Interview With Ray Chase, Max Mittelman, and Robbie Daymond
Location: Anime Boston 2022
Interview Date: 5/30/2022
Robbie Daymond: Iโm Robbie Daymond. Weโre all voice actors. I assume if youโre here, you already know that. This gentleman to my right is Max Mittelman. Thatโs Ray Chase. Weโve been in numerous things together. We’re here to answer your questions. We’ll try to make them short and bite sizable so that you can enter them into whatever things youโre doing.
Anime Herald: Hi there. Iโve interviewed Ray a few times.
Ray Chase: Anime Herald, they asked very fun questions. I canโt wait to see what you come up with this time.
Robbie Daymond: Well now youโve built it up. Iโm very excited.
Anime Herald: Hereโs the thing: Iโm going to give you guys a choice.
Robbie Daymond: Okay.
Anime Herald: If you want to touch the third rail Iโll ask you a question about unionization in the industry.
Robbie Daymond: Uh oh.
Anime Herald: Or you can give your most embarrassing Ray Chase story.
Robbie Daymond: Oh man.
Max Mittelman: Ray Chase!
Robbie Daymond: Ray Chase. Heโs so boring, thereโs nothing to be embarrassed about.
Max Mittelman: Well, whatโs our favorite thing about Ray Chase?
Robbie Daymond: One of my favorite and most embarrassing things about Ray Chase is that heโs a little bit of a sloppy eater. So you have a 50-50 chance if you meet Ray Chase heโll have some form of soup stain somewhere on him. So far today heโs in the clear. Heโs started carrying a Tide pen which has really upped his clean percentage.
Max Mittelman: I was going to say my favorite thing about Ray Chase also has to do with food and itโs the speed in which he inhales it.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah, thatโs true.
Robbie Daymond: I am also absolutely pro-unionization. I hope the industry starts to build itself around that. I hope that it provides insurance and retirement and a more fair and equitable salary for everyone who works on anime. Guess what? Itโs no longer DVDโs that you buy in a Fryโs in 1999. There are movies that make $25M at the box office. There are huge streaming platforms built around them. The industry has been built around a non-union model for twenty years. Itโs a hard thing to break out of. We respect that and understand it, but itโs time to shine some light on it and bring it into the 21st century.
Ray Chase: I will also say, and I know itโs a hot button issue, over the past five years a ton of studios went union that werenโt before. I feel like Iโve been doing entirely union stuff at this point. Aniplex has been completely union.
Robbie Daymond: JRPGs are starting to flip. Studios like PCB (Productions) are turning away non-union projects.
Ray Chase: Even a lot of Chinese and Korean mobile games have been union, which has been fantastic. I feel like a lot of progress has been made, which is awesome. A long way to go, but itโs been awesome.
(Editorโs note: Max Mittelman looked to be in agreement with what Robbie and Ray were saying, even if he couldnโt get a word in edgewise.)
Anime-Zing Radio: I wanted to know, with COVID and the ways you had to change going from in-studio to in-home, was that a big adjustment for you guys to have to make, especially where I know with Funimation titles, a lot of the voice actors had to not only record but edit their own stuff.
Ray Chase: Edit? We havenโt been asked to do that, I donโt think. We have to upload the raw file.
Max Mittelman: When the pandemic first started, I had one session from a major studio, who asked me to cut and record every single line and also slate the line myself. Which is crazy. To have to do that as an actor and also keep up and stay in the moment with the performance. They soon learned after that, that was the only time that they had any actor try to do that.
Ray Chase: Actors can’t count.
Max Mittelman: We can’t do that. Weโre not smart enough.
Robbie Daymond: One. Five. Thirteen. Ah, I canโt do it.
Max Mittelman: Youโre trying to count consecutively?
Audience: Itโs impossible.
Ray Chase: What does consecutive mean?
Robbie Daymond: What?
Max Mittelman: Thank you for your question.
Ray Chase: But also, we did have home studios, all three of us had home studios before, obviously souped them up when the pandemic happened. They were really cracking down making sure everything sounded good. We were already recording all of our auditions from home.
Max Mittelman & Robbie Daymond: Yeah.
Ray Chase: There were some people who were caught off guard, especially if youโre first starting out. Weโve been recording from home on all sorts of random stuff.
Max Mittelman: I didnโt really change anything when the pandemic started, I already had the setup. They said, โLetโs start utilizing it.โ
Robbie Daymond: I think just a few upgrades here and there for most of us who are pros. My setup was good enough to do broadcast-quality auditions and some commercials. But when it came to long-form sessions, for four-hour video game sessions or cartoon stuff, I had to do a few upgrades. I went from a three-quarter booth to a full booth.
Max Mittelman: I bought a new monitor for dubs.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah. We all probably downloaded Source-Connect. I didnโt have Source-Connect before that. I was just doing other things. But it was necessary. I think the whole industry caught up in what, two months? Within two months we were humming.
Max Mittelman: I might say thirty days.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah. It was a month of weirdness. Within that amount of time it was the industry standard.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Max Mittelman: Yep.
Robbie Daymond: It was also miserable. I hated them over it.
