Recently, the English Dub actor Max Mittelman who’s best known for his ongoing performance as Saitama from “One Punch Man” along with various other works such as Aggretsuko, Hunter X Hunter, Demon Slayer, Seven Deadly Sins and anime/videogame franchises “Persona 5” as Ryuji Sakamoto and finally Damon in the upcoming Nintendo Switch game “No More Heroes 3” dropped in for an AMA to commemorate the 5th anniversary since One Punch Man got dubbed and was accompanied by his OPM co-star Ray Chase who shares some unique experiences along with an offer to autograph people’s stuff during a streaming event later this month. On the process of becoming the voice of Saitama and Puri Puri Prisoner? and if either he or Ray knew of One Punch Man before becoming these awesome characters. The first time I’d heard of One Punch Man was when the audition was sent to me in 2016. I called Ray Chase, funny enough, and told him I was so busy that I wouldn’t be doing any research on the show before recording my take and that it looked like your typical action-packed fighting anime. Ray, on the other hand, knew the show well, and he convinced me that I should least watch the first episode before recording. So I did. I watched ep 1, then binged the entire season. I was OBSESSED.I auditioned for 5 characters: Saitama, Genos, Sonic, Mumen Rider, and Amai Mask. What followed was a 3-month callback process and one of the most stressful waiting periods of my life. I would’ve been happy as citizen B, but instead booked the Caped Baldy. It’s one of my favorite roles to date. I’m extremely fortunate!On how Max nailed that mundane “dead-inside” voice for Saitama just right, and how Ray’s performance as Puri Prisoner is unique compared to your other roles?Max: On a technical level, I spent quite a few hours during auditions for the show to craft what the producer thought was the perfect voice for the character. It’s the product of someone who is extremely bored and borderline hopeless. It’s basically just my own voice if I didn’t care about what people thought of me.Ray: It’s interesting, I’ve played a few other extremely broad homosexual types like that before, but none with as deep a voice. Check out Duncan in Dark Dreams Don’t Die or Roswaal in Re: Zero.On how Max acts bored for part of Saitama’s performance without making it sound put on.A bachelors degree in acting 😉On Max having to do a lot of line readings for the OPM game “A HERO NOBODY KNOWS”, or did the video game company just mostly pull the dialogue from the show? We recorded a lot of new stuff for that game!On Max & Ray’s thoughts on Sony making a live-action OPM movie and if they auditioned. Max: The studio called me to ask if I wanted the role, but I turned it down because it didn’t make sense. Like… why would I do that I’m just a dumb voice actor lolRay: I have already auditioned for the role of Sony but they said I was too believable.On the creative process of voicing Saitama. Max: For dubbing, the original voice actor sets the tone, but if I were to follow his exact inflection, it wouldn’t make sense. So I am tasked with making it sound natural for an English speaking audience. And I always try to add a little bit of my own flare!On who Max’s favorite OPM villain is and how he responds to people yelling “ONE PUUUUUUUUUUUNCH” at him for fun.Haha yes, I’ve gotten the occasional “ONE PUUUUNCH” and I love it. My fav villain in the entirety of the OPM anime is Crablante. Hands down. In fact, that first episode had so many perfectly comedic moments for me. It’s the best.On how Max and the rest of the cast managed to finish recording the remaining episodes and extra’s for The OPM season 2 on Blu-Ray due to the COVID crisis. Ray: We did the OVAs from home – it took the industry a second to figure out how to get everyone recording from home studios so there were a few delays on a lot of projects because of it. Max and I are friends IRL so we see each other all the time anyway! Sometimes we see each other in studios but that only happens in passing as we record in isolation.On Max’s most wholesome/selfless thing that he’s ever been a part of as someone so influential to the fandom back when Anime Con’s were still active.Max: My favorite convention moment happened during my live-show with Ray Chase and Robbie Daymond. We were told by a fine gentleman that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend during our show. So we stopped mid-show, dimmed the lights, played a montage video of the lovely couple together, and he got down on one knee. She said yes!On looking over the anime source material in advance before getting into character. Max: One Punch Man taught me a valuable lesson. I wasn’t going to watch it before auditioning, but I ended up binging it and it changed my performance tremendously. I don’t think I would’ve come close to booking it had I not done my research.Ray: It depends on whether the anime is out already. If it is, I always make sure to watch ahead to see what happens. If not, then we are usually working closely with the production company!On the most vocally demanding performance. Ray: Honestly it was Eve from Nier: Automata. That dude screamed a lot and we recorded a few different voices for him before settling on the right one.On, How Max become a voice actor. Max: www.iwanttobeavoiceactor.com has all the deets for becoming a voice actor! It’s a gem of a resource, completely free, from prolific voice actor Dee Bradley Baker.And finally, if he ever considered going bald in real life like Saitama. Ask me again in 20 years and I’ll have an answer for you.Thank you for making this such a great experience. I gotta wrap up here, but I truly felt the love and appreciated every single question, comment, and compliment. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter and my Instagram. I’m off now to go find a great bargain somewhere. See you next time, Reddit!