We’re on our fifth day of dub cast announcements for Free! -Eternal Summer-, and we know a lot of you fans have been very excited to see who’s who in the English cast– even to the point of making fake cast announcement images! (Yes, that previous “leaked” cast announcement image that you may have seen was a fan-made fake—be sure to check official FUNimation and Free! ES channels for real announcements!) Today we’re excited to finally unveil the real long-awaited (but not final!) Free! ES cast announcement, this time for Rin Matsuoka, the shark-toothed and snarky new captain of the Samezuka Swim Team! And Rin’s voice actor is…
…Lucky guess.
Rin is played by Vic Mignogna, whom you may recognize from such roles as Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist), Tamaki Suou (Ouran High School Host Club), Zero Kiryu (Vampire Knight), Fai D. Flowright (Tsubasa) and Karoku (Karneval)! Fun fact—Vic Mignogna and Rin’s Japanese voice actor Mamoru Miyano share a couple other roles—specifically Tamaki and Zero.
We asked Vic a few Free! ES-related questions!
Question: Can you swim? If so, what’s your best stroke?
Vic: Yes! I earned all my YMCA cards when I was young. I was good at the backstroke.
Question: What’s your favorite marine animal?
Vic: Ironically, SHARKS! Love love love them!
Question: When you were in high school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Vic: I wanted to be a special effects artist for movies.
We’re not done yet! We have two more days of cast announcements—check back tomorrow and Sunday to see which actors play the other Samezuka swimmers, and other vital roles for the series! The announcements hit first on the Free! -Eternal Summer- Tumblr and Facebook page, so make sure you’re following them for the most up-to-date news! For more updates about Free! – Eternal Summer – be sure to also sign up for our newsletter here
Cast so far:
Rei Ryugazaki – J. Michael Tatum
Nagisa Hazuki – Greg Ayres
Makoto Tachibana – Johnny Yong Bosch
Haruka Nanase – Todd Haberkorn
Rin Matsuoka – Vic Mignogna
Check out the previous cast announcements by clicking this link.
(As a reminder, if you’re curious about the status of the Free! season 1 home video release and haven’t heard yet, be sure to check out this blog entry for the full explanation. We currently have no newer updates at this time.)
Called it… after hearing Todd Haberkorn will be Haruka. It just had to be Victor. So my “money” is on Caitlin Glass to direct the show. If she does, it will be Ouran all over again (with the inclusion of Johnny of course). Now I’m curios who will be voicing Sousuke Yamazaki, Aiichiro Nitori, and Momotaro Mikoshiba.
If we’re bringing back Ouran, Sosuke should be Travis, and Nitori Luci.
Very happy Vic is getting a major anime role after so long.
Bring on the fujoshi…
Just very disappointed. His voice type REALLY DOES NOT suit Rin at ALL. Vic’s got a good voice, but for more boyish, younger characters- and Rin has one of the deepest, more mature registers of all the Free! characters. It just doesn’t fit, and I know many people agree with me on this.
that’s true.. his voice doesn’t fit. I wonder if he will do something different with it to fit it better?
Not me. I think the role is fine for Vic.
so are they just gonna announce a couple for the next two days?
I have only ever heard Vic Mignogna voice Karoku from Karneval. I wonder how he’ll sound like as Rin.
When will we know the rest of the cast? I’m curious about the Momo, his brother, Kou, Nitori and not to forget Sousuke!
Tomorrow and Sunday the rest of the cast will be announced
please no
I had a feeling that Vic Mignogna was going to be the voice of Rin, but I was hoping that I was wrong about it. I wanted him to be voiced by either Bryce Papenbrook or Eric Vale, but I’m sure that Vic will do a good job as him. I can’t wait to see the dub. Does anybody know when the fist episode will come out in English? I don’t want to wait, I want to see the dub right now.
*sigh* Bryce is an LA actor, Funimation will unveil the dub trailer sometime in the future, along with DVD release dates, probably at a convention.
You’re right Bryce is an LA voice actor, the same goes for Johnny Yong, Vic Mignogna, and even Todd Haberkorn, but they’re still going to be in this dub, besides Bryce was casted Attack on Titan & Space Dandy. I really think that he should get more FUNimation work. I really hope that the dub episodes come out soon, I literally can’t wait to watch them right now.
back at Anime Expo in LA Vic said he wanted this role… I am so happy he got it!
This is so great I cant stop smiling :)))
Vic?? Really??? His voice does not fit at all. You can’t be serious..
This is just sweet. Hopefully he gets that low voice that Rin pulls off so well
ooo wonderful !! a homophobe as the character whose (at least bi) sexuality has been hinted at numerous times! YEEFUCKINGHAW.
wow yeah im definitely not watching this dub. this is going to be fucking excruciating
You, You who believe a false rumor about him being a homophobe clearly does not have a brain to think clearly. And those who don’t watch the dub or support it are not anime fans at all even if they “claim to be”. So quit being sarcastic and you better watch it. Cause it won’t be excruciating.
So relax and enjoy it. It won’t be that bad.
I wonder if Rin will have an Australian accent in the dub…
Most likely they won’t give him an accent. I’m sure that Vic Mignogna will use his normal voice. Besides I can’t imagine Rin talking with an Australian accent, especially with Vic’s voice.
I will just have to wait and see, but I don’t see Vic’s voice range matching Rin’s, but he has dubbed Mamoru Miyano before, so lets just see what happens.