News

Crunchyroll announced on Feb 5, 2025, that Grammy-nominated Colombian singer J Balvin is set to make his anime voice acting debut in the English and Spanish dubs of Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From the Shadow-.

J Balvin expressed his excitement about the role, saying:

“I’m beyond thrilled to join the cast of Solo Leveling! This series has such a passionate fanbase, and getting the chance to be part of the anime world, after being a fan for such a long time, is an absolute honor. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been working on!“

Crunchyroll has yet to reveal which character J Balvin will voice but listed the role as important.

The English dub of Solo Leveling Season 2 began streaming on Jan 18, 2025, featuring returning cast members, including:

Aleks Le as Sung Jinwoo Rebecca Wang as Sung Jinah Daman Mills as Barca Emi Lo as...

Crunchyroll announced that the English dub of Solo Leveling season 2 will be available to stream on the platform starting Jan 18, 2024.

The cast and staff involved in the English dub were also revealed.

Solo Leveling English dub cast includes:

Aleks Le as Sung Jinwoo Rebecca Wang as Sung Jinah Daman Mills as Barca Emi Lo as Han Song-Yi Patrick Seitz as Kim Chul Trina Nishimura as Park Heejin Geoff Bisente as Go Myunghwan SungWon Cho as Woo Jinchul Matthew David Rudd as Hwang Dongsoo Ian Sinclair as Choi Jong-In Kent Williams as Go Gunhee Christopher R. Sabat as Baek Yoonho Cory Yee as Ahn Sangmin Anthony Bowling as Hyun Kichul Sally Vahle as Teacher Monica Flatley and Kirsty Johnson as Students Bryson Baugus, Aiden Call, Ethan Gallardo, Brandon Acosta as B-Rank Members Drew Breedlove as C-Rank Member Aiden Call as Ice Elf

Staff includes:

Voice Director: Caitlin Glass Producer: Samantha Herek...

Episode 1 of the English dub for ‘Solo Leveling‘ Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- premieres this Saturday, January 18 at 1 p.m. Pt / 4 p.m. Et only on Crunchyroll. New dub episodes will continue to stream weekly on Saturdays.

Voice actors from the first season, including Aleks Le, Patrick Seitz, Rebecca Wang and Emi Lo, will return to reprise their roles in the second season.

The full English dub cast is as follows: Aleks Le as Sung Jinwoo Rebecca Wang as Sung Jinah Daman Mills as Barca Emi Lo as Han Song-Yi Patrick Seitz as Kim Chul Trina Nishimura as Park Heejin Geoff Bisente as Go Myunghwan SungWon Cho as Woo Jinchul Matthew David Rudd as Hwang Dongsoo Ian Sinclair as Choi Jong-In Kent Williams as Go Gunhee Christopher R. Sabat as Baek Yoonho Cory Yee as Ahn Sangmin Anthony Bowling as Hyun Kichul ‘Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From the Shadow...

Shōnen anime may be the most popular in the entire art form. Series like Naruto, Dragon Ball, and the 1,000+ episode saga One Piece are known by people across the globe, but they're not always the most accessible series. Each of the big three listed above has hundreds of episodes, different series within their franchise, and plenty of other reasons why they might not be the best starter anime for someone just getting into the genre.

The best starter shōnen anime have a lot of the same elements as the big three but tell their stories in a lot fewer episodes. To be a great starter shōnen, an anime needs to have a lovable main character, plenty of great fights, and set pieces that can define anime as a whole. Shōnen is a genre characterized by a main character who faces adversity better than most, never letting their limits put them...

This December Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment will present Solo Leveling: ReAwakening, a movie version of the anime based on the Korean manhwa by Clugong. Keep in mind this is an “omnibus” film, meaning it’s a re-edit of the first season into a movie format. But if you want something new, ReAwakening has that too: stick around and you’ll see the world premiere of the first two episodes from Solo Leveling’s second season. For an entire month, this will be the only way to see these episodes until their proper premiere in January. And now we’re hearing both the original Japanese and English versions will be screened, for the movie and the episode premieres. The episodes will retain the same cast, including Aleks Le (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba) as Sung Jinwoo, Justin Briner (My Hero Academia) as Yoo Jinho, Rebecca Wang (Aether Gazer) as his sister Sung Jinah,...

