Pictures via Crunchyroll and Getty Images
If you’ve tuned into some of the biggest anime hits of the last few years, chances are you’ve heard Abby Trott. Best known for her work as the fiercely protective but largely non-verbal Nezuko Kamado in the global phenomenon Demon Slayer, Trott is now stepping into a drastically different leading role: the brash, high-energy gyaru Momo Ayase in Science SARU’s breakout supernatural hit, DanDaDan. Transitioning from demonic grunts to fast-paced, hilarious banter is a massive shift, but it’s a creative challenge she has embraced with open arms.
Long before she was booking leading roles in massive anime franchises, Trott’s journey actually began in Akita, Japan, where she spent two years teaching English through the JET program. We recently sat down with the talented voice actor to discuss how that life-changing experience shaped her approach to localization, her reaction to Nezuko finally speaking again, and what it was like stepping into the wildly unpredictable world of DanDaDan.
Jacob: How did you get the role of Momo in DanDaDan?
Abby: So, for Momo, I received an audition for this anime, DanDaDan. I hadn’t heard of it at the time, but apparently, it had already been gaining a lot of traction amongst manga readers. It was the first time I had heard of it when I got the audition, and I just immediately fell in love with the animation style. The way that Science Saro animated Momo, like her doing extreme movements, the back bend, the shark teeth, the facial expressions, and I just loved the animation.
Secondly, I fell in love with Shion Wakayama’s portrayal of Momo in the Japanese dub. She is phenomenal at kind of nailing the gyaru archetype of Momo, or at least that part of her. And her performance just sounded so real and raw, like it was unrehearsed. It didn’t feel like she was reading a script. She felt real, and so I wanted to try to do that too.
I was like, this is incredible. I would love to be a part of whatever this is. So I just shot my shot, and I couldn’t believe it when I booked it. I was just in shock and so excited.
Jacob: So was Momo one of your first leading roles for an anime?
Abby: I’ve been the lead of a fair amount of anime, but I think for Dandan, you know, a certain anime hits a broader range of fans. And I think Demon Slayer and DanDaDan are examples of fandoms that are just crazy big. I’m still overwhelmed by that aspect of it.
Pictured: DanDaDan
Jacob: Momo is so much more brass and energetic compared to Nezuko. How did you find playing her?
Abby: I love voicing Momo because she says all the things that I could never say in real life. She has such a range of expression, and she is such an interesting character because you never know what she’s going to say next. I love that, even through seasons one and two, we can already see her character changing and evolving, in part due to her relationship with Okurun and her newfound friends. But yeah, she’s just so funny, which is the main thing that I love about her. I think a lot of the voice lines are hilarious, largely in part thanks to our writer-director Alex von David, who makes sure that we get that humor, which is a huge part of the show. And yeah, I just adore Momo, she’s so much fun.
Jacob: What’s been your favorite moment as Momo so far?
Abby: Ooh, there are a few! It’s so hard to choose. I do love the first time that Momo and Okarun have a conversation in the hallway, fighting about ghosts and aliens.
There’s something that makes Momo apologize. She decides to say, I’m sorry, and then that’s it. They become friends, and I think it’s just such a key moment. There’s another moment when, I think it’s in the Nessie episode, when they’re in the water, and they’re arguing, and Momo is yelling at Okarun, and he talks back to her.
It’s not just one-sided Momo fighting. He talks some sense into her, saying, ” You have to listen. And that’s a moment where she, I think, realizes and learns something. There’s also just the Acrobatic Silky episode, where it’s so devastating conceptually, and Momo has a moment where she realizes, she asks, ” What’s going to happen to her? And that moment for me was one of the most powerful of the whole series so far.
But yeah, there are so many. I could keep going, but I’ll stop there.
Jacob: For a character who is so brash, it must be quite fun when there are those moments of vulnerability that come out in her, especially with Okarun, who kind of brings out that vulnerability in her, and then she brings out that brashness in him.
Abby: Yes, definitely. They’re good for each other. I think they’re learning from each other, and I can’t wait to see where that goes. I’m also reading the manga now, so I’m a little bit ahead of the anime, but I’m not all the way caught up to the Shonen Jump app, which I know is way, way ahead. But it’s such a great story.
Jacob: Without revealing any spoilers, are there certain scenes that you’re probably looking forward to playing out as Momo that are going to come later on in the anime?
Abby: Well, as far as spoilers go, I can’t say anything, but that’s because I don’t know anything. Oftentimes, when they are animating, and it seems the case with DanDaDan, that they are largely basing it on the manga, but you never know. Things can change. There can be differences, so I don’t know anything. I’m just excited to see. What I love to see the most is at the end of season two, those epic battles when you animate that.
It takes it off the page. You can’t do that with manga. As beautifully drawn as this manga is, the action is next level when it’s animated, especially by a science author.
