A quintessential part of any good pop culture convention is the presence of special guests. This year’s Los Angeles Comic Con (LACC) was no exception. This event offered an excellent lineup of actors, artists, and writers spending the weekend talking to fans, signing autographs, and doing Q&As and panels. One of the special Q&As held on Sunday this year was geared towards the anime fandom. Griffin Burns participated in a chat on the stage in the West Hall of the L.A. Convention Center. He is a voice actor known for his work as Muichiro in Demon Slayer, Doppio in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Childe/Tartaglia in the video game Genshin Impact.
Griffin Burns at L.A. Comic Con
To kick off the discussion, Griffin Burns talked about how he got into voice acting, crediting his parents with being extremely supportive of his desire to go into the arts instead of following a more traditional path. Music was actually his first passion. He played guitar and sang in garage bands when he was a kid. Despite the support, he struggled early on with his confidence, as he had a bit of beginner’s luck getting into the industry before experiencing a downturn soon after. However, due to his experience with music, he was at least comfortable with the sound of his own voice and ended up attending some professional training in order to continue the pursuit of a voice acting career.
Getting down to the details, Griffin was asked what he considered to be some of the things he finds the most difficult when bringing voices to characters in animation and video games. He talked about two types of sounds that he finds tricky – death noises and subtle surprise. Despite prompting from the audience, he declined to showcase any death noises but did demonstrate what he meant by subtle shock by doing a few quick gasps for the gathered fans. He explained that what really makes these difficult is getting them to sound natural, like how someone would really sound if they are caught off guard.
Answering Fan Questions
Then came the time for fan questions. These included the classic of what character from his anime and video game career he considers his favorite. His response was that he really enjoyed voicing Doppio in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, although he claimed that voicing the fight scenes for that character was a challenge for him. Griffin also shared his excitement when it comes to his role as Muichiro from Demon Slayer. Despite the arc in which his character became more of a core member of the cast being out for a while now, he has recently noticed an uptick in love for Muichiro among fans which he has found to be special.
Interestingly, Griffin did admit upon being asked that he has not watched a lot of anime. He is trying to catch up. In fact, he had not seen any anime until his voice was already in one! He did say he wants to make his way through Hunter x Hunter, in which he voices Shalnark, and mentioned that he would love for that anime to pick back up again so he could return to the character. Shalnark is of his earliest roles. It would be a full circle moment should he get the opportunity to do it again so many years later.
The Q&A with Griffin Burns was one of several held at this year’s L.A. Comic Con over the course of the weekend. It was a great addition to the lineup of the convention. Getting to take a seat and hear from these voice actors directly, with an open opportunity to ask one-on-one questions about their careers and interests, is a real treat for anyone interested in the business or who may just want to pick the brain of a favorite performer.
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