"Dragon Ball Super" Bang Zoom Dub Official Discussion Thread

[NitroEX]

One of my favourite LA voice actors! I listened to him a lot growing up.

I suspect his take on Freeza will sound more bratty than Ayres, then again, he might surprise me.

[8000 Saiyan]

Derek Stephen Prince is a great choice. I'm excited to see how he'll compare to Ayres (Pity we still haven't seen Tockar's take in Ocean Kai).

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Derek Stephen Prince is a great choice. I'm excited to see how he'll compare to Ayres (Pity we still haven't seen Tockar's take in Ocean Kai).

I agree, although I knew it wasn't going to happen as with all the Ocean cast (especially Richard Ian Cox as I can't even begin to describe my curiosity about his Goku) part of me was hoping Toonami Asia would go the extra mile to have Tockar in this dub, but alas I'm still interested to hear Derek Stephen Prince's take and how he compares to Ayres. That is assuming the remainder of this dub doesn't suffer the same fate as Ocean Kai....

[8000 Saiyan]

Derek Stephen Prince is a great choice. I'm excited to see how he'll compare to Ayres (Pity we still haven't seen Tockar's take in Ocean Kai).

I agree, although I knew it wasn't going to happen as with all the Ocean cast (especially Richard Ian Cox as I can't even begin to describe my curiosity about his Goku) part of me was hoping Toonami Asia would go the extra mile to have Tockar in this dub, but alas I'm still interested to hear Derek Stephen Prince's take and how he compares to Ayres. That is assuming the remainder of this dub doesn't suffer the same fate as Ocean Kai....

Tockar might be a little expensive for this dub since he's an union actor and this dub is non-union.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Derek Stephen Prince is a great choice. I'm excited to see how he'll compare to Ayres (Pity we still haven't seen Tockar's take in Ocean Kai).

I agree, although I knew it wasn't going to happen as with all the Ocean cast (especially Richard Ian Cox as I can't even begin to describe my curiosity about his Goku) part of me was hoping Toonami Asia would go the extra mile to have Tockar in this dub, but alas I'm still interested to hear Derek Stephen Prince's take and how he compares to Ayres. That is assuming the remainder of this dub doesn't suffer the same fate as Ocean Kai....

Tockar might be a little expensive for this dub since he's an union actor and this dub is non-union.

That's a pretty big difference in market. Dubs in Canada are a bigger deal because they tend to import more & thus pay better (about 2.5x); the unions are different between US & Canada & (as 8000 Saiyan pointed out) this dub isn't even unionized. Most VAs as successful as Lee Tockar would not do a dub in the US; we've had David Kaye, Trevor Devall, David Sobolov, Eric Bauza, Tara Strong, & a few others come from Canada & they've almost never done dubs since then. Unless Tockar massively failed for awhile (as Erin Fitzgerald mentions she did), he wouldn't really do a big part in this sort of dub. There's also Saffron Henderson who was in LA for a year (she was on Naruto which was union & had decent budget), but found it wasn't enough & made more money in Canada.

Another thing is this dub is kind of makeshift & is boycotted by friends of FUNimation (btw it's kind of a crap attitude for FUNi to have, to dislike actors in this dub) who are the main distributors; it's only a pleasant surprise we're getting some great castings on here (because this dub is, as typical of LA dubs, more accurate to the JP VO). There's no reason for Toonami Asia to put that much into this dub.

Anyway I do hope this dub goes through & finishes properly; at very least I do hope we get to see everything of the dub that gets completed.

[8000 Saiyan]

I agree, although I knew it wasn't going to happen as with all the Ocean cast (especially Richard Ian Cox as I can't even begin to describe my curiosity about his Goku) part of me was hoping Toonami Asia would go the extra mile to have Tockar in this dub, but alas I'm still interested to hear Derek Stephen Prince's take and how he compares to Ayres. That is assuming the remainder of this dub doesn't suffer the same fate as Ocean Kai....

Tockar might be a little expensive for this dub since he's an union actor and this dub is non-union.

That's a pretty big difference in market. Dubs in Canada are a bigger deal because they tend to import more & thus pay better (about 2.5x); the unions are different between US & Canada & (as 8000 Saiyan pointed out) this dub isn't even unionized. Most VAs as successful as Lee Tockar would not do a dub in the US; we've had David Kaye, Trevor Devall, David Sobolov, Eric Bauza, Tara Strong, & a few others come from Canada & they've almost never done dubs since then. Unless Tockar massively failed for awhile (as Erin Fitzgerald mentions she did), he wouldn't really do a big part in this sort of dub. There's also Saffron Henderson who was in LA for a year (she was on Naruto which was union & had decent budget), but found it wasn't enough & made more money in Canada.

