Yesterday, I went to Crunchyroll Expo at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and got the chance to speak with a very special boy: Ricco Fajardo, an actor and voice actor known for many roles, including Mirio from My Hero Academia.
Despite the chaos of day one of Australia’s first Crunchyroll Expo, which was previously known as Madman Anime Festival, the panels from the voice actors present were a great look into the anime voice acting world. However, it wasn’t enough for me. I needed to talk some shit.
Ricco’s a funny fella, I’m a funny sheila. We’re just two goofy guys being silly in the world, so it only makes sense that we would come together to have a chat. I decided to sit down with Ricco and talk about his career, his love of video games, and his contributions to Chuck E. Cheese history.
Ruby
So, how you going?
Ricco
I’m good. How are you doing?
Ruby
I’m good. Thank you for asking. How do you like Melbourne so far?
Ricco
I just got in 6:00 AM yesterday, and all things considered, I’m loving it. It’s like a hundred degrees plus in Texas. And so, when I landed here, it was nice and cool and crisp. Little rainy.
Ruby
Is that Fahrenheit?
Ricco
Yeah, Fahrenheit. That’s right. Celsius, is it? Oh god, I don’t know if I can…
Ruby
That’s boiling point.
Ricco
It is. You can cook an egg on the street in Texas.
Ruby
You can?
Ricco
Yeah. You can crack an egg on the sidewalk.
Ruby
Certain parts of Australia, you can cook an egg on the road.
Ricco
Yeah.
Ruby
And I’ve heard they taste horrible.
Ricco
Well, I imagine.
Ruby
You’d have to say so. So, coming right off the bat, what led you to voice acting?
Ricco
I guess… Okay. My inner teacher brain says specificity. Do you mean just voice acting in general, or anime, or video games, or commercials, or what do you…
Ruby
Yeah, I’d say voice acting in general. But feel free to expand! Start up voice acting in general, then move to anime.
Ricco
Sure. The desire for a job. Being an actor, being employed is a freelance gig, so you’re auditioning all the time whenever you have the opportunity to work on something. I do theatre, film, commercials, video games, anime, motion capture. I just about do everything as long as I can perform. I love to perform and make a living doing that.
I think the first voiceover thing I did was Michael’s Arts and Crafts, which is a chain store in the States where I was like, “Come on, kids. There’s a sale over at Michael’s.” Something like that. More recently… Do you guys have Chuck E. Cheese here?
Ruby
We don’t.
Ricco
That’s all good. It’s like a kids’ place where you can play games.
Ruby
I know of it.
Ricco
There’s a big rat.
Ruby
Oh, we know of Charles.
Ricco
Charles Entertainment Cheese?
Ruby
Chuck Entertainment Cheese. Of course, we do. We know that horrible man.
Ricco
Excellent, excellent.
Ruby
We’ve seen him.
Ricco
Yes. If you go to a Chuck E. Cheese, stateside, you will see me every 30 minutes saying, “All right, parents. Chuck E.’s going to be out in 30 minutes.” And I do the countdown.
Ruby
Wow. That’s huge.
Ricco
My agent told me, ”Please don’t do this, Rico, because they’re going to use it forever.” But I have infinite street cred with my nephews now forever because they know Uncle Ricco’s heralding Chuck E. Cheese’s entrance.
Ruby
They’re like, “What the fuck is My Hero Academia?”
Ricco
That’s right.
Ruby
“You’re Chuck Entertainment Cheese.”
Ricco
Yeah, that’s right. So, that was, I think, the beginning of voice stuff. But for anime, specifically, my good friend Brina Palencia, she plays Mineta in My Hero Academia.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
We were on a movie set for a movie called All the Wrong Friends, out on Amazon. It’s a B-grade horror movie where it’s, “Someone’s out there. Hello.” Take shirt off. “All right. Well, I’m going to go take a shower right now. Just lower my defenses to get killed.”
Yeah, it’s a horror movie like that. Don’t get me wrong, it was very fun to do. But I met Brina on that set. She heard me playing guitar and she invited me to go audition over at then Funimation, now Crunchyroll. And that was the beginning of a long, long anime journey.
Ruby
Beautiful.
Ricco
Over 10 years.