Max Mittelman & Ray Chase: (laughs)
Robbie Daymond: I want to go into studios all the time. The best part of our job is interacting with people and being in the room with them even if theyโre on the other side of the glass. And itโs just really disheartening to beโฆ
I know a lot of people said โOh, itโs opened up a lot of opportunities for casting people outside of certain areas.โ Iโm totally for that, itโs great that you can cast a wider net. But itโs just really creatively bankrupting sometimes, especially if you do a lot of scenes throughout multiple sessions.
Ray Chase: When you go to the studio you get free chips
Robbie Daymond: Hm hmm (nodding)
Max Mittelman: Yep.
Ray Chase: ย And the fact Iโm not allowed to have that anymore, I have to supply my own has been a real bummer.
Max Mittelman: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ray Chase: One of the worst things to happen during the pandemic I would say.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah.
Max Mittelman: Yes it is.
Robbie Daymond: Thatโs a joke by the way. A joke!
Honeyโs Anime: Since you guys stream on Twitch, do you feel that has changed your relationship with the anime community?
Ray Chase: We do stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/loudannoying every Wednesday from 7-9PM.
(Editorโs note: Pacific time)
Max Mittelman: Yeah.
Ray Chase: Thatโs the only thing I have to say.
Robbie Daymond: Itโs really fun though. A lot of people watch ourโฆ
Max Mittelman: It hasnโt really changed our relationship with the anime community at large or as a whole, but the community that we stream to, I feel like weโre really close with them. We engage with them a lot because thatโs the way we have the most fun.
Ray Chase: Yeah. Our stream is very much a podcast in the sense we talk philosophy, we talk history, we talk new things that weโre learning about. We do talk about anime and things, but they get to know us as people in a really interesting way.
Robbie Daymond: It was also the regularity of it. Weโve been streaming for five years, but it was so off and on and piecemeal. Us committing to do it every Wednesday was born out of the fact that conventions died for a couple of years.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Robbie Daymond: We were like โSo how do we engage with our fan base and people who come out to see us? Oh, these VODs (videos on demand) are getting tens of thousands of views.โ We did a marathon stream and 2,000 people tuned in to watch us sleep. Weโre like โOkay, people are enjoying this.โ
Max Mittelman: Yeah
Robbie Daymond: It was born out of a way to entertain people that werenโt at conventions.
Max Mittelman: One thing that did change was that we would do all of our streams in person before the pandemic and when we found a way to do them remote, it became more like a podcast.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Max Mittelman: We still do it in person, but itโs fun that we can have another way of doing it.
Boston Bastard Brigade: What are some of the challenges of adapting anime that have very Japanese senses of humor that Americans might not understand? For example, Mr. Osomatsu. What are some of the things you do to help the English-speaking audience not just understand it, but make it funnier for them?
Robbie Daymond: I went to the anime doctor and he said I wasnโt funny enough to be an Osomatsu. I took that diagnosis and stopped trying to be funny in anime ever.
Ray Chase: It really is about freedom. For [Mr.] Osomatsu, I think itโs one of the best adaptations. I watched the whole original Japanese show. And then for ours, just the freedom to do some fun improv and stuff. Thereโs so much where theyโre all talking at the same time, and so we can all put in whatever we want thatโs reasonable for the senior hand. Eventually, youโre making it for this audience, and if this audience isnโt going to get the joke, whatโs the point of adapting it? I really think that having freedom is the most important thing. You donโt have to do it. Except for that horrible mahjong episode. Thereโs just nothing you can do with that. Itโs just going to be a lot of mahjong jokes. English speakers will understand it.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah. Comedy is so subjective anyway, and itโs so cultural. Itโs just so time-based. Comedy is one of the few things that just does not hold up that great. There are a few amazing specials that still exist that will always be amazing. But so much of it is that we can make a reference this year, we can make a Genshin Impact joke this year. In two yearsโฆ weโre constantly changing.
Max Mittelman: Speaking of, two Genshin Impacts walk into a bar.
Robbie Daymond: Go ahead.
Max Mittelman: Ouch!
Robbie Daymond: Nice!
Ray Chase: Two Genshins Impacted into a bar.
Max Mittelman & Robbie Daymond: (groans)
Looper: How do you see the Funimation-Crunchyroll merger affecting the industry?
Robbie Daymond: I donโt know that we know enough about it.
Ray Chase: Yeah. We had this question last week. We do work for Crunchyroll. We do some work for Funimation. We just get sent auditions, thatโs all we really know.
Robbie Daymond: What ideally it would beโฆ? I donโt know. I donโt know enough about it. Weโre really careful speaking on things weโre not certain about. I mean, Iโm sure it will change things in a way, but at a certain point, you just pick projects based on whether youโd like to do them or not. So yeah, I donโt really have an opinion on that one. Sorry. What a crappy answer. I hope it shifts the industry for the better.
Ray Chase: I think they should change the companyโs name to Crunchymation. Thatโs my official stance on that.
Max Mittelman: What about Funiroll?
Ray Chase: Funiroll Crunchymation?
Max Mittelman: Funiroll Crunchymation.
Ray Chase: Thatโs our official stance. You can quote it.
Max Mittelman: I just sent it off to the lawyers.
Robbie Daymond: Call the lawyers right now!
Max Mittelman: My new corporation.
Anime Herald: You talked about not being able to do conventions for a few years so you leaned into the Twitch streaming. Now that conventions are back do you think the convention scene has changed?
