San Diego Comic Con kicked off their Ballroom 20 programming in 2026 with a celebration of the beloved anime, My Hero Academia. Crunchyroll sponsored the panel to honor the 10th anniversary of the beloved anime and debut the short film, I Am A Hero Too, which will release on the platform in early August.

Lauren Moore, Associate Creative Director and host for Crunchyroll moderated the panel, which included English dub voice actors Christopher Sabat (All Might), Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya), Clifford Chapin (Katsuki Bakugo), and David Matranga (Shoto Todoroki), and focused on how things have changed over the last decade.

“It feels like time has flown, and yet a lot of these memories of starting out and finding these characters feels like yesterday,” Briner said.

All four members of the cast noted their appreciation for the show allowing the characters to change over time.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better growth journey,” Matranga said. “That combined with the growth of him coming into his own as a hero, its so out of this world, but also, really rooted in real human stuff which makes it really compelling.”

Chapin added, “We don’t usually get to work with characters that develop that much, typically.”

“I used to really admire All Might’s strength, and I’ve really come to admire his vulnerability,” Sabat said. “That’s a superpower, guys. Being emotionally available really does work.”

Sabat went on to say, “What I took away from it was that people mistake confidence for a lack of fear, right? All Might exudes this huge confidence, but deep down, he is terrified for these kids, and he realizes that he’s gotta help these kids get through this. To me, that’s a huge representation of what adulthood is, and parenthood is. You have to exude the strength for your kids, but deep down, you’re like, I hope they don’t jump off the side of the pool and crack their head open today.”

But Sabat was not the only one who has experienced parenthood through a lens tinted with My Hero Academia.

“I got married over the course of the show,” Chapin said, eliciting cheers from the crowd, before continuing on to mention gaining step-children as well. “When I first started dating their mom, they were watching My Hero, and there would be so many little things. It would be late and time for them to go to bed, and like, ‘can you tell us to go to bed in Bakugo’s voice?’”

“The biggest change I’ve seen is out here in the audience,” Sabat said. “You all were babies and now you have babies!”

The panel continued with the premiere of I Am A Hero Too with the English dubbing, before the voice actors treated the audience to live dubbing as scenes played on the Ballroom’s large video screens. Moore noted that usually during recording sessions, actors will hear a beep for each line so they know when to begin, but for the live audience, they didn’t have that assistance. Instead, they timed it out by watching the monitors along with the audience.

“I just got to do a sit down ‘smash!’, Sabat said. “Normally, I would not sit down, but it felt fine.”

Before wrapping up the panel with a group photo, the cast shared their thoughts on the ten year journey with My Hero Academia and their hopes for the fans.

“From year one to year ten, I’m still floored that I get to be an ambassador and count myself among such great company for such an amazing story,” Briner said. “The story belongs to you now.”

“In many ways, the show is about becoming the person somebody needed. Everybody got to where they are because somebody believed in them,” Sabat said. “I Just hope that you go out there and be that person for somebody else.”