I was accepted as press for Anime Milwaukee this past weekend and had the privilege of interviewing Zeno Robinson! In this interview we talk about his experiences at the convention so far and voice acting roles he has been in such as Guang Lu from Link Click, Ogun from Fire Force, Vanitas from the Case Studies of Vanitas, and others. Please enjoy our interview!

Tobi: How are you liking Milwaukee so far?

Zeno: I’ve been enjoying Milwaukee so far. I first went to like a vintage store that has cool games. A cool store I’ve never been to. And then with there’s another game store called the BattlBox, which was really sketchy. I had to call on the store and the guy was like on a Bluetooth. And he was like, “Yeah, man, I’m trying to do these auctions.” This isn’t like a typical game store, so I had the call. I was like, “bro, what? Just tell me a game, man. I just came here to look.” Yeah, he’s like, “You can’t.” Anyway he seemed like an interesting guy. 

Tobi: Is this your first time in Milwaukee? 


Zeno: I believe so. Sometimes I don’t know where I’ve been. I was in Houston, like a couple months ago, and I swore it was my first time in Houston, but a lot of people were like, “no, I met you, like last year”, and I said, oh, I guess this is not my first time here. So according to my brain, it’s my first time here but not my first time in Wisconsin. I’ve been in Wisconsin.

Tobi: Cool, well, welcome! So how are you enjoying the con so far?

Zeno: It’s been great. It’s super cool. A lot of my friends are here, so it’s really fun being at a con with your friends. How are you liking the con? 

Tobi: So this is my third time at the con which is great. I’ve just been going to panels that interest me, so that’s been fun. 

Zeno: What kind of panels interest you?

Tobi: So I like anything that’s niche, so I went to like a panel about Link Click, an anime I haven’t watched.

Zeno: Oh I love Link Click!

Tobi: Didn’t you voice one of the characters? 

Zeno: Ya I am Guang Lu!

Tobi: Yeah, so like, I never watched Link Click. So, this was a nice intro panel to get into it.

Zeno: There was a Link Click Panel?

Tobi: Ya there was a Link Click Panel, but it was an intro to Link Click panel.

Zeno: Did they not know that they have both Guang Lu and Cheng Xiaoshi here at the con? Why wouldn’t they invite us?

Tobi: You could have been there! So that was a great panel and now I’m going to watch it and watch out for your voice in it!

Zeno: I definitely recommend, you’ll be hooked.

Tobi: Yes I heard it’s really good and I want to check it out. So that was the highlight of the day for me. So, I’m glad that you are enjoying the con. I’m just going to ask you a couple of questions. 


Zeno: Ok. There’s so much pressure.

Tobi: So, I know you’ve done so much so many anime voices. 

Zeno: Me?

Tobi: Yes. So many. But one of them, I want to highlight, is Ogun from Fire Force. 

Zeno: Oh ya, my boy!

Tobi: I specifically like this character because he’s the first Yoruba Nigerian character I’ve seen and I’m Yoruba Nigerian and I need to see more of this in anime! So what did you do to prepare for this role? 

Zeno: I mainly researched a lot, I just I wanted to know about his personality and how he acted and operated, so that meant like reading the manga and like, you know, reading all the Wiki pages I could find, and of course, watching like the show, but I think we were simul-dubbing so it was hard for me to like watch Ogun do stuff before it was out, so I tried to. But I think this was also during the pandemic, so I had a little more time because some of the scheduling was a little bit different. So, I just did a lot of research before I prepared. But I think I had a feeling I knew what I wanted him to sound like before we started. It was just about hearing the original, say and like for the tone, and like what the original creators had in mind so that I could follow it. 

Tobi: Yeah, I feel like it’s interesting because the sub is partially out, so you have some background, which is interesting to have before going to a character, unlike others. 

Zeno: I tried to research, like some of the Yoruba stuff and like, you know, why he’s named that, and of course it like feeds it into his powers, you know, the deity for fire and war.

Tobi: It’s good about you did you research!

Zeno: I tried to honor all the culture there. 

Tobi: I know a season is coming out soon, so are you preparing for that as well?

Zeno: Yes, I’m pretty much all caught up a manga, so, um a lot of that has already prepped me, so I’ve pretty much been ready for a long time. It’s just really about going back in just recording it and refinding the character and the voice, because it’s been a minute.

