Mike McFarland

Mike McFarland is an American voice actor, ADR director, and scriptwriter best known for English-language anime dubs associated with Funimation and Crunchyroll. His career is especially visible in long-running franchises whose dubbed casts changed across years. As an actor, he supplies the English voice of Master Roshi in Dragon Ball productions and Buggy the Clown in One Piece. Those parts put him in two of the most internationally recognizable Japanese animation properties, rather than merely in isolated episodes or one-off releases. His credits combine performance with behind-the-scenes adaptation work, a distinction important to understanding his place in dubbed animation.

As an ADR director, McFarland guided English performances for Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and the original Dragon Ball Z television dub. ADR direction is not simply recording dialogue: it involves matching English performances to existing animation, organizing actors, and working with translated or adapted scripts. His name therefore appears in credits where an English version must retain the timing and dramatic structure of a Japanese production. The two Fullmetal Alchemist series are separate adaptations of Hiromu Arakawa's manga: the 2003 show diverges while the later Brotherhood follows the manga more closely. His work spans both versions as director on each.

McFarland's portrayal of Master Roshi is particularly tied to Dragon Ball's later English-language releases. Roshi, the turtle-hermit martial-arts teacher of Goku and Krillin, is a recurring figure from Akira Toriyama's manga and its animated adaptations. McFarland has performed the character in Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Super, and Dragon Ball Super: Broly. In One Piece, his Buggy is the flamboyant pirate captain first introduced as an early antagonist of Monkey D. Luffy. Buggy later becomes a recurring character, making the role substantially different from a brief villain appearance. These assignments demonstrate a career built around continuing roles in franchises.

McFarland's professional identity is consequently documented across cast lists and production credits, not only through convention appearances or fan descriptions. His work connects a script's translation and adaptation process with the final English vocal track. In series with enormous episode counts, especially One Piece and Dragon Ball, that continuity matters: voices must remain recognizable as stories return to old characters years later. The Fullmetal Alchemist credits also place him at the center of two landmark English dubs made from the same source manga but with distinct plots. Together, those roles establish McFarland as a participant in North American anime localization.