Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

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Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by MozillaVulpix » Thu Oct 05, 2017 7:00 pm

Probably been discussed to death over the years here, but I haven't been able to find a reliable answer.

Prior to Dragon Ball, had their ever been a situation like Nozawa's in anime? Where a female voice actor is given to play a young male character, and then retains the role even as the male character grows into adulthood? Nowadays, there's been similar situations - Junko Takeuchi is still playing the adult Naruto. But that might have been because Dragon Ball set the precedent in the first place.
I could have gotten into anything...and yet I chose the story aimed at young Japanese boys about martial arts, and later about super-powerful aliens punching each other really hard.

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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by VegettoEX » Thu Oct 05, 2017 7:40 pm

Probably, but not being a particularly huge fan of anything of Shueisha's pre-Dragon Ball (other than obviously Dr. Slump and my newfound infatuation with Fist of the North Star), it's hard to really pin anything down.

But that being said:

We know Torishima was initially against aging Goku up, saying that if you change the main character's design, they're not really that same character to the audience anymore. Toriyama pretty logically convinced him, though, so they went ahead with it. (See: that great Forbes interview)

I can't place my finger on the source right this second (I'll edit it back in if/when I can), but Nozawa mentioned at some point how it wasn't the standard at the time to keep the same actor when a character grew up. So right there that kinda says that maybe there WAS a similar situation elsewhere, but again, I don't know it off the top of my head. Or maybe they were just saying that as an excuse. Don't really know.

Anyway, we know she ended up keeping the role, and it was due to all sorts of factors. We know very early on from the anime's audition tapes that her audition tapes matched what Toriyama had in mind (see: Tenkaichi Densetsu interview), and Toriyama solidified himself with Nozawa's voice while writing the character from there on out (see: GT Perfect File 2 Nozawa interview). We know she slowly changed the voice as he grew up (see: Anime Special 2 roundtable).

There's another really solid comment somewhere about that transition and her keeping the voice, but I also can't put my finger on it right now.

A lot is slipping my mind, but I at least wanted to jot down some of that!
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by DragonBallKing » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:52 pm

I've grown to love Nozawa's Goku at all ages, It makes the character all the more unique because you don't see women voicing adult men in anime especially one with Goku's built and stature. It's weird for some but I love it now.
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Arugela » Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:32 am

And if they really want to give it an in anime precedent they can simply make brolly cannon and say the shadow of the baby wasn't broly but after he kicked and got free(or was dropped) they accidental picked up goku in the struggle and slipped off his you know what... Then they just have to get the whole goku getting chi chi pregnant explained... Which could have some funny answers.

Maybe they just partially cut it off and some other parts.

Maybe broly is just eternally ashamed and emberrased goku accidently got sliced off instead of him.
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Brolly Gohan Fusion!: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38826
Uubeerus fusion: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39923
Dende theme: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39750

Zenoh might be waygu/kobe Beef!?: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40055
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by VegettoEX » Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:43 am

Arugela wrote:And if they really want to give it an in anime precedent they can simply make brolly cannon and say the shadow of the baby wasn't broly but after he kicked and got free(or was dropped) they accidental picked up goku in the struggle and slipped off his you know what... Then they just have to get the whole goku getting chi chi pregnant explained... Which could have some funny answers.

Maybe they just partially cut it off and some other parts.

Maybe broly is just eternally ashamed and emberrased goku accidently got sliced off instead of him.
This comment makes absolutely no sense and near as I can tell has nothing to do with the subject matter being discussed.
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Arugela » Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:17 pm

It's pointing out how it could explain why he has a higher pitched voice. I'm refering to broly as a baby when he's next to goku and get stabbed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n3SKFn2qIo

Nvm, I saw an edited version of it where it looked like they dropped broly then picked him back up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3smaE95D7Y

Regardless, goku is still oddly the only one with a higher voice of all the sayians. They are general deeper in voice. It's almost like he got kicked in the balls as a child and not in the head.
My fan art:
Brolly Gohan Fusion!: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38826
Uubeerus fusion: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39923
Dende theme: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39750

Zenoh might be waygu/kobe Beef!?: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40055
GT theory: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40001

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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Bardo117 » Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:49 pm

VegettoEX wrote:
Arugela wrote:And if they really want to give it an in anime precedent they can simply make brolly cannon and say the shadow of the baby wasn't broly but after he kicked and got free(or was dropped) they accidental picked up goku in the struggle and slipped off his you know what... Then they just have to get the whole goku getting chi chi pregnant explained... Which could have some funny answers.

Maybe they just partially cut it off and some other parts.

