Dan Da Dan has one of the best-received English dubs in recent memory, with a cast dedicated to and passionate about their characters giving performances that aim to rival the original Japanese voice actors’. With the first three episodes of Dan Da Dan season 2 in theaters as part of the Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye compilation film, we had the opportunity to interview the three leads of the series’ English dub voice cast: A.J. Beckles (Okarun), Abby Trott (Momo), and Aleks Le (Jiji/Evil Eye)!
In our conversation, the cast shares the highlights and difficulties of performing their characters, with A.J. discussing how he captures the interiority of Okarun in both his normal and Turbo forms and tries to push himself to match or surpass Natsuki Hanae’s performance, Abby sharing how they protect their voices when having to do lots of yelling, and Aleks explaining how he manages to do all of Jiji’s crazy vocal chances all in one take and tried not to make his Evil Eye voice sound too sexy! (though ymmv, ;D)
I really appreciate how the dub cast are all incredibly passionate about the show and their characters and really think about their interiority and want to do right by them and the fans, and I really love how they all support and build each other up, particularly Abby and Aleks for A.J. Doing this interview, I really got a great sense of the passion and love everyone involved has for the show, and their combined efforts really come alive on the screen. Don’t just take my word for it though, read on to hear the Dan Da Dan English dub cast talk about the highlights of Dan Da Dan season 2!
Questions and responses have been edited for length, clarity, and emphasis. If you’d like to listen to this interview, check out the latest episode of Manga Mavericks @ Movies on Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye, in which we also interview the series’ co-director, Abel Góngora!
Hello AJ, Alex, Abby! Thank you so much for talking with me about your performances and roles as Okarun, Jiji, and Momo in Dandadan season 2 and the Evil Eye theatrical screening.
AJ: Thanks, great to be here!
Abby: Yeah! Where’d you get your sick hat?*
*Abby is referring to my Dandadan beanie, seen below
Yeah, I got this from a Viz Media Comic Con booth a couple years ago, a year or two before the anime came out.
Abby: I’m going to need to get you (AJ) one of those.
AJ: Yeah!
I think you can buy it at the Shonen Jump store!
Abby: Ah, ok.
But, I’ve been a big fan of the manga since it started, and so the anime has been an absolute delight, particularly watching it with the English dub. Your performances have been so enthusiastically and warmly received. What have you taken away from the fan response to your performances in season one, and has it informed how you built on the foundations you laid with these characters for season two?
AJ: Ooh. I… remember being really nervous. In general, I’m really nervous about my work. But Dandadan, based off the story, because I also read the manga and everything, I knew it was going to be incredible. I knew based off doing the work in the first season before that was released, seeing the animation and everything, I was like “I know this is going to be something special.” But, I also know how harsh people can be when comparing subs and dubs and everything, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But to see that when it came out it kinda blew up, which is crazy.
And I was talking to Abby I feel like yesterday, or something like that, when I was saying like normally it takes a couple seasons for a show to really get its wings in the mainstream and everything like that. But I think with the power of social media and TikTok and everything like that it blew up a lot quicker. And I think it’ll continue to, but it definitely got a really, really good start. I don’t think that’s anything you can predict, but I sure am happy (laughs). I’m really happy that most people will receive not only the show well but the dub well, which is kind of rare honestly amongst the social media zeitgeist, the people and pop culture, so I’m really happy to see that.
Abby: Yeah it’s been unlike any other response to a dub I’ve ever received, or seen, kind of. It’s been pretty incredible. I think also, like AJ said, laying the groundwork for season one, there’s a lot of pressure going in because I want to make it good, you know? Like, I really love this show and I wanted to make sure that we nailed it as best we could.
I think that also laying that groundwork for season one, where the characters are pretty dynamic, let’s Momo get away with, like, a lot of yelling (laughs) And in these first three episodes Momo’s just yelling a lot and I think like, because we’ve kind of gathered who she is from season one, she can get away with that.
(to Aleks) What have you done?
Aleks: Uh yeah, I mean for me, I didn’t really show up until the last 2 episodes. But the reception was really, really, overwhelmingly positive. But like I was saying, like yesterday during the premiere, which is that usually when we record these things, we record it in a vacuum. So we don’t really hear fan responses.
AJ: In a literal vacuum?
Aleks: Yeah yeah, in a literal vacuum (laughs).
Yesterday, when we were at the premiere, and everybody got to watch the first three episodes, and also a recap, and also like ten to twenty minutes of the last episode of last season, which I did not know they were going to show. It was really, really cool to hear the fans like laugh at all the jokes and all the comedic beats and moments that we were setting up.
Abby: And cheer for Okarun every time! It was like… (laughs).
Aleks: It was really, really rewarding. And I don’t think I’ve ever really like, Abby said, experienced that with a dub, particularly something that balances both; a show that balances both comedy and action like that before, where both ends of those genres were being so well met in like a live situation. Because it was just like, Wow, people are really eating this up. I’m like, “Yeah, I thought we did pretty good, but these people are making me feel like we did great!” (laughs)
Yeah, no. I mean the sub or sub debate, you know, rages on. People can get pretty heated on both sides. But I think a lot of people have just really been so impressed and just enthusiastic about your commitment to its performances. I mean, Aleks, you’ve talked before you spent like ten minutes deliberating a “deez nuts” joke in the last episode of season one. So just that commitment to your characters and your performances, I think, has really endeared so many fans.
