Interview With Dan Da Dan English Dub Cast: Abby Trott, A.J. Beckles and Aleks Le
We chatted with the English dub cast of the DAN DA DAN anime series: Abby Trott (Momo), A.J. Beckles (Okarun), and Aleks Le (Jiji). The trio showed off their great dynamic while revealing details about the upcoming second season, the "Evil Eye" arc, Turbo Granny, and most importantly of all, their characters.
This interview has been edited for clarity. It contains spoilers for the DAN DA DAN Season 2.
Q: You had a bit of a break between the end of the first season and the Evil Eye theatrical anime, that is, the second season. Was it difficult to get back into things because the arc spans through seasons?
Abby: So yeah, we had some months in between. For me, it wasn't difficult to just jump back into it. I think always when you're dubbing, having the animation helps put me right in the moment, and where we left, Momo was [in] quite a moment, and I was ready to contend with certain people in the first part of Season 2.
A.J.: I don't think getting into Okarun's emotional state was hard to get into. I relate a lot to his personality. What was difficult? I wouldn't even say difficult, but I had to jog my memory of how he sounded there because I wanted to make sure that, because I've done other work since then and wanted to make sure that my voice wasn't a little tired or anything so that I could still reach the same sort of pitch that I had him at at certain points, especially when he needed to be more projected and everything like that. But in terms of actually playing the character, it almost felt there was no gap in between.
Aleks: Yeah. I mean, for me, Jiji is a super chill and relatable guy. For me, it was just like waking up any other day. It was a lot of fun, though, and it was something that I felt was missing from my body of work for the last couple of months cause I've been playing a lot of very serious or pent up roles. But getting to be Jiji again was super fun, but then he becomes Evil Eye, so right back with the edgy series. But it was a good little break, I think.
Q: I'm quite curious about how you went about finding these characters' voices. For example, Momo is very angry at times. She has this teenage girl rage, and while Okarun goes from being excited to very depressed, Jiji is a jokester. How did you decide what they were supposed to sound like? Do you usually watch the original Japanese version first?
Abby: Yes, for this show. Sometimes we have the luxury of when we get the audition to have the Japanese voice sample or a scene or two, if we're lucky, to kind of pull from and whereas I don't sound like Shion Wakayama, I definitely did want to incorporate certain aspects of her performance that I thought really stood out and defined the character of Momo. One of those things being her very off-the-cuff natural way of speaking. I've heard Wakayama-san comment on this in an interview where she says that she wanted Momo to sound unrehearsed, and that is one of the things I noticed initially before I even knew that that was her goal. I had gleaned that from her performance, and I really loved that about Momo.
And going off of your comment about the anger (laughs): so Momo does have this kind of like tough girl gyaru archetype she's embodying, which doesn't translate all the way to English or American culture or localization in English. To try to find ways to maintain that kind of attitude, it's why she comes across as angry a lot of the time. When finding the voice, we had for the first session the casting director, Mami Okada, [who] was in the room with us to help us navigate that and make sure that we hit it the way we wanted it.
A.J.: Yeah, Mami scared me. (all laugh) Was like "Oh my God, if I mess up it's all over." For Okarun, luckily, I sound young as I just naturally do. But for Okarun, I think the most important thing was to make sure that, like Abby mentioned, we got to see clips and everything like that, and I noticed how "big" he could be. I wanted to make sure I could reach those heights, so I tried to go for a voice that was kind of in the middle area. So that if I needed to get really excitable, I had room to go and pitch so that it wouldn't sound too strained or anything like that. And I think that took a second. But actually, his voice is in different places depending on his mood. When he is really excitable like his pitch does go up. But when he has more emotional scenes, it's closer to how I naturally sound. When he's depressed, I was just kind of like "you gotta sound cool." So I tried to make him sound cool and then I took some inspiration from some actors and their performances that I grew up on like Johnny Yong Bosch and his portrayal of Ichigo and and I forget his name but the actor for Shikamaru (Tom Gibis) and Naruto (Maile Flanagan) and also Natsuku Hanae. I tried to come up with my own little interpretation of that on top of the cool boy voice I asked to give.
Aleks: Yeah. I think with any of these anime projects, we're always trying to listen and watch as much as we can of the original. Sometimes, if we don't even have the episodes provided to us, if we know who the voice actor is going to be in Japanese, what I tend to do is I tend to search up their other roles to hear their range of emotions and where they place their sound. I think it's really important, because for us, as the people who are interpreting it and introducing it to a new audience, we need that information to figure out where the character goes and how to place our own voice to get close to that, or at least. To simulate a closer vibe to that type of voice, but there are also a lot of individual decisions we make as actors that make it unique. But overall, the goal is to retain as much of that energy as possible. But yeah, it is very important for us to reference those performances in our works, but it's also super fun to put our own experiences into the mix as well.
