It was the director of Chainsaw Man who asked for little-known voice actors

On August 5, the production of the anime adaptation of the Chainsaw Man manga finally announced, among other things, the project's voice cast. However, the general reaction of the public, even among the Japanese, was: "And who are these people?" The anime adaptation was announced in December 2020, but after that there were no more details for many months. And several months later, the official promotional video was released in August this year. It was already announced long before that Ryuu Nakayama would make his directorial debut with this animation project.

The most recent promotional video reveal brought with it the voice cast, which includes Kikunosuke Toya as Denji, Ai Fairouz as Power, Tomori Kusunoki as Makima, and Shougo Sakata as Aki Hayakawa. The cast is made up of “relatively new faces”, people in their twenties, but since the auditions held last year, fans were perhaps expecting more recognized voice actors, at the height of the immense popularity of this work.

A source commented: " It's common practice to include popular voice actors in the main casts of popular titles, so the casting process for this animation was based on the same theory. However, none of the cast members fit the director's image of “realism”, and the process had to be restarted. The main character is a high school student, so the voice actors who were already active in the industry were probably not the right age for the character. The director seems to have a strong feeling for animation and a clear image of it, to the point of being particular in the cast .

And added the same source: « The casting is done backwards from the air date, so it is very rare that the casting takes so long, as it happened with Chainsaw Man. I think they took their time to select the actors of voice with those who were satisfied, probably because they decided that the Chainsaw Man content itself was “safe to sell.” Normally, the cast would be made up of popular voice actors with good numbers, but of the four main cast members, the only one recognized would be Ai Fairouz with her leading role in Tropical-Rouge! Precure and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.However, the fact that they are used, who are unknown and almost new, is because they have made the staff, including the director, think that "he is the only one who can do this voice". The cast may feel pressured, but I hope they push themselves and bring their characters to life ."

Synopsis for Chainsaw Man

The story takes place in a world where Demons threaten the peace of humans, making them targets to be eliminated. Denji is a young and depressed man who has sold several of his organs and works as a lumberjack and demon hunter to pay off his deceased father's debt. Denji owns a dog (who is also a demon) named Pochita, who has chainsaws and which he uses to do his work.

This is explained because humans can make contracts with demons. After returning home from a job, Denji is called in by a Yakuza to infiltrate a building and assassinate another demon. However, the plan was a trap to kill him as part of a Yakuza contract with the demon, gaining them more power. But Pochita comes to Denji's aid and bonds with him, becoming a half-man, half-demon and acquiring Pochita's chainsaws.

Source: ExciteNews