The most famous controversy - Goku's Japanese voice

[Ex-Dubbie369]

I have to ask the dub fans who actually dislike the JP voices, Goku's in particular, how much have you been exposed to the voices. I'd say only watching a few (let's say a single DVD worth) of episodes is really not enough to form an actual informed opinion, and rather, your response to the voices are a reaction.

I think a difference between most American JP version fans, and American dub fans, is that in most cases, the JP version fans saw the dub first, and was (through whatever circumstances) introduced to the JP version. I know in my case, I saw from the Freeza fight to near the Cell Games dubbed, with no exposure to the Japanese voices. Then I saw a fansub of Movie 13. My reaction to the Son family voices? "Wow, that's weird, why's Goku and Gohan sound like a chick?" I get where that comes from. I then got a JP copy of Final Bout (this is pre-Budokai, so I was a bit desperate for a DB video game). Again, I thought the voices were odd, but came to accept them over time. I finally tried watching GT in Japanese through the DVDs, found the music better (you can make arguments for Faulconer, but Menza is a horrible composer, and I don't say that lightly), and converted. I discovered that DB was a much more original series when I saw it in Japanese, and that Goku was a more interesting character in that version than in the English dub, because if I wanted a good Superhero show, I could watch any DCAU series, and I would have a better experience. The quirks Goku has as a character are so apparent through Nozawa's performance, and because of the script changes and the directing, the English dub of DBZ simply makes Goku a 2-dimensional (kinda goofy, and hero mode) super hero character, and Schemmel suits that character perfectly.

I can make these statements about both versions, since I've seen the series basically completely in both languages. I'd urge a dub fan who has not truly heard much of the voices, check out Kai for some episodes, I'd say even simply spot check important episodes, and give Nozawa's Goku a chance to grow on you.

[Amigo Ten]

Silly voices don't cut it for anything that's supposed to have emotional weight. You all seem to be acting like I said Tom Kenny's Spongebob was a great emotional performance or something. You don't get silly voices in dramatic western animation any more than you do in Japanese animation.

I'm talking about memorable performances. Piccolo's voice isn't inappropriate for his character, but it's not a memorable performance to me. Freeza, Kuririn and Goku are though. They just stand out, for the aforementioned reasons.

[caejones]

Silly voices don't cut it for anything that's supposed to have emotional weight. You all seem to be acting like I said Tom Kenny's Spongebob was a great emotional performance or something. You don't get silly voices in dramatic western animation any more than you do in Japanese animation.

Just a few minutes ago I was thinking about Mr. Krabs, and how he's not overly goofy or one dimentional. Then this bit made me rethink that... realizing that Mr. Krabs and Scruge McDuck are very similar characters, but I can remember Scruge's actor pulling off dramatic moments more successfully than Krabs (All be it, Scruge had far more dramatic moments to work with...)

I'm talking about memorable performances. Piccolo's voice isn't inappropriate for his character, but it's not a memorable performance to me. Freeza, Kuririn and Goku are though. They just stand out, for the aforementioned reasons.

I think some of the FUNi voices have that quality as well, though, quality aside. Mostly main characters like the Son family, Trunks and Vegeta. (More minor characters, though? Half the time when playing BT or BT3 and picking randomly I can't tell who I've picked until halfway through the fight. Though I suppose that's the case with both voice settings.)

[Gaffer Tape]

Look no further than Gaffer Tape for an example on how to display your points and thoughts with clarity, intelligence, and class.

Aww, shucks. Thank you (and you too, JulieYBM)! You're gonna make me blush. I'd put this in my sig, but I think that would look just a little too self-congratulatory.

But, yeah, this is a fun topic and has the potential to be quite illuminating, so it would be quite a shame if it de-evolved into bickering. Fortunately, I think we're all doing pretty well so far.

[Dayspring]

For me, Goku's Japanese voice matches his personality. It makes sense for his kid version to sound high-pitched, while his adult self never really matured, so it feels right for him to sound the same, to just a little deeper. I feel the dub got his voice wrong. He felt like a goofy machismo instead, IMO.

It's for that reason that I enjoy most English dubs of Piccolo. He feels like he should have a deep, ''badass'' voice, so while nowhere near the same as the Japanese VA, the dub still pulled it off and I enjoy it quite a bit.