Robbie Daymond: Absolutely
Max Mittelman: I think people want to be here more. They want something to do. Theyโve been pent up and now theyโre ready to go out and do stuff.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah. Itโs busier than itโs ever been. Itโs more organized than itโs ever been.
Max Mittelman: And anime as a whole has become more popular.
Ray Chase: So much more mainstream.
Max Mittelman: People just watched it more. During the pandemic, people had nothing to do, so they watched anime. Not only are people more excited about anime, but the fanbase has grown now.
Robbie Daymond: What a good point. When I think about what people were lined up for five years ago, as opposed to now, I feel like so much more of it is anime. It was all JRPGs five years ago. Now that things have come back and so much stuff has gone to streaming, itโs so much more accessible.
Thatโs the thing, itโs so much more accessible than it used to be. It seems like the licensing has become more free, and thereโs different ways to watch stuff. So yeah, I think anime is bigger than itโs ever been.
Max Mittelman: Absolutely.
Robbie Daymond: And people want to be entertained. Our shows are rowdier than theyโve ever been, in a good way. The audiences are hyped to be there and seeing something. Itโs a pretty fun show. Theyโve always been loud audiences, but now they sort of lose their minds. Itโs really fun.
Anime-Zing Radio: I do an improv talk show. What advice can you give to someone who does a talk show completely unscripted, when things go unexpected, like when a guest cancels shortly before the show. Whatโs a piece of advice that you could give?
Ray Chase: Embracing all the mistakes, all of the crazy stuff. Thatโs one of my favorite things about improv, when things are going wrong. Itโs an opportunity to let the audience in on the madness. Thatโs a great way to have candor with the audience. Not trying to hide something and say โOh, this is going poorlyโ, but just really lean into it. I think itโs always welcome. People find that very refreshing.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah, and for those who thrive on routine and are made uncomfortable by sort of those changes that might happen, like someone canceling on you, or whatever, you really have to remind yourself why you’re doing that and hopefully gets to entertain other people and try to make it less about you and more about what you’re trying to do. That makes it easier to roll with the punches. If I make something so personal, and I let my feelings get hurt if someone cancels on me, it can make it harder to move yourself mentally out of that. But if you’re just saying โNo, I’m just here to make a show. That asshole couldnโt come? Fine. Letโs figure out something else fun to do. Iโll make this entertaining because I care about my audience.โ I think that’s good advice.
Honeyโs Anime: To follow up on the improv thing, do you have a background in improv? Also, I saw on Max Mittelmanโs Twitter that the line โMy bro, my guy, my dude.โ line for Genshin Impact was improvised. Do you have a favorite improvised line that youโve done?
Max Mittelman: Whatโs our improv experience? I took many improv classes at places like Upright Citizens Brigade and Groundlings and Second City. Ray, you were in the improv troupe.
Ray Chase: USC at school and ever since high school Iโve been doing improv, so a long time. Lots of different shows. Robbie, you too?
Robbie Daymond: Yeah. Same, since high school. My grad school work was very much improv-based, and not just comedy. We did a lot of mania work. We did a ton of bodywork. We did a lot of improv-based theatre. And then for two back-to-back semesters, we did improv comedy as one of our main courses of study.
Max Mittelman: And then our favorite improvised ad-libs. I like when I got to say โYeetโ for Ryuji.
Robbie Daymond: Oh, thatโs a good one. Itโs hard to pull them out because then they become part of the…
Thereโs this one in Final Fantasy [XV] that everybody likes, where I sing a song when Iโm going down the stairs. And it was never supposed to be a song. It was never supposed to be anything like that. It was just supposed to be โWeโre going down the stairs.โ I was like, โI donโt know. Why is thisโฆโ I think it was because the Japanese was 32 seconds long or something like that, and I was like, โWhy is this so long? The line is โgoing down the stairsโ and I was like โhow do I fill it?โI guess Iโll just sing.โ
Robbie Daymond: That sort of stuff pops up all the time.
Ray Chase: Yeah. So for me, it meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssss extending the line and making it fit five seconds.
Max Mittelman: Iโll change my answer. The beatboxing I did instead of the humming I was supposed to do for Breadwinners. That was probably my favorite.
Robbie Daymond: Good question.
Boston Bastard Brigade: Youโve worked on Persona 5 and Akibaโs Beat. Despite their differences in tone and style, they both share a lot in common when it comes to dealing with delusional characters and talk about acting as commentary regarding distrust in society. When working on either game did you find any parallels between what was going on in the game and what was going on in the real world?
Robbie Daymond: Thatโs a very in-depth question.
Ray Chase: I guess the reason this question is hard is because youโre asking about thematic parallels. When I think about [Akibaโs Beat] I think about working on it with Cup of Tea [Productions, Inc.] and Eddieโs house. It was at his house. Our memories of that game are very different than the finished product so itโs very hard to conceptualize things.
Robbie Daymond: Did we ever play that on stream? We tried one time, right?
No, we never did.
Ray Chase: No.
Robbie Daymond: Weโre pretty familiar with Persona because we played fifty hours of it. What are the big themes of Personaโฆ. Obviously, cats can be humans too. Corruption. Adults are bad.
