Voice Actor Roundtable Q&A | Animate! Philadelphia 2025

Voice Actor Roundtable Q&A | Animate! Philadelphia 2025

Go ahead and get comfy. It’s all good. All right. You got two waters. You’re lucky. Oh, everybody’s got two. Okay. Well, boy. Well, hydration is important, aren’t they? Mine’s got electrolytes in it because that’s what plants crave. Yeah, but what are electrolytes? It’s what plants crave. It’s what plants crave. Okay. Two people seen that movie. All right. Good. Okay. If haven’t seen Idiocracy, well, we’re living in it now. We Yes. Way to Well, friends, thanks for joining us here this weekend. Have a good time so far. Yes. Always. Awesome. Yes. Very good. Well, I sort of took the uh poll the audience. We’re kind of split. So, um I have a couple of uh couple of fun recollection questions about voice acting and a couple of data that maybe I might help them on their individual journey. So, since I was like likening voice acting to getting into Narnia, nobody gets in the same way twice. That’s right. So, for each of you, what was your voice acting origin story? Oh, God. Hi. Me, I was a real hyperactive kid and my mom stuck me into theater classes when I was pretty young, uh, grade schoolish. And so, that was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the children’s theater. And so I did that and that really helped me get over uh anxiety and trying to like figuring out what an audition was and trying to do all that. And so kind of stung stuck with that through high school. And I played around with radio stuff in college and a little after. And uh it was those two elements that kind of uh allowed for the opportunity at Funimation to happen. And so there you go. That’s how it happened. And it helped being all that engineering stuff and everything else too, right? Sure. Well, that was the radio stuff. That’s where that came from. Yeah. Yeah, that works. Uh, I have a theater degree, so I was an actor person. And actually, the reason I was pointing at him was because he was the person who cast me first and Fruits Basket. Ah, no Take Back Seeds. I believe that was three or four years ago, right? Like just a couple of years. We’ve only been in it for a couple of years. Pretty new. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, Fruits Basket and then he cast me on a Yohaka show as well as Jury. Uh, and so from then it I don’t remember after that. I remember my first two and then it just spiraled into this whole career. Yeah. Um, well, my story is different. Uh, I did theater in middle school and high school, but I was never like, “Wow, I want to do this for a living.” because I was like 4 foot 11 and to be on screen um as a woman you have to be like 5 foot seven at least. Uh so I was like well I’ll never be on TV. Um but that was fine because I had much bigger aspirations. I wanted to be a professional comic book artist. Um and so that’s what I did. I made my own manga. It was about unicorns that turned into hot dudes. I will say that while it sounds amazing, the story was lacking and I can admit that. Um, it was more about the idea and less about plot. Uh, but writing comics is how I eventually got into writing for anime. Um, because once they found out I could do that, they were like, “We want to hire you.” Um, and Jamie trained me. So, yeah, she was my teacher. Um, but I got into acting after I had already been doing conventions as an artist. Um, I was like, “Oh, Funimation, you voice act. That’s cool. How do you get into that? It’s our favorite question. We love being asked that question. Um, and uh, it was Bruce Lewis was who I was talking to because he was also an artist and he was like, “Oh, well, they do open auditions. You you could probably just sign up.” And I was like, “Okay, I’ll Google it.” And I did. I Googled it. And at the time, there was a form that you submitted through Funimation’s website. Um, this was like 13 years ago. Uh, I’ve been doing it longer than both Justin and Jamine. So, uh, but I didn’t have a demo. I literally like my email was like, “Hi, um, this is my range. Also, I can bark like a dog.” Because I was Toto in the Wizard of Oz. Um, hit me back if you’re interested and K. I love you. Bye. Uh, and I thought I’ll never hear from them again. That was a dumb email. And then five months later, they emailed me like, “Do you still want to do this?” And I was like, “I do. Yes. thank you for your interest. Um, and then I was like, “Oh my god, I don’t know anything about voice acting. I only know about stage acting.” So, I did what any respectable person would do. And I Googled it again. And, uh, there was a lot of great information out there. Google has a lot of information. So, I Googled it