DB Voice Debate (not what you think)

[Piccolo Daimao]

In the anime, when Gokuu and Ginyuu switch bodies, why do they switch voices as well? I think what they did in DBZ Abridged made more since, since it's only their mind and soul that jumped over, not the vocal chords that are still part of their body. Basically, Ginyuu in Gokuu's body should still sound like Gokuu, only using Ginyuu's sophisticated speaking style. Gokuu in Ginyuu's body should still sound like Ginyuu, only using Gokuu's lighter speaking style.

Another thing I wanted to discuss was how, in FUNimation's original dub using the Ocean Group cast, Brian Drummond used his Vegeta voice to imitate Kirby Morrow's Gokuu voice, presumably because the production was rushed. But I was wondering if anyone actually preferred this method. I'm not speaking for myself or anything, but arguably, despite being the product of two merged beings, Vegetto's his own person, and the fusion of "Kibitoshin" and the old Kaioushin and the witch had their own singular voices (although I know about the arguments for this). Gotenks was ridiculously arrogant too, although it could be argued that, along with their power, it was just emphasizing Goten and Trunks' personality traits (and Trunks was the one who brought up the plan to leave Super Saiyan 3 until the last minute).

[penguintruth]

It's a show for eight year olds, maybe they just thought the audience would be confused.

[SSJToreto]

It's a show for eight year olds, maybe they just thought the audience would be confused.

lol that made me laugh out loud. Ironically, this explanation is probably closest to the truth.

[Piccolo Daimao]

It's a show for eight year olds, maybe they just thought the audience would be confused.

Yeah, that's probably the best explanation.

[DarkPrince_92]

Toriyama requested (don't have a source, I'm sorry) that the japanese VA's for both fusion counterparts speak simultaneously. BUT, I do think that a merge of voices like how Drummond tried to make a Goku sounding Vegeta for Vegetto/Vegito is lovely and effective method. And Funimation's Kibitoshin only sounded like Shin, and I was confused about that for the longest.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Toriyama requested (don't have a source, I'm sorry) that the japanese VA's for both fusion counterparts speak simultaneously. BUT, I do think that a merge of voices like how Drummond tried to make a Goku sounding Vegeta for Vegetto/Vegito is lovely and effective method. And Funimation's Kibitoshin only sounded like Shin, and I was confused about that for the longest.

Ah yes, I forgot about that. And yeah, "Kibitoshin" only looked like Kaioushin too (in terms of facial features). Even the fusion between the Kaioushin from 15 generations prior and the old wish looked like a mixture of the two, since the witch aged up the Kaioushin's appearance.

[Super Sonic]

In the anime, when Gokuu and Ginyuu switch bodies, why do they switch voices as well? I think what they did in DBZ Abridged made more since, since it's only their mind and soul that jumped over, not the vocal chords that are still part of their body. Basically, Ginyuu in Gokuu's body should still sound like Gokuu, only using Ginyuu's sophisticated speaking style. Gokuu in Ginyuu's body should still sound like Ginyuu, only using Gokuu's lighter speaking style.

That happens in cartoons all the time usually when that plot happens. The only times the latter which you think should happen I remember seeing were on an ep of 2 Stupid Dogs when a Freaky Friday-like thing happens, and in the original TMNT, though James Avery and Peter Renaday's inner monologue in each other's bodies were still in Shredder and Splinter's normal voices. I did hear once that they originally were gonna try to have that happen on a Titans ep, but Tara Strong and Hynden Walch were so good at imitating each other the director told them to just use their normal voices in each other's bodies or else they might've as well just switched roles permanently.

[Gaffer Tape]

That was something that always annoyed my logic sensor when I first saw it. But I think that it was done that way for the same reason the kid roles weren't recast when the characters grew up: to provide a consistent performance for the character. No matter what body Goku is in, child, adult, Ginyu, the character is still the same, and so the performer remains the same. So while logically and realistically Goku should have Ginyu's vocal chords, it wouldn't have been the exact same character. It would have been Ginyu's voice actor attempting to be Nozawa's interpretation of Goku. And sometimes a talented character can pull that off... I thought it was fairly seamless in TFS, for example. But that doesn't seem to be consistent with how Toei cast the show.

