Anime Expo Day 2 saw the return of two juggernaut veterans: HoYoverse and Trash Taste. Daring to wow the audience even more than usual, the members of Trash Taste – The Anime Man, Gigguk, and CDawgVA – moderated a special Honkai: Star Rail panel. Together, fans were treated to live dub performances from members of both the English and Japanese cast. They were also given behind-the-scenes insight into how the HoYoverse team crafts its animated shorts.
Trash Taste Takeover
The members of Trash Taste were a natural pick for the Star Rail panel moderators as all three had voice cameos in the Belobog mission. Connor Colquhoun (CDawgVA) voices Peak, a lazy peasant and one of the first NPC encounters in the Underworld missions. Joey Bizinger (The Anime Man) voices The Dense Vagrant, and Grant Maneetapho (Gigguk) voices The Restless Vagrant.
Though only one member has “VA” in his handle, all three recognize and appreciate the work that goes into voice acting. After a bit of banter, Trash Taste introduced the cast members of Honkai: Star Rail.
The Cast of "Honkai: Star Rail"
Since Firefly’s banner was active during Anime Expo, Analesa Fisher (English voice of Firefly) and Aldin Rudd (Sam) joined the stage first. Alice Himora (Robin) and Daman Mills (Blade) rounded out the English cast.
As a special surprise for fans, two of the Japanese cast members entered the stage: Kusunoki Tomori (Firefly) and Nazuka Kaori (Robin). With six voice actors on stage, there were multiple rounds of live dubs featuring various moments throughout the Penacony storyline.
There were four standout moments from the seven performances. The first was a live dub of “The Embers of Glamoth” short, where both Firefly actors got to perform. Robin’s two actors did the same for the Myriad Celestial Trailer – “If We Had Wings.” Watching both back-to-back gave insight on how each actor approaches the same character, allowing the audience to witness such nuance in real time.
Fans went wild when Fisher and Mills performed the cutscene where Blade confirms that not only can he drive, but that he has a driver’s license. Anything can happen in Star Rail.
Finally, Fisher and Rudd got to perform together – a rarity when recording for video games. In their final performance of the day, both voiced the rooftop scene with Firefly and the Trailblazer. Rudd decided to have some extra fun by randomly flip-flopping the characters’ voices.
Crafting “The Embers of Glamoth”
After the live dub performances wrapped up, some of the miHoYo Anime team took to the stage to talk about the creative process behind “The Embers of Glamoth.” Animation Director Tingmu Yang presented some of the previsuals used to make the short and explained choices in framing, lighting, and color to portray the character of Firefly.
The beginning of the short focuses on Firefly’s life as a soldier, her life consumed by combatting the Swarm Mother. Yang intended for the Swarm Mother to take up the entire screen, creating an overpowering feeling of hopelessness.
Color in the short shifts from red to gray to green, shifting through high intensity battle, despair and loneliness, and finally to a sense of hope. That hope manifests itself into new life – a tree sprouting from where Firefly stands as she leaves the battlefield behind.
Finally, though Firefly and Sam appear to be the same, the animation team made deliberate choices in how each character was animated. Firefly’s movements are very smooth and elegant, while Sam’s are sharper and more robotic. Contrasting both aspects of arguably the same character, it allows the audience to see that character’s nuances.
Honkai: Star Rail is available to play on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Android, and iOS.
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