Update 10/26/2024: Added crew The future of the demon lord subgenre is now! Enter a brave new world with the English dub of sci-fi fantasy anime Demon Lord 2099 , which begins streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturday, October 26 with the below cast and crew for Episode 1. Demon Lord 2099 English Dub Cast Veltol voiced by Ian Sinclair Machina voiced by Sarah Wiedenheft Marcus voiced by Rob McCollum Takahashi voiced by Nia Celeste Gram voiced by Dio Garner Kinohara voiced by Lydia Mackay Demon Lord 2099 English Dub Crew Voice Director: Lee George Producer: Zach Bolton Adaptation: Macy Anne Johnson Mixer: William Dewell Engineer: Ian Emerson Related: Mf Ghost Season 2 English Dub Reveals Cast & Crew, Release Date Key Art Related: Crunchyroll Fall 2024 Dubs Include Blue Lock 2nd Season and More Based on the light novels by Daigo Murasaki and Kureta, Ryo Ando ( Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury assistant director) directs Demon Lord 2099 at studio J.C.Staff,...

Fans of Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe's other sci-fi work, Space Dandy, may be surprised to learn that there was an incredible Star Trek reference packed into every episode of the series, but only for those who watched the original Japanese version. Unfortunately, translating the joke would've been impossible for a variety of reasons, but it's still amusing to learn about.

Space Dandy was a 2014 sci-fi series by Shinichiro Watanabe, which was primarily comedic, in contrast to Cowboy Bebop's often moody and dramatic tone. It followed Dandy and his crew, consisting of a cat-like alien, Meow, and a robot, Qt, as they attempt to encounter undiscovered alien species and turn them in for a profit. The show had a heavy 1970s era theming, with disco music playing a major role and a dated futuristic aesthetic that looks like it was pulled from the 1950s.

To further solidify the series'...

A brand-new Dragon Ball anime titled Dragon Ball Daima was announced during New York Comic-Con 2023. The surprising announcement came to fans eager for the continuation of Dragon Ball Super's anime, which concluded in 2018. Although the Dbs manga has two substantial post-Tournment of Power story arcs ready for adaptation, the new anime looks to deliver something entirely new from Akira Toriyama himself that pays tribute to Dragon Ball's 40th anniversary.

Toriyama began publishing the original Dragon Ball manga in 1984, with the beloved anime starting in 1986. The sequel series, Dragon Ball Z, gained immense levels of popularity worldwide for its intense action scenes and mature sci-fi epic story elements.

However, Toriyama's work on Dragon Ball started as a much more light-hearted affair with more rounded character designs. The first look at Dragon Ball Daima resembles Toriyama's original series more closely than the very different pulse-pounding battles of Dbs's Tournament of Power.

The epic anime series finale of the decade will finally be available to own when Attack on Titan Final Season The Final Chapters arrives on Blu-ray on November 26 in North America from Crunchyroll. The limited edition Blu-ray and DVD combo pack version will include a 148-page art book, a 32-page digibook, several art cards, and two exclusive Titan enamel pins.

This November, Crunchyroll's lineup of Blu-rays will also include two complete series rereleases with immense power levels: Dragon Ball Super (all 131 Episodes) and Dragon Ball Z (all 291 episodes), launching exclusively at the Crunchyroll Store. Each will come with multiple special features that will provide fans with various behind-the-scenes conversations with the iconic English voice actors from the series.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Samurai Champloo, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, Crunchyroll is rereleasing an all-new limited edition Blu-ray of the complete series, also exclusive to the Crunchyroll Store. The packaging...

Crunchyroll announced that the English dub of Mushoku Tensei season 2 cour 2 will be streamed on the platform starting April 21, 2024.

Cast and staff involved in Mushoku Tensei season 2 cour 2 English dub were also revealed.

Mushoku Tensei season 2 cour 2 English dub cast includes:

Madeleine Morris as Rudeus Emily Neves as Sylphie Ben Phillips as Rudeus (Former Self) Ian Sinclair as Zanoba Ry McKeand as Cliff Alexis Tipton as Linia Sara Ragsdale as Pursena Suzie Yeung as Nanahoshi Ariel Graham as Juliette

Staff includes:

Voice Director: Jeremy Inman Producer: Samantha Herek Adaptation: Madeleine Morris Mixer: William Dewell Engineer: Zachary Davis

Mushoku Tensei season 2 cour 2 started airing on April 7, 2024.

