Going All Out with the Cast of DAN DA DAN Panel at Anime Boston

With 4700 square feet, the Sheraton Republic Ballroom in Boston's Sheraton hotel, adjacent to the Hynes Convention Center, can easily hold a few hundreds of people. For the Going All Out with the Cast of DAN DA DAN panel at Anime Boston, it was filled to capacity—and you could probably fill one of the venue's regular-sized panel rooms to capacity and then some with all the people standing in the overflow line, trying to get in. One thing was already abundantly clear: people love DAN DA DAN—and includes the voice actors who were hosting the panel: A.J. Beckles (Okarun), Anairis Quiñones (Muko), and Kari Wahlgren (Seiko).

The panel started off with some introductions and general icebreaker questions about voice acting—e.g., the differences between recording for anime versus video games or western cartoons and what it's like encountering fans who grew up with their characters (“if this is what aging and getting old is like, you guys, I'm here for it,” responded Wahlgren happily).

The question that got the (gold) ball rolling on DAN DA DAN-centric conversation was about times that, when working, had the voice actors saying, “I'm doing what now?” Beckles—who had been reading the manga about a year before the anime was confirmed—immediately responded that, “I feel like if I wasn't a fan of DAN DA DAN, that would be my reaction to DAN DA DAN.”

“That was my reaction to DAN DA DAN,” Wahlgren followed up to a wave of laughter from the audience. She'd go on to share that originally, she had auditioned for Turbo Granny—a role which ultimately went to Barbara Goodson, who played opposite Wahlgren in FLCL (with Goodson as Naota and Wahlgren as Haruko). “So when we both got the granny parts in the show,” Wahlgren continued, “we were like, messaging each other back and forth like, 'oh my god, it's all come full circle… like a big, golden ball.'”

Finally, Quiñones (who's engaged to Beckles) mentioned that Beckles' reading the manga prepped her for a lot of what DAN DA DAN was—though after years of reading manga and watching anime, she's largely unfazed by the weirdness of it all. She mentioned Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World as another example. How her character, Elletear, “is supposed to be this seductive, big sister baddie. And then all of a sudden, she takes the main character aside and she's like, 'Hey, so, do you want to help me, like, lead this whole rebellion against my mother?' And he's like, 'No. What? Why do you want to do that? That's treason.' [And she's like,] 'Oh, okay. So do you want to like, sleep together?' And I'm like, 'WHOA. OKAY,' but also like, 'Ah, yeah, anime. There you go.'”

The Q&A, which had members of the audience lining up at a microphone to ask the trio of voice actors their questions, was the main focus of the panel. Not unlike countless other voice actor panels, a lot of the questions were general ones about voice acting. And while most such questions were on-par with the kind of thing you've probably heard asked time and time again at other voice actor panels (e.g., favorite and least favorite aspects of voice acting, and what inspired them to get into voice acting), one stood out: whether or not any of them (or rather, Beckles and Quiñones; this wasn't as much of a thing when Wahlgren, the elder of the group, got into voice acting) had previously been involved in fan dubs.

Quiñones openly admit to having done fan dubs once upon a time, as did Beckles—who emphasized that it was a good way to practice. They both explained that many other voice actors in their generation have tried their hands and fan dubbing in the past, and this goes double for aspiring voice actors who were based out of the East Coast—far from voice acting hubs like California or Texas. Beckles advised that if you, as an aspiring voice actor involved in fan dubs, are worried what professionals might think, then just don't tell them.

But of course, the audience was here for DAN DA DAN first and foremost, so there were plenty of questions about the show. One question was about how much the voice actors knew about yokai before working on DAN DA DAN. The consensus was not a lot, but they've all been having fun learning more about them as the show has gone on. Another was about what ghost story, cryptid, or other manner of urban legend they would like to see explored in DAN DA DAN if they had power over the script. Quiñones immediately answered Wendigo. For Beckles it was "big foot" (but not like, that Big Foot, just like, a big, hairy foot), and for Wahlgren, she wanted Bloody Mary.

When it cames to scenes that stood out for the trio, either for being fun or a challenge to voice, Beckles immediately referenced the “Goodbye” scene at the end of episode four, which had Okarun repeating the phrase “goodbye” over and over again in different ways. Wahlgren then talked about how it was tricky getting synced up during the sushi eating scene. As for Quiñones, she talked about having fun matching the energy in Jiji's introduction to the class.

Things then moved in a sillier direction with a question about what their individual character's Dunkin Donuts order would be (if you've never been to Massachusetts, and Boston in particular, then suffice to say, they're EVERYWHERE). For Okarun, it was the same as what Beckles normally gets: bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant, and if it's available, a coolata. For Muko, it would be a donut with rainbow sprinkles, and a refresher. And for Seiko, it was black coffee, munchkins, and something with a creamy filling (“And not because I'm trying to be gross,” said Wahlgren amidst the audience's laughter, “but just because that's my favorite.”).

The panel ended—the room still very full—after only an hour of laughter and fan fellowship. I guess, one could say, everyone had a (golden) ball. Nobody wanted to say… goodbye, or, goodbye. Goodbye, or just goodbye? Goodbye? Or, goodbye?