Ruby
Yeah. Old. Ew. No, I’m kidding.
Ricco
[old man voice] What did you say?
Ruby
I said that you’re ready to take your meds.
Ricco
[old man voice] I could go for a walk now, yeah.
Ruby
Grandpa! So, I’ve been told that you also had your start in musical theatre.
Ricco
Yes.
Ruby
This is true?
Ricco
Yes.
Ruby
Yes. So, how do you think that has kind of helped you in your voice acting?
Ricco
Oh, immensely. It’s something I recommend to a lot of beginner actors who want to do voice acting because in musical theatre, you are trying to communicate a song honestly. And when in life do we just randomly approach each other and then sing, “I love you”?
Ruby
All the time.
Ricco
Yeah. Oh, you do? That’s incredible.
Ruby
I’m not well.
Ricco
Is there orchestration that accompanies you just randomly?
Ruby
In my head.
Ricco
Okay, brilliant.
Ruby
I love being the only exception.
Ricco
Yeah. I like to be unique. Having that experience is, in fact, very unique. And as a performer, to render something truthful, that is, as you know with anime, sometimes it can be very heightened. Sometimes it’s grounded and very real. But oftentimes, you might be a dragon one day, and the next day you are a little slug or something, whatever.
But that being said, matching timing and rhythm to the flaps, which is what we call the mouth movements in anime, for dubbing is something that’s important. Same thing happens for video games as well. If we’re lucky, we get to do a thing called pre-lay where you are recorded, we’re being recorded now. Any facial motions you do, the animator can just straight up borrow that and use it on your character model, which is amazing. So, I forgot the original question, but…
Ruby
Well, I mean, you answered it.
Ricco
I did? Thank God.
Ruby
You did. Beautiful.
Ricco
With all that yammering, hopefully.
Ruby
Thank you for accidentally answering the question.
Ricco
Dodged it.
Ruby
So, you’ve had work in the web series realm as well; Cyanide and Happiness, Red vs. Blue.
Ricco
Yeah.
Ruby
How would you compare your web series work to anime work, just in terms of how you experienced it?
Ricco
Oh my god, you guys. Web series, we can make one right now literally. Web series, there’s…
Ruby
[Cursed Disney Pinocchio voice] Hi, kids!
Ricco
[Also cursed Disney Pinocchio voice] Welcome, it’s us! [normal voice] Why do we sound like Pinocchio?
Ruby
I don’t know. [Pauly Shore Pinocchio voice] Father…
Ricco
Right away. Of course, we go Shrek immediately. I think it’s beautiful because in this day and age, all of our phones, these are content creating devices that… We can make a whole movie right now with our devices that we have, and that’s incredible. I do believe that for web series content like Red vs. Blue, the baby days of YouTube, hard to imagine.
Ruby
Old days. Machinima? Oh my gosh.
Ricco
You said old earlier. I’m like, [old man voice] “What did you say? Machinima?”
Ruby
[old man gasp]
Ricco
I think it’s really humbling to be a part of something that’s been going on for so long, and it should reinvigorate, I hope, a lot of creators out there where if you’re wondering if you should get started on a thing, just do it.
Ricco
I remember when Matt Mercer was walking through the halls of Funimation like, “Yeah, I got this idea for this thing. We’re going to call it Critical Role.” I’m like, “Oh, sounds really cool. I hope it goes well.” And now, it’s enormous. But it all starts with an idea and usually some friends that want to make something together. So, I stand in awe of how little seedlings of creativity can bloom with all the things that we have available, and be it with the power of the internet.
Ruby
You can do anything with the internet. Sometimes bad things.
Ricco
Oh.
Ruby
It’s crazy how that works.
Ricco
Yeah. There’s pluses and minuses.
Ruby
Yeah. What’s the worst thing that you’ve done on the internet?
Ricco
Worst thing I’ve done…
Ruby
Sorry.
Ricco
Immediately…
Ruby
That’s not even written.
Ricco
Is this 18 plus? I’m joking. I’m joking. I’m joking. I’m joking. I’m joking. I’m joking. No one look that up.
Ruby
Segue.