Aleks: It’s very important, you know!
Now, there’s a few directions I want to go. But first, starting off to talk about like the theatrical release of the Evil Eye arc. One thing I was curious about is when it comes to a compilation film like that, do you record, you know, separate performances for the movie version as opposed to the TV version? Does the recording process differ in any way from the two versions, and did you have to record or re-record any line specifically for the theatrical cut?
Aleks: You guys have more experience with this sort of thing?
Abby: Yeah. So for this particular show, the lines for… like, there is an added prologue that Momo narrates to kind of recap until we’re at this point. So that was added, and I don’t know what will be put on when they add it to Crunchyroll. I don’t know what will be included, so it’ll be interesting to see. But usually like, this is an episodic theatrical release, meaning that, like the first three episodes are there, they’re just gonna break it up, as far as I understand, into those episodes when they put it on Crunchyroll. For other shows, like Demon Slayer, we did have some added content for the episodic release. So the cinematic release, most of that dialogue, I think, was used for the show. But then there were some added scenes and things like that from what I understand. So it kind of depends on the project.
Nice. Yeah, I was wondering about that, but it does sound like it is the same audio that you’ll hear in the episodes individually when you see them on Crunchyroll later?
Abby: Yes.
Well, going back into you know how committed you are to performances; AJ, I read a Reddit post of yours where you mentioned that you and Abby really practically ripped your vocal cords to shreds, finding the voices for the characters in season one, particularly during the screaming scenes. So were there any moments in this upcoming season where you again really had to push yourselves during the recording process?
AJ: Yeah, there’s a part in [it]. Not quite as much as the first season so far. But there’s a part in the movie where Okarun starts yelling like a series of numbers like four or five times, and that was a whole lot of fun, but it was really difficult, because I had to try…. At first, what we did was we went through the numbers. We did half of them, and then I had to take a break because I was losing all my breath. And then we would, you know, play a little bit of the last couple of seconds from my last recording, and then I will continue from there and try to finish it off, and after we did it a couple of times, I was just like, I don’t like the way this sounded.
I think we had decided it was okay, but compared to what Natsuki Hanae did in Japan, and on his side, I was like, I don’t think this holds a candle to it, so I was like I have to try and get through all these numbers in one breath. And it took a couple of times, not only because we have to match the timing that Natsuki Hanae did, but you know I had to get through it all, and I had to make sure I was understandable. I wasn’t slurring my words or my numbers at all, which was really, really difficult. And I think that was strange just for the sheer amount of times that I had to do it, but it was a lot of fun, and I think I was nervous about how it was going to turn out, but I think it sounded pretty good. So I hope people like it.
Abby: (laughs) I imagine Momo, stepping in being like you don’t have to count your punches.
AJ: Right? (laughs)
Abby: Don’t break it down! (laughs)
AJ: But also, going back, it feels like one of them’d be off, even then, and it goes really fast! I mean… (laughs)
How about yourselves, Abby and Alex? Were there any particularly challenging moments to perform in this season?
Abby: There’s still a lot of yelling. That’s, you know, really challenging vocally, just physically challenging. And we have to kind of stagger recording yelling, just to make sure that we don’t damage our vocal cords to the point of no return. Yeah, I think like there’s a lot of physicality in these upcoming episodes, too, that can be tricky to record. But I don’t know if it’s on par with season one. There’s a lot of, you know, difficult things to record in that season, too.
Aleks: Yeah, I think for me, the hardest part was trying to find the voice for Evil Eye Jiji, because it was one of those unique situations where, you know I’m very much capable of copying the exact tone and and voice and pitch from the Japanese. But when we had done that onto the English version it came out sounding a little bit, too… What’s the word? Trying to think of a of a good word to use for this… a little bit too sensual.
AJ: Ohhhh!
Aleks: It’s like that exact tone, while it sounds cool in the Japanese, when it’s directly one-to-one translated to English, it sounds really sensual and…
AJ: And out of character?
Aleks: …And out of character.
Abby: Too sexy! (laughs)
Aleks: Yeah, too sexy! (laughs)
Abby: I think for the Evil Eye.
Aleks: And I just didn’t feel that that served the character, really. Because, like, maybe if you clip it out of context, you’d be like “Whoa, that’s awesome!” But in the context of what’s going on in the show, especially coming off of that like whole emotional arc, you know the Evil Eye’s?
AJ: Baby. (said in a deep voice, imitating Aleks)
Aleks: Yeah, right? (laughs) Yeah. Very sad backstory. And then, you know. And I’m not saying that the tone in the Japanese was sexy. I’m just saying that the way it was delivered, if we were to copy it exactly in the English language, that’s how it would read. So it was really hard to find a good middle ground for something that sounded intimidating but still captured the spirit of the Japanese without sounding a little too, like, in your face. So that was really, really tough. And ultimately, I’m still not entirely sure if we or if I’m a hundred percent satisfied with what we had. But other people seem to enjoy it.
