Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

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Zephyr
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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by Zephyr » Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:52 am

He doesn't even seem to know Joji Yanami's name, or that he'd recently passed away. Seems less rude to fans of the actual show, and more towards Yanami himself, which is the real thing to take issue with here, I think.

He also doesn't seem aware that Yanami was the narrator's voice before Kaio ever showed up. That Kaio is effectively speaking in the narrator's voice is such an incredibly nice touch. I don't think knowing that would really change his mind at this point, but that's something you'd hope someone 'disagreeing with it creatively' would square with.

This concludes Episode #5,564 of "Boy Am I Sure Glad I Stopped Caring About The Texas Dub A Long Time Ago".

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:59 am

"I don't agree with it [Yanami's performance as Kaio) artistically."


Schemmel's performance is just a bad impression of Don Brown's misguided take that got progressively out of hand. I don't know why Sabat is pretending the performance was a creative decision beyond "Make kids in 1999 think its the same guy from Vancouver they've been hearing for the last year or two"

And yeah I'm gonna agree with Zephyr that Sabat probably doesn't get that Kaio and the narrator are voiced by the same guy using the same inflection and tone and it could be interpreted as Kaio being the narrator all along.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by eledoremassis02 » Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:10 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:59 am "I don't agree with it [Yanami's performance as Kaio) artistically."


Schemmel's performance is just a bad impression of Don Brown's misguided take that got progressively out of hand. I don't know why Sabat is pretending the performance was a creative decision beyond "Make kids in 1999 think its the same guy from Vancouver they've been hearing for the last year or two"

And yeah I'm gonna agree with Zephyr that Sabat probably doesn't get that Kaio and the narrator are voiced by the same guy using the same inflection and tone and it could be interpreted as Kaio being the narrator all along.
Schemmel actually brings up ocean and him trying to copy it in the begining of the clip, so credit to him!

I dont think Sabat mean to be insulting and I can kind of see where he's coming from (for me it just adds to King Kai not being who you think).
I think Bang Zoom had the best King Kai thus far (for english)

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:23 pm

eledoremassis02 wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:10 pm

Schemmel actually brings up ocean and him trying to copy it in the begining of the clip, so credit to him!
I didn't watch the whole video glad Schemmel acknowledged where the voice came from.
I think Bang Zoom had the best King Kai thus far (for english)
I was just watching the voice actor comparison on YouTube and surprisingly the AB Groupe guy who voiced Kaio (ermm His Majesty?) in Super Saiya Goku was pretty good..

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:11 pm

eledoremassis02 wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:10 pm I dont think Sabat mean to be insulting and I can kind of see where he's coming from (for me it just adds to King Kai not being who you think.
Agreed, I don't think he meant to be insulting. He may not be aware that Yanami voiced both the narrator and King Kai, but there's a difference between not being aware of something and being intentionally insulting.

For that matter, as much as I love Yanami's performance, I think Sabat has a point when he says that Yanami's low-key delivery didn't always match the animation. Don't get me wrong, it did for the most part, but there are some sequences where King Kai's face is drawn to be comically enormous to indicate incredibly loud shouting, and Yanami's delivery--in my opinion--didn't always 100% match the animation during those moments.
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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by Adamant » Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:28 pm

You know, this kind of remind me of when researcher Jørgen Lorentzen insulted the research of three far more revered scientists, including Simon Baron-Cohen, on national Norwegian TV back in 2010, calling their work "poor research", which prompted the following response from Professor Trond Amundsen:
The phrasing "poor research" would be rude and discourteous if Lorentzen was a leading international expert and the three researchers weren't actually all that skilled. But all three are distinguished international researchers, and Baron-Cohen a top researcher with over 300 international scientific articles, several awards and many scientific books behind him. He leads a research center on autism at the University of Cambridge. This just makes the statement look embarrassing.
Baron-Cohen's work has been cited in scientific literature more than 13,000 times (source: ISI Web of Science). Citations are a measure of international scientific influence. Very few, perhaps no, Norwegian researchers are so widely cited. In comparison, Lorentzen's 4 international journal articles registered in the same database (ISI Web of Science) have been cited a total of 2 times, and his books (he has written several books and articles in Norwegian) as far as I can see about 25 times in scientific literature (source : Google Scholar). What basis does Lorentzen have for saying that Baron-Cohen conducts "weak research"? A small apology could probably be in order here too, but I don't think Baron-Cohen needs it.
You could replace Lorentzen's name with Sabat and Baron-Cohen's with Yanami here. It's just embarrassing to see a nobody like this "disagree artitically" with one of the world's most celebrated voice actors.
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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by eledoremassis02 » Fri Aug 05, 2022 4:04 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:23 pm
eledoremassis02 wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:10 pm