Another thing is this dub is kind of makeshift & is boycotted by friends of FUNimation (btw it's kind of a crap attitude for FUNi to have, to dislike actors in this dub) who are the main distributors; it's only a pleasant surprise we're getting some great castings on here (because this dub is, as typical of LA dubs, more accurate to the JP VO). There's no reason for Toonami Asia to put that much into this dub.

Anyway I do hope this dub goes through & finishes properly; at very least I do hope we get to see everything of the dub that gets completed.

Has Bauza ever done an anime dub before? Because I don't think he has.

And as for Henderson, she actually lived more than one year in LA, I believe.

Now, when it comes to Derek, I hope he does his own take (a variation of his Vexus voice would work) and isn't Ayres 2.0.

[NitroEX]

It seems Derek Stephen Prince was influenced to sound as close to Ayre's portrayal as possible but thankfully he pushed back against it after recording his first episode. This is very encouraging but at the same time, it further confirms my fears that the people in charge of this dub are making critical errors when it comes to directing their actors. Needless to say, I'm still excited to hear his portrayal. His attitude towards this role has made me an even bigger fan than I was before.

[8000 Saiyan]

It seems Derek Stephen Prince was influenced to sound as close to Ayre's portrayal as possible but thankfully he pushed back against it after recording his first episode. This is very encouraging but at the same time, it further confirms my fears that the people in charge of this dub are making critical errors when it comes to directing their actors. Needless to say, I'm still excited to hear his portrayal. His attitude towards this role has made me an even bigger fan than I was before.

Thank god he's doing his own take instead of copying Ayres.

Bang Zoom loves Funimation so much, that's why they tell their actors to copy FUNi's takes.

[DB_Fan1991]

That quote was a response to me actually. I said to him how excited I am to hear him as Freeza as he is one my favorite VAs ever.

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

It seems Derek Stephen Prince was influenced to sound as close to Ayre's portrayal as possible but thankfully he pushed back against it after recording his first episode. This is very encouraging but at the same time, it further confirms my fears that the people in charge of this dub are making critical errors when it comes to directing their actors. Needless to say, I'm still excited to hear his portrayal. His attitude towards this role has made me an even bigger fan than I was before.

And people said that Bang Zoom wasn't trying to copy FUNi's potrayals and this confirms that they in fact do try to. I'm curious to hear his take on Frieza but I'll prefer Ayres forever personally

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Has Bauza ever done an anime dub before? Because I don't think he has.

Bauza isn't exactly a regular, but as a favor to Jamie Simone (who began to use him heavily in his original cartoons) likely, he did Ezekiel Stane in Rise of Technovore, & Amadeus Cho in Avengers Confidential. & Baron Zemo in the latter too (no JP VO actually). Plus he did an Ace Combat dub by Kris Zimmerman. Must've spoke wrong about Henderson then, I suppose...

And people said that Bang Zoom wasn't trying to copy FUNi's potrayals and this confirms that they in fact do try to. I'm curious to hear his take on Frieza but I'll prefer Ayres forever personally

Kaiji Tang mentioned they were using them as a starting point to be familiar to Asian audience, but you can tell they're casting more on the Japanese voices & performances, & that's probably due to Wendee Lee, a fan of the medium & a long-time associate of Bandai's English branches, being in charge. Ray Chase, Grant George, & Kaiji Tang don't normally sound like FUNi's versions of their characters - they're doing impressions of FUNi, but the actual castings are much more clearly inspired by the Japanese ones. I hope it improves as we see more of it than the 13 we've seen. Whis especially sounds closer (although Ian is great anyway), Kaio is really obvious, etc. I'm not saying there's no influence - it's been discussed why there is some of that (including personal actors' fandom) - but there's an opportunity here (that's being taken advantage of a bit) to be accurate in a way that FUNi isn't really required to be.

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

Has Bauza ever done an anime dub before? Because I don't think he has.

Bauza isn't exactly a regular, but as a favor to Jamie Simone (who began to use him heavily in his original cartoons) likely, he did Ezekiel Stane in Rise of Technovore, & Amadeus Cho in Avengers Confidential. & Baron Zemo in the latter too (no JP VO actually). Plus he did an Ace Combat dub by Kris Zimmerman. Must've spoke wrong about Henderson then, I suppose...

