Mike McFarland, the English voice of Master Roshi in Dragon Ball, Buggy in One Piece, and Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, has died at 56. Crunchyroll confirmed the news on September 10 after friends and fellow voice actors began sharing tributes online.
McFarland had been ill since early 2025. Friends said he underwent emergency surgery to remove a brain tumor that January. An update shared in August 2025 said he had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Who was Mike McFarland?
McFarland spent nearly 30 years working on English anime releases. He was a voice actor, but he also directed recording sessions, adapted scripts, produced dubs, and helped actors find the right performance for characters originally recorded in Japanese.
That work put him behind several shows that helped anime reach a much larger English-speaking audience. Some viewers knew his voice immediately. Others heard his influence across an entire cast without ever seeing his name outside the credits.
Which characters did Mike McFarland voice?
Master Roshi was his longest-running role. McFarland voiced the Dragon Ball character across television series, movies, and video games. He also performed Yajirobe, Android 8, and several smaller characters in the franchise.
His other major roles included Buggy and Helmeppo in One Piece, Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, Ritsu Soma in Fruits Basket, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Mashirao Ojiro and Ectoplasm in My Hero Academia. The range is easy to hear: Roshi is loud and playful, Buggy is theatrical, while Jean often sounds tired, angry, or afraid in the middle of a war.
Which anime dubs did he direct?
An ADR director guides the English recording process. The job includes working with actors on delivery, keeping performances consistent, and fitting translated dialogue to animation that is already finished.
McFarland directed English dubs for Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Attack on Titan, Barakamon, Noragami, and the Rebuild of Evangelion films. He also worked as a script adapter and line producer. On Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, he handled music direction for the English version.
His directing credits are a large part of his legacy. They shaped complete English casts, not just the individual characters he played.
How are fans and colleagues remembering him?
J. Michael Tatum, Tiffany Vollmer, and other colleagues shared personal messages after his death. Fans across the Dragon Ball, One Piece, Attack on Titan, Fruits Basket, and My Hero Academia communities have been posting favorite performances and memories of meeting him at conventions.
Many of those tributes also point to the work he did in the recording booth as a director. McFarland helped define the English sound of several anime that viewers have watched for years, and those performances will remain part of every rewatch.