Ricco
I’m trying to think. No, let me think. I’m sure I’ve made not… I used to do covers of things, and I did one of how to sing like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, and I thought I was doing pretty good. It’s like, what is it? [singing]
Ricco
It’s kind of like nasal plunging covering it up. It got a bunch of likes and traction, but this is back when you could do a thumbs down on YouTube.
Ruby
Oh, the good old dislike days, when you could be a hater.
Ricco
Yeah. You’re like, “No, I do not like this.” And a lot of people were like, “This is awesome. Please keep doing this. Take your shirt off.” I was like, “Oh, thanks YouTube.” And then, also below that, a lot of people be like, “I love Green Day. Get out of here.” Just the hate man, the hate, so I turned off comments.
But to this day, I think it’s got many, many, many thousands of views. So, I don’t want to say it’s the worst, but it’s definitely something that I did just casually that got steam and traction and I was like, “Oh, I should probably take that down now that I’m doing…”
Ruby
Mm-mm.
Ricco
What?
Ruby
Don’t delete it.
Ricco
Leave it up?
Ruby
Leave it up. That’s incredible. I think, the beauty of online and things you’ve done in the past online is like, sure, cringe exists, but at the same time, we are going to get to a point where it’s post cringe and it’s actually going to fucking rock.
Ricco
It’s going to come back and be awesome again?
Ruby
People will be like, “Actually this is sick. You’re a king.”
Ricco
I’ve been holding on for 20 years…
Ruby
“I wish everybody did this.”
Ricco
… for the things that I thought…
Ruby
Finally.
Ricco
… to be cool.
Ruby
“Billie Joe Armstrong impressions are cool now.”
Ricco
“I sucked for so long.”
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
“It’s finally cool.”
Ruby
“What a relief.” All right. So, going into the anime world. So, we are at Crunchyroll.
Ricco
Oh my God, we are. Yeah.
Ruby
Yeah. And you do do anime stuff.
Ricco
Yes.
Ruby
And I’ve seen anime before. Okay, I know you’re here as Mirio, but you don’t have to answer him. So, what’s been your favourite anime/character that you’ve done voice work for?
Ricco
Kotaro Tatsumi from Zombie Land Saga. He’s by far, in a way, the most exciting character. Mamoru Miyano is, contestably, the number one voice actor in Japan. He’s fantastic to work across from. Usually, whenever I hear the Japanese, I let it just kind of give me inspiration sort of a little bit.
[A sneeze happens in the background]
Ricco
Bless you. Kind of to help inform my decisions. But Mamoru Miyano is such a wonderful actor, and his energy is so electric. The character is also just off his rocker. He’s insane. But it’s so much fun. Every time I do a session playing my character, I’m sweating. We have a movie coming. We have a whole other season coming. It’s zombie idol girls. There’s music involved.
Ruby
That’s fantastic.
Ricco
And I love playing music, so…
Ruby
I remember finishing the first season and being like, “Great. Can’t wait to… Oh.”
Ricco
Oh. Yeah.
Ruby
This was months and months ago, and I was like, “Oh, no more. That’s fine.”
Ricco
It’s coming. Just give it time. This is fine.
Ruby
Oh, death now. Okay. So, alternatively, what has been your least favourite anime/character?
Ricco
Least favorite.
Ruby
And I say that with which character did you absolutely abhor?
Ricco
Opinion, or performing? I guess, either.
Ruby
Hit it both. A + B = C.
Ricco
What did I dislike? See, I just said earlier, the aforementioned comment of being employed is nice, so even playing the characters that kind of might not be very…
Ruby
Okay. So, not performance because you might get in trouble. So, character, who did you hate?
Ricco
Character. Character. Who do I hate?
Ruby
Just as a person.
Ricco
Okay. So, I’m the baby in my family. I’m youngest one growing up.
Ruby
Oh, goo-goo, gaa-gaa.
Ricco
Yes, thank you. There’s a character in Black Clover named Nozel Silva. He’s the oldest brother of the family, and I play him. He’s the captain of the Silva regals. He’s very posh and thinks he’s better than everyone because, well, he is actually better than everyone.
