Dragon Ball Daima - English Dub: Stephanie Nadolny Returns

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

To be fair, I have doubts about how Nozawa will perform as well. Her most recent performance as a younger Goku was the DLC for Kakarot (haven't heard enough of her young Goku in Sparking) and that sounded incredibly strained.
I would not be surprised if the fact that a young Goku voice got harder to perform in the past few years would be a reason for less Goten appearances in Super.
I'm very thankful for all of her work as Goku but I would not mind a recast so she can gracefully bow out. That being said, I believe that quitting a role due to strain or age is quite rare in Dragon Ball.

Just look at Yanami in the beginning of Super. His voices for Kaio/Babidi/Narrator truly elevated the shows in the past but to me it was hard to enjoy the performance of an actor that was clearly feeling unwell. My focus shifted from listening to the character to a concern for the performer. It feels odd to say that since he was clearly passionate to reprise his role and that is commendable.

I've heard from some people here that in the videos games & Kai that the JP cast basically don't put nearly as much effort into their lines as the English cast does, so it may be that. On the other hand, Masako Nozawa is 87 years old. Her voice & energy levels have held up considerably well over the last almost 40 years, but she's no spring chicken. There's only so much she'll be able to still do as she continues to age. I assume at some point, she may start training an understudy so they can do the voice when she eventually gets too old to continue playing the characters. And, I know it's morbid, but she's more than likely going to die at some point in the next 5-10 years. As with Toriyama's death, that's going to hit the fandom like a truck & Toei's gonna have to scramble to replace her if they don't start planning for it now. It's not like the franchise hasn't seen that before. Both sides of the Pacific have. Chris Ayres died back in 2021 & Daman Mills has been filling in for him since even before that because he wasn't able to continue playing Freeza passed Broly, for instance. It's only going to continue to happen until all of them are replaced, sadly.

All in all, I think we're in a good place with the newer DB dubs. It's actually funny that Nadolny's such a relic of those old dubs that she actually feels kind of alien to the newer dubs, but I'm glad she's back. Barry Watson is far away & removed from FUNimation/Crunchyroll & his shitty, stupid decisions no longer affect the dubs of DB material. We'll ultimately see what becomes of Nadolny's performance, but I'm more hyped now than I was beforehand. If only Geekdom didn't spoil that reveal, but it is what it is, sadly.

I don't know about the whole "JP cast puts less effort into the video games" thing. At least I've never been able to find anything to corroborate it. However I don't think that any changes in Nozawa's performance in particular have been due to a lack of effort. From reading several of the translated interviews with her on this site it's clear that she loves the character of Goku and always gives it 100% for every recording. I think it's purely age related at this point.
In an interview during Super's run when asked how long she predicted that she could physically continue playing the character she said that she could continue playing Goku "until [she's] at least 110." (I can't find the article anymore, but I remember reading it.) And, more recently she said that she will continue voice acting until shes 182.
I think Toei is going to have to pry the role away from her, or she'll continue to voice the character until she dies like Joji Yanami.
As for Watson, I've said this before but in a weird way he still kind of has an effect on the dub to this day. The team at the Dragon Ball studio (I forgot what the English team calls it) still use the the incorrect "say-in" pronunciation to this day, as well as the horribly incorrect dub attack names. Namely Destructo Disk and Special Beam Cannon. For as much as Schemmel makes fun of the guy, they still can't fully escape his grasp.

[MasenkoHA]

To be fair, I have doubts about how Nozawa will perform as well. Her most recent performance as a younger Goku was the DLC for Kakarot (haven't heard enough of her young Goku in Sparking) and that sounded incredibly strained.
I would not be surprised if the fact that a young Goku voice got harder to perform in the past few years would be a reason for less Goten appearances in Super.
I'm very thankful for all of her work as Goku but I would not mind a recast so she can gracefully bow out. That being said, I believe that quitting a role due to strain or age is quite rare in Dragon Ball.

