With Dan Da Dan's anime here, the hype is building for one of the most unusual, exciting, and funny new Shonen Jump+ adaptations. The voiceover artists for the two protagonists, Natsuki Hanae and Shion Wakayama, are at the heart of the new anime, who portray Okarun and Momo, respectively. They recently appeared at Anime NYC's Dan Da Dan , where Hanae and Wakayama showcased their incredible talents and charisma to an adoring New York audience.

Following the , Hanae and producer Hiroyuki Aoi graciously ed Screen Rant for a brief interview to discuss Dan Da Dan's full release on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix. With Natsuki Hanae being associated with other recent and illustrious roles like Tanjiro Kamado from Demon Slayer and Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul, it's unsurprising that he turns in another unique performance as Okarun.

In their interview, Hanae-san and Aoi-san discuss Okarun as a nerdy protagonist who stays true to himself, and an anime that quickly ramps up the action in Dan Da Dan.

Okarun's withdrawn nature and reaction to being bullied while remaining true to himself makes an interesting case for his fixation with the paranormal and occult being a parallel to being perceived as an otaku. It's exciting to see this different character; would you say this is one of your more unusual roles overall, and if so, are there any favorite aspects of this performance?

Natsuki: Because he's a different person, I don't think I'm acting as a different character from previous roles and from what I've acted before. As for what's fun about Okarun is his ability to show a lot of different emotions, go into otaku mode, fighting, or transforming into his Turbo-Granny mode, he changes his voice which is fun too.

Aoi-san, it's exciting not only to see the fruits of the labor so far, as you mentioned in the but also to see the end result debut to a roaring audience. What more can we expect from the season in Dan Da Dan?

Hiroyuki: For Dan Da Dan, what's on the horizon, starting from episode #4, Okarun and Momo will grow. They won't just grow separately; their relationship and battle skills will grow as they train. From there, they will encounter more aliens and phenomena, but because they've "leveled up," the action will be amazing throughout the rest of the season.

How exciting was it to see the English and Japanese dubs demonstrated concurrently at the for the audience?

Hiroyuki: I usually see Hanae-san and Wakayama-san do the ADR dubbing in Japan, and while that's amazing, the Japanese producers never get to see English actors in their process; it was almost like the first time watching it, and it was impactful and different. They take a Japanese voice and try to match it, but for Okarun, A.J.'s voice was different from Hanae-san's voice; the voice texture was different but I still thought it was very interesting.

For Hanae-san: the sudden shift in personality when powering up with Turbo-Granny is a high-energy performance. It's interesting to see, in light of your previous roles. What is it like to do those changes?

Natsuki: I wanted to differentiate normal Okarun from his other mode. He normally speaks in a higher pitch, so I raise my pitch a little bit, and I thought if I lowered the voice when he changes form, he would sound cool. That was already determined in the audition process. I try to keep the energy a little bit lower, more chill, to really have the difference between the normal Okarun and his battle mode.

Thank you to Natsuki Hanae & Hiroyuki Aoi and GKIDS for talking with us at Anime NYC!