Hey! It’s me Matt, from the #1 Power Rangers podcast on Giant Bomb, Armed and Rangerous! Did you know I’m also a voice actor, ADR script writer, ADR engineer and sometimes voice director? If yes, cool, if no, also cool! When I came up with this idea for a top 10 list, it seemed a lot funnier and a lot less egotistical, so let me explain. I tend to be a busy guy (who isn’t?) so I don’t get the chance to watch all the shows or play all the games that I’d like to. But since I work in media, I tend to become familiar with the properties I do work on, because I’m learning about them as I work. So this list is not “here’s ten things I like because I’m in them!” it’s more “here’s ten things I like that I happen to be in, because I might not have found the time to consume them if I hadn’t been!” Cool? Thank you for allowing me to vomit my insecurities about narcissism. Anyway, on with the list! In no particular order:
1. Akudama Drive
This one aired in 2020 in Japan, but the latter half of the dub aired in 2021 so it counts! The English dub was done by me and my wife’s studio Kocha Sound for Funimation, and as such, I not only play Cutthroat (the guy in all white) but I was also the ADR engineer, as well as the assistant director. Engineer means I was recording the actors, so I saw every damn bit of the dub process for this one. I also wrote episodes 8 and 12 and rewrote almost every other episode to better fit our needs. Hell of a show. It won Anime Trending’s Anime of the Year in 2020. Can’t believe we lucked out and got to work on this when there are so many bad isekai out there. Heavily inspired by American Cinema and specifically Quentin Tarantino films, Akudama Drive is about a group of criminals called Akudama (the word basically just means bad person) who are forcibly recruited via bomb-collars to steal a vault from the Shinkansen (the bullet train in real life, but a combination of a national landmark and a worshipped god in the world of Akudama Drive). Every episode is named after a movie, “Reservoir Dogs,” “Speed,” “The Shining,” etc. The ride is hype, funny, and emotional as hell, and with a complete story in a tight 12 episodes, I can’t recommend it enough. I’m also particularly proud of my performance in episode 9. If you know, you know.
2. Dr. Stone
Dr. Stone aired its 2nd season in 2021 and I continue to play Chrome (top center, making the dumb face) and write some episodes. This season, titled Stone Wars, was only one cour but it continued to kick ass. Dr. Stone is a very unique take on the shonen formula, where instead of fights, there are battles of wit. With the entire human race petrified and a select few breaking free thousands of years later, the genius Senku speed runs through human technological advancement and reinvents everything from the light bulb to ramen. It’s a celebration of human achievement, and it makes me appreciate the things I have now a little bit more. How can you not cry when Suika experiences glasses for the first time? Plus it’s funny and well written. Check it out! They announced a season 3 already, and I don’t expect it to slow down anytime soon!
3. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean
I’m just a bit part in this one, but it’s JOJO, come on! Plus my wife Brittany Lauda plays F.F. (right) in the dub! I watched all of part 1 and most of part 2 when they aired, but it wasn’t until 2020 that Brittany and I watched all parts 1-5 start to finish. It was at the request of a video game client as a reference point for their project (which we still haven’t begun working on, haha). As the show went on, it became impossible not to love its ridiculous antics and puzzle-like approach to combat. Stone Ocean is the first part of JoJo to be released entirely in multiple languages all at once, due to Netflix’s acquisition of the license. Netflix licensing anime has its positives and negatives (just sub them as they air on Japanese TV, you cowards!) but in this case, since it premiered worldwideon Netflix, I was totally cool with it. This part is shaping up to be another wild fucking ride, so check it out! (But watch parts 1-5 first!)
4. Attack on Titan
Holy shit Attack on Titan. If you know anime you know Attack on Titan. Hell, even if youdon’t know anime you probably know Attack on Titan. I’m lucky enough to play Floch Forster (he’s in the image, I swear), resident controversial-but-extremely-well-written character who debuts midway through season 3. This show has evolved from action and torture porn to an incredible story about the horrors of war and prejudice. If you dropped the show at any point in the past, you owe it to yourself to give it another shot. Quick anecdote: during the long gap between seasons 1 and 2, I picked up the manga and read it until its completion. The first time I clocked that Floch was a character and not a background bit, I said to myself “I wanna play this total rando. He won’t be important to the story, but it’d still be funny.” Flash forward 3 or 4 years: I’m living in Dallas where the show is recorded, Floch has evolved into a very important character in the manga, I’ve never told the director that I had a particular interest in Floch, and I get a text from Brittany that says the director just told her I was cast as Floch. Didn’t even audition. Serendipity!
5. Kuroko
This one’s more of a personal entry. Kuroko’s Basketball, or... The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays...? aired three seasons from 2012 to 2015. It didn’t receive a dub until... shit, did it start in 2019? Well, season 3, which I debut in, came out on Netflix in 2020. I play Kotaro Hayama, the little genki boy on the bottom left with the blonde-ish hair. This was the first sports anime I ever watched, and it made me fall in love with the genre. Now I’ve seen tons: Haikyuu, Yowapeda, Free, etc. It also introduced me to one of my favorite bands, GRANRODEO. So to years later get a chance to be in it, and to be on the final team introduced in the show? Hell yeah. A highlight of the year. It’s a fun show with some real memorable dramatic beats.
6. Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny
Disgaea! Y’know, I had heard the name and I could pick out character designs from the franchise, but I had never played any until I booked Ivar (the stylish demon-overlord on the left with the glowing hand). Turns out it’s an insanely in-depth tactical RPG with a zany cast of characters. Ivar is, dare I say, the zaniest? And I love him. This game ate up enough of my time this year as it is, but it’s totally the kind of game I’d grind out and play for hundreds and hundreds of hours every day after school as a kid. Throw in a memorable mix of playable characters (READ: PIYORI IS A POWER RANGER) and you’ve won my heart. If you want some silliness and some tactical RPG fun, check this one out!
