One could argue that bland action hero was the original intent of what the dub wanted to do for the voice, even as far back as the start of the Ocean Dub. Sure, they gotta keep some of those silly moments in there, but the scripting generally pushed towards more "action" than natural.Thanos wrote:Well, as for English adult Goku always being voiced by a man... I think it has to do with the fact that, in Japan, these characters have much better-established personalities. There was most likely, due to translation, a degree of separation (a "dilution" perhaps) with how these characters think and act with respect to their dialogue and personalities. Take Schemmel's early rendition of Goku; essentially a bland action hero with a sense of humor. THAT is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Even with translation and a general sense of how these characters are acting, a lot can be lost there if it isn't done properly.
There's so many quirks and subtleties to Nozawa's child Goku that, from what I understand, it was decided for her to stay the course because it would've just been too dramatic to have changed his voice at that point. He would've lost a significant part of what had been established with the character.
Thankfully that's not an issue anymore; Schemmel's Goku is now pretty much his natural speaking voice, which he can make peppy and excited when he's pumped up, calm and gentle, when he's speaking with young Gohan, or a little rougher, and more forceful, when he's angry at something. It's not a manly voice in that beefy 80s action hero way, but I would still consider Goku somewhat manly, and I think the voice works. It's not too over-the-top or anything. Schemmel going from a first time voice actor to a skilled veteran certainly helped Kai (along with a good script and good direction).
On the other end, Nozawa's voice is not all that feminine. All of Goku's ways of speaking can be clearly portrayed with her voice, and she is a very skilled VA, so she's good at conveying the varied emotions. The only issue is, even if he sounds older than he did as a young boy, this is still more of a kind of voice you'd get with a younger teen than someone fully grown. And that's not necessarily a problem, but it's not the standard of the industry, and can be off putting at first. You can adjust, but that does, somewhat, make one wonder why his voice didn't change that much compared to some of the others (especially the other Saiyans Goku fights, who are all with much deeper voices). It's not a bad thing, but it is certainly different.
Comparing Goku to his contemporaries in Japan can make him the odd man out. When you have Kenshiro being voiced by Akira Kamiya (this is what I would call a rather manly voice), Seiya voiced by Tohru Furuya (Yamcha being a rather big step down for the star of Saint Seiya and Mobile Suit Gundam, lol), and Jonathan Joestar voiced by Kazuyuki Okitsu (I don't care that the anime started in October, the Manga started in 1987...it's good enough to warrant the comparison >_>), Masako Nozawa's Goku is different. But, like I said, that's not a bad thing. For Goku, there's not just one right way to do the role. I've got two Goku voice actors I love hearing, and despite doing the roles with two different voices, both work. Some can argue others work, and they're free to. I think they both capture the charm of Goku in their own ways.
