"DragonBall Z Kai" TV Broadcast Talkback

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

I don't understand why some of you are acting like the voice is constantly evolving or something. "The voice has improved a lot since that first line we heard," "The voice has been getting worse lately," "The quality of the voice acting varies from episode to episode." To me, Ayres has always given a consistently amazing, Ryusei Nakao-esque performance as Freeza. Yeah, even since that first, controversial line in episode 17 (I'm not sure why everbody had to freak the fuck out over one line, but I guess that's anime fans for you). I can finally take an English Freeza seriously. With the two older voices, I simply could not believe that the words I was hearing were being spoken by an actual person (well, alien... thingy), I only heard "actor in the booth." Not a problem anymore. I've never once heard a line of his that sounded "off" to me. Unfortunately, I can't say that about all of the Kai performances, but at least everyone's a lot more believable than they were in Z.

So, yeah. English Freeza is here. Enjoy it, because unless Ryusei Nakao learns to speak perfect English, I think this is the best we're gonna get!

[Kendamu]

I don't understand why some of you are acting like the voice is constantly evolving or something. "The voice has improved a lot since that first line we heard," "The voice has been getting worse lately," "The quality of the voice acting varies from episode to episode." To me, Ayres has always given a consistently amazing, Ryusei Nakao-esque performance as Freeza. Yeah, even since that first, controversial line in episode 17 (I'm not sure why everbody had to freak the fuck out over one line, but I guess that's anime fans for you). I can finally take an English Freeza seriously. With the two older voices, I simply could not believe that the words I was hearing were being spoken by an actual person (well, alien... thingy), I only heard "actor in the booth." Not a problem anymore. I've never once heard a line of his that sounded "off" to me. Unfortunately, I can't say that about all of the Kai performances, but at least everyone's a lot more believable than they were in Z.

So, yeah. English Freeza is here. Enjoy it, because unless Ryusei Nakao learns to speak perfect English, I think this is the best we're gonna get!

You're a shame to all Dragonball fans. Your problem is that you're not taking this cartoon seriously enough. I think you need to sit this one out and think for awhile. Everyone knows that a true fan complains about every little thing.

[Ashy-kun]

I think we need to see if they're a true DragonBall fan, by waiting to see if they take that comment hyper-sensitively.

But seriously, I have to agree with them on that comment. I think Chris Ayres is doing an amazing job with Freeza. The Ayres brothers in general, I find, give consistent, solid performances. Admittedly, I've heard less from Chris Ayres than Greg Ayres, but I still find myself thinking "Yes, that's a good way to interpret Freeza into English". Most people say "Oh, if only [insert Japanese actor] could speak perfect English". Well, you'd have to take into account the way we stress and emphasise English vs how Japanese is stressed and emphasised too. Even if they spoke all the English "correctly", they could still have trouble putting the emphasis on the right word and therefore making the delivery sound somewhat worse than it should be.

Furthermore, better someone who actually is acting than someone who sounds like the voice only. I don't know about anyone else, but I love Spike Spencer's portrayal of Shinji (yes, shock horror, I actually love the ADV dub of Evangelion and don't think it was as bad as people say - I should know, I'm an ADV grown anime fan because we can really only get stuff from ADV and Manga with everywhere else going out of business including ADV. Having had access to these dubs, I know which ones are bad. Dai-Guard? That was bad. Evangelion? Not at all, in my opinion. But anyway, I'm digressing...) Now, Spike Spencer does not "sound" like Ogata Megumi. Does that stop him from giving a great performance as Shinji? No.

A good actor, doing a character that already has had a great performance done of them by another actor, should not have to try and sound like the supposed better actor. When an actor does the role of Hamlet, they don't try and just perform in the voice of Sir John Gielgud. They make the character their own. That's what good actors do.

Anyway... Umm... I'd better get off this soap box. It doesn't suit me, as... You know... Being on a soap box requires people to actually think my opinion counts. Umm... Excuse me.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Furthermore, better someone who actually is acting than someone who sounds like the voice only. I don't know about anyone else, but I love Spike Spencer's portrayal of Shinji (yes, shock horror, I actually love the ADV dub of Evangelion and don't think it was as bad as people say - I should know, I'm an ADV grown anime fan because we can really only get stuff from ADV and Manga with everywhere else going out of business including ADV. Having had access to these dubs, I know which ones are bad. Dai-Guard? That was bad. Evangelion? Not at all, in my opinion. But anyway, I'm digressing...) Now, Spike Spencer does not "sound" like Ogata Megumi. Does that stop him from giving a great performance as Shinji? No.

A good actor, doing a character that already has had a great performance done of them by another actor, should not have to try and sound like the supposed better actor. When an actor does the role of Hamlet, they don't try and just perform in the voice of Sir John Gielgud. They make the character their own. That's what good actors do.

