Between the Funimation dub of Kai and their dub of Super, which would you say is better?

[WittyUsername]

We’re still getting into the debate about whether it’s okay to call people “basement-level hacks” (which Id be pretty insulted by, especially at the implication that I live in my mother’s basement) just because you don’t like their performance in a dub for a children’s cartoon? In that case, is it fair to call Toriyama a hack, given that by all accounts, he’s a pretty lazy and sub par writer who’s terrible at remembering things that he wrote?

Yes, it's fair to call anyone a hack if you believe that they're incredibly bad at what they do. If you think Toriyama's a hack, call him a hack. You wouldn't be the first, and you would't be the last. It's not a personal insult. Naturally, some people will disagree with your assessment, but it's unlikely that you'll have someone spend over a dozen pages insisting that it's not fair to even have such a low opinion of his work. That would be silly.

Pretty sure "basement level" is referring to low quality, not literal basement dwelling.

I mean, I initially said "bargain-basement talentless hack," so I'm not sure how that evolved into "basement-level," which sounds like some shitty Comic Vine tier list title. "Bargain-Basement" is a fairly common American idiom meaning "something you find for cheap," so maybe these guys aren't native speakers, or are British or Australian or something.

Or, again, just looking to be offended so they can complain about people calling them offended.

If your argument is that these guys are hired on the cheap, then your argument doesn’t work. Anime voice acting is a low paying job in general. Everyone who works on these dubs are hired on the cheap.

[gokaiblue]

I think we should just drop this issue and move on.

[ABED]

We're talking dirt cheap. Production was moved from Vancouver to TX in part for that reason. The previous cast made their living being VA's. The TX cast's experience was limited to community theater and the occassional local commercial.

[WittyUsername]

We're talking dirt cheap. Production was moved from Vancouver to TX in part for that reason. The previous cast made their living being VA's. The TX cast's experience was limited to community theater and the occassional local commercial.

That was back in 1999. Most voice actors do start from the bottom. Just look at Steve Blum.

[ABED]

We're talking dirt cheap. Production was moved from Vancouver to TX in part for that reason. The previous cast made their living being VA's. The TX cast's experience was limited to community theater and the occassional local commercial.

That was back in 1999. Most voice actors do start from the bottom. Just look at Steve Blum.

They don't typically cut their teeth doing the big roles of the most popular series. It would be like just starting out and immediately getting Batman, The Joker, and The Riddler. The in-house cast was green and it showed.

[WittyUsername]

We're talking dirt cheap. Production was moved from Vancouver to TX in part for that reason. The previous cast made their living being VA's. The TX cast's experience was limited to community theater and the occassional local commercial.

That was back in 1999. Most voice actors do start from the bottom. Just look at Steve Blum.

They don't typically cut their teeth doing the big roles of the most popular series. It would be like just starting out and immediately getting Batman, The Joker, and The Riddler. The in-house cast was green and it showed.

Yes, they were green, but that’s no longer the case, so saying they are currently still working on the cheap, even by the low standards of anime dubbing, is inaccurate. Also, Dragon Ball wasn’t as popular in the U.S. back in 1999 as it would later end up being. It managed to gain some popularity due to the reruns on Toonami, but it wasn’t quite a phenomenon just yet.

[ABED]

That was back in 1999. Most voice actors do start from the bottom. Just look at Steve Blum.

They don't typically cut their teeth doing the big roles of the most popular series. It would be like just starting out and immediately getting Batman, The Joker, and The Riddler. The in-house cast was green and it showed.

Yes, they were green, but that’s no longer the case, so saying they are currently still working on the cheap, even by the low standards of anime dubbing, is inaccurate.

I don't know what they pay, but I don't believe they are union actors, so they are likely cheaper. That doesn't mean the acting talent pool isn't as good. They've been able to attract a lot of great talent over the years, but that comes with success due to DB's drawing power.

[WittyUsername]

They don't typically cut their teeth doing the big roles of the most popular series. It would be like just starting out and immediately getting Batman, The Joker, and The Riddler. The in-house cast was green and it showed.

