Anime Herald
patreon
The Dan Da Dan Cast Talks With Anime Herald At Anime NYC 2025
🕑 Added 2025-10-16 00:58:02 +0000 UTCNote: Due to time constraints, this will be published on Anime Herald's main site on October 16, 2025. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Author: Seth Burn
Editor: Samantha Ferreira
Anime Herald: If you were to throw a party, who would you rather invite: ghosts or aliens?
Lisa Reimold: Ghosts, because they probably have been to a lot of parties already. They know how to party. Aliens will be like “What’s going on? I don’t know what this is.” Ghosts know how to party.
Anime Herald: Good answer. If you were to win a bet against one of your fellow voice actors to have them be your gofer for the week, what errands would you have them run?
Lisa Reimold: They would probably have to go to the pet store and get my cat shrimp treats.
Anime Herald: You guys are three for three for doing pet related care. Fantastic.
For your character, which of her traits do you want to make sure transfer over from the manga to the anime?
Lisa Reimold: I think it is very easy to look at Aira as a surface-level character. Someone who is very shallow and only cares about herself. But I think she does have a lot of very deep feelings that she has trouble expressing. She doesn’t know how to express them because she has never been able to connect with anyone on that level.
(Reimold looks at AJ Beckles and Abby Trott)
Momo and Okarun are actually connecting with people now. I hope people can look past Aira’s exterior and see her as a person with a lot of feelings.
Anime Herald: How do you feel like the show and your characters have evolved?
Abby Trott: I just mentioned this in the panel. I love to see how the dynamic changes as new characters are brought in. We’ve seen Aira added to the mix. Jiji comes in. Now we have Kinta in there. As these new characters show up, the dynamic shifts. Momo is kind of at the heart of things. The way she manages, especially during the fights, the way she delegates. The way she steps aside and lets other people step up to the plate and test the waters.
I am also adoring the evolution of Momo and Okarun together. She’s making confident moves like, “Put your hand back.” That confidence is there. But there’s still a little bit of uncertainty too. She’s shy about it, but she’s making moves. I love that.
AJ Beckles: Yeah, that’s a good point. It’s very cute watching their relationship evolve. Especially because all of the cute stuff, like them holding hands, is all in private. It’s just them. It’s almost like there is something in both of them that knows this is where this is going, but they are too shy to show the rest of the world yet. They aren’t confident enough.
In the second season, Okarun has people to protect now. In the first season he didn’t have anybody. I feel like the main focus was for his journey was realizing he is worthy of friendship and love and a found family. Now that he has those things, he needs to figure out how he wants to maintain that and make sure the people around him are safe.
It’s really cool to watch him have that confidence to admit that he is weak and that he needs to get stronger. I think with Jiji there too, it’s almost like a rivalry situation. When Jiji first shows up, he’s this confident, charismatic guy. When Okarun first looks at him he thinks “This guy is a good looking dude. He probably plays sports. He’s a jock.”
But then, he actually talks with him. He’s like, “Wait, this is the first time another male figure hasn’t made fun of him. He’s actually asking me about things I enjoy.” Now, Okarun has that struggle of, “Dang. I really like Momo. But Jiji is here and I’m kind of jealous of him, but he’s also my friend and I want to protect him.”
He’s going through all that. It’s really cool to navigate these new emotions he’s facing.
Anime Herald: I feel like that is something that is unique to Dan da Dan. They can show the more emotional side. The heroes don’t always have to act heroic. They don’t even have to be heroic half of the time.
Lisa Reimold: That’s why they are so cool.
Anime Herald: Do you read the manga? Are you up to date?
Lisa Reimold: I’m not up to date but I have read quite a bit of the manga.
Anime Herald: As Abby noted, one of the interesting things about Dan da Dan is they add new main characters. Originally, it was Momo and Okarun. And then we got Jiji and Aira. And then Kinta. Do you feel like this is taking a load off you, having more main characters?
AJ Beckles: Hmm…
Abby Trott: I think that, for certain episodes, my line count might be less as more people are thrown into the mix. As more things happen, there are scenes between different characters where we aren’t there. It makes for an interesting show. But we’re still screaming a lot.
AJ Beckles: Like she said, the line count dwindles. I think that is interesting, because during the first season, I felt like when I was doing the recording I was watching the whole episode, because it was mainly just us. There were maybe some small moments with Seiko, but for the most part, it was kind of just us. Now when I watch a new episode I’m like, “Ooh, what did I miss?”
Abby Trott: Yeah. There are scenes between you and Jiji that Momo isn’t yeah.
AJ Beckles: It’s really cool. So yeah, the load off maybe there’s a little bit of a break on our voices. But when we are going for it in those screaming moments, we’re going for it.
Lisa Reimold: When we are being together in the room, and then suddenly there are three more people in the conversation. And for Aira, she’s a different person depending on the person she talks to. With Okarun, she’s just so sweet. With Momo, she’s the most evil person you’ve ever met. And then she gets sassy, and then she gets nice and sweet again, and then she’s neutral.
Anime Herald: How do you pull that off? You have to play two different faces.
Lisa Reimold: I also voice her evolved version, kind of like what AJ does with Okarun where he uses his emo voice. Her Acro Silky, where she has a lower voice, more royal. It’s a lot to keep track of. Our director, Alex Von David, he tells us to do whatever feels best. For all of us, we inherently know what we need to do and it works out for the characters.