Schemmel actually brings up ocean and him trying to copy it in the begining of the clip, so credit to him!
I didn't watch the whole video glad Schemmel acknowledged where the voice came from.
I think Bang Zoom had the best King Kai thus far (for english)
I was just watching the voice actor comparison on YouTube and surprisingly the AB Groupe guy who voiced Kaio (ermm His Majesty?) in Super Saiya Goku was pretty good..
I almost missed it too because the link is time stampd after he mentioned it.

I checked that video and its actually kind of jarring hearing ocean then funi lol. In my head they sound almost identicle but they really dont lol

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by WittyUsername » Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:07 pm

They do have a point about Yanami’s soft inflections not really matching some of Kaio’s more over the top facial expressions.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Sat Aug 06, 2022 1:08 am

I'd just like to say its not like Yanami sounded old and frail on purpose. The man gave his all, even when he was old and weak, sadly that wasnt enough but whether one likes him or not no one can deny the man the credit for his dedication to the role.
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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by Majin Buu » Sat Aug 06, 2022 9:01 am

Sabat criticizing Yanami's performance on artistic grounds doesn't erase the artistic problems with Schemmel's.

I think it's telling that he felt the need to put down Yanami in the process of defending Schemmel. He could have just said he likes Schemmel's performance and left it at that. It comes off like he had Schemmel's detractors (namely sub fans who love Yanami) on his mind.

Also, while I don't think he was trying to mock Yanami or otherwise be disrespectful, it did feel a little cringey when he started imitating Yanami.

Lastly, I don't recall what he's saying about Yanami ever being an issue in the original anime. It only became an issue in Super when Yanami's health began to deteriorate.

All in all, this statement reeks of that "we know how to do this better than the people that created it" vibe I've always gotten from Funimation's dub.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by TheGreatness25 » Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:02 am

Oh, God. Really? He's over here defending that Schemmel Kaiō voice that sounds like he's slobbering with marbled in his mouth? Yeah? For real?

Why say anything at all? I really have been so turned off by anything from this dub team.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by MasenkoHA » Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:38 am

TheGreatness25 wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:02 am Oh, God. Really? He's over here defending that Schemmel Kaiō voice that sounds like he's slobbering with marbled in his mouth? Yeah? For real?

Why say anything at all? I really have been so turned off by anything from this dub team.
The weird part is there was nothing to defend. Nobody in that convention was criticizing Schemmel's take. Schemmel was asked how he came up with it. Schemmel said he based it off the Vancouver actor whom he assumed was doing an impression of the comedian Buddy Hackett (probably better known to a millenial/gen z audience as the voice of the seagull from Little Mermaid) and he just took it from there. Sabat even mentioning the Japanese version's take on it was completely unprompted "Nobody said anything but we did it better"

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by Adamant » Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:38 pm

Majin Buu wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 9:01 am Also, while I don't think he was trying to mock Yanami or otherwise be disrespectful, it did feel a little cringey when he started imitating Yanami.
He did that too? Yech. I didn't actually watch the clip, I just based my comment on what others here had said, but that doesn't exactly make him look better.
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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by mecha3000 » Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:13 am

I think everyone is taking WAY too much offense from Sabat here. Could he have maybe worded himself better (especially since Yanami passed)? 100%. But you also have to remember Sabat has probably been berated by sub fans (Hell, on this forum alone) for DECADES now. You can't really fault the man (to a degree) when a lot of you have given the dub shit for years (even when Kai improved things). This is why Sabat eventually came out and said he's no longer worried about being overly faithful to the sub anymore (and why Super's dub feels like a meme at times). BECAUSE MOST OF YOU AND OTHER SUB FANS DON'T WATCH THE DUB ANYWAY.