Ray Chase: Adults bad. Kids rule.
Robbie Daymond: Kids rule. That was probably a big theme in Akibaโs Beat tooโฆ
Boy, we suck.
Ray Chase: We suck.
Robbie Daymond: Sorry. Weโre ill-equipped to answer this question.
Looper: For Robbie Daymond: There have been rumors, or at least one weirdly insistent Wikipedia editor, claiming that you are reprising your role of the eighth brother in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?
Robbie Daymond: I can fully deny them.
Ray Chase: I will be voicing the eighth brother in the series.
Max Mittelman: That weirdly insistent Wikipedia editor? That was me.
Robbie Daymond: I mean, if theyโre done shooting Obi-Wan Kenobi, then I have not been in it. So that is your answer.
Ray Chase: Wait, theyโre saying youโre in a live action show?
Robbie Daymond: Yeah, but the character I guess would be CG. If the character is even in it. I donโt think anyone really knows that. The reason theyโre making that parallel is because theyโre inquisitors in the show and theyโve been keeping everything else canon. But maybe theyโve pulled my voice from the show. Could be. You never know.
Anime Herald: We have a pianist. We have a beatboxer and drummer. We have a singer. Have you guys ever considered playing together musically?
Ray Chase: We talk about it a lot. He plays guitar too.
Robbie Daymond: I do play guitar. We do talk about [it]. We do little musical-ly things together. Max and I have messed around with some music productions and songs. I do a series on Youtube where I do covers with other actors. Ray and I have talked about singing one. Max and I have talked about singing one.
Itโs so funny. In all of our creative life, weโre all musical. And weโve never taken the time to bring it together. And I think thatโs because most bands break up. And weโre too deeply invested to break up with each other. Weโre waifus for laifu.
I had fun making a song with Max. We sing a song together at the top of our improv show. Weโve got a couple of projects coming up where weโll be doing music for that. Max is in charge of it. Yeah, thatโs an interesting question. How funny.
Ray Chase: Itโs Anime Herald.
Robbie Daymond: Weโve never done anything like that, except you and I (speaking to Max). And itโs unreleased. I donโt know if weโll ever release it. Itโs just for us. Itโs fun. Some things youโve got to do for yourself.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Max Mittelman: Yeah.
Robbie Daymond: Interesting. What do you think boys?
Ray Chase: I think you should release your frickin song. Iโve heard it. Itโs really good.
Robbie Daymond: Thanks.
Ray Chase: I donโt know why theyโre not. Itโs honestly frustrating.
Max Mittelman: Iโll tell you why. Thereโs only one and if it blows up people are going to expect so much more, and we donโt have that yet. We need to make the album.
Ray Chase: People donโt listen to albums anymore.
Max Mittelman: They listenโฆ
Robbie Daymond: What if we became a Tik Tok song?
Max Mittelman: If the three of us became a new Tik Tok song?
Ray Chase: No, if your song became the new viral hit.
Max Mittelman: Oh. You want to just put it on Tik Tok?
Ray Chase: Just put it on Tik Tok.
Robbie Daymond: Maybe someday. Who knows. But LAVA the Musical? Donโt hold your breath.
Anime-Zing Radio: You all have had some iconic roles that you voiced in video games and anime. Was there any particular character that stands out that you were surprised that they became so beloved by the fans?
Ray Chase: Surprise?
Max Mittelman: Surprise hit.
Robbie Daymond: Akechi! Akechi was a massive surprise hit for me. Max and Ray informed me Persona was a big property when I got the role. I was like, โI donโt know what that is.โ
I play a lot of games. I watch a lot of anime. Iโm into this stuff. I just never got into Persona. I was aware of it peripherally, that it existed, but I had no idea. I went in and I was like โOh, this is actually a really cool character.โ So I went hard in the paint and people tended to enjoy it. That was a big surprise for me. Never was there a moment when I was recording when I was like โEverybody is gonna remember Akechiโs name. Put it on my gravestone.โ (Editorโs note: That was in Goro Akechiโs voice.)
Max Mittelman: Sometimes, itโs a surprise to me when characters donโtโฆ
Robbie Daymond: Not moreโฆ
Ray Chase: Oh yeah. I was the main character of Anthem, which was supposed to be the biggest game of all time. Just crashed and burned. That was a big surprise.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah.
Max Mittelman: Especially when you are really invested in a character.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Max Mittelman: And you think โwow, this is so fun to play,โ and people donโt latch onto it and youโre like, โOh, man!โ
Robbie Daymond: Yeah.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Robbie Daymond: I put my heart and soul into Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. Like, I put my all into that show.
Max Mittelman: You put your soul into it. (Commiserating, laughing)
Robbie Daymond: People liked it I guess. It was the next big show from the Attack on Titan studio. It was all hyped up like โThis is going to be the one.โ and everybody was kind of like โEh, itโs okay. Weโll give it a season and a movie.โ I was like โShit. I thought this was going to be my next big thing.โ
Ray Chase: B: The Beginning. Netflix put all of their marking materials into that one and it went nowhere. Just one season and then a half a season.