Yes, they were green, but that’s no longer the case, so saying they are currently still working on the cheap, even by the low standards of anime dubbing, is inaccurate.

I don't know what they pay, but I don't believe they are union actors, so they are likely cheaper. That doesn't mean the acting talent pool isn't as good. They've been able to attract a lot of great talent over the years, but that comes with success due to DB's drawing power.

I know that Sean Schemmel (who I don’t care for as a person, contrary to what some have insisted) has been getting work in western cartoons like Star vs. the Forces of Evil, so it would seem fair to say that he’s not as cheap now as he was back in 1999.

[8000 Saiyan]

On one hand, I'm glad the Funimation cast got the chance to improve, but on another hand, it probably wasn't a good idea to give them the rights to the Dragon Ball franchise. I mean, they basically had a bunch of inexperienced actors dubbing one of the most popular anime series in the world. I don't see how that was treating the series with care and respect.

[gokaiblue]

On one hand, I'm glad the Funimation cast got the chance to improve, but on another hand, it probably wasn't a good idea to give them the rights to the Dragon Ball franchise. I mean, they basically had a bunch of inexperienced actors dubbing one of the most popular anime series in the world. I don't see how that was treating the series with care and respect.

It was the best decosion they could make at the time I suppose. I can see why people would be outraged over hiring at the time inexperienced actors to take the helm, but I do feel in the end, it did eventually work.out for the best. I can't really imagine anyone else voicing these characters in English now (well, except for the other English casts).

[8000 Saiyan]

It's just a shame that it took them 11 years to make a finally acceptable English dub.

And I'm not sure if I would say that the Funimation cast is irreplaceable. There are actors who could likely play the characters better than them.

[WittyUsername]

It's just a shame that it took them 11 years to make a finally acceptable English dub.

And I'm not sure if I would say that the Funimation cast is irreplaceable. There are actors who could likely play the characters better than them.

I think the closest any Dragon Ball actor can come to truly being irreplaceable is Masako Nozawa. Ryūsei Nakao as Freeza is probably a close second, in my opinion.

[gokaiblue]

It's just a shame that it took them 11 years to make a finally acceptable English dub.

And I'm not sure if I would say that the Funimation cast is irreplaceable. There are actors who could likely play the characters better than them.

True.

I have to agree and disagree with that statement. There are actors that could play these characters as well or better, but at the same time, I dunno. These performances have become so ingrained in most of the fans of the English dub that it would be like replacing Nozawa with someone else, regardless of if they can perform the role better (bit of an extreme example, though).

[8000 Saiyan]

think the closest any Dragon Ball actor can come to truly being irreplaceable is Masako Nozawa. Ryūsei Nakao as Freeza is probably a close second, in my opinion.

To me, most of the Japanese cast is irreplaceable. I don't doubt that Aya Hisakawa will be a good replacement, but Hiromi Tsuru will always be Bulma to me.

I have to agree and disagree with that statement. There are actors that could play these characters as well or better, but at the same time, I dunno. These performances have become so ingrained in most of the fans of the English dub that it would be like replacing Nozawa with someone else, regardless of if they can perform the role better (bit of an extreme example, though).

Point well taken.

As much as I don't care for the Funimation cast, they are the characters to many fans and replacing them would just piss the fans off.

[Kunzait_83]

Well, I haven't been following Kamiccolo's posts; but I have been following Kunzait's. And I don't think his dislike for FUNi's dub is the issue. It's more the way his views are presented that throws some folks for a loop, I think. He's not breaking any rules, but he's not making it easy to engage him, either.

People are more than free (and welcome) to engage with me in whatever the hell I say or think: the only thing I simply ask is for people to not get so personally upset and offended when I don't agree in any way with the fanbase's "conventional wisdom" on something. In this case, that conventional wisdom being that "the FUNimation actors have DRAMATICALLY improved over the years".