and I was like, I think I know what I’m going to do. I practiced reading out loud and recording myself and listening back to be like, what is good? What sounds mushy? Went in there. I did open auditions. Um, I got called back. Uh, which was a surprise. I didn’t expect that to happen. Uh, and it’s continued to be a surprise every single time I booked something new in the last 13 years. I’m like, what? Really? Me? Okay. Very nice. Very nice. And if anybody’s again looking on the journey, I’ll throw my two cents. Uh, in 2005, Walt Disney World was looking for improv actors that had video game experience, not acting wise, but actually playing video games. And I had been out of comedy for a couple years. Somebody threw it at me. I walked on in. They gave us a side. Okay, you’re a two-headed monster. So, and I just figured, okay, they’re probably looking for diversity in the heads and stuff like that. And that turned out to be the attraction, the Monsters, Inc. laugh floor at the Walt Disney World. And I was there for 14 years. And uh that led me to do Dr. Pumpson Honeydew uh for the Muppets and a certain gold protocol robot for Star Wars that um I just yeah just does it rhyme with Borro? H something like that. Something like that. But but the whole thing is so it’s it’s interesting this way too was um Imagineering was pushing us into Oh yeah. Yeah. Really go with that voice. Really go with that voice. And within the first five weeks of the show when it fully opened and we were a thrill and spill show. So one show ends, another show begins and actors would two shows in a row and they rotate out. At five weeks most of us were on vocal rest because they just wanted us to do these characters and well you humans too. So, and that’s something but that may come on up about knowing your limits and staying within them and not trying to do a Hail Mary to if you feel like, oh, if I do this, maybe I’ll get it and then you get it and now you got to do it and you can’t. You know, it’s not about knowing your limits in a sense of know your place. It’s know your instrument. So, let’s throw it again throwing that out there for those about to embark in this journey. Um, for everybody, what what was everybody’s biggest challenge to date as a voice actor? Uh, for me it was because I’d only done stage acting. Um, I I could cold read, but I couldn’t get into character in a cold read. Uh, so when I first started acting, I did about a year and a half worth of uh background voices and voila. Um, and I auditioned for a lot of shows, but I could never book anything. The most I could do was book Walla. And I finally noticed that the people that were booking, I had like this come to Jesus meeting with myself. Um, I noticed that the people that were booking consistently weren’t just doing anime voice acting. They were doing commercial VO. They were doing actual like everyday theater. Um, I couldn’t do theater because I had two young children at the time and a full-time job. And so I I didn’t have the time for it. And I stupidly thought, “Oh, voice acting. Well, that’ll be a fun way to just do acting on the side, not anticipating that. I was like, “Oh, no. I love this and I want to do it for a living.” But I wasn’t treating it like something I wanted to do for a living. I was treating it like a fun side thing. And I realized that if I ever wanted it to be what I wanted it to be, I had to start putting in the work. And I knew that I struggled with cold reading um and getting into character quickly. And so I started doing improv and I hired an acting coach and if I had a rough session, I would talk about it in my session with my acting coach. I’m like, “This is the thing I struggled with. Can you help?” And uh within six months of doing that, of like really studying and like dedicating myself to the craft, uh I went from only booking additional voices like once every couple of months to I booked my first uh reoccurring character in Assassination Classroom. Um because Joel saw me putting in the work and he told me that and he was like usually when people ask me for advice they don’t take it. He’s like but you did. And I was like well I want to keep doing this so I got to put in the work. And so for me that was the biggest challenge is um having to eat a big old slice of humble pie at the beginning of my career. But I’m glad I did because it makes me appreciate everything else in my journey. Um, so when I do have a big win, I’m like, I know that I worked for this challenge. Challenges. These lights are a challenge right now for me. I can’t see any of you, but you all look amazing. They’re They’re out there. Trust me. It’s shadows. It’s like where there’s just a room full of