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

[SaintEvolution]

This discussion is actually pretty interesting even today. I would want more people to talk about it, since it's something that really seems to affects ALL the Dragon Ball dubs around the world.

[zarmack]

Verbal idiosyncrasies are extremely hard to translate into different, unrelated languages. So most dubs just ignore this part of Goku's character.

[KBABZ]

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. Personally to me it makes more sense than speaking a country-style dialect because I don't think Gohan would have spoken that to begin with (although I realize that's because the details of Grandpa Gohan as a personality wouldn't really be explored until the end of the Baba arc).

[Kunzait_83]

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.

[RandomGuy96]

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.

You make it sound like he should have an Appalachian accent.

[ABED]

Better than having him sound like every sentence is a question.

[Kunzait_83]

You make it sound like he should have an Appalachian accent.

I mean don't get me wrong, I certainly don't think that some kind of over the top hillbilly redneck southern accent straight out of King of the Hill ought to be the way to go when adapting Goku's speech pattern/dialect into English. I subscribe to the "less is more" principle: some bad grammar, some very low key word slurring/mispronunciation, and maybe the subtlest, faintest hint of a twang in his voice would probably more than get this aspect of the character across just fine without turning him into some kind of Kung Fu Cletus.

But again, 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.

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.

[SaintEvolution]

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. Personally to me it makes more sense than speaking a country-style dialect because I don't think Gohan would have spoken that to begin with (although I realize that's because the details of Grandpa Gohan as a personality wouldn't really be explored until the end of the Baba arc).

My point here is that, if you analyze Goku's japanese voice knowing the japanese language, you will see that Goku really speaks japanese wrong. His vocabulary and semantic are wrong. His grammar is wrong. Masako Nozawa does Goku's voice speaking not only a colloquial, but a wrong japanese.

But that doesn't apply to the dubs, were he majorly talks correctly. 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.

[KBABZ]

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 Picolo). 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.

[Tian]

I recall from an interview that the translator of Latin Spanish dub of the anime said she thanked Goku as one of her teachers in Japanese but also she remarks Goku spoke in a "too vulgar" way. She probably didn't like the way he talked and decided to "smart him up" a bit.

[RandomGuy96]

You make it sound like he should have an Appalachian accent.

I mean don't get me wrong, I certainly don't think that some kind of over the top hillbilly redneck southern accent straight out of King of the Hill ought to be the way to go when adapting Goku's speech pattern/dialect into English. I subscribe to the "less is more" principle: some bad grammar, some very low key word slurring/mispronunciation, and maybe the subtlest, faintest hint of a twang in his voice would probably more than get this aspect of the character across just fine without turning him into some kind of Kung Fu Cletus.

Unless I'm misinterpreting Herms' words here: that sounds accurate to the manga version of Goku, who speaks normally bar the occasional informal term and overuse of contractions. But the anime version of Goku has a distinct, specific regional accent denoting him as a 'hillbilly' from the backwoods mountains. In that case, wouldn't giving him an Appalachian English accent be a more accurate adaptation than giving him a General American accent? Keeping in mind that the latter is a creative choice in and of itself.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Mister Popo is the same case, I'd say. According to the English subs derived from the Japanese audio, his Japanese isn't correctly spoken but on the dubs every one of them I've heard makes him sound as polite and respectable as God himself.

And Schemmel's Kaio-sama? Sounds as though he suffers from lisping.

So, the dubs are the way they are. If you want how the characters are supposed to be like then watch the Japanese version or read the manga. Even the best dubs (Brazilian_por and Latin_esp) aren't that precise when it comes to how Goku talks.

[KBABZ]

Mister Popo is the same case, I'd say. According to the English subs derived from the Japanese audio, his Japanese isn't correctly spoken but on the dubs every one of them I've heard makes him sound as polite and respectable as God himself.

And Schemmel's Kaio-sama? Sounds as though he suffers from lisping.

I'm fairly sure that it's done to avoid any bad connotations with Mr. Popo being Kami's uneducated black slave. As for Kaio, I've always suspected that it might be because he looks like a catfish.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Mister Popo is the same case, I'd say. According to the English subs derived from the Japanese audio, his Japanese isn't correctly spoken but on the dubs every one of them I've heard makes him sound as polite and respectable as God himself.

And Schemmel's Kaio-sama? Sounds as though he suffers from lisping.

I'm fairly sure that it's done to avoid any bad connotations with Mr. Popo being Kami's uneducated black slave. As for Kaio, I've always suspected that it might be because he looks like a catfish.

