Schemmel says that Nozawa told him they wanted to replace her for the role of adult Goku

[TheRed259]

That's the first time I hear this story:
https://youtu.be/Twd7uNgv6xk?t=2462

Has this been reported somewhere else as well?

[MasenkoHA]

I'm not saying he's lying or Nozawa is lying but is it possible Schemmel is just misremembering or misunderstanding a prior conversation he had with her?

It's not really a unique situation to Nozawa even in Dragon Ball. Mayumi Tanaka also got to continue voicing Kuririn as an adult.

And while I can't think of any examples prior to Dragon Ball, I can certainly think of examples of Japanese voice actresses continuing to voice male characters after they've become adults. Although you can argue that's Dragon Ball's influence in Japan at work, if it was only a trend that started after.

If anything it seems more of an exception to switch out voice actors in Japan when a character is aged up. I know it happened in Digimon Adventure to 02 with Takeru but I also think the voice actress had quit so the studio just seized to opportunity to recast with a male voice actor.

[GokuDaimao]

If anything it seems more of an exception to switch out voice actors in Japan when a character is aged up. I know it happened in Digimon Adventure to 02 with Takeru but I also think the voice actress had quit so the studio just seized to opportunity to recast with a male voice actor.

Hiroko Konishi (Takeru from Digimon Adventure) did not quit. She was fired after Akitaro Daichi had her blacklisted.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/intere ... ry/.143311

[dva_raza]

Wow. I had the idea she stayed because of personal reasons, them knowing how she works and having bonded obviously, along with the fact that she had a status with fans already. But if she reauditioned it means they at least considered actually evolving the voice to suit an adult male, so this makes it a little less weird for me.

is it possible Schemmel is just misremembering or misunderstanding

It would be a random assumption to make considering how concrete he was in the story he told

[VegettoEX]

If this information has a source, it likely would have been their duo panel from Animazement 2013-

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2013/05/27/a ... -3-report/

I didn't note anything about that specific story in my write-up there, so that probably says something. Then again, this isn't the first time I've heard this pop up, sooooooo maybe it's worth going back and checking it out? I have personal audio recordings from every panel that weekend, so I can certainly do so... at some point.

[Hellspawn28]

When Nozawa does pass away one day, she will probably be replace by another voice actor that sounds similar. They already did that with Lupin.

[Tian]

I'm not saying he's lying or Nozawa is lying but is it possible Schemmel is just misremembering or misunderstanding a prior conversation he had with her?

At least, he didn't exaggerate the replacement story like Mario Castañeda (for those who doesn't know, Mario is Goku's Latin American Spanish Voice Actor)

Mario often tells at cons a made-up story where Masako got replaced and her replacement got to record an episode, which apparently Japanese fans didn't like and requested Toei to bring Masako back.

Sorry for the italics, I just wanted to stress how made up Mario's story is.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I imagine even if anyone at TOEI considered recasting Nozawa, Toriyama would be against it and they would respect his wishes, as he has said in the past that he can't disassociate Goku with her voice.

[dva_raza]

I'm not saying he's lying or Nozawa is lying but is it possible Schemmel is just misremembering or misunderstanding a prior conversation he had with her?

At least, he didn't exaggerate the replacement story like Mario Castañeda (for those who doesn't know, Mario is Goku's Latin American Spanish Voice Actor)

Mario often tells at cons a made-up story where Masako got replaced and her replacement got to record an episode, which apparently Japanese fans didn't like and requested Toei to bring Masako back.

Sorry for the italics, I just wanted to stress how made up Mario's story is.

Um. How do you know it's made up?

[Soppa Saia People]

Because Dragon Ball is a extremely well documented series, in large part due to this site, and something like that would be very public information that, as far as I know, no source has ever stated happen. It's not like he said, "They Brought In A New VA But Replaced Him Before They Recorded An Episode Due To Fan Demands", which would still be kinda easily provable but has a bit more behind the scenes stuff, if he actively said an episode aired with a different VA, that's just demonstrably false.

[dva_raza]

My point was actually that this might've been simply chosen not to be documented.
As for fan's reaction I don't think he was talking about actually airing the episode, just that they tested it and Toriyama didn't like it.

[VegettoEX]

But that's patently ridiculous, because we have recordings of the original broadcast. We know exactly what it was and how it sounded. There was no opportunity for there to suddenly be a single-week-turnaround on replacing Nozawa based on fan backlash. Those episodes would have already been in production and already recorded, and aired exactly as they were made.