And so, that character’s very contrary to everything I feel I am, so that’s why it’s fun to play him. Because this is very… I would never talk down to people. I would never try to make people feel less. But this man exists to do that to everyone.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
He’s subjugating everyone, and you are going to be aware of it. And he has the skill to back it up, which sucks even more.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
Because it’s like, “Aw, man.” I don’t hate him necessarily because, obviously, I portray him. But objectively, from a Ricco perspective, I do not like this character. But he’s the older brother also. I guess, it’s hard to be the older sibling? I don’t know.
Ruby
And then, alternatively, again, what has been the most batshit crazy anime that you’ve done work for?
Ricco
Oh man, Zombie Land Saga’s pretty crazy.
Ruby
It is.
Ricco
Danganronpa is crazy.
Ruby
Assassination Classroom as well.
Ricco
Assassination Classroom‘s wild.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
Batshit crazy… I don’t know. I’ve been doing this for a while. The first anime I ever worked on… I told you Brina got me an audition… I worked on a show called B Gata H Kei, and I played… Typically, when you work in anime, you start off doing WALLA, which stands for with all actors. It’s a group of actors.
You make a bunch of sound and that’s how you kind of learn how to do it. And then, you do a named character. I started off with a named character, which is very, very humbling and very cool. However, the first cue was me going like, “Hey, Yamada, can I get a picture of you?” And she’s like, “Why do you want a picture of me?”
And then, she imagines in her mind what this young high school boy is going to do with a picture of her. And I have to act that out because it’s her imagination. But, obviously… It involved him looking at this phone and reaching for a box of tissues to where he goes, “Ah, Yamada.”
And I was like, “What am I doing? This is my first job you guys.” Zach Bolton, who used to be a director, he’s now a producer over at Crunchyroll, he is like, “Welcome to anime, Ricco.” He’s like, “We just wanted to see your reaction, make sure you could handle the lows at the highs.”
Ruby
Well, I’m impressed that you stayed in the industry for so long when your first role is like, “Okay, so you’re going to pretend to about to jerk off. Let’s see how we roll with that.”
Ricco
I mean, imaginarily, he did. He was. He was doing the thing. That just opens up a whole door of things. I worked out a movie called Genocidal Organ. I played the villain, which was really cool. Won some awards, actually.
Written by the same guy I think, rest in peace, who helped with Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid franchise, a bunch of stuff there. Wonderful movie. It’s actually badass. The character that I played, opening scene, he’s having sex.
Ruby
Ew.
Ricco
Ew, nasty. People do that. Anyway, so it’s rack-focused. You see them in the bed and it’s soft images, but it’s zooming in on his phone, and his phone is call from his wife, call from his kids, things are bad, blah blah blah. And then, literally, opening thing, his family’s being killed while he’s having this affair. So…
[Everybody in the room is horrified.]
Oh, dude. Sorry, spoilers. But it’s the first five minutes. If you haven’t seen it, you’ll see it soon. Anyway, it’s crazy. It’s wild. But, yeah, that session was interesting.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
My buddy Cliff directed me. He plays Bakugo at My Hero Academia.
Ruby
Beautiful. So, all right. Brightening up. Shake it out. That was horrible.
Ricco
We can just keep going down this road, you guys.
Ruby
So, obviously, you’re Mirio in the English dub of My Hero Academia. Do you feel a sense of kinship to the big silly boy of The Big Three?
Ricco
I do. People keep saying that they’re like, “Oh goodness, it’s just you.” Which I think is very flattering. Principal Nezu played by Jerry Jewell says, “Whenever Mirio is around, there’s laughter in the hall.” And usually, that’s me making jokes with people in the hall, and people having to open the door and say, “Ricco shut the fuck up.” I’m like, “Oh, sorry.”
That’s a little bit like how art imitates life. I just told the story at the panel about how I was lucky enough to be on the positive ending of a CPR story of a little three-year-old girl.
Ruby
Yeah, I was there [when he talked about it at a previous panel]. You saved her life.
Ricco
That was bonkers and that kind of stuff, I like to believe, that I am very clear about what I want in this life and who I am. But just in the show where Midoriya and Mirio turned a corner and they see Overhaul. Midoriya says, “We should save this girl right now.” And Mirio says, “This isn’t the right time.”
How often and in life do you think to yourself, “I should definitely go do this.” But then, another part of you is at war with it, with yourself. I like to believe that Mirio is a very clear person about what he wants, is very wholesome, and loves the people, just about everyone. And if you read the manga, you know where I’m headed with this. He’s a very friendly dude even to the villains.
I definitely am enamoured and look up to that quality of Mirio; of being so at peace with who he is and clear of the change he wants to see in the world.
Ruby
Beautiful.
Ricco
Sorry that was very long.
Ruby
It was beautiful. It was very heartfelt. Now, if you woke up tomorrow with a power of permeation, and an innate understanding of how to control it…
Ricco
Yeah, perfect.
Ruby
Yeah. When I originally wrote this question, I was like, “If you working with permeation…” I’m like, “Oh no, you die.”
Ricco
I cut myself in half right away.
Ruby
You would die immediately. On impact, you would be dead. And this answer would be very short.
Ricco
Yes.
Ruby
But an innate understanding of how to control it and use it. But it was only for one day, what would you do?
Ricco
Oh, my goodness. You guys, I would permeate through Fort Knox. I go into all these banks. Not that I’m want to steal because you can’t really take anything out, but I’d want to go into places I’m not supposed to.
Ruby
Oh, I would steal.
Ricco
Go into museums and stuff. I’d go touch the Mona Lisa. Be like, “Look at me. Look at this.” Because I think there’s a lot of things in life that… I feel like I’m a pretty regular person and I don’t really do a whole bunch of fancy things, but maybe I could just permeate to the bottom of the ocean. Although, you do need to breathe, so that’d be hard. Take a really deep breath and then just permeate, fall into the core of the earth, see what it looks like there, and then…
Ruby
Come back up and you’re like, “It’s not that great.”
Ricco
“It’s not that great. It’s really hot.”
Ruby
“It’s actually kind of gross. I got sweaty and I came back up.”
Ricco
Or hang out with the mole people. I don’t know. I feel like I would just get into places, get into mischief.
Ruby
Imagine being the one to confirm that mole people are real, though. Do you think that would be a huge story?
Ricco
They’d think I’m crazy, right? Because then my power’s gone. They’re like, “Well, then show us.” I’m like, “I can’t anymore.”
Ruby
“It was only for one day, and I had an innate understanding of how to use it.”
Ricco
And I’m just fully nude. “You have to believe me. I saw mole people.”
Ruby
“Look at me, I saw mole people. Why wouldn’t you believe me?”
Ricco
Okay, grandpa. Let’s not…
Ruby
Get back to bed.
Ricco
Yeah. Fix the robe around me.
Ruby
Back to the home. So, My Hero Academia English dub is widely said to be “one of the good ones”.
Ricco
Oh, that’s good.
Ruby
So, why do you think that is?
Ricco
Well, I’ve only done a little bit of casting in my life, but most of what makes a director’s job easy is casting well. They say if you cast a show well, you don’t actually have to direct that hard. Meaning, the actor kind of has the bits and stuff already in place to do the job. I think with voiceover specifically… Because I do film, and theatre, and other things.
With theatre, we can rehearse for several months and get into the groove of the character. With voiceover, I could tell you your character two minutes before you’re on, and now you have to be a fully fleshed out person. I’ll give you little notes, but you are creating on the fly rapidly.
So, a good director, in this case it’s Colleen Clinkenbeard. She’s one of the best. Again, she plays Luffy in One Piece. She’s Momo in the show. She’s a wonderful director, very graceful. Definition of grace, meaning least amount of effort. She just tells you this, this, this and you accomplish, you’re in the pocket.
I would say that that is what… And I’ve heard this. Justin Briner is a good friend of mine. He plays me Midoriya on the show. He’s also a fanboy for anime. In that lovely tenor voice, and he’s like, “My God, let me tell you about all these things.” But it’s like he has to reveal his nerd to you. He’s very quiet, kind of like Midoriya. But then, the second he goes like, “Wait, you like this, too?”
I want to say it’s not so much acting. It’s like a part of our spirit that we carry with it, but it does help inform the character. So, yes, I would say, I would give it completely up to Colleen for casting because she puts us in positions where we can succeed.
Ruby
Absolutely. Now, you’re a bit of a gamer.
Ricco
A bit.
Ruby
First of all, gross.
Ricco
Yeah. I mean, you can say that.
Ruby
Yeah. As a gamer myself.
