Unpopular DB opinions

[WittyUsername]

Goku being played by an Asian actor makes a lot more sense than him being played by a white actor. If there ever is another Hollywood adaptation of Dragon Ball, there would be no reason not to have Goku be Asian. Him being an alien is a weak counterargument, especially when that wasn’t even established until about four years into the manga’s run.

[MasenkoHA]

Goku being played by an Asian actor makes a lot more sense than him being played by a white actor. If there ever is another Hollywood adaptation of Dragon Ball, there would be no reason not to have Goku be Asian. Him being an alien is a weak counterargument, especially when that wasn’t even established until about four years into the manga’s run.

Agreed.

"He's an alien" only works if said alien character doesn't look human or has a non standard skin color.

It doesn't matter if Piccolo is played by an Asian man or a white man or a black man, he's a green alien.

Same with Starfire from Teen Titans. No one has orange skin except Donald Trump and Snooki from Jersey Shore so color blind casting is acceptable.

[ABED]

Master Mutato being a minor character should not factor into it. If he is white skinned in the cartoon then he should be cast as a white skinned guy (I'm not sure if Mutato is supposed to be Asian or Caucasian) in the live action version. (It should not be a requirement but a heavy consideration) While I agree that live action Son Goku should be cast as Chinese man who acts well it should not be a requirement but rather a consideration.

Hollywood has white people so it makes sense that some white people would get movie roles. If you go to Japan then Japanese folks get the role because that is what is there. Your post comes off more as "angry at the white man" and that is disturbing. Hollywood has plenty of non white actors in prominent roles.


Anyway I'm moving on from this.

Back on topic. For me Steph N. Is THE voice of English Son Goku and Son Gohan. She hits that vocal range and brings that emotion to the role. Although the voice actress who plays the roles now is fine.

Nadolny's voice is nails on a chalkboard to me. No character she has voiced has ever done much for me, and even if the dialog during Gohan's SSJ2 transformation weren't awful, she'd still ruin the moment.

[MasenkoHA]

Master Mutato being a minor character should not factor into it. If he is white skinned in the cartoon then he should be cast as a white skinned guy (I'm not sure if Mutato is supposed to be Asian or Caucasian) in the live action version. (It should not be a requirement but a heavy consideration) While I agree that live action Son Goku should be cast as Chinese man who acts well it should not be a requirement but rather a consideration.

Hollywood has white people so it makes sense that some white people would get movie roles. If you go to Japan then Japanese folks get the role because that is what is there. Your post comes off more as "angry at the white man" and that is disturbing. Hollywood has plenty of non white actors in prominent roles.


Anyway I'm moving on from this.

Back on topic. For me Steph N. Is THE voice of English Son Goku and Son Gohan. She hits that vocal range and brings that emotion to the role. Although the voice actress who plays the roles now is fine.

Nadolny's voice is nails on a chalkboard to me. No character she has voiced has ever done much for me, and even if the dialog during Gohan's SSJ2 transformation weren't awful, she'd still ruin the moment.

Even setting aside her voice, her acting is pretty goddamn bad. Part of it is probably bad direction but I think a lot of it is just a lack of talent.

I do recall her being especially bad during the Cell Games portion, probably because she had to keep maintaining that stupid "Clint Eastwood" voice


To not be completely negative, I will say she does a pretty decent job at playing Goku the naive simpleton

[Scsigs]

When it comes to Nadolny, I can see why people hate her as Gohan, but I don't agree that she was completely terrible. I think she was an ok voice for Gohan, but I do agree that the voice she used for him was a bit harsh. I also don't understand when some of the members of TFS say she sounds like Bobby Hill. I don't detect any hints of a Southern accent in her voice for Gohan or Goku personally & certainly not Bobby Hill-level if it IS there. She sounds like she was trying to do something similar to what Tara Strong did for Ben 10, only it doesn't quite fit for Gohan. I do think it had to do mainly with the voice direction of the original Z dub. We also have to remember that she was mainly cast because she did a voice that was close enough to the Canadian actress' voice for him & she was instructed to do that voice during the recording sessions sessions. I've listened to many clips of the Z dub & the whole Buu Saga & the voice direction is...extremely poor most of the time. Sometimes you'll get ok voice acting, but due to a mix of the poor voice direction & the cast being newbies, a lot of it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Even for the lines that aren't necessarily bad, or were even decently translated, the voice acting lets them down. I've seen clips of the continued Ocean dub that used largely the same scripts that are just so much better to listen to, even with the bad translations & scripting choices because the cast was more experienced & the voice direction seemed to be better, or at least more consistent.
The scene where 16 dies completely kills me every time with how bad it is. Mainly with the additional inner monologue they gave Gohan. As if the lack of one in the original Japanese version didn't allow you to feel something & the kid audience was too stupid to have the right emotional reaction to what was going on. Nadolny isn't to blame for it, but it's still worth mentioning.
She's definitely a better fit for kid Goku.

