Jujutsu Kaisen 0/MAPPA/Crunchyroll YouTube

The English cast for the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 anime movie talks about their approach to voice acting and how to portray truly great anime villains.

The Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie continues to make bank at theatres around the world, following on from its $100 million earnings at the Japanese box office.

Whilst the storyline, animation style and soundtrack are well-deserving of the plaudits, it’s the performances from the voice cast that is cementing Jujutsu Kaisen 0’s place as an all-time great anime movie.

At a press event for the movie, we got a chance to interview some of the English voice cast for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and ask them about their approaches to playing larger-than-life anime characters.

Anime villains come in all shapes and sizes, and every single anime fan has their own personal list of fantastic bad guys. Whilst the big scary fantasy monsters and demons are obviously intimidating, it’s the stylish and suave villains that truly get the goosebumps going; think Aizen from Bleach or Muzan from Demon Slayer for example.

In the new movie, the main villain is Suguru Geto, an alumnus from Jujutsu High who has turned his life goal towards bringing about a new hierarchy within the wider world structure of Jujutsu sorcerers. However, Lex Lang, the voice actor for Suguru Geto, explained that his goal with bringing Suguru to life wasn’t to actually create a villainous aura.

Lang revealed how “as an actor, I want to be committed to what the character wants; who is the character and what does he want to do; how is he experiencing his life in this story arc and what I realised about Suguru is that he is very idealistic.

“His motives are completely based on his own ideology. So, whether that’s good or bad, he’s in 100%. This film unveils different motivations that he’s had over the course of his lifetime and you can see where the course of his life changes a little bit.” Lex Lang, Suguru Geto.

 “I don’t go into the booth thinking ‘oh I have to be the villain’, I go into the booth thinking what are the relationships between the characters, how do I feel about the characters that I’m talking with,” said Lex. Adding that it’s all about asking “How do I feel about the subject matter that’s being discussed?”

“Then I just give 100% or 150%: if it comes off as a frightening character, it’s really because of the truth that the character is speaking resonates with the viewer and it becomes ‘ooh wow, this guy is frightening’ or ‘ooh this guy is impassioned’ or whatever that may be.” – Lex Lang, Suguru.

jujutsu kaisen 0 was literally the absolute best adaptation it could be. but more importantly getou suguru my beloved on the big screen pic.twitter.com/GsmhfnqB1Z

One of Suguru Geto’s most intoxicating features as the big bad villain in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is his voice; calm, composed and unnerving. As one journalist pointed out in the press event, we’d be “willing to follow Suguru to the end of the Earth for the sultry tones” of Lex Lang.

Interestingly, Lex went into detail about his approach as a voice and specifically for Jujutsu Kaisen 0, how he was able to maintain the vocal quality throughout the entire movie.

“As opposed to trying to keep a vocal cord quality consistent throughout a performance, it’s more about embodying what the character desires and emotional content is. And if I can do that, in whatever I’m saying, as long as I’m connected to that state of the character, it’s going to engage the viewer.” – Lex Lang, Suguru.

However, the nature of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 being almost a halfway house between the traditional action and horror anime genres also lends itself to the voice actors portraying these larger-than-life characters.

Kaiji Tang, the voice of Gojo, then revealed how the two genres merging was an added bonus for him.

 “I love the horror genre and I frequently run out of horror movies to watch with my wife, so I’m really deeply involved with the horror genre. At the same time, I love battle Shonen shows – so when I found out about the show, it was the perfect mix.” – Kaiji Tang, Gojo.

Tang then noted how Yuta reminds him of the ‘Ring Girl’ whilst pointing out how beautiful it is that the design of the power system of the world “incorporates this type of Yokai Japanese horror element.”

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was pretty dope. The dub cast did a great job, some great character moments for Panda, Maki & Toge. Gojo's great as always. Yuta was an interesting main character as well. Would recommend. Even if unfamiliar with the series, it's a good entry point.

One of the things that came up repeatedly during the press event for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was how much fun the entire voice cast had whilst rising to the challenge of bringing these characters to life.

Yet, with Jujutsu Kaisen 0 having a darker, more mature and more psychological tone to it than large parts of the television series, this was an aspect of the role that enticed Anairis Quinones, the voice of young Rika.

“For me as a fan in general of anime, like I love psychological things. One of my favourite series is Fullmetal Alchemist but I also love Madoka Magica and these other really deep psychological things so to get to play in that realm is really exciting to me.” – Anairis Quinones.

Age is another important aspect of this, which benefits Anairis with Rika being such a young character: “I don’t think I’ve ever played a character as young as Rika before, which was exciting for me because it’s playing with my higher range.”

“Playing with the fact that she has this alter-ego, this cursed side which is so out there. And I play a lot of characters that keep things close to their chest. So, playing a character that’s so much more explosive and expressive was a fun challenge. I really did enjoy doing it and now I want to do more of this, like crazy more! It’s awesome.” – Anairis Quinones, Rika

Finished Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Movie This Movie was absolutely Amazing Mappa snapped with the adaptation for the fights, visuals, animation and characters. I really loved Yuta and Rika’s story and the love they have for each other, it was Beautiful. Definitely go watch🔥9/10 pic.twitter.com/Sso0sU1hZW

By Tom Llewellyn – [email protected]

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