Colombian artist J Balvin is no stranger to art or the success that comes from it. But now he’s stepping into the world of anime and voice acting to apply his talents to a new kind of art. Roughly two weeks ago, Crunchyroll announced that the GRAMMY®-nominated artist would be voicing a character in the current season of Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From the Shadow- in both the English and Spanish dubs. Today, that character was revealed to be none other than Kargalgan, the incredibly powerful and menacing high orc mage who forced Jinwoo to go all out in one of the best episodes of the series to date.
Ahead of the airing of Solo Leveling Season 2’s fifth and sixth episodes (17 and 18 overall), both of which heavily feature Kargalgan, we had the opportunity to sit down with J Balvin and talk about his role in Solo Leveling as well as his love of anime overall.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited.
Getting into Anime and Joining Solo Leveling
J Balvin explained that, like many anime fans, his love for the medium started when he was a young child and continues to this day. To start off our conversation, it made sense to get an understanding of how long he’s been interested in anime — whether this was a recent appreciation or a lifelong one.
“I started since I was, I don’t know, I think 10 years old. Because at that time it was Supercampeones [The name for Captain Tsubasa in some Spanish-speaking countries]. It was a football — a soccer anime.”
“So my first contact with anime was Captain Tsubasa. And after that, then I started well, Dragon Ball, of course. And Zodiac Knights, or Knight Zodiacs [Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac]. Those are the other ones that I was watching way before. I think I didn’t choose anime. They chose me. I think anime chose all of us. I think people don’t really look for it. It’s kind of — it finds you. That’s how I see it with all my friends. It wasn’t like they were like, ‘Well, I’m going to look for this.’ It’s just like, there was someone and someone showed them, or someone said ‘Oh, you should check this out.’ And then you became an addict.”
He noted that plenty of his friends also watch anime and that some see it as something more for children.
“A lot of them [watch anime]. Some of them think I’m crazy and that I’m never going to grow up.
And they’re right. Yeah, I just love it, man. It makes me feel like a kid all the time. I forget about everything. I just stay focused in that. Those worlds where I definitely can have my inner child connected all the time. So, I love it, man. To me, it’s amazing.”
Balvin hadn’t watched Solo Leveling when he first got the call to be a part of the project and his team wasn’t familiar with his love for anime and manga. In many ways it was a perfect pairing while at the same time being a someway coincidental one. I asked him how he first came to work on the project.
“I received a call from my management team, and they asked me. At that time, they didn’t know that I was so into manga. So they were just like, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you might do this.’ And I’m like, ‘What? Really?’ And I’m like, ‘Of course.’ I mean, to me it’s a pleasure and it’s a dream to be in this project.”
While this is his first anime voice acting role, Balvin has had some touchpoints with the world in his capacity as a musician. He’s performed at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan and previously collaborated with Tokyo hip-hop trio M-Flo on the title track for the animated movie Human Lost, which premiered at Anime Expo 2019. Back then, he quickly jumped on an opportunity to get involved with Japan and the world of anime, and the same can be said for Solo Leveling. Balvin explained that he immediately began watching the series once talks started about him having a role in it.
“I got into Solo Leveling once I started having the conversations [about the role]. I knew about it. I was watching some episodes, but then I’m like, ‘Hold up, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.’ And I watched the whole season, Season 1 and Season 2, which is not done yet, Season 2. And it connected with me immediately because I jumped from — I was super in love with Demon Slayer, and then you jump to another type of monsters, or like grown up monsters and a different type of vibe. It feels like I was continuing the world that I was into — from Demon Slayer to Solo Leveling.
It was perfect timing for me to just finish this one and keep going with the other one. It was mind blowing. And I think the character of Jinwoo is really special. I think it’s concerning a little bit that he got so cold. I wish he could get back to what he was when he started, so naive. But if I’m not mistaken, at the beginning, something was said about that, ‘You’re going to start getting coldhearted,’ something like that, right? And it’s definitely working on him. But I missed the first one, when he was so naive and smiling. But he’s dope.”
Balvin noted that he’s only watched the series and hasn’t read the original manhwa. He explained that in Colombia, there weren’t often Spanish versions of manga while he was growing up. If any were available, they tended to be in English or Japanese.
“We didn’t have, at that time, the Spanish version. So we never had that chance to have the books, the comics in our language, in Spanish. So I never had that. And now, I want to, because reading the comics, or reading the books, you’re always going to be ahead. Because you know what’s up, you know? So I’m going to go run away and read it (laughs).”
In terms of the impact celebrities and musicians stepping into the world of anime can have on the industry, J Balvin explained that all artforms are connected and that anime has even helped inspire him.
“I think both are ways to express. Everything that you want to express, anything that you want to express as a feeling, it’s art. So I think it’s really connected. I don’t think people or every artist has to get inspired by anime. I don’t think so. But me personally, aesthetically-wise, and color-wise, too, or some stories can definitely help me with my creative process to do something that inspires me.”
“I actually did a Pokémon soundtrack four years ago. And I have a video with Pikachu and Times Square.