...Mind you I haven't seen a lot of the later dub, so I don't know how consistent Piccolo was.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Coming from someone who grew up with the Funimation dub first, I can understand why Goku's original voice can be offsetting. However, I think to most people, the initial problem is not the fact that Goku is played by a girl but rather that Goku is played by a different person(the same can be said to fans of the original version who have little exposure to the Funimation Dub). I think more people get turned off by the fact that they are hearing a different voice than they are use to, and justify their dissatisfaction by saying Goku shouldn't sound feminine.

Before Kai, my only exposure to the Japanese audio was threw old bootlegs my friend received from his cousin. At a young age(figure somewhere between 11-12) I found it strange to hear the Japanese cast and when I later heard Goku was played by a girl I bursted into tears of laughter(pretty immature, but I was young). Since Kai's debut, I have gained more exposure to the original voices and after getting use to hearing their voices I can honestly say I enjoy them( though my preference is still with Funimation). Goku is a unique character, he's not your typical "super hero" and his personality is quite childish; Nozawa captured this perfectly. Schemmel does a great job capturing this mentality too(especially now a days) and lets face it his Goku doesn't sound that "manly" either. It just so happens that Funimation's Goku is played by a man. So if the argument is that Goku doesn't sound manly in the Japanese version in comparison to Funimation's Goku, than I think the argument is ridiculous because neither Goku is particularly manly. If the argument is that Goku isn't played by a man in the Japanese version, then the argument is hypocritical considering the fact that so many women play boys(and even men) in American voice acting.

In general, an argument over personal preferences is just plain childish and they never solve anything. The way I see it, everyone is entitled to their personal tastes regardless of what it is and when people try to debate the differences in voice acting(regarding any cartoon) I tell them they are about 10 years too late.

[DMaarten]

I can stand (not particularly like) the japanese voice of Goku to some degree. But when she starts screaming in pain (for example when Vegeta crushes Goku's legs) my spine starts to twitch and I develop a fast reflex to the mute button.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I think I'm sort of neutral when it comes to Goku's Japanese voice. Do I like the voice? Not entirely. Is the voice bearable? Yes. Does it turn me off from watching the Japanese version? No. There are worse Japanese voices in Anime out there.

[GreggMays64]

When I first heard Goku's Japanese voice as a 12 year old, I was like

"sweet, thats Luffy's JPN voice!"

[MCDaveG]

I grew up on German and French dub. Kid Goku was voiced by woman and adult by man, I never paid too much attention on it, for me it was natural change of voices. Little boys have a little girlish voice and as they growing, their voice is low pitched.
When I saw the Japanese dub I didn'f find anything weird on Goku's voice, my overall reaction in my 11 years was, why are the Japanese people screaming all the time like idiots?:D
That was because of the European dubs, I'm sorry for all Europeans, but dubbing of animated series here sucks ass in comparisson to Japanese original. In central Europe, dub of anime is pretty cheap one, with not much care, but in Japan what I hear is actually acting.
I like Goku's Japanese voice, it's the only one Goku for me and sometimes it sounds quite manly in the old dubs when he's calmly speaking, not Kai.

Naruto is also voiced by lady and I thing it fits him the best. I think that US voice cast of Naruto is pretty well done what I heard in Ninja Revolution 3 on Wii. It is almost simmilar to the Japanese voice cast. That's how the dub should be done in my opinion, what I hear from Dragon Ball series dub including Kai, it's miles away from original with the voices.

[Puto]

Also, I like how Mike brought up the example of English male Ranma. I admit I never really liked this voice. It's been a long time since I listened to it, but to me it always sounded like a woman trying too hard to sound like a guy. It reminded me of those sitcom episodes where a female character has to infiltrate an all-male location and ridiculously saunters around and punches people in the arm, all while talking in that really, for lack of a better term, "butch" voice.

I personally feel that kind of a voice would've worked better for *female* Ranma, since that really is a male character in a female body, and therefore trying to sound as "manly" as possible (and that's exactly the vibe I always got from Megumi Hayashibara's female Ranma voice).

Oh, and want a "manly", deep Gokû voice? Have one.

[Amigo Ten]

When I saw the Japanese dub I didn'f find anything weird on Goku's voice, my overall reaction in my 11 years was, why are the Japanese people screaming all the time like idiots?:D

Yeah, that gets aggravating sometimes. It's like they default to talking in short, loud bursts during heated moments. It has rhythm, but it just sounds so unnatural. That's my biggest problem with Japanese voice acting overall. You know when you watch a bad film and dialogue is full of awkward exposition and things that people would never really say, and because of that the actors end up delivering the lines in a cheesy melodramatic manner? That's what it sounds like.

