Kyle McCarley's Comments On Anime Dubbing and #JustAMeeting
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The dub for season three of Mob Psycho 100 has just dropped on Crunchyroll, and Kyle McCarley, the English voice of Shigeo Kageyama for the previous two seasons, did not return to the show due to Crunchyroll’s decision not to meet with SAG-AFTRA. McCarley recently interviewed with The Cartoon Cipher on the subject, and he had a lot to say regarding this situation and anime dubbing as a whole.
McCarley explained how his proposal to Crunchyroll came about. There were similar negotiations between Netflix and SAG-AFTRA in 2019. Netflix actually came to the union first with the intent to streamline their production while doing it right by the union. For over 20 years, voice actors were paid at most $75/hour in both Los Angeles and Dallas. However, thanks to the Netflix agreement and the updated promulgated agreement, union rates have gone up, also raising non-union rates as well.
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In meeting with Crunchyroll, McCarley was offering an opportunity to negotiate a Crunchyroll-specific agreement that would take into account the fact that anime episodes are worked on week-to-week and released on a weekly basis. Crunchyroll is already offering two-hour minimums, which is standard for many actors based in Los Angeles. However, as he is unsure if these provisions will apply to others outside of Los Angeles, he would be willing to sit down and discuss specifics with Crunchyroll.
As part of CODA (Coalition of Dubbing Actors) and the SAG-AFTRA Dubbing Steering Committee, McCarley was originally adamant about walking away from the production altogether if it was not done on a union contract. Thirteen prominent cast members from the first two seasons sent a letter stating their intent to Mami Okada, the casting director at Bang Zoom! (the company who produced the dub). Crunchyroll then decided to take production for Season 3 in-house and not involve Bang Zoom!
Six of the thirteen met with McCarley in a Zoom call to discuss Crunchyroll’s announcement of the dub being produced in-house. Some actors stated that they needed to keep their roles in the dub and did not want to leave the show. At first, McCarley did not want to cut any “slack to a non-union shop.” However, he realized that this was much bigger than this individual show. He was in a unique position as an actor who primarily works on union-only productions but happened to have a lead role in a popular non-union show. While this offer is technically against union rules, he had to make a public stand. If it did not work this time, it is highly unlikely that someone will try again. Because of this, McCarley was willing to return to work on Mob Psycho 100 Season 3 on a non-union contract if Crunchyroll agreed to meet with SAG-AFTRA. However, the anime streaming giant did not take the offer.
Image Source: The Leonid
This is due in part to voice actors’ reluctance to unionize. In Los Angeles, there are several studios covering commercials, original animation, video games, promo, and dubbing. In fact, there are twelve different studios in LA that work on dubbing alone, all in competition with one another. McCarley commented on the industry in Dallas, which only has Crunchyroll:
“Dallas voice actors rely very heavily on Crunchyroll for their work. So even if they do share some of the ‘It sure would be nice if Crunchyroll were a union shop’ sentiments that most LA actors have, they're naturally gonna be a lot quieter about that because they would be putting a lot more at risk than we do. I stand to risk nothing because I don't work non-union anyway. Also, because Crunchyroll is taking most of their work to Dallas and requiring people to record it in Dallas, I'm risking nothing by saying ‘Hey, I won't work on this show if you don't flip it union’ because all I'm risking is this show. They're not gonna offer me any other work that I'm gonna take. There's nothing to be lost for me, compared to a Dallas actor whose only employer is Crunchyroll and they're working on 12 other Crunchyroll shows. They're not gonna make the same stand because they need that work.”
Despite the seeming obstacles in the way, he emphasized that if actors are able to successfully advocate for themselves, it will signal to others that this is possible.
McCarley encouraged anime fans to let Crunchyroll know their displeasure at this decision any way they see fit, be it through canceling their subscription to the service and stating that this situation is why they canceled. All McCarley wants is just for them to have #JustAMeeting with SAG-AFTRA. He is optimistic that they will eventually come to the table. He is grateful and feels empowered by the support from fans. Perseverance is key in this matter, and hopefully, things will change for the better. Hopefully, Crunchyroll will have #JustAMeeting
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Source(s): Anime News Network
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