The first part of Anime Trending’s conversation with the English dub cast explored their thoughts on the series’ ending, their characters’ growth, and the lasting relationships forged along the way. In Part 2, the cast offer their reflections on their characters’ journeys, celebrating the bonds and pairings that kept audiences invested for years and uncovering the emotional conflict at the heart of the Todoroki family. Last but not least, the cast shares their thoughts on what My Hero Academia leaves behind, not just as an anime but for them as voice actors, and what impact the series has left on them as a whole.
Leadership, Trust, and Reflections
Aizawa showcases his strength and trust in his students. How did that feel to record, and how did it capture his essence as both a teacher and a hero?
Christopher Wehkamp (Aizawa): Yeah, it’s really his evolution as a hero. He’s going from a frontline fighter, the stealth hero, to his final form: a universal, loving, protective father figure who is able to arrive in the nick of time, empower those around him, empower his students to lead the charge, and save the day. That episode in particular was incredibly emotional for me to take on. It’s been a moment the fans have talked to me about for a long time, and so to finally see it animated was so cool and so fulfilling just in the booth. Aizawa would love the fact that it’s the very logical end to his story arc. He is succeeding not only for his students but also for himself, growing as a person in the process. Very satisfying.
As Iida, how do you view his role in the class now with his leadership and selflessness? How has that changed?
Michael Tatum (Tenya Iida): Well, I think his own opinion of what makes a good leader has changed. In the early days, it was clear that he thought a leader meant holding everyone’s hand and badgering them into following the rules. Sometimes that’s necessary, but I think he’s been able to relax and trust everyone.
He’s so much more open and vulnerable now, and so much more willing to let other people find their own way. He really is so inspired by his brother. And I think in the early days, he was kind of overcorrecting for his lack of that by being the rules lawyer. As he learns from his interactions with everyone else, he’s able to come into his own and think, “Oh, this is what makes a leader, and I can be good at this. I can support and encourage.” We see it in one of the films, but he’s carrying a little old woman on his back to safety, and he loves every second of it. He’s like, “This is cool! It’s not a big battle.” It’s just this modest, necessary little thing: “I love it. My job is not to run out ahead of everybody but to help get people from here to where they need to be.” And that’s been his journey.
Momo is also a leader and strategist. Are there any favorite parts to voicing her as a character?
Colleen Clinkenbeard: Oh, there’s a lot. But I do think in the Gigantomachia fight — or that whole section, I don’t remember if it was Season 5 or 6 — where with Midnight, she really does come into her own as a leader. We get to see her drop the doubts and drop the insecurity and really focus on what needs to be done. I think it took being in a real battle and it not being in a kind of school situation where nothing had any real-life stakes to really live up to her full potential. I like to see that switch happen where she believes in herself — or actually, she’s just not thinking about herself. She’s just doing what needs to be done and is present and in the moment. And that’s heroic.
What was it like voicing All For One in his different forms? Was it challenging at all? Or was that fun for you?
John Swasey (All For One): Well, yes and yes. It was fun. It was challenging. Of course, we reached a certain point where they changed actors because he got so young that it would not sound real and authentic if I tried to go there. As an actor, when you’re looking for the voice for a character, and I certainly did this when I initially started doing All For One, I like to listen to what the Japanese actor is doing because they’re the ones who created the role to begin with. I don’t want to copy or mimic them, but I want to stay in the ballpark and give it its due.
In the recording, it was tricky. I had to really lean on the director a lot to make sure we were going [in the right direction], depending on what was happening with All For One. It’s very nuanced. The audience gets wrapped up in these characters — they’ve bought the package — and so it’s just a lot of fun to exercise that muscle as an actor.
Christopher, as All Might, what were your thoughts upon seeing Armored All Might?
Christopher Sabat (All Might): It was so awesome — and not only that, he formed this giant smile with the armor to make sure that even he’s smiling in the mask. I thought the sweetest thing about that costume was the fact that his attacks are all named after the kids from the school. As somebody who voiced the mentor character, I was over the moon — I couldn’t believe how sweet it was that he was calling out all of their superhero names. And him being in that suit at the end was the bravest thing All Might had to do for the whole series. He didn’t have a quirk anymore. He had no power. Yet he still jumped in that suit, knowing full well what was going to come of him.
Bonds and Teamwork
From trying to defeat the villains to saving Deku from his burnout phase, the class demonstrated excellent teamwork throughout the series. Could you highlight any specific moments between certain classmates or pairings? Any of those stand out to you in particular?
