Now, I’m a fan of many things. Maybe even too many things to count. But one of those things is anime, and one of my first ever anime was Attack on Titan. Don’t worry—I’m not even going to try to give a summary of the show. I’m not sure I could even explain the complexities of it if I tried. But I will say with certainty that 99.9% of AOT fans have the same favorite character.
Captain Levi Ackerman.
Who wouldn’t love Levi? He’s the definition of a short king. A brooding clean freak. A tea-drinking, titan killing, ex-criminal. I mean, who else has the attitude to tell their best friend to “give up your dreams and die”?
But I’m not here to talk about Levi (though if you let me, I could go on for many, many paragraphs). I’m talking about the man behind Levi’s English dub voice.
Matthew Mercer.
After years of trying to meet him, this humble fangirl finally got to lay eyes on the man, the myth, the legend himself. I’ve been a huge fan of his work in anime and Critical Role for years. This past weekend at Anime NYC, I was lucky enough to attend the Critical Role Fireside Q&A panel, and there he was.
Last on stage, first in fan applause.
Last year at New York Comic Con, I covered the AOT 10th anniversary dub panel. I knew the
Critical Role cast was also in attendance at the con, so my hopes were for a guest appearance alongside Bryce Papenbrook and Trina Nishimura. The girls seated to my right kept leaning over and whispering “is this when Matt comes out?”
Spoiler alert: he did not come out.
(Side note: these girls were complete strangers at the time. Now, almost a year later, we’ve become friends who are planning this year’s NYCC together. The power of fandom! They also both posted up their photo op with Matt from this past weekend. Dreams are happening all around, pals.)
My hopes may have been dashed last October at NYCC, but now I can let out a sigh of fangirl satisfaction having seen Matt Mercer with my own eyes.
And yes: his hair is just as glorious as you think it is.