ghosts. Is this the season? Um, I was trying to think. I don’t know. A lot of our challenges are fun. Yeah. So, it’s hard to You know what I mean? You take it in a fun direction. Yeah. I’ve been trained for 26 years now to take the word challenge and change it to opportunity. Yeah. Exactly. I like that. That’s so that’s kind of the way I tend to look at things. I don’t do well with challenges, but opportunities I’m okay with. Right. No. And that’s that’s a philosophy we’re trying to get into. Yeah. you have the opportunity to handle a lot of actors. What a fun opportunity that must be for you. Yeah, that’s a good point. That is a good point. Yeah. I guess it’s not as much in voice acting, but it’s it’s trying to, you know, trying to hold casts together for 25 or more years. That’s that’s a that’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for friendships is what it is. And that’s what it’s turned into. That turns out that’s the kind of the best way. Would would you say in your position though sometimes those uh friendships are opportuned uh possibly a little strained like taken advantage of? No, I don’t I haven’t experienced that. I I’m I have an ability to kind of keep that at bay and a lot of that is that I’m not necessarily doing casting so there’s very little they can get out of me in that regard. Yeah. So no, it’s this has been a a an incredible journey the whole thing and they’re really in reflection on it. And maybe that’s another thing with challenges or opportunities is when you’re looking back at it, it doesn’t seem as as rough anymore as it was when you’re going through it. So that’s probably why it’s hard for me to go, oh, I recollect that this was a real pain in the in the in the kester. Um, but you know what? At the end of the day, at the end of the day, every decision and every opportunity we’ve taken uh or challenge we’ve risen above, that’s what’s led us to this very moment at this place. So, yay. Yeah. Our opportunity now are the rosecolored glasses we get to wear when we look through the past because I mean there are years of hustling and things got hard and 2007208 everything crashed. That was really hard and everybody was you know trying to do what they could to pay their bills. But you look back and I was like, we were so blessed to still be able to do that even though it was hard. We were having a great time doing it. So, I mean, we were stressed, don’t get me wrong, but uh but what a great opportunity to pay those bills, doing something fun. The pandemic presented a lot of with opportunities. Um and but in all honesty, like it really did. Um because it was frustrating at first because like suddenly you had to learn how to do a lot of things that you weren’t doing before and we invested in a a home booth um and we learned how to like kind of self-engineer and stuff like that. Um, but because I done all that for like Funimation at the time, it also gave me the uh, for lack of a better word, balls to to go for an LA talent agent because I’m like, well, if Funimation is using LA talent, that means there’s LA studios that are looking for anybody with a good home studio. And I have that. And so that’s what made me get my LA agent. like go for it and it worked like and I don’t know if I would have had really the you know what I needed to do that like I don’t know if I would have felt brave enough without being put in that position that I needed to do it. COVID created the opportunity for a lot of people to discover anime, especially series that they heard, oh, One Piece, that’s like a thousand episodes, man, don’t get in. But all of a sudden, a lot of people had the time, you know, and a lot a lot they got a chance, everybody was kind of into it a little bit, but then everybody was getting a chance to explore other shows, stuff like that. So, new fandoms were developed. Yeah, absolutely. I think for from being in it so long from the early days of cons to now is insane to see the difference. You know, when you would go to conventions and you were just like the dub actor at you and like you definitely were treated that way. Um to now it’s it’s a it’s very cool. It’s very cool. Thank you. We appreciate you guys. From a fan point of view, it’s kind of crazy because I’ve been a an anime fan since I was 15, which was like 1999ish. Um, you know, and the only way to get merchandise was to either go to a con or go to Hot Topic. And now I walk into Walmart and I’m like, “Oh, hey, there’s My Hero Academia just in the game section. There’s a bunch of My Hero Academia toys. There’s t-shirts. There’s all kinds of anime t-shirts and merchandise at Walmart, at Target. Like like you guys don’t know how good you have it now. Thank