Are the Japanese voices of Dragon Ball too much recycled and full of Miscast?

[Ripper 30]

i have seen this as one of the reasons many dub fans hate the Japanese version because they think that TOEI recycled the same voices far too much like the biggest complain of them is Masako Nozawa voicing Goku, Gohan, Goten, Burdock, Tullece, etc. and Nozawa being criticized for voicing so many characters or everyone voicing their child roles despite not having vocal chords to do such roles and Takeshi Kusao's Kid Trunks is often criticized for this thing. late Hiromi Tsuru also did Blooma, her sister Tights, her daughter Bra and even her Grand daughter, Yuki Minaguchi does Videl, her daughter Pan and her grand daughter too. Hidekatsu Shibata is often criticized for making Yi Xing Long sound like a Grandpa.
whereas in other Long Running Animes like Bleach, Naruto or One Piece they don't make the members of the same family being voiced by same person. so what are your thoughts on it? do you think it's lazy casting from voice directors or it fits them?

[Cure Dragon 255]

HAHAHAAHAHAHA no.

Long Answer,every dub has many repeated voice actors like Portugal, Latin America and even Funimation's English dub. So no.

Also on One Piece, I was super bummed when my fave character in One Piece Jinbe got stuck Daisuke Gori because he had already voiced many other characters. When you reject awesome actors because "They repeat voices too much" the problem is with you, not the talented actors that happen to voice more than one character. And even when Gori died they STILL had him share a seiyuu with another character.

[8000 Saiyan]

I honestly don't mind Nozawa, Minaguchi, Tsuru and Kusao voicing all of those characters. Makes sense, since they're related.

Daisuke Gori was recycled a lot in Dragon Ball, and when it came to vocal range, he was quite limited.

[Vijay]

Different people different perspectives

At least "recycled" Jap voices offered subtle variety that Nozawa beautifully portrayed playing chibi, teenage & adult version of Son's family

I remember used to hate Hidekatsu Shibata's 50year + chainsmoker voice in GT's Syn Shenron. But watchin FMAB, man did he blew me away as Bradley. Such a subtle & controlled performance which was sadly missing as Syn in GT. Guess its da fault of Voice Director/Anime cuz GT was basically a haphazard product right from its animation to storyline & seiyuu's input as well perhaps

I use to debate with Theron Martin (ANN reviewer) regarding DB's seiyuu cast as "Dream Team of Anime Industry" comprising Nozawa, Ryo, Tanaka Mayumi, Toshio Furukawa, Norio Wakamoto etc.

When a character appears on screen, I forget the voice. I only view the characters. Its dat much relatable & grounded.

While I've come to appreciate Funi's much upgraded dubbing aspects & variety over the years, I still lean towards Jap version. Cool

[MrTennek]

Yeah, Japanese cast isn't very good tbh...Very miscast as you put it!

[VegettoEX]

Yeah, Japanese cast isn't very good tbh...Very miscast as you put it!

You're not answering the actual question at hand, specifically regarding the recycling of actors/actresses in to multiple roles.

Your (single-sentence) posts thus far seem to be focused around promoting your love of FUNimation's English dub. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this in and of itself, you may wish to contribute more than this one-note spiel in your forum adventures.

[ABED]

I remember used to hate Hidekatsu Shibata's 50year + chainsmoker voice in GT's Syn Shenron. But watchin FMAB, man did he blew me away as Bradley. Such a subtle & controlled performance which was sadly missing as Syn in GT. Guess its da fault of Voice Director/Anime cuz GT was basically a haphazard product right from its animation to storyline & seiyuu's input as well perhaps

What's wrogn with the chainsmoker voice for the One-Star dragon? How do you figure his performance as one character is subtle and controlled but the other is not?
He fits the design like a glove. What are the naysayers expecting?

I honestly can't think of miscast roles in DB. The only issues I have with the cast are in Kai, especially in the recast roles. I don't doubt that much of that is because I'm so familiar with the original.