Robbie Daymond: You truly donโt know whatโs going to hit unless itโs already a monster manga or something like that. When Max was going through his callbacks for One Punch Man we all had an idea that One Punch Man would be the anime of the year, or whatever. So that happens every once in a while. But typically not. Itโs a surprise a lot of the time. Like when Ray and I were working on Final Fantasy, we were like โDude, this is the next Final Fantasy.โ
Ray Chase: We knew that was going to be a big one.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah, but what we didnโt know is that fans would latch onto it so emotionally.
Ray Chase: Yeah!
Robbie Daymond: That it would be some of the most passionate long-term fans that we have. I mean, itโs been out for five and half years and we still see cosplayers. People still come up crying โI just played through it.โ
Ray Chase: I remember before it came out we were like โItโs going to be about combat. Itโs going to be about fighting. Itโs going to be an adventure.โ And what people love is the cooking, the fishing, the camping. The actual brotherhood of it. And thatโs what it is as a game. Itโs about hanging out with your friends. And thatโs what came out.
Actually, a bit of a surprise was Bungo Stray Dogs. That one came out, not very popular, and then the pandemic happened, and people started watching that show like crazy. So Bungo was a surprise.
Honeyโs Anime: This is a question for Ray.
Ray Chase: Iโm being summoned.
Honeyโs Anime: Since the Master of Masters from Kingdom Hearts is so shrouded in mystery, do you have any theories about him? About what his goals might be?
Ray Chase: I can’t even imagine. All I know is that it is not whatever we are thinking, because it never happens to be. That was absolutely a role that I know the least about having played in for so many years. I can’t say anything. I wish I knew more. I do hope that he comes in [Kingdom Hearts] IV, itโs called The Lost Master Arc, and heโs the Lost Master. So youโd imagine heโd be featured in that pretty heavily, but Iโve not been called in yet.
Boston Bastard Brigade: Have there been shows that you guys have worked on that have hit harder because of the pandemic?
Robbie Daymond: Shows that weโve been in that have hit harder? In what sense?
Boston Bastard Brigade: Shows that have a deeper meaning now, or shows where your thought process of the show has changed because of the pandemic.
Ray Chase: Youโd think Cells at Work! would be that one.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah, interesting.
Iโm not certain that you can let those things affect your work. If weโre letting the conditions of the world affect our performances, thatโs the wrong mindset. There have been times in the pandemic where Iโve been like โOh, Iโm so grateful to be workingโ or โIโm so happy I can still work.โ
We watched our other friends who are on camera people, theater people, they just went out of work for a year.
Ray Chase: Yeah.
Robbie Daymond: No more productions, until people figured out how to Covid protocols. So, I would say no, weโve all got families and people we care about, so being able to work was really important.
Max Mittelman: Speak for yourself. (Deadpan)
(Editorโs note: We laughed.)
Boston Bastard Brigade: The question actually was more about shows you worked on before the pandemic that now have a deeper meaning.
Robbie Daymond: I canโt imagine just because I think it might have more meaning for you as an audience member.
Max Mittelman: I was going to say I think everyone derives their own meaning from it depending on whatever is going on in their lives. One Punch Man can have just as much meaning to someone as Your Lie in April depending on what they need at the time.
Ray Chase: Vaccine Man hits harder.
Looper: Looking over Ray Chaseโs resume: Anime, anime, video games, anime, Licorice Pizza. So I have to ask, is Paul Thomas Anderson a Weeaboo?
Ray Chase: Absolutely not. No.
Ray Chase: Iโm Mr. Anime JRPG guy and that year was Licorice Pizza and Malignant. I got to work with James Wan too in a crazy horror movie. It was really fun to branch out in that way.
Looper: Is James Wan a Weeaboo?
Ray Chase: (Thinks for a second) Probably. It didnโt come up when we worked on it. We talked mostly about what it would be like to be on the back of somebodyโs head.
Robbie Daymond: Rayโs a real live actor. Did you know that? Heโs like a real live actor. A lot of us are.
Ray Chase: We watched Licorice Pizza on the plane. It was fun. I took a screenshot โThereโs my face on the screen.โ It was cool.
Ray Chase: I do sign Licorice Pizza, people bring the soundtrack to me all the time which is really fun. But no oneโs brought me the Paul Thomas Anderson manga to sign. Not yet.
Anime Herald: School of LAVA. If you were all professors, teaching acting and such, what course would each of you want to focus on? What would you want to teach?
Ray Chase: Now Anime Herald, I know you do your research. Robbie was an acting teacher at UNLV.
Max Mittelman: Yeah, but this is the University of LAVA.
Robbie Daymond: The school of LAVA.
First of all, it would be a scam, right?
Max Mittelman: 100%. Weโd promise people weโd cast them in anime, and just make them dub One Punch Man and not release it. It would be great.
Ray Chase: A scam. Man, there are so many of those in LA. When youโre first starting out, itโs all โWe promise if you take this class, pay us $800, and at the end of it youโll get a showcase.โ
Max Mittelman: Letโs call them out.
Robbie Daymond: I taught at the New York Film Academy. Iโm so comfortable now, Iโll shit on that place all day.
Anime Herald: Why were they bad?
Robbie Daymond: They were a scam. First problem: New York Film Academy is in Los Angeles. Very suspect.
Max Mittelman: But there is one in New York as well.
