New interviews on DBZ uncut site

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

I agree with you, laserkid. Sabat's Armstrong is shockingly similar to the Japanese voice.

[SonGokuGT]

Sabat's Armstrong is just frikkin' loveable! I think he did a great job on the character.

As for Kuwabara, I liked his Kuwabara voice! I think it's hilarious and just like a tough teenage thug, lol. But even though people bag on him, I think he could do a wise range of voices... just look at his work voicing Ayame on Fruits Basket! XD

[Pedro The Hutt]

That's one of my biggest problems with the JPN version (aside from it being in Japanese ). I don't like how several characters sound like little kids. DBZ Goku in particular.

I'm sure there are people who say the same about the sound of American English.

But in any case, I find Goku being voiced by a woman from child to adult rather, well, fitting. Much like with Kenshin, they both are rather innocent and aloof characters despite their fighting prowess. And a male voice just couldn't bring out those traits as well as a female voice could. And besides, there is simply no way that a man could make "Oro" sound as cute as Mayo Suzukaze does..... or make "Nani nani nani nani?" as adorable as Masako Nazawa made it be. XD
[/end rant]

[Super Sonic]

That's one of my biggest problems with the JPN version (aside from it being in Japanese ). I don't like how several characters sound like little kids. DBZ Goku in particular.

I'm sure there are people who say the same about the sound of American English.

But in any case, I find Goku being voiced by a woman from child to adult rather, well, fitting. Much like with Kenshin, they both are rather innocent and aloof characters despite their fighting prowess. And a male voice just couldn't bring out those traits as well as a female voice could. And besides, there is simply no way that a man could make "Oro" sound as cute as Mayo Suzukaze does..... or make "Nani nani nani nani?" as adorable as Masako Nazawa made it be. XD
[/end rant]

I haven't seen the Kenshin ovas which are done by a different company and cast than the Kenshin series is, but with the series dubbed in English, Kenshin doesn't say "Oro". He just says an exasperated "HUH?!" instead (sorry about the nonsense punctuation EX, but it was to express the feeling similar to how it might be in an American comic book). As for women as voices it depends for me. Kenshin sounds ok but like Goku whose voice is a little too high pitched for my tastes, there are exceptions. For example, nothing against Megumi Ogata, but her Kurama sounds too much like her Haruka for me. While watching YYH in Japanese, there are times I'm expecting him to yell "World Shaking".

[DBW]

Myself, I prefer his Kuwabara to the Japanese actor's voice. It fits the character in my opinion.

LOL, Shigeru Chiba, another one of my favourites! Once again, I prefered Chiba due to his great performance and amazing range. Like Furukawa, he can alter his voice at any given moment, and really pull off some great and memorabe scenes. My favourite characters of his would have to be Megane, Pilaf, and his best is the Beta/VHS dude from Cowboy Bebop!

Then again, I guess you could say this is how I feel about the majority of the cast from Dragonball. It's their skill in the field of voice acting that really makes the Japanese version such a treat to listen to.

[SaiyaJedi]

Myself, I prefer his Kuwabara to the Japanese actor's voice. It fits the character in my opinion.

LOL, Shigeru Chiba, another one of my favourites! Once again, I prefered Chiba due to his great performance and amazing range. Like Furukawa, he can alter his voice at any given moment, and really pull off some great and memorabe scenes. My favourite characters of his would have to be Megane, Pilaf, and his best is the Beta/VHS dude from Cowboy Bebop!

What about Buggy the Clown?

[Sun_Wukong]

but he can be good too, hius work in Fullmetal Alchemist was just brilliantly hilarious.

The FMA dub is just so damn good in general.

[lost in thought]

The FMA dub is just so damn good in general.

No truer words have ever been spoken... And on that note, it makes me wonder how FMA would have turned out being dubbed by ADV, or any other company one might think of. I would imagine a definite drop in quality.

[laserkid]

well Ed's VA would still be possible with ADV since Vic's an ADV nactor mainly. Butyes FUNimation did a bang up job with it (and evenbn gave Sabat a good line).

The point is overall the VAs arent bad in DBZ, its jsut that some were picked poorly to character, and the lines ar ejust BAD (Let alone the BGM).

