Images: J Balvin's official Instagram account; A-1 Pictures
Balvin admits that dubbing Kargalgan wasn’t easy.
Grammy-nominated and six-time Latin Grammy award winner J Balvin is joining Solo Leveling’s English and Spanish dub casts for season 2 as Kargalgan. Crunchyroll had initially revealed that Balvin was joining the series earlier this month, but only recently revealed his role.
According to an interview by TheWrap, the Colombian singer found the task quite challenging, despite being experienced in recording songs that won him awards. “You have to be precise and disciplined — it needs a lot of discipline,” he said after wrapping up his first day of recording. “Normally, when you do a song, you record, you listen, you talk with your boys, then you come back.” Balvin calls the voice acting experience an art and says he respects those who are involved in it.
Balvin described the experience as a unique artistic approach, comparing it to seeing a music video before the song is released. Unlike traditional music production, where a song comes first and the visuals follow, this time, the images were already in place. “You got to be extra focused and try to make the best lip sync and also [stay] in character, he added. Then there’s the limited time needed to complete his part. “It’s not like when I go to the studio — if I want to take a week, I take a week or a month. In this case.”
Another challenge he experienced was adapting his voice to fit Kargalgan’s character. He mentioned that he’s “never done this type of voice before,” because he only spoke or sang the way with his regular voice. However, he had to learn to create Kargalgan's vibe. “My sore throat is killing me, but it’s worth it!” Balvin exclaimed.
Kargalgan is teased briefly in Episode 17, This is What We’re Trained For, and takes centrestage in Episode 18, Don’t Look Down on My Guys as the episode’s antagonist. Here, the Hunters Guild strike team and Jinwoo (Aleks Le) face off against the High Orc Shaman as the dungeon’s final boss.
While the Japanese dubs have already aired last Saturday (15 February), the English dub featuring J Balvin premieres on Saturday (22 Februrary) at 4:00 PM ET. Meanwhile, the Spanish dub premieres a week after, on Saturday (1 March) at the same time.
