Masako Nozawa Interview - ComicBook.com

[CTAkuma]

I'm feeling like this is what Nozawa wants Goku to be instead of the childish, idiotic and to an extent one dimensional Goku we got in Super

[Cipher]

While Nozawa's interpretation of Goku might be off if she fully believes his primary goal is protecting and changing others, rather than those being accidental offshoots of his single-minded pursuits of martial arts (which Toriyama seems to believe they are, and selfish characters being others close to them through their drive and doing accidental good as a group is a motif that spans pretty much all of his work), I can see where she's coming from in terms of wanting villains to "come over to his side" and stop hurting others. That does hold true. Particularly because he loves challenge, I don't think there's an enemy in the series he doesn't wish would just stop being evil so they can be a training partner/friend.

Piccolo, Vegeta, Freeza, Cell, Boo--there isn't a single one of he doesn't express a desire to fight again if only they'd be a bit less dangerous. (Zamasu/Black is maybe the single major villain out of all of them he probably never wants to see again.)

Okay, well, and maybe not Cell, because for whatever reason he never earns Goku's love, but he does at least ask him to stop killing.

The part she doesn't seem to identify with, which is part of the text of the story, is that sometimes that want for challenge can lead to Goku being permissive with enemies and callous with innocents' lives even when he knows it's wrong. Yes, he wants Vegeta to be his friend so they can fight again, but he also knows, and flat-out admits, that he knows it's selfish/wrong for him to ask Kuririn to let him go and gamble with everyone's lives. A similar scene occurs in the climax of the Namek arc when he tells Kaio he'll never forgive him if he doesn't allow him and Freeza to finish their fight. And his toying with everyone's safety is part of the setup for the Boo arc. This separates him from the rare genuinely altruistic characters like Gohan and Future Trunks, who truly do put protecting others first. (Though Trunks notably doesn't possess Goku's trusting spirit and willingness/desire to have enemies turn over a new leaf, even if that trait of Goku's is selfishly motivated, and that seems to be something Nozawa rightfully considers to be one of Goku's unique and positive qualities.)

So, like, as always: a little of column A, a little of column B. One of the good things about Goku is that he views everyone as a potential friend. One of the bad things is that even when he knows he shouldn't do that, his absolute need for challenge drives him to make callous decisions that aren't motivated by altruism at all.

Goku is trusting and that's good. He's also selfish and that's bad, but winds up having good outcomes because that's the way the moral universes of Toriyama's narratives work. (Yeah, yeah, he and Toyotaro can claim he doesn't have themes, but you don't get to write the same story like twenty times and still claim that.)

[Doctor.]

I don't think Goku will let anyone else act as him, either.

Also, funny unintentional jab at Schemmel.

[Dbzfan94]

I don't think Goku will let anyone else act as him, either.

Also, funny unintentional jab at Schemmel.

And literally any other language dub.

[Forte224]

Eww, ComicBook.com is one of my absolute least favorite click bait "nerd pop culture" (or whatever you want to call them) sites.

Anyway, people that think Nozawa doesn't understand Goku based on an interview with ComicBook.com need to take a step back I think. Nozawa understands Goku, we hear it in her performance, we don't need her words to be spot on. Clearly some of this is her projecting out what she feels Goku feels deep inside. A lot of it sounds even a bit poetic, as opposed to a definitive statement of who Goku is.

That's how it sounds to me anyway.

[ABED]

I like Comicbook.com. It's comicbookmovie.com (more Josh Wilding) that I find problematic. They have a huge problem of editorializing in their stories or even some of their headlines. For whatever issues Comicbook.com has, it's clearly run by fans.

I've seen plenty of actors who are more or less just paid to voice a character and they don't give it much more thought than that. They are professional and do a good job, but it's just a job. Nozawa's love of Goku is very sweet.

[ekrolo2]

I like Comicbook.com. It's comicbookmovie.com (more Josh Wilding) that I find problematic. They have a huge problem of editorializing in their stories or even some of their headlines. For whatever issues Comicbook.com has, it's clearly run by fans.

What, you don't like Josh "I will bash you over the head with my biases in every single article" Wilding?

[ABED]

I like Comicbook.com. It's comicbookmovie.com (more Josh Wilding) that I find problematic. They have a huge problem of editorializing in their stories or even some of their headlines. For whatever issues Comicbook.com has, it's clearly run by fans.