Just look at Yanami in the beginning of Super. His voices for Kaio/Babidi/Narrator truly elevated the shows in the past but to me it was hard to enjoy the performance of an actor that was clearly feeling unwell. My focus shifted from listening to the character to a concern for the performer. It feels odd to say that since he was clearly passionate to reprise his role and that is commendable.

I've heard from some people here that in the videos games & Kai that the JP cast basically don't put nearly as much effort into their lines as the English cast does, so it may be that. On the other hand, Masako Nozawa is 87 years old. Her voice & energy levels have held up considerably well over the last almost 40 years, but she's no spring chicken. There's only so much she'll be able to still do as she continues to age. I assume at some point, she may start training an understudy so they can do the voice when she eventually gets too old to continue playing the characters. And, I know it's morbid, but she's more than likely going to die at some point in the next 5-10 years. As with Toriyama's death, that's going to hit the fandom like a truck & Toei's gonna have to scramble to replace her if they don't start planning for it now. It's not like the franchise hasn't seen that before. Both sides of the Pacific have. Chris Ayres died back in 2021 & Daman Mills has been filling in for him since even before that because he wasn't able to continue playing Freeza passed Broly, for instance. It's only going to continue to happen until all of them are replaced, sadly.

All in all, I think we're in a good place with the newer DB dubs. It's actually funny that Nadolny's such a relic of those old dubs that she actually feels kind of alien to the newer dubs, but I'm glad she's back. Barry Watson is far away & removed from FUNimation/Crunchyroll & his shitty, stupid decisions no longer affect the dubs of DB material. We'll ultimately see what becomes of Nadolny's performance, but I'm more hyped now than I was beforehand. If only Geekdom didn't spoil that reveal, but it is what it is, sadly.

I don't know about the whole "JP cast puts less effort into the video games" thing. At least I've never been able to find anything to corroborate it. However I don't think that any changes in Nozawa's performance in particular have been due to a lack of effort. From reading several of the translated interviews with her on this site it's clear that she loves the character of Goku and always gives it 100% for every recording. I think it's purely age related at this point.
In an interview during Super's run when asked how long she predicted that she could physically continue playing the character she said that she could continue playing Goku "until [she's] at least 110." (I can't find the article anymore, but I remember reading it.) And, more recently she said that she will continue voice acting until shes 182.
I think Toei is going to have to pry the role away from her, or she'll continue to voice the character until she dies like Joji Yanami.
As for Watson, I've said this before but in a weird way he still kind of has an effect on the dub to this day. The team at the Dragon Ball studio (I forgot what the English team calls it) still use the the incorrect "say-in" pronunciation to this day, as well as the horribly incorrect dub attack names. Namely Destructo Disk and Special Beam Cannon. For as much as Schemmel makes fun of the guy, they still can't fully escape his grasp.

Right. We're never going to truly move away from Watson's influence beyond KameHameHa and Kaioken being pronounced correctly and keeping the Japanese score (which even Watson was moving away from as seen with original Dragon Ball and every other non-Z and GT license under his tenure)

It will alway be Say-in, the principle cast is still argely based on what Barry Watson and 1999 Chris Sabat thought was best aside from Freeza and young Gohan. The most prolific series is still the one with Barry Watson's mitts on it which restored the original score as an option and changed nothing else.

[GTx10]

Wait when did Og DB remove the JPN score? The Blue Bricks have the JPN score intact with only some music with lyrics missing in the Uncut dub at times. Or are we talking about Early HG and Saban Og DB dub scores?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Wait when did Og DB remove the JPN score? The Blue Bricks have the JPN score intact with only some music with lyrics missing in the Uncut dub at times. Or are we talking about Early HG and Saban Og DB dub scores?

Only the BLT dub had a replacement score (the Blue Water dub used Ocean's library tracks in place of insert songs, but otherwise kept the Japanese score). Funimation's inhouse dub of original Dragon Ball always had the Kikuchi score on TV and home video.

[WittyUsername]

A little late to the discourse, but I gotta say, the response here to Nadolny’s return is like night and day compared to most other parts of the Internet.

[MasenkoHA]

Wait when did Og DB remove the JPN score? The Blue Bricks have the JPN score intact with only some music with lyrics missing in the Uncut dub at times. Or are we talking about Early HG and Saban Og DB dub scores?

Huh?

No, I said Watson himself was moving away from changing the score as seen with original Dragon Ball and the other non-Z and GT dubs he produced.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

I've heard from some people here that in the videos games & Kai that the JP cast basically don't put nearly as much effort into their lines as the English cast does, so it may be that. On the other hand, Masako Nozawa is 87 years old. Her voice & energy levels have held up considerably well over the last almost 40 years, but she's no spring chicken. There's only so much she'll be able to still do as she continues to age. I assume at some point, she may start training an understudy so they can do the voice when she eventually gets too old to continue playing the characters. And, I know it's morbid, but she's more than likely going to die at some point in the next 5-10 years. As with Toriyama's death, that's going to hit the fandom like a truck & Toei's gonna have to scramble to replace her if they don't start planning for it now. It's not like the franchise hasn't seen that before. Both sides of the Pacific have. Chris Ayres died back in 2021 & Daman Mills has been filling in for him since even before that because he wasn't able to continue playing Freeza passed Broly, for instance. It's only going to continue to happen until all of them are replaced, sadly.

All in all, I think we're in a good place with the newer DB dubs. It's actually funny that Nadolny's such a relic of those old dubs that she actually feels kind of alien to the newer dubs, but I'm glad she's back. Barry Watson is far away & removed from FUNimation/Crunchyroll & his shitty, stupid decisions no longer affect the dubs of DB material. We'll ultimately see what becomes of Nadolny's performance, but I'm more hyped now than I was beforehand. If only Geekdom didn't spoil that reveal, but it is what it is, sadly.

I don't know about the whole "JP cast puts less effort into the video games" thing. At least I've never been able to find anything to corroborate it. However I don't think that any changes in Nozawa's performance in particular have been due to a lack of effort. From reading several of the translated interviews with her on this site it's clear that she loves the character of Goku and always gives it 100% for every recording. I think it's purely age related at this point.
In an interview during Super's run when asked how long she predicted that she could physically continue playing the character she said that she could continue playing Goku "until [she's] at least 110." (I can't find the article anymore, but I remember reading it.) And, more recently she said that she will continue voice acting until shes 182.
I think Toei is going to have to pry the role away from her, or she'll continue to voice the character until she dies like Joji Yanami.
As for Watson, I've said this before but in a weird way he still kind of has an effect on the dub to this day. The team at the Dragon Ball studio (I forgot what the English team calls it) still use the the incorrect "say-in" pronunciation to this day, as well as the horribly incorrect dub attack names. Namely Destructo Disk and Special Beam Cannon. For as much as Schemmel makes fun of the guy, they still can't fully escape his grasp.

Right. We're never going to truly move away from Watson's influence beyond KameHameHa and Kaioken being pronounced correctly and keeping the Japanese score (which even Watson was moving away from as seen with original Dragon Ball and every other non-Z and GT license under his tenure)

It will alway be Say-in, the principle cast is still argely based on what Barry Watson and 1999 Chris Sabat thought was best aside from Freeza and young Gohan. The most prolific series is still the one with Barry Watson's mitts on it which restored the original score as an option and changed nothing else.

Yeah it feels a little disingenuous/horribly tone deaf of Schemmel to go on about how they're all better than Watson, and how they're not letting anyone like him run the show ever again when in reality they're still largely under his influence. I have no beef with the English cast, but Kai didn't go all the way with staying true to the original version like they hyped it up in 2010. Aside from Battle of Gods and Resurrection F the old Pioneer dubs of movies 1-3 (opinions on acting quality aside) still stack up against any of Funimation's best in house efforts blow for blow.

[MasenkoHA]

A little late to the discourse, but I gotta say, the response here to Nadolny’s return is like night and day compared to most other parts of the Internet.

But also not surprising. Most other parts of the Internet lean heavy towards the dub.

Even this site, which focus heavily on the Japanese version, has enough Funi dub fans that it's not a total negative reaction to Nadolny's return.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Even this site, which focus heavily on the Japanese version, has enough Funi dub fans that it's not a total negative reaction to Nadolny's return.