Cour 1 of the second season aired from July 2023, and ran till September 2023.

Hiroki Hirano has replaced Manabu Okamoto to direct the new season, with Toshiya Ono handling the series composition. Sanae Shimada is in charge of the character designs.

Staff that reprised their roles include:...

Following the season 1 finale of Solo Leveling anime, fans have been eagerly awaiting the English dubbed version of Episode 12. However, the hype surrounding the final episode has taken a toxic turn, prompting a response from the voice actor behind protagonist Sung Jinwoo.

Aleks Le, who voices Jinwoo in the English dub, has faced an onslaught of threatening messages online. These threats centre around the “Arise” sequence in the finale. In a recent TikTok video, Le revealed he’s received thousands of messages demanding he deliver the line perfectly.

One such message read, “If you don’t say Arise correct I swear I Will Find You and after that Sung Jin-woo wouldn’t bring you back.“

In response to the threats, Le took a humorous approach by taunting the fans with a series of potential comedic revisions to the scene in question.

Le stated, “You’re excited. You’re nervous. I get it,...

Winter is Laid-Back Camp 's domain, and with another set of outdoor adventures coming soon , there's never been a better time for the English dub to make its return for Season 2, with weekly episodes kicking off Wednesday, January 24! Check out the cast and crew for Episode 1 below! Laid-Back Camp Season 2 English Dub Cast Rin voiced by Celeste Perez Nadeshiko voiced by Morgan Lauré Ena voiced by Molly Zhang Chiaki voiced by Katelyn Barr Aoi voiced by Hannah Alyea Wataru voiced by Phil Parsons Saki voiced by Kelsey Cruz Narrator voiced by Larry Cassady Ayano voiced by Katie Wetch Clerk voiced by Ian Sinclair Laid-Back Camp Season 2 English Dub Crew Voice Director: Shawn Gann Producer: Susie Nixon Adaptation: Heather Walker Engineer: Jose Sandoval Related: Interview: Laid-Back Camp Producer Shoichi Hotta on Creating the Comfort in Season 2 Based on the manga by Afro, Laid-Back Camp Season 2 was directed by Yoshiaki Kyogoku at studio C-Station,...

The English voice cast for Solo Leveling includes actors known for their work on popular anime series like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and My Hero Academia. The series is produced by A-1 Pictures and features motion graphics by Production I.G., both of which have worked on successful anime projects. Solo Leveling's English dub will be released on January 20, 2024, on Crunchyroll.

The English voice cast for Solo Leveling has been announced. The listing includes actors with projects anime fans will recognize. The highly anticipated series has already begun releasing as a sub, while the dub is set to release in the third weekend of January. Solo Leveling is based on a South Korean web novel that released in 2016, which was adapted into a webcomic.

Solo Leveling was created by Chugong. The anime is produced by A-1 Pictures, which is known for several series, including Black Butler, Fairy Tail, and Sword Art Online.

Crunchyroll has unveiled the much anticipated release date for the English dub of Solo Leveling on Jan 17, 2024, following the cast announcement in November 2023.

The first episode of Solo Leveling English dub is set to premiere on the platform on Jan 20, 2024.

Solo Leveling English dub cast includes:

Aleks Le as Sung Jinwoo Justin Briner as Yoo Jinho Rebecca Wang as Sung Jinah Michelle Rojas as Cha Hae-in Ian Sinclair as Choi Jong-in Christopher R. Sabat as Baek Yoonho Kent Williams as Go Gunhee SungWon Cho as Woo Jinchul Dani Chambers as Lee Joohee

Caitlin Glass will serve as the Adr Director for the English dub.

Solo Leveling anime started airing on Jan 7, 2024.

Shunsuke Nakashige is directing the anime, with Noboru Kimura serving as the script writer. Tomoko Sudo is in charge of character designing, and Hiroyuki Sawano will compose the music.

Solo Leveling is a South Korean web novel written by Chugong.

‘Solo Leveling‘, a series revered for its engaging plot, is ready to make its mark with its English dub. Fans eagerly await the January 20 premiere of the English version on Crunchyroll. Known for its intense storyline and striking animation by A-1 Pictures, the series promises to be a hit among English-speaking audiences.

