Chainsaw Man voice actor thought he was ‘too emotionally close’ to the bloody story

polygon.com:

One of Denji’s greatest aspirations is to have jam on his bread. The poor boy at the center of Chainsaw Man has to sell his kidney, his eye, and testicles just to get by. When he can’t sell his organs, he has to hunt for devils with the aid of his devil pooch, Pochita, with two irresistible eyes and chainsaw blade jutted out of its face.

Chainsaw Man, an adaptation of the Shonen Jump hit by Tatsuki Fujimoto, gives a macabre supernatural twist to the boy-and-his-dog story set in an alternative 1997 plagued with devils. Animated by MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen andAttack on Titan), the anime adaptation of Chainsaw Man premieres on Crunchyroll on Oct. 11. In a first for MAPPA, their adaptation decidednot to have a committee, instead choosing to keep all work in-house at the studio.

The 2022 New York Comic Con saw the English voice cast gather to celebrate the upcoming premiere. In attendance were Ryan Colt Levy (Denji), Suzie Yeung (Public Safety Devil Hunter Makima), Reagan Murdock (Aki), Sarah Wiedenheft (Power), and Dragon Ball Z voice actor Mike McFarland, who serves as the series’ ADR director. Before the panel played the exclusive English-dub premiere of Chainsaw Man, the panelists shared their insights on their characters.

The setup for Chainsaw Man is pure shonen: A young mercenary holding a smidge of hope while wearied by the world, Denji is out to pay his inherited debts. What makes him stand-out from other devil hunters is his lack of qualms in transporting the devil’s body, not to mention that the yakuza see him as obedient as a dog. After a disastrous showdown with Denji’s employers and a supposed death for Denji, the human and devil dog enact a pact to merge into a chainsaw-devil-man-hybrid. His new transformative