Jacob: So, after years of providing primarily non-verbal sounds for someone like Nezuko, what was it like transitioning back to being able to hear her voice?
Abby: So, Nezuko does speak in episode one, so coming from that, she has such a journey where we do hear her calling out to Tanjiro, taking care of her siblings, and this is before, of course, her entire family is destroyed. And as you said, there’s a lot of non-verbal growling, attacking, and grunting as she is turned into a demon. But throughout the series, we do get occasional flashbacks or visions in Tanjiro’s mind of Nezuko speaking as a human.
So there are a few bullet points of that staple voice throughout, but now in the series where we are, I don’t want to spoil this for anyone, so if you haven’t seen it, yeah, Nezuko steps out into the sun. And this is kind of like a new evolution of Nezuko, as she is not quite all the way able to express herself as she is in episode one. She’s not fully aware of her humanity, but she’s kind of halfway there. And it’s this interesting, naive, almost babyish way of expressing herself as she is kind of figuring out the world. And it’s been really fun for me.
I think one of my favorite lines, probably my favorite line from the series, stems from this kind of babyish Nezuko– I don’t want to say baby because she’s not a baby, but her way of speaking is very simplistic. And there’s a scene where Zenitsu returns to the village after being sent on a mission. And he sees Nezuko in the sun, and he’s so excited about it because he’s obsessed with her. And she sees him, but the way she greets him is, “Welcome home, Inosuke,” [In Nezuko’s voice], and he’s just absolutely devastated. And it’s one of the lighter moments of the series, which is pretty heavy.
There’s some comedy here and there. And it’s just such a funny moment. And then the joke is hammered home later with Inosuke, when he’s trying to get Nezuko to say his name, and she just can’t say it anymore. It’s just so silly. But it’s really fun because until that point of the series, it’s mostly been pretty serious for Nezuko, aside from the cute little bits and pieces here. There are little jokes and Taisho-era secrets at the end of each episode. But fairly serious. So I think that’s one of my favorite moments, just because it’s a comedic moment of levity. And it was really fun to perform.
Pictured: Demon Slayer
Jacob: Am I right in saying you spent time in Japan teaching English?
Abby: I did, yeah, I did. I taught English for 2 years, then moved to Tokyo to pursue acting and music because that’s what I inevitably wanted to do. I did the JET program, a teaching exchange program, and was sent to Akita, Japan.
It was kind of an excuse for me to travel, because I hadn’t really done that much in my life. My first time on an airplane was when I was moving to Japan. And then I had such a great time, I stayed on the JET program for two years instead of one. And then I realized I can’t do this forever, even though I’m having a great time. That’s when I moved to Tokyo.
Jacob: How did your experience in Japan shape your career? What sort of experiences did you learn that you’ve used in your career?
Abby: I think the language can help, you know, sometimes with dubbing. I have just experienced a lot of Japanese culture through the arts and just living there. And so when it comes to localization, if something is coming from Japan, it can help interpret things, not just with language, but also interpret the culture.
When you’re localizing something, you’re trying to make it make sense within this language’s cultural context. But also, you know, honoring and preserving the source material as much as possible. It can be tricky, and I think that my experience living there definitely helps sometimes.
Yeah, I learned so much living there. And it’s one of those things where I was a fan of anime, animation, and video games growing up. And I probably would have eventually found my way into pursuing voiceover, even if I hadn’t lived in Japan.
But by taking that kind of roundabout way, you know, having that experience, I think I grew a lot as a person. And I’m so glad that I did do that. I think of, like, a young Abby straight out of college. And if I had moved to L.A. to pursue voiceover or even just acting, I don’t think I would have done very well. I don’t think I was ready.
I don’t think I could have handled it. But after living in a foreign country by myself and learning, you know, a language, adapting, and becoming more resilient, I was ready to kind of take that on. So I’m really grateful for that experience.
Jacob: Am I right in saying that you and your fellow colleagues were able to go over to Japan to meet the Japanese dub actors?
Abby: Yes! Alex Lee, who voices Zenitsu, and I went to Kimetsu Sai, the fifth-anniversary event for Demon Slayer. It’s like a convention that’s just for Demon Slayer. It was so much fun. We got to meet a lot of the cast there. And I’ve actually met Natsuki Hanai many times now because he comes over to the United States to do convention panels every once in a while. We’ve been on some together, and he is also the voice of Okarun in Dandedan. So I ran into him when we did a Dandedan panel as well.
But, yeah, that experience was just so much fun. It was interesting to see a Japanese convention because I hadn’t really been other than like Tokyo Design Fest. I hadn’t really been to an anime convention over there, and it was just so well organized. Everyone was so polite. I think of conventions like with the crowds here, and it’s just very overwhelming.
But I feel like on the Japanese side of things, everything felt very like, you know, calm in comparison. They had some really cool games and prizes you could win. It was just it was really fun.
DanDaDan and Demon Slayer are streaming on Netflix globally.
