The enormous success of the “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” series at the box office is raising concerns among US voice actors that large Hollywood studios could dominate the anime medium more in the future. We summarize.
Success could attract Hollywood
These fears were brought up in a recent interview at New York Comic Con, in which the cast of the English dubbed version of “Jujutsu Kaisen” also discussed the success of “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.”
The worldwide revenue of over 650 million US dollars in particular caused concern, as this should not have gone unnoticed by Hollywood. After all, the first part of the trilogy outperformed several blockbusters, including the new films from “The Fantastic Four” and “Captain America”.
So far, US studios have mostly limited themselves to live-action adaptations in their search for a way to capitalize on anime popularity. However, they could very soon pursue a more active strategy – without, according to Kaiji Tang (Satoru Gojo), understanding the actual formula for success:
»I believe that the true recipe for success for an anime film is building seasons. Seeing the culmination of the story, or at least a large part of it, on the big screen is a reward for following these seasons.
Then you achieve the enormous numbers of ‘Demon Slayer’ and get the fans excited about the film, that’s the secret. If you just start releasing anime movies indiscriminately, you won’t reach the numbers of ‘Demon Slayer.'”
Increasing celebrity line-ups
Robbie Daymond (Megumi Fushiguro) also agreed with this assessment and in the same breath predicted an extremely bleak future for the industry:
»I feel honored to be part of the last generation of voice actors dubbing anime. Once the corporations take over, we’ll see a bunch of celebrities doing bad dubbing for anime.”
These concerns are reminiscent of developments already seen in the video game and film industries – a trend that now appears to be extending, or perhaps already has, to the anime industry.
In the English adaptation of the “Demon Slayer” film, actor Channing Tatum took on the role of Keizo – the former master of Akaza before he became a demon. His acting performance is beyond question, but his casting illustrates what is feared as a possible development.