And why do you even care about his panel when it's not your preferred version? So, I don't blame him for being unapologetic about his belief in Schemmel's King Kai. And honestly IMO, King Kai/Kaio's mannerisms and comical nature don't fit a deep sounding, serious voice. But maybe that's the intention? I always saw it as a comedic riff on the old, wise sensei you see in martial art movies. Hence, the deep voice. And if it was done to mimic the narrator (retroactively making Kaio the narrator), then that's AWESOME. I imagine Kyle Hebert or Doc Morgan would've had a similar effect.

And hey at least Schemmel acknowledged Joji as a legend. But ultimately yes, Sabat was being disrespectful and could've stated his opinion better, especially since he could've met the late Joji and had some awkward encounter after his comments. Not that the original VA's give a crap about the English dub, I'm sure. Damn, I didn't mean to ramble here. My bad.......

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by TheGreatness25 » Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:47 am

mecha3000 wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:13 am I think everyone is taking WAY too much offense from Sabat here. Could he have maybe worded himself better (especially since Yanami passed)? 100%. But you also have to remember Sabat has probably been berated by sub fans (Hell, on this forum alone) for DECADES now. You can't really fault the man (to a degree) when a lot of you have given the dub shit for years (even when Kai improved things). This is why Sabat eventually came out and said he's no longer worried about being overly faithful to the sub anymore (and why Super's dub feels like a meme at times). BECAUSE MOST OF YOU AND OTHER SUB FANS DON'T WATCH THE DUB ANYWAY.

And why do you even care about his panel when it's not your preferred version? So, I don't blame him for being unapologetic about his belief in Schemmel's King Kai. And honestly IMO, King Kai/Kaio's mannerisms and comical nature don't fit a deep sounding, serious voice. But maybe that's the intention? I always saw it as a comedic riff on the old, wise sensei you see in martial art movies. Hence, the deep voice. And if it was done to mimic the narrator (retroactively making Kaio the narrator), then that's AWESOME. I imagine Kyle Hebert or Doc Morgan would've had a similar effect.

And hey at least Schemmel acknowledged Joji as a legend. But ultimately yes, Sabat was being disrespectful and could've stated his opinion better, especially since he could've met the late Joji and had some awkward encounter after his comments. Not that the original VA's give a crap about the English dub, I'm sure. Damn, I didn't mean to ramble here. My bad.......
There's a difference between fans on the internet saying that the dub sucked and the guy who officially worked on the dub through voiceover AND on the production side of things, disrespecting someone from the original work that this putz was working on. Also, the fans who criticized the dub had every reason to. Were the criticisms a bit overboard? Of course, but it's fans.

This reminds me of when he kicked the Big Green dub. Like, yes, of course it sucks, but who the hell do you think you are? With your amateur-ass lucky to even have a job in 1998? DBZ became popular in spite of that dub and I'd like to think that by the 10-year mark, someone would finally get good at their job.

I don't know--to me, if you're making money on something, maybe it's best not to shit-talk aspects of it in public.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by Majin Buu » Sun Aug 07, 2022 10:38 am

mecha3000 wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:13 am And why do you even care about his panel when it's not your preferred version?
Sabat was the one that decided to make it about Yanami, completely unprompted at that.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by TheGreatness25 » Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:29 pm

I never once thought that Kaiō didn't sound right in the Japanese version. Not once did I think, "Man, you know, he sounds too serious. He should sound like a total clown!" I guess that's the difference between real voice acting and making goofy voices.

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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by PurestEvil » Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:46 pm

As someone who actually kind of likes Schemmel's voice of King Kai, Yanami's was a lot funnier due to his delivery. I don't think a few incongruous clips detracts from that.
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Re: Chris Sabat on King Kai's English and Japanese voice

Post by WittyUsername » Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:04 pm

It’s kind of weird that Chris Sabat of all people apparently doesn’t even know Joji Yanami’s name, or that he passed away.

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