Dan Da Dan actors are feeling the love

As 2024 draws to a close, Dan da dan It has become the talk of the shounen town. From the chemistry of the two leads to Sausage opening and offbeat styleScience Saru’s adaptation of director Yukinobu Tatsu’s supernatural romantic comedy has captured the hearts and minds of anime fans, who have been tuning in weekly to find out just how crazy Momo Ayase and Okaron will be arrested next time.

In early December, io9 spoke with Momo and Okarun’s representatives, Abby Trott and AJ Beckles, who accessed the material through various methods. Pickles had already been reading the manga before the audition, while Trott only learned about it through the audition. They both became fascinated, and were quite shocked when they booked the parts – and how great the dubbing in particular was in its own right.

“It’s been really cool to see some feedback on how some people enjoy dubbing and are into it,” Pickles said. The “sub vs. dubbing” war has been around since the dawn of time, but he said Dan da dan Duplication was avoided thanks to the extensive marketing of its dubbing, and the actors had adequate time to record. This isn’t always the case with anime, and according to him, the show is the best for it: without preconceived notions surrounding Japanese or English voices, viewers were free to like whatever version they wanted.

While audiences have been praising the series for months, some viewers were disturbed by the second half of the first episode, in which both Momo and Okaron find themselves in danger from otherworldly beings. While Okaron is chased and possessed by the demonic Turbo Granny, Momo ends up in an even more terrifying situation as she is kidnapped by aliens called Serpo, who strip her to her underwear and prepare to steal her genitals. It’s a very sudden shift in tone, not helped by the presence of traces of comedy as Cerbo’s call to members says “bananas”.

When asked, both actors readily admitted how “not fun” the scene was to watch, and they didn’t blame anyone for jumping off the show because of it. For Trott, the scene is a key moment in her character, as it is when Momo’s psychokinetic powers emerge. Once she realizes what she can do, she immediately goes on the attack, and several big events in the season have involved Momo getting better control. Her abilities-So for her to gain that power and immediately use it to “kick Cerbus’ butts” was satisfying.

“In this scene, we’re not saying the Serbs are good, quite the opposite. There are a lot of dynamics in this anime, and definitely some difficult parts to get through,” Trott said. “But the good outweighs those moments that are difficult to watch.”

Pickles shared similar sentiments, and pointed to how Momo uses her grandmother’s advice and gets surprise help from Turbo Granny as examples of how the women support each other throughout the story. As a reader of the manga, he noted that things get better in the future, saying that viewers “will see, as the show goes on, that he takes those moments seriously.” The two actors also highlighted Okarón’s presence and “healthy perspective” towards women, allowing the show to contrast him with the more conquest Serbians.

After the fourth episode, the slow romance between Momo and Okaron begins to take shape. Their growing relationship is made more apparent since other shounen often have romance as an addition to their stories rather than the substance. Tatsu He famously revealed this while promoting dan da dan, His editor Shihe Lin recommended shoujo (or “little girl”) manga, which focus on interpersonal relationships and romance. If Lin hadn’t offered advice, the series might not be what it is now, and would likely lack the same impact and excitement surrounding it. The masses love good things love storyAnd they know when not to hit. But since they’re so well-written and clearly defined—and can never be natural with each other, especially in public—it’s hard not to root for Momo and Okaron.

Even when the spouse is caught in some Wild Things, their feelings for each other determine almost everything they do. Knowing that this was a love story didn’t change the way any of the actors approached the material, but Trott said the scene in which Okaron and Momo first fight made clear where things were headed. For Pickles, some of his favorite scenes for his character are when Okaron is trying to “just figure out how to talk to a girl for the first time,” or telling Momo how much he cares about him. Care what you think.

The dynamic between leads is just as important in the booth. When it comes time to record, the two actors said they prefer the other to come first, because it allows them to feed each other. Trout said that she gets “a lot” from her main partner, especially since Okaron often “elicits a certain reaction” from Momo which causes her to adjust her responses accordingly. Much the same is true for Pickles, who admitted that more intimate romantic scenes would put him off because O’Carron tends to speak from his heart.

Where Momo’s encounter with Serpo helps stimulate her psychic powers, Okaron’s experience with Turbo Granny leaves him with a partial core of soul powers, allowing him to transform faster, smoother, and more. Laid-back emo version From himself. As Pickles explained, finding Okarun’s default voice—which he would then use when the character was more expressive or in his Turbo mode—took several recording sessions. In those early episodes, O’Carron was “always shouting or whispering, and there was a lot going on back-to-back” to establish a baseline. Pickles credited voice director Alex Von David with guiding him toward moments to make his voice “smarter or more endearing.” Alex has a big-picture vision, and he knows where Ocaron is headed. I really relied on him at points where it was difficult, but it’s good when it’s challenging to try to do something the right way.

One specific challenge he cited was Episode IV “Farewell” scene. between Okaron and Momo, which he described as one of the “most infuriating moments” he had recorded. Since he first entered the booth that day, it’s been hard to think about O’Carron’s thought process, and how Trott would perform during taping time. and The meaning behind every word “goodbye” that is uttered. “Once Abby recorded the first song the next day, the pieces of the puzzle started connecting,” he said. “I could play with her emotions, and I could build it that way. I don’t think we could have had that adorable, childlike reading without ‘See you later!’

During our conversation, Pickles and Trott shouted out several other people who have done this Dan da dan Adaptation a success. Along with fans and Vaughn David, they gave high praise to fellow actors Lisa Reimold (Aira) and Barbara Goodson (Turbo Granny), and their characters’ Japanese performers, Natosuke Hanae and Shion Wakayama. (Trott called Momo Wakayama one of her favorite anime shows of all time, and the “perfect embodiment” of Japan’s gyaru subculture.) Going on this journey has been a blast for them, so it’s nice to hear them back on Netflix and Crunchyroll with Season 2 in July 2025.

While they couldn’t say anything about what’s to come, Pickles teased that where things left off “is quiet compared to where the show is going next.”

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