Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

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Nokra
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Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Nokra » Thu Nov 01, 2018 1:52 pm

SERIOUSLY? why an old lady to voice a huge muscular man when you can have a real man? Toei is weird :crazy:

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by WittyUsername » Thu Nov 01, 2018 1:56 pm

Didn’t they audition some male voice actors for Adult Goku before ultimately deciding to stick with Nozawa?

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by ABED » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:05 pm

It's one of those things where it doesn't make literal sense, but her voice fits the design well enough and the high pitched voice fits Goku's childish nature more than a very masculine voice.
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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by VegettoEX » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:07 pm

Nokra wrote:SERIOUSLY? why an old lady to voice a huge muscular man when you can have a real man? Toei is weird :crazy:
Dragon Ball's animated adaptation began 32 years ago.

Masako Nozawa was personally selected by Akira Toriyama as the voice of the character, and he continues to (consistently) cite her as the voice in his head as he writes and develops the character. Here are just a few of the numerous examples throughout the years:
Akira Toriyama, Daizenshuu 3 interview wrote:I also listened to the voice actors' audition tapes, and worked on deciding who would play each role. In deciding Goku's part, I listened to the voices of five or six people, and chose Masako Nozawa-san from among them.

...

"Ah, so that's what Goku's voice sounds like." After that, while writing the comic, even I would sort of have that voice come up in my head. At those times, Goku's voice would always be Nozawa-san's voice, so I thought, "she's good". Even now, I can't separate Goku from Nozawa-san.
Akira Toriyama, Chouzenshuu 4 Interview wrote:Also, I participated in the selection of the voices for the main cast, which is rare for me. I'd listen to the audition tapes and then choose; I remember that I thought that Masako Nozawa-san's voice truly fit Goku to a T.
Akira Toriyama, Special Talk w/ Masako Nozawa wrote:I've said this many times, but in drawing [Dragon Ball] for such a long time, only your voice would come to mind, Nozawa-san, so as far as I’m concerned, it's something that’s perfectly normal, I guess you could say.
Akira Toriyama, Super History Book message wrote:It was also a stroke of luck that the character Son Goku took on a life of his own at a fairly early stage, and as the battle-crazy protagonist his antics moved the story along. Then when the anime started up, Goku's character was set in stone thanks to Masako Nozawa's voice, and as I was drawing the manga that cheerful voice would help keep him acting all on his own.
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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Nokra » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:10 pm

ABED wrote:It's one of those things where it doesn't make literal sense, but her voice fits the design well enough and the high pitched voice fits Goku's childish nature more than a very masculine voice.
Sean schemmel does childish goku just fine though and he is male

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Freeza Soldier #156 » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:21 pm

Well obviously at the time that DB/Z was originally being recorded, Nozawa wasn’t even what I would consider an “old lady”. And the answer is probably as simple as they thought her voice fit well enough. As was pointed out above, Toriyama has and clearly always will be a huge fan of her work as Goku and considers her “the” Goku. I’d say that’s reason enough.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by ABED » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:21 pm

Nokra wrote:
ABED wrote:It's one of those things where it doesn't make literal sense, but her voice fits the design well enough and the high pitched voice fits Goku's childish nature more than a very masculine voice.
Sean schemmel does childish goku just fine though and he is male
He does it well enough. I'm a fan, but Nozawa's one of the best. She IS Goku much in the same way Kevin Conroy IS Batman to me. When I read a Batman story, I hear his voice. There have been other good and even great Batman before and since, but he is the Dark Knight for me because he perfectly embodies every aspect of that character. Nozawa's 10 out of 10 whereas I think Schemmel on his best day as Goku is an 8.
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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by KBABZ » Thu Nov 01, 2018 3:22 pm

Nokra wrote:SERIOUSLY? why an old lady to voice a huge muscular man when you can have a real man? Toei is weird :crazy:
Because when the story started Goku wasn't a huge muscular man, he was a twelve year old kid, and he's still that kid inside even today.

This is also ignoring the fact that women voice male characters all the time, including Bart Simpson and every voice actor of Kid Goku in English so far in history, be that Nadolny or Clinkenbeard.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by MasenkoHA » Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:00 pm

I hate this argument.

For one dismissing Masako Nozawa’s Goku as “an old lady” doing the voice makes it sound like Goku literally sounds like someone’s grandma. He doesn’t. Not even in Super. It sounds like a very childish BOY voice. Like Goku never really grew up and is still naive and pure hearted. It suits him very well.

It toon Schemmel 10 years, maybe 4 if I’m being incredibly generous to get a performance that actually fit Goku. Nozawa did it right the first time.

