One of the most influential anime in the last two decades takes the stage in year 5 of Anime Riverside 2026. Join us as we take you through an emotional nostalgia trip with the English dub cast of Attack on Titan, each with their own unique stories of growth, hijinks, and lifelong camaraderie from start to finish. Lock and load for one more fight for freedom, only on Anime Fire.
The Cast Panel
For this cast panel, we had Bryce Papenbrook (Eren Yeager), Trina Nishimura (Mikasa Ackerman), Lauren Landa (Annie Leonhart) and surprise guest John Swasey (Dhalis Zachary), with Dade Elza as the moderator. The Cast delved into a nostalgia trip, reminiscing about road trips to Dallas, Texas, fine dining with the crew, and the cross between character development as well as real-life experiences that evolved them both as actors and as friends.
“Nom nom nom nom!”
Dade opens up with the initial question of what the voice actors can tell the audience a bit about the first character they’ve ever voiced and what that experience was like. First up was Lauren with her first character from a show called Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and the character was a familiar that transformed into this wolf/dog hybrid named Arf. Trina reflected on her first anime dubbing role as well as being very new to the industry. Her first role was a little girl named Namico in a show called Desert Punk about 25 years ago. It was great because the very first line she ever did was needing to do some eating ad-libs that she hadn’t been trained to do before. She gave it a try and went, “NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!” The voice director, Zach Bolton, oddly enough, did not like it; instead, he gave her a Tootsie Roll Pop and ate that into the microphone for an hour.
Bryce apparently was only eight years old when he used to go to work with his father, who voiced on a show called Power Rangers. He was Rita Rivolto, the Skeleton “dude” on the show, and a bunch of the other monsters. At the end of one of his sessions, they needed a kid’s voice in one scene; his father stepped up and said, “He’s a kid, throw him in the booth!” Bryce ended up being “Random Kid” in the background of a Power Rangers episode.
Trina chimed in on how he should exclaim the voice of Pothead. Bryce asked the audience if they’ve ever seen Cowboy Bebop. In one episode, the group goes to Mars, and there were all these orphans, with one of them being a little boy with a pot on his head. “Look at this! Look at this!” That’s me; he has a pot on his head, and in the script it said, “Pothead.” A role, as he says, is very high on the resume. John, being the veteran voice actor, his first show was in 1997 called Golden Boy, where he played the Director, and all he remembered from that experience was him thinking, “… Why does everybody have spiky, blue hair?” He didn’t understand then because anime was very new to the U.S. at the time.
“Nothing can suppress a human’s curiosity.”
Dade’s second question was if they remember the first time in the booth as their AoT character and how it felt discovering their character’s voice. Lauren discussed discovering Annie’s voice was very interesting because, in the Japanese version, when you hear her, you notice she has this very pretty yet straight, emotionless voice. Her director, Mike McFarland, said to stay away from the sexy with her; that’s not what Annie is.
It was very interesting to find that very cold, emotionless read to her because, for Lauren as an actor, she didn’t want it to sound like she was reading from a script; she wanted it to sound like a performance. At that point, she had no idea where the story was going with Annie. And to sum it up, she remembers the first scene that comes to mind is when Annie’s beating the crap out of Eren, that it was one of her most favorite scenes.
John recounts having to play the role of Premier Dhalis Zachary, who comes in partway through the show. John lives in Houston, Texas, so he had to commute to Dallas, and Mike would actually cast him in his very first show in FUNimation, now Crunchyroll, which was Full Metal Alchemist.
They’d worked together for quite some time on various shows to the point that directors tend to get that kind of idea of finding a role in another show that they’d be perfect for. When he’d gotten the role, John remembered telling Trina backstage the thing he was so excited about is that Dhalis Zachary has this chair for those who sit in it are forced to eat their own excrement. For John, there was no good way to put that detail out, but it was so hilarious, he found great joy in playing the character.
“Believe in your own power.”
For the next question, Dade asks about the intimacy between actor and character. Throughout the show, they’ve watched the evolution of the character, and he wants them to tell us a little bit about how their understanding of the character and how they’ve affected them personally. Trina responded with how much she loved the story from Isayama-sensei on how her character in AoT; the writing, the storyline, everything- Isayama-sensei wrote this beautiful story that was way ahead of its time. AoT was one of the very first anime to have a nonbinary character on purpose, in which the female lead didn’t have to be just this “booby lady chasing a boy”. She gets to keep her clothes on the whole time; she gets to be a human and evolve as a person. And similarly, like males in society, they’re held to this crazy standard. Armin, for example, is a male character and he isn’t the strongest; he gets to cry and have emotions. Trina thought that she was fortunate enough to play Mikasa, evolve with her as a human, and grow with her and her friends up here, she’s very grateful to be a part of it.
Bryce settles Eren’s transition through the seasons with his changes in emotion. Seasons 1-3 Eren was angry, so much anger emanated through every fiber of his being, but in season 4 Eren was cold, still angry, but it’s buried under this icy shell, and that made him terrifying.
“Endure it. Don’t let go.”
And finally, Dade’s concluded with his final question about the history of the voice actors and their characters. They’ve spent so much of their lives with these characters; he asked if they had some fond memories during that experience. Trina’s reply was the most emotional thing for her to admit. Many moments and many experiences that she says that she’d been fortunate enough to have over the course of the recording of this show and the absolute lottery ticket to voice Mikasa. She talked about her experience with AoT being definitely the lifelong friendships she’s made over the course of the show.
She didn’t know Bryce before, and now she’s lived a lot of life with her cohorts and has had a lot of experiences that have had her grow up in the past 13 years. She now has two extra nieces and a nephew (gestures towards Bryce) because of his choice to procreate and that’s cool. She got to spoil these cute little cherub babies and will give them ANYTHING they want. But the moment that sticks out more than anything to her is probably recording the final episode. It was incredibly special to her because of her partner being immunocompromised at the time, so she had to quarantine afterward. She ended up being the very last person to record on AoT, she went in and recorded with Mike, said her last lines, and got to hug her friend who created this beautiful thing, she got dinner with him afterward before I started her quarantine, and it was really special and she’ll never forget.
To be Continued…?
Trina had mentioned some underlying easter eggs in Attack on Titan, such as the pomegranate or a scene pulled towards a praying mantis for several seconds, but it was Ed the emcee who applied his own distinguishing revelation that could steer the show back into the limelight. He exclaimed that he just wanted to also point out that Attack on Titan could never be truly over until he saw a flying whale, referencing the one he saw in the first season’s introduction. “I WANT MY FLYING WHALE!”
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