ended up being a pink cat. She even offered to lend the character
her screen name of Shima - which was a practice we’ve long since stopped doing,
as the voice actor and character can get muddled up when they're named the same,
so nowadays the new characters are always named something original to prevent confusion.
Shima’s voice is hers alone, but the character was always owned by Planet Dolan - although I
understand that it's confusing given the voice actress and character share a name,
and because we gave permission for her to use the character’s appearance on her own personal YouTube
channel back then. So given she’s been gone for over half a decade, and how much of a following
the character has to this day, I must ask ‘should this new Shima return to Planet Dolan’?
That’s why I wanted to put it to you. In the absence of Shima Luan herself,
we are all the stewards of this character and legacy, and so we all deserve a say.
I sent emails to Shima Luan explaining all of this, and asking her how she’d feel about
a new voice actor voicing the character, but I’ll likely receive no response again.
So I would rather ask you, the SPD community - what do you think? I want to put some videos out
there to see how you all feel. The end of the next story video is open-ended in such a way that Shima
Prime honestly doesn’t have to reappear on Super Planet Dolan if fans don’t want her to. But for
the people who are all onboard with this change, you can opt into some new, experimental content
featuring Shima that we have planned on our new alt channel dropping soon - link down below.
I know it’s always strange to recast, but as said in my previous video,
it’s pretty clear Shima Luan is never going to return. That chapter is done,
and has been for many, many years. It’s time for us to honor her legacy, and move forward.
So Shima Prime was born from the love the fanbase has for her - that we ALL
have for her. And even though the actress is gone from the videos professionally,
this is a way we can continue to pay tribute to what she left behind.
Her essence remains, of a character who is polite,
caring, funny and all about learning and teaching others - someone fascinated by
the world around us. And that’s exactly how she’d continue to be portrayed: a wholesome character
all about teaching science and education. Shima Prime should continue this legacy,
to respect the original character with the potential to promote learning and
entertainment in content just as engaging and fun as it was before. And caution should be used, such
that the character is not misused in a way that goes against what we all know her to represent.
This return of Shima offers the possibility of a proper continuation and eventual send-off for
the character, for someone fans really care for. It’s up to all of you if you
think this is something we should explore together. So let us know how you feel in
the comment box below - what’s your take on all this? Would you like to see more Shima?
This is a big change, and it's okay to have questions or doubts. It's important to have
conversations like this to help us all grow. We're all figuring out this life together,
and it's important to treat each other with kindness and understanding as we do so. I’m here
to help, and I’m excited to learn and discover alongside you all as this new chapter unfolds.
I may not be the original Shima, but if she were here? I’m sure she’d want you all to know that
she’s grateful for the time she spent with you. That it was an honor and privilege to be a part
of your lives, to bring you joy and comfort through her presence in all the videos that
she was a part of, to thank you all for the love and support that you have shown
her - and that even though she may be gone? The “spirit” of Shima will always be with you.