Also never understood how people take issue with Japanese Goku sounding higher pitched (not even like a woman which is a dishonest statement) but not Gohan in English sounding like a chainsmoker at the age of six or Freeza sounding like your transvestite grandparent with lung cancer of Cell sounding like Planton from Spongebob

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by JohnnyCashKami » Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:07 pm

The gender in this case seems pretty irrelevant, she was hired to voice a character and she's done a brilliant job all these years and no one has ever come close to her Goku VA. Well, except for Peter Kelamis but that's about it, imo.

Schemmel? It took him ages to do Goku's character justice but finally when Kai came around he finally got gud.

When I read
Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?
I thought it was about Linda Young as Freeza. :lol: She made Lord Freeza sound like a grandma.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Forte224 » Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:11 pm

JohnnyCashKami wrote: When I read
Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?
I thought it was about Linda Young as Freeza. :lol: She made Lord Freeza sound like a grandma.
I've never thought about this before, but that irony is hilarious.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:51 pm

Goku might be a big guy but that doesn't mean he needs to sound deep and manly. I like Schemmel, but Nozawa does an incredible job voicing Goku. Goku's a childish guy and her voice and performance fits Goku perfectly.

And besides, Toriyama wrote and drew the manga with her voice in mind.

A deep and manly voice fits characters like Kenshiro and Jotaro Kujo better than Goku.
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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by zarmack » Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:58 pm

Women voicing grown men is a common thing in Anime. Masako Nowaza is a great seiyuu, so I don't mind her voices for Goku, Black and Turles.

However, I do believe other people (male seiyuu) should have been chosen for Gohan, Goten and especially Bardock.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by KBABZ » Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:14 am

8000 Saiyan wrote:And besides, Toriyama wrote and drew the manga with her voice in mind.
I think that's a slight exaggeration: my understanding is that Toriyama had Nozawa's voice for Goku when writing the character since she was cast in the role, which he had approval of. Since the anime was first acknowledged on the cover of Chapter 51, and the premiere was Chapter 64, that means that there are probably 40-60 Chapters where Toriyama wrote Goku without Nozawa's performance specifically in mind.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Cipher » Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:42 am

Even ignoring how you feel about the particular performance, there's just a lot that this thread seems to either get wrong or ignore on its premise: Namely that the Dragon Ball anime is more than 30 years old and Nozawa was hardly, by any stretch of the imagination an "old woman," at the time she was cast, and that Goku began the series a child, with his voice becoming so iconic that, with the actress being able to do a convincingly aged-up version, she was simply kept on after he became an adult.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Ripper 30 » Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:04 am

Can't believe i am seeing this question in 2018 and that too on a sight like Kanzenshuu, these types of questions are asked on YouTube and Facebook since there are more Casual fans on those platforms than here.

Nozawa isn't some ordinary old lady, she is a brilliant seiyuu who can emote and scream very well. She was hardly a granny in original run, her kid Goku was so good that after taking a Re-Audition for Adult Goku voice no one other than her could capture Goku's nature. If anything, i find Freeza's casting in old Ocean and FUNimation's dub to be more questionable.
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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by LordCrumb » Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:59 am

He's just trolling y'all . Don't feed it :)

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Robo4900 » Fri Nov 02, 2018 6:06 am

When hiring a voiceover artist, you don't hire based on who they are, but on the performance they give.

</thread> :P
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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by Forte224 » Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:04 pm

Ripper 30 wrote:Can't believe i am seeing this question in 2018 and that too on a sight like Kanzenshuu,
To be fair, he was posting shallow bait threads in other places too, like on the Super forum. Which is why he was banned. Kanzenshuu has gotten a bad rap for simply primarily preferring the Japanese version, so it's not surprising there will be a few trolls every now and then. I'm pleasantly surprised we don't have more people like that guy.

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Re: Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:05 pm

MasenkoHA wrote:I hate this argument.

For one dismissing Masako Nozawa’s Goku as “an old lady” doing the voice makes it sound like Goku literally sounds like someone’s grandma. He doesn’t. Not even in Super. It sounds like a very childish BOY voice. Like Goku never really grew up and is still naive and pure hearted. It suits him very well.

It toon Schemmel 10 years, maybe 4 if I’m being incredibly generous to get a performance that actually fit Goku. Nozawa did it right the first time.

Also never understood how people take issue with Japanese Goku sounding higher pitched (not even like a woman which is a dishonest statement) but not Gohan in English sounding like a chainsmoker at the age of six or Freeza sounding like your transvestite grandparent with lung cancer of Cell sounding like Planton from Spongebob
I guess it's because of how Frieza looks like that people don't mind him having a woman's voice.

And I'm pretty sure Mr. Lawrence voiced Plankton before Clarke voiced Cell. And even if he did sound like Plankton, I don't care since he fits the role well.
"It was deemed to be too awesome." - Scott McNeil on Dragon Ball Kai not being aired yet in Canada.

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