Maybe broly is just eternally ashamed and emberrased goku accidently got sliced off instead of him.
This comment makes absolutely no sense and near as I can tell has nothing to do with the subject matter being discussed.

LMFAO!!! This comment was too much for me to process :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by KBABZ » Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:04 pm

Mentioning Broly for no reason other than to talk about him again should be grounds for account suspension, I tell ya.

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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Arugela » Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:39 pm

It wasn't for no reason. It was directly on topic... Where else in the franchise can you try to find a reason for goku having a high pitched voice within the fiction? He's the only Saiyan without a super deep voice including his own father. That implies another reason for it happening potentially. Or else there is no internal justification besides it simply existing. The point was to discuss precedence. Hence the purpose. That is as far as I can find as a potential reason.
My fan art:
Brolly Gohan Fusion!: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38826
Uubeerus fusion: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39923
Dende theme: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39750

Zenoh might be waygu/kobe Beef!?: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40055
GT theory: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40001

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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by DragonBallKing » Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:55 pm

Arugela wrote:It wasn't for no reason. It was directly on topic... Where else in the franchise can you try to find a reason for goku having a high pitched voice within the fiction? He's the only Saiyan without a super deep voice including his own father. That implies another reason for it happening potentially. Or else there is no internal justification besides it simply existing. The point was to discuss precedence. Hence the purpose. That is as far as I can find as a potential reason.
Well for Goku, Gohan and Goten we as viewers watched those characters grow up from children to adults, and over time Nozawa deepened the voice for all of them. Most kids have their voice start to change between 12-14 years old but there voices don't drastically change they're just deeper in pitch. Could just be a genetic trait that got passed to Goku but not to Raditz.
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by KBABZ » Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:57 pm

Odd question: does Vegeta's voice have a major change in Japan when he's depicted as a child? If so we can chalk it up to being a Saiyan thing!

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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by DragonBallKing » Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:08 pm

KBABZ wrote:Odd question: does Vegeta's voice have a major change in Japan when he's depicted as a child? If so we can chalk it up to being a Saiyan thing!
Horikawa Vegeta is slightly different as a child than as an adult, so maybe you could say it's Saiyan thing.
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Arugela » Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:26 pm

Just thought of something. Obviously this outside of the realm of answering. But logically the only connectino to goku his kids and trunks having higher voices(exlcuding if vegeta didn't.) is they are on earth. So, maybe it's an earth thing vs another planet... Obviously the only way to answer is to ask the creators or pretent it incidental. But that might be the only other factor.

And I didn't think about the kids. They did have lighter voices. But gokus dad and raditz didn't(And possibly kid vegeta). So, maybe it's a development thing in a different environment. That actually could potentially explain it if you wanted to find an internal fictional reason. If not I don't see any reason besides choice of voice actors.

But, I thought there were lots of females doing famous male voices including farther in the past. Outside of anime they do it with peter pan. Isn't there a technical reason for that being useful? Outside of lacking women or whatever happened in Shakespearean examples(reverse situation), I thought there was some reason related to the voice itself within certain ranges or something... Maybe less vocal change over time from the actress?! That could be useful for a main character. I don't know if that is specifically true, but I know I've heard something similar to gender and voices or something like that in the past. Not sure what it was though.

There is one other reason that a male might higher a female voice actor. But that is a different issue. Or I'm assuming it is. You never know. Maybe someone's trying to hook up! :shh:
My fan art:
Brolly Gohan Fusion!: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38826
Uubeerus fusion: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39923
Dende theme: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39750

Zenoh might be waygu/kobe Beef!?: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40055
GT theory: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40001

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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Eire » Sat Oct 07, 2017 2:45 am

The reason for adult females voicing prepubescent boys is called puberty- when you have young teen you don't know the day his voice mutates. It also hepls that it's easier to employ adult than minor.
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by DragonBallKing » Sat Oct 07, 2017 2:09 pm

Eire wrote:The reason for adult females voicing prepubescent boys is called puberty- when you have young teen you don't know the day his voice mutates. It also hepls that it's easier to employ adult than minor.
There are also special cases where males voice children before puberty like with Trunks and Sasuke, just like sometimes women voice teenagers(Edward Elric, Naruto, Luffy) and even adults(Kenshin, Goku). The rules of anime logic don't follow reality anyway so I don't get why it's such a big deal.
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Re: Was their any precedence for Nozawa's adult Goku?

Post by Super Sonic » Sat Oct 07, 2017 6:05 pm

Not anime, but do recall there were a couple of Popeye cartoons in the 1940s where Popeye was voiced by a woman. Olive Oyl's va at that. Grant that was more due to his va serving in WWII and they needed a quick replacement, but it did happen.

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