Attack on Titan's Trina Nishimura & Bryce Papenbrook discuss a real world threat: hanger

Even if you've never seen the show Attack on Titan, you can take one look at the villainous, humanoid kaiju antagonists of the series and rightly assume that they eat people. I mean, what else are you going to do with all those teeth, right?

Well, according to some of the hit anime's voice cast, becoming a monster on an empty stomach translates to real life as well.

At this year's Los Angeles Comic Con, vocal talent Bryce Papenbrook (who plays Eren Yeager in the English dub of the show) and Trina Nishimura (who plays Mikasa Ackerman) took to the stage to discuss the show and their years together as coworkers. At one point, the conversation turned to food and, more specififcally, how each of them acted while hangry.

"I’m an emotional eater for sure," said Nishimura, "Like after certain scenes or after really challenging days at the studio."

Costar Papenbrook's hangriness, however, wasn't confined to the hours after being in the booth. In fact, it seems to be... a part of his process?

"Being hangry is a big piece of Eren Yeager," and the crowd laughed. "It is!" he said, in mock defense. "Because I’m not as angry as Eren is in real life, but I have to find things from my life to find that anger."

As an example building anger from hunger (wait, is that why it's called that?), Papenbrook told the story of a time his dog stile some of his food. "I had this bag of chips that I was really looking forward to eating," he said, "And that dog… SHE ATE MY CHIPS! That’s where I find my anger for Eren."

Stanislavski, eat your heart out.

Fortunately, however, Nishimura's got the both of them covered, with a wide-ranging knowledge of the best places to eat around the world.

"Trina always finds the best restaurants in every city," said Papenbrook, "So even in my hometown, if Trina’s like "we should go eat at this place," I’m gonna be like, 'we should!'"

"There was this one time in Australia," Nishimara picked up, "and I was like 'Okay, so it’s gonna feel like I’m about to mug you, but we just need to go down these stairs, through the sketch alley, past these crates, through the metal door that has no signage, and then we’ll be at the restaurant!"

Sounds dangerous to me, but then again, it might not be as dangerous as working with people who use their hunger for method acting. You never know who's going to take the idea of devouring their costars too seriously.

If you're hungry (heh) to learn more about the hit anime Nishimura and Papenbrook work on, check out Popverse's Attack on Titan watch order.