As the crowds continue to descend on the second day of Anime Expo, the most popular fandoms of the year can be seen everywhere from cosplays, to Artists’ Alley fanart, huge Exhibitors displays, and more. Looking at this condensed summary of the anime and manga industries, it’s hard to find a less ubiquitous property than the smash-hit anime series, Spy x Family.
With the season finale of the show’s English dub set to premiere on July 9 on Crunchyroll, GameRant was honored to have a chance to sit down with the show’s stars Megan Shipman (English dub voice of Anya) and Natalie Van Sistine (English dub voice of Yor). The two rising star VAs had a chance to share everything the creative freedom of voice acting, the process, and some of the most iconic moments from SpyxFamily Season 1.
GameRant: So, how has your time at Anime Expo been so far?
Megan Shipman: It’s been great! We both came in the same day yesterday, we did the official Spy x Family panel, which was super fun because we got to see the fans and also catch up with a lot of the show’s creators from Japan.
Natalie Van Sistine: It’s cool! The panel was definitely fun, and we’ve just been looking around the convention center. It’s fun to look around the merchandise Dealers’ Room and be like, ‘oh cool, there’s some of the stuff we’ve worked on!’ (laughs) I specifically tracked down an artist I like who I knew was gonna be here, and it’s just really been fun.
GR: It’s always one of the most common questions VAs get asked at cons: ‘How did you get into voice acting?’ This is definitely cool, but maybe there’s a fun way of spinning it. Now that you’ve been on such a meteoric project like Spy x Family, what is something that’s special about voice acting that makes it different from other types of acting performance?
MS: Well, for me, I was always a music person. I have a music degree, taught for a little while, it had some ups and downs, but really laid the groundwork for some VA stuff I was already doing on the side. By the time I had transitioned more into some assistant voice directing and directing, I felt like I was already using that skill set from teaching in a really hands-on way.
NVS: Well in theater, I found it was always easy for me to get cast as the mom roles, which, I guess, hilariously comes back around to what I’m doing with Yor! (laughs) But no, I really like that with voice acting, the visual nature of it always comes down to how you can best envision the character. Just emoting through your voice has that extra creative freedom, and that’s really attractive. At some point I saw a signing post for a voice acting role, and with a built-in mic and Audacity installed on my computer I decided, ‘you know, I could do that!’
MS: (laughs) I feel like we all kind of start out like that!
GR: The season finale of the dub is coming out July 9, and you’ve been pretty busy with the simulcast dubbing. Could you explain a bit on that, and how the dubbing for localize anime differs a bit from the processes a little more common in western animation?
MS: We did Spy x Family through simuldub, which has been getting more and more common for anime localizations in the past, I wanna say, four or five years? Basically it’s a model that tries to match the original Japanese airing of a show as closely as possible. There’s pros and cons to it, the crunch for fast turnarounds is definitely a thing. But the faster pipelines definitely mean the chance to do voicing on a more consistent basis, which goes hand in hand with how much more popular anime has gotten in the last few years. When most anime was still being dubbed for direct-to-DVD, it was more of a system where you’d spend a few weeks working on a whole show at once, ship it off, and not hear anything for like six months. So, yeah, times have definitely changed a bit. The speed makes things more accessible, and accessibility is really where dubbing has its biggest strength.
GR: Interesting. Let’s go back to Spy x Family itself. It’s a show that really has its characterizations and character dynamics at its heart, what were some of the ways you two developed the voices you ultimately used for Anya and Yor?
NVS: I had already had somewhat of an idea from the manga once the anime had started casting. At first, for Yor I was focusing on her role as an assassin, kind of thinking of her as kind of deeper and cooler. When I sat down and started processing the lines, though, I actually found it interesting to explore more of her civilian persona and the theme of her anxiety in daily life, in most daily situations, ironically, except for when she is out doing assassin work. I played around with that contrast between her assassin role and her sort of alter-ego as a ball of anxiety, and that really made the character click in a way both for me and for the director and the dub staff.
MS: Well once I got some interest regarding Spy x Family, I knew it was going to be a big deal just from how much hype even the manga had been getting. With Anya in particular I was just thinking about how well she was known for her expressions and faces, how you would see so many iconic silly faces from Anya in memes and on the internet and everything. It was really different from the kind of girl-next-door roles I’d done on other shows, and so I definitely tried to match the emotions you could see in the Japansese trailer. When she was crying I made it really over the top, when she was happy I made it really big, and just kind of making it really extreme, both in just her cuteness as well as her range of emotions. Making it extreme.
GR: Now that the season 1 dub is all finished up, looking back on it, what was your most memorable and/or favorite scene in the season?
MS: I really loved the castle episode, episode five. They really took such a small chapter in the manga and made it even bigger and grandiose in animation. I loved the episode and how Anya was in it with her kind of sarcasm, I guess? Manipulation? Anya did this very little kid sort of thing where she was like ‘Gee dad, I just want you to play with me…’ Like, she just made him feel bad with the tone in such an entertaining way. (laughs) In the situations where she was able to play with the comedy of it. ‘Oh no, come and save me!’ That was definitely fun to work with, and I’ve heard so many of the fans remembering that episode in particular too.
I think for me, the end of episode two sticks out as particularly memorable, sort of encapsulating the series as a whole. That proposal scene, it really hit me in the feels. It was so funny and warm, but also in a way where it was so ridiculous, it was just perfect. It’s just one of those things where you can just really hit that kind of emotional resonance by just seeing things done in a way where you’re just blown away with something that silly, and ridiculous, and just impossibly fun. And in a way, that really is the kind of essence of Spy x Family as a whole.
The English dub of Spy x Family is available to stream on Crunchyroll now. The season 1 English dub finale is releasing on July 9th, 2022.
As all of the new events and announcements abound at this year’s Anime Expo, GameRant is pleased to present full coverage of all of the biggest announcements, screenings, events, and fandom. For full coverage of the event, stay tuned to GameRant’s anime section.