Does JP Goku really sound like a woman to a non watcher/follower of Dragon Ball? Or is it informed by cultural osmosis?

[dragondyle]

I honestly could never tell that Goku is voiced by a woman nor can I still! It’s weird because Goku’s voice doesn’t like male or female to me. He just sounds like Goku and I think that’s a true telling of Masako’s enormous talent in playing all these characters in Dragon Ball. The stigma that some people put on Goku’s Japanese voice is definitely from cultural osmosis, in my opinion.

[Venus]

Not at all! JP Goku doesn't sounds like a woman, neither does Gohan/Goten, I find that her voice suits Goku really well too because of the childish tone Nozawa gives to Goku.

[doomydoomydoom]

I would say the reason some fans go on and on about that sort of crap is because they are only familiar with Z or have only glanced the Japanese version of Z.

I'm one of those rare, rare fans (virtually non-existent maybe in my generation) who only started watching the franchise with DVDs of the original Dragon Ball series, subbed of course. I had a black DBZ T-shirt when I was 6 years old, and there are photos of me wearing it, yet I never watched DBZ, even after we got satellite TV in 2002. I was simply never interested. It wasn't until I became an anime buff in 2005 that I got interested in the series, and picked up the first 2 volumes of the Viz release of the manga. So I even started from the beginning with the manga as well. I dropped it once I realized it was censored.

Anyway, if you just start from the original Dragon Ball series and then transition to Z, it's very clear that Goku is supposed to sound like a boy. I thought that fact was always very obvious. Of course some kid who totally ignores the first half of the story in the 1986 series and just previews a scene of Goku going SSJ in Japanese or something, of course they're going to be very surprised and they're going to find it hilarious. Nobody points at Monkey D. Luffy and says HA! HE SOUNDS LIKE A WOMAN! EVEN IN ENGLISH!!! It is known that Luffy is supposed to sound like a BOY, because he's the star of a SHONEN JUMP series!

Another piece of the theory is that people just like to bag on the Japanese version of Z, and Goku "being voiced by a woman" is the prime target. Even outside of the non-anime buff types who like to make fun of the weeaboos, anime buffs who grew up with the dub of Z tend to say they would NEVER watch DBZ in Japanese, it's just weird, etc. I've even heard this from the sub-only types who say there are only 2 dubs which are better than and should only be watched over the original-language versions: DBZ and Cowboy Bebop. Both are baffling to me. I have never seen either dubbed outside of brief clips and never will.

[Android 21]

First time I heard it, I knew he was being played by a woman immediately. He sounds like an old banshee. Being forced to listen to it before the dub started actually made him sound less and less like a woman to my ears.

So yes, he does sound like a woman. Doesn’t even sound close to a man. Someone that’s used to his voice and associates it with a male character is obviously going to say otherwise, but the people that aren’t are the ones you should listen to.

[GamerSkull]

Nobody points at Monkey D. Luffy and says HA! HE SOUNDS LIKE A WOMAN! EVEN IN ENGLISH!!! It is known that Luffy is supposed to sound like a BOY, because he's the star of a SHONEN JUMP series!

Not to say I disagree with the rest of your post but... I think people don't do it with Luffy because Luffy's relatively young and very skinny.

With Goku, it might seem weird to see a person of his age and bulk to sound the way he does in japanese... especially since a lot of people seemed to have watched Z first in the U.S.
I do think, however, that it feels natural if you see him go from Kid Goku to the version he was during the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, and then into his 20s afterwards.

I also want to say that I prefer Goku's japanese voice but I also like Sean Schemmel's voicework on him too.

[ABED]

I can't remember where I read it but I think it holds up pretty well - Schemmel's Goku more closely matches his body type, whereas Nozawa's Goku more closely matches his personality.