[baragon_kun]

can you imagine what would happen is Adult Goku was voiced by Akira Kamiya for example?

[TonyTheTiger]

The concern I have with this kind of "is this voice appropriate/inappropriate" is that there's far too much water under the bridge. If we are producers in 1989 trying to cast a voice for adult Goku and somebody says "let's recast a man" and somebody else says "let's see what Nozawa can do" we'd be operating from a "pure" perspective with no preconceived notions. We'd listen, get an idea of what works, and go with it. There's no history or identity to worry about.

But 20+ years later? When everybody already "knows" what Goku sounds like in Japanese, English, and so many other languages? You're talking about something that is hard to revisit without severe personal bias coming into play. Because, let's face it, the only reason we "know" what Goku sounds like or is supposed to sound like is because that's what we were given back then and what we've been stuck with until today.

Take this example. Batman. Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. Most people consider them perfect for the roles but that didn't necessarily happen overnight. It wasn't until the series became a fan favorite that the actors became "known" for those roles. Now, nearly 20 years after the cartoon premiered, you'd get punched in the face for suggesting that somebody other than those two would have been a better choice. It doesn't matter what somebody else would sound like or how much better or worse it may be. What matters is that we know what we do have and what Batman and the Joker are "supposed" to sound like.

Asking whether we'd do it differently had we been casting adult Goku is like asking somebody to choose between the known and the unknown. You can't really imagine making that change. On the flip side, even if a different choice way back then would have been for the better, you have 20+ years worth of indoctrination. I don't really care who might have been a better Batman than Kevin Conroy. All I know is that Kevin Conroy is the Batman I'm familiar with. So it doesn't matter what I hear from a different actor. I'm already geared up to prefer Conroy since that's what I've been hearing for 18 years.

In other words, there's no real way around the personal bias that stems from known vs. unknown. Originally, they were going to cast Tim Curry as the Joker until Mark Hamill showed up. Maybe if back in 1992 they had cast Tim Curry and he kept the role, today I'd be all about Tim Curry and the thought of Mark Hamill and his squaky, cackly voice doing the Joker would make me cringe. Same goes for Goku. Maybe if they made a different choice back then the thought of Nozawa continuing the role would be met with laughter.

There's way too much water under the bridge for anybody to walk in who doesn't have substantial bias. What you'd have to do is present the show to somebody who has no idea of what DragonBall is. Show them Corlett Goku, Kelamis Goku, Schemmel Goku, Nozawa Goku, whoever does Spanish Goku or Korean Goku etc. And don't tell them what the "original" voice is. Ask them to choose who fits the role best. That's the closest you'll ever get to a "pure" analysis.

[Amigo Ten]

Originally, they were going to cast Tim Curry as the Joker

...Seriously?

That would have been AWESOME.

[TonyTheTiger]

Yeah, that was the plan. I think they changed it because apparently Tim Curry's Joker was sinister to the point of being brick-shittingly terrifying for young kids. Not that Hamill was much better in that regard...

[Amigo Ten]

Well, that's now No. 1 on my list of things to do should I ever invent a time machine.

[yummypixels]

When I first heard Goku's Japanese voice as a 12 year old, I was like

"sweet, thats Luffy's JPN voice!"

Luffy's Japanese voice is not the same as Goku. As we all know (and are discussing) Masako Nozawa voices Goku. Whereas Mayumi Tanaka voices Luffy's voice. If you were hearing a correlation in DB to One Piece, it was most likely because Mayumi Tanaka also does the voice acting for Krillin. Just FYI.

[TonyTheTiger]

To further demonstrate my point above, can anybody think of an old cartoon that's loved by many but is genuinely miscast? I'm talking a show that is iconic enough where everybody "knows" what it should sound like even though the voices are totally inappropriate and the acting is horrid. The best I can come up with right now is Speed Racer. I'm sure if it were done differently it could have been done better. Nevertheless, people love Speed Racer and figure that tinkering with it would be a disservice.

Not the best example, I know, but I'm sure there are others. Maybe some of those old Filmation cartoons from back in the day.

[Amigo Ten]

Boo's JP voice is a horrible miscast.