Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE is quite literally one of the more inventive series out there, combining some of the more interesting parts of science and discovery with the allure of otherworldly phenomena and diplomatic relations. The series has evolved quite a bit over time, starting from protagonist Senku discovering rudimentary ways to create basic materials and going as far as creating Geiger counters to locate rare earth minerals for a spacecraft bound for the moon. As Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE Season 4 Cour 3 continues to air this season, we had the opportunity to speak with two members of the anime’s English dub cast: Aaron Dismuke, English voice of Senku, and Brandon McInnis, English voice of Gen.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Both of you play very cool characters, both characters that are very smart in their own right.
How do you bring to life characters with so many eccentric and unique traits and also that depth of knowledge?
Brandon McInnis: Well, I would say, especially if I’m recording early in the morning, I get up two hours early before any recording session. And because of the time difference between the Dallas studio and where I live in Los Angeles, I mean, sometimes I’m getting up at 6am and making sure I’m warmed up and I’ve drank enough water and I’ve slept enough to be able to have the energy to deliver that performance earlier in the morning.
Aaron Dismuke: The scripts helps a lot, of course. And I do try to read and watch ahead when it comes to Senku because he throws so many curveballs out there. Sometimes he’s a military — I remember he’s been a Mecha Senku. He’s been a military officer. He’s been an alien. He’s been a pack of anthropomorphized bacteria. Senku does a lot of crazy stuff. Sometimes he unhinges his jaw and then his tongue has another Senku at the tip of it. And it’s also talking. He cackles. He can be conniving. He has a ton of range. And so I have always tried to have a plan when it comes to him because the only advantage I have over him is time. I can prepare whereas he has to think in the moment.
Q: Aaron, you mentioned reading ahead to understand what Senku might do. Is that a normal practice for you or is this something you’re doing specifically for this series?
Aaron Dismuke: It’s a normal practice for me when I’m afraid of a character (laughs). Not so much if they’re a type of character I’ve voiced a lot. But if the thought of a session makes me a little nervous, I’ll read. The character contains multitudes. As this one does.
Q: One thing that to me always stands out about Senku is different explanations he gives or longer sections of dialogue that kind of break down what a plan might be doing compared to normal scenes where he might just be talking to someone or doing something. What did these sort of intellectual breakdown scenes work like for you and what is the usual approach to them?
Aaron Dismuke: The most important thing I’ve found in terms of making one of those multi-paragraph breakdowns feel natural and accurate: I need to understand it at a base level, even if that means, can I have a minute to read? And then I need to know what information I’m hanging onto from an earlier paragraph so that I can emphasize the new thing. So if for example, I say that we’re going to hook up a bunch of tubes into a tank, then later, if I say that it’s a septic tank, I need to hit septic and not tank the second time because I already mentioned we’re putting tubes into a tank. So when I mention the septic tank, I need to be always building the scene and building our understanding by putting a hit on the new information and not the old. Otherwise you sound like you aren’t listening to yourself, I’ve found.
Q: That’s super interesting. And Brandon, for your character, you play a mentalist, someone who is very unique in their ability to understand people and often someone in control of different deal-making, negotiation, conniving, all the fun stuff. How do you approach those often scheming moments within the show?
Brandon McInnis: I think above all, I try to be entertaining. Because Gen is a character that disarms people a lot and redirects their attention away from maybe what they’re going to be focused on and takes them on a little journey in order to manipulate them. But usually for a positive end. It’s such a fun character. I have, interestingly enough, I find that I have used a lot of emotional techniques or feelings that I’ve had voicing villains in the past because a lot of villains do do the same thing for evil, but Gen does it for good. Which is very fun to play with and has been such a delight to play with in the show.
Q: How do you both reflect on really just how far the characters of the series have come both as far as inventions and just their own personalities. And amongst those different inventions or rediscoveries, do you have any favorite things they brought back to the world?
Brandon McInnis: I think at the beginning of the show Gen feels very self-centered. At least he did to me. And over time, I feel like he has become far more community oriented and that has been a point of growth that I believe Gen has gone through. And I really love that about him. Much like Gen, I like my modern conveniences. Air conditioning’s great. The cell phone? Fabulous. We love communication.
So I think all those are really cool.
Aaron Dismuke: I think one way you can track a person’s values is by how large they see their personal tribe as being. Some people feel that they can only afford to care about themselves. Some people it’s them and their immediate family. And then I think with the kingdom of science and Senku and the gang, we’ve watched that tribe grow and grow until it covers the whole world. And on some level, some rational level, I think Senku’s always seen all of humanity as his tribe. I think he’s that ambitious and, to use his own words, greedy. But it’s become more and more real over time. And he’s even let go of power. I don’t think that he would call himself the king of science at any point. I think he would say that science was the king. But he was the person who could speak to the king most fluently. And we very recently saw it become more of a republic of science because when it came to the decision as to whether we would do a two-way rocket or a one-way rocket, he put it up to a vote and he let everyone kind of decide their fates and his fate for him. So he’s learning to trust people.
Q: And one fun question for you two. If you were thrust into this world, whether it be at the very beginning when you were first being de-petrified or somewhere in the middle, how do you think you would fare alongside these other characters?
Brandon McInnis: Ooh, I don’t think I would be as elegant or successful as Gen, (laughs) definitely not as much as Senku. I would be fending for my life. Yeah, it would be difficult for me to say the least.
Aaron Dismuke: You said alongside these other characters? They’ll take care of me, great. (both laugh) What a relief — for a moment I thought you were asking me if I could survive out there.
Brandon McInnis: I could be emotional support. Yeah. I’ll do that one. I’ll carry firewood. That’s what I’ll do.
Aaron Dismuke: Yeah. I could carry firewood too. I’m good at finding good sticks.
We’d like to thank the voice actors of Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE for taking the time to speak with us as well as Crunchyroll for coordinating the interviews. Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE Season 4 Cour 3 is available to stream now on Crunchyroll every Thursday at 7:00 AM PT / 10:00 AM ET.
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