Women voicing men, Tanaka's Kuririn, etc.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Look, I'm sorry for bringing up another one of these topics, but it's just a quick thought.

You know some people complain about how, between the dubs and subs, it's wrong for a woman to voice an adult male? They use this as the reason for why, in their opinion, Linda Young was bad as Freeza, and Nozawa was bad as Gokuu.

Well, what about Mayumi Tanaka's Kuririn? I've never, and I mean never, heard anyone complain about her performance. So basically, isn't the point of this that it doesn't matter what the gender of the actor is, as long as they can play the role well. I mean, sometimes you can't even tell the gender of the actor behind the character, until you read the credits or something.

[dprez]

Kuririn being a little shrimp, tagging along with Gohan half the time, next to the tall super strong main guy, it's understandable that some would complain about Nozawa as big bad Goku and not Tanaka as little Kuririn.

[dbboxkaifan]

To be fair, I've always liked Kuririn's voice it felt right for him, also, Tanaka's Luffi vocal too but I don't see anyone complaining about her voicing him at all.

It's the first time I have seen this being brought up.

[The Time Traveller]

When I first heard Tanaka as Yajirobe I was kinda shocked, I was too used to the deep voice of the English versions, but I had read the first 16 volumes of the manga at this point and remembered Goku saying that his voice was similar to Kuririn's. Plus I didn't actually know who played Yajirobe at that point.

[dprez]

When I first heard Tanaka as Yajirobe I was kinda shocked, I was too used to the deep voice of the English versions, but I had read the first 16 volumes of the manga at this point and remembered Goku saying that his voice was similar to Kuririn's. Plus I didn't actually know who played Yajirobe at that point.

How would Toriyama know who was going to voice Yajirobe when he wrote that? Maybe he had already planned on having Tanaka voice him...

[VegettoEX]

If the only complaint is "DIFFERENT GENDER NOOOOOOOOO!", then you haven't really brought a valid criticism or thought process to the table in the first place, and it's not a viewpoint worth acknowledging in a larger conversation.

[The Time Traveller]

When I first heard Tanaka as Yajirobe I was kinda shocked, I was too used to the deep voice of the English versions, but I had read the first 16 volumes of the manga at this point and remembered Goku saying that his voice was similar to Kuririn's. Plus I didn't actually know who played Yajirobe at that point.

How would Toriyama know who was going to voice Yajirobe when he wrote that? Maybe he had already planned on having Tanaka voice him...

They probably cast her because of this line, either that or he did actually have a say in it...

[AgitoZ]

Most authors have a say in who's cast in their series' adaptations. So if Toriyama wanted to make a throw away joke about voices I'm sure Toei would let him.

[penguintruth]

I notice One Piece fans don't give Tanaka shit about playing a 17 year old male, either. Nor do they give any guff to Colleen Clinkenbeard playing him in English.

DBZ fans are just used to what they're used to, and anything different sucks.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I think dprez has a point, even if it's not really a valid argument persay, in that it's more 'acceptable' to some people due to Kuririn's diminutive size. On a more personal level, I think it's also because - to me anyway - Tanaka is even better as Kuririn than Nozawa is as Goku. That's right, I said it.

I dunno what it is, but I ADORE her Kuririn. I love Nozawa's Goku now...but not to near the same level. There's just something insanely charming about her performance as him, I was always looking forward to more Kuririn stuff when I was watching the show subbed (though I'll admit I wasn't so fond of her very-end-of-Z and GT 'Old Kuririn' approach).

[SSJToreto]

I only ever saw this being a problem to 8 year old boys, who end up meeting the VA for some reason and going "EEEEEwwww Trunks is a girrrl. COOTIES!" (this has a source btw lol)

I was guilty of this as well.

When I was a toddler... -___-

[Gyt Kaliba]

I only ever saw this being a problem to 8 year old boys, who end up meeting the VA for some reason and going "EEEEEwwww Trunks is a girrrl. COOTIES!" (this has a source btw lol)

A small part of me refuses to believe anyone of any age went 'Eww' upon meeting Laura Bailey...but then again, I'm a huge fan of hers.

I'll admit I used to be one of the fans that had a quirked eyebrow at a female playing a full-grown male role, but I never had a problem with it for little boy roles. I mean, that's been around in voice-over since forever ago, and still continues today. Bobby Hill or Bart Simpson anyone?

