Western equivelents of the characters' accents?

[Fizzer]

I know many Dragon Ball characters have specific accents and dialects, but as a non-Japanese speaker some of them are sort of lost on me, especially as they usually don't get translated. What would you say were the English-spoken equivelents of some of them? If you were directing an English dub that was meant to portray the characters as faithfully as possible, how would you have them speak?

I sort of imagine the US equivelent of the way Goku speaks to be deep South, but I also imagine that to be the closest equivelent to Chichi's accent, and I understand that Goku and Chichi speak in different ways. For a UK alternative, I can also see a Yorkshire accent working for Goku, sort of.

[CashmanX]

Wouldn't the closest comparison for Goku be a appalachian accent? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English

[Fizzer]

I can really imagine him talking like that, it seems perfect!

I'm also wondering, if anyone here knows, do people from space, or any of the villains, have particular accents in the original Japanese version?

[LiamKav]

For some reason, I can see Scottish working for Yajoribe. Watching his original appearence in DragonBall, he's usually angry and eating things that aren't good for him. That's pretty Scottish right there.

Generally though, I guess it depends on how wide a bearth we are being given. Brits can identify different American accents to a certain degree, but by and large we wouldn't be able to tell a Texas accent from a Kansas accent. Likewise, I imagine Americans would struggle with the differences between Manchester and Liverpool.

As long as we all understand Space Australia though, we should be okay.

[Fizzer]

Well, since this is a completely opinion-based discussion, I'd say the limits are wherever you, personally, want them to be. For me, even something like a German accent of some sort for General Blue is fine, but if people were speaking English in a bunch of different Japanese accents, I'd just think they were all "Eastern". I think I actually would use Japanese for Kame-Sen'nin though.

Scottish Yajirobe is a great idea

[DBZAOTA482]

Goku - Brooklyn accent

Vegeta - Stereotypical British accent (much akin to Stewie Griffin's from Family Guy)

Piccolo - Urban black guy accent

Chi-Chi - Chinese accent

Tenshinhan - Japanese accent

[LiamKav]

Vegeta - Stereotypical British accent (much akin to Stewie Griffin's from Family Guy)

I dunno. I'd be tempted to do the Steotypical Evil British Accent (TM) for Freeza. Or maybe an Alan Rickman type accent?

[Herms]

Goku - Brooklyn accent

Vegeta - Stereotypical British accent (much akin to Stewie Griffin's from Family Guy)

Piccolo - Urban black guy accent

Chi-Chi - Chinese accent

Tenshinhan - Japanese accent

Goku and Chi-Chi are the only two of those with a distinctive accent in Japanese, with their quasi-Tohoku hick accent (that's much more pronounced with Chi-Chi). Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Vegeta all talk with pretty much the same casual tough-guy male speaking style.

[DBZAOTA482]

Goku - Brooklyn accent

Vegeta - Stereotypical British accent (much akin to Stewie Griffin's from Family Guy)

Piccolo - Urban black guy accent

Chi-Chi - Chinese accent

Tenshinhan - Japanese accent

Goku and Chi-Chi are the only two of those with a distinctive accent in Japanese, with their quasi-Tohoku hick accent (that's much more pronounced with Chi-Chi). Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Vegeta all talk with pretty much the same casual tough-guy male speaking style.

I am well-aware.

[Fizzer]

Maybe it would be a good idea for Raditz, Vegeta, Nappa, Ginyus etc. Basically everyone from space to have a sort of generic English accent that is more subtle and not OTT, while Freeza has a more pronounced Brittish accent, just to make him more evil. There was another thread I read somewhere in which someone suggested digitally combining two accents for alien voices, though, and that sounds interesting.

Herms, are the any other characters besides Goku and Chichi that do speak with noticable accents in the original Japanese dub?

[DBZAOTA482]

Maybe it would be a good idea for Raditz, Vegeta, Nappa, Ginyus etc. Basically everyone from space to have a sort of generic English accent that is more subtle and not OTT, while Freeza has a more pronounced Brittish accent, just to make him more evil. There was another thread I read somewhere in which someone suggested digitally combining two accents for alien voices, though, and that sounds interesting.

Herms, are the any other characters besides Goku and Chichi that do speak with noticable accents in the original Japanese dub?

Gyumao. He also has a Tohoku hick accent.

[Insertclevername]

Mirai Trunks would talk in near perfect English, as in the original, he spoke in textbook Japanese.

[penguintruth]

Goku and Chi-Chi sound like Sarah Palin, you betcha.

They can see parts of Yunzabit from Mt. Paozu.

[linkdude20002001]

English Gokuh would probably speak with a lot of weird pronunciations like winder instead of window since he says dejōbu and dekon instead of daijōbu and daikon.

[Fin]

I'm confused. Is this thread about finding English equivalents of the various Japanese accents that appear in the story, or is it about what kind of accents you'd like to see certain characters have, regardless of how they speak in Japanese?

[Fizzer]

I'm confused. Is this thread about finding English equivalents of the various Japanese accents that appear in the story, or is it about what kind of accents you'd like to see certain characters have, regardless of how they speak in Japanese?

I started the thread meaning for it to be about the closest equivalents to the way characters speak in the story, to gave the same impressions to an English-speaking audience as were given to the Japanese-speaking audience. A lot of "It would be cool if this person talked like this" has happened, based on characters' mannerisms and stuff, but that's fine too, it's still a fun discussion.

[LiamKav]

You could give Gohan a Harry Potter-esq young-but-well-spoken accent, to contrast more with his father.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Gokuu: A subtle Appalachian accent with contractions such as “ain’t” and “gonna” throw in.

Gohan & future Trunks: Standard English American accent, with politeness and correct grammar.

Gyuumaou & Chi-Chi: Same as above, but with a Deep South accent (I don’t know how much different they are, though).

Yajirobe: Scottish, because that would be fucking brilliant.

Piccolo: Deep African-American accent.

Freeza and Cell: A refined British accent.

[linkdude20002001]

Goku and Chi-Chi are the only two of those with a distinctive accent in Japanese, with their quasi-Tohoku hick accent (that's much more pronounced with Chi-Chi). Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Vegeta all talk with pretty much the same casual tough-guy male speaking style.

What kind of accent does Yajirove have, and how does it differ from Gokuh and Chichi?