Is Nozawa's voice the only thing that turns people off of the Japanese version?

[Deathbringer]

I see it all the time with comments on the internet of people voicing their dislike for the Japanese version of the series, most of the time the only reason they give for hating the Japanese version is because, to put it bluntly, "Japanese Goku is awful" and many variations on that. Some people go more in depth, usually citing that Goku being a big strong man (again, to put it bluntly) makes a female sounding voice sound wrong on him. You rarely get a proper analysis of why Nozawa's voice doesn't work, it's hardly ever about how well she can act, constantly the reason given is just the sound of her voice. Not that I expect that from an internet comment, but usually you get someone writing off the voice entirely for sounding female which makes it seem like they heard Nozawa's voice for all of 5 seconds and immediately got turned off by it.

This leads into the main point I want to make, do people start with looking up Goku's Japanese voice, seeing as he's the main character, and then never want to hear the Japanese version again because they can't stand his voice? You rarely, if ever, hear about people who hate the other voices as well, does this mean that they've never heard them? (some proof of this might be that it's usually complaints about "Japanese Goku", never Gohan or Goten or Bardock or even Tullece) Or does it mean that they don't have an opinion on those voices because Goku's voice simply sticks out so much to them that it's all that comes to mind when they think about the Japanese version?

Can anyone think of any other reason why the Japanese version is hated by so many people? (I mean it's hard to tell how many hate it because it depends on where you look) Seriously, the amount of comments you can find that only cite Nozawa's voice as the reason they dislike the Japanese version is staggering. People don't seem to want to compare Vegeta's English and Japanese voices, or Piccolo's or pretty much any other character, is it because Goku's female voice is such an easy target because you can just say "man with woman's voice = wrong". People just don't care about the rest of the cast because they hate Nozawa's voice and that's pretty sad to think about honestly.

[ekrolo2]

I assume so, lots of people I know only really point out Nozawa as the "problem" with the Japanese version. Quite a few of these people actually really like the others, especially Piccolo and Vegeta's VS.

The only time I don't like Nozawa really is when she voiced Bardock, it doesn't work for me at all. It was the reason why I was skeptical about her voicing Black but that turned out fine.

[Doctor.]

No, the Kikuchi (and Yamamoto for Kai, Sumitomo for Super) score also turns off the North American fanbase to the Japanese version due to their fondness of Falcouner Productions' score.

The only time I don't like Nozawa really is when she voiced Bardock, it doesn't work for me at all. It was the reason why I was skeptical about her voicing Black but that turned out fine.

What about Tullece?

[ekrolo2]

No, the Kikuchi (and Yamamoto for Kai, Sumitomo for Super) score also turns off the North American fanbase to the Japanese version due to their fondness of Falcouner Productions' score.

The only time I don't like Nozawa really is when she voiced Bardock, it doesn't work for me at all. It was the reason why I was skeptical about her voicing Black but that turned out fine.

What about Tullece?

I had to look up a video of her performance as him just to remember what it was like just now

My issue with her voicing them is that they don't sound different enough to me from the way she does serious Goku. Black, despite having the same voice, sounds like a different person from Goku.

[Adrian Malacoda]

The music is another one, especially from people who grew up in the US used to various replacement scores.

Also, some people just prefer to listen to stuff in their own language, even if the dialogue isn't faithfully adapted.

[Cipher]

I've always assumed it's the jarring combination of a very different casting philosophy and an unfamiliar score. For some of the exact reasons many here site the Japanese version and FUNimation's original dub as being "different products," the Japanese version does not present a smooth transition to the average dub fan.

There's sometimes a level of vitriol attached to it I've never understood though. Even when I was first checking out the Japanese version, before it became my primary way to consume the series, I never got "turned off" by it so much as I noted it was different. Plus, if that's the way something is, that's the way something is. I can't imagine not wanting to learn more about a series you enjoy.

[PsionicWarrior]

What??? I watch only sub and I bow to Nozawa.

[PsionicWarrior]

Also Nozawa screams better than any male dub, IMHO

[nickzambuto]

I ALWAYS watch my anime subbed. Except for Dragon Ball, I just can't STAND old lady Goku! Ahaha! Follow my blog on tumblr, it's totes kawaii! ^_^_^_^_^ *kitty lick* haha totes random!

[spoiler]/s[/spoiler]

[Kanassa]

There's also the fact that a lot of people prefer not to be reading the subs while watching a show like Dragonball. For a lot, some of the enjoyment of the scenes going on is taken away when your eyes are mostly drawn to whats being said. Besides, I doubt people are that turned off from not liking one characters voice.

For me, unless there is no dub or the dub is just unbearable, I rarly watch the sub versions.

[DragonBallLove]

I. Can't. Stand. Dubs.

And worst of all "free" adaptations with changed soundtracks and edited / censored scenes. I'm as purist a guy as you may know (and my wife is a likely mind).

For me the mindset of the people addressed in your topic is as alien as a lovecraftian deity.

That said...

