Dan Da Dan’s Voice Actors Are Feeling the Love

As 2024 comes to a close, Dan Da Dan has become the talk of the shonen town. From the chemistry of your two leads to your explosive opening and unconventional styleScience Saru’s adaptation of Yukinobu Tatsu’s supernatural romantic comedy has captured the hearts and minds of animation fans, who have been tuning in weekly to see what crazy Momo Ayase and Okarun will be the next to be trapped.

In early December, io9 spoke with Momo and Okarun’s respective voice actors, Abby Trott and AJ Beckles, who came to the material through different routes. Beckles was already reading the manga before the audition, while Trott only found out about it through the audition. They were both enthralled and quite surprised that they booked the roles and how much the dubbing specifically has stood out as excellent in its own right.

“Seeing some of the comments about how some people enjoy dubbing and have changed it has been really cool,” Beckles said. The war “sub vs. dub” has been around since the dawn of time, but said Dan Da Dan It avoided being trapped thanks to the intense marketing of its dubbing and the actors had adequate time to record. That’s not always the case with anime, and according to him, the show is better: with no preconceived notions about Japanese or English voices, viewers have been free to choose whichever version they want.

While audiences have praised the show for months, some viewers were taken aback by the second half of the first episode, in which both Momo and Okarun find themselves in danger from otherworldly beings. While Okarun is chased and possessed by the demonic Turbo Granny, Momo ends up in a more harrowing situation where she is kidnapped by aliens called Serpo, who strip her down to her underwear and prepare to steal her reproductive organs. It’s a rather sudden change of tone, not helped by the fact that there are still traces of comedy, as the Serpo call said organs “bananas.”

When asked, both actors were quick to acknowledge how “disgusting” the scene could be to watch, and neither blamed anyone for leaving the show because of it. For Trott, the scene is a key moment for her character, as it is when Momo’s psychokinetic powers emerge. Once he realizes what he can do, he immediately goes on the offensive, and in several of the season’s big action moments, Momo managed to control better your skills—So having her gain that power and immediately use it to “kick the Serpos’ butts” was satisfying.

“In that scene, we are not saying that the Serpoians are good, but quite the opposite. “There are a lot of dynamics in this anime and definitely some tough parts to get through,” Trott said. “But the good outweighs the difficult moments to watch.”

Beckles shared a similar sentiment, pointing out how Momo used her grandmother’s advice and received surprise help from Turbo Granny as examples of how women support each other throughout history. As a manga reader, he indicated that things will get better in the future and said that viewers would “see, as the show continues, that it takes those moments more seriously.” The two actors also highlighted Okarun’s presence and his “healthy perspective” on women, allowing the show to contrast him with the more invasive Serpoians.

After its fourth episode, Momo and Okarun’s slow romance really begins to take shape. Their growing relationship is even more notable since other shonen often have romance as an addition to their stories rather than as the core. tatsu famously revealed that while launching Dan Da Dan, Her editor Shihei Lin recommended she read shoujo (or “young girl”) manga, which focuses on personal and romantic relationships. If Lin hadn’t given the advice, the series might not be what it is now and would likely lack the same impact and excitement. The public loves a good love storyand they know when it’s not hitting. But because they are so well-written and clearly defined, and can never be normal around each other, especially in public, it’s hard not to root for Momo and Okarun.

Even when the couple is trapped in some wild things, their feelings for each other influence almost everything they do. Knowing it was a love story didn’t change either actor’s handling of the material, but Trott said the scene in which Okarun and Momo first argue made it clear where things were headed. For Beckles, some of her character’s favorite scenes are when Okarun is “just trying to figure out how to talk to a girl for the first time,” or telling Momo how much he likes her. he cares what she thinks.

The dynamic between the protagonists is equally important in the stand. When it comes time to film, both actors said they prefer the other to arrive first, as it allows them to feed off each other. Trott said she gets “a lot” from her co-leader, especially since Okarun often “elicits a certain response” from Momo that makes her adjust her responses accordingly. The same is true for Beckles, who admitted that the more intimate and romantic scenes would trip him up since Okarun tends to speak from his heart.

While Momo’s encounter with Serpo helps activate her psychic powers, Okarun’s experience with Turbo Granny leaves him with a partial essence of the spirit’s powers, allowing him to transform into a faster, smoother, and more powerful person. . relaxed emo version of himself. As Beckles explained, finding a default voice for Okarun, which he would then use when the character was more expressive or in his Turbo mode, required several recording sessions. In those early episodes, Okarun “was always shouting or whispering, and a lot of things were happening one after another” to establish a baseline. Beckles credited voice director Alex von David for guiding him toward moments of making his voice “more nerdy or more endearing.” Alex has the big picture and knows where Okarun is going. I really leaned on him at points where it was difficult, but he’s good when it’s a challenge to try to do something the right way.”

One specific challenge he cited was from episode four. “goodbye” scene between Okarun and Momo, which he called one of his “most infuriating moments” he recorded. Since he entered the booth first that day, it was difficult to consider Okarun’s thought process, how Trott would act during his recording time, and the meaning behind every “goodbye” spoken. “Once (Abby) recorded for the first time the next day,” he said, “the pieces of the puzzle started to connect. I could tap into his emotions and everything could unfold that way. I don’t think we would have been able to achieve that endearing and childish reading without his ‘See you later!’”

During our talk, Beckles and Trott mentioned several others who have done Dan Da Dan’s adaptation a success. Along with fans and von David, they enthusiastically praised fellow voice actors Lisa Reimold (Aira) and Barbara Goodson (Turbo Granny), and the respective Japanese performers of their own characters, Natuski Hanae and Shion Wakayama. (Trott called Wakayama’s Momo one of his favorite anime performances and a “perfect embodiment” of Japan’s gyaru subculture.) Taking this journey has been a blast for both of us, so it’s nice that we’re listening to them again on Netflix and crunchy with second season in July 2025.

And while they couldn’t say anything about what’s to come, Beckles joked that what’s left “is tame compared to where the show will go later.”

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