Attitudefan wrote:Japanese actors get away with it because they are goddamn good at acting, you don't think about the voice at all. You just watch the show in awe.
...*facepalm* No. If you're really listening, you'll easily notice just the same with Japanese voice actors as with North American voice actors. There is not some cultural divide in talent that says North American VAs<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Japanese VAs.
There are a number of really good voice actors out in America, even ones dubbing anime. There aren't many companies left, but the few that do remain have decent sized actor pools. And whether it's Funimation, Viz, Ocean, or some other company I'm blanking on, them being on this continent doesn't affect their acting or the performances they give. Hell, even in Funi's early history, they occasionally had a good dub, like Yu Yu Hakusho (which I just re-bought the first "season" on Blu Ray. Nice, cleaned up audio, HD video without weird cropping or editing thus far).
Sometimes, a similar voice works for another character, sometimes, it doesn't (and acting does affect that), but it's not an exclusive Japanese club, I can assure you. One instance where a similar voice actually worked was when Ryusei Nakao voiced a parody of Freeza in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (named Purupu, a very cat-like Freeza in a hover chair, with two henchmen carrying Dragon Balls...yet defeated in One Chapter/One Episode by One Attack! *thankfully*). It worked for parody.
In the case for Sabat, he actually has quite a range, and has gone through quite a bit of it, so occasionally, we will see a similar voice. But, with the right direction, he usually makes each one their own. Not always, as he does so many roles, it's ridiculous. I guess that's partially why he backed off on a few DB roles.
Both groups have instances of both situations.
And I prefer Sabat as Piccolo, because, generally, it is not far off from his own voice, minus a bit of gruff. A much better voice in recent years, thanks to Kai. It sounds much more natural than McNeil's "Demon" voice, which really doesn't work on someone who joins the good side (though, it'd probably work fine for Daimao, to differentiate them).