Anime Herald: You just referenced episode seven from season one. The Jurassic Bark that they dropped on us. Were you prepared for how intense it would be?
Lisa Reimold: I had read the manga ahead of time. I did know it was going to be sad. I don’t think I realized how emotionally riveting it was until I watched the full episode when it came out. I see her dancing. I see her fight to save her child and her family and everything she knows. She’s literally ripping her skin to try and protect someone. That’s really hard. I didn’t get to see that.
Anime Herald: That’s something technical. When you’re recording the show, you don’t get to see the big picture. You don’t know how it’s going to come together.
Lisa Reimold: No.
Anime Herald: Were you ever surprised by an episode?
AJ Beckles: The latest one that just released. It was Aira and Okarun and a lot of it was unvoiced. It was a lot of really cool shots with the music.
Abby Trott: Especially that episode, because Momo wasn’t there for it. I also read the manga. I remember thinking, “Are they really going to do this in the show? This is insane. How is this going to work?” It just looked so cool, how Science Saru handled the animation.
AJ Beckles: And MBS too. Using their assets, the whole orchestra.
Abby Trott: Oh yeah, that was genius. I didn’t know that fun fact until the panel today.
Lisa Reimold: Ten thousand people.
(Editor’s note: In Season 2 Episode 8, ten thousand people sang Beethoven’s ninth symphony, Ode to Joy.)
Anime Herald: You have a lot of stories from recording the show. Are there any stories you’d like to share?
Abby Trott: Regarding the Acro Silky scene, sometimes we don’t get to see these things. That day, Alex asked me, “Do you want to see it?” “Yeah.” Then we watched it and I was devastated. It’s so sad.
Again, I read the manga, I knew it was coming. But when you see it animated, it was a whole new story. It hits even harder. Then, Momo comes in with her moment after that. “Where is she going? She’s just going to disappear? What’s happening?”
I was feeling that so hard when we recorded that, after watching that sequence. The animation is so good. It is such a sad story. I’m going to tear up again.
Lisa Reimold: I was excited when they showed us the band HAYASii. There’s an exorcism where they try to exorcise the demon out of Jiji. They dubbed it into English. They asked us if we wanted to hear it.
Abby Trott: I demanded to hear it as soon as they finished recording. “Play it now.”
Lisa Reimold: They knocked it out of the park. I was blown away, shaking in my skin “This show is so cool. I can’t believe we get to do this.”
Abby Trott: The funny thing is, the band X Japan is known for that vibe. I heard it and thought “they nailed it.” But apparently, a lot of people in Japan thought it was X Japan. That means they did a great job.
AJ Beckles: For me, the third episode of season two was fun, but it was a little challenging. I was nervous because Okarun has a sequence where he counts to twenty really fast five times. I listened to it in Japanese and I was like, “Did he do that in one breath?” I was pretty sure he did. I wasn’t sure I could do it. We would go all the way up to twelve or thirteen. Then we would stop. I would pick up where I left off and continue, but it didn’t sound right.
We had to go back and do it again. I had to take a deep breath and go for it. It was awesome. It was kind of challenging too because, on the last sequence, Okarun slows down right at the end. I had to match that pace and rhythm. That was challenging. It was a lot of fun to do. I never had to do anything like that before.
Anime Herald: Just thinking about it, eleven and seventeen have three syllables. You have to keep powering through.
AJ Beckles: I believe in Japanese it is a little easier.
Anime Herald: You did it on hard mode.
AJ Beckles: We did it. I was kind of nervous of what people would think. A lot of people thought it was cool, and funny.
Anime Herald: It’s lovely watching all of you interact together. Is this is what it is like in the studio?
AJ Beckles: We wish.
Abby Trott: I wish.
Lisa Reimold: We never get to see each other when we record.
Abby Trott: We can’t dub two people at a time. I was part of a show that attempted that recently. It was less efficient to do it that way. So, the lucky person gets to go second. I know when certain parts are coming up, “I can’t wait to see what AJ did for this.” Or the fights with Lisa. They’re so funny.
Lisa Reimold: We’re just yelling at each other. I did get to watch one of AJ’s sessions.
AJ Beckles: Yeah, our most recent session.
Lisa Reimold: That was so much fun. He’s so good at what he does. You almost never get to see what someone else is doing until it’s in post production. It’s really cool to watch someone nail every single take that they do. I asked, “Is this normal?” The director said,1 “Yeah, for this cast, that’s how they all are.”
Anime Herald: Step your game up.
Lisa Reimold: It makes me want to do better. Everyone is so cool!
Anime Herald: Do you have any questions for us?
AJ Beckles: How many more seasons do you want? Please say “Twenty.”
Anime Herald: The manga is still fire. They are coming out with more. Keep your voice. Drink tea. Relax. Try not yell apart from in the show. Just stay healthy.
AJ Beckles: Thank you.
Abby Trott: I never yell in real life, except when doing voice-overs.
Lisa Reimold: I’m not that mean.
Anime Herald: Thank you very much, this was wonderful:
Abby Trott, AJ Beckles, & Lisa Reimold: Thank you.