That's a really good point, Ashy. Just because a dub voice for a character sounds nothing like the same character's Japanese voice, doesn't make the voice bad or unfitting. A lot of Dragon Ball fans fail to grasp this concept.

[linkdude20002001]

Do they? I hear a lot of good things about Armstrong's Gi-nyu even though he sounds nothing like Hori.

[Vegeta1984]

Just watched the latest four episodes.. Been trying my best to catch up.... I'm liking Kai thus far. Already have Kai part 1 one dvd. I can't wait for part 2 in September.... So since I don't have cable when do they air new episodes? When I was watching it last night they aired an commerical about new episode airing Wednesday....So do they air new episodes every Wednesday?

[Mewzard]

Recently, new episodes went from Monday-Thursday to every Wednesday and Thursday.

And I agree, a voice being 100% similar isn't needed if the voice and acting together can make it work, and that tends to be what happens. DB definitely keeps it's fair share of picky fans (which isn't necessarily bad, I can't fault a picky anime fan when I'm a picky eater, lol), but this dub being so good seems to be getting a bit more of all sides of DB fans than one could have initially imagined. It's not a perfect dub, but it's a very good dub, minus some shaky bits. That makes more people willing to watch and enjoy the dub than some would have admitted in the past. Though, some are still diehard original Japanese, and that's fine too. Gotta be yourself at the end of the day.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Recently, new episodes went from Monday-Thursday to every Wednesday and Thursday.

And I agree, a voice being 100% similar isn't needed if the voice and acting together can make it work, and that tends to be what happens. DB definitely keeps it's fair share of picky fans (which isn't necessarily bad, I can't fault a picky anime fan when I'm a picky eater, lol), but this dub being so good seems to be getting a bit more of all sides of DB fans than one could have initially imagined. It's not a perfect dub, but it's a very good dub, minus some shaky bits. That makes more people willing to watch and enjoy the dub than some would have admitted in the past. Though, some are still diehard original Japanese, and that's fine too. Gotta be yourself at the end of the day.

Agreed. I have to say, I am a fan of the original versions for DB/Z/GT and the movies. While I did think the GT and DB dubs were alright, I still prefered the original versions (the Z dub was complete shit though). Now that the excellent Kai dub has been released, I actually prefer it to the original version. I just love everything about that dub. The awesome recasts, the improved returning cast, the accurate script and the dubbed insert songs (Ginyu Force Rules!). I can finally watch Dragon Ball in my native language, and I'm loving it.

[B]

Furthermore, better someone who actually is acting than someone who sounds like the voice only. I don't know about anyone else, but I love Spike Spencer's portrayal of Shinji (yes, shock horror, I actually love the ADV dub of Evangelion and don't think it was as bad as people say - I should know, I'm an ADV grown anime fan because we can really only get stuff from ADV and Manga with everywhere else going out of business including ADV. Having had access to these dubs, I know which ones are bad. Dai-Guard? That was bad. Evangelion? Not at all, in my opinion. But anyway, I'm digressing...) Now, Spike Spencer does not "sound" like Ogata Megumi. Does that stop him from giving a great performance as Shinji? No.

A good actor, doing a character that already has had a great performance done of them by another actor, should not have to try and sound like the supposed better actor. When an actor does the role of Hamlet, they don't try and just perform in the voice of Sir John Gielgud. They make the character their own. That's what good actors do.

That's a really good point, Ashy. Just because a dub voice for a character sounds nothing like the same character's Japanese voice, doesn't make the voice bad or unfitting. A lot of Dragon Ball fans fail to grasp this concept.

That's taking what people have said about Dub!Freeza and twisting it pretty hard. Failry certain if you look around, you will find posts detailing how Linda Yound couldn't act, the writing was terrible so she suffered, and her voice just didn't match a character like that.

Nobody, in Freeza's case, is hating on the voice simply because of the voice.

[Vegeta1984]

Any think that we will be getting 2 new episodes per week? If so that will be 8 episodes per month... If I'm right then by January we will be around Episode 60....

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Furthermore, better someone who actually is acting than someone who sounds like the voice only. I don't know about anyone else, but I love Spike Spencer's portrayal of Shinji (yes, shock horror, I actually love the ADV dub of Evangelion and don't think it was as bad as people say - I should know, I'm an ADV grown anime fan because we can really only get stuff from ADV and Manga with everywhere else going out of business including ADV. Having had access to these dubs, I know which ones are bad. Dai-Guard? That was bad. Evangelion? Not at all, in my opinion. But anyway, I'm digressing...) Now, Spike Spencer does not "sound" like Ogata Megumi. Does that stop him from giving a great performