DAN DA DAN Season 2 is fast approaching, and DAN DA DAN: Evil Eye has begun releasing in theaters across the world. Ahead of those two premieres of this incredible season’s episodes, we had the chance to sit down with the incredible voice actors behind the English dub of this series. This dub has been an incredible one, lending a unique passion, energy, and humor to the series that complements the original Japanese such that I feel compelled to watch both and experience two different presentations of the same series.
Considering all of the technical aspects, personal actions, and particular direction that goes into producing a good anime dub, we spoke with the trio of voice actors about how they approach their characters in this new season, what aspects of the new plotline influenced that approach, and what’s changed for them over the course of the series. Taking part in this excellent conversation were Abby Trott, voice of Momo, AJ Beckles, voice of Okarun, and Aleks Le, voice of Jiji.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: My first question is for Abby and AJ — so obviously, Momo and Okarun have gained a lot of experience with the supernatural since the beginning of last season. How did you weave that additional experience into the way you voiced your characters?
Trott: I think the experience just comes inherently in the way Momo is written. You can definitely see her be more confident with her abilities, and she has more of a command and handle over her ghost hands and everything. So it’s just kind of in the script.
Beckles: Yeah, I was gonna say something similar. I think at this point they know what’s going on. They’re no longer these — I mean, not much time at all has passed, but I feel like they’re not who they were at the beginning, especially Okarun. He’s kind of — I don’t know. He believes that he is capable of helping and doing things.
Q: That makes sense. And for Aleks: Jiji, on the other hand, is a pretty confident guy, but relatively new to the supernatural. How did you approach balancing those two elements of his character?
Le: I think there are some quieter moments where you can see his insecurities poke through. But I think his biggest strength is the ability to handle the weight of that on his own. It’s not something that I would personally recommend somebody doing. But I relate to that a lot, because I also try to tackle any issues completely on my own. So for me, I related to him, in a sense where whenever you’re around other people, one of the biggest things you use is comedy to lift the spirits of everyone. And I just thought that was one of the most interesting ways to take a character like that who’s — he’s very good looking. He’s super tall and athletic, but you can see that he’s definitely overcompensating for something. And so there’s a lot of depth to his character that I’m excited to explore in this second chapter of the story. But yeah, overall, my approach was basically trying to draw from a sense of letting loose as much as possible in order to drown out the noise of something else.
Q: For all of you: did any aspects about the way you were directed this season shift substantially from how you were directed in Season 1?
Beckles: Alex [Voice Director Alex von David] is taking the same amount of care and time as he did in the first season. We might be going through things a little bit faster, just because I feel like we’ve spent more time with the characters. But in general, what I love about Alex is just how collaborative and patient he is, and everything like that, and that hasn’t changed at all. He hasn’t really changed anything about how he directs me because of maybe Okarun’s changing or anything — that hasn’t really happened.
Le: I think for me it’s changed just because of the introduction of Evil Eye Jiji, and that’s a completely different character than Jiji himself. It’s not even like Jiji with a different personality — that’s straight up just a different person. So getting to crack the code on a brand new character was really fun for me, and our approach was very different, because with Jiji we would just fly through everything, and he [Alex] would be like “Improv,” and whatever makes him laugh the most would be like, “Yeah, that’s the one.” But for Evil Eye Jiji, we’ve taken a lot of care to be like, “Is this menacing? Does this serve the character? Is it intimidating? Just for the factor of being intimidating? Or is it intimidating because it’s coming from something else?” So we’ve certainly changed our approach on each character.
Trott: I would say, yeah, what AJ said for me. It’s kind of in the same vein. It is moving along a little faster now that we’ve laid the groundwork for the characters, but obviously they are evolving as the story goes on. So when we need to focus a little bit more on specific moments we do, but mostly the same.
Q: From what the trailers have shown us, so far there have been plenty of action scenes and action sequences with all of your characters, and a lot of close combat. What was it like leaning into that combat and voicing those scenes? And even fighting one another.
Beckles: It was a lot of fun. I feel like the first season has some actiony bits, especially Acro Silky and everything like that. But this season — without spoiling — has a lot of hand to hand combat. There’s a lot more of that traditional shonen stuff going on. And it looks really really cool. And it’s — we do a thing called efforts and everything like that when we’re doing anime, or really any property at all. But you know, in an anime it’s really important. All those grunts and gasps and everything. So I wanted to make sure those were on point and that they sounded cool and awesome. And yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Trott: Yeah, I think that the especially like between these 2 (points at Aleks and AJ), the fight looks incredible. One thing I love about Momo and her animation and the way she’s written is just seeing what creative ways she comes up with to use her abilities. So that’s it’s always fun.
Le: For me I’ve done a lot of characters who fight and make noises and stuff like that. So nowadays I find myself enjoying the bits where they’re not fighting more. But for this fight in particular, I was really — something that’s really stood out to me was — I’ve said this a lot — is the sound design. And so, when I heard how cool the sound effects were with each of Evil Eye Jiji’s attacks, I wasn’t so focused on making my effort sound cool. I wanted my effort to kind of harmonize with the sound effects and kind of support it, instead of being the one that pokes out through the front. So I wanted to add extra bass to amplify the sound effect, or so I changed the way I did the battle efforts a lot just to aid the scene and the music and everything. I haven’t seen the final product yet, so I hope it turns out good, because I’ll be seeing that tonight.
Q: A follow up on that, you mentioned that you were kind of introduced to the sound design in different parts. What was that order of operations like, as far as what you were shown before you started to record?
Trott: When we record we don’t get to preview up until a certain point. So, going into the second season, I had seen Season 1. And then, as we’re dubbing our scenes, then we get to watch a little bit, or if there’s like a moment beforehand that the director thinks would give us more context for what we’re doing in the scene he’ll play that for us, leading up to our moment. I still haven’t seen the entirety of these first 3 episodes. I’ve only seen mainly the moments that Momo is in, and then some bits and pieces in between. So I’m very excited to see the rest of it.
Q: What quality of your character do you think fans should focus on most or pay attention to most this season?
Beckles: I think, for Okarun. Just that Jiji is there. He only showed up at the end of the first season, of course, and he, I think, was trying to get a grasp of how he felt about Jiji, especially how it relates to his relationship with Momo. And he’s trying to figure out if it’s okay if he feels this way about Momo, is he being too weird with Jiji? Is Jiji actually a good guy or a bad guy? Or blah blah blah. And I think a lot of that is going to be explored in this next part, whereas I think Momo had her little moment when Aira first showed up in the 1st season, now it’s Okarun’s turn to have his little self discovery with Jiji.
Trott: I don’t know if this applies to just Season 2. But I think Momo’s cleverness and resourcefulness is something to keep an eye on.
Le: I think for me, it’s Jiji’s empathy, which is not something that he had to necessarily show in the first season. He cared for his friends and his newly made friend. But I think we’ll get to see a lot more of that in this season, and how it expands, and how it builds his character. So I’m super excited for fans to meet that side of him.
Q: I see. And this season, like last season, has some comedy amidst all the action and everything else. I wanted to ask if there were any particular funny behind the scenes moments that you can remember during filming.
Le: I feel like, when Jiji is around the group of everybody else, Seiko and all of the other characters. he’s gonna get a lot more moments to just be a background player. And usually when you say that that’s a bad thing like “Oh, he’s in the background.” But the thing that’s so special about DAN DA DAN is that every time a character is in the background they’re hilarious. In the first season one of my favorite moments, and you can’t even hear it all that well, was when Momo, Okarun and Seiko were talking, and in the background Jiji was just fighting Turbo Granny, screeching as she was scratching him up, and I just thought that was hilarious. So there’s a lot more of Jiji doing that for the season, and I’ve had a lot of fun just playing into that because you can go as ridiculous as you want.
Trott: I don’t know if this is a funny behind the scenes, but every time I go in to record, and there’s a new character, if I don’t recognize them immediately, I’ll go “Alex, who is that? Who’s voicing this person,” and he’ll go “Oh, it’s — I can’t tell you,” and I’m like “I’m in the show.” And then the engineer this season, Keeley [Keeley Pierson], was just like “You can tell her.” So it’s us arguing over whether or not you can tell me who voices who.
Beckles: Yeah, I don’t really know if there’s many funny moments. But there’s a sequence in the film that has to do with numbers and Okarun. And it was a lot of fun, because I wanted to make sure I didn’t get upstaged by Natsuki Hanae. He was an amazing performer. But I was like, “I’m not gonna let them cut. I want to do this all in one take as best as I can” but it was really hard. It took me a lot, you know. I was getting really close to being able to do it, and I would get right at the end and run out of breath. So yeah, that was fun.
Q: Yeah, I can definitely imagine that being a bit difficult. And my next question: Jiji is being kind of continuously introduced to the audience, and that means that the the DAN DA DAN wacky family has an extra member. How does it feel both as your character and as a member of the cast seeing that family and that group grow?
Le: I think it’s really fun, because my favorite part of any shonen anime series is when the main characters just get to hang out, you know. And so it’s also a great honor to be a part of such an amazing cast of people, and it’s always the best when the people on the cast are your friends. So you naturally have that built-in chemistry. So for me, it was a lot of fun to play opposite of people that I don’t usually get to play opposite of, or people that I have played opposite of, like me and Abby, or people that I don’t usually get to play off of like AJ, so it’s an all around good time for me. And I love having a specific role to fill in a bigger, wackier circle. So that’s a lot of where my enjoyment comes from.
Trott: Yeah, definitely, it’s always interesting to see how the core cast is affected and changes when a new element is introduced, like Jiji or Aira, and to see that little fam grow. I also have yet to meet some of the cast members, major cast members, who I’m very much looking forward to meeting tonight, and I’ve been messaging with people on social media. But we haven’t met in person yet. So I’m really excited to share the evening with some of the new cast members.
Beckles: As a fan of the show, and just a fan of anime and things in general, like Aleks, I love seeing where the show ends up with these characters, and how the relationships kind of grow, and how they get closer to each other and everything. I’m just a sucker for that stuff, and that’s really cool. But having Aleks as a part of the team is really awesome, especially in in a bigger way. This time is really cool, because Aleks is really talented. And there’s other people that are going to be introduced as well that I’m sure did an amazing job. I haven’t heard everybody yet. I’ll be hearing some people for the first time, but I think the team did an impeccable job of casting this show. Getting to hear all of us have our little arguments in the background, or the conversations one on one, like the way I might read a line, and then hearing how Abby read it, and then hearing it together and being like, “Oh, my gosh, it’s perfect.” It’s a really cool thing. So yeah, I’m looking forward to to being along for the ride as the crew grows.
Q: With regard to hearing those lines from other people, has the frequency of how often you’re hearing someone else’s line before doing your own changed at all? Or has that just been a continuous part of recording both seasons?
Le: It’s always random, honestly. Sometimes it depends on how they schedule us. Sometimes we go in, and then other people have already recorded. Sometimes we go in, and we’re the first to record. So we just have to kind of use our intuition as actors to kind of be like, “I know this person. This is probably how they would say this line” or just use the context of the scene and be like, there’s a few possibilities this could go, and this is probably the best route for the scene, and I’m sure the other actors are skilled and talented enough to pick up on that same idea. So we all kind of just fill in the puzzles. And also we have our director, Alex von David, there to guide us, to make sure everything fits together. So I mean, I feel like the frequency is always going to be that you never know who’s going to be in there. But we can all at least breathe a sigh of relief that in the end it’s probably going to sound good together.
