Like granddaughter, like spirit medium grandmother – not even the fictional characters in supernatural anime Dan Da Dan season 2 can ever fully shake off their family's influence, as protagonist Momo's English voice actor, Abby Trott, explained to GamesRadar+ at the recent Anime NYC convention.
"I love Kari [Wahlgren]," Trott says about the voice acting legend when asked about other cast members who influence her interpretation of Momo. "She's one of my favorites of all time. The fact that we're in an anime together is still surreal and awesome. She, as my grandma – as Momo's grandma – I listen to things that she does, and I'm like, 'That's why Momo's like that.'
Trott likes to "incorporate" Wahlgren's mannerisms, deciding that, "'That's why Momo talks like that. You could definitely see that she was raised by Seiko. So I think, maybe for that reason, I pull some stuff from Kari, but I love everyone's performance so much, and everyone's always inspiring me to try different things."
To that effect, Trott, Okarun actor AJ Beckles, and Aira actor Lisa Reimold all agree that they're "very" influenced by Dan Da Dan's original Japanese cast. Beckles explains that an episode's Japanese performance is "the first thing we hear before we do our lines."
"We rely on them a lot to make sure we're going in the right direction," Reimold says, "and they do so many cool things, and we just want to figure out how to replicate that in a way that makes sense in English and is still funny, entertaining, and interesting."
"For Momo specifically," Trott says, "Shion Wakayama is incredible. I love her performance as Momo. She has this very, like, off-the-cuff, unrehearsed quality to her performance that I love, and, you know, we shoot for that."
Not everything translates – "she's doing this gyaru archetype," Trott says about the subculture featuring girls with pretty hair, short skirts, and indifference towards restrictive Japanese beauty standards. "That is not something that exists in English, really," so "I pull whatever I can."
For more, keep up to date with our Dan Da Dan season 2 release schedule as we slowly make our way to the finale.