Q: With Okarun and Jiji, they're basically at times two characters in one. How do you go about creating this other voice? A.J., you mentioned Okarun at times sounds depressed, but did this refer to his "possessed" form or just the general state of mind?
A.J.: I think Okarun's depression manifests in different ways depending on which form he's in. When he's in his normal form, it's just him pushing people away from him. I think he does that as a defense mechanism, right? It's weird because he's rejecting the thing that he's always wanted, which is companionship. But then now he's so uncomfortable with it that any chance he gets to tell people "Hey, you don't have to be around me," he will. But when he is in his "depress turbo form," I think he's just happy to share how he feels in the moment. So he's like "I just don't want to be here." I think that's actually probably how he feels deep down about some things, but maybe he keeps that bottled up inside because he's a polite kid and wants everyone to be happy.
Aleks: Yeah. I think the difference between that and Jiji is when Okarun is possessed, so to speak, he's using the borrowed powers of Turbo Granny. So it's still Okarun, he's just overwhelmed by a spiritual force. But it's still him. As for Jiji, he has no control over his own body. He doesn't remember anything. He doesn't know what's going on. He's basically not there. So it's an entirely new character. And that was really fun for me to get to come up with a brand new voice for this character, and we didn't necessarily pull inspiration from how Evil Eye sounded by himself. We more so took the context of his emotions and where he was coming from, and Evil Eye Jiji is not Jiji or Evil Eye. It's more of a personification of hatred and anger, and we wanted to do it in a real, tasteful way, where you can feel that he's seething underneath and he's about to explode at any second. I think that for me it was fun because usually I play characters who have two identities a lot, and it's always like "Ohh yeah, this guy. But he's more like this." But this time, these are two completely separate characters, so that was really cool to get to do.
Q: And when you record when you have recording sessions, do you record together or separately?
Aleks: Wish we recorded it together? That'd be so much fun!
A.J.: I know!
Abby: [We record] separately.
Aleks: The thing about English dub is that we're very technical, cause we have to match the animation since it's locked in place. In Japan, they could record together because sometimes the animation is not finished, so they can draw on the mouth after the recording's done. But for us, we have to be very precise with it, and because of that, we all have to record individually. But the downside is that we don't get to play off of each other in real time, which is a bummer.
A.J.: Yeah...
Q: Jiji is a character who joined the main cast a bit later in the season. Do you feel the main duo's dynamic is changing in this sequel compared to when he was first introduced?
Aleks: I don't think he's changed too much. I think it's just that you get to see him in more situations, but he's still at the core the same person. It's really interesting to see how he interacts with his friends when his friends are not necessarily in the right state of mind as well. I think more of him comes out and more of his nature, [which] he does a lot to hide, comes to the surface as well. But I feel like the interaction kind of changes for Okarun a little bit on how he is treating Jiji, and also Evil Eye Jiji. So more of the change comes from that side, I think.
A.J.: Yeah.
Q: Compared to the first season, what would you say were the biggest differences when it comes to how you approached voicing your characters?
A.J.: I think the biggest difference is that they're just in a different place, so they're being written a little bit differently to this mirror, that place that they're in now. At the beginning, Okarun is very unsure of himself, and he didn't have anybody, but now he's gone through a whole season of having this extended family, grandma Seiko, and now Momo, Aira, and [recently] Jiji. Now he has things to protect, and he's a lot more confident. I think still nervous, maybe, but I feel like he's more confident in his ability to help and more assured in wanting to get stronger and help the people around him.
Abby: Yeah, same with Momo. She is more confident in her ghost hand abilities, and while she's still figuring out ways to use her abilities, she is immediately ready to jump into the fight, knowing what she can do. And one thing I love about Momo, too, is that she kind of is like the captain of the team, and she tends to give orders. And she's always trying to think of clever ways to approach this situation, so we see more of that, too.
Q: Do you have a favorite character in the story that is not the character you voice?
All: TURBO GRANNY!
Q: Turbo Granny has a somewhat important role in the "Evil Eye" arc, even if in the background, she's not just a mascot character. How does she contribute to the main cast's dynamic?
Abby: Totally! She mentions in Season 1 how, in the maneki-neko (beckoning cat) form she brings good luck, but she's bringing more than that. She's helping a little bit more than just being a lucky cat hanging around.
Aleks: Yeah, she's very knowledgeable on all things yokai, and it's really good to have kind of a guide there, cause she can tell you everything about an enemy and it's really cool to see that because a lot of times, Seiko isn't there to help them out. So I feel like Turbo Granny is a great, not substitute, but a stand-in for that sort of parental figure. Except she's a really funny little cat.