Ricco
It’s super cool. Okay.
Ruby
Kotaku Australia, don’t worry.
Ricco
Perfect.
Ruby
I’m well aware that games are disgusting, and I have too many of them. So, what have you been playing recently?
Ricco
That’s right. I just realized in Australia and I… Silksong, which is the sequel of Hollow Knight.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
Orchestrated by… Oh my God. I literally bought all of his music. He’s an Aussie. The composer for Hollow Night. Christopher Larkin. Dude…
Ruby
Yes.
Ricco
You guys. I was like, “Holy cow. This is incredible.” I hope, I imagine he would be on the next orchestration, too, because music and video games really jam.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
So, what I want to be playing is that. But right now, I’ve been playing a game called Children of Morta, Couch Co-op. Our family, we level up, kind of Diablo grind, down together. Really good storytelling with pixels that’ll make you cry when it’s pixels. All time favourite game is Chrono Trigger, Super Nintendo Toriyama art style. Obviously, Dragon Ball, that stuff goes deep.
I used to do a panel, and I used to play World of Warcraft, about community building through online gaming and MMOs because I host for the Dallas Fuel for Overwatch. Overwatch 2, obviously, is a big one coming. I play that with my brothers. Usually, it’s anything involving squad-based things. Phasmophobia.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
When it actually releases, it will be really fun, whatever. Is it still being… It’ll never be out.
Ruby
I think, early access.
Ricco
Yeah, it’s been early access for a decade, or something. It’s been great. It’s a great game.
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
I really enjoy those kinds of games. There’s also a really sweet one called Kind Words that is just literally, you get random letters from people all over the world, saying things… The prompt is, “What is bothering you? What is worrying you?” People will say whatever’s worrying them. And they only have X amount of letters, and you can reply with X amount of letters.
It filters out any people just trying to be mean because you can do that anywhere on the internet. But with Kind Words, you just get a wash of letters from people all over the world telling you their perspectives. I get goosebumps thinking about it. It’s so sweet. I will stream with my crew sometimes if I’m feeling not wanting to just get annihilated in a first-person shooter, and kind of think tank people’s problems and think of graceful ways to help people.
Ruby
That’s nice.
Ricco
It’s great.
Ruby
So, last but not least, we’ve got to wrap up. You’re a pretty buff, fit guy.
Ricco
Oh, thanks. Working on it.
Ruby
Is there something inherently funny about being a buff guy despite your occupation not needing you to be?
Ricco
You mean for voice?
Ruby
Yeah.
Ricco
Is it funny, I suppose so. A lot of my acting colleagues would just… I can already hear all their voices like, “Yeah, Ricco, what is it like? Why do you got to do that?”
Ruby
It’s got to be a little bit goofy, though.
Ricco
A little bit. Only because… But it does pay off. Do you remember that challenge that was years ago? They did that… Everyone had to freeze, and the camera went through and everyone was frozen. You had to do that. We did that.
Ruby
The mannequin challenge?
Ricco
The mannequin challenge.
Ruby
Yes.
Ricco
I forget the song. It was like (singing). We went through the halls and we did one at the Crunchyroll, or Funimation studios. They were going through and I was in the halls doing this. Holding it up like that. And I had to hold it. So, in the very last shot, I was quaking. I’m like, “No, hold it. Hold it. Hold it.”
And then, they went like that. They came up, saw me, went through my legs, went over here. And the second they passed me up, because they had music over, I dropped. My legs were like, “Ugh.” But sometimes, it comes in clutch.
I like to think that if the zombie apocalypse happened, I have high agility. I could definitely pick you guys up and pull you onto the rooftop.
Ruby
Thank you because I would die. I’m well aware of it.
Ricco
I’ll try. I’m pretty fast.
Ruby
I think we got to wrap up.
Ricco
That’s okay. Yeah, that sound. That sound is the wrap. It’s the cart of doom.
Ruby
The rattling. They’re taking you back to the home.
Ricco
[old man voice] I have to go!
Ruby
[old man voice] Goodbye!
Ricco
Okay, you’re set.
Ruby
Lovely to meet you.
Ricco
Pleasure to meet you.
You can stream all seasons of My Hero Academia on Crunchyroll right now.
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