I'll cop that they've MARGINALLY and INCREMENTALLY improved across the years, sure: but NOT that the improvement is to such thoroughly vast gulfs of degrees. Sorry, I'm not hearing it throughout ANY of these latter performances and clips: to whatever degrees they've shifted their voices, it isn't anywhere NEAR enough for it to sound anything other than cringingly corny and hamfisted and, once again the word that is most often returned to in describing them CONSISTENTLY throughout the decades... forced. They STILL sound forced and PAINFULLY unnatural in these roles, even after 20 years.

The core of the issue here seems to be not so much that I don't like these performances, but that I don't like them to the point that I don't respect these guys (Sabat, Schemmel and co) as actors. And sorry, but that's very much true: I DON'T "respect" them as actors, nor am I OBLIGATED to, as seems to be what the implication is here.

That DOESN'T mean I disrespect them as PEOPLE, no: as fellow human beings I hold absolutely NO ill will towards a single one of them, and wish them nothing but the very, very best in their personal lives and endeavors. Absolutely.

But as professionals? As actors and performers? Yeah, no: not a HINT of respect do I hold for a single one of them on THAT particular level. They simply haven't EARNED it in my estimation. Now, does my estimation somehow count for MORE than anyone else's? Than any of yours in here? Of fucking COURSE not. Nor did I EVER ONCE even come CLOSE to claiming that it did. But because this is a free discussion forum, all I'm simply giving is that: MY outlook, which I'm entitled to give here, no different than any single one of you.

What I'm NOT entitled to do is to have my outlook sugar-coated to conform to that of the other folks in here (even a majority of them) simply because it hurts their feelings and steps on their personal childhood baggage with these voices.

And I'm sorry to once more state the obvious here: but not all of us are in hive-minded agreement on this stuff. None of these actors' voices are "iconic" or "ingrained" to me with these characters in the absolute slightest. They've ALWAYS been fuck-awful in these roles, to only MILDLY fluctuating levels throughout the years/decades, and awful to a point where I don't hold the slightest inch of respect for a single one of them as actors. NOT AS PEOPLE mind you, just as actors. Nor am I in any way OBLIGATED TO. Why should I respect their "talents" (or lack thereof) when none of them have EVER come close to delivering a SINGLE performance as one of these characters across TWENTY YEARS now that I've found to be anything but unbearable and unlistenable?

We’re still getting into the debate about whether it’s okay to call people “basement-level hacks” (which Id be pretty insulted by, especially at the implication that I live in my mother’s basement)

"Bargain-basement", as noted, is a euphemism for "cheap".

And also I'm relatively sure, at least by my interpretation of his use of the idiom (though he's free to correct me if I'm wrong here), that Kamiccolo didn't mean LITERALLY cheap in terms of whatever actual salary these actors command today (since I'm fairly sure he neither knows nor gives a rat's ass what figures these people are being paid today): he very likely simply means that their performances are still, even after 20 years, bad enough that they still COME ACROSS like the kinds of actors who one would hire on the cheap, due to the crummy nature of their performances. In which case yes, I would very, very much agree with that sentiment.

This has officially reached levels of pedantry and "needing to over-explain what obvious and well-known euphemisms mean" that is through-the-looking-glass degrees of absurd.

I'm obviously not Kunzait. But I think his answer would be something like...

"Yes, it would be ok to call Akira Toriyama a basement-dwelling hack. Just don't expect me to let that go without engaging you in another debate. Not because I think you did anything wrong, but because I disagree with you".

Is that right, Kunzait?

I'm sorry, do I know you? Are you an old friend of mine that knows me very well that I'm simply not recognizing? Or are you psychic? If the latter, mind telling me what the next lottery numbers are gonna be? That'd be cool.

If none of those are the case though, then please do me a favor: don't put words in my mouth or speak on my behalf.

But to actually answer the question (myself, and without any "help" from complete strangers with no clue as to what's going on inside my head, thanks): not only would I not give a shit if someone called Toriyama a "bargain-basement hack", I actually HAVE been privy to PLENTY of people throughout the years who've called the guy exactly that and WAY worse.