AJ: We did too.
Aleks: So, for now I’ll be like “good enough.”
I thought it was great, your performance as the Evil Eye, like (you had) just a lot of intimidating menace. I thought that it worked super well. But in your performance as Jiji, you know, you have to do so many like quirky, goofy voices that he goes in and out of, in rapid fire succession. How do you manage? Just like, I don’t know if you do it all in a single take where he’s like going through a range of different vocal styles and imitations?
Aleks: It’s really fun for me. So I do try to do that. I know a lot of people who work on these projects like to take it line by line, But anytime I get to run an entire scene, even if it’s not perfect, it’s really good for me, because I want it to sound as natural as possible, so I don’t want him or his transitions from these different stages of his voice when he’s doing these goofy, quirky bits to sound like they were superimposed. So for me, I prefer running all of them together, and if I make mistakes, sometimes we find ways to incorporate my mistakes into the actual final line. Like, if I slur a word or make a noise somewhere, or a breath that I’m not supposed to. Sometimes that adds to the comedy.
So we take a lot of time to experiment and find just the right (take). Because a lot of the stuff he says is nonsensical, right? So it’s very easy to just say it and leave it out there. But we want it to make sense in a way that doesn’t make sense. Because like, you know, it would come off to you like, “what the hell is he talking about?” But you would like get it, you know? You’re like, okay, I mean, I don’t get what you’re saying. But yeah, sure, Buddy. You know, it’s it’s that kind of vibe. So it’s a lot of tweaking and experimenting. But yeah, usually I do prefer to just run through an entire like one or two minute scene, in all of its entirety.
Yeah, I think it just comes out seamlessly. I’m just so impressed. But that’s true also for your performances, Abby and AJ. It’s that, you know, the characters have a lot of range in between their goofier sides and their more serious sides. Like AJ, in particular, there’s a moment in these first three episodes where we see Okaron transition from his default voice into his more serious voice in his Yokai form that I was super impressed by. So how do you handle those traditions between the different modes of how the characters are expressing themselves?
AJ: So the transition vocally between, like, for both forms?
MM: Yeah, especially that!
AJ: Yeah! Yeah, it’s super. Honestly, it’s interesting. Because like, Okarun, I feel like his inner feelings are more revealed. I think Okarun is a very reserved kind of polite kid that wants to be nice if he can be, and sometimes he lets it slip. He gets a little excited, or you know, he gets frazzled, so he might call Momo a name here or there, but in general he’s a really good kid. But inside he’s gone through a lot, and I think that there is that inner depression that is kind of like, you know, I think some of the happiest among us have within them, right? When in private, you kind of show those feelings more, maybe, with yourself when you’re staring at the ceiling. I think that’s kind of the place that Okaron goes to when he is transformed in in his turbo form. And vocally, it kind of, you know, he gets lazy, so everything gets a little bit more relaxed, and you know he’s just kind of he doesn’t want to be there. But doing the transition between both… I I don’t really know! It’s just something that I’m I’m able to do. It’s cool. I don’t always get it in one take. That’s for sure.
Aleks: He said I’m just built like that.
AJ: Yeah, I don’t know about that! (laughs)
I just, I think the most important thing for me is trying to make sure that there’s not too much of a stark kind of cut off between the two voices, ‘cause I think that would be kind of jarring. So I try, because Natsuki Hanae does a great job, making sure that the transition is smooth*.
*(AJ pronounced “smooth” in a way that makes Aleks joke that he’s actually Australian, leading to Abby and Aleks making joking comments in Australian accents themselves before AJ resume his train of thought, which was very funny but difficult to transcribe with the same humor in written form. Listen to this interview in the latest episode of Manga Mavericks @ Movies for the full context!)
I want to make sure that the transition is smooth, because that’s what Natsuki Hanae did. And I want to make sure our job is to adapt. So I want to try to make that adaptation as close to the original as possible, so the people that want to watch the dub aren’t having a different experience. I want to be at least as good as Natsuki Hanae, and I don’t know if I accomplished that, but I always try to get there.
Abby: Those are some of my favorite moments, when you’re transitioning into, like (it). There’s one part where he… (laughs).
Aleks: It got the biggest laughs from the crowd!
Abby: Yeah, yeah! It was so funny.
Aleks: It was really good.
AJ: Thank you.
Aleks: It was really good.
Well, thank you guys so much. You guys put amazing work in all your performances in this show, and I do think that, you know, I love it just as much as the Japanese original performances. I think so many fans do. I really enjoyed watching these first couple episodes. I’m so excited for a lot of folks to see it when the Evil Eye theatrical screening happens June 5th, and the full season drops in July. But AJ, Alex, Abby, thank you so much for your time. Looking forward to hearing you guys as your characters in rest of the season, and beyond.
AJ, Abby, and Aleks: Thank you so much!
Thanks again to A.J., Abby, and Aleks for taking time to talk with us and to GKids for setting up and arranging this interview! Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye is playing in theaters now and season two will stream on Netflix and Crunchyroll starting July 4th!