you for that as well, by the way. Yeah, cuz it it didn’t used to be that way. So, but now it is come a long way from the VHS years. That’s right. That’s how I used to collect my anime. Yeah. When we when we started, uh, we were literally recording to tape. So, you’d have to record like you’d have to watch it and then rewind the tape. Yeah, take two. I cannot imagine having to do that. I feel like I would not have lasted. It was an interesting thing because you’d get that direction and then still have to wait 30 40 seconds before you got to actually do the next thing. But we had paper scripts so you could take the note, you could write the note on the script. So in that time you could be like working on it. I hear that a lot from your peers that it seems like a lot of people really miss those scripts and that ability to do the little notes and stuff. There’s not time to write the notes down now. Yeah. Yeah. Digital at this point, as soon as a direction is given, you can record the new line, right? So there’s it’s the the instant gratification for the voice director of hearing what it is they’ve just asked you to do is so much faster now for the memory of the actor. Like what did you say? It’s been five seconds. I have no idea what you just said to me. I have worked on some things in LA now that we live in LA that still have paper scripts like games or even a few dub things. And I’m so used to digital scripts that they’re like, “Okay, now we’re on uh loop uh 37.” I’m like like going through all my papers. I’m like Loop 37, Loop 37. I’m like, “It’s taking so long. I’m so sorry.” Paper. I remember the days when uh like leads or even others would go to the end of the script and then start counting backwards so that or you know 1 2 3 4 5 up the numbered script up all their lines so that as they proceeded through the episode they’d be able to see their countdown of how close they were to the end of the script. So there’s a lot of little advantages of the paper scripts. Yeah definitely. What uh what’s everybody what’s everybody’s standard advice that you give when you asked hey what advice would you give somebody who wants to pursue voice acting? In my opinion the number one reason why actors get out of this business is they quit. So don’t do that. It’s good. Yeah. Um mine is I think a lot of people think it’s about the voice. Um I had a gentleman come up to me once at a con and he was like I do a really great Mickey Mouse. I’m like, “Yeah, let’s hear it.” And he did it. It was great. It was good. I was like, “Okay, now give me Mickey Mouse.” Like, Pluto just got run over by a train. And he was like, “I can’t do that.” And I’m like, “Why not?” And he was like, “Let’s just That’s not something Mickey Mouse would do.” I’m like, “Well, that’s your problem.” I’m like, “Because it’s not just about doing the voice. It’s about acting believably in that voice.” And a lot of people think it’s it’s voice acting, but they kind of forget about the acting part. And it it’s cool to be able to do a voice, but you more believably is you have to be able to do the challenging stuff. You have to be able to break down and cry. You have to yell. You have to be murderous. You have to be sad. You have to be withdrawn. You have to be able to do all those things on the fly. And sometimes you’re like, you’re pouring your heart out. You’re like, then you wait and then they go, “That was great. We just needed to be like two seconds faster.” And you’re like, “Okay, great. be terribly sad two seconds faster. You got it. And you have to be able to take that that direction and stuff like that. To justify that just a minute. You get to it is the opportunity to do that. You get to cry. You the opportunity to try. Um but yeah, I I think there is a misconception about you just have to be able to do the voice. It’s a bonus to do the voice, but what you what you need to aspire to is to be able to believably do something with I mean it’s all in your imagination, especially if it’s a game. You don’t always have visuals. Um, you have to be able to do it believably so that people are immersed. Vivid imagination very helpful. Yes. I also what I always like to say now Joel McDonald did us a huge favor and he wrote a book that you can get on Amazon. It’s called Getting In and then there’s the rest of the title like it’s an anime. Uh but Getting In. Joel McDonald will get you there. I actually have a copy at my table. You can come take a picture of it. The Guide to the Greatest Gig there is. It is. Thank you. I I own the book. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s it’s He’s got it uh on Audible now, too, so you can listen to it. It’s not very long, but I think it’s a great resource for more information than we could tell you on this stage. Yes. And then you can then you can doggeear it or take notes because and I have read it. It’s not just about like the the technical side of things. It’s also the things that maybe you don’t know like what not to do in an audition, how not to behave, like the things that aren’t always covered. Uh Joel has has covered. And so it’s really good on that if you’re ever looking for like a it really is a guide. Um I would recommend it. Yeah. First starting out I I was say auditioning. Just forget the booking the part. Just audition to be invited to audition again. You know, that’s that’s something they’re really because that that means they like you and they haven’t figured out something for you, but you’re in their mind and that’s you’re a possibility and that’s that’s so so vital. People will ask like if you went into an audition for X show uh did you really want to audition specifically for this character and that was that what you I mean the answer is always no. How I mean that’s some arrogance to run in and be like no cast me as Goku. You know that’s who I’m going to be. Now, I you go into an audition, as you said, hoping you get called back for another audition. But the booking that character or booking a character, oh, forget that. Don’t. Plus, if you don’t get it, you’ll be so hung up about it. Yes. You know, go in clean slate. Whatever you can get is what you’re going to get. It’s awesome. One of the class, one of the many classes I’ve taken over the years had, they said something that has stuck with me um all these years, and this is how I try to think of it when I do an audition. do an audition as if you already have the part. You do for for the time you’re doing that audition, you are that character. And that’s such a fun way to think about it. Like maybe I won’t get to keep playing this character, but for this 10 minutes, I’m this character. This is how I just think like if I had this part, this is how I would do it. And I I do it. And there are so many times I walk out, I’m like, man, that audition is so effing good. And I’m I don’t always book it, but it’s not a personal thing. It’s just that’s not the voice they’re looking for. It doesn’t mean I didn’t do good work. So, if I walk out an audition and I feel good, then mission accomplished. That’s awesome. I have an inner voice that after every read I give just goes, “That was horrible. How why would you have even done that?” That voice is such a jerk. What is that voice? so wrong. Takes forever. And uh another thing in that process too, whe whether even if it’s a recording now as we do, uh the attractions still have you come on in actually and like get in front of the the table, you know, the good old days. But um make a choice. Make a choice to take to it, but be prepared. If they say back it up and try it like this, be ready for that. But too, it’s that malleability. And like I said, you never know. Um, a lot of my, uh, Disney roles, uh, I would do it for Imagineering or special events was always because a choice I made in something else. Six and nine months later, I’d get a call saying, “Come on in. Hey, yeah, you did this thing when you did audition for the pirate. We want that character voice that you did in that thing.” So, you just never know. You just never know. You’re planting these seeds. I always say too, it’s better to go hard because it’s easy to pull actors back and it’s better to especially like in video game auditions if you like really go for something and they are like, “Wow, that was too much.” Like one, they don’t usually think that because they’re like, “Oh, good. She can do this.” And then once you get in, they’re like, “Okay, that was great. Let’s just pull it back a little bit.” You’re like, “No problem.” Um, so it’s always easier to pull an actor back than to try to push them to go further. if they feel like if you’re if you’re directing and you feel in an audition like someone e if if you don’t commit, you’re communicating to the director that you can’t go there. And so a director is never going to cast someone who they don’t think can go there. They’ll cast someone who goes above and beyond because at least they can get there. Yeah. And most of the time, newer actors, voice actors who don’t have a lot of experience don’t commit and go there and that’s why they’re not getting cast. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Let leave the embarrassment at the door. Yeah. Embrace the embarrassment. Be embarrassed. Yeah. If you’re not embarrassed, you’re not doing it right. It’s a very embarrassing job. It’s like being in a zoo. There’s like a window. Everyone’s looking at you and you’re in here like, “All right, well, today I play a boy. Better spread my legs and crouch and make room for my boy balls.” Like, that’s what I do. No one’s ever said anything. They just know that’s what I do to make the boy voice happen. There you go. Um, this is always a fun one. No, I’ll jump in the audience. Uh, what was the uh Everybody can call. What was the craziest effort you’ve ever been asked to do? And those know an effort is a nonverbal. It’s like, “Oh, you got to fall from a 30s story building.” Ah, but yeah. Um, are a little more prevalent in video game acting, but uh, no, my all of mine are anime. Uh, the first one that pops up in my this uh, Detective Conan. Uh, my character is on a roller coaster. So, she’s screaming as she’s going down the roller coaster and then when she gets to the bottom, the guy next to her head’s off. So, the scream changes midscream into a horrified scream. It was great. It was so much fun. Um, I have two. Well, I was doing a bit part Chris Evans. I was doing a bit part. It was like this fan girl, but she was kind of heavy set. And so, he was like, “Yeah, we’re dancing right around it. Can you do it again and just make it sound more fat?” And I’m like, I was like, I don’t early 2000. Yeah, it was early 2000. It was early in the career, guys. It was a different time today. I don’t think we could get around we could get away with that. But I I was like, I don’t we all just sound the same. Um I think I settled for like I could do this. Maybe she’s got a stuffy nose. Like that was that was a weird one. Uh, and the second weirdest one was, uh, I was doing a show called Maiden Abyss, which is a really sad show where nothing good ever happens. Um, and the direction I was given was, “Yeah, and now just give me like like a sad sob, you know, because your friend turned into a uterus.” And he it wasn’t a joke. That’s what happened. And I was like, “Yeah, no, I get that direction all the time.” He turned into a what? Uh, she turned into a uterus. That’s what I thought I heard. Yeah. No, you heard right. Okay. Yeah. Made an Abyss. It fools you with it really cute style. Um Yeah. He’s now make this sad noise because your friend turned into a uterus. And I’m like, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one. Okay. We have line counts and uh sometimes you’d see that like you have you usually it’ll be like well usually there’ll be more lines than there are reactions. Uh, so when you go in and see a line count where there’s a great number more reactions than there are lines, that scared me during Yuyu Haka shows. Just a lot of screaming, but I don’t know how crazy that was, but it was a lot of fun to do in the cave. Yeah. Ah, that one. Yes. Oh my god. What is going on? Look at that. Yay! Surprise! Tada! You your character finds a water bottle behind you. Would you imagine? Another 15 minutes. Will another one come out? Oh, no. The couch is a uterus. [Laughter] All right. Well, friends, thank you so much for sharing these insights. Uh, absolutely wonderful. Before I come in the audience though, as always, I just want to thank you all. I want to thank you all for your talents and your professionalism and all these performances you brought throughout your entire careers. Your collective body of work is just so wonderful. So much smiles, so much entertainment and done such fantastic work. So on behalf of myself and the fans, just thank you. Thank you for letting us be here. All right. If anybody wants to meet me at the X there, let me set up my clock. time. We’re out of time. I love it. Get your stickers. Come back. Get your stickers. Stickers. I have stickers. I want stickers. That’s okay. I got candy. Hey, what’s your name? Hi, my name’s Rianne. Um, my question is, out of all the characters you voice, who do you think you could be in a fight? Who do I think I could beat in a fight? All the characters you voice. Let me think about all the small children I voice. I know, right? I have a lot of very tough characters. Um, I can’t be darn one of them. I tried to make friends with them. We’d figure out a way to to change that little uh controversy into something more pleasant. Yeah, we’d have cocktails and fix everything. We would turn the controversy into an opportunity. That’s right. That’s right. No fighting, only opportunities. Hey, you get two for the first one. That good one. Starts off with It’s my ex-husband. Hey, what’s your name? My name is McCartney. What you got? Um, so my friend wanted to know what your favorite thing about your MHA character is. What? Our favorite what is your your MHA characters? Oh, MHA character. I thought you said animation. I was like, can we be more specific? What’s