The English dub trailer, skillfully directed by Caitlin Glass, has already caught the eye of anime enthusiasts. It showcases the main character, Sung Jinwoo, with his dual blades and shadow-summoning abilities. Voiced by Aleks Le, Jinwoo’s character is brought to life with a fresh perspective. Alongside him, we have Justin Briner lending his voice to Yoo Jinho, the wealthy and loyal sidekick, and Rebecca Wang as Sung Jinah, Jinwoo’s hard-working sister.

The cast also includes Michelle Rojas, voicing the formidable S-rank hunter Cha Hae-in, and Ian Sinclair as Choi Jong-in, known for his flame-wielding prowess and cool glasses.

Anime fans, mark your calendars! Crunchyroll, in a thrilling partnership with Aniplex, has announced the premiere of the anime adaptation of “Solo Leveling.” This Korean manhwa, a fan favorite, is set to hit screens globally on January 6, 2024. Get ready to dive into a world where fantasy meets reality, as this show will be accessible in over 200 territories through Crunchyroll’s streaming platform.

“Solo Leveling” has taken the world of manhwa by storm. It’s a story that revolves around Sung Jinwoo, a hunter deemed the weakest of all mankind. His life takes a dramatic turn when he stumbles upon a double dungeon, leading to a life-changing quest. This series brilliantly combines the elements of action and the supernatural, offering an exhilarating experience for viewers.

The animation production is in the capable hands of A-1 Pictures, known for their work on “Sword Art Online,” with Production I.G, famous for “Attack on Titan,...

Fire Emblem fans have plenty of reasons to be excited about the recently-released Fire Emblem Engage. Not only is it the latest entry into the famous strategy franchise, but it’s really a return to form for Fire Emblem after the series experimented with a few different ideas. It also features a massive roster of characters voiced by some pretty notable actors.

Seriously, Engage’s voice cast is impressive. It’s one thing to boast a roster of named and notable characters quite so large, and it’s quite another to give most of those characters their own name and voice. While you may only recognize the names of a few Fire Emblem voice actors on paper, you’ll almost certainly recognize many of them the moment you hear them in-game.

So whether you can’t quite place why that name is so familiar, or you just want a little...

One Piece Film: Red's English release is close at hand, and with it comes a new adventure for Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates. To commemorate the release of this landmark moment in the series, we spoke to the English voice talents behind three of the crews' biggest personalities; Brook, Chopper, and Usopp.

Releasing in English on November 4th, One Piece Film: Red is the franchise's fifteenth movie. Red's main antagonist is a pop idol named Uta who was a childhood friend of Luffy and has close ties to Shanks. While much of the buzz surrounding the film focuses on what Uta will reveal about Luffy and Shanks' pasts, they aren't the only ones with a stake in the plot. With Usopp's father Yasopp being an important crew member of Shanks' Red Hair Pirates, there's a distinct possibility that anything the Straw Hats learn about Shanks' past could have implications for Usopp's family.

"One Piece" is a sprawling franchise of nearly 25 years, kicking off with Eiichiro Oda's Weekly Shōnen Jump manga in July 1997 before getting a rollicking anime adaptation from Toei Animation. The manga series is known for breaking the World Guinness Record for most printed comic series by one author. "One Piece" follows the Straw Hat gang, lead by Monkey D. Luffy (Colleen Clinkenbeard), whose consumption of a Devil Fruit granted him awesome stretchy powers. Luffy is on a long quest to find the legendary One Piece treasure and claim the King of the Pirates throne.

Now "One Piece" is sailing toward its final arc just when you thought the voyage could go on forever in the endless sea. Commemorating the 1000th anime episode and sending signals of the end is another one of its theatrically released features, "One Piece Film: Red."

At the New York Comic Con panel (hosted by...

Capital Concerts announced today the return of PBS’ National Memorial Day Concert for a live presentation from Washington, D.C. hosted by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna and Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise, acclaimed actors who have dedicated themselves to veterans causes and supporting our troops in active service.

Featuring all-star musical performances and tributes, the 90-minute broadcast of the 33rd annual National Memorial Day Concert will air on PBS and stream on YouTube and www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert on Sunday, May 29, 2022 at 8:00 p.m. E.T., honoring our men and women in uniform, veterans, their families and all those who have given their lives for our country.