And no, I didn't get "personally outraged" by it nor did I leap to his defense like a lioness protecting her cubs whilst claiming to be "personally offended on his behalf".

I shrugged, maybe a few times said "Yeah, I don't agree with that at all, the guy can at a bare minimum CLEARLY draw like a motherfucker." and went about my day without giving it another thought.

Gokng to have to disagree with you on their delivery being worse since Kai. I'd say it's actually improved immemsely, especially for Schemmel. Ever sonce Xenoverse, he's been an English Nozawa essentially, and he brings that to TFC and Super. It just seems so natural. The only times where he feels even slightly forced is when he plays Goku Black.

I have to agree and disagree with that statement. There are actors that could play these characters as well or better, but at the same time, I dunno. These performances have become so ingrained in most of the fans of the English dub that it would be like replacing Nozawa with someone else, regardless of if they can perform the role better (bit of an extreme example, though).

So once more, in the spirit of healthy/respectful disagreement, I'm going to say: not only do I disagree with this assessment, I think that it is Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards levels of "stretching it".

Comparing Schemmel to Nozawa is like comparing a stale Big Mac to a fresh home-cooked burger: they're not within the same GALAXY as one another, and asserting that they are is just taking one's fondness for the former waaaaaaay too far. You're entitled to think that, I'm not taking it away from you: but I'm also entitled to say that "that's a totally lough-out-loud ridiculous comparison".

All the more so with the "it just seems so natural" comment: if there's ANYTHING that Schemmel's Goku is, its the DIRECT ANTITHESIS of "natural". The only time he even brushes with natural is when he's being upbeat, happy, silly, fun, and loose Goku. Those scenes he's fine: he's not great, he's damn sure not "iconic" or "irreplaceable": but he's serviceable (these days at least). Tolerable. Gets the job done fine.

Anytime he's ANYTHING ELSE BUT happy/goofy/cheerful Goku though? Anytime he's in a scene that requires serious, dramatic acting chops? Or worse yet, anytime he's required to do a fight scene? Which you know, is an AWFUL LOT of times considering that this is a martial arts fighting show? He's among the most unnatural, awkward, uncomfortable, stilted, unconvincing embarrassments amongst the ENTIRE cast by far.

Not a DAMN word out of his mouth that has to be delivered with anything approaching seriousness or gravitas comes within lightyears of sounding convincing. He STILL to this day, when doing fight scenes, sounds like someone struggling with a massively crippling digestive issue. Everything is strained, everything sounds like he's TRYING. SO. DESPERATELY. HARD!!! To get it out.

My take on it is simply that people are simply SO used to his voice, SO used to his style from constant repeated listens after 20 years, that THAT'S mainly why it now sounds "iconic", "irreplaceable" and "natural". Or at least that's a significant part of the issue anyway. It certainly isn't because the guy is some great voice acting talent who acclimates himself so smoothly and naturally to this particular character. I'm sorry, but I simply do not in any way even remotely agree with that view; and no, that DOESN'T mean that I personally have it out for the guy, or have it out for anyone in here who thinks that the guy is the second coming of 1970s Al Pacino.

It simply means that I disagree; as does Kamiccolo, and hell even the guy who runs this very site himself. Does that mean that your views are now "invalid"? NO of course not. All it means is that... we just don't all agree on this. Thus there isn't a universally held-to positive view about the DBZ English cast, thus this isn't a point that the fanbase can all "unite and rally" around together. Sorry: these voices, even in 2018, are STILL divisive and not well liked in some corners. Not because of anything personal to do with the actors as individuals: but because the "acting talents" of a lot of these folks is something that CAN at a bare minimum be called into question.

[WittyUsername]

No one has ever said you’re obligated to respect their acting ability, but you generally don’t refer to someone as a talentless hack, unless you’re looking to start an argument. A dub of low budget cartoons that involve poop jokes and old men sexually harassing underage girls doesn’t require Oscar caliber acting in the first place, so what exactly are the expectations for these kinds of roles to begin with?