MONDO COOL

[ShadowBardock89]

Nozawa is fine as Kid Goku. I watched Dragon Ball in Japanese up until the Red Ribbon Army Saga and I had no problem with her there.
Its the common trope with some anime, including Naruto & Dragon Ball, that the main male protagonist is voiced by a female VA at ALL stages of that character's may put people off.
To people, they may think "Hey, Japan! Every heard of puberty?!" and I'm guilty of this after the end of The Last: Naruto the Movie's end credits. I was hoping to hear what an adult Naruto would sound like and, much to my disappointment, BOTH the Japanese and English versions keep the VAs that voiced the child versions of their characters. Now, Baruto's English version has not been released, yet, but we'll see if that trend is kept. How does that relate to Nozawa as Goku? Pretty much a similar deal, but compounded further by the fact that every male member (save Raditz) of Goku's family and every look-a-like is voiced Nozawa. But, you know what really puts me off?
This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z11SZGvBXSU
start from 0:25 to 0:28. That sound Nozawa does GRATES me ears to the point where I can't take it anymore. It's the reason I can't watch Z in Japanese.

[SaiyaSith]

People who don't enjoy the original version don't enjoy the voices and/ or reading subs. That was me when I was younger, but now I really love the original. A lot of people will sadly never give the original a chance for those reasons.

[Pantalones]

Japanese Goku isn't a "female-sounding" voice. It's a weird high-pitched squeaky voice that doesn't sound like it should be coming out of anyone even remotely humanoid. My problem was never that Goku in Japan "sounds like a girl," because he doesn't -- he just sounds jarringly bizarre. The degree of squeakiness works okay for kid Goku, but not so much for adult Goku (and the Buu saga is where it gets really weird -- kid Goten, adult Goku, and teenage Gohan in the same episodes. I won't go so far as to say they sound identical, but anyone who thinks they sound less similar to each other than, say, Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta... is seriously delusional. Not saying the Funimation dub voices are perfect -- heck, there's even some Japanese voices I really like -- but I really can't say much positive about the "bizarro squeaky voice times three!" situation that is the Japanese Buu-era voice casting.)

I've gotten more used to Goku's Japanese voice watching Super and such, but it'll never be a "this is what Goku sounds like" thing to me, always "this is what Goku sounds like in Japan."

I'm also not a fan of the original Japanese soundtrack for the most part. Not that the Faulconer soundtrack is super amazing or anything (I prefer Super's soundtrack or Yamamoto's Kai soundtrack to either one of the Z soundtracks), but the Kikuchi stuff just sounds strange in combination with DBZ, though it does work for most of the original Dragonball where things still have more of that "weird, goofy kung fu movie" feel to them.

[Bullza]

Grandma Goku and the dreary, dated Kikuchi soundtrack are the two main reasons I've seen.

Nozawa has grown on me from watching Super every week but the voice still just does not sound right at all. Black as good a character as he is and Nozawa does a good job with making the character sound silky and evil....but he so obviously sounds like a woman. It's a full grown man that sounds nothing at all like any man.

[Cipher]

I'm also not a fan of the original Japanese soundtrack for the most part. Not that the Faulconer soundtrack is super amazing or anything (I prefer Super's soundtrack or Yamamoto's Kai soundtrack to either one of the Z soundtracks), but the Kikuchi stuff just sounds strange in combination with DBZ, though it does work for most of the original Dragonball where things still have more of that "weird, goofy kung fu movie" feel to them.

The story never, at any point stops, being a "weird, goofy kung-fu movie" though.

Even when the characters are confronted with Space Genocide®, the villain is a martial arts master for reasons of genre convenience, with an army of fighters who must be defeated one by one.

[precita]

The music during the Freeza saga was quite bad in Japanese. All they did was repeat the same boring action track in every episode for about 40 episodes straight. And there were almost no other music cues.

It was almost absurd how repetitive the music was during the Freeza arc. I daresay I prefer the dub music for most of that arc.

[ABED]

I'm also not a fan of the original Japanese soundtrack for the most part. Not that the Faulconer soundtrack is super amazing or anything (I prefer Super's soundtrack or Yamamoto's Kai soundtrack to either one of the Z soundtracks), but the Kikuchi stuff just sounds strange in combination with DBZ, though it does work for most of the original Dragonball where things still have more of that "weird, goofy kung fu movie" feel to them.

The story never, at any point stops, being a "weird, goofy kung-fu movie" though.

Even when the characters are confronted with Space Genocide®, the villain is a martial arts master for reasons of genre convenience, with an army of fighters who must be defeated one by one.

I would by no means call it "narrative convenience", and there are elements of its roots that I think the same soundtrack makes sense, but it's not exactly a weird Kung-Fu movie anymore.

As to the topic, It's not the only thing, as some have pointed out, a number of people don't like reading subtitles. Goku's voice not sounding real seems like an odd reason. None of the world is real.

[PsionicWarrior]

I doubt people are that turned off from not liking one characters voice.

No I think it can. I have to admit, I grew up with DBZ in french then saw all english dubs and quite enjoyed them. The first time I saw the original I was like, wtf, Goku speaks like a girl? But then it grew on me, and now I just cannot go back to anything else than subs. Nozawa is the real voice of Goku and the others.

Oh and about the music, the original Japanese score is legendary imo, never got bored of any single theme, even during Freeza arc.

Never forget, the original, the rest is just adapations.

As for reading subs, really? And it's not like there is a lot of deep dialogues during fights anyway.

[Cipher]

I would by no means call it "narrative convenience", and there are elements of its roots that I think the same soundtrack makes sense, but it's not exactly a weird Kung-Fu movie anymore.

*Genre convenience. Or adherence.

Freeza cannot only be an intergalactic crime lord. He must also mystical kung-fu fight. Strip away the constantly escalating superpowers (which are still all versions of mystical martial arts tropes run through Toriyama's lens), and the expanding lore, which also borrows plenty from its source material, and every arc in the series is as in-genre as its origins.