Robbie Daymond: There is one in New York as well. It took place in place in an office building on Barham Boulevard. It was run by, and I think he ended up being some kind of skeeze bag, Brett Ratner, I think ran the thing. But I didnโt know that when I got the job.
(Editorโs note: Ratner has been accused of sexual assault by multiple people: Henstridge, Page.)
Robbie Daymond: So I left grad school, we got time, can I go down the rabbit hole?
Max Mittelman: Yes.
Ray Chase: Absolutely.
Robbie Daymond: So I left grad school, went to LA, bummed around with my band, then booked my first VO (voice acting) gig. Two weeks in I thought โThis is going to be easy.โ And then, recession, writerโs strike. I couldnโt get a job as a pizza delivery boy, and thatโs a true story. I couldnโt get a job delivering pizza, there were lines around the block to wait tables at restaurants, actors with headshots. A ridiculous number of people, a quarter of a million, left in three months. Brutal time to be there. I couldnโt get a job to write. I was like โMy savings are gone. My bank accountโs red. I canโt get a pizza delivery job. This is all over.โ I found an ad for teaching at The New York Film Academy.
I was overqualified to work there by far. They paid us hourly. I was bringing in real pedagogy. I taught there for a semester and I thought โThis is all bullshit.โ It was around $20,000 a semester. It was a bunch of Eastern European oligarchโs kids. I was teaching them Shakespeare. They were being told theyโd be able to make it in Hollywood. That was what was being sold. It truly was a scam. I eventually had to leave because of this, โI canโt do this anymore.โ When I found out they were offering a master’s degree, they were an MFA and got accredited as a university, โI canโt be here. My conscience canโt do it.โ And my acting career started taking off. I was there for about two years. Anywayโฆ what was the point of this story?
Ray Chase: Do you think that now you could get a pizza delivery job?
Robbie Daymond: What?
Ray Chase: Do you think if you tried you could get a pizza delivery job?
Robbie Daymond: Iโm overqualified. Iโm forty years old. I donโt think I would get it.
Ray Chase: Youโre not gonna get it.
Robbie Daymond: Damn it.
Max Mittelman: Your dream.
Robbie Daymond: I really donโt think I would get it.
Max Mittelman: What would we teach?
Robbie Daymond: Those kinds of places existed. I would want to teach something real.
Ray Chase: Our big thing that we talk about all the time on our stream, because we hear it from the fans who want to be in anime who watch a ton of anime and they mimic our performances, and thatโs not the way it is to do it. You have to come from an outsider’s perspective and bring your own viewpoint to it.
Max Mittelman: As much of a scam that you say that was, the only non-scammy part was learning from people like you who have…
Ray Chase: Who quit immediately.
Max Mittelman: Who quit immediately.
Robbie Daymond: To be fair, their faculty was pretty solid.
Max Mittelman: What I was going to say, the way to avoid a scam if you want to search out, you want to find people who are reputable, who are doing the work, and not just talking about it.
Robbie Daymond: And are honest too about your progress. That was the hardest part for me about that school. Because Svetlana was paying $20,000 and could barely speak English and move her body. If I were at a university I would give this person a D. I just canโt pass you in this course, you donโt have the skills. They were like โNo, no, no, no. She needs a B- so she continues on this program.โ
That was the part that was icky for me. I would like to teach real functional skills.
Ray Chase: Math, science, school of LAVA, hard core engineering, STEM, total STEM.
Max Mittelman: No electives.
Robbie Daymond: Russian history. Linguistics. Engineering.
Ray Chase: That was fun.
Max Mittelman: I can teach a thing or two about scientific research because I am a published scientific researcher.
Ray Chase: Heโs literally a published scientific researcher.
Max Mittelman: I am, you can look it up. I did some research for this thing called Gmaps.
Robbie Daymond: He cut up fly genitalia.
Max Mittelman: It wasnโt that. It was studying the genetic lineage, it doesnโt matter, itโs all very complicated, whatโs the next question?
Anime-Zing Radio: This oneโs for Ray, talking about Demon Slayer: How surprised were you to get the role of Tengen and how big the character has become?
Ray Chase: That was a weird one because Iโm really good friends with Aleks Le who is Zenitsu in that. I remember the auditions went out, I had no idea what it was. That one I was surprised was a hit because I just didnโt know anything about it personally. I auditioned for all the Hashira, got Tengen, had like 14 lines in season one, I was like โOh, this is just some lame character whoโs just appearing for a secondโ and Aleks kept saying โyou donโt understand, heโs like the main guy, just wait, just wait.โ And I had to wait two years to work on season two, but man, watching that in subtitles every week before to prepare was one of the coolest homework assignments ever. That animation was as flashy as possible. Iโve never seen an anime like that before.
Anime-Zing Radio: It came before Sabitoโs extended roll.
Max Mittelman: I donโt know if Iโd say that. Heโs like the main character in season 17.
Ray Chase: That was some of the most fun Iโve ever had. That one I requested to go into the studio for because it has to be so frame perfect, the fight scenes are so intense. Really fun.
Robbie Daymond: Thatโs a real answer. We did it.
Ray Chase: Yep.
Honeyโs Anime: For Max, obviously one of my favorite roles of yours is Filbo from Bugsnax.
Max Mittelman: Obviously.
Ray Chase: Yay!