your favorite favorite thing about your MHA? My hero. Was it a favorite thing? I just thought that was his favorite character. That’s a different answer. Favorite thing about your character? I love Kiroshima’s heart. I want a t-shirt that just says Kiroshima cares. I feel like he might grow up to be like a like a therapist or something to that effect. That may be his jam. We had a My Hero panel and we were talking about him and some and uh Bakugo getting in a fight and then I was like, “Wait, wait, wait. Wouldn’t he be like, “Let’s not fight about this. Let’s have a conversation.” Like, “Let’s talk. Let’s use our words.” That’s very manly of you, Bakugo. That’s right. That’s right. You know what’s manly? Understanding your feelings. Yeah. There you go. Maturity. Yeah. There’s a spin-off that’s just a therapy show. It’s going to be The Odd Couple basically, and it’ll be Bakugo and Kiroshima living as roommates. My therapy academia. That’s right. Um, Mount Lady. I love and I think that Connor shares this with her. Um, she is kind of in her own world doing her own thing unless people need her. And if people need her, she shows up and does the thing. She’s kind of doing her own thing. She may not be as successful as she is if she’s taking care of the people she loves. That’s what I like about her. Thank you. Great question. Hi. What’s your name? Hi guys, I’m Tim. I’ve met all three of you guys over the weekend, but Oh my god, you guys. It’s Tim. But my question in particular is specifically for Kristen. Well, then you can do that at the table then. The table the questions have to be for everybody. Oh, you have one for everybody? Okay, go ahead. Okay. So, so I should say like if there was like one character that like best matched your personality, who would you say it was? Um, for me I for me I would say it’s Kacina um from Kitchen Impact. Um, she’s just tries really hard and she fails a lot but she never gives up. Um, and also she’s sad. Um, and I feel that. Um, she she has a whole thing about she’s like, “Why is life so hard?” I’m like, “God, I understand that feeling. Uh, so I I really relate to a lot of things about Kacina. Um, so much so that when I did the audition for her, I I actually gave myself like a anxiety attack cuz like she was like, “Why is my life so hard?” And I was like, “Oh, poor baby.” And then I like unlocked a core memory of me laying in my bed as a kid being like, “Why is my life so hard?” And I was like, “Oh no, that hurts my heart.” Um, but I also was like, “That’s the character I’m going to book.” I’ve auditioned for so many Ginchin characters. That’ll be the one I booked because I’m going to have to revisit these feelings again, but in front of other people and sure enough, that’s what happened. But yeah, I really I really vibe with Kachina as a person. Well, you guys, a character is you personally vibe. Look behind your back. Maybe Cheba from Beck Mongolian Chop Squad for me. Oh, nice. That’s an older one. But, uh, and you never find this stuff out when you, you know, audition or first hear about it. It’s only after the show’s finished that you kind of look back and go, “Oh, he had some things that kind of I share in common with him.” Loved music. I love music. Uh, he was encouraging to his friends. He didn’t always know the right thing to say and didn’t always say the right thing. So, that’s Do you know what character I’ve always thought you were a lot of like that you play? Who? that the the guitar in Show by Rock. Strawberry Heart. Yes, Strawberry Heart. Definitely one of my favorite voices to do. Yeah, that’s good. I don’t know. Every time I saw that one, I was like, that’s just Justin as a guitar. I uh I’m going to go Beck as well. Uh I’m Paige the Parrot, and I also like to call people all the time, so I feel like that works. I respect that. Thank you. That’s all it says. Yeah. Yeah, that’s me. Great question. Thanks for wing me and great cosplay, by the way. It’s really looks really excellent. So, thank you. No, you’re very welcome. So, hey, what’s your name? Hi, my name is Crystal. Um, thank you for coming. This uh panel has been really excellent. I wanted to know from the other side, so we know about how um the the industry has changed on your end. Um because you all have worked as writers and directors and producers, what can Western fans do to impact the kind of flow of the industry? What gets dubbed? What gets licensed? Like what can we do if anything? Wow. I would say communicate it. You know, you guys, you can be loud if you want to be loud. And I think something that has been detrimental is a certain group of people who like to hate everything. And um and if those people are loud enough, then