Why doesn't Goku speak incorrectly/improperly in the various dubs?

[KBABZ]

...but the speaking mannerisms combined with his design just... doesn't work in the West.

It doesn't work anywhere. In any time period.

Well apparently it "passes" in Japan where they seem to keep making this type of character without realizing the connotations... it's weird.

[jjgp1112]

Also, I've always felt that if Dragon Ball was done in live action, the best casting choice for Goku would be a Hawaiian kid who speaks a mild form of Pidgin that would convey his looser way of speaking kinda well.

[KBABZ]

Also, I've always felt that if Dragon Ball was done in live action, the best casting choice for Goku would be a Hawaiian kid who speaks a mild form of Pidgin that would convey his looser way of speaking kinda well.

Any examples? I've never heard of Pidgin outside of New York.

[jjgp1112]

Also, I've always felt that if Dragon Ball was done in live action, the best casting choice for Goku would be a Hawaiian kid who speaks a mild form of Pidgin that would convey his looser way of speaking kinda well.

Any examples? I've never heard of Pidgin outside of New York.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaolMcl8v0I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRXAbUiVoo


Those are obviously way on the heavy aside, but you'll get the gist.

[SaiyanGod117]

People back then and even just a couple of years ago weren't so uptight but now many of them call everything racist, sexist, cultural appropriation and so on.

It's how it is, I guess. At least FUNimation didn't try to change Popo's color to who knows what.

Yes, because before derogatory behavior such as those were often swept under the rug or covered up, so think before you speak.

[KBABZ]

Spoiler:

I realize this is a bit of a necro post, but for me Nadolny's semi-stilted performance of Goku worked as an alright substitute. For me it reflected that Grandpa Gohan may have been able to teach Goku how to speak, but not help him master the flow through the words of a sentence.

Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting what you're saying, but this take/approach almost sounds to me more like a Goku that's "on the spectrum" more so than a rough 'n tumble backwoods country hayseed from the mountains.

...unless I'm not understanding KBABZ correctly on this, it sounds almost like he's interpreting/equating Nadonly's Goku as some sort of socially inept autistic boy who doesn't fully grasp interpersonal human interaction in how to speak.

Well I didn't consider it that way, more like Goku just doesn't have the experience in talking with people to speak his sentences naturally. It's more a lack of experience than anything else because all he had to work with was Grandpa Gohan; he didn't need to speak with any other person until Bulma showed up.

It's funny that you should say that though because I myself am on the spectrum (Asperger's specifically, before it was merged with Autism), and from the moment I saw Kid Goku on Cartoon Network I felt a connection with him because of how odd he can act in social situations (and that's before I got familiar with Z and how Goku spared his enemies for reasons that don't make sense to anyone else, not to mention departing with Uub), as well as how inexperienced with the world in general he is. Goku just seems to operate on a different wavelength from most people, even compared to other Saiyans, and I can relate with that a lot because I get that all the time and need to adjust how I behave a lot of the time (something Goku doesn't even care to attempt, haha).

That being said, I would never claim that Toriyama wrote him with the intention that he's Autistic because there's no evidence for it. He's mostly going for comedy and having a unique protagonist.

The more blunt reality if course is that Nadonly's performance is stilted and awkward unintentionally due to it simply being a bad acting performance. Nonetheless though, "autistic Goku" is an interesting read on it.

Yeah haha, ultimately I'm under no illusions there (and IMO her performance declined further after GT; I can't stand her performance in Revenge of King Piccolo). But my more personal connection to that performance is part of why I like Dragon Ball so much in the first place, which ultimately led me to watching Kai (sorry), and then here to learn more about the original works.

Sean Schemmel dubs Goku with correct vocabulary, correct pronounciation of the words, for example. And it would be accurate for Goku's character if he shouldn't do that. The same applies to all other actors around the world, as Patrick Borg, Wendel Bezerra or Mario Castañeda.