Robbie Daymond: Oh yeah!
Honeyโs Anime: Thereโs a lot of complexity to him underneath his cheerful attitude. How did you use your performance to show how he grows and changes in the story.
Max Mittelman: I think he starts off very insecure, very needy, wanting to find Lizbert. Heโs very insecure about her not being there. As heโs given this responsibility to run the town as the mayor, he grows and becomes more confident in himself.
Honeyโs Anime: What in your performance did you do to show that change?
Max Mittelman: I donโt know how to describe it other than the way to perform it.
Robbie Daymond: I got you. One of the biggest โNo noโsโ in acting is to show.
Max Mittelman: To tell?
Robbie Daymond: To show and to tell. You donโt show. You never show. You never say โThis is the safe.โ Same thing.
Max Mittelman: I am ner-vous.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah. You donโt show, you donโt point at the safe, you just do it.
Ray Chase: Oh I see. If youโre playing someone whoโs nervous theyโre not going to say Iโm nervousโ, theyโre trying to hide that theyโre nervous and their nervousness goes through.
Max Mittelman: Trying to act like theyโre confident but itโs not working out for them.
Robbie Daymond: If thatโs what you took from his performance then thatโs the perfect interpretation of it. Sounds like thatโs what he was going for and what you picked up on. So thatโs the perfect actor-audience relationship.
Ray Chase: Robbie with the save.
Max Mittelman: Thanks, Robbie.
This is why he has an MFA in acting and I donโt.
Robbie Daymond: I think thatโs what was meant.
Honeyโs Anime: I got you.
Boston Bastard Brigade: For Robbie: You sounded like you were having a blast playing Raymond from ย OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes. Iโm wondering how you decided how he should talk, what his personality would be like, and what you brought to the character that made him Raymond.
Robbie Daymond: When the audition first came out, he had a rose. I knew that the creator was a big anime fan. I thought that maybe it was a Tuxedo Mask reference. He had something like a tuxedo. I just did the horniest robot I could possibly do. Donโt tell anyone, I know itโs a kid show, but thatโs the kind of voice that it was. He wasnโt being overtly sexual, but the voice itself was horny.
Max Mittelman: If thatโs the word that helps you get into the voice, then use that and no one will ever know.
Robbie Daymond: I wasnโt making it sexual, but the voice itself is. You know who Tim Curry is? Even when heโs not being sexual, or playing a sexual character, he has a horny quality to his voice. ย I think that was part of the inspiration. And there were some scenes with Raymond where he was flamboyant and over the top, and open and free. Thatโs how I worked my way into that voice.
Looper: Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen are neck and neck for being the most popular anime and manga at the momentโฆ
Ray Chase: Itโs really great being in both, isnโt it Max?
Max Mittelman: Yeah. Itโs so great. (Deadpan)
Looper: And Ray and Robbie are in both of them
Robbie Daymond: And Maxโฆ
Looper: And Max is in Demon Slayer. I don’t know if you are allowed to play favorites, but if you had to choose one, which would you pick as your personal favorite between the two of them?
Ray Chase: Whoa, Iโve watched them both.
Robbie Daymond: I donโt want to alienate anyone who likes them.
Ray Chase: ****
Max Mittelman: Yeah, I wouldnโt want to answer this question. I couldnโt possibly choose.
Robbie Daymond: Theyโre both great shows. Theyโre so different though.
Ray Chase: Itโs hard because one is like Dragon Ball, which you canโt help but love, and one is like a darker, more hardcore Death Note. I donโt know. Theyโre both so different.
Robbie Daymond: Theyโre gonna make us โThe Good Sonโ this.
Itโs on a cliff.
Ray Chase: Sophieโs Choice it?
Robbie Daymond: Sophieโs Choice it. I never want to say โSophieโs Choice,โ but itโs probably the best.
Max Mittelman: Who are you letting go?
Ray Chase: Demon Slayer, because Iโm done with Demon Slayer.
(Editorโs note: This killed the room. Laughter all around.)
Robbie Daymond: Thatโs a great answer. Oh man, Iโve still got the Swordsmith Village arc. I canโt let Demon Slayer go. Ah, I let Demon Slayer go.
Ray Chase: So the answer is we let Demon Slayer fall off a cliff and die. Thatโs the answer.
Robbie Daymond: Yeah.
Ray Chase: Quote us on that.
Robbie Daymond: Enjoy, Looper!
Anime Boston Staff: We have time for a quick lightning round and then photos.
Anime Herald: Alright, lightning round. This oneโs for you, Max.
Max Mittelman: We can take our time with this.
Anime Herald: When you are voice acting for One Punch Man, playing Saitama, how do you get into a bald frame of mind?
LAVA collectively: A bald frame of mind.
Max Mittelman: Well, ummโฆ Good question.
You start by being extremely nervous that you need to deliver to all the fans that are going to watch. Youโre trying to strike a balance between a guy whoโs not necessarily lazy, but heโs achieved all the things he wants to achieve, and [has] this sense of just being so bored. How do I get into character?
Robbie Daymond: How do you get into a bald frame of mind?
Ray Chase: This is the lightning round.
Robbie Daymond: This is a joke question. Youโve got to give a good joke answer.
Max Mittelman: A joke answer. Well, ha! Shave it all off.
