After nine years, Attack on Titan is coming to an end. Far from going out with a whimper though, the hugely popular series is going out with its most intense season yet. With more action, shocking twists, and heartwrenching moments, there’s never been a better time to speak with the series’ three lead English voice actors Bryce Papenbrook, Trina Nishimura, and Josh Grelle.

Beginning in 2009 with a manga series, Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama became an instant hit, earning itself an anime adaptation just four years later in 2013. Part of the series’ appeal has been its three central leads Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. Though the trio’s bond had been unbreakable throughout Attack on Titan, that finally changed in this recent fourth, and final, season. Now, Eren has basically become a villain, leaving Mikasa and Armin caught between wanting to save humanity and the prospect of killing their former best friend.

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Times have never been tougher for Eren, Armin, and Mikasa, meaning the last half of this final season would be particularly tough on the voice actors portraying the main trio. In one of the series’ toughest scenes to watch, Eren even told Mikasa and Armin that he actually hated them. With the English dub of the second half of the series’ final season beginning to air on February 13th, Screen Rant sat down to talk with Eren’s actor Bryce Papenbrook, Mikasa’s actor Trina Nishimura, and Armin’s actor Josh Grelle to discuss their acting process, their thoughts on the characters, and what it means for them to say goodbye to a series that means so much to so many people.

Screen Rant: Attack on Titan is infamous for just how dark it is, however you’ve also voiced the same characters for things like Attack on Titan: Junior High. How do you voice the same character in such different situations and still make them feel like the same person?

Bryce Papenbrook: I think after that first season, we all needed a break. We all needed to come off how intense and stressful the show was. So, Attack on Titan: Junior High was that fun break. I got to do Eren being angry, but I also got to get hit in the face with a ball and spin around. So, it was a lot of fun to do that.

Josh Grelle: Junior High was so great because we had just come off the tail end of the first season. I think we had maybe done a couple of convention appearances. It was all still pretty fresh in our heads and then this goofy little offshoot comes along. And it was a great, it was a great way to bridge the first two seasons as well because like it was essentially the exact same world but instead of eating us, the Titans are after our lunch boxes. It was so much fun to get to do that little spin on it.

Trina Nishimura: It is the same show just tweaked, and fun and happy, and certainly the levity that we all needed in that moment. But it was still the same characters. You know, like Mikasa’s stoicism and dedication to her tribe and our little group is carried over and that’s still the backbone of the character. It’s just now she’s not as violent.

Bryce Papenbrook: That show is interesting because it kind of escalated pieces of the characters. For Eren, it escalated his intensity, which is already insanely intense. So, I actually lost my voice recording Attack on Titan: Junior High. Never happened recording Attack on Titan proper, which has a ridiculous amount of screams. But in Attack on Titan: Junior High. We got to this one moment where Eren’s putting a boulder into the wall, and the scream came out and my voice just cut. It just went Ah, just kind of stopped. And [ADR Director] Mike came on. He’s like, you’re done. Stopped for that day, went home to get vocal rest, let it recover, came back and screamed again the next day. But yeah, raising the intensity for the comedy piece was definitely strenuous on the vocal cords.

Screen Rant: Bryce, Eren has never been in a darker place this season. How did you prepare for this version of Eren? How did you get into that headspace?

Bryce Papenbrook: The first three seasons of the show, anger is running through everything that Eren does. And in this final season, that anger is still there, but it’s buried under this coldness. So coming up with the voice and the approach for this season was very much a collaboration between Mike McFarland and I. Fortunately, I had been starting to explore my deeper range a bit with some other characters. So, I was getting back to that place and discovering where I could take the character, how far to push it one way or another. I was kind of already in that zone, to be able to do it. So relatively quickly, Mike and I were able to find that voice and find where we wanted to place Eren in this final season.

As far as the show being dark and brutal and violent, I mean, that’s Attack on Titan for you. So to see it just increase the intensity and continue that kind of bubbling of the stress and pressure is bubbling and bubbling. Not knowing where the story is going to end, I just know it’s going to be good. You can feel the stress and the pressure leading to a head every single episode and that’s just exciting.

Screen Rant: What was the most difficult line you’ve all had to read for this season?

Josh Grelle: For Armin, it was just after he transforms in Marley into the Colossal Titan. And he’s sitting there looking over the destruction and all of the bodies that he just created and he’s not only feeling that and processing it, but he’s also connecting to his predecessor, Bertolt, in that moment and being like, I think I see why you were so high-strung. This must have been the crap you saw, too. Like it’s a rough spot for Armin right now in a lot of different ways. But he’s holding out hope for Eren still right now.

Trina Nishimura: I think the most challenging line for me to record during season four was probably the rooftop scene. There was a lot going on. Emotionally and mentally when you’re an actor, you take experiences from your own life and connect that to the scene that you’re in. So I connected that moment specifically with my friend Josh, who is in a hot situation. That was definitely a challenging session. There was a lot of crying, a lot of crying. But I’m very happy how it ended. And I’m glad that everybody’s okay in real life.

Bryce Papenbrook: When Attack on Titan was coming back, the first thing I thought was, okay, it’s time for me to scream again. So I made a major upgrade to my recording space, knowing that I would probably be screaming a lot. To my surprise though, Eren is the calmest he’s been as far as screaming goes. So, I haven’t been screaming as much.

I think the most challenging moment and scene for me was the table scene where Eren is talking to Armin and Mikasa. It wasn’t as much the performance or the lines, it was more like, it didn’t feel great to say the things that he was saying. He was just saying these horrible things. And I didn’t know why. But when I said them, I wanted them to hurt the other characters because I feel like that’s what Eren was trying to do is trying to hurt mucosa during that scene. So saying those words didn’t feel great coming out. In fact, Mike and I both had this, oh, kind of reaction every time I would deliver a line. I’m still very curious why that scene is the way it is. I’m looking forward to discovering that.

Screen Rant: Trina, what are the challenges with playing a character who is trying so hard to suppress her emotions and be strong?

Trina Nishimura: The nuances within Attack on Titan and within each character are beautifully written. Saying three words and meaning three paragraphs is something that has been an ever-evolving process. Luckily Funimation has an amazing team of writers, an amazing director, Mike McFarland, who we keep mentioning, and amazing sound engineers that have just made the entire process so much easier. Mikasa has endured a lot of trauma, and she’s been through quite a lot, but her strength and physical ability seem to be what saves her and her friends. So if you put yourself in that sort of mentality that you have to keep it together in order to save your family, and you have to be together and everything has to look okay to be okay. It’s like a brick on a brick on a brick on a brick on a wall. Then your emotions are behind that. But I’m hopeful for her as a character that, at some point, somewhere down the line, she’ll meet a nice therapist, to get the help that she needs. And be able to just take a beat, maybe start farming or gardening or something less violent.

Screen Rant: The manga has been finished for about a year now, so how have you tried to avoid big spoilers?

Josh Grelle: I had to find a plugin on my browser on my like, on my google chrome browser that anytime I would open up Twitter, or Google or YouTube or anything like that, if it was in the trending section and mentioned Attack on Titan, it wouldn’t show up. But like, even then it wasn’t enough, apparently because all it took was one very excited person in a line at a convention going, “Did you know about this?” To ruin the whole thing. I think Bryce and Trina have the magic bullet in terms of keeping people from from from doing it, which I think was just saying, “I haven’t heard anything yet. Don’t tell me anything.” Which I should have just done. I should have just been like, don’t tell me anything.

Trina Nishimura: That’s always the move too, bringing up the hands and going “No no no no.”

Bryce Papenbrook: Yeah. That’s how I started every single panel. “Who’s read the manga? Don’t say anything!” the whole time. Anytime someone’s like, “What do you think about…” that’s where I stop them. I’ve signed many people’s manga, but anytime someone asked me to sign one, I always say, I’m not going to sign any of the pages on the inside, just the front or the inside cover. That’s as far as I’ll go. And it’s tough not to look, it’s really, really tough. But we’ve come this far. We’re so close!

Screen Rant: Josh, how do you think Armin is able to maintain his humanity and how has that informed your performance?

Josh Grelle: He’s struggling with holding on to his humanity at this point. I think we’ve gotten to the point now where even he is starting to see that maybe this light at the end of the tunnel isn’t actually there. Maybe we are gonna have to constantly be fighting. But he’s still holding on to that last bit of hope that everything is gonna work out okay. Even with Eren right in his face doing and saying all these horrible things Armin is still the one pulling for him and saying no, man I feel like he’s got to have a plan. This isn’t the Eren we know.

Armin’s always been the nurturer for this group. He’s always been the one that is not only keeping the macro view, but is also thinking, what is Mikasa feeling right now and how can I help? What is Eren feeling and needing right now? Armin tries to do that for everyone in the scouts. He’s also been forced to be a soldier. He’s been forced to kill another human and he’s struggling with the morality of that. He’s constantly the one who seems to be struggling with these philosophical questions of who are really the bad guys in this whole scenario? And he’s the empathetic one. And that’s where so much of that macro view comes from is his ability to be empathetic.

But I feel like being the Colossal Titan, everything that he’s done and seen over the years, all of what’s going on with his head, and now that he’s also got Bertolt’s memories in there rattling around? It’s a struggle. I do not blame him if he’s faltering. I think anybody in his position would, especially someone who is as empathetic as he is. But the great thing about Armin is that he’s always the one that holds on to that beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. Thinking about where we could all end up at the end of this journey, and that’s still with him. I think that’s really what defines him the most, that’s where his character ultimately resides, is in hope.

Screen Rant: As Attack on Titan wraps up, what’s the thing you’re going to miss most about playing your character

Bryce Papenbrook: it’s hard to narrow it down to just one thing. I think it’s this entire process of being part of such an exciting show, of working with the team that we’re able to work with and just knowing that for me, my friendships with Trina, Josh, Mike, and all the other great people that work at Funimation were all because of Attack on Titan. It was the first show at Funimation that I had auditioned for, the first time I was able to go out to Dallas and work out there. It’s just such a special show for me and really has created these lifelong friendships, so knowing that I won’t be part of that process anymore is is really sad. And I’m trying to savor every moment I have while we’re still part of the show

Trina Nishimura: I’m gonna miss Mikasa. So many awful awful things happened to her and there are so many awful awful things that happen throughout the course of the series. But as far as the recording goes, I’m going to miss all of the times that, after something awful happened and I cried in a small padded room for an hour, Mike would put up a funny YouTube video of puppies. I’m gonna miss the puppies. What are you going to miss Josh?

Josh Grelle: Like you guys said, I’m really gonna miss constantly kind of being in contact with you guys and getting to do stuff like this. I always enjoy getting to do interviews and panels with both of you. I’ve met so many insanely talented people getting to getting to work on this show. There were a lot of firsts for me being a part of Titan as well it was the first time I’d ever really worked with Mike as an actor and director in a really involved capacity. I respected Mike and looked up to him for a while so that was really cool experience and I’m getting to meet like Matt Mercer, Lauren Landa, and some of our other LA friends over the course of these years and the relationships that spawned from that. I mean, we became a family.

I’ll miss the mystery. I’ll miss finding those answers. I’ll miss Armin’s beautiful spirit and the connection that I have with him will always be there. And the connection I think that we have with these characters is going to be with us for a very long time after this, but not being a part of the process anymore will definitely be a sad day.

Thanks to Bryce, Trina, and Josh for speaking with Screen Rant. Fans of Attack on Titan can look forward to the second half of the final season’s English dub streaming on February 13th on Funimation!

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Evan Mullicane
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Evan D. Mullicane is an editor, critic, and author based out of California’s Bay Area. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University in 2016. In his free time, he enjoys reading graphic novels and writing fantasy.

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