I think what OP was getting at is the youthful sound of MasakoX Goku and how that matches the general vibe of Nozawa's, which is partially a byproduct of her being a woman and not having a masculine voice, but there's also the characterization aspect that goes along with it; both are able to represent Goku's naive and lighthearted side arguably better than most of the adult English VAs. It's obvious MasakoX has a uniquely boyish voice which gives him an edge in portraying that sillier side of Goku and helps his Abridged version of the character be as funny as it is.
While I don't agree that MasakoX is in any way a
perfect English Goku, I don't think his involvement in an Abridged series is enough to disqualify him. He can obviously portray the characterization well enough to be a contender, and he sounds heroic enough when he wants to be, but where I think he lacks in ways that Nozawa does not (along with some of the other English VAs) is in the anger and yelling side of the performance. In that regard, Peter Kelamis has displayed that he's a more capable match for Nozawa than MasakoX will frankly ever be, and he's also excelled in the lighthearted portrayal of the character for that matter.
Some will say Schemmel matches this too but, in my opinion, he can go overboard at times with the yelling and there can be a feeling of disconnect in how he portrays his naive Goku vs his angry and serious Goku. Some might say writing is to blame, or that it's the lingering and inconsistent direction he's gotten over the years but, from my perspective, his modern Goku just has a very disjointed feel to it that I don't get from most other portrayals of Goku. It's almost like he's playing Goku with a split personality at times. Some might be fine with that but I find it less than ideal.
I would say that's more or less been the consensus around here since Kai. I think there's still a minority of vocal sub elitists that still feel Schemmel doesn't understand Goku, but that's what they are, a minority. The vast majority now at least respect the work Schemmel puts in, and rightly so, because he does everything in his power to do Goku justice, especially during the comedic moments. I would go as far as to say the Super dub, for all its flaws has given us Schemmel's best work as Goku.
I don't recall where but he has been vocal in the past about doing his own thing for Goku and not following in Nozawa's footsteps, which is fine for his voice and casting since he can't really match Nozawa. As for characterization though, I do think his "understanding" of the character came a little late and because of that, he probably has a hard time adjusting to a different direction for the character and there's still some unintentional awkwardness because of that. He's also kind of locked into expectations more so than other English VAs due to the exposure of his previous work. Sabat even talked about how the creative decisions for Kai were heavily influenced by what people were used to and came to expect. They didn't want to rock the boat too much and it shows regardless of how much more accurate it ended up being. Again, good enough for some but not really an ideal situation.
Abridged is an intentional parody, the same can't be said for Funimation's dub, which didnt set out to be a parody and only made things up because they received poor translations from TOEI.
Not entirely. Funimation set out with the goal to heavily localize and adapt the series by following in the footsteps of what was successful prior.
The translations given to them from Toei were poor, but that wasn't the reason they geared their product in the way they did. They changed things because they didn't think the original material was fit for US kid's TV and basically couldn't be sold to anyone except niche anime fans on home video.
Not only that, but Ocean used those same poor translations just fine when coming up with scripts for Pioneer's movie dubs. Funimation didn't have the motive to do the same thing in-house until Kai, but even then there were problems inherited.
TheGreatness25 wrote: Mon Jan 16, 2023 10:31 pm
ABED wrote: Mon Jan 16, 2023 9:31 pm
TheGreatness25 wrote: Mon Jan 16, 2023 9:26 pm
I can honestly day that most voices in Abridged--especially Vegeta's and Piccolo's--were delivered so much better than their official Funimation dub counterparts.
This is a literal impossibility since they weren't voicing the same characters. This isn't a matter of me not liking Abridged (my dislike of Abridged is well known so no need to reiterate it), it's a simple fact that DBZA is a parody, so Vegeta and Abridged Vegeta aren't the same character.
So because the Abridged cast doing a parody, that somehow means that their line delivery couldn't possibly sound better and more natural than Funimation's? Also, let me ask you: what was the difference between Funimation's dub and Abridged, and Funimation's dub and the Japanese version? If you ask me, Funimation was doing its own parody.
I won't get into the parody vs Z dub argument (though there's enough evidence of Sabat and other directors improvising jokes that only they personally felt were funny i.e. Killa) but I just want to add that the Funi Z cast were obviously inexperienced actors at the time and it's disingenuous to pretend that the Abridged cast was automatically worse at performing lines than Funi's green in-house cast simply because they weren't official/professional or anointed by Funimation themselves.
Funimation made numerous horrible decisions and didn't understand much of the product when they made the Z dub. Their actions back then showed that they didn't care much for vocal performance or remaining faithful to the original characterization.
Regarding performances, you could make the argument that the first "seasons" of the Abridged recordings are very amateur, which is true, but some of the mid-Namek to later Android stuff I've sampled over the years did indeed blow Funi's Z acting (and yells) out of the water. I found their Piccolo and Vegeta voices less grating than Sabat's Z voices too, despite being based on Sabat's. It's delivered with sarcasm and snark, sure, but I can still distinguish between a competent performance that has a conscious emphasis on keywords and clear conveying of emotions versus the often dry, monotone, script reading deliveries that littered the Funi Z dub.
Comedy aside, the performing of the lines given to them did generally become better than the official product. Though I will be fair and also mention that you have to factor in that Abridged cast wasn't necessarily always "dubbing". They were often delivering lines without restraint (like a pre-lay cartoon) and then having their editor tailor the animation to that performance. They also had the luxury of having a voice director and cast who knew the series intimately and worked to a far more relaxed schedule. Obviously, with those factors in mind, they can be expected to deliver engaging performances. It's really not a fair comparison.
