Joseph Luster
October 3, 2017 
The upcoming Fullmetal Alchemist movie may be live-action, but Alphonse is going to have to stay animated. That means he needs a voice, and the job is officially going to 21-year-old actor Atomu Mizuishi. He was first hired as a motion capture actor for the character, but his level of acting ended up landing him the voice role, as well.
Mizuishi previously played Renji Yanagi in The Prince of Tennis Musical 2nd Season, as well as the Phantom Knight Crow in tokusatsu series Garo: Makai no Hana and Shihou Kimizuki in Seraph of the End The Musical.
Here’s what director Fumihiko Sori had to say about the casting:
“Before the filming started, I was thinking about another actor to voice the CGI Al, not him. But as the filming went on, I started realizing his acting as a stand-in was so impressive. Especially when we filmed a quarrel scene, I saw an exquisite combination occurred between Yamada-kun (as Edward) and Mizuishi-kun, then I decided to cast Mizuishi-kun as the voice of Al. So this exceptional promotion was won by his own ability. Kugimiya-san, the original voice actress of the character in the anime series, already saw the live-action film. As well as the film itself, she highly praised the Mizuishi Al. I went over the rainbow with Mizuishi-kun, and was convinced that my decision was not wrong.”
Fullmetal Alchemist manga author Hiromu Arakawa also weighed in:
“I saw the two brothers, Ed and Al were there. It was so moving and wonderful acting. Despite being a substitute of Al during the filming, he got the job because his dialogue with Yamada-san was so amazing. It is just like an American dream-like story. I think the voice of Al in his adolescence would sound just like this.”
The live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie hits theaters in Japan on December 1.
Source: FMA movie site via Crunchyroll
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