[Gaffer Tape]

When I first heard Tanaka as Yajirobe I was kinda shocked, I was too used to the deep voice of the English versions, but I had read the first 16 volumes of the manga at this point and remembered Goku saying that his voice was similar to Kuririn's. Plus I didn't actually know who played Yajirobe at that point.

How would Toriyama know who was going to voice Yajirobe when he wrote that? Maybe he had already planned on having Tanaka voice him...

I've always carried the theory that Toriyama wrote that line because he felt guilty for killing off Tanaka's character, and so he introduced a replacement character for her to voice during the interim.

[LiamKav]

Goku's voice suffers from a lot of non-Japanese viewers because they see him as adult Goku first, and get the conflict between seeing this big, buff guy and hearing Nozawa's voice. If you watched the series from the start, where her voice goes with chibi Goku fine, then it works much better.

Bart Simpson is a good comparison. No-one watched the Simpsons and thinks "why has Bart got a girls voice?" And then, when they do flash-forward episodes where Bart is grown-up, they still get Nacy Cartright to voice him because she is Bart's voice. Likewise, Nozawa is Goku's voice, so when he grew up it made sense to keep her.

Really, the dub also approached this backwards, by hiring people to act as the adult versions of the characters and then having to retroactively come up with children's voices. I do wonder if they ever tried to get Strait to do a young Kuririn, or Vale to do a young Trunks, or if they just went straight for the "Small Boy Must Be Played A Girl!" rule. At least Kuririn's young voice sounds vaguely like his adult voice...

[matt0044]

I wonder what'd happen if Dragon Ball came here first...

[LiamKav]

Well, if we go back the early 90s (and 80s for that matter), no-one would watch it.

[desirecampbell]

I wonder what'd happen if Dragon Ball came here first...

If "here" means North America, then it did. The Harmony Gold dub aired in the late '80s, and the Funimation (Ocean) dub aired in 1995.

Interestingly, I think the fact that I was first introduced to Goku as a child allowed me to accept a female-voiced Goku later in Z.

[dbboxkaifan]

Well, if we go back the early 90s (and 80s for that matter), no-one would watch it.

It really depends from country to country, for e.g., in Europe - Dragon Ball aired in the 90's it was a success but when Dragon Ball Z got broadcast DB was defeated, though, they'd still air it.

People around Europe loved Dragon Ball GT since they grew up watching it and there wasn't any hatred towards as it is nowadays on the internet for it.

[Fionordequester]

Honestly, I don't have a problem with women voicing males as long as they sound enough like a male. The problem, however, is that, more often then not, they don't seem to manage to do that in the anime I've watched (the only exceptions to this that I've seen being Naruto from "Naruto" and Atem from "Yu-Gi-Oh").

And even though it's not QUITE as jarring with Krillin as it is with Nozawa's Goku (except when she's speaking really intensely, or doing SSJ4 Goku...then she actually sounds AWESOME), it still doesn't sound right given that he's a man. I mean, yes, we've got guys like Mike Tyson and the like, but, that doesn't make it sound any less weird.

EDIT: That being said though, Nozawa is definetly a terrific actor, no doubt about that...just miscast in my opinion.

[Super Sonic]

Honestly, I don't have a problem with women voicing males as long as they sound enough like a male. The problem, however, is that, more often then not, they don't seem to manage to do that in the anime I've watched (the only exceptions to this that I've seen being Naruto from "Naruto" and Atem from "Yu-Gi-Oh").

He was only voiced by a woman in the Toei series. In the Japanese version of "Duel Monsters" both Yugis were voiced by a man.

I only ever saw this being a problem to 8 year old boys, who end up meeting the VA for some reason and going "EEEEEwwww Trunks is a girrrl. COOTIES!" (this has a source btw lol)

I was guilty of this as well.

When I was a toddler... -___-

I remember once reading that the late Grace Stafford used to be worried about that if people knew she was Woody Woodpecker, and wanted to appear uncredited for awhile, but after she stopped worrying about it, enjoyed being recognized for it.

Though on topic, about what people are used to, can affect things. I remember watching the first ep of Digimon in Japanese and for me, it was wierd hearing all the high voices as in that version about all of the male digimon as well as all the boys except Joe and Matt were voiced by women, while the English version, Patamon/Tokomon was t only one voiced by a woman there. (This was before Brianne Siddal was cast as Koromon).