[JulieYBM]

The recycling works because they almost never hid it. Gouri Daisuke would just do his thing...his thing just so happens to be good. Actors have to do it all the time on stage when they have limited casts.

[Vijay]

I remember used to hate Hidekatsu Shibata's 50year + chainsmoker voice in GT's Syn Shenron. But watchin FMAB, man did he blew me away as Bradley. Such a subtle & controlled performance which was sadly missing as Syn in GT. Guess its da fault of Voice Director/Anime cuz GT was basically a haphazard product right from its animation to storyline & seiyuu's input as well perhaps

What's wrogn with the chainsmoker voice for the One-Star dragon? How do you figure his performance as one character is subtle and controlled but the other is not?
He fits the design like a glove. What are the naysayers expecting?

I honestly can't think of miscast roles in DB. The only issues I have with the cast are in Kai, especially in the recast roles. I don't doubt that much of that is because I'm so familiar with the original.

Just listen to Hidekatsu's Syn Shenron voice b4 commenting. Its raspy, grates on nerves & hardly comes across as intimidating as it should've been for a Final Boss villain. Watching him trolled by SSJ4 Gogeta was painful to watch especially when he utters "Powa Boru"

Now his Fuhrer Bradley was pitch-perfect. Regal, dominant, subtle calmness yet fiery aggression inside waiting to explode. All these qualities were portrayed with mere 10 min discussion with Colonel Mustang. Now DATS, restrained performance. Knowing his character's depth & limitations

As I said, perhaps Voice director or GT's Anime Supervisor did not bother providing suggestions for Syn.

Suprisingly, I found Funi's Dub Voice to at least attempt to match the badassery of final boss villain.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I don't know about the past but in modern DB it's slightly more problematic I think, probably due to aging cast, but I don't think the voice direction is very good in modern DB in general. There have been many instances of albeit minor characters voices not matching what's on screen, an example Rumoosh's actions were very lively and the VA didn't reflect this. Also times were lip flaps aren't being matched at all. Nozawa's Gohan and Goku are hard to separate when they're fighting, sometimes I've even been confused on who's talking in some instances, also not to forget the disastrous atatatata's (#90 was pretty inducing) Then Nakao playing Frost pretty much like Freeza in the least I can't separate them.

For DBS they should have kept the core characters and recast the rest of them, we even had instances of Nozawa even saying she didn't want Gohan to appear in an episode, why should she say that unless she didn't want to voice him thinking about it their hasn't really been much screen time with Goku and Gohan in DBS and Goten hardly appears.

[8000 Saiyan]

I found Shibata's Omega Shenron voice more unique than Sabat's. Sabat just sounded like Piccolo with a filter.

[ABED]

Just listen to Hidekatsu's Syn Shenron voice b4 commenting. Its raspy, grates on nerves & hardly comes across as intimidating as it should've been for a Final Boss villain.

Yet another person that lists raspy as a negative. I have listened to the voice. It comes across as rough and evil. The One Star Dragon isn't regal. He's pure evil. That's the extent of the character. He's just evil. The roughness of the voice fits a character who is little more than just evil incarnate.

As I said, perhaps Voice director or GT's Anime Supervisor did not bother providing suggestions for Syn.

Suprisingly, I found Funi's Dub Voice to at least attempt to match the badassery of final boss villain.

How would you know and why would it matter if someone got suggestions? All that matters is the final performance, not how it got there. And the FUNi dub voice wasn't badass. It was just Sabat's voice pitched down with a filter.

Watching him trolled by SSJ4 Gogeta was painful to watch

Not sure what this means. Gogeta's more powerful than him, so I don't know what that has to do with the voice.

What does everyone think of Tanaka's take on Fortuneteller Baba in comparison to the original voice? I think it's fitting, but I still prefer the weird masculine voice to Tanaka's. It reminds me of Ed Asner voicing Granny Goodness in the DCAU, but not evil.

