Attack on Titan's fourth and final season is one of the most highly anticipated anime of 2020. After a long and bloody struggle for survival against the Titans, the season follows the last living members of the Survey Corps as they struggle against a world that's much more vast than they ever knew – and regards the people of Paradis Island as its enemy. The fate of the Survey Corps, Titan Shifters, Paradis and humanity itself will be decided in a season that promises to be even darker and more action-packed than its predecessors.
The cast for Attack on Titan's English dub has been assembled to play their characters for a final time, including Bryce Papenbrook as Eren Jaeger and Josh Grelle as Armin Arlelt. CBR spoke to Bryce and Josh about their thoughts on the season, hopes for their characters' fates and the importance of endings.
The Attack on Titan anime first aired in 2013, and I imagine it’s been a significant aspect of both your lives. How does it feel now that the show is in its final season?
JG: Bittersweet. I mean, just to put a very fine point on it, it's sad to say goodbye to the characters, you know, that we may potentially never really record anything new for after this season or anything. But there's also the point of, we'll get the satisfaction of seeing this project completed. And not just completed – it's going to be kind of unique at least in my career, cause there have been so many anime over the years that I've worked on that never got to finish, in terms of covering the entire story of the source material that they were based on. And those that were finished usually had a lot of filler and a lot of other stuff thrown into it that – depending on your tastes – kind of watered down the experience.
So for Titan to be one of the first and only shows in my career that – to be one of the only shows that – not only do we get to do it in its entirety and then it gets to finish but is in terms of an anime adaptation of a manga, one of the closest to ever be done... It's just super cool to think about it, and to be able to look back on it and be like, "Hey, we did that." And we got to be a part of that and this huge body of work. And we get to now kind of sit back and look at it as a finished piece of artwork and get to appreciate it ourselves.
BP: Yeah, Josh, I'm right there with you. I mean, bittersweet is the perfect way to describe it, but at this moment about to go into this final season, I think I just have a lot of excitement. I have no idea what's to come. I've been guessing wrong on the twists and turns of this series from the beginning. I still have no idea where it's going to go or how they're going to put a bow on this. So I'm really, really excited to see what happens next.
Can you tell us about your first impressions of the characters you play – Eren and Armin? Has your perspective on them changed much since then?
BP: I'll jump in. I started watching the show before I knew I would even get any sort of opportunity to audition for any characters. I was immediately drawn to Eren. I mean, he just has this intensity about him, and especially in that first season – Episode 5 is the one where Eren gets chomped. That's the moment in the show that absolutely got me hooked on the show. I wanted to see everything that happened, where they would take it. That particular moment is what did it. I thought that was the end of Eren. I feel like I was just drawn to that intensity and that anger. It's been incredible to be able to portray that in the English dub.
JG: With Armin at first going into it, and also having been hooked on it like Bryce and having the privilege to see it before we recorded it, I'd already gotten to see a little bit of Armin's initial arc at that point. So going into it my thoughts were that he was a lot like myself, really. When we first meet him, he's a very nervous character. He's very passionate about the world around them, and he's a very inquisitive and curious person and very caring. But he's very unsure of himself and he's very afraid of the world around him as well. And especially once stuff hits the fan in that first episode, it kind of catapults him into a place of, I think, permanent fear for at least the very first few episodes.
I saw him at first as just kind of a very... weak isn't necessarily the right word, but reserved and uncertain. And now I feel more like he not only knows who he is, but he's willing to lay it all on the line for what he believes in and for his friends. That's really the arc he's taken at this point. For me, he went from boy to man very quickly, and thankfully it was in one of the better ways instead of one of the alternatives.
Eren will undergo a significant evolution of his character in Season 4. How will you approach voicing him, Bryce, as he changes so drastically from who he was at the start of his story?
BP: I have no idea what's about to happen! I have no idea what's about to change and for me as a voice actor, I make a lot of decisions in the booth, in the moment. I try to bring out a raw nature to it and feel as much of what that character is feeling as I can. So whether it's by thinking of something that brings me to a spot that I feel the character is in, or by physically doing something. Like when Eren was biting his hand, I bit my hand so hard that I left bruises.
But it sounds amazing! So I'm open to taking myself there, but I don't know where I'm going. So I would only be guessing. It's interesting hearing from you that there's some arc. I know I didn't answer the second part of your last question of where the character has come. You know, I still don't know. I still don't know what Eren's arc is and where he's going at this point. A lot of my excitement is learning that and being able to step into those shoes. I can't wait. I just can't wait.
One interesting detail about Armin is that his Japanese voice actor is a woman. Does that at all color your approach to voicing him, Josh?
JG: Yes and no. I mean, Mike McFarland when he was casting the show, obviously he knew that Armin was voiced by a female, and that was a really big decision for him to make on whether he wanted to go with a female or a male. I think ultimately he ended up going with a male because there was so much potential for the show. At that time we didn't know where it was gonna go if there was ever going to be a time skip or anything like that. But just because of the sheer possibility of being with these characters for a while and having Armin eventually potentially grow up into a man, he wanted to have someone's voice that could cover the full age range. And that's one thing that at least I'm able to do.
So yeah, when he cast me, he told me that upfront. From then on I always tried to listen to what she was doing in the Japanese version, because that was so much of where people connected with Armin the first time. The first time watching it was through her voice. So much of what she portrayed of Armin was this gentleness and this uncertainty. And that more was something that I – instead of trying to sound feminine – was trying to match, the gentleness that she was portraying. That was the approach to it.
Is there anything unique or especially enjoyable about voice acting for Eren and Armin, in comparison to roles you’ve had in the past? I know you already mentioned that the show actually ends.
JG: Yeah, right. Yeah. The show is a complete thing. It's the complete show. I mean, for me, that's a big one. I really enjoy getting to be a part of something that feels complete. Other than that I guess if I were to compare it to other shows I worked on ... the closest for me right out of my head was Tokyo Ghoul, another show with a similar approach to it in terms of being thrown into that world at the moment of a big chaotic moment and a big upset for the main character. There are all these twists and turns, and you don't know who's a friend and who's an enemy. That experience of navigating that story and that world was very similar for me, working on that show as well as working on Titan.
BP: I think for me there are a few things that set Titan apart from other projects that I've worked on. First, it was the first audition I had for the team at Funimation. It was the first time I was recording outside of Los Angeles. I actually flew out to Dallas, stayed with Mike McFarland the director. He was so warm and friendly and nice, incredible to host me and allow me to do that. We would drive into the studio together. Mike listens to a lot of metal music so it was about a half-hour of RAUHRAUHRAUHR and then a full day of RHLEREREREH as Eren Jaeger. So that was a unique experience and an incredible experience. And it just will always be a special time where I met so many new people like Josh that have become lifelong friends and that I know I'll be close to forever. And it was literally because of this show, so it really stands out in that way. I've just made so many friends because of the show.
Now that it won’t be too long before we see the final chapter of Attack on Titan’s manga, do you have any hopes for how the story will end?
JG: Peace on Earth, goodwill towards Titans.
BP: (Laughter.)
JG: Yeah, that would be my hope. Just some sort of, some sort of peaceful or "happy" resolution to these characters. Because, I mean, that's no life for Eren, for that to be – if he dies at the end of this or something, having lived in nothing but anger and rage and feeling trapped, I would feel awful for him. You know what I mean? I really hope that, at the end of all this, Armin gets to explore, Mikasa gets to feel like she is forever a part of the family that is whole, and Eren gets to feel free. And not only just free in terms of getting to be himself and getting to be a human with those rights of being a human, of getting to have your own fate in your hands, but also freedom from his own anguish, his own internal torment.
That's what I hope. But considering the history of this show, it's probably not going to be that way!
BP: Josh, I love that answer. And yeah, I'm right there with you. I want good for these characters. I've wanted good for all the characters that I've fallen in love with in this series, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards for them. And that possibility always kind of there, it just – I don't know, it just messes with me in thinking how this is all going to play out. And I just go back to where I've been since the beginning: I don't know what's going on, but I love watching this and I'm excited to see what happens next.
New episodes of Attack on Titan Season 4 premiere Sundays at 4:45 EST on FunimationNow and Crunchyroll.