A more than three decades long tradition unlike anything else on television, this deeply moving and reverential night takes us back to the real meaning of the holiday through personal stories interwoven with musical performances by top stars with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Warning: Spoilers for the plot of Space Dandy 1.1 ahead

It’s hard to think of anything harder to review than a media product made in Japan. On one hand, you need to give the show/game/whatever some slack, because it’s usually aimed at an audience that has vastly different tastes than the average American/British/other audience. On the other, some of this stuff has very, very, very creepy, disturbing, or offensive subtexts.

Thankfully, Space Dandy is not your average anime.

What we have in Space Dandy is a comedic throwback to pulp-era space opera directed/showrun by Shinichiro Watanabe­ and written by a staff that includes a man who rates Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon as his Game of the Year for 2013. Watanabe might be best known for directing and showrunning Cowboy Bebop, a 26 episode series about bounty hunters in space Adult Swim reran from 2001 until partway...

Level E is an anime series that you want to love. The story setup is reminiscent of Men in Black. Aliens have been living on the planet for centuries, but Earth’s population doesn’t realize that these aliens are living amongst them. There may not be any secret organization governing alien activities, but there are several aliens who are dressed up in humanoid skin. While the backstory and the grim Twilight Zone narration might suggest a more serious X-Factor-esque series, comedy begins to take hold of the story once Baka of the planet Dogra shows up.

The thirteen-episode anime is based on Yoshihiro Togashi’s manga series of the same name. Togashi was the creative mind behind Hunter X Hunter, but the lead character in this whimsical series stands in sharp contrast to Hunter X Hunter’s loveable Gon.

The first three episodes in Level E center on Baka...

One of the great European literary figures of the past half century was the German writer W.G. “Max” Sebald (1944-2001), a late bloomer who fused essay, history, memoir, and meditative fiction into an unclassifiable weld of eloquently bewitching prose in four major works (Vertigo, The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, Austerlitz), all written over the last decade of his too-abbreviated life. Sebald’s solitary narrators, given lightly autobiographical shadings, wander landscapes as far-flung as the Suffolk coast or the Slovakian countryside like melancholic revenants dwelling on the fate of individuals lost to war or time, the operation of memory, and other seemingly arbitrary recollections triggered by the encounter with a physical environment. Although the surfeit of stories and micro histories in his work often return us in unanticipated ways to his principal preoccupations — the Holocaust and the Allied bombing raids that decimated Germany during World War II — Sebald’s...

Funimation has announced the full cast list for Baka and Test — Summon the Beasts, the studios latest 13 episode supernatural action anime series:

Aiko—————Trina Nishimura

Akihisa————-Josh Grelle

Akira—————Carli Mosier

Fukuhara———–Anthony Bowling

Hasegawa———–Ian Sinclair

Hazuki————–Lindsay Seidel

Hideyoshi———–Brina Palencia

Hiraga————-Micah Solusod

Hiromi————-Anastasia Munoz

Kouta————–Greg Ayres

Kubo—————Joel McDonald

Miharu————-Kristi Bingham

Miho————–Tia Ballard

Minami————Leah Clark

Mizuki————-Alexis Tipton

Nemoto———–Todd Haberkorn

Nishimura———Kent Williams

Shouko————Jamie Marchi

Sugawa————Chris Burnett

Takahashi———-Colleen Clinkenbeard

Toudou————Wendy Powell

Yoshiko————-Ryan Reynolds

Yuuji—————-Scott Freeman

Yuuko—————Brina Palencia

About Baka and Test — Summon the Beasts

When a fight breaks out at Fumizuki Academy, nobody throws a single punch. Instead, the students utilize the school’s technology to summon Avatars, pint-sized stand-ins with battle powers based on academic ability. That “academic ability” part is bad news for Yoshii – because Yoshii’s an idiot,...

Welcome to our pick of audio highlights from 2010, presented by Pascal Wyse.

Hopefully there is something for everyone here: poetry from Simon Armitage, World Cup fury from Football Weekly, music from Orbital, a man with a lampshade for a head and a guided walk along the Thames with Ian Sinclair.

You can listen to the original podcasts these clips were taken from via the links below.

Thanks for listening – and Happy New Year.

Tech Weekly

The Books That Made Me

Media Talk

Music Weekly

Football Weekly

Election Daily

The Bike Podcast

The Business Podcast

Audio walks

Haycast

Science Weekly

Film Weekly

Pascal Wyse...