Wald: Listen, I’m coming up on my 47th year on this planet and I can tell you at some point or another in my long, gay life, I have literally been every one of those four characters. Hidden Remote: You do play the bartender friend Natsuo in the show, but did you also, as the director, feel a connection with the four main characters?
I mean, thank god we’re not making shows about rational people who make reasonable decisions. But all of this, from Masahiro trying to be “normal” around Kousuke and avoiding him, to Asaya’s ultimatum love confession to Kensuke, it’s an authentic experience. Plus, of course, Matranga’s got this beautiful, buttery sultry voice that just makes you melt. So I cast David, who sounds more like a 23-year-old and only a little departed from the other characters in the show who are in high school. But in our version of the story, I didn’t want to emphasize that age difference. The Japanese actor who voices Kousuke in the original iteration was using a very deep, rumbling voice. Wald: That was another one of our little tricks. Hidden Remote: Was that one of the reasons you chose to cast David Matranga as Kousuke? To give the character a younger essence? Hitorijime My Hero anime poster via Sentai Filmworks. The two main protagonists, Izumi and Ryouma, are people that viewers of all genders and walks of life could possibly relate to. Hidden Remote: Love Stage!!, which you actually directed, seems to draw from that idea of gay characters being so much more than just gay characters. I started to see that there were quality, queer-positive portrayals peppered all throughout anime. I was completely blown away by that and very quickly started asking around about other queer anime and started watching some other titles. For the first time in my life, in any narrative ever, I was looking at a gay character and allowed to actually portray a gay character, whose homosexuality wasn’t their singular contribution to the narrative. Wald: Yes, I got to play Bulat in Akame ga Kill and this is a character who is gay. Hidden Remote: But you still managed to pull for those shows early on in your career, like while working on Akame ga Kill. But industry folk don’t like gambling.Īkame ga Kill anime poster via Sentai Filmworks. It’s said that 15-20 percent of the population prescribes to one color or another on the rainbow flag and that outnumbers the existing anime audience by several multiples. I think it’s just because the anime industry at large considered those titles to be of a narrow appeal and saw perusing those shows as a bit of a gamble.īut my contention has always been that there are a lot of members of the Tribe beyond existing anime fandom who would really be glad to know this stuff exists. But I don’t think it’s because of any level of homophobia. So the presence of queer stories in anime had never occurred to me because I seldom, if ever, saw them in the booth. I had seen very little anime at all outside of Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets.
But did that career path come as a surprise? How soon was it after you started working in anime that you began taking on LGBTQ+ projects? Did you go after those roles right away?ĭavid Wald: When I first got into anime, I did not come into it with the perspective of a fan. Hidden Remote: You’re well-known these days in the voice acting world as a pioneer for queer anime. It’s all part of, what he refers to as, “my Big Glittery Gay Mission” to share the authentic queer experience with English anime fans as well as members of the Rainbow Tribe who may have yet to discover their love of anime. But this year, he has very quickly become a pioneer for “Tribe Anime,” as he likes to call it, speaking at LGBTQ+ anime panels and expos across the country, directing three queer anime romances this year alone and having an inspiring impact on young viewers. Wald has been voice acting for anime since 2006. But voice actor David Wald took the plunge this year, directing queer romance anime titles Hitorijime My Hero, Love Stage!!, and Bloom Into You. For many years, English dub studios have wrestled with taking the gamble on bringing these stories to English audiences. Since the 80s and early 90s, Japanese animation has unapologetically spotlighted LGBTQ+ stories, beginning with shows like Song of Wind and Trees, Cardcaptor Sakura, Zetsuai1989, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and even Sailor Moon. Wald talked with Hidden Remote about his Pride projects Hitorijime My Hero, Love Stage!! and Bloom Into You. LGBTQ+ voice actor and English dub director David Wald is working to bring queer anime to English audiences. By Victoria Davis 2 years ago Follow Tweet