Kaiju United had the great privilege of attending Anime NYC this past August. While it was a change of pace from the conventions we typically cover, it was still an enjoyable experience and one we were thrilled to have attended.
On the morning of August 22, my press partner Mario and I had the opportunity to attend the 11:00 am panel featuring Johnny Yong Bosch. For those unfamiliar with his work, he’s an incredibly talented actor whose career spans 32 years across both live-action and voice acting. Of course, for me, I was introduced to him when he played Adam Park in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. To others, he’s Dante (Devil May Cry), Ichigo (Bleach), Nate (Yo-Kai Watch), and countless other roles throughout his career.
The turnout for the panel was huge! Especially considering it was still pretty early in the morning. The panel consisted of a conversation between Bosch and the moderator, Lexi Nieto. Followed by a Q&A session where members of the audience had the opportunity to ask their own questions. Bosch made quite the entrance when he walked in with a huge roar of applause. As he sat down, Nieto asked, “If you were to have a song to play during your walk-up just now, what would it be?” Bosch cleverly replied, “Probably Power Rangers!”
Italics is Johnny Yong Bosch
Bold is Lexi Nieto, the moderator.
I wasn’t really a theater kid; I liked cartoons and Kung fu movies. I was, you know, just a quiet, shy kid, and I just found my escape in watching whatever.
At what point did you realize, “Maybe this could be my job?”
I didn’t; I still, to this day, don’t feel like it! I felt that way many times, such as when I went to my first audition, which was for Power Rangers. I don’t know how to explain it, but in my head I’m like, “Maybe this could work out”. I also had that other voice that was, “It’s never gonna happen; this is impossible”. You just try to quiet the negative voice down.
Whichever one is not aiding you in that moment. At what point, realizing maybe not even that it’s like your profession or whatever, but when did you start being invited to conventions?
That was a looong time ago; I think it was in 2001. Might’ve been the first one I went to, or 2003, somewhere in there. I think I was working on another anime, and then I think Lia Sargent, who directed me in Trigun, was like, “Oh, I came from this anime convention, and Trigun is really popular there!” I was like, “Oh, really? That’s cool!” She gave me the contact; I reached out, and I told them, “You guys like Trigun?” Laughter. Then I went there, and it was super cool to see what people dressed up like. I saw some people dressing up like Bash. That was wild. I was familiar with Star Trek conventions or something like that I’ve seen on the news, but anime conventions weren’t as big as I was familiar with. That was my introduction!
I did it for a very long time, and I’m still here. My favorite part is meeting all of you guys. I really love talking to you; I love seeing you in cosplay, and it’s my favorite thing. It’s so cool! I mean, I’m giving my all to whatever my performance is, and then I have no idea; sometimes it doesn’t work out, and this is where I found out that you guys told me you liked my performance.
I was thinking about Devil May Cry; my first time was doing Nero, and now I’m doing Dante, but when I did Nero, I went to Japan. I did the motion capture stuff, and then I poured everything I had into that role, and I was feeling so good. Maybe you didn’t know this, but I auditioned for part three as Dante but didn’t get it. So when I went in for Nero, it was super exciting, and I went to Japan to do that stuff! After we were done, the game came out. Ruben, who does Dante, was like, “Have you seen the stuff online?” I said no. He was like, “Dude, they hate you”. They did NOT like Nero, so it took two or three years before people started to warm up to that character. It was usually people who didn’t play the other games and started on that one who liked Nero…and fell in love with the rest of it.
I felt so defeated because I poured so much into it, but then yesterday I saw some people dressed up as Nero, so it’s like sometimes it works out, but in the beginning it’s a little painful.
Was it like people had disdain for the character or specifically your performance?
The character.
Ohh, that makes me feel a little better.
Audience member shouts, “WE LOVE YOU JOHNNY!”
Thank you! I love you as well!
Do you feel interactions with fans at conventions, way back versus now, have changed with anime being a very popular thing now, so do you feel like it’s affected the fans’ approach to the medium?
I don’t know about them approaching it. But it has changed, for me, my perspective when I would go to a convention; many of the concierges, when we would get booked they would go, “Oh…you’re just one of those voice actors”. I was like oh dang. You felt ashamed, and they let you know that; even some of the A-List celebrities would be in different rooms that we couldn’t get into. It was like that for a long time, but as the years went by, because of YOU guys- you guys love anime and the shows- somehow, we’re now allowed to share the same rooms with them!