Q: And my next question is more about fan interactions and conventions. It’s convention season, and I wanted to ask: did the reception to Season 1 surprise you at all, or if the sort of overwhelming response was more or less what you expected?
Beckles: I was a fan of DAN DA DAN beforehand, and I and I knew how great Yukinobu Tatsu’s work was, but it still was a more — I want to say niche, but it wasn’t crazy big as a manga. But I remember seeing the social media blow up after the first couple episodes came out, but I think it being a weekly release really helped with that, because everyone’s experiencing it together and enjoying the hype together. But we get to go to cons and we can see how popular the things we are in are based off of how many people are in our line. And pre DAN DA DAN, not that many people — grateful for everybody that comes up to me, but like post DAN DA DAN there’s been so many folks that are really excited about it. So I would say that it’s had a big impression. And on top of that, there’s cosplayers for it everywhere. I’ve seen so many people do couples cosplays and stuff like that of Momo and Okarun. Different outfits and everything. It’s really, really, really cool to see. You can never predict this stuff. I feel like you can’t fully know when a show is going to be big or not, or whatever. But I think the team that’s handling DAN DA DAN has done such a great job of marketing it and making sure people can see it and everything. And the work speaks for itself.
Trott: Yeah, it’s been very surprising to see how quickly the number of people who’ve come to see me for Momo has matched the number for Nezuko. So that’s how I can gauge how rapidly popular the show has become.
Beckles: Abnormally, too, because I feel like it usually takes a couple of seasons. But after this first season people are already loving it.
Q: One thing that I think DAN DA DAN is known for is the blending of genres. What do you think about that blend is so appealing to so many people?
Le: I think everything is done in such a tasteful way, and it’s really cool to see. This is one of the first series where I’ve seen such creative decisions come in every way in terms of compositing, and then also framing of how episodes are done. With Episode 7 and Acro Silky there was so much personal input on the animation side. That expanded the manga’s couple pages into like this full blown episode, and the direction for the show just stood out to me as so beautiful and unique, and how it can go from such a funny comedy to something super emotional in like a snap of a finger. So I enjoy it a lot. It does give me intense whiplash sometimes. But I guess that’s that’s what makes for a good viewing experience, right? Like with these 3 episodes coming out in theaters. You’re gonna see that as well where we go from oh, silly fun to oh, my God, depression back to like oh, action. So I think the show keeps the viewers on their toes all the time, and that’s one of the best things about it. And it’s it’s just awesome to be along for the ride.
Beckles: Yeah, you can’t really take your eyes off that. There’s always something happening. And I feel like for my ADHD brain I’m like, “Oh, this is great, right?” There’s always new stuff happening. And I think it’s really cool. And it’s, you know, a Testament to the writing that Yukinobu Tatsu does. And you know, whoever does the adaptation in Japan did an incredible job adapting it from the manga to the anime in such a dynamic way. It’s really difficult to have all these different ideas together and have it somehow make sense to make the viewer go “Oh, yeah. Sounds about right.” With all — there’s golden balls, and there’s aliens. And there’s also, you know, depression. Yeah, it’s really cool.
We’d like to thank Abby Trott, AJ Beckles, and Aleks Le for taking the time to have a conversation with us about one of the best anime in years. We’d also like to thank fine folks over at GKIDS and 42West for arranging the interview. DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE premiered on May 30 in Asia (excluding Japan), premiered June 6 in North America, and premiered in Europe on June 7.
Season 2 begins streaming July 3. For those planning to attend Anime Expo 2025, a panel featuring director Fuga Yamashiro from Science SARU and Abby Trott, AJ Beckles, and Aleks Le takes place Saturday, July 5 from 4:30PM to 5:20 PM PT at Peacock Theater.
You can also check out our interview with Abel Góngora, the other co-director of DAN DA DAN Season 2.
©Yukinobu Tatsu/SHUEISHA, DANDADAN Production Committee
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