Anime voice actor Mike McFarland dies at 56

Anime News Network reports that voice actor, ADR director and script adapter Mike McFarland has died at 56. The report says he died on 9 September and cites a fellow voice actor and a representative; Crunchyroll also issued a tribute.

McFarland was known for English-language roles including Master Roshi and Yajirobe in Dragon Ball, Buggy in One Piece, Jean in Attack on Titan, Hiroshi Odokawa in Odd Taxi and Makoto Hyuga in the Evangelion film series.

He also worked behind the microphone as an ADR director, line producer and script adapter on anime releases. Crunchyroll described him as “an incredible talent” and a friend to many in the anime community.

ANN reports that McFarland died on 9 September, citing a fellow voice actor and a representative; Crunchyroll also published a tribute. No cause of death has been announced in the sources cited here.

Why you should care

English anime dubs depend on people who are often asked to disappear behind the characters. McFarland’s work crossed major franchises and quieter modern productions, while his directing and adaptation work shaped performances audiences may never have known to credit him for.

Our opinion

McFarland’s legacy is bigger than a list of character names. He moved between performance and the production side of English-language anime, so his influence reached both the voices audiences remember and the adaptations they plainly felt working. That is the part earns remembering here: not a sad top-line claim, but a career that helped make major shows sound like themselves. The right tribute is to revisit the work and give his name the attention the credits often hide.