[8000 Saiyan]

When it comes to raspy voices, I don't think they're bad or anything like that. It's just that some characters work with them and some do not. Take for example Goten and Trunks. Edwards and Bailey sound more natural in Kai than in Z.

When it comes to Tanaka's Baba, I'm not a fan of it. Takiguchi is much better. Much like Asner's Granny Goodness, it's a casting choice that doesn't sound great on paper, but it sounds great when you hear it.

I think people fail to notice the subtle differences in the voices that Nozawa does. Even Nakao plays Cooler differently than Frieza.

[ABED]

Edwards and Bailey sound more natural in Kai than in Z.

Yes because the rasp wasn't natural. Therein lies the difference.

Even Nakao plays Cooler differently than Frieza.

From what I hear, Freeza is more flamboyant (for lack of a better term), whereas his Cooler is more to the point.

[8000 Saiyan]

Rasp can be good, but if there's too much rasp, it can make the voice forced and limited in emotion. Sabat's Vegeta in the remastered and GT dubs comes to mind. The reason why I preferred Drummond's voice was because it was less raspy. Sure, it was high-pitched and sounded nothing like Horikawa, but Drummond could emote with it better than Sabat. Nowadays, Sabat can emote better with his voice from Kai-onwards.

[Ripper 30]

I found Shibata's Omega Shenron voice more unique than Sabat's. Sabat just sounded like Piccolo with a filter.

agreed, the filter voice of Yi Xing Long in dub sounded way off to me and at times it was hard to understand what he was saying. same was the case with Mike McFarland's Baby Dub Voice which sounded so cartoony and lame with the filter when compared to Yusuke Numata's more psychopath sinister voice in Original.

Even Nakao plays Cooler differently than Frieza.

From what I hear, Freeza is more flamboyant (for lack of a better term), whereas his Cooler is more to the point.

coolers voice was much more deeper and aggressive too.

[8000 Saiyan]

McFarland's Baby voice is cartoony, sure, but some people forget that Shigeru Chiba's Pilaf also sounds cartoony.

[TheGreatness25]

I've never really paid attention to the recycled voices, to be quite honest. Not that I can't hear the similarities, but more that they never particularly stood out in a negative way. I just kind of accepted them.

I don't think this is exclusive to the Japanese version, though. I find it much more plausible that the same voice actor/actress would voice members of the same famiily, than let's say Goku and Nail sounding similar, or Vegeta, Yamucha, and Piccolo sounding similar except with different tones. Even before them, I could spot Scott McNeil's voice coming from other characters, or Krillin's voice coming from other characters. I just think that I'm used to the idea of a recycled cast and don't really put too much thought into it. I mean one of the first voices that you hear in Batman The Animated Series is Bruce Wayne's... coming from a Police officer in a blimp. In Home Movies, I can hear similar voices coming from various characters. Same with Family Guy, American Dad, South Park.

I brought up those examples to show that this isn't exclusive to the Japanese cast. That, plus I'm kind of trained since childhood to think that it's pretty normal, even if I don't like some of them (particularly Sabat's three roles that I mentioned).

To the notion that the Japanese version is "full of miscast," I disagree. There aren't any voices that I point to and feel don't fit the characters. There are some lackluster voices, of course, but nothing that sets off any special bells for me.

[8000 Saiyan]

While I think most of the voices in the Japanese version are great, there are a few that don't work at all like Otomo's King Cold, Chiba's Garlic Jr, Miura's Zarbon and Masuoka and Aikawa's Roshi.

[JulieYBM]

I haven't seen it, but I know that Toei Animation first film (the film that made Miyazaki Hayao fall in love with a fictional character) Hakujaden, has only two voice actors to voice all of the characters in the film. This was early on in the voice acting industry (long before 'seiyuu' was even a word), but apparently it was pulled off.