"Black slave" but he's not even human. Mister Popo was turned to purple at one point by 4Kids but not an issue with the rest.

If purple people existed then they'd be offended he was colorized to look like them and appropriate their skin color. lol

[KBABZ]

Mister Popo is the same case, I'd say. According to the English subs derived from the Japanese audio, his Japanese isn't correctly spoken but on the dubs every one of them I've heard makes him sound as polite and respectable as God himself.

And Schemmel's Kaio-sama? Sounds as though he suffers from lisping.

I'm fairly sure that it's done to avoid any bad connotations with Mr. Popo being Kami's uneducated black slave. As for Kaio, I've always suspected that it might be because he looks like a catfish.

"Black slave" but he's not even human.

That's not the point. Unless you were told, people would just assume he's a black guy from the middle-east, based on the fact that he's got a classic blackface look and his clothing is distinctly midde-eastern, like Bulma's attire in the Rabbit village in the Pilaf arc. It's similar to Jinx in Pokémon, the fact that Jinx isn't a human doesn't matter, it's a racist caricature that doesn't fly today, let along Mr. Popo doing that AND having a lower-class dialect.

[MyVisionity]

Mister Popo is the same case, I'd say. According to the English subs derived from the Japanese audio, his Japanese isn't correctly spoken but on the dubs every one of them I've heard makes him sound as polite and respectable as God himself.

I'm fairly sure that it's done to avoid any bad connotations with Mr. Popo being Kami's uneducated black slave.

Somehow I didn't consider that FUNimation had picked up on the "Black slave" connotations, but had simply given Popo that kind of speech because they didn't really care about being consistent with the original Japanese. Although now that you mention it, maybe it was intentional...

Mister Popo was turned to purple at one point by 4Kids but not an issue with the rest.

The very fact that 4Kids went so far as to change his skin color should really speak for itself.

If purple people existed then they'd be offended he was colorized to look like them and appropriate their skin color. lol

I'm really not sure what this is supposed to mean nor how it's relevant to Mister Popo being God's Black slave.

[JohnnyCashKami]

I'm fairly sure that it's done to avoid any bad connotations with Mr. Popo being Kami's uneducated black slave. As for Kaio, I've always suspected that it might be because he looks like a catfish.

"Black slave" but he's not even human.

That's not the point. Unless you were told, people would just assume he's a black guy from the middle-east, based on the fact that he's got a classic blackface look and his clothing is distinctly midde-eastern, like Bulma's attire in the Rabbit village in the Pilaf arc. It's similar to Jinx in Pokémon, the fact that Jinx isn't a human doesn't matter, it's a racist caricature that doesn't fly today, let along Mr. Popo doing that AND having a lower-class dialect.

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.

Oh yeah, games make people violent.

[KBABZ]

Mister Popo is the same case, I'd say. According to the English subs derived from the Japanese audio, his Japanese isn't correctly spoken but on the dubs every one of them I've heard makes him sound as polite and respectable as God himself.

I'm fairly sure that it's done to avoid any bad connotations with Mr. Popo being Kami's uneducated black slave.

Somehow I didn't consider that FUNimation had picked up on the "Black slave" connotations, but had simply given Popo that kind of speech because they didn't really care about being consistent with the original Japanese. Although now that you mention it, maybe it was intentional...

I get what Toriyama was going for, the whole "guy who can't speak well is stronger than Goku who just beat Daimao", but the speaking mannerisms combined with his design just... doesn't work in the West.

[jjgp1112]

You make it sound like he should have an Appalachian accent.

I mean don't get me wrong, I certainly don't think that some kind of over the top hillbilly redneck southern accent straight out of King of the Hill ought to be the way to go when adapting Goku's speech pattern/dialect into English. I subscribe to the "less is more" principle: some bad grammar, some very low key word slurring/mispronunciation, and maybe the subtlest, faintest hint of a twang in his voice would probably more than get this aspect of the character across just fine without turning him into some kind of Kung Fu Cletus.

But again, 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.

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.

Nadolny played Gohan pretty straight, but her Goku always spoke in a somewhat "confused" and withdrawn inflection, like he doesn't quite have a grasp on what he's saying. Like the little kid who can't quite spit it out.

Notably, her GT Kid Goku is more in line with Gohan and sounds super intelligent, although GT in general made Goku way too smart lol.

[MyVisionity]

I get what Toriyama was going for, the whole "guy who can't speak well is stronger than Goku who just beat Daimao"...

I wouldn't give Toriyama that much credit. I think Popo's character is definitely an intentional portrayal of the racist "Black slave" caricature.

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

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