My headcanon for that is that Chi-Chi taught him how to speak correctly in the seven years before Raditz showed up, haha. But I think the reason for that is because when FUNi first dubbed Z, they basically ignored everything about Goku's character from Dragon Ball and started fresh with what they knew about him in the Saiyan arc, and that's sort of been grandfathered into every other dub of Goku, I'd say.

Re-quoting my post in the hopes Kunzait will see it. I put a lot of myself into this post!

[Kunzait_83]

Spoiler:

Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting what you're saying, but this take/approach almost sounds to me more like a Goku that's "on the spectrum" more so than a rough 'n tumble backwoods country hayseed from the mountains.

...unless I'm not understanding KBABZ correctly on this, it sounds almost like he's interpreting/equating Nadonly's Goku as some sort of socially inept autistic boy who doesn't fully grasp interpersonal human interaction in how to speak.

Well I didn't consider it that way, more like Goku just doesn't have the experience in talking with people to speak his sentences naturally. It's more a lack of experience than anything else because all he had to work with was Grandpa Gohan; he didn't need to speak with any other person until Bulma showed up.

It's funny that you should say that though because I myself am on the spectrum (Asperger's specifically, before it was merged with Autism), and from the moment I saw Kid Goku on Cartoon Network I felt a connection with him because of how odd he can act in social situations (and that's before I got familiar with Z and how Goku spared his enemies for reasons that don't make sense to anyone else, not to mention departing with Uub), as well as how inexperienced with the world in general he is. Goku just seems to operate on a different wavelength from most people, even compared to other Saiyans, and I can relate with that a lot because I get that all the time and need to adjust how I behave a lot of the time (something Goku doesn't even care to attempt, haha).

That being said, I would never claim that Toriyama wrote him with the intention that he's Autistic because there's no evidence for it. He's mostly going for comedy and having a unique protagonist.

The more blunt reality if course is that Nadonly's performance is stilted and awkward unintentionally due to it simply being a bad acting performance. Nonetheless though, "autistic Goku" is an interesting read on it.

Yeah haha, ultimately I'm under no illusions there (and IMO her performance declined further after GT; I can't stand her performance in Revenge of King Piccolo). But my more personal connection to that performance is part of why I like Dragon Ball so much in the first place, which ultimately led me to watching Kai (sorry), and then here to learn more about the original works.

Sean Schemmel dubs Goku with correct vocabulary, correct pronounciation of the words, for example. And it would be accurate for Goku's character if he shouldn't do that. The same applies to all other actors around the world, as Patrick Borg, Wendel Bezerra or Mario Castañeda.

My headcanon for that is that Chi-Chi taught him how to speak correctly in the seven years before Raditz showed up, haha. But I think the reason for that is because when FUNi first dubbed Z, they basically ignored everything about Goku's character from Dragon Ball and started fresh with what they knew about him in the Saiyan arc, and that's sort of been grandfathered into every other dub of Goku, I'd say.

Re-quoting my post in the hopes Kunzait will see it. I put a lot of myself into this post!

I did see it. Just not sure what else I can really add to it, other than I think I vaguely remember you mentioning and going a bit into your Autism/Aspergers in another thread here at some point, so it makes perfect sense that you might view certain aspects of the series through that particular lens.

[KBABZ]

Re-quoting my post in the hopes Kunzait will see it. I put a lot of myself into this post!

I did see it. Just not sure what else I can really add to it, other than I think I vaguely remember you mentioning and going a bit into your Autism/Aspergers in another thread here at some point, so it makes perfect sense that you might view certain aspects of the series through that particular lens.

Oh, haha.

[linkdude20002001]

I feel like the ideal way to bring Gokuh's speech style into English would be to go for "lazy" rather than "country". Chichi and the Ox Demon-King have the country accent more so, rite? I don't think Gokuh would drop as many G's as Chichi would.

Gokuh would probably say stuff like (sorry for the weird spellings) "would you?" as wou'ja?, "couldn't have" as cou'dn'na, and similar. But those things really aren't too unique... So give him one final touching: pronouncing "anything" as [AAH-nih-THIN] like Australian actress Portia de Rossi does.

[Hulk10]

Maybe they just chose not to bother with it.