Dan Da Dan’s dub actors feel the love

As 2024 approaches Dan Yes Dan became the talk of shonen town. From the chemistry of his two leads to his initial kick and unusual styleScience Saru’s adaptation of Yukinobu Tatsu’s supernatural romcom has captured the hearts and minds of anime fans who tune in every week to see what madness Momo Ayase and Okarun will be caught in the next one.

In early December, io9 spoke with Momo and Okarun’s respective voice actors, Abby Trott and AJ Beckles, who approached the material in different ways. Beckles had already read the manga before the audition, while Trott only knew about it during the audition. They were both captivated and quite shocked that they booked the parts – and just how great the dubbing was defined in its own right.

“Seeing some of the comments about how some people like the dub and have switched to it has been really cool,” Beckles said. The sub v. dub war has been around since the dawn of time, but he said Dan Yes Dan avoided being involved thanks to heavy marketing for its dubbing and the actors had plenty of time to record. That’s not always the case with anime, and he says the show is better for it: with no preconceived notions about Japanese or English voices, viewers were free to like whichever version they wanted.

While audiences have been praising the show for months, some viewers were turned off by the second half of the first episode, in which Momo and Okarun find themselves in danger from extraterrestrials. While Okarun is hunted and possessed by the demonic Turbo Granny, Momo finds herself in a more harrowing situation where she is kidnapped by aliens called Serpo, who strip her down to her underwear and prepare to steal her reproductive organs. It’s a rather sudden tonal shift, not helped by the still having traces of comedy as Serpo refers to said organs as ‘bananas’.

When asked, both actors readily admitted how “unpleasant” the scene can be to watch, and neither blames anyone for leaving the show because of it. For Trott, the scene is a pivotal moment for her character, as this is when Momo’s psychokinetic powers emerge. Once she realizes what she can do, she immediately goes on the offensive, and several of the big action shots of the season involve Momo getting better her abilities— so having her gain that power and immediately use it to “kick Serpos’ asses” was satisfying.

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

Beckles shared a similar sentiment and pointed to Momo using her grandmother’s advice and receiving surprising help from Turbo Granny as examples of how women support each other throughout the story. As a manga reader, he indicated that things are looking up going forward, saying that viewers will “see as the show goes on that it really takes these moments more seriously.” The two actors also emphasized Okarun’s presence and “healthy perspective” on women, allowing the show to contrast him with the more invasive Serpoians.

After the fourth episode, Momo and Okarun’s slow-burn romance really starts to take shape. Their growing relationship is even more notable since other shonen often have romance as an add-on to their stories rather than the core. Tatsu known revealed that during tilting Dan Yes Dan, his editor Shihei Lin recommended that he read Shoujo (or “young girl”) manga, which emphasizes personal and romantic relationships. If Lynn hadn’t given the advice, the series might not be what it is now, and probably wouldn’t have the same impact and excitement surrounding it. The public loves good a love storyand they know when it’s not hitting. But because they’re so well-written and clearly defined — and can never be normal around each other, especially in public — it’s hard not to fall in love with Momo and Okarun.

Even when the couple is caught in some wild things, their feelings for each other determine almost everything they do. Learning that it was a love story didn’t change either actor’s take on the material, but Trott said the scene where Okarun and Momo fight for the first time clearly showed where things were going. For Beckles, some of his favorite scenes for his character are when Okarun is “just trying to figure out how to talk to a girl for the first time” or telling Momo how much I don’t care what he thinks.

The dynamics between the cables are just as important in the cabin. When it came time to record, they both said they preferred when the other was already first, as it allowed them to feed off each other. Trott said she gets “so much” from her co-host, especially since Okarun often “provokes a certain reaction” from Momo, prompting her to adjust her answers accordingly. The same goes for Beckles, who admitted that the more intimate, romantic scenes would trip him up, as Okarun tends to speak from the heart.

While Momo’s encounter with Serpo helps trigger her psychic powers, Okarun’s experience with Turbo Granny leaves him with a partial essence of spirit powers that allow him to transform into a faster, smoother, and more laid back emo version from myself. As Beckles explained it, finding a default voice for Okarun—which he would then use when the character is more expressive or in his Turbo mode—took several recording sessions. In those early episodes, Okarun was “always yelling or whispering and there was so much of that happening one after the other” to establish a baseline. Beckles credits voice director Alex Von David with guiding him on moments to make his voice “nerdier or kinder. Alex has the big picture and knows where Okarun is going. I really relied on him at the points where it was difficult, but it’s nice when it’s a challenge to try to do something the right way.”

One particular challenge he cited was episode four “goodbye” scene. between Okarun and Momo, which he called one of the most infuriating moments he had recorded. Since he was the first to enter the booth that day, it was difficult to consider Okarun’s thought process as to how Trott would perform during her taping. and the meaning behind every “goodbye” spoken. “Once (Abby) recorded first thing the next day,” he said, “the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. I could play her emotions and it could play out that way. I don’t think we could have gotten this tender, childlike read without her “See you later!”

During our conversation, Beckles and Trott called out several others that they did To Dan Yes Dan adaptation a success. Along with fans and Von David, they gave glowing praise to their fellow voice actors Lisa Reimold (Ira) and Barbara Goodson (Turbo Grandma), as well as the respective Japanese performers of their own characters, Natuski Hanae and Shion Wakayama. (Trott called Wakayama’s Momo one of her favorite anime performances to date and a “perfect embodiment” of Japan’s gyaru subculture.) Taking on this journey was a blast for both of them, so it’s good that we’ll be hearing them again on Netflix and Crunchyroll with second season in July 2025.

And while they couldn’t say anything about what’s to come, Beckles teased that where things left off “is tame compared to where the show will pick up later.”

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