There was little doubt that Kaiju No. 8 was going to be a talked-about show when it debuted this season. It’s got a little bit of everything: action, comedy, creature design, and originality. But having those qualities and doing them well are two different things.
Keeping the monster-mashing action and honestly surprising comedic moments in balance can be tricky, especially for the voice actors lending their talents to these characters. So when I was invited to sit down with three actors behind three leads in Kaiju No. 8, I wanted to explore how they m📖anage those tonal contrasts.
As it turns out, the dynamics are part of the fun. Actors (Kafka Hibino/Kaiju No. 8), (Kikoru Shinomiya), and (Reno Ichikawa) all bring something of their own to their roles, and a recurring notion was the range of depth and emotion they get to explore. Here’s our full conversation with the cast.
How did you first get introduced to Kaiju No. 8?
Nazeeh Tarsha (Kafka Hibino/Kaiju No. 8): “My introduction was through various friends that have consumed the original run. I mean, still ongoing, of course. But you know, every so often you hear someone say, ‘Man, this. This manga is like, so awesome.’ And it’s like, oh, okay, cool. Like, maybe I’ll like, check it out every now and then. And then the reintroduction came when, you know, the audition came for the show.”
Abigail Blythe (Kikoru Shinomiya): “Yeah, same here. I had seen some people talking about it online, some voice acting friends, of how they were so excited for the adaptation. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s gonna be a thing.’ And then I read the first five chapters for the audition, and then I got a feel for the project, and I became really excited. I thought it was really cool.”
Adam McArthur (Reno Ichikawa): “Yeah, it’s always, I think, it’s like our job as actors to kind of keep an eye out for things that are kind of coming down the line, and things that might be a good fit for us, audition-wise and stuff like that. So yeah, it was kind of the same thing. Alejandro Saab, who voices Kaiju No. 9, is a massive fan of Kaiju No. 8 and I think he’s the one who I first realized was talking a lot about this series, and all that stuff. So learned kind of about it from him, really.”
What have y’all enjoyed the most about working on this project? What has stuck out to you the most about Kaiju No. 8, specifically?
Abigail: “Well, considering this is like my first lead, getting to explore all of the parts of her character development on-screen, I get to – since she has more screen time – I get to play the softer moments, the more comedic moments, her in action, and get to just explore all of these ranges, which is just such a treat for an actor. So that’s been most exciting for me, and just a dream come true, getting to play the entirety of like, emotional depth of a character is just, it’s so exciting.”
Adam: “Yeah, I think for me, it’s just like, it has everything. Everything from amazing animation and character design, amazing music, amazing characters. It’s got a lot of like, action, but it also has a lot of humor. It’s just been, like, refreshing to see sort of like, a new shonen take. Yeah, like a new take on the genre. And, yeah, it has something for everybody. I think that’s kind of like my favorite part.”
Nazeeh: “For me, it’s the amount of heart that exists within the production on all aspects, you know, Between the writing, between the original Japanese performances, between the English direction, the castmates, the amount of passion that’s going around in all aspects in order to bring the story, I think, is one that makes it truly a delight to work on. Because it’s not something that’s inherently available within every production that we work on.”
I find that Kaiju No. 8 has a distinct amount of comedy to it, for an action series – what you would normally consider like, a more-traditional action series – but it has a lot of comedy to it. Everyone I talk to is like, wow, it’s funnier than I thought it would be. Do you find that balancing the action and comedy is difficult, or is it easy for y’all to kind of switch between those two vibes?
Nazeeh: “Every time I get in the booth, it’s always a countdown timer of how many seconds before I immediately have to start screaming or shrieking or go into some sort of tonal whiplash. And it doesn’t last more than that. It’s always like, two lines in, here we go. Um, balancing it is definitely a little bit of a challenge, but you kind of learn to navigate it, especially thanks to our director, Shawn Gann, who does a fantastic job of sort of breaking the scenes down for us, letting us kind of experience them. And then separating the beats and the tonal shifts so that, you know, we kind of segment it a little bit, so that it’s a little easier to tackle. But there are times where it’s… there’s nothing you can do, you are going from a hardcore kaiju punch to all of a sudden, comedic nipple peeing. Like, it is what it is. [laughs]”
Adam: “Yeah, I think that I think that a lot of that, like tonal like that the vast range and tone is sort of an anime specific, you know, it’s specific to the anime, to anime genre, you know. Any anime kind of has stuff like that. So I think we’ve all, you know, been in the genre long enough and been working on things to kind of understand at least, conceptually, what that’s going to require of us as voice actors when we’re in the booth. But then there’s the technical side of it when you’re in there. And like Nazeeh said, like, our director Shawn will break things down where you know, if it’s too fast, or you’re going from like, you know, screaming like you’re blocking bullets with your voice to a thought filter, where basically like, your character’s monologuing but it’s all inside their head, he’ll break it down so you can take it in chunks. And the power of editing makes us all sound amazing.”