the people who actually watch anime can be loud enough. And so I would say um communicate to studios, you know, what’s important to you, what you like, what you appreciate. uh positivity has a tendency to get farther than negativity um when you want change when you’re you know so so I would always uh communicate that you know write a letter to your senator I don’t you know there is a saying though that it’s uh the especially with like the internet it’s like the loudest group of people is not always representative like when people hate something They’re very quick to talk about they hate something, but when people love something, they were just like, “Ah, I loved that.” You know, and so having a more loud positivity, like Jamie said, would I think would go a long way. Like if we got more of that, it would eventually be more overbearing than the group of negativity. Yeah. Because the negativity is someone’s told, “Go hate this and tell this person you hate and they’ve never even seen it, but they’re going to do it because that’s what, you know, some YouTuber person told them to do or whatever. So, uh Oh, those wacky YouTubers. I know. Um, so yeah, that’s what I would say. Yeah. Do you think if we overwhelmed the internet or social media, YouTube with positive comments, would it break the algorithm? Oh, wouldn’t that be amazing? That’s what I’m into. Let’s do that, guys. Help. Can you organize that for us? Perfect. Thank you so much. Yes, it’s an opportunity. Absolutely. This is an opportunity. Thank you. Great question. So, friends, we’re just about time. Uh, what’s on Yeah, that’s all best. Uh, what’s on everybody’s docket that uh you’re allowed to share with us as far as upcoming projects goes? Oh, uh, I Well, I’m currently doing Pokemon Horizons. Uh, I play Penny and Tatigiri, all three forms. Um, so that’s ongoing. Dr. stone uh and slime that time I got reincarnated as a slime is coming back next year. We’re getting a movie and a season 4. So, we’re going to be eating good, which is great because Maleimm loves to eat. True. It’s true. I would say if you don’t already, get that Crunchyroll subscription going. And we got 23 24 25 new English dubs starting to come out for the new season. So, uh dig, including stuff. Oh. My hero final season. I don’t know. Am I not allowed to say this? Of course you are. I I don’t know what they announce. Like it’s I just say go to the site. I I think it is. Yeah. My hero. Yeah. It’s here. This is the last season. So bittersweet time. Yeah. All of those things plus Borderlands 4. Yeah. I’m a writer on Borderlands 4, so go play it. It’s a lot of fun. You know, it’ll be hilarious. Um, thank you. Hopefully. Uh, and then also the DLC, the first DLC for four is uh, Mad Ali and the Vault of the Damned. So I get to be the titular character in that. Yay. So those are that’s mine. But yeah, Borderlands 4. For a minute you said tit shower character. Titiller. And I was like, is Ellie like that? I didn’t get that impression. She is. You should have cuz she Okay. Okay. Okay. And one final question for me. Would you all like to take a picture with this wonderful audience? We would love to. All right, folks. Come on up. I’ll take our stage. Everybody wait. Sorry, everybody. Hold. Hold. Pause. Sorry. Um, if you come to my table, I draw my own artwork. Everything on my table is drawn by me. But I can also draw you as an anime character. It’s like a character that you get on the boardwalk, but you’ll like it at the end. And you may be like, Kristen, why are you pushing this so hard? My kid started out of state college this year. Please come by my table. Thanks. can confirm I got one a few months back because you’ve drawn me before. Yeah, I’ve drawn I’ve drawn both of you guys. Yeah. Okay. All right. Cool. [Applause]

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⭐️ WHO’S IN THIS VIDEO? ⭐️

Jamie Marchi is best known as Mt. Lady in “My Hero Academia,” Cana Alberona in “Fairy Tail,” Liz in “Soul Eater,” Panty Anarchy in “Panty & Stocking with Garter Belt,” Rias Gremory in “High School DxD,” Mikako Satsukitane in “Heaven’s Lost Property,” and so much more!

Justin Cook is a voice actor best known as Yusuke Urameshi in “Yu Yu Hakusho,” Red Riot / Eijiro Kirishima in “My Hero Academia,” Eustass Kid in “One Piece,” Raditz in the “Dragon Ball” franchise, Hatsuharu Soma in “Fruits Basket,” Jack the Ripper in “Black Clover,” and so much more!

Kristen McGuire is best known as Milim Nava in “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime,” Tatami Nakagame in “My Hero Academia,” Ruri in “Dr. Stone,” Senko in “The Helpful Fox Senko-san” and so much more!

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