This site was also created at a time when the kids watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami didn't use or have access to the Internet.

At that time the response to Funimation's dub, including the now loved Faulconer Productions score was near universally negative. Once said fans who were exposed to the dub and Nadolny's Goku started using the Internet and defending these things the pendulum swung in their favour.

I've noticed elsewhere on the Internet you hear the "I always watch my anime subbed but for Dragon Ball Z I watch dubbed". You don't hear that here, as I think most people here are open minded enough about Dragon Ball to give the Japanese version a chance even if they ultimately still prefer the dub (which is fine as long as they've tried it).

In a similar vein the 4Kids Yu-Gi-Oh dub is generally liked nowadays despite the liberties, replacement score, censorship, etc. While the dub was first airing in various countries it received widespread criticism online, but by the time the fans who grew up on the dub (like me) started using forums those who once disparaged it either stopped caring or became outnumbered and started to look like a loud minority.

For better or for worse dubs made these shows a lot more accessible, which has been a good thing. The important thing is that we love them while understanding the criticisms against them because in many cases that makes them different experiences.

[WittyUsername]

Personally, I just don’t really see why Nadolny returning would be worthy of outrage to begin with. It’s always come across like certain people on these forums have some weird vendetta against her that goes beyond simply not being a fan of her performance.

[VegettoEX]

Personally, I just don’t really see why Nadolny returning would be worthy of outrage to begin with. It’s always come across like certain people on these forums have some weird vendetta against her that goes beyond simply not being a fan of her performance.

Can you showcase any examples of "outrage" here...?

Let's not be over-dramatic or exaggerate what's otherwise just regular ol' disappointment and/or confusion.

[JulieYBM]

Even this site, which focus heavily on the Japanese version, has enough Funi dub fans that it's not a total negative reaction to Nadolny's return.

This site was also created at a time when the kids watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami didn't use or have access to the Internet.

This is anecdotal evidence at best, but I actually did begin browsing Dragon Ball websites in October/November 1998 after becoming a fan of the series via Toonami. I didn't become aware of DaizenshuuEX until eight years later, but I might have used Mike's original site at some point. I was more of a Planet Namek kind of girl lol.

I'm curious if anyone else was looking up the bloody, unedited screen captures of Dragon Ball stuff on school computers, too lol.

[WittyUsername]

Personally, I just don’t really see why Nadolny returning would be worthy of outrage to begin with. It’s always come across like certain people on these forums have some weird vendetta against her that goes beyond simply not being a fan of her performance.

Can you showcase any examples of "outrage" here...?

Let's not be over-dramatic or exaggerate what's otherwise just regular ol' disappointment and/or confusion.

Well, I did notice that one of the comments said that they’re not watching the dub because of her, and a couple of others have described her performance as “god awful” which I would argue feels a little over-dramatic itself.

In any case, my comment about how certain people seem to have a personal vendetta against her wasn’t specifically in regard to this thread. It’s just something I’ve picked up on over the years. I remember during the Vic Mignogna saga when certain people seemed a little too eager to go after her on account of her personal life. If I recall, Monica Rial actually called out the people who were doing this, and told them to leave Nadolny alone.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Even this site, which focus heavily on the Japanese version, has enough Funi dub fans that it's not a total negative reaction to Nadolny's return.

This site was also created at a time when the kids watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami didn't use or have access to the Internet.

This is anecdotal evidence at best, but I actually did begin browsing Dragon Ball websites in October/November 1998 after becoming a fan of the series via Toonami. I didn't become aware of DaizenshuuEX until eight years later, but I might have used Mike's original site at some point. I was more of a Planet Namek kind of girl lol.

I'm curious if anyone else was looking up the bloody, unedited screen captures of Dragon Ball stuff on school computers, too lol.

I can only speak for when I was a kid, but I'll say if this happened I was not aware of it. Everyone I knew who was into Dragon Ball just cared about power levels, who would beat who in a fight and the imaginary Dragon Ball AF.

