Dealing with recasts: then and now

[TheRed259]

How were you dealing with recasts in the DB franchise then and how you are dealing with them now?

How were you feeling when a VA got replaced by another one? When a character doesn't sound anymore like he/she used to? Did it bother you or you didn't care that much?

Do you care about recasts nowadays or are you focusing more on the story (which remains the same) and less on the voices?

[JohnnyCashKami]

As long as Masako Nozawa keeps playing the Son family, that's what matters to me. The moment she steps out (whether due to retirement or passing away), Dragon Ball won't be the same at all.

[Robo4900]

On the Japanese side: It's very unfortunate, because the recasts are as I understand it all out of necessity due to health or death. There's no perfect solution in such cases, because Dragon Ball's cast in Japanese is some of the best actors in Japan giving grade-A performances for characters they've been playing since the '80s, or the '90s for some of the late-joiners.
But y'know... If a given performer can't do a role anymore, the show must go on, sad as that reality is.

On the English side: Not counting the studio moves like Funi's move in-house(Which I consider a massive downgrade across the board) and Ocean's move to Blue Water(Which I have mixed feelings on, though there's some strong additions from them; Dave Pettitt is my favourite Shen Long), I only begrudge a handful of the Ocean recasts, particularly Kelamis to Morrow as Goku(I like Morrow, but Kelamis was pretty close to perfect), Brown to Klassen as Roshi(Honestly, I don't think Klassen was a great fit), and Henderson to Michaels as Gohan(Michaels was okay, but Henderson is pretty close to perfect, so...).
In general, though, I've found the English recastings that weren't from studio moves to tend to be of benefit; all Funi's recastings have been for the better(They haven't recast enough, in fact. Kai should have signalled a massive round of recasts, in my opinion), and from the sounds of things, Ocean's recastings in Kai sound great on paper, and I'm psyched to see how they work out in reality when Wow Unlimited get their TV channel up and running in April.

[MasenkoHA]

English or Japanese or?

In Japanese the only thing I’ll say is Muten Roshi’s second voice, the one in GT, was bullshit. But the new dude from Kai and Super was alright just not as good as the first guy

In English pretty much everything from Ocean to Funimation was a huge downgrade.

The few major voice replacements in Kai (Bulma, Freeza, and Gohan) were gigantic improvements over their predecessors. Wasn’t a fan of Colleen Clinkenbeard replacing Meridith Mccoy as 18 though. The only downgrade from Z to Kai

[Majin Buu]

Japanese cast- It sucks, but I'll always have the original TV run to go to when I want to hear the original actors at their best.

English cast- Haven't watched Dragon Ball in English for over a decade now, viewed all of the English voice cast as varying degrees of inferior to the Japanese cast when I still was, and had long stopped watching it in English when they began improving; so the issue of recasts for the English cast is mostly a non-issue for me. That being said though, I think quite a few characters need to be recast to sound decent in English.

[ABED]

Kelamis was pretty close to perfect),

A guy who couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag was perfect? After Corlette, the recast was such a let down.

Rarely am I happy with recasts. It's almost always a downgrade. The only exception being Kai which were all much better across the board. What made me so happy is that the voices I wanted recast did get new voices. I didn't think we'd get a new Bulma or Gohan, but thank god.

It's not even recasts, changes, even seemingly banal ones like line deliveries bug me. I'm so used to hearing things a certain way that hearing even the same actors say it a different way can be unpleasant. It's like hearing the studio version of a song then hearing the live version.

[8000 Saiyan]

I feel some of Kai's recastings worked and some didn't. I love Rial's Bulma, but Clinkenbeard's Gohan could get quite grating on my nerves even if she was good. Jason Douglas was a better fit for King Cold, but I always envisioned King Cold with a more Tony Jay kind of voice. Like Robo said, Kai would have benefitted with more recastings, like for Tenshinhan, Roshi, Kaio, Recoome and Nappa.

Ayres was a breath of fresh air from Linda Young. He really nailed Frieza to a T and it helps that the scripts he worked with were also wonderful.

When it comes to the Japanese version, I suppose I really liked Unsho Ishizuka's Mr. Satan, but Shino Kakinuma's Videl was a downgrade from Yuko Minaguchi. And so were the other voices for Roshi.

[TheBigBoy]

The English recastings in general have been improvements. Freeza in particular.

I still hold the biggest problems with the English dub cast are the guys who have been around the longest (Schemmel, Sabat, Strait etc) but they aren't going anywhere.

[ABED]

Of the three you mentioned, I wouldn't put Strait in that list. Once he dropped the Kuririn on helium from his performance, he's fine. Even then he was one of the better actors they had. Same with Burgmeier as Tenshinhan. He improved a lot of the years and even with the rasp, his performance is good. It's not like the Ocean dub actor, Matt Smith, who was exceedingly awful and over the top.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The English recasts since Kai have all been superb. I know some people have problems with Colleen Clinkenbeard's Gohan but I quite like what she does. I'm excited to see Ocean's dub too. Richard Ian Cox should bebe a huge improvement over all the previous Canadian Gokus, same with Lee Tockar as Freeza.

On the Japanese side, the recasts have been serviceable but nothing to write home about. Aya Hisakawa is fine as Bulma but no one beats Hiromi Tsuru. Likewise with Mr Satan I can appreciate Unsho Ishizuka but Daisuke Gori was the best, although I'm open to a new interpretation for future content.

[MasenkoHA]

The English recasts since Kai have all been superb. I know some people have problems with Colleen Clinkenbeard's Gohan but I quite like what she does.

Her biggest plus is not being Stepahnie Nadolny. She had nowhere to go but up

I'm excited to see Ocean's dub too. Richard Ian Cox should bebe a huge improvement over all the previous Canadian Gokus

I understand why some didn’t like Kelamis’s Goku because his take was a bit....unique. And Marrow’s was a bit too um normal? But Ian Corlett was quite good and still the best English Goku.

I’m cautiously optimistic about Richard Ian Cox as I’m only familiar with his work on Inuyasha. Having Saffron Henderson and Scott Mcneil back alone makes Ocean Kai worth checking out for me.

same with Lee Tockar as Freeza.

I have no idea what to expect from Tockar’s Freeza but I’m happy Ocean is willing to recast and not just reuse as many old voices as possible like Funimation.

. Same with Burgmeier as Tenshinhan. He improved a lot of the years and even with the rasp, his performance is good. It's not like the Ocean dub actor, Matt Smith, who was exceedingly awful and over the top.

I found Burgmeier too be pretty forced and terrible. Thankfully Tenshinhan is pretty minor in Kai outside the fight with Nappa

Smith was also god awful

.

I still hold the biggest problems with the English dub cast are the guys who have been around the longest (Schemmel, Sabat, Strait etc) but they aren't going anywhere.

God, could you imagine the fanboy reaction if Schemmel and Sabat weren’t voicing Goku and Vegeta?

I’d have to wear baggy pants

[8000 Saiyan]

I have no idea what to expect from Tockar’s Freeza but I’m happy Ocean is willing to recast and not just reuse as many old voices as possible like Funimation.

Well, KaiserNeko from TFS heard his Frieza voice. It's apparently a British Mark Hamill Joker voice.

[MasenkoHA]

Well that’s...an interesting take.

Better than the freaky alien genotype voice Barry Watson went for with the Ocean cast with Pauline

[TheRed259]

English or Japanese or?

There are no restrictions. Any DragonBall dub people want to talk about.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Latin American Spanish Dub:

Any recast made by Gloria "La Madrina" Rocha. Nothing short of utterly awesome. Some like Bulma's second half of Z voice and Yajirobe's second voice. Oh and GERARDO REYERO AS FREEZER- She was quite the perfectionist and didnt like the voices being subpar. Eduardo Garza was also an awesome replacement for Krillin, as was Krillin's third voice Luis Daniel Ramirez. If you told a fan they were recast due to payment disputes and or availabilty no one would believe you!

The Irwin Dayaan recasts: I loooooooooooooooooooooooooove Irwin as an actor and person but those were UTTER GARBAGE. Seriously I feel for Karina Altamirano, but she sucked as Gohan and was terribly directed by Irwin. I dont hate Edson Matus but he has literally made a career out of replacing other actors. idzi dutkiewicz was simply good but he was nothing like Carlos Segundo who literally made Piccolo sound like a demon.

[Tian]

I initally hated the recasts for the Latino dub of Kai but now I like them (well, most of them because there are some I still hate)

In fact, I prefer Nappa, Gero and Cell's Kai VAs over their Z VAs. Don't get me wrong. I like the actors but not in those characters. José Luis Castañeda sounded really flat as Nappa and Gero and Ricardo Brust's Cell had that shitty metallic filter which he didn't have in the JPN version or other dubs.

The worst recasts are definitely Gohan, Mr. Satan, Roshi, King Kai, Dodoria and 16.

• Karina Altamirano can't voice kids. Period.

• Bardo Miranda's Mr. Satan was awful. I couldn't tell whether he was doing bad impression of Chris Rager or Roberto Sen. I can say he improved a bit for Super because he voiced Satan in a different way than he did on Kai but it's still far from good.

• It makes me sad that a legendary VA like Jorge Roig gets unfitting roles as Roshi. He had the same problem as McFarland. I couldn't take him seriously as Roshi.

• Leonardo García's King Kai... One word: Horrible.

• Armando Coria's Dodoria was way out of character. The voice definitely didn't fit him.

• Marco Guerrero's 16 never convinced me...

[TheRed259]

Vegeta's VA in the Latin American dub of Kai 1.0 is awesome!

I haven't grown up with this dub but I was so impressed by his deep and brutal voice the first time I heard him!

[Super Sonic]

With the guys mentioning Mr. Cox, a thing with recastings being weird for me was Zeta Gundam. It was recorded in Calgary as opposed to the original being recorded at Ocean in Vancouver. So Kai not sounding like Inuyasha sounded very odd for me. Him more than the others was weird for a moment. Especially since I got into the UC via Dynasty Warriors Gundam first that had still had Mr. Kopsa and Mr. Swaile as Quattro and Amruo as well as a few other different guys as the Zeta cast than who were in the anime's dub some were not how I was expecting.