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Kaiju No. 8 Panel Brings Plenty of Energy to Anime Expo

Kaiju No. 8 has established itself as one of the more popular shows to have come out in the past year. That reality hits hard when you sit in the middle of the Peacock Theater in LA and find almost its entire main floor filled with loud and dedicated Kaiju No. 8 fans. Their presence and cheers were rewarded with the appearance of Nazeeh Tarsha and Masaya Fukunishi, the voice actor for the main character of the series, Kafka, in English and Japanese respectively. Hosted by Crunchyroll, they were also joined by Shawn Gann, the ADR Director for the Kaiju No. 8 English dub, and the crew gave us some insight into how much this franchise meant to all of them.

This was my first time seeing anything from Fukunishi in person, and I have to say that he is probably one of the most animated people I have ever seen. That says a lot at an anime convention. Despite having an interpreter, he was trying his best to relate to the fandom as directly as he could. His voice was loud, his movements felt exaggerated yet genuine, and he got some of the biggest laughs out of the entire panel. Probably my favorite bit (and maybe even the entire convention) was when he was asked what the audition process was like for him getting cast in the series…only for him to act out him begging the director about how much he desperately wanted this job as a fan of the manga.

Tarsha was definitely not as animated as Fukunishi, but he was no less genuine in how much this franchise has meant to him since being cast in the lead role. He talked about what the audition process was like and how he almost threw out his audition entirely because he wasn't satisfied with it. Then, after thinking about it until three in the morning, he went back into his recording booth and practiced for over an hour before sending in his audition. He loves Kafka as a character and even described him as a lovable thirty-two-year-old goober, which was a sentiment that everybody seemed to agree with. Even Gann commented that working on this show has genuinely moved him and there were times where he felt like he was almost brought to tears. All three of them seemed to describe coming to these conventions and sharing in this love for the franchise as a surreal experience.

The panel did feature a nice live dubbing segment from both of our actors. Specifically, it was the scene towards the end of season one where Kafka, as Kaiju No. 8, was focusing all of his power to destroy a large meteor from destroying the area that he was in with his friends. The loud roar that both actors delivered echoed throughout the entire hall, and while they didn't sound exactly the same, the sheer force behind them both got enthusiastic from the crowd. We then got to see a little preview of what to expect in season two and the panel ended with the same amount of enthusiasm as it started with. It truly is a great time to be a fan.