[8000 Saiyan]

No one has ever said you’re obligated to respect their acting ability, but you generally don’t refer to someone as a talentless hack, unless you’re looking to start an argument. A dub of low budget cartoons that involve poop jokes and old men sexually harassing underage girls doesn’t require Oscar caliber acting in the first place, so what exactly are the expectations for these kinds of roles to begin with?

Sounding professional, I guess?

[WittyUsername]

No one has ever said you’re obligated to respect their acting ability, but you generally don’t refer to someone as a talentless hack, unless you’re looking to start an argument. A dub of low budget cartoons that involve poop jokes and old men sexually harassing underage girls doesn’t require Oscar caliber acting in the first place, so what exactly are the expectations for these kinds of roles to begin with?

Sounding professional, I guess?

How do you define “professional”? The big problem with this argument about these guys being talentless hacks is that they aren’t giving any examples of why that’s the case. If you’re going to make statement alike that, back them up. Explain why you believe these guys haven’t made any noticeable improvements over the course of 20 years. Explain why they sound cheap.

[Kunzait_83]

No one has ever said you’re obligated to respect their acting ability, but you generally don’t refer to someone as a talentless hack, unless you’re looking to start an argument.

No, it isn't "looking to start" a damn thing. Only people who A) don't understand what the word "hack" means in the first place, or B) are unhealthily, creepily over-invested, to borderline obsessive personal degrees, with these actors, would "take offense" to that use of the word and thus start a ridiculous fight over it.

A dub of low budget cartoons that involve poop jokes and old men sexually harassing underage girls doesn’t require Oscar caliber acting in the first place, so what exactly are the expectations for these kinds of roles to begin with?

Like I said before: James Marsters, an actor whom I personally like a fair bit myself, is in NO WAY some great, all-time awesome acting giant. He's a reasonably solid, mid-level professional, AT BEST. And even HE is capable of utterly TROUNCING this entire cast, who've been voicing these same exact characters for over twenty fucking years now, within his first time ever in the recording booth. Same goes for Ayers and a few of the other Kai-recastings: Linda Young voiced Freeza for YEARS without an OUNCE of improvement, and Ayers completely decimated her interpretation within very short order of his taking it over.

This speaks untold volumes as to the abject lack of talent of many of these folks and just how easily outclassed they are by even the most middle of the road professional actors out there who aren't within the FUNimation bubble.

I don't know how many times I need to keep repeating this point: I'm not asking for Oscar-caliber acting giants to take over these roles. AT ALL. I don't think that high grade, high level acting titans are in ANY WAY "required" to inhabit roles like Chinese Kung Fu Hillbilly, Green Space Slug Mystic, Space Prince With Vegetable Hair, and Catfish God. Thinking that that's what I, or ANYBODY ELSE in here, is asking for is comically, ludicrously missing the point.

A C-level actor like Marsters being able to blow these guys out of the recording booth within five minutes of his showing up (despite their doing these same roles for again TWENTY. STRAIGHT. YEARS.) is in NO WAY a testament to how great and awesome of an actor Marsters is (he's perfectly fine, but not fantastic by any means): its a testament to just HOW SHITTY AND AWFUL the "legacy cast" is, was, and HAS ALWAYS been up till now.

All I'm asking for is BASIC QUALITY CONTROL over this show's English language version. Something it hasn't had (not ENTIRELY or CONSISTENTLY at least) in over 20+ years now. I'm not asking for spectacular, Golden Globe winning talent to take over: I'm asking for even reasonably middle of the road TV-level talent to maybe step in, as opposed to the guys who were randomly plucked from obscurity and haven't been able to fully aclimate themselves in these parts after twenty straight fucking years of doing them.

[gokaiblue]

Well, I haven't been following Kamiccolo's posts; but I have been following Kunzait's. And I don't think his dislike for FUNi's dub is the issue. It's more the way his views are presented that throws some folks for a loop, I think. He's not breaking any rules, but he's not making it easy to engage him, either.

People are more than free (and welcome) to engage with me in whatever the hell I say or think: the only thing I simply ask is for people to not get so personally upset and offended when I don't agree in any way with the fanbase's "conventional wisdom" on something. In this case, that conventional wisdom being that "the FUNimation actors have DRAMATICALLY improved over the years".

I'll cop that they've MARGINALLY and INCREMENTALLY improved across the years, sure: but NOT that the improvement is to such thoroughly vast gulfs of degrees. Sorry, I'm not hearing it throughout ANY of these latter performances and clips: to whatever degrees they've shifted their voices, it isn't anywhere NEAR enough for it to sound anything other than cringingly corny and hamfisted and, once again the word that is most often returned to in describing them CONSISTENTLY throughout the decades... forced. They STILL sound forced and PAINFULLY unnatural in these roles, even after 20 years.

The core of the issue here seems to be not so much that I don't like these performances, but that I don't like them to the point that I don't respect these guys (Sabat, Schemmel and co) as actors. And sorry, but that's very much true: I DON'T "respect" them as actors, nor am I OBLIGATED to, as seems to be what the implication is here.

That DOESN'T mean I disrespect them as PEOPLE, no: as fellow human beings I hold absolutely NO ill will towards a single one of them, and wish them nothing but the very, very best in their personal lives and endeavors. Absolutely.

But as professionals? As actors and performers? Yeah, no: not a HINT of respect do I hold for a single one of them on THAT particular level. They simply haven't EARNED it in my estimation. Now, does my estimation somehow count for MORE than anyone else's? Than any of yours in here? Of fucking COURSE not. Nor did I EVER ONCE even come CLOSE to claiming that it did. But because this is a free discussion forum, all I'm simply giving is that: MY outlook, which I'm entitled to give here, no different than any single one of you.

What I'm NOT entitled to do is to have my outlook sugar-coated to conform to that of the other folks in here (even a majority of them) simply because it hurts their feelings and steps on their personal childhood baggage with these voices.

And I'm sorry to once more state the obvious here: but not all of us are in hive-minded agreement on this stuff. None of these actors' voices are "iconic" or "ingrained" to me with these characters in the absolute slightest. They've ALWAYS been fuck-awful in these roles, to only MILDLY fluctuating levels throughout the years/decades, and awful to a point where I don't hold the slightest inch of respect for a single one of them as actors. NOT AS PEOPLE mind you, just as actors. Nor am I in any way OBLIGATED TO. Why should I respect their "talents" (or lack thereof) when none of them have EVER come close to delivering a SINGLE performance as one of these characters across TWENTY YEARS now that I've found to be anything but unbearable and unlistenable?

We’re still getting into the debate about whether it’s okay to call people “basement-level hacks” (which Id be pretty insulted by, especially at the implication that I live in my mother’s basement)

"Bargain-basement", as noted, is a euphemism for "cheap".

And also I'm relatively sure, at least by my interpretation of his use of the idiom (though he's free to correct me if I'm wrong here), that Kamiccolo didn't mean LITERALLY cheap in terms of whatever actual salary these actors command today (since I'm fairly sure he neither knows nor gives a rat's ass what figures these people are being paid today): he very likely simply means that their performances are still, even after 20 years, bad enough that they still COME ACROSS like the kinds of actors who one would hire on the cheap, due to the crummy nature of their performances. In which case yes, I would very, very much agree with that sentiment.

This has officially reached levels of pedantry and "needing to over-explain what obvious and well-known euphemisms mean" that is through-the-looking-glass degrees of absurd.

Agreed....which is why most of us have moved past that. No need to bring it up again.

Gokng to have to disagree with you on their delivery being worse since Kai. I'd say it's actually improved immemsely, especially for Schemmel. Ever sonce Xenoverse, he's been an English Nozawa essentially, and he brings that to TFC and Super. It just seems so natural. The only times where he feels even slightly forced is when he plays Goku Black.

So once more, in the spirit of healthy/respectful disagreement, I'm going to say: not only do I disagree with this assessment, I think that it is Mr. Fantastic levels of "stretching it".