I'll say that at this point, I prefer Clinkenbeard's take on Gohan. The more quiet & reserved portrayal is better for kid Gohan. I don't like that it's basically a younger, less stuffed up version of her Luffy voice, but it's different enough that I can get passed it. Now, I don't like her playing kid Goku. Why? She uses the same exact voice for him that she used to use for Luffy before she deepened it after the timeskip for some reason that I hate (which still sticks around for newer material they dub that takes place BEFORE the timeskip for some reason). The voice completely takes me out of the moment in the games when I see kid Goku & I hear Monkey D. Luffy. I know that the Toei writers have a bad habit of writing Goku like he's Luffy because for some reason they think they're the same person, but that's NOT the feeling I should be getting from Goku in the dub. I get that it's just easier to get Clinkenbeard to do the voice acting, but it's not like Nadolny didn't make a distinction between them back when she played them.
Neither is best for both characters, sadly. Nadolny was better as kid Goku while Clinkenbeard's a better kid Gohan. If only they could find someone who could do both well.

I'll say, though, Nadolny's biggest saving grace is her screaming ability. Just like Sean Schemmel, I think she has some of the most powerful screams out of anyone in the main English dub cast, both past & present. She did extremely well with the SS2 scream & the one in Bojack where Gohan fired a Kamehameha at him, as well as the video games. Clinkenbeard's screams aren't half bad either, but Nadolny's to me have so much more power to them to me.

[MasenkoHA]

Now, I don't like her playing kid Goku. Why? She uses the same exact voice for him that she used to use for Luffy

I don't get this argument at all. Voice actors recycle voices all the time. Who cares if her Luffy and Goku voice sound the same? They don't interact on screen together. She's not obligated to come up with a completely different voice everytime she voices a new character. Tara Strong, for exampe, basically has one boy voice that she uses for nearly every male character around the age of 8-12.

but it's not like Nadolny didn't make a distinction between them back when she played them.

She made a distinction at first but after she started voicing Gohan again after having voiced Goku (i.e pretty much all the movies sans Lord Slug, the Saiyan and Namek saga in-house redub, and the partial redub for the Orange Bricks before Funi got lazy) she uses literally the exact same voice for Gohan that she had been using for Goku https://youtu.be/4gk0R9sSf0M?si=bgOUw8T2KfpoxaXr and that's a-okay since her Goku voice is much better than her "smokes 20 packs a day since he was 3 years old" Gohan voice. Didn't change the fact that she can't act, but at least the voice itself was less grating.

[Scsigs]

Now, I don't like her playing kid Goku. Why? She uses the same exact voice for him that she used to use for Luffy

I don't get this argument at all. Voice actors recycle voices all the time. Who cares if her Luffy and Goku voice sound the same? They don't interact on screen together. She's not obligated to come up with a completely different voice every time she voices a new character. Tara Strong, for example, basically has one boy voice that she uses for nearly every male character around the age of 8-12.

My particular problem is that I have a love/hate relationship with her Luffy voice. I don't think she's a bad cast (though I've heard that they wanted to cast a male ass Luffy, but Toei wouldn't let them), but the way she plays him more emphasizes Luffy being stupid rather than just high energy ADHD-brained, naive, & hopeful like Mayumi Tanaka plays him. But, I think the voice tone is fine in of itself for Luffy, I just would change how she approaches the voice, but we're almost 20 years removed from when FUNi's dub started recording, so it's a bit late for that. Point is, when she uses it for Goku as well, I have a hard time not getting distracted by it.
Tara, I would say, has more vocal range than Clinkenbeard. Yes, she has only 1 real voice tone, but the way she plays characters with it changes depending on what's needed. I can watch Ben 10 & not hear Timmy Turner. Timmy & Ben are both 10 years old, but I wouldn't say they have the same voice tone. Timmy's more high-pitched than Ben, probably owing to the fact that Ben exists in a world that's more reality-based than Timmy, whose world is definitely a cartoon world. Hell, even within the Ben 10 franchise, Tara's played multiple 10-year-old Bens & tried to differentiate them in her performances. Ben 23, she (at first at least) had a quirk to his voice where it keeps cracking at times because he's 13 & going through puberty. Ben in the reboot apparently also has a slightly higher-pitched voice compared to classic Ben. From what I've heard, Clinkenbearrd doesn't have a lot of ways she usually makes her "boy" voice.
And if I can compare her too another VA in anime, Yuri Lowenthal. He has a good range even if he tends too use the same few voice tones over & over again. I don't think Sasuke sounds like Ben Tennyson, or his Peter Parker. Hell, his voices are just variations on his normal speaking voice too. Although, it DOES get distracting at times. Like, because he has only a few variations of his voice he primarily uses when voice acting, it CAN get distracting. Like, the voice he uses for Johnny in the English dub of FFVII Remake isn't much different from the voice he used for whoever his character was in Bleach. Mainly, it's probably his performance being "high energy, zany, weird guy" that I don't think he does very well. It's a lot like Sean Schemmel when he tries to do the high-pitched comedic bits as Goku.