Voice actor David Wald has revealed that he will not be returning to voice Gajeel in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest‘s English dub release or will be returning to Crunchyroll’s studio following a series of accusations levied against the company this Fall. Wald first surprised anime fans earlier this Fall with some major accusations of mail tampering against Crunchyroll. Claiming that fan packages sent to the company had been opened and passed around to employees instead, Wald had stated that “Dear friends: if you sent me anything care of Funimation or Crunchyroll in the last 5 years, I apologize, I didn’t get it. I learned yesterday that Crunchyroll opened my private mail, threw away your letters, and passed out any included items to their staff.”
Crunchyroll had since announced they would be investigating the matter, and Wald thus recently took to social media to share with fans that he would not be returning to Crunchyroll’s studio or to voice Gajeel for the foreseeable future, “Friends, I am not returning to #Gajeel in #FairyTail. I am not returning to the @Crunchyroll studio. Their abuses are FAR too numerous to list here. But soon, I will tell you all of them, and I will do that here [linking to his Twitch channel]. Stay tuned.”
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Crunchyroll Accused of Mail Tampering
On October 25th, Wald first shared accusations against Crunchyroll on X, “Dear friends: if you sent me anything care of Funimation or Crunchyroll in the last 5 years, I apologize, I didn’t get it. I learned yesterday that Crunchyroll opened my private mail, threw away your letters, and passed out any included items to their staff.” Wald then shared photos of package contents that he had accused them of tampering with, “Dear fellow workers at Crunchyroll, below is a photo of the complete contents of one of the packages addressed to me that was opened and distributed to employees. If you ended up in possession of any of it, I would very much like it returned to me.”
Wald has voiced characters such as Fairy Tail’s Gajeel, My Hero Academia’s Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, and many more with Funimation and now Crunchyroll, so these accusations were very serious. Serious enough that the response from Crunchyroll seems to not be what Wald had in mind and now results in the voice actor stepping away from his roles with the company. Following these original accusations, Crunchyroll then responded to the accusations with an official statement.
Crunchyroll Responds to Accusations
“Anime fans have a special connection with dub voice talent and that emotional expression is important in fueling more love of anime content. We are currently investigating the matter regarding the allegation of undelivered fan mail to a voice actor. We respect the privacy of all of our voice actors and do not intentionally open mail or packages not intended for Crunchyroll. Any fan mail should be sent directly to talent and their management,” as Crunchyroll noted in an official statement shared with Anime News Network.
Following their statement, Wald took to X to share the following response, “Still no reply at all from the ol’ ‘Roll. No apology, no commitment to recover items… nothing. So, maybe there’s a ‘case,’ and maybe there’s not. Or maybe I just become the Whistle that Never. Stops. Blowing. Either way, these abuses WILL be brought to light. Stay Tuned.” Wald also noted that because this is a delicate legal situation, that he will be soon revealing new details as to where fans can send him gifts in the future. As of the time of this publication, it’s yet to be revealed what this will mean for Wald’s roles in Crunchyroll’s English dub productions.