Comparing Schemmel to Nozawa is like comparing a stale Big Mac to a fresh home-cooked burger: they're not within the same GALAXY as one another, and asserting that they are is just taking one's fondness for the former waaaaaaay too far. You're entitled to think that, I'm not taking it away from you: but I'm also entitled to say that "that's a totally ridiculous comparison".

All the more so with the "it just seems so natural" comment: if there's ANYTHING that Schemmel's Goku is, its the DIRECT ANTITHESIS of "natural". The only time he even brushes with natural is when he's being upbeat, happy, silly, fun, and loose Goku. Those scenes he's fine: he's not great, he's damn sure not "iconic" or "irreplaceable": but he's serviceable (these days at least). Tolerable. Gets the job done fine.

Anytime he's ANYTHING ELSE BUT happy/goofy/cheerful Goku though? Anytime he's in a scene that requires serious, dramatic acting chops? Or worse yet, anytime he's required to do a fight scene? Which you know, is an AWFUL LOT of times considering that this is a martial arts fighting show? He's among the most unnatural, awkward, uncomfortable, stilted, unconvincing embarrassments amongst the ENTIRE cast by far.

Not a DAMN word out of his mouth that has to be delivered with anything approaching seriousness or gravitas comes within lightyears of sounding convincing. He STILL to this day, when doing fight scenes, sounds like someone struggling with a massively crippling digestive issue. Everything is strained, everything sounds like he's TRYING. SO. DESPERATELY. HARD!!! To get it out.

My take on it is simply that people are simply SO used to his voice, SO used to his style from constant repeated listens after 20 years, that THAT'S mainly why it now sounds "iconic", "irreplaceable" and "natural". Or at least that's a significant part of the issue anyway. It certainly isn't because the guy is some great voice acting talent who acclimates himself so smoothly and naturally to this particular character. I'm sorry, but I simply do not in any way even remotely agree with that view; and no, that DOESN'T mean that I personally have it out for the guy, or have it out for anyone in here who thinks that the guy is the second coming of 1970s Al Pacino.

It simply means that I disagree; as does Kamiccolo, and hell even the guy who runs this very site himself. Does that mean that your views are now "invalid"? NO of course not. All it means is that... we just don't all agree on this. Thus there isn't a universally held-to positive view about the DBZ English cast, thus this isn't a point that the fanbase can all "unite and rally" around together. Sorry: these voices, even in 2018, are STILL divisive and not well liked in some corners. Not because of anything personal to do with the actors as individuals: but because the "acting talents" of a lot of these folks is something that CAN at a bare minimum be called into question.

The fact of the matter is that these voices have become iconic and ingrained in the fans of the dub's minds. There's still a controversy over the change from Nadonly to Clinkenbeard as Kid Gohan and Goku. Imagine the outrage if the whole cast was replaced, even if the actors were better. That's all I was saying. Although I think Nozawa and Schemmel are at least on par with each other (Nozawa is still a legend though), that wasn't really my point in that statement. My point was because fans of the cast's performance have attached their performances with the character (myself included), that a massive change such as wjat you think should happen would be disatourous.

In regards to what you think of Schemmel's performance, I'll have to disagree with you there as well. He hasn't sounded like he's "struggling with a digestive issue" since Kai started. In fact, I dare say his performance during fight scenes mimics Nozawa rather well. There are also several moments where I feel he does approach lines with seriousness and gravitas ("I am" speech being a big example), but that's just my opinion.

No one has ever said you’re obligated to respect their acting ability, but you generally don’t refer to someone as a talentless hack, unless you’re looking to start an argument. A dub of low budget cartoons that involve poop jokes and old men sexually harassing underage girls doesn’t require Oscar caliber acting in the first place, so what exactly are the expectations for these kinds of roles to begin with?

Sounding professional, I guess?

And these guys do sound professional. Am I saying they're the best in their field? Not necessarily, but they definitely at least sound professional to me.