I didn't come across VegettoEX’s Ultimate DBZ Links, Temple O' Trunks, Kanzentai, Planetnamek or sites like that at the time. The most comprehensive Dragon Ball site I was aware of was myfavouritegames.com (this was back in 2004-2005). I wish I had been internet savvy enough in 2001-2003 to be a regular of UK-DB and other Ocean dub fansites like that.

[MasenkoHA]

Personally, I just don’t really see why Nadolny returning would be worthy of outrage to begin with. It’s always come across like certain people on these forums have some weird vendetta against her that goes beyond simply not being a fan of her performance.

Can you showcase any examples of "outrage" here...?

Let's not be over-dramatic or exaggerate what's otherwise just regular ol' disappointment and/or confusion.

Well, I did notice that one of the comments said that they’re not watching the dub because of her, and a couple of others have described her performance as “god awful” which I would argue feels a little over-dramatic itself.

In any case, my comment about how certain people seem to have a personal vendetta against her wasn’t specifically in regard to this thread. It’s just something I’ve picked up on over the years. I remember during the Vic Mignogna saga when certain people seemed a little too eager to go after her on account of her personal life. If I recall, Monica Rial actually called out the people who were doing this, and told them to leave Nadolny alone.

Did it though? I don't honestly really recall anyone bringing up Nadolny's personal life other than speculation that her DUIs MAY have led to her losing the role but that was all more neutral guess work than a vindictive attack. The casting couch rumor was more people coming after Huber for starting it

As always it just seems mostly like people confusing heated criticism of the dub with personal attacks

People not liking Nadolny as Goku/Gohan and being vocal about it=/= attacking her as a person or having a personal vendetta against her

The negative feedback to the news has been pretty mild tbh, and mostly by people who probably weren't going to watch the dub anyways

[LostTimeLord]

To me, the odd thing about bringing back Nadolny is that they're moving further away from the Japanese version again. In previous cases where re-casts were undone, the two voices sounded pretty consistent anyway. For example, Bryan Massey's Oolong was clearly based on Brad Jackson, and neither sound particularly like Naoki Tatsuta, so it wasn't a step back when Jackson came back. But Colleen Clinkenbeard gave Goku 'cutesy' voice that seemed much closer to Nozawa than Nadolny or any of her predecessors at Funimation or Ocean.

It seems strange to call back to the 00's dub when they've seemingly put that approach behind them since Kai. Even when Super's dub was inaccurate, it still had a different tone and style to the 00's dubs from what I've seen.

[WittyUsername]

To me, the odd thing about bringing back Nadolny is that they're moving further away from the Japanese version again. In previous cases where re-casts were undone, the two voices sounded pretty consistent anyway. For example, Bryan Massey's Oolong was clearly based on Brad Jackson, and neither sound particularly like Naoki Tatsuta, so it wasn't a step back when Jackson came back. But Colleen Clinkenbeard gave Goku 'cutesy' voice that seemed much closer to Nozawa than Nadolny or any of her predecessors at Funimation or Ocean.

It seems strange to call back to the 00's dub when they've seemingly put that approach behind them since Kai. Even when Super's dub was inaccurate, it still had a different tone and style to the 00's dubs from what I've seen.

Oolong’s recasting wasn’t exactly “undone”. Brad Jackson was unavailable during the production of the Kai dub, so Bryan Massey was brought on as a soundalike.

[MasenkoHA]

To me, the odd thing about bringing back Nadolny is that they're moving further away from the Japanese version again. In previous cases where re-casts were undone, the two voices sounded pretty consistent anyway. For example, Bryan Massey's Oolong was clearly based on Brad Jackson, and neither sound particularly like Naoki Tatsuta, so it wasn't a step back when Jackson came back. But Colleen Clinkenbeard gave Goku 'cutesy' voice that seemed much closer to Nozawa than Nadolny or any of her predecessors at Funimation or Ocean.

It seems strange to call back to the 00's dub when they've seemingly put that approach behind them since Kai. Even when Super's dub was inaccurate, it still had a different tone and style to the 00's dubs from what I've seen.

