Your standards on (adult) Goku's voice.

[Tian]

As some of you know, I'm a dubbing aficionado. Someone who has watched, watches and will watch international dubs of many series and films, and one of those is, of course, the Dragon Ball franchise.

And of course, dubs will usually have their own interpretations or standards about how the characters' voices should sound (unless we're talking about "voice-match", which is just looking for a local actor whose voice is similar to the original) and Dragon Ball is no exception.

From the dubs I've watched, I could hear (from my auditive perception) deep sounding Gokus like Patrick Borg, young sounding Gokus like Wendel Bezerra, soft sounding Gokus like Themis Psihogios and raspy sounding Gokus like Sebastian Perdek.

All of them are interesting different voice interpretations or standards of our spiky black haired hero, but if we were speaking in terms of personal standards...

My own voice interpretation for Goku would be one of a high pitched (not too much like Masako Nozawa) voice who can portray both sides of him (childish and determined) without any kind of inconsistence, and fortunately, that voice exists or... existed.

And that voice who fullfills my personal standards is, Paolo Torrisi, the first Italian adult Goku. I really like his Goku and he sounds like Goku for me, and It's a pity he's no longer among us.

Now, I ask you fellow Kanzenshuuer, what are your own standards about how adult Goku should sound? I mean, what does a voice should have to sound like Goku for you?

[Adamant]

I seem to recall the Korean dub having a pretty good Goku that matches Nozawa pretty well.
The English ones are all hilariously awful.

[Cursed Lemon]

I've said it before but I like Ian James Corlett. The essence of Goku is being able to sell both his serious, heroic moments as well as his doofy, naive moments (without sounding like a complete tool), and I thought Corlett did both of those things well.

[MasenkoHA]

A good performance.

Like idk I don’t think they should have to sound like Masako Nozawa. Mario Castaneda sounds nothing like Nozawa and I understand his performance is well regarded. It’s the traditionally masculine voice that people took issue with with regards to the English dub except by a good voice actor.

Ian Corlett is by far the most “Superman-y” of any of the English Gokus and he’s by far my favorite because he was the best actor of the bunch.

[MyVisionity]

Childlike, determined, but also it has to have some weirdness to it.

I like Peter Kelamis best out of all the English dudes.

[Vijay]

Peter Kelamis (Ocean dub) sounded good as Goku. Nxt to Nozawa-san, his voice acting is what comes to mind when I think of English Goku.

His comical scenes with Vegeta as they escape frm Majin's body were so funny, so much it reminded of original Nozawa-san's. He managed to capture Goku's innocence which is quite good, in contrast to badass, American superhero wannabe which Sean attempts

[Cure Dragon 255]

A good performance.

Like idk I don’t think they should have to sound like Masako Nozawa. Mario Castaneda sounds nothing like Nozawa and I understand his performance is well regarded. It’s the traditionally masculine voice that people took issue with with regards to the English dub except by a good voice actor.

Ian Corlett is by far the most “Superman-y” of any of the English Gokus and he’s by far my favorite because he was the best actor of the bunch.

I was about to feel mega offended that you considered the English better than Mario, but then I saw you meant Ian James Corlett and calmed down.

[JulieYBM]

I don't care about pitch or gender of the actor. Just good acting.

[TheGreatness25]

I think it would be kinda awesome to ask Saffron Henderson to try to do adult Goku (since I loved her as kid Goku and Gohan) lol

[MasenkoHA]

A good performance.

Like idk I don’t think they should have to sound like Masako Nozawa. Mario Castaneda sounds nothing like Nozawa and I understand his performance is well regarded. It’s the traditionally masculine voice that people took issue with with regards to the English dub except by a good voice actor.

Ian Corlett is by far the most “Superman-y” of any of the English Gokus and he’s by far my favorite because he was the best actor of the bunch.

I was about to feel mega offended that you considered the English better than Mario, but then I saw you meant Ian James Corlett and calmed down.

Just to be clear; I’m only saying Ian James Corlett is the best Goku amongst English Gokus.

Mario Castaneda was just an example of a revered dub Goku that sounds absolutely nothing like Nozawa to make a point that Goku doesn’t need a high pitched voice to be good and it’s more important an actor can act than sound a certain way.

[Majin Buu]

Childlike, determined, but also it has to have some weirdness to it.

Pretty much where I stand.

Goku was a weird kid that became a weird manchild as an adult, his voice should reflect that to some degree. Keeping Nozawa as adult Goku wound up playing into that.