And people said that Bang Zoom wasn't trying to copy FUNi's potrayals and this confirms that they in fact do try to. I'm curious to hear his take on Frieza but I'll prefer Ayres forever personally

Kaiji Tang mentioned they were using them as a starting point to be familiar to Asian audience, but you can tell they're casting more on the Japanese voices & performances, & that's probably due to Wendee Lee, a fan of the medium & a long-time associate of Bandai's English branches, being in charge. Ray Chase, Grant George, & Kaiji Tang don't normally sound like FUNi's versions of their characters - they're doing impressions of FUNi, but the actual castings are much more clearly inspired by the Japanese ones. I hope it improves as we see more of it than the 13 we've seen. Whis especially sounds closer (although Ian is great anyway), Kaio is really obvious, etc. I'm not saying there's no influence - it's been discussed why there is some of that (including personal actors' fandom) - but there's an opportunity here (that's being taken advantage of a bit) to be accurate in a way that FUNi isn't really required to be.

I don't really see how they're closer to the Japanese ones outside of King Kai and that could just be because they couldn't find anyone that could do an impression of Schemmel's voice for him. I just wish that they'd give their own take on the characters

[huzaifa_ahmed]

I don't really see how they're closer to the Japanese ones outside of King Kai and that could just be because they couldn't find anyone that could do an impression of Schemmel's voice for him. I just wish that they'd give their own take on the characters

Sabat has a pretty deep brutish voice, & I feel as if if they wanted to do a perfect impression of that they'd use Chris Terglaferia, Paul st. Peter, Jamieson Price, or Richard Epcar.

Grant George, Ray Chase, & Kaiji Tang sound a lot more like the Japanese actors that voice these characters. Toru Furuya has kind of a "pretty boy" voice, Furukawa's Piccolo is husky but not very deep, Vegeta is high but kind of gruff. This is pretty close to what I'm used to with George, Chase, & Tang respectively.

& I'm pretty sure that's due to Wendee Lee's casting sensibilities. Problem is obviously they're being directed to do impressions, so it kind of takes away from that.

[8000 Saiyan]

I don't really see how they're closer to the Japanese ones outside of King Kai and that could just be because they couldn't find anyone that could do an impression of Schemmel's voice for him. I just wish that they'd give their own take on the characters

Sabat has a pretty deep brutish voice, & I feel as if if they wanted to do a perfect impression of that they'd use Chris Terglaferia, Paul st. Peter, Jamieson Price, or Richard Epcar.

Grant George, Ray Chase, & Kaiji Tang sound a lot more like the Japanese actors that voice these characters. Toru Furuya has kind of a "pretty boy" voice, Furukawa's Piccolo is husky but not very deep, Vegeta is high but kind of gruff. This is pretty close to what I'm used to with George, Chase, & Tang respectively.

& I'm pretty sure that's due to Wendee Lee's casting sensibilities. Problem is obviously they're being directed to do impressions, so it kind of takes away from that.

I think Horikawa's Vegeta is more smooth than gruff, at least with Z.

[sangofe]

I don't really see how they're closer to the Japanese ones outside of King Kai and that could just be because they couldn't find anyone that could do an impression of Schemmel's voice for him. I just wish that they'd give their own take on the characters

Sabat has a pretty deep brutish voice, & I feel as if if they wanted to do a perfect impression of that they'd use Chris Terglaferia, Paul st. Peter, Jamieson Price, or Richard Epcar.

Grant George, Ray Chase, & Kaiji Tang sound a lot more like the Japanese actors that voice these characters. Toru Furuya has kind of a "pretty boy" voice, Furukawa's Piccolo is husky but not very deep, Vegeta is high but kind of gruff. This is pretty close to what I'm used to with George, Chase, & Tang respectively.

& I'm pretty sure that's due to Wendee Lee's casting sensibilities. Problem is obviously they're being directed to do impressions, so it kind of takes away from that.

I think Horikawa's Vegeta is more smooth than gruff, at least with Z.

Yeah, before the tobacco smoke made it more gruff.

[Cure Dragon 255]

So Horikawa started to smoke? That's news to me.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Even if Prince did a perfect voice match, I'm glad that he's taking it in a different direction. Not because Ayres is bad--quite the contrary, I think his performance as Freeza has been f***ing amazing--but trying to "match" another actor's performance always results in an inherently inorganic performance, because the actor is thinking in terms of, "How would this actor say this line," as opposed to, "How would this character sound?" Heck, FUNimation's cast is proof of this, as they all started sounding much, much better when they stopped trying to imitate their Ocean counterparts and started interpreting the characters their own way.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Ayres is perfect match for Nakao, if he's going in a completely new direction than that isn't promising to me.

Regardless if the scripting is still shit it doesn't matter his performance will still be hindered, like everyone else.

[8000 Saiyan]

So Horikawa started to smoke? That's news to me.

Yeah, he smokes. I don't know when he started to, though. He really shouldn't.

[sangofe]

So Horikawa started to smoke? That's news to me.

He's been a smoker for many years.