What, you don't like Josh "I will bash you over the head with my biases in every single article" Wilding?

It's shocking isn't it?

Anyway, I do find Nozawa's views on Goku to be a little naïve, but I love her passion for the character. It comes through in the performance. She never phones it in.

[Lukmendes]

Piccolo, Vegeta, Freeza, Cell, Boo--there isn't a single one of he doesn't express a desire to fight again if only they'd be a bit less dangerous. (Zamasu/Black is maybe the single major villain out of all of them he probably never wants to see again.)

Funny, Freeza used to be a villain Goku never wants to see again, but in RoF he has inexplicably mellowed out to Freeza.

[Doctor.]

I've seen plenty of actors who are more or less just paid to voice a character and they don't give it much more thought than that. They are professional and do a good job, but it's just a job. Nozawa's love of Goku is very sweet.

Let's be fair here. Every actor playing a character for this long would love him as much as Nozawa loves Goku. I haven't seen any actor who doesn't feel that way toward a character they've been playing for a long time. Mark Hamill, for instance, clearly loves Luke Skywalker even though he's had much less time playing him than Nozawa has been playing Goku.

[ABED]

I've seen plenty of actors who are more or less just paid to voice a character and they don't give it much more thought than that. They are professional and do a good job, but it's just a job. Nozawa's love of Goku is very sweet.

Let's be fair here. Every actor playing a character for this long would love him as much as Nozawa loves Goku. I haven't seen any actor who doesn't feel that way toward a character they've been playing for a long time. Mark Hamill, for instance, clearly loves Luke Skywalker even though he's had much less time playing him than Nozawa has been playing Goku.

Hamill was always a geek. He's one of us.

[Cipher]

Funny, Freeza used to be a villain Goku never wants to see again, but in RoF he has inexplicably mellowed out to Freeza.

He's mellowed on Freeza even by the end of their first fight.

[Lukmendes]

Funny, Freeza used to be a villain Goku never wants to see again, but in RoF he has inexplicably mellowed out to Freeza.

He's mellowed on Freeza even by the end of their first fight.

True, but Goku still seemed to be pissed at him, in RoF Goku doesn't even show slight annoyance at Freeza returning.

[ABED]

Understandable given how much stronger Goku got. Now Freeza seems like little more than a persistent annoyance than a genuine threat.

[Cipher]

Understandable given how much stronger Goku got. Now Freeza seems like little more than a persistent annoyance than a genuine threat.

Freeza's also done Goku's favorite thing and gotten way stronger through hard work. Probably took some of the edge off.

[ABED]

Understandable given how much stronger Goku got. Now Freeza seems like little more than a persistent annoyance than a genuine threat.

Freeza's also done Goku's favorite thing and gotten way stronger through hard work. Probably took some of the edge off.

But still committed the same mistake that cost him the first time.

[Lukmendes]

Understandable given how much stronger Goku got. Now Freeza seems like little more than a persistent annoyance than a genuine threat.

I didn't mean him being a threat, just Freeza returning at all, 'cause Freeza is still one of the two villains who really made Goku pissed, and unlike Piccolo, he didn't change for Goku to melow out to the point of sparing him again, which is something Future Goku didn't do, and even in that Freeza wasn't that much of a threat for him (Considering Trunks is said to have around the same power level as Goku and he easily dispatched of Freeza).

[ABED]

Understandable given how much stronger Goku got. Now Freeza seems like little more than a persistent annoyance than a genuine threat.

I didn't mean him being a threat, just Freeza returning at all, 'cause Freeza is still one of the two villains who really made Goku pissed, and unlike Piccolo, he didn't change for Goku to melow out to the point of sparing him again, which is something Future Goku didn't do, and even in that Freeza wasn't that much of a threat for him (Considering Trunks is said to have around the same power level as Goku and he easily dispatched of Freeza).

He calmed down even by the end of their first fight. If he doesn't see them as a threat, he's not going to show much hostility.

[FortuneSSJ]

I don't think Goku will let anyone else act as him, either.

Also, funny unintentional jab at Schemmel.

Now imagine Feist reading that.

[ekrolo2]

Nozawa's got an interesting view of him, though one I don't think really jives with some recent events, specifically the ToP where he kicks things off purely to cure his own boredom and its only a really lucky, and unforeseeable series of events that lets things NOT end with everyone dead.