[dva_raza]

No, what I meant is that Mario’s story might've not been about fans backlash but just that when Goku grew up, there was a test to see if they recasted him, which Toriyama was open to and had to approve. Toriyama chose Nozawa again, and that was that. The episode actually airing and fans not liking was just either Mario misinterpreting Nozawa, or people misinterpreting him.

Cause I honestly don’t get why he'd be going around spouting a made up story about someone else, seems odd.

[VegettoEX]

I mean I've had dub voice actors lie to my face about stuff so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, I did the leg work here. Indeed, the source of this story comes from the "We Are Goku" panel from Animamzement 2013 with Sean Schemmel and Masako Nozawa. Early on in the panel there comes a kind of tossaway comment where Nozawa says she was the first instance of a voice actor taking a voice onward into an adult character. A bit later in the panel, branching off of another comment from the audience, Schemmel turns that back to Nozawa as a follow-up.

The transcription here is my own from my own actual personal audio recording of the panel. I'm transcribing the interpreter's translation of Nozawa's answer, but of course I have the original Japanese if anyone deems it ridiculously essential to go back to it, but I don't think that's necessary.

SCHEMMEL: Obviously you played Goku as a little boy. I assumed they auditioned many women. And you said it was a first for them to keep you on as adult Goku. Were they considering bringing in a man, and then you had to prove yourself, or did they feel like you were just the character so much so. I mean, how would they know that you could do the man's voice, and were you worried that maybe you would be replaced as adult [Goku] , or did you know that you had it, and did they come to you and say, "Look, we don't know if we want you to do this but we want you to try it." What happened with that?

NOZAWA (VIA INTERPRETER): Normally when I do a voice of a boy character and then that character grows into an adult, there is a change of cast, and I thought that would be the case in Goku too, and I thought that would be a little sad. I think the producer, the director were pretty much in agreement to continue casting me, and also Akira Toriyama said, "It's a go". So I was very happy that I got to continue to be cast for adult Goku.

So: no. The answer is no. Seems like it was decided she was going to keep it from the start. And then she has the funny story of showing up to Z episode 1 recording day and finding her name listed alongside Gohan

[MasenkoHA]

I would have thought Schemmel misunderstanding was a given (not because he's necessarily a liar or an idiot but because we kinda knew Nozawa was never in danger of losing her role) but props to VegettoEX for pulling the source

[Tian]

Cause I honestly don’t get why he'd be going around spouting a made up story about someone else, seems odd.

Hell, even Humberto Velez (Homer Simpson's Latin American Spanish voice actor) did something similar to this with his casting story, where he claimed that out of hundreds of voice actors, he was personally chosen by Jay Kogen, one of the producers of the show.

Something that the original dubbing director Francisco Resendez debunked: Humberto was actually a last minute emergency substitute because the original choice for Homer, Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza, showed up drunk at the recording.

I'm not saying you should start calling Mexican VAs liars but some of the stuff they say may not be what actually happened.

[dva_raza]

I just said I don’t get why he’d lie about someone else. I get trying to enhance yourself, them both lying about someone else’s triumph story seems a little bizarre to me.

NOZAWA (VIA INTERPRETER): Normally when I do a voice of a boy character and then that character grows into an adult, there is a change of cast, and I thought that would be the case in Goku too, and I thought that would be a little sad. I think the producer, the director were pretty much in agreement to continue casting me, and also Akira Toriyama said, "It's a go". So I was very happy that I got to continue to be cast for adult Goku.

If you’re saying there’s 100% certainly not a chance that the additional context about why the why they decided to "continue casting her" didn’t simply come from some different panel or conversation afterwards..ok, but that means he straight up lied then? Cause that quote isn’t even remotely what he said she did.

Nozawa (essentially)- “I was worried they consider change, but nah they didn’t even.”
Schemmel- “There was the replacement already. She called Toriyama to audition and fight for the role.”

Lol? Wtf.

[MasenkoHA]

Misunderstanding people is a thing that exist. Dunno why your go to is lying

[dva_raza]

Dunno why your go to is lying

Because of exactly what I just said.

The part that starts with "Cause that quote..."

[VegettoEX]

I don’t know what else to tell you. This 2013 panel conversation that I shared is almost certainly the origin of “the story” here, as seen by Schemmel being the one to initiate it at that point in time.

If he’s telling it differently these days, that’s either (1) he forgot the context for the original question and answer, or (2) he’s purposefully lying.

In good faith I’m going to assume #1 there and he’s just mistakenly telling the wrong story over time now.

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