Who ever thought an anime series about a spy, an assassin, and a child psychic forming a fake family would work as an anime, but it does! Spy X Family, the action/comedy shonen anime produced by WIT Studio and CloverWorks has become one of the most popular anime if 2022. At this year’s Crunchyroll Expo, two members of the Spy X Family English cast, Megan Shipman (voice of Anya Forger) and Natalie Van Sistine (voice of Yor Forger) sat down for an interview. During the interview, we discuss what goes into their characters, why this show works so well, and exciting things to come in Season 2.
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(The following has been edited for clarity and length)
BUT WHY THO: Spy X Family has been a smash hit since its premiere this year. Did you ever think fans would receive these series so well, so fast?
Natalie: We knew it would be a popular show. I think we all were kind of like, oh, this is going to be popular because we all heard about it beforehand. But, then we come out to these events and when we’re here it’s just massive, and we just have to wrap our head around it. So, we knew it would be big not this big.
BUT WHY THO: When it came to developing the voices for the characters, were there previous roles or experiences that helped feed to create and find their voices?
Megan: You know, no one has ever asked me that before. I direct, so I get to listen to a lot of people [do voices], and someone who I have found that I love listening to their little kid voice is Danny Chambers. Those last little kid voices, it’s so stinking cute, and so I’ve listened to her, and I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to take some of what she does, and I know if I ever get to do a little kid I want to do that because she does such an excellent job of making it sound like such a natural kid. I’m not gonna lie, I took a lot of inspiration from what I heard from her. I tried to kind of apply it with Anya without making her sound too much like a baby. She’s smart, she can talk and can hold a conversation, but I still kept that very child-like quality to her.
Natalie: I didn’t have any specific experiences. I tend to play the warrior or the assassin type at this point, so that’s almost like muscle memory, where I just know what a cool, calm, collected killer sounds like. So that was pretty easy, it was really cool to develop Yora’s civilian persona because I sure haven’t had a character like that before. Most of the characters I have played are usually very confident. That’s why it was really interesting to play a character that was so indecisive and anxious, everything was just so different.
BUT WHY THO: Without giving any spoilers away, what are some things, you’re really excited to see coming up in Season 2?
Natalie: The dog!
Megan: The dog. There’s also this one scene, I won’t say what, but there’s a big scene that I’m really excited to see animated. It’s got bombs—so exciting! It’s really cool!
BUT WHY THO: Does Anya get her sniper rife?
Megan: I wish! I love all the art of her with her little toy bubble gun. She probably thinks that it is a laser gun, but yeah, there’s a really great arc. And it’s Anya trying to save the day. And she tries so hard. But I’m so excited for it because all three of the family members get to participate and they’re all doing something without even realizing to help each other throughout the arc. And it is really exciting to see how they animate it and get it all done. It’s on my favorites so far.
Natalie: Yeah, it’s a good arc. I’m just like: dog, dog! Give me dog!
You can watch the entire first season of Spy X Family on Crunchyroll now.