Robbie Daymond: Nailed it! Max is already so hairy that itโs hard for him to go there. Look at these arms.
Max Mittelman: Get away from me! Get away from me!
Robbie Daymond: Look at these arms!
Max Mittelman: Get away from me!
Anime-Zing Radio: Performed as LAVA, how has that changed how you perform acting and voice acting?
Robbie Daymond: I used to like Max and Ray so much.
Max Mittelman: I used to hate these guys.
Ray Chase: Itโs changed how we do panels, especially Q & A panels; we kind of treat it as show, no matter what weโre doing.
Robbie Daymond: It hasnโt changed our performances, I donโt think, in anime. Except they donโt really cast us together anymore.
Max Mittelman: No they stopped immediately!
Robbie Daymond: Thatโs too much power.
Ray Chase: Yeah, itโs true.
Robbie Daymond: I feel like weโre the naughty kids in class.
Max Mittelman: Yes!
Robbie Daymond: โYou canโt sit together.โ
Ray Chase: Thatโs why Max isnโt in Jujutsu Kaisen. Next question.
Honeyโs Anime: For all three of you: What do you find to be the most rewarding part of your career?
Max Mittelman: Working with these guys.
Ray Chase & Robbie Daymond: Awwwโฆ.
Robbie Daymond: Itโs true.
Ray Chase: It is why we keep enmeshing ourselves in so many different projects and extracurricular activities, because we love finding like-minded people.
Robbie Daymond: I think it also adds to our entertainment value when we go to these events. One of the things we take most seriously when we go to conventions, and we do a lot of them. I think weโre going to 25 of them this year. We got together because we wanted to bring added entertainment to these conventions, which is where the idea of the show came from, which is where the two new panels that we do…
Max Mittelman: Tuna panels?
Ray Chase: Two new panels.
Robbie Daymond: Two new tuna panels. These panels that we do. Our favorite thing is to entertain the attendees. This gives us a new way to entertain attendees that so far, not a ton of other people are doing. ย As far as we know.
Max Mittelman: Correct!
Robbie Daymond: Itโs awesome.
Ray Chase: Next question?
Boston Bastard Brigade: Itโs a little tradition we have. Normally we would ask if you were stuck on a desert island, which three of your characters would you bring with you. Since thereโs three of you here, how about each one of you pick along one of your characters. Which one would it be and why?
Ray Chase: Can I choose Filbo Fiddlepie…
Max Mittelman: Damn it!
Ray Chase: Because heโs really good at crafting. Heโs really good at finding hidden stuff. Heโs a good mayor, so Iโd want him to be the mayor of the town.
Max Mittelman: Okay. Fine. I need to think about it.
Ray Chase: Youโd need to choose one of Robbieโs and Robbie needs to choose one of mine.
Robbie Daymond: I know.
Max Mittelman: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Robbie Daymond: I would chooseโฆ Ray, your charactersโฆ
Ray Chase: Theyโre all terrible.
Max Mittelman: Yeah, I know.
Robbie Daymond: Iโd choose the guy from Anthem! We need someone who flew. That guy flies around the world. โBro, I donโt care if your gameโs canceled, get me some coconuts. Iโm hungryโ Heโd be like โSure thing. *Vroom* Heโd come back with firewood. He would.
Ray Chase: His name is Freelancer.
Robbie Daymond: Iโd hire him to be my desert island freelancer. Iโd pay him in seashells.
Max Mittelman: Iโd choose Robbie Daymond from Critical Role. That way I could have Robbie Daymond with me at all times.
Robbie Daymond: I would absolutely kill and cannibalize you both.
Looper: Question for the โMatsuโs. Was there ever any consideration, even as a thing among yourselves, of dubbing the banned first episode?
Max Mittelman: Oh yes.
Ray Chase: Thatโs all we wanted to do.
Max Mittelman: We begged them. We begged them.
Ray Chase: They wanted to do it too! Itโs just a Japanese thing.
Max Mittelman: Itโs not. Itโs not a Japanese thing. Itโs an American thing. We couldnโt get, they couldnโt get… the clearance to put that many references in an American show. Japan could do it. We could not.
Ray Chase: Itโs the same way that, in JoJo, you have to change all the stand names from the real-life musicians. We couldnโt do that one episode.
Robbie Daymond: I donโt know this, what is it?
Ray Chase: Itโs the best episode of anime ever.
Max Mittelman: If you watch one episode of Osamatsu, itโs just this episode…
Ray Chase: The first episode. They lampoon every anime thatโs ever been made all at once. Itโs hilarious.
Max Mittelman: The animation style changes along the way. Itโs so great.
Robbie Daymond: Itโs like one of those old-school Looney Tunes, they would walk into a bar and it would have everyone Hollywood person ever. And they lampoon them.
Max Mittelman: Yes. But also the animation would change, theyโd make references to Pokemon and theyโd all look like characters from Pokemon.
Robbie Daymond: Itโs a licensing thing.
Max Mittelman & Ray Chase: Itโs a licensing thing, yeah.
Max Mittelman: We should watch that in our spare time.
Robbie Daymond: Good questions gang.
Ray Chase: No Critical Role questions Robbie, how does that feel?
Robbie Daymond: Weโre at Anime Boston! Good!