A.J.: Yeah. In the first season, at the beginning, after those first four episodes or so, I could be wrong, I think Seiko touches on it that the theory is that she is this spirit that guides and protects. So I think that's still her goal, but she doesn't want anybody to believe that she is there for anything other than herself. But I think there's something in here. She just likes these kids, [and] is like "I don't want them to get hurt, you know, cause they're good."
Q: You're hoping to see more of her in the second season?
A.J.: Yeah, of course. I love Turbo Granny.
Q: When it comes to your characters, is there something you dislike about them?
Aleks: Dislike that he's so ripped. He's so jacked. Yeah, it makes me jealous because I wish I had abs when I was that age. Or anytime. I wish I had abs in general. Some people are just so... (laughing)
A.J.: And it's just that easy for you? Huh. Lucky you, whatever.
Aleks: Right?
A.J.: Uh, I don't think there is anything I outwardly dislike about Okarun, and I think there are a lot of aspects of him that I love. Yeah, I don't know.
Aleks: His fashion sense.
A.J.: His fashion sense! But it's getting better!
Aleks: It's getting better.
A.J.: Better, slowly but surely. Oh, I didn't like his hair first! I was like: "Oh, my gosh, get rid of the bowl cut." But he did very quickly.
Abby: I think that the things that aren't so great about Momo are the lessons that she is learning. So it's hard to fault her. You know, she's still young and she's still got some things to learn. Her way of communicating, we've already seen her evolve a little bit with the help of Okarun. She has a hard time expressing her emotions in a way other than anger, and Okarun is one of those people that kind of gets her to reroute that and to speak her emotions in a different way than she's used to.
Q: What do you think of the love triangle-rectangle situation we'll seemingly have more of in the second season of DAN DA DAN? What do you make of the dynamics and behaviors that those involved display?
Aleks: I think it makes sense if you think about it from like certain perspectives, cause with this fandom or any fandom of shows that have romance or like love triangles or rectangles, fans can get a little too carried away with their ideal ships or their ideal pairings for certain characters. I think a lot of people forget that these are just teenagers, right? Momo acts accordingly. You know, as a teenage girl would, when she has these two people that she cares a lot about. Maybe right now she has too much going on in her life, where she doesn't really want to focus her attention on reciprocating romance for either of them. Or Jiji liking Momo because she was a big part of his childhood, and vice versa. Or Okarun even being conflicted about, you know, his own developing feelings. I feel that a lot of these characters are still taking time to come into their own. It's hard for me to speak as a 26-year-old man on what a teenage romance should look like, but it's messy, and I feel that it's appropriate that it's messy. You know, it's interesting and I don't really place too high stakes in terms of "Ohh what is the pairing gonna be like?" because for me it's all about like seeing the characters develop individually and what value this situation brings to them in their own personal upbringing.
A.J.: Yeah, I think at the end of the day, it's a story about like adolescence and all the things that encompass growing up and the horrors of that, and some of them are funny scenes, and also some of them are depressing scenes, just the day-to-day stuff. I remember having similar conflicting feelings [of] "I like her, but she likes another. Unfortunate." And it's cool to see. I think that's why a lot of people really, really like the show, because they can see themselves amongst all the craziness, they see themselves and their own thoughts in these characters.
Q: And just one last question, because I have one minute left. If you had to choose, would you be on the team aliens or the team ghosts?
Aleks: It's so hard because I've never seen them in real life, so I don't know which one I'd prefer.
A.J.: I know! Who's cooler? I believe in aliens more, but I feel like...
Aleks: It's more so that you never know if they're dangerous. Like, who would you rather get killed by?
Abby: Yeah, I mean if it's a cool alien like our little mantis shrimp friend (Mr. Mantis Shrimp), I would love to see their home planet. So I'm gonna say aliens.
A.J.: But if it's like a ghost of a, you know of a person from centuries ago, and I could ask them about the history... I don't know!
Aleks: I thought you [were] gonna ask them about the afterlife. I'm like, "that's cool." Either ask them about the afterlife, or confirm that there's life outside of planet Earth, which are both cool options. But maybe the afterlife thing might be a little bit more important.
A.J.: Yeah. I feel like they got a lot to share. Maybe I would go with the ghost on this one.
Abby: I want to see alien planets.
A.J.: You want to see alien planets?
Aleks: Whichever is a less painful death...
A.J.: Yes! I don't know if they're going to be nice to me...
We'd like to thank Abby, A.J., and Aleks for taking the time to chat with us and for serious consideration of every, at times silly, question we had! We look forward to hearing them bring to life some of our favorite DAN DA DAN characters this July!
Photos courtesy of GKIDS.
Tamara Lazic