[DBW]

What about Buggy the Clown?

He did an awesome job with Buggy, but it's not really a character that stands out to me. It's kind of like with Raditz; although he gave a great performance with the voice, it just wasn't a very memorable character. But it does go to show what kind of a range he's got (from Pilaf to Raditz, the difference in his voice is absolutely amazing). As for the Beta/VHS guy, I basically can't stop laughing every time I watch that scene, Chiba is hilarious in it.

The point is overall the VAs arent bad in DBZ, its jsut that some were picked poorly to character, and the lines ar ejust BAD (Let alone the BGM).

Definately. It's not really fair to blame VA's for poor dubs and such. They're just doing what the director tells them to do.

Now, I wouldn't say that the VA's aren't bad (a lot of them really are terrible voice actors), but you still can't blame them for anything. They auditioned, got the role, and did their job. If you want to blame anybody for terrible VA's, you should blame the casting director.

Of course, since Chris Sabat was the voice director, cast himself for several major roles (and dozens of minor roles), despite the fact that he really shouldn't have, it just goes to show that there was some major bullshit going on at FUNi back then.

[Kodoshin]

One also has to remember that when Season 3 was put into production the series was basically pulled out from the icy pits of cancelation, and was likely thrown onto the dreaded "fast track production schedule" with the main intent of course being to strike while the iron was hot.

Also with Funimations biggest claim to fame at that point outside of Dragon Ball (Which up to that point had not yielded a real return) being Cyboars they were probably also wanting to pump out the episodes as cheaply as possible, and so Chris Sabat likely had a lot of responsibility heaped on him all at once.

Things may not have turned out for the best, but I'm just thankful for the dual language DVD's.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

I don't think Sabat is really a bad actor, it's just that he always fakes his voices. His natural voice sounds like his Yamcha.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

I would say the only dub voice that I really didn't like was the Ox King...He just sounded really retarded...

[Super Sonic]

Another thing that some guys don't realize is that with acting, the goal is to make the role your own without attempting to mimic those who came before you. That can be a hinderence to voice actors who dub anime because many do not want them to do their own interpretation of the character and want them to be like the Japanese voice actor. It doesn't quite work that way in the real world though. That would be as if someone were to bash a stage production of West Side Sory because the two leads were not doing everything like Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer.

[DBW]

Another thing that some guys don't realize is that with acting, the goal is to make the role your own without attempting to mimic those who came before you.

But in FUNimation's case, that's exactly what they were doing. Except that they were trying to mimic Ocean Group, not the Japanese actors...

That's why the voice acting in season 3 really suffered. They were trying to make it flow with the dubs of seasons 1 and 2, when they really should have just re-built the character's voices from the ground up. It wasn't until late season 4 that the FUNi voice actors really started to get into the natural flow of things.

[mbright220]

Did anyone see the 3rd interview where they explain why the cover art is red? Its pretty bad.

Could anyone summarize why they made them red? I am curious.

Thanks!

[lost in thought]

Could anyone summarize why they made them red? I am curious.

Thanks!

Not really, the guy didn't say why, he was saying how the reds and blacks were ambient colors, and shit... it was a pitiful interview, to say the least. I believe he also said something about how the case art is "really cool," but my memory could be slightly skewed, and thereby make me mistake the events. (Note: I have no intention of rewatching that interview to verify a word I've said, if anyone wants to disprove me, you watch it!)

[Super Sonic]

One also has to remember that when Season 3 was put into production the series was basically pulled out from the icy pits of cancelation, and was likely thrown onto the dreaded "fast track production schedule" with the main intent of course being to strike while the iron was hot.

Also with Funimations biggest claim to fame at that point outside of Dragon Ball (Which up to that point had not yielded a real return) being Cyboars they were probably also wanting to pump out the episodes as cheaply as possible, and so Chris Sabat likely had a lot of responsibility heaped on him all at once.

Things may not have turned out for the best, but I'm just thankful for the dual language DVD's.

Yeah that is right. I remember hearing with their other series, Mr. Sabat watched Blue Gender many times before they really started doing that show and voice directing. I haven't seen that show yet, so I can't say. Also I read that Mr. Cook owned all 18 volumes of YYH before they even announced they got the rights to that show.