It’s been great to see it change because the shows are great. It wasn’t cool till, like… Hot Topic had a jacket or something.
Can you share, specifically about anime cons, going back to Anime Expo this year, can you share the stories about interactions and gifts you got from the creators of Bleach?
I did get very emotional at Anime Expo. We were promoting Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. It was like the final chapter, so it was very cool and emotional. But Morita-san (Masakazu Morita), who voices Ichigo on the Japanese side, was there. For context, I was on Zoom, and we were reading this thing; he wasn’t there, but they wanted to go through the script. One of the guys working there was like, “Wow, that was great for the real Ichigo…what do you think, Johnny?” I’m on the Zoom, and I’m like, “Ouch.” The script didn’t have what I was supposed to say, but in my cue I had to make something up, and so I was like, “Well…I guess for the FAKE Ichigo”. No one laughed; they were very serious, and I was sorry about it. I know my place.
But when I was at Anime Expo, Morita-San came into the room, and I had met him once before, many years ago. We were going through the script when that line came up (the “real Ichigo” line); he was like, “Who wrote this? This is ridiculous! I may be the original Japanese, but he’s the original English”. So he really defended me; it was one of the many times he did at that convention.
He was really cool! A really great guy to have met up with. Then he surprised me on stage! Tite Kubo had drawn Ichigo and wrote “Thank you, Johnny” and signed it. Morita-san surprised me on stage with it. To see the creator of Bleach thank me was very moving.
It made me cry on stage, and everyone was like, “Awww, he’s crying!”
It does make total sense, because you are the reason that so many stories are accessible to an English audience. That’s a huge deal.
It was at this point that Lexi opened the floor to questions from the audience. There were a handful of great questions asked, and I decided to highlight a few of the ones that stood out to me.
Italics is Johnny Yong Bosch
Bold is an audience member. Will remain nameless.
Nice to meet you Johnny! I wanna thank you for being the goat. I actually got into anime because of your performance as LeLouch. I see that the medium has something to offer that others might not because of your performance. So my question is, I saw other anime that you were in, One Piece with Sabo and Ichigo, Bleach, etc, I happen to notice there’s a similarity to the characters that’s hard to describe. It’s almost like a type casting. Do you see similarities in the characters you voice? If so, what would that quality or qualities be?
It’s probably more of me injecting some part of myself into the character, then me seeing a similarity. I’ve probably voiced voiced a handful of characters where they control a giant mech, and they have a special vocal key or something. Or a character that’s had a dark past or whatever, in that sense yes. But as far as the voice, it depends really on what the producers are looking for. Sometimes they’ll even say we loved what you did in Trigun, we want THAT. So occasionally I’ll get some where they want a voice or the tone to sound similar, and often times they just want me to do my regular voice.
I grew up watching Power Rangers a lot, and it was crazy to figure out you were the voice of Ichigo. How does it feel sometimes that you were the face of everybody’s childhood, and then as they grew into a teen and adult they discovered anime. Does it ever cross your mind that you’re somebody’s entire evolution through their personality?
I try not to think about it, it’s a heavy weight, almost like a sense of responsibility to be a good human. Not that I’m not, but I just don’t wanna do anything wrong. I wanna make everyone proud, like when I’m performing a character. Whether it’s me doing ichigo, I’m giving my absolute best performance. I want you to have that pride in that show. I’m sure every voice actor feels the same way.
Johnny Yong Bosch held a positive energy throughout, and if anything was clear, it is most definitely that he pours every ounce of himself into his performances. Bosch has inspired so many, and to many fans of his most notable role, Ichigo Kurosaki, he is almost a part of the character of Ichigo himself. It is only just that Masakazu Morita and Tite Kubo gave him the credit and confidence he deserves, because he embraces the responsibility of playing Ichigo with a moxie that is scarcely replicated in the world of English dubbing. As fans look forward to the conclusion of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, they can know that the performance of the conclusion of their beloved series is in the good hands of Johnny Yong Bosch. It was an incredible time to see Bosch in person, interacting with fans in a well-run Anime NYC panel!
The English dub of Episode 1 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Cour 4 aired on August 29th, and will continue to release every Saturday at 6:30 a.m. PT and 9:30 a.m. ET on Hulu and Disney +.
