Peter Cullen Was Anime’s Peerless Pitchman

Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, Eeyore and countless characters, passed away Wednesday at the age of 85. Among voice actors he was irreplaceable, but more than anything I will always remember his voice, cutting and distinct, overlaid with jungle and DnB music selling promos for anime. If you grew up with Toonami, which admittedly narrows this down to Americans of a certain age, you heard Peter Cullen’s voice quite a bit.

To hear Cullen’s voice promoting shows like The Big O, Dragon Ball Z, and Gundam Wing was to know that anime was not just fun but cool. That was not something that was certain in America at that time. What Cullen did with these promos was truly sell you on that certainty. With a voice you could feel in your ribcage if you turned your sub up rough, he’d peer into your soul and say “Tougher than the best, stronger than the rest…accept no substitutes.” He, along with C. Martin Croker’s Moltar and Steve Blum’s TOM, was a constant voice for millions of kids and teens discovering anime for the first time.

I generally loathe nostalgia and am bad at eulogizing famous people, although in a week where we’ve lost Tim Curry and Dolly Parton this one hits pretty badly. It can also feel weird to eulogize someone for doing promos, which isn’t work that people are usually proud of. But Cullen’s voice elevated that Toonami cool to a cultural force, something that locked you in for a lifetime. Many of those promos are art. 

Even more than two decades after the blocks that they’re advertising have aired, it is hard not to watch his promos for Tree of Might or Gundam Wing, to look at how normalized anime has become among teens, and appreciate his small but pivotal role in helping that come to pass.