Tobi: Ya it’s been a while!

Zeno: Also, fun fact, there was supposed to be, two Ogun Funko pops that never got released because I don’t know if it was either Crunchyroll or Funko, but one of those companies let the license sort of lapse. Um so hopefully now the season three is coming out they can restart that conversation for that. 
I’m hoping I can get those pops again. Those designs are already done.

Tobi: Ya I’ll keep on lookout for that. Right. So great, thanks for doing a good justice on that character. 

Zeno: Thank you. 

Tobi: Yes, and I look forward to it in the new season! Another character I’m a huge fan of is Vanitas from the anime: The Case Studies of Vanitas. It’s one of my new favorite animes that like recently came out. It’s a great show. So, like what do you enjoy the most about working on that show? 

Zeno: I love how there’s just like such a depth to the world, I think there’s so much that happened in the world that we don’t even know yet. But what I love is it’s just there’s like really quiet moments of emotional intrigue and emotional depth and, you know, trauma that all these characters have went through and that’s like right under the surface of all of the silliness that the show can become. Vanitas definitely is emblematic of that in that he’s got like this whole traumatic history backstory. His heart is like not what he shows people. 

Tobi: Ya he’s acting is like a facade.

Zeno: Yeah, and so that’s always really fascinating to play, and it makes it makes the show really fun. 

Tobi: When’s season two, like it’s when’s that going to come about? 

Zeno: Ya it’s so crazy. 


Tobi: I know there’s a panel for it tomorrow and I’m excited for that.

Zeno: Yeah, I’m very excited, and David Wald is here, and I’ve never met him in person, so I’m excited to meet him in person. I thank him for all this incredible direction. I mean, the show would not be what it is without his direction. He’s so incredible and I love working with him and I hope I get to work with him again soon. 

Tobi: Are there any challenges when it comes to voice acting when you’re not all together? Because I know it was like during the pandemic, or was it not? 

Zeno: I think the biggest challenge is like recording remotely the way we did was just the Internet, getting the right connection. Sometimes it would be like tough, you know, Internet would drop out and we’d lose the director. I’d get lost in the Internet and you know, as long as both parties have strong Internet source that it can work, but sometimes that wasn’t the case. 

Tobi: Well, you went through it, you did it. And it went well. So, I don’t know if nowadays are people still doing it virtually?

Zeno: Yes, but now you can go into a studio where their connection might be a little better as opposed to like maybe at your house where you might not have the best connection. And you know, like when you go into a studio and you patch in remotely, like the studio is sort of built for it all, you know, so like you don’t have to worry about so much as an actor, like of engineering and trying to like watch your levels and stuff like that, which I typically enjoy. There’s a lot less of the remote recording now than there was, which is sort of sad for us on our side, but we take what we can, and we cherish what we can.

Tobi: So, another question I have is that I know about the Comic Shop show. 

Zeno: Oooh!

Tobi: I can’t wait because me and my sisters supported to Kickstarter. 

Zeno: Thank you!

Tobi: So, I’m excited for it. Can you tell us anything about what’s happening with the show?

Zeno: I definitely can. We just did our first table read, uh, maybe like two weekends ago and it was with everybody. We read through all six episodes, and it is all hilarious. They’re all very fun. I know Cheyenne got a location down. I think it’s a comic shop at Inglewood. I can’t remember the name, uh so sorry, because I would have plugged them in, but they are a comic shop in Inglewood. And we start filming we’re aiming for April.

Tobi: That is nice. So it’s coming up soon! 

Zeno: Yup it’s coming up very soon if all our schedules align, and if everything goes well, we are aiming for April, but uh, it’s fun. It’s been a great time. 

Tobi: This is your first live action role?

Zeno: Technically not I’ve done like many student films. I’ve done some other commercials and other like action stuff like that. But it will be my first one in a while, so it’s really exciting. 

Tobi: Thank you speaking with me, I don’t have any other questions. Anything else you looking forward to, like any other works?

Zeno: I play uh, young Kuma in One Piece, which is really cool. It is my second One Piece debut, technically. I’m in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man which just came out and the season ended like maybe a week or two ago, so, that was really cool. Check that out when you can. Alejandro and I are working currently on Link Click: The Britain Arc, we’ve got like three episodes out, so more on the way. 

Tobi: Great. All right, thank you!

Zeno: Thank you!