Wednesday, October 5 was a bittersweet day for Mob Psycho 100 fans, and for anime lovers overall as the third season of Mob Psycho 100 was finally released. Amidst the controversy surrounding low wages for voice actors, particularly those who do English dubs and the unavoidable exit of Mob's English voice actor, Kyle McCarley due to Crunchyroll's apparent refusal to participate in any discussion regarding the unionization of all contracts going forward.The English dub of Mob Psycho 100 III was announced to not only be simulcast by the platform, but also simuldubbed – a simultaneous release of the original Japanese series, and its English dub on the same day. Crunchyroll communicated that the desire to release the series in this manner was the main driving force behind their decision to recast Mob, and some other characters; however, this came with a huge backlash and response from voice actors and fans alike. When the English dub arrived, it was markedly without any cast information, which proved to be even more incendiary.Crunchyroll has been particularly notorious of late after yet another controversy regarding their low pay for voice actors. The platform, which was merged with Funimation via parent company after being bought from AT&T, has developed a reputation for the poor treatment and working conditions of voice actors.McCarley, who was hoping to be able to have a meeting with Crunchyroll higher-ups regarding having all future productions done on a SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) union contract, in exchange for his continued participation in the Mob Psycho 100 project.
McCarley, who released a video last month explaining why he'd possibly (eventually confirmed to be definitely) not be reprising his role as Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama in Mob Psycho 100 III, claimed that he would, "99.9% of the time", flat-out refuse to work on a production that isn't being done on a union contract. He and SAG-AFTRA have since coined the hashtag "Just A Meeting" to continue to apply pressure to Crunchyroll to at the very least, have a discussion regarding the possibility of creating a mutually beneficial way forward; however, that was not to be as the company first made the decision to have all work done at their Dallas Texas studio, meaning that several cast members who do not reside in Texas would invariably be axed as a result.
In what has been assumed to be an attempt to protect the voice actors who have replaced those who were axed, Crunchyroll went on to air the simuldub of Mob Psycho 100 III with minimal advertising or marketing, and the episode itself was without any cast information for the English dubbed actors.
This action has been thought to be furthering the dire straits of the voice acting industry at the moment, as it sets the precedent for big companies to use voice acting talent and find creative ways to avoid having to credit them for their work, amidst Crunchyroll and Funimation's notoriety for not paying their voice actors well. For McCarley, unionization is perhaps the only way to ensure that the collective interests of voice actors are truly protected. Mob Psycho 100 III airs on Wednesdays and can be found on Crunchyroll's streaming platform.
Source: Twitter