7. Sk8 the Infinity
Sk8! A show about skateboarding! I play Reki Kyan, the red haired, energetic main character. It’s... weird to say considering it’s a show about skateboarding, but Reki has become one of, if not my most popular character in recent memory, and that’s kinda hard to process for me. It’s a damn fun show, made better by a hysterical dub script, but I just... didn’t expect it, that’s all, haha. The show revolves around Reki, a Japanese skateboard fanatic, and Langa, a Canadian transfer student who used to snowboard with his father, but quit when his dad passed away. Reki introduces Langa to skateboarding and the two become fast friends (or more than that, but it’s not directly stated in the show). Langa quickly becomes better than Reki ever was, and the tension between the two of them leads to a story about feeling inadequate and supporting the people you love, while not giving up on yourself. With its colorful characters, the show was already great in its original language, but holy shit did English dub writer Leah Clark make this dub hysterical. I say the word “boomer” in the dub. And it’s actually funny! The actors were given so much to work with, and like any good adapted script should, it still allowed the emotional core of the show to shine through. “Hey bitches and bros and non-binary hoes” indeed, Adam!
8. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Gou/Sotsu
I ain’t spoiling this one. Higurashi is a horror/psychological thriller mystery show that is adapted from the visual novel of the same name. Gou and Sotsu are two sequel seasons (so the necessary watch order is Regular Higurashi > Kai > Rei > Gou > Sotsu) that expands on the story in... frankly fucking insane ways. It was unreal getting to experience a new Higurashi that was so familiar, yet so new. You gotta watch it. It’ll be confusing at first, but I swear it’s good haha. Oh, and my wife Brittany, longtime fan of the franchise, got to play Satoko here (the blonde little girl). I should probably mention how I worked on this one, huh? At the start of the pandemic, studios were still figuring out how to make remote anime dubbing work, and Funimation started by setting some actors up with equipment that would let them record themselves at home, but they’d essentially have to do the job of the engineer simultaneously. Since Brittany and I had our own pro quality home studio already, we could just run the session on our end and screen share with the director like anyone else, but use Pro Tools like we were used to. So I engineered the first handful of sessions for Brittany so she didn’t have to think about it. I don’t think I’ll get credited for it, but I didn’t ask to be, and that’s show-biz. Nowadays a studio’s engineer typically runs the session themselves, so it’s way easier on the actor. I only worked on Gou, but Sotsu is basically just the next cour so I count in for this year. Also, related to the story of this season: I TOTALLY CALLED IT.
9. Kemono Jihen
Kemono Jihen! The other show that we dubbed at Kocha Sound in 2021. An underrated shonen action series, it centers on Kabane, a boy who’s half human/half khoular (essentially a zombie) and his friends at the Inugami Strangeness Counseling Office, as they investigate supernatural phenomena. I engineered the show and play Mihai Florescu, the smirking white haired vampire to the center left in the picture. Since Brittany and I both have our own individual careers to keep us busy, we usually only take on projects through our business that interest us, and this and Akudama were the winners this time. If Kemono aired on Toonami, it’d be mainstream. Easy. This shit is beautifully animated, has such heart and soul, and most importantly (I learned) has GREAT PACING. The manga releases monthly and when I think back on anime based on monthly manga (Attack on Titan, FMA, this, etc), I realize those tend to have the most fulfilling individual episodes. Shit HAPPENS. It’s not like Rock Lee and his team fighting clones of themselves for an entire episode in Naruto. The show is also surprisingly dark, but handles sensitive topics with respect, and there’s literally zero fan service in the whole thing, unless you count a brief shot of Kabane’s butt when his body regenerates. Crossing my fingers for a season 2. If you like shonen, you’ll love this.
10. Armed and Rangerous
HaHA! Betcha didn’t expect this one, didja?! I’ve said before that I’ve been a big fan of Giant Bomb since like, 2010, but I don’t think I’ve put into words how much it means to me. I went away to college in 2010, and like many people, it was the first time I lived anywhere but my hometown. I found Giant Bomb because of the Persona 4 Endurance Run, and I think it was completed at that point. I watched ALL OF IT (okay, I skimmed one episode of purely grinding), and it may have single handedly gotten me through that year. I wasn’t in a good place, but Jeff and Vinny screwin’ around over a man with an owl head made me laugh and kept those serotonin levels up. Over the years, GB became a usual part of my life. I remember watching E3 coverage before work after graduating and watching quick looks on my lunch breaks. I didn’t listen to the podcast regularly, but I’d find highlights and download the real thing for flights. I felt like shit when Ryan passed. That fucking Deadmund’s Quest Quick Look is so funny. I missed out on some GB content for some stretches of time, but it was a constant in my life I could always go back to, and has been throughout the pandemic too, in whatever form it takes. I listen to the bombcast while shaving in the morning now, or while do housework, or make food. I always secretly hoped I’d act in a game someday, then someone on the site would do a QL of it and comment on my work. Well shit, now I’m making content for the site instead! AND IT’S ABOUT POWER RANGERS. Crazy world, dude. Shout out to my fellow ranger, Jan. You all know this already, but he’s really cool and I wouldn’t be writing this list without him. This place means a lot to me, and it means a lot to be creating something that can help people like it helped me. Thanks to everyone for watching along and tuning in. It’s been a pleasure, and I hope to keep being a Friend of the Site™ for a long time. Now if only I could get you guys to watch a show about Kamen Rider...
P.S.: I warm up my voice and practice cold-reading every day by reading old reviews and top ten lists like this one out loud. I don’t think I’ll read this one out loud. Too embarrassing.