Michael Tatum: There are so many. The show was filled with those moments because I think it really is about people finding their power by learning where they fit in the group so that everyone can thrive, which makes it very unique as a hero story. Usually, it’s about the one person becoming the best and doing the thing on everyone else’s behalf. This is more about your found family and making sure everyone is able to contribute. I love the moment where Tenya says to Todoroki, “What are you talking about? You were incredible.” You understand so much about how important they are to each other in that moment, and it has very little to do with their quirks or their power. It’s such a beautiful, tender human moment that really highlights the strength of the show’s approach to character.
Justin Cook (Deku/Izuku Midoriya): There are so many great pairings. The ones standing out to me right now from Season 8 are Ayami and Hagakure. I absolutely love that those two finally got spotlighted, watching the development of those characters and their powers. So that’s why I’m going to pick on them for this one.
Colleen Clinkenbeard: There are so many good pairings throughout the whole thing! Kirishima and Bakugo, there’s a good pairing. Todoroki and Momo, and Todoroki and Deku. I think that there are a lot of instances of two characters where one is helping the other realize their own power in whatever way that is. And Aizawa and Present Mic are another good pairing. [Horikoshi]’s particularly good at pairing up foils for each other who understand each other on some intrinsic level. That happens absolutely every episode, so it’s very difficult to pinpoint.
Christopher Wehkamp: I love any time that Deku and Ochako interact with each other, especially when they’re in the midst of battle. I’m taken back to Season 5 — Deku is just starting to get his head around Black Whip, and he sort of saves Ochako as she’s falling. It’s just this really sweet moment between them. The innocence of their budding affinity for each other — Ochako and Deku slay me every time.
Have you all ever discussed performances with castmates, or found one that stood out — your own or someone else’s?
Justin Briner: We talk about the process quite a bit. I think some of us have begun to look back on the series and say, “Oh my gosh, look at this performance from Episode 1 or 2.” But one that will always stick out to me is in Season 6, with Deku versus Class 1-A when they’re trying to drag him back home. Not only was the subject matter really important and moving to me, but everyone’s performances all put together — when I saw the episode, I was just really, really deeply moved by it.
Family, Guilt, and Reconciliation with the Todorokis
Did you all expect the family to come together at the end in the battle against Dabi? What did that feel like for you all?
David Matranga (Shoto Todoroki): I don’t know if I expected that. Honestly, it’s hard for me to remember. We were so locked in both those fights with Dabi, really, since Dabi’s dance in Season 6 to that moment. But I will say I was shocked at what transpired in that moment. Shoto’s being rushed to the scene by Ida, and to participate in that, it’s almost hard to remember doing it. I can watch it now and say, “Oh, good, okay. It’s good,” but I was so invested in those moments. I will tell you that Patrick’s performance, particularly the apology sequence there, broke me. It was really a moment of brokenness for everyone, and coming together in brokenness somehow was the path forward and not the thing to avoid. That’s one of my favorite episodes of the entire series.
Patrick Seitz (Endeavor/Enji Todoroki): When the family showed up, and I was watching, I gasped. I really did not see that coming, and it hit me square in the feels, which were already very tenderized by everything that had happened before.
Jason Liebrecht (Dabi/Toya Todoroki): Same. I was really, really grateful that they showed up and honestly, I did not expect them to show up for him. The fact that they did meant so much. David’s right — when Patrick started in on trying to apologize to the son that he’d abandoned, that’s the only time in my life I made them stop the session. I needed 30 minutes before I could perform with you. I mean, you guys know what that moment meant to me. That’s the only time I’ve said, “We’ve got to take a break.” In 25 years, the only time.
David Matranga: It’s such an interesting thing. I remember that scene — Shoto showing up, out of breath. It was particularly challenging technically. As much as I trust my talent and my colleagues’ talent, I was worried that it might sound maybe technical, or not that people would hear it, but that I would hear it. And it didn’t, so it’s weird because we’re doing things sometimes in such piecemeal way in those big moments. Yet, we’re able to keep the through line of the character and what is happening. It’s actually remarkable when I go back and watch it.
How do you balance Endeavor’s guilt with his drive to change?
Patrick Seitz: A lot of what’s going on with him later in the show is him having this tectonic shift of realizing you can’t force the thing. You can’t yell and punch and burn and bear down. You can’t magically be number one. You can’t make your kids little clone zombies beholden to your will. A lot of it really requires unclenching and allowing the process to be what it’s going to be — for good or ill. How terrifying that must be for somebody who has always told themselves, “I’m going to mold the world around me. If I want it enough, if I push enough, I will get what I want,” to realize that’s not how the world works. “I’m going to have to show a ton of people, I’m going to have to surrender in a lot of ways, but also beat the hell out of All For One when the situation requires.”
It’s a tightrope act. He can’t just go off and live the pastoral life and write his family letters saying, “Hey guys, I’m so sorry.” He still has to go out and do the thing that got him where he is, but the thing that he did that got him where he is also fed into that toxicity and that destructive nature that led to all of these ripples of that stone going into the pond, especially with Toya and everything he does. It’s such a thrill to get that in a single character because it easily could have been one or the other in a less deftly handled story.
As Dabi, what was it like exploring his motives after his identity was revealed? Did that change things for you?
Jason Liebrecht: It changed everything, honestly. I’m a survivor of childhood abandonment and was raised with a fair amount of violence as a young child. So I relate to him on a level that’s pretty intense. It’s not that I shy away from something that would bring that out of me. If anything, it felt like the right ammunition for portraying him with justice, for doing the character honor, and also kind of inadvertently became very therapeutic to perform, very cathartic. It’s like I got a redo on all of these moments that had echoes in my own life. But this time I’m facing these moments with power, and no one gets hurt. I’m doing it in a safe space with people whom I trust and I love.
I think it changed everything for the audience in regard to him as well. He just seemed like this nonplussed, cool guy, chaos incarnate, who cares, whatever. That’s not what it was at all. That was all an act.
Shoto’s family has so many layers — from reconciliation with his father to reconnecting with his brother. How did you capture that internal conflict?
David Matranga: It’s hard to answer for me how those things come to pass or how the moment happens. I’ve said this before too, but the most fascinating thing for me as an actor is to get to take on a worldview of someone else, to get to figure out why they make the choices they make or what the engine is that’s driving that. What do they need? What do they want? What do they care about? Why are they that? That’s what I love about acting and storytelling in general with any role.
But when you’re getting to work on a character with this much depth, I always challenge myself and ask, “Let’s stay in this moment right here. What is he doing right here? What does he want right here? How is he feeling? How is the past in forming this moment, but also let me just be in this moment.” Especially with the way that we produce this, if I can do that in every moment, then the journey of where he goes and how I calibrate that kind of works itself out. If you go back and you listen, even vocally, there’s a change in Shoto from the way he presents himself in Seasons 1 and 2 to the way he’s showing up in 6, 7, and 8. There’s almost a freedom in the voice.
I didn’t do any of that on purpose. If I had tried to do that, it would be terrible, probably. That just occurs, and that’s the magic of it and why I love it so much. I don’t know if I did anything to necessarily calibrate it. It’s just about going on that journey and making sure I’m giving justice to it and bringing my full self to it. It’s hard for me to really articulate, but to me, that’s the magic of it, and it’s why we get to talk to people who have been so impacted by the relationships in the show.
Jason Liebrecht: Patrick, I felt that you changed a little bit too, and I know that I did. We’ve grown as actors and as people through these deeply and thoroughly realized characters. I heard differences in both of your performances because you were approaching something completely different from what we thought the show was about at the beginning. If you’re a good actor and you’re in it, that’s going to happen.
David Matranga: Right. It makes me smile because it’s the dream.
Jason Liebrecht: Yep, it is the dream.
Patrick Seitz: I feel like all of our experience and technical technique doing the thing set us up, along with this wonderful material, to just let it unfold. Like you said David, if you had tried to do a thing with the voice, it would have been horrible. I feel like whenever I try to do a thing, maybe it’s not horrible, but it definitely feels and sounds artificial to me — rather than just going in with everything that came hitherto and just going, “All right, what happens? Let’s see what happens.” It usually works.
David Matranga: Different projects demand different things from us. Sometimes it’s not called on to do that. But this particular material, and how long we’ve lived with it — it calls you to show up in an invested, authentic way, and everyone has. Everyone really, really has.
Patrick Seitz: It’s a testament to the casting too that we’re not struggling against our own inherent nature trying to portray these characters for nearly a decade.
The Impact of My Hero Academia
How do you think you’ll look back on this journey years from now?
David Matranga: One of the things I fell in love with about acting was not even the performing part of it. We sat around the table, and we read this play together. We chatted about it, and we discussed it. We had ideas, and it was so intimate to me. It felt like I was getting to know these people. They were sharing themselves with me at some level, and I couldn’t find that anywhere else.
I never thought that was really possible in the way that we work in voice acting. But this show has done that. It is an incredibly intimate bonding experience to have done this particular show with these specific people, and it will never leave because of what that is — that intimacy that it’s created, that bond.
Jason Liebrecht: This one stays with me forever. There’s no question. This character is here forever. He’s not gone. The relationships are not gone. And the relationships in real life that have been partially fed on this experience remain as well. I’ll never forget it, and I’m very grateful.
My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