At the end of the day beyond a few key recast Kai really wasn't all that different in its approach to voice acting to Z's dub. Even Monica Rial acknowledged her performance was based on Tiffany Vollmer's. If Kaio is still gonna sound like a fat lisping anthropomorphic cat fish and Majin Boo is still gonna sound like obese Elmo on helium and Vegeta is gonna still sound like he got a tracheotomy and and Mr.Satan is gonna sound like Hulk Hogan choking on his own saliva than young Goku can have his nasally voice back

[mecha3000]

A little late, but surreal to see Kanzenshuu add a Daima sub section to the forum. I figured it was coming, but just didn't know when. Also, as for Nadolny's return, I think it's a cool way to generate interest in Daima since most Millennial fans weren't going to give it a chance. Adding the voice of Kid Goku/Gohan from the version they watched from the "extreme 90s and 00s" and "hope of the universe" and "I won't watch this anymore!" and "This is to go ever further beyond!" days, definitely helps give the dub more hype than if Colleen (who again, most Millennial fans hate her take) just did the voice for Mini Goku.

As for me, I'm fine with it, but I do agree that it would've been nice for Colleen to FINALLY get a chance to voice a kid version of Goku outside of miscellaneous appearances in games and throughout Kai and Super. But whatever, Stephanie Nadolny hasn't voiced anything for the franchise since 2009 with Revenge of King Piccolo and Raging Blast, if I remember right. Damn, I'm old (27 right now). Anyway, I feel like she deserves to come back since she's part of what fans love about classic Dragon Ball as far as the dub goes. And based on the reaction I've seen online, I'm not wrong (look at SSJGoshin4's reaction).

Also, think about it. Masako Nozawa, as much as we all love her, has voiced Goku in EVERYTHING. She's the voice, undisputed. But in some ways, because of Nadolny coming back for the dub, it gives Daima an extra flavor of hype to it. Because we haven't heard Nadolny voice Goku in so long. So again, I'll be watching and definitely excited to check this out in theaters. I guess after how well the last few movies did (one even beating Idris Elba), Crunchyroll figured why not give Daima the big screen treatment and I'm here for it.

With Sparking! Zero and a new Dragon Ball series coming soon, what a time to be a DB fan. Excited to see what else comes in the next few years.

[songohan619]

A little late, but surreal to see Kanzenshuu add a Daima sub section to the forum. I figured it was coming, but just didn't know when. Also, as for Nadolny's return, I think it's a cool way to generate interest in Daima since most Millennial fans weren't going to give it a chance. Adding the voice of Kid Goku/Gohan from the version they watched from the "extreme 90s and 00s" and "hope of the universe" and "I won't watch this anymore!" and "This is to go ever further beyond!" days, definitely helps give the dub more hype than if Colleen (who again, most Millennial fans hate her take) just did the voice for Mini Goku.

As for me, I'm fine with it, but I do agree that it would've been nice for Colleen to FINALLY get a chance to voice a kid version of Goku outside of miscellaneous appearances in games and throughout Kai and Super. But whatever, Stephanie Nadolny hasn't voiced anything for the franchise since 2009 with Revenge of King Piccolo and Raging Blast, if I remember right. Damn, I'm old (27 right now). Anyway, I feel like she deserves to come back since she's part of what fans love about classic Dragon Ball as far as the dub goes. And based on the reaction I've seen online, I'm not wrong (look at SSJGoshin4's reaction).

Also, think about it. Masako Nozawa, as much as we all love her, has voiced Goku in EVERYTHING. She's the voice, undisputed. But in some ways, because of Nadolny coming back for the dub, it gives Daima an extra flavor of hype to it. Because we haven't heard Nadolny voice Goku in so long. So again, I'll be watching and definitely excited to check this out in theaters. I guess after how well the last few movies did (one even beating Idris Elba), Crunchyroll figured why not give Daima the big screen treatment and I'm here for it.

With Sparking! Zero and a new Dragon Ball series coming soon, what a time to be a DB fan. Excited to see what else comes in the next few years.

110% agreed!