Clifford Chapin is a voice actor known for various roles, most notably Bakugo from My Hero Academia. He also portrays Cabba, one of the Saiyans from Universe 6 in Dragon Ball Super, and Connie Springer, a character from Attack on Titan.
The latter anime series recently launched the fourth and final season, and since Clifford has played Connie in the series since 2014, we wanted to chat with him about his character and time on the show. He was happy to dig into the facets of his Attack on Titan characters and help hype up fans for the final season.
One of the things that we touched on with Clif was his character's tragedy that he deals with throughout the different story arcs across the seasons. We asked about how he gets into that headspace and why he empathizes with the character.
"I think you're touching upon a really important facet, especially when it comes to a character like Connie. In the first season, Connie always struck me as the heart of the group because he's a lot more genuine. He's a lot more innocent. He's got a lot less of the personal stakes in the first season. It's not until the second season steps in that his stakes start to step up when he finally returns to his home village, and that's where his tragedy starts to really set into the series.
As far as my own parallels, I think everybody in the world has their own hardships and things that they've dealt with; different losses and whatnot. We care about people; either you grow apart, or something happens, and those are all experiences. As terrible as they are, still, they're all experiences that inform us of ourselves and how we relate to a thing, you know, so I would say that I've drawn upon a lot of my own personal experiences, especially the cases of loss that they play into reminding me or informing me of what Connie is going through. Even if it is obviously very different, Connie's tragedy's circumstances are very different from anything I have had in my own real life. But the pain is still empathetic and sympathetic to it."
Hear our full chat with Connie Springer voice actor Clifford Chapin (My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super) below. Be sure to check out the trailer and synopsis for the final season and share your thoughts in the usual spot!
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
With Eren and company now at the shoreline and the threat of Marley looming, what’s next for the Scouts and their quest to unravel the mysteries of the Titans, humanity, and more? Well, we’ll just have to find out when Attack on Titan Final Season comes to Funimation.
The final season of Attack on Titan began this week and can be seen on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll.