Anime has established itself as the next big thing thanks to its success Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which earned over $600 million worldwide at the box office and beat Superman. More anime will be hitting theaters soon, including Man with a chainsaw at the end of October and Jujutsu Kaisen There's never been a better time to be a fan in December.
But not everyone is so happy. Voice actors who help bring anime to American audiences are concerned that Hollywood might see the dollar signs and make a very predictable choice: replace them with A-list stars and pump out mediocre content.
At New York Comic-Con, Polygon spoke with the actors of the English dub. Jujutsu Kaisen — Adam McArthur (Yuji), Robbie Daymond (Megumi Fushiguro), Ann Yatko (Nobara), Kaiji Tan (Gojo), and Kaylee McKee (Yuta) on the current state of anime and how Demon SlayerRussia's success may influence its future.
Mega hits like Demon Slayer don't appear out of nowhere. This anime series has been building its fan base for five years (including 63 episodes and the previous film, Mugen Train) before release Endless Castle. According to JKcast, it is impossible to jump straight to box office success.
“Hollywood will try to look at this and think: Oh damn, anime movies, let's goright? But I think the true formula for a successful anime film is that you really need those pre-production seasons,” says Tan. “You have to follow the story for two, three, four years. Seeing the culmination of this story, or at least a very large part of it, on the big screen is something of a reward for being there for all these seasons. That's when you get huge Demon Slayer numbers. That's when you get so much hype for a film from fans, that's the secret. I think if you just start releasing random anime movies you won't get Demon Slayer numbers”.
The bigger concern, especially with this cast, is that Hollywood may decide to replace them with more famous American actors.
“I personally feel honored to be the last generation of anime voice actors,” Daymond says, drawing thunderous laughter from his colleagues. “I will say this: once these corporations get a hold of it, it will just be a bunch of celebrities doing bad anime voice work and hopefully they will do a great job. I wish them the best – it's pure bitterness.”
And despite the growing success of the genre, McKee is confident that this will not affect voice actors.
“They're not going to increase our wages,” McKee said. “They're just going to find a celebrity.”
Tan joked back, “Chris Pratt as Gojo?”
Their exchange highlights a familiar trend in the games industry, where traditional voice actors are being seamlessly replaced by established actors – for example, David Hayter being replaced by Kiefer Sutherland V Metal Gear Solid V or Chris Pratt voicing Mario in the 2023 film. Voice actors in the gaming space are often treated as disposable, and once Hollywood fully embraces anime, there will be little that can prevent the same pattern from repeating itself—or worse.
McKee laments, “Celebrities on the right, artificial intelligence on the left.”