I’ve been doing those things for a while now. So to me, it’s natural. I love it.”
I asked him whether he saw a future where Latin music like reggaeton and anime could overlap more, maybe even an anime about the music genre. He wasn’t so sure about that happening, but felt there was soundtrack potential.
“I don’t know if a story about reggaeton would fit in the right way. I’ve been watching so many different anime in my life. And a musical one, at least to me, hasn’t connected yet. I love the stories and where they go. And I’m just a kid, man. I just want to see monsters and devils and dragons and everything that is surreal. But definitely soundtrack, 1,000%. You can definitely add reggaeton and Spanish trap and dancehall in Spanish, afrobeat in Spanish, everything on the urban side in Spanish. You definitely can do something amazing for anime.”
Voicing Kargalgan
In his voice acting debut, J Balvin noted that there are parts of performing music he’s able to carry over with him into voice acting and that doing one makes him want to the other.
“Well, I was shooting a movie in Canada, like, four months ago. It makes you feel that you’ve got to get into that world. And I’m not saying that it’s easy, because I don’t even know if I’m a good actor or not until people watch the movie. And I don’t even know if I’m doing a good voiceover until people check out Solo Leveling. But all I know is that I have fun, and it makes me feel comfortable. It’s not like I feel like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ Of course, it’s tedious. You have to do it over and over again. But when you love it, it definitely flows better.”
Balvin also explained that whether it’s in English or Spanish, his approach is about getting fully into character.
“English is not my first language. So we started with the English one. Once I jumped into the Spanish one, for me it’s just like swimming in the pool, and I know how to swim, because people don’t know (laughs). But yeah, I mean, it’s good because you’re in character. So it’s not Jose, it’s not J Balvin. Even if it’s in Spanish or English, or even if I didn’t even know Italian, but they teach me how to say it right, I will get into the character.”
Next, I wanted to dive into his perspective on Kargalgan as the voice behind him in the English and Spanish dubs.
“Kargalgan is to me so far, the best boss I’ve seen till now. This one, [he has] so many powers. He’s telepathic, he can possess other bodies, he has anti-gravity power, he has such a big presence. He’s the boss. And he really expresses fear. And I like those type of challenges to me that aren’t related with the light and color that I normally do when I do music. This is like a totally opposite side of who I am. We all have darkness inside, that’s a fact. But in this case, we definitely gotta let it out even more.”
“Kargalgan, he definitely knows what he wants. I do know, too, when it comes to my profession and to my art. I think that’s the only way we definitely have something in common. The rest is totally opposite.”
He compared channeling the character’s unique personality to performing his own music.
“It’s like when you’re on stage. You connect with the people and you just let it go. It’s always the same with this character.”
“I had the chance to watch it in Japanese. So I took the idea and the vibe and the energy. And it’s this guttural voice that’s kind of hard to do it just by nature all the time. But once you’re getting the vibe and they can tweak it with some sound effects, it’s just gonna be crazy. Well, that’s how I imagined it and I think that’s how it’s gonna sound. And my throat hurts. I’ve got a terrible sore throat now.”
Prior to our conversation, J Balvin was just recording lines for the episode (and we’re grateful he endured to speak even more).
“Oh, yeah, I just got out. You know, I barely can talk. But yeah it’s a beautiful experience. It’s different to have such professional people around. People that have done voiceover for years and maybe for their whole life. So it’s so cool to see the passion they have, how good they are when it comes to details, how professional everybody is, from the sound engineer, which is super important, but also the guideline of what to do, you know, how to get better. I mean, it wouldn’t be possible without them, definitely. Absolutely.”
His favorite scene to record thus far? The first time we get to physically lay eyes on Kargalgan.
“I think the moment when he introduced himself, you know, ‘Welcome, humans.’ It’s like, you’re in my world now, so what you gonna do? That’s amazing. Now we’re talking another language. That’s my favorite part.”
To close, I wanted to know how he felt being able to represent Colombia in the voice acting space.
“I think it’s beautiful, because, you know, everything that we’re doing, it’s not about me anymore, it’s more about the culture. You know, of course, it’s a blessing that I can live with music and go around the world and touch different aspects of culture from Jordans to being part of Solo Leveling. So everything we do, we’re opening the door from our culture to give us a different space and different platforms. Now we’re here, Solo Leveling, of course, and it’ll be good to see more people from Latin America doing it and not just artists. It’s like, it doesn’t matter, you know? But this always goes to every immigrant thinking to do something like that too. You don’t have to be from Japan or from U.S. to make a voiceover. You just got to love what you do. From Nigeria to Peru, or from France to Egypt. It’s just the passion you do for it.”
We’d like to thank J Balvin for taking the time to sit down in conversation with us about his voicing Kargalgan in Solo Leveling Season 2. It was incredibly nice to get his perspective on the character and his unique perspective as a musician diving into the world of voice acting for the first time. For those watching the English dub of Solo Leveling, episodes 5 and 6 will release together on February 22nd. Look forward to seeing J Balvin debut on that date.
Images via Crunchyroll
© Solo Leveling Animation Partners
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