[Piccolo Daimao]

In the anime, when Gokuu and Ginyuu switch bodies, why do they switch voices as well? I think what they did in DBZ Abridged made more since, since it's only their mind and soul that jumped over, not the vocal chords that are still part of their body. Basically, Ginyuu in Gokuu's body should still sound like Gokuu, only using Ginyuu's sophisticated speaking style. Gokuu in Ginyuu's body should still sound like Ginyuu, only using Gokuu's lighter speaking style.

That happens in cartoons all the time usually when that plot happens. The only times the latter which you think should happen I remember seeing were on an ep of 2 Stupid Dogs when a Freaky Friday-like thing happens, and in the original TMNT, though James Avery and Peter Renaday's inner monologue in each other's bodies were still in Shredder and Splinter's normal voices. I did hear once that they originally were gonna try to have that happen on a Titans ep, but Tara Strong and Hynden Walch were so good at imitating each other the director told them to just use their normal voices in each other's bodies or else they might've as well just switched roles permanently.

Hmmm...interesting.

That was something that always annoyed my logic sensor when I first saw it. But I think that it was done that way for the same reason the kid roles weren't recast when the characters grew up: to provide a consistent performance for the character. No matter what body Goku is in, child, adult, Ginyu, the character is still the same, and so the performer remains the same. So while logically and realistically Goku should have Ginyu's vocal chords, it wouldn't have been the exact same character. It would have been Ginyu's voice actor attempting to be Nozawa's interpretation of Goku. And sometimes a talented character can pull that off... I thought it was fairly seamless in TFS, for example. But that doesn't seem to be consistent with how Toei cast the show.

Yeah, I get it now. It's more about the character and its purpose than any kind of internal logic (which, let's face it, a series like DB doesn't try to deal in, with its Toriyama pseudo-science).

[RazorX]

Another thing I wanted to discuss was how, in FUNimation's original dub using the Ocean Group cast, Brian Drummond used his Vegeta voice to imitate Kirby Morrow's Gokuu voice, presumably because the production was rushed. But I was wondering if anyone actually preferred this method. I'm not speaking for myself or anything, but arguably, despite being the product of two merged beings, Vegetto's his own person, and the fusion of "Kibitoshin" and the old Kaioushin and the witch had their own singular voices (although I know about the arguments for this). Gotenks was ridiculously arrogant too, although it could be argued that, along with their power, it was just emphasizing Goten and Trunks' personality traits (and Trunks was the one who brought up the plan to leave Super Saiyan 3 until the last minute).

At first I thought you were talking about the episodes 1-53 dub, because the episodes 108-276 dub is not a Funimation dub. It's an AB Groupe/Toei Animation dub.

Regarding your question, it's amazing how well Brian Drummond manage to incorporate Kirby Morrow's Goku into his voice for Vegito, while of course retaining his trademark Vegeta. This is another example of Ocean's excellence in casting. I prefer the single voice over dual voices but I also like the Japanese dual voice because it is mixed very well.

The problem I have with Funimation's dual voice (beside the bad voice acting) is that it is not mixed very well, so you can easily Schemmel's and Sabat's voices apart, and it does get distracting.

[OutlawTorn]

In the anime, when Gokuu and Ginyuu switch bodies, why do they switch voices as well? I think what they did in DBZ Abridged made more since, since it's only their mind and soul that jumped over, not the vocal chords that are still part of their body. Basically, Ginyuu in Gokuu's body should still sound like Gokuu, only using Ginyuu's sophisticated speaking style. Gokuu in Ginyuu's body should still sound like Ginyuu, only using Gokuu's lighter speaking style.

It's been a while since I watched the Ginyu episodes, but the impression I got was that their voices were the voices native to their bodies from an in-universe perspective, with the change only being present for the audience. Otherwise, Krillin and Gohan are pretty damned dense not to immediately see through the ruse... though Goku wearing a scouter and being accompanied by Jeice should have been enough of a tip off, but that's a different argument all together.

Another thing I wanted to discuss was how, in FUNimation's original dub using the Ocean Group cast, Brian Drummond used his Vegeta voice to imitate Kirby Morrow's Gokuu voice, presumably because the production was rushed. But I was wondering if anyone actually preferred this method.

I definitely prefer this approach. It's one thing for characters temporarily merged through the fusion dance to have the dual voices but for permanently merged characters, it's really a ludicrous approach (unpopular DB opinion, maybe?) and the single voice is the most logical way to go. I mean, do the merged characters have two sets of vocal chords?

[Bussani]

The whole "voices swap when you swap bodies" thing is incredibly common. Like the idea of clones having the memories of the person they're a clone of, it's somehow more prevalent in fiction (animation mostly, of course) than the alternative! I don't usually like to link to TV Tropes (in case someone gets stuck there for days), but they have a decent page on it.

[Piccolo Daimao]

In the anime, when Gokuu and Ginyuu switch bodies, why do they switch voices as well? I think what they did in DBZ Abridged made more since, since it's only their mind and soul that jumped over, not the vocal chords that are still part of their body. Basically, Ginyuu in Gokuu's body should still sound like Gokuu, only using Ginyuu's sophisticated speaking style. Gokuu in Ginyuu's body should still sound like Ginyuu, only using Gokuu's lighter speaking style.

It's been a while since I watched the Ginyu episodes, but the impression I got was that their voices were the voices native to their bodies from an in-universe perspective, with the change only being present for the audience. Otherwise, Krillin and Gohan are pretty damned dense not to immediately see through the ruse... though Goku wearing a scouter and being accompanied by Jeice should have been enough of a tip off, but that's a different argument all together.

Yeah, creative liberties or something like that. Perhaps it's somewhat similar to how it's mentioned that future Trunks looks like Vegeta, which is likely true in-universe, but due to the limitations of artwork (can't think of a better way to explain it), it doesn't entirely come across that way to us. At least, at first sight.

It was only Kuririn who was being dense, as he ignored the evil ki he mentioned feeling by walking right up to Ginyuu in Gokuu's body and basically telling him everything. Gohan stayed in hiding behind the rock, shortly realized that it wasn't Gokuu, and shouted to Kuririn "That's not my dad!" before Kuririn got smacked in the face. This is probably either because Gohan's just a more cautious and/or scared guy than Kuririn, or he simply knows his father better. I think the latter was implied.

Another thing I wanted to discuss was how, in FUNimation's original dub using the Ocean Group cast, Brian Drummond used his Vegeta voice to imitate Kirby Morrow's Gokuu voice, presumably because the production was rushed. But I was wondering if anyone actually preferred this method.

I definitely prefer this approach. It's one thing for characters temporarily merged through the fusion dance to have the dual voices but for permanently merged characters, it's really a ludicrous approach (unpopular DB opinion, maybe?) and the single voice is the most logical way to go. I mean, do the merged characters have two sets of vocal chords?

I think I like both approaches equally, as it still gets the same impression across. The dub can't/doesn't have to be 100% accurate to the original, as long as it still gets the same message across. For example, Sonny Strait's Kuririn doesn't sound much like Mayumi Tanaka's Kuririn (different pitches), yet both portrayals nail the character, IMO.

The whole "voices swap when you swap bodies" thing is incredibly common. Like the idea of clones having the memories of the person they're a clone of, it's somehow more prevalent in fiction (animation mostly, of course) than the alternative! I don't usually like to link to TV Tropes (in case someone gets stuck there for days), but they have a decent page on it.

Thanks, that's given me some good insight into the whole matter. And luckily, I didn't get stuck in TVTropes.