Multi-Mind Mayhem’s Cast Even Performed the Sound Effects. Marina Inoue Says Recording It Felt Like a Sport

The comedy fantasy anime Multi-Mind Mayhem starts on January 6, and its newest voices have already given the game away about what the recording booth was like. Marina Inoue says playing the hero’s mother felt like a sport. Ari Ozawa packed her scenes with ad-libs. And the cast didn’t stop at dialogue: they performed sound effects too.

The official website for the TV anime, known in Japan as Isekai Tensei Soudouki, named six more cast members on November 13 and posted a written comment from each of them. Takehito Koyasu plays Ignis, the hero’s father. Marina Inoue plays his mother, Maggot. Toshiki Kumagai, Ari Ozawa, Kohei Yanagi and Yuki Sakakihara round out the new names as Brooks, Teresa, William and Franco.

The same day brought a second trailer, a second key visual and a firm start date. Studio DEEN is animating the series, with Hiroaki Sakurai directing, and the first episode airs on Tokyo MX on Wednesday, January 6, 2027.

The trailer runs through the whole cast with a name card for each character. Start it here and you’ll hear Koyasu’s Ignis first, then Inoue’s Maggot right after him.

Hear the voice: Takehito Koyasu as Ignis, then Marina Inoue as Maggot, in the second trailer. Video: AlphaPolis official channel, on YouTube

Three souls in one small body

The story comes from Ryosen Takami’s light novels, illustrated by Ririnra and published by AlphaPolis from 2014 to 2019. A young noble named Bard Cornelius turns out to be carrying three souls at once: his own, a warlord from Japan’s Sengoku era called Sanai Oka, and Masaharu Oka, a modern otaku high school student. Between them they try to rebuild a struggling territory, which is where the comedy comes from.

Yusuke Kobayashi leads as Bard, and he doesn’t pretend it’s an easy part. “It’s a character with three personalities, attractive but difficult,” he wrote on the official site when the anime was announced in March.

Takashi Matsuyama, who plays the old warlord, introduced his character in three short lines: “Quite the swordsman. Quite the head for money. And quite the pervert… I mean, quite the oddball.” He then thanked the director and staff for casting him on the grounds that “when it comes to a pervert… I mean, an oddball, it’s Takashi Matsuyama.”

Satoshi Inomata plays Masaharu, the otaku who loves animal-eared characters and acts as the brains of the trio.

Image: Isekai Tensei Soudouki production committee

The author’s own comment on the official site has a teasing line in it: “On a personal note, an actor I’ve loved for thirty years has joined the cast, and my heart is racing.” Takami doesn’t say who.

The new six: a mom, a dad, a friend and two princes

The November additions fill in Bard’s family and his school life. Koyasu, one of the best-known voices in anime, keeps his comment short and sweet. “Ignis is a strict father. But he can’t stand up to his wife. Somehow that’s cute,” he wrote.

That wife is Maggot, and Inoue says the role caught her off guard. “At first I went in thinking it was a so-called ‘mom role,’ but she strayed so far from the usual picture of a mother that it was a shock,” she wrote. “Maggot shows every expression imaginable, so the afureko felt like playing a sport. I think it was a studio that tested your stamina and your reflexes (laughs).”

Maggot, voiced by Marina Inoue, in the second trailer. Image: Isekai Tensei Soudouki production committee

Afureko is the Japanese word for recording dialogue to finished or near-finished animation, with the cast watching the picture as they speak. A part that swings from one extreme face to the next means a performer has to land each change on the frame, take after take.

Toshiki Kumagai plays Brooks, Bard’s classmate at the royal knights’ school and the group’s mood-maker. “He was a character I loved ever since I was reading the original, so I’m really happy to get to play him,” Kumagai wrote. Yuki Sakakihara plays Prince Franco, describing him as androgynous, “strong and weak at the same time,” and, in a phrase Japanese fans use for exactly this kind of character, “cute and cool!”

Ad-libs, play and sound effects from the cast

The comments that matter most to anyone who works behind a microphone are about how the show was recorded. Inomata gave the first hint when his casting was announced in August. “Recording has started, and it’s a fun studio, heavy on comedy, where the performers even express the sound effects,” he wrote.

Ari Ozawa, who plays Teresa, a childhood friend in the story, says she took full advantage of that freedom. “Teresa is passionate, a woman with the strength of a knight. I put a lot of ad-libs into the anime!” she wrote. “The studio was lively from start to finish, and I had a lot of fun taking part.” She added that it’s a type of role she has never played before.

Teresa, voiced by Ari Ozawa, in the second trailer. Image: Isekai Tensei Soudouki production committee

Kohei Yanagi, the voice of Prince William, describes the sessions the same way. “In the studio there was the kind of playfulness you only get when recording, and experiments that made you think, ‘the cast are doing that too?!’ It was a really stimulating recording,” he wrote on the official cast page.

What it tells voice actors about the job

None of the cast say which sound effects they performed, and the trailer doesn’t spell it out either. But the picture they paint together is clear enough: a comedy where the director wants the cast to play, where ad-libs make it into the cut, and where a performer can be asked for something that isn’t a line at all.

For voice actors outside Japan, it’s a useful reminder of what comedy animation asks for. Range matters, but so do stamina, speed and the nerve to throw in something unscripted. Inoue’s sports comparison will ring true for anyone who has recorded loud, fast comedy: it’s physical work.

Hiroaki Sakurai, the director, has his own light touch. In his staff comment he recalled meeting the author for the first time and being handed a birthday cake. “What thoughtfulness! I want to be that kind of grown-up!” he wrote, before promising to put “the fun parts” of the story into the anime.

When and where to watch

Tokyo MX airs the first episode at 10:00 p.m. on January 6, followed by BS Fuji later that night and AT-X on January 8. d Anime Store, ABEMA and U-NEXT stream the first two episodes from 10:30 p.m. on January 6, then each episode one week before it airs on TV, Anime News Network reports.

VoiceEditSuitePractise the skill that books work.The Cold Read hands you a fresh 30-second script and casting brief every take, then hides the timer so you build your own internal clock.See how it worksYour recordings are never used to train AI.

Rock band Maverick Mom performs the opening theme, “Isekai,” and VTuber Tokino Sora sings the ending, “Brand New Day.” Keiichiro Ochi is in charge of series composition, Zenjiro Ukulele adapts Hajime Watanabe’s original character designs, Yasunori Ebina directs the sound and Ryoshi Takagi writes the music. The manga by Honoji is published in English by One Peace Books.

Plenty of anime casts promise a fun studio. This one has already told us what that meant: ad-libs, a lot of energy, and at least a few noises nobody wrote down.

Sources: Isekai Tensei Soudouki official website (cast, staff and author comments, and the news page for November 13); the anime’s official X account; Anime News Network; AniTrendz. Comments from Japanese sources are translated by Voice Over Herald. Images: Isekai Tensei Soudouki production committee (second trailer, official cast visual).

Lee este artículo en español: En Multi-Mind Mayhem, el elenco hasta hizo los efectos de sonido. Marina Inoue dice que grabarlo fue como hacer deporte

Know something about this story, or spotted an error? Tell the newsroom.