Zach Aguilar on Voicing Tanjiro in Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and His Advice for Aspiring Voice Actors [Exclusive Interview]

 

Few anime have left as lasting a mark on global pop culture as Demon Slayer, and with the release of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, the phenomenon has reached new heights. The highly anticipated film continues Tanjiro Kamado’s journey into what is being hailed as the “final battle” in a visually stunning and emotionally charged conclusion to one of anime’s most beloved sagas.

Breaking records worldwide, Infinity Castle has become the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, the top international release in American theaters, and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2025 overall. But beyond the box office numbers, it’s the heart and humanity of its lead character, Tanjiro, that continues to resonate with audiences, who was brought to life in English by none other than Zach Aguilar.

We had the chance to chat with Zach to talk about stepping back into Tanjiro’s shoes for what may be his most defining arc yet, how he approaches the emotional depth behind the character, and - for the aspiring voice actors - detailed advice for the next generation of voice actors finding their way in the industry.

Infinity Castle is classed as sort of the beginning of the end of Demon Slayer, isn't it? How did it feel receiving that script for the first time and seeing what dear old Tanjiro got up to? 

Zach: I technically didn't receive the script, you know, we get it right as we record. But obviously reading through the manga, I took it upon myself, like “I gotta read the story, I gotta figure out what the character's gonna do” all the things he's gonna go through. And looking at this arc, it was phenomenal. I think they did a great job adapting the manga into an animation. And, I mean, really, my expectations were already very high, and it exceeded those expectations. 

Coming off of that, because obviously English subbing over something that's already existed - it requires a lot of finesse, a lot of timing. But was there anything that you could sort of inject yourself into with Tanjiro? 

Zach: Oh 100%. I always do my best to try to, you know, feel the emotions that the character's feeling and make it my own while still keeping true to the original Japanese, the original performance. And I think it's a privilege to be able to just kind of watch the movie before everyone else has in the world. That's how I also felt watching Mugen Train. Because I love anime, like I'm a huge nerd. I did my best to keep Tanjiro's truth from Mugen Train and him kind of saying his farewell to Rengoku and really keeping that in mind while I got to perform my lines to Akasa. 

Now you are Tanjiro, if you had the chance to write an arc for him, what would happen? 

Zach: Ooh, write an arc for him? I mean, they've already done so many amazing things with the show. It's hard to think about, you know, what else I could possibly add on to it to be honest. I don't know what I would do. 

As far as the manga's gone, I mean, it's already just a masterpiece of itself. Just reading through it, I think the story's phenomenal and I think the things that it conveys to people and the good message of Tanjiro and his character really comes through to the audience because people come up up to me and kids come up to me and they'll say, “Oh, like I love Tanjiro and I want to be just like him!” you know? And I just think he's a great role model already. If I were to ever add anything onto the show, I mean, I would love to see some sort of, some kind of like continuation of it, but I don't entirely know how. Well, I have a few ideas, but I won't say anything because who knows what's going to happen, right? Like all these movies come out and then they say, “Oh, guess what? We are continuing it!” and then maybe it's that idea. 

[KpopWise] So no LA Vacation arc or anything? 

Zach: LA Vacation Arc! [Laughs]. That would be so funny. Yeah, no, I would love to see Tanjiro. I mean, I think he think he would really enjoy it! Going to In-N-Out and going to Disneyland right after. Why not? I could see him with some Mickey Mouse ears and you know, he meets Mickey Mouse and maybe they fight to the death. 

Actually, if all the characters that you voice, Tanjiro, Genos, Aether - everybody, they all started fighting. No weapons, just bare knuckle brawling. Who's winning? 

Zach: Out of everyone? No weapons? I mean, Tanjiro is one of the most jacked 14 year olds I've ever seen. I do feel like this is like a cop out answer, but I feel like Tanjiro would be like “Everybody stop! We're all best friends!” and then somehow would convince everyone to get along and make peace, even if they really want to just keep fighting each other. 

[KpopWise] Genos and Aether skipping into the horizon. 

Zach: Yeah [laughs]. Just like flying off into the sunset. 

My last question. We have a lot of young people or people trying to get into the voice acting industry. If there's anything you could’ve told yourself when you were first starting out, what would it be? 

I would say just stay persistent, you know what I mean? I have done all sorts of different things as an actor to get to this point. I've taken so many different classes. I've made connections with people. I've had a million self doubts. 

It's funny because I was talking with Erica Lindbeck and she's the voice actress for Daki, amongst many other things. And me and her, we kind of started around the same time, except she was graduating college I believe, at the time, and I was like 14 or something. And so we just met in a voiceover class that we both took together. And she pushed me into a line at Anime Expo in 2014. She said, "Hey, we're going to go try out for this voice acting competition." And I said to her, "Oh, no, I've already auditioned for the studio. They know who I am. If they wanted to cast me, give me an opportunity, then they would have.” And she's like, “No, let's just go try it. It'll be fun.” And I ended up getting into this line of people going up and reading for the casting director directly in person. And I had all these self-doubts like there's not really a point in me doing this. I've done everything I can, I'm still trying to break into the industry. Two weeks later, they call me and say, “Hey, congratulations, you won the competition and we're going to bring you in” and you're going to start working on all these different roles and stuff, and we're going to get you in our database and send you auditions regularly. I mean, it was a dream come true. 

I think back a lot to that moment and just think, “Wow, what if I let my own self-doubt get to me in that moment?” I could have walked out of the line and said, “You know what? This is done. I'm not going to do this” and walked away. So I'm just happy that I didn't do that and that I just believed, you know? I'm happy she gave me that little push and encouragement that I needed. So I hope everyone can find that encouragement that they need and that persistence too to keep going because it is a really, really tough industry. It's super competitive and building genuine connections and friendships with people is difficult. I mean, I think that's difficult on itself in real life. 

But in terms of advice, if somebody really wants to do this - I'm so sorry, this is like a long-winded answer, we love to yap - I would say take acting classes, focus on the acting, focus on the performance. Really, really think about the character. Don't just be like, I want to sound cool. Don't do that. Don't focus too much on the voice just think about genuine emotions and emoting and what the character feels, and maybe how you would feel in that situation and learn to act just even as yourself. 

I would look into voice acting classes too specifically, but I think a good foundation of all forms of acting are awesome if you can do it, do theatre, do on-camera film, voiceover and kind of draw from each experience and everything that you learn from each medium and put it together into one, because I think those voice actors are the most successful from what I've seen. Just make connections with people, auditions, a demo reel, a website, advertise yourself, market yourself. Really, you are your best advocate. And your destiny is in your own hands, you should just do every single thing you can. 

You have to continue to be persistent every single day. And even for myself, I feel like I have been very fortunate to voice all of these characters and do all of this stuff. But in the background, what people don't see is the thousands of auditions, the thousands of times I'm rejected. Like, I'm still going into casting offices and getting so close to like another big part and then I don't get the call, right? But the fans don't see my losses. They just see the wins. But if you knew how many losses I'd had, you'd be like, “Wow…Zach kind of sucks.” Like I've had 10,000 losses and 100 wins. When you look at your role models or people that you aspire to be, you don't see what goes on in the background and the hard work that is put into it all. But I believe persistence is key and if you're really dedicated to it, I think that you will be successful. 

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is still in cinemas now. Don't miss your chance to get in on the conversation while you still can!

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