It doesn't always pay to rush things. For years, Madhouse 's 2011 version of Hunter x Hunter seemed to shimmer and glint, just out of reach of collectors in North America… but eventually, patience was rewarded. The series has been brought to the west in high style by Viz , with a swanky Blu-Ray release and a prominent slot on Toonami . For a long series like Hunter x Hunter , it's important to get things right, especially casting the show's popular heroes. Central protagonist Gon Freeccs, in particular, carries the good cheer of a classic Shonen Jump character, but he's also got something beyond optimism and fighting spirit—he's got a cutting edge, and maybe even a willingness to kill.



Enter Erica Mendez . Here's an actress with five or six years of experience voicing anime characters (she'd originally broken into voiceover work via video games), but she plays like a savvy veteran. Previously, she's shown fire as Kill la Kill 's Ryuuko and guile as Love Live! ’s Nico Yazawa—but what's voicing Gon like? We posed some questions to Erica about her background as an actor, the challenges of voicing Gon, and what she thinks of the world and fans of Hunter x Hunter !





You were an anime fan before you started as a voiceover artist. Has your fandom affected your approach to acting?

I can't really think of any specific ways it has. Anime is really different than a majority of Western cartoons. If anything, I'd say that being a fan makes it so that the usual tropes don't catch me off guard. I actually did a video game session once where the client was like “So, this character is a Tsundere…” and I'm like “Got it. I know exactly what to do.” So maybe it just leads to not having to waste as much time for directors or clients to have to explain things to me.

You've recently started doing script adaptation work as well. Can you talk about that a little?

Yes! I can't mention the exact title just yet… But adapting scripts is something I've always been interested in, but never really knew how to pursue. I was lucky that a studio I work with needed some people to adapt for a live action series, so naturally I accepted the job. It's a lot harder than people might think, especially for a live action series. There are definitely things that annoy me (and fans, I'm sure) about the way certain scripts might come out, so I've tried to remedy that with my adaptations. However, I'm quickly learning that sometimes you kind of have to resort to things like awkwardly breaking up sentences just because of how different sentence structure and length is in different languages! Gotta match those flaps the best you can while still getting the main point across…



How did you get your role in Hunter x Hunter ? Did you read for other characters? When did you find out who you'd be voicing?

I read for Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Menchi. I auditioned sometime late last year and a few weeks after auditioning, I found out I had a callback for Gon. After the callback I got another email a few weeks after that saying that I was on the short-short list… and finally a month later I found out that I was cast.

What do you like best about the character you voice?

I really like Gon's optimism and how much he cares for his friends. I also think he's a really good judge of character.



Do you really identify with your role - do you think you share attributes with your character?

We're both really bad at math.



Is there anything that Gon does that you wish you could do?

I've never been fishing before and I kind of want to try it. Is that weird?



Conversely - is there anything about your character that kinda gets on your nerves?

I wouldn't say it gets on my nerves, but Gon tends to not want to back down even when things get really dangerous. I'm a very non-confrontational person so whenever I see him endangering his life, I'm like “No! Just let this one go… it's fine… please don't let him break your other arm…” I know it's a shonen series, but I get really concerned about his safety.