Abigail: “Exactly. I mean, it’s definitely a workout for your larynx. It’s going up and down all the time. But Shawn is great at navigating it. And I think also just the nature of ADR, as we are like dubbing actors, we have grown to be highly adaptable to any circumstance that is thrown at us because we are acting on the fly constantly. And we, everything that we do is very much like cold-reading and improv, so we have been adapted to be ready for circumstances like this.”
Adam: “Yeah, and I would actually just like to take one quick second to point out Abigail’s correct use of ‘larynx.’ I always thought the word was ‘lair-nyx.’ So I just thought, that like, seamlessly rolled off your tongue and I thought that that was amazing. And it speaks to your skills as an actor. [laughs]”
Abigail: “Well, I was a vocal performance, I studied music for four years in school, so you have to take vocal anatomy classes.”
When it comes to your individual characters, what did you find that you vibe with in your specific characters? Do you have a particular favorite aspect about playing your character?
Nazeeh: “I absolutely adore every aspect of Kafka. I’ve said this time and time again, he is just like, the embodiment of the human condition. He’s got the comedy that comes into play, the sort of goofiness of his personality, with a person having fun. He has the tone of a person who kind of has life experience, and kind of got into complacency, then had renewed aspirations, and just kind of goes through the entire spectrum of human emotions. And more than anything else, he’s also loyal to a tee, as exhibited by how often he tries to protect everyone. So yeah, I don’t think there’s a single aspect about Kafka that I don’t vibe with.”
Abigail: “On the same level, Kikoru is actually, the more that I delve into her character, I noticed that she was a lot – I was a lot like her. Like, perfectionist, hard to relax, doesn’t always work well with others in a team aspect because you’re always thinking like, ‘I have to make sure that everything comes out perfect.’ I had those troubles growing up, not so much now because I’ve grown, but when I was her age, definitely. Emotionally withdrawn, very guarded. A lot of those qualities, I relate a lot to myself. So being able to play those into her character, and not just the negative ones but the positive ones too, have been really cathartic.”
Adam: “Yeah, with Ichikawa, he’s just a good boy. He’s just like a loyal, good boy. It’s been really cool, sort of… He’s unique though, in that I do feel like there’s a lot bubbling underneath. We’ve yet to find out why he sort of is the way he is, we haven’t got an Ichikawa backstory yet in the anime. So I’m very excited to explore more of his past and to see sort of what led him here, and why his drive to be great is what it is, and why he wants to be a part of the Defense Force. But then also why he takes to Kafka so quickly, you know. I think that it’s really cool, and a testament to his character and how good of a boy he is that, you know, he sort of looks up to Kafka right away, but also does it in a way that he wants to keep him safe and make sure that he doesn’t have to let this Kaiju out and all that stuff.”
For Nazeeh – how do you find playing both Kafka and Kaiju No. 8? Is it fun to kind of switch back and forth between the two characters, getting to kind of style-switch that Jekyll and Hyde-type of character?
Nazeeh: “Yeah, no, it’s really, really fun. Sort of exhilarating. Vocally taxing, I will also say. [laughs] But like I said, you get to explore the entire range of human emotion through it. And it’s not often that you have a character, especially a protagonist of a shonen-like anime, where he is the comedic relief of his own show. And then all of a sudden, you get this sort of just like, hardcore, you know, fighting protag that we’re all used to in various media. But yeah, no, it’s super fun being able to explore all that, and it’s very rewarding being able to pull off those like, moment-to-moment scenes and those beats, yeah.”
You get like, a really fun dramatic range with that.
Nazeeh: “Yeah, no, I’ve definitely come close to losing my voice a couple times. So there is that. [laughs]”
Kaiju No. 8 is with new episodes each Saturday.
