WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Great Pretender, now streaming on Netflix.
NYAV Post has made a name for itself stellar dub productions of anime such as Promare and A Silent Voice. With Great Pretender, the studio has produced possibly one of the best English anime dubs ever. The acting pool is unbelievably diverse, the directorial decisions are creative and everyone's performances are top-notch.
Great Pretender's cast of characters comes from around the world, so the characters speak in different languages with various accents. The Japanese version of Episode 1 is half in English and half in Japanese. When Edamura is in Japan, he speaks English to the French tourist Laurent, and this back and forth English dialogue goes on until a fourth wall break mid-episode, after which the rest of the series is spoken primarily in Japanese. Instead of ignoring this language barrier joke, the dub retained the Japanese dialogue that occurs in the first half of the episode.
Once Edamura and Laurent are in the taxi together, the English version goes the extra mile to re-dub these lines with the English voice actors. Even though they are re-dubbed, Laurent (Aaron Phillips) still retains his French accent and Edamura (Alan Lee) his "jumble of different accents" until the mid-episode joke when the characters switch to speaking English normally. According to Dub Casting Lead Stephanie Sheh, the accents in the Great Pretender dub are dropped to match how the Japanese version drops its English. This way, the dub retains the joke that it would be really difficult for its actors to speak like that throughout the entire series (though Aaron Phillips and Alan Lee could totally handle it!).
This isn't the only time the English dub retains voices from the Japanese version. During the third arc of the series, Edamura works temporarily at a sushi restaurant where the chefs speak Chinese. He also is residing in a French boarding house where the owners speak French. Laurent and Cynthia (Laura Post) also speak a little of French during this arc, along with Edamura though in a more broken fashion. In the Japanese version, there are French-speaking actors for Laurent and Cynthia's lines, however, in the English dub, they got the English actors to handle that French dialogue. This section also preserves some accents as well. Marie (Cassandra Lee Morris) speaks in a French accent to Edamura at the boarding house. When Edamura and the team head to London, the characters introduced there all speak in British accents. This decision helps enhance both the setting and the characters, making London and France feel genuine in the series.
NYAV Post went above and beyond with casting a diverse ray of actors in Great Pretender, and they especially excelled in getting BIPOC actors to voice BIPOC characters. Kausar Mohammed is a Bengali/Pakistani-American actress who voices Abbie, one of the main female characters in the series. Ariyan Kassam, an Indian actor, voices Clark Ibrahim while Abe Martell, who is of multiracial heritage, voices his brother Sam Ibrahim. The series also managed to cast Griffin Robert Faulkner, a child actor for the role of a young Makoto Edamura and Salazar's son Tom.
Even aside from the phenomenal casting and directing decisions, each of the voice actors' performances is fantastic as well. Laura Post switches from Cynthia's smug FBI investigator disguise to sexy drunk scammer with ease. Aaron Phillips maintains Laurent's suaveness with his cool voice. Kausar Mohammed perfectly captures Abbie's cynical attitude. Alan Lee fully embodies protagonist Edamura, amplifying his comedic scenes and greatly demonstrating Edamura's softer side during sadder moments too. All the minor characters nail their parts as well; Griffin's voicing for Tom and young Edamura was especially impressive. The entire cast of the London arc really brought the city to life, especially Julie Nathanson (Fara Brown), Eric Tiede (Thomas Mayer), Trevor Devall (James Coleman) and Rich Orlow (Tim).
There are so many well-acted moments, it's difficult to pick the best. Abbie's tone and pronunciation of Baghdad when confronting Lewis was goosebump-inducing. Cynthia's sultry voice when teasing men and drunken rants against them was a blast to listen to. Laurent's baritone voice makes just about anyone blush, especially during scenes of him flirting with Edamura. And Edamura's bellowing scream in the opening scene immediately hooked viewers' attention. With the final nine episode arc yet to prmeiere, it'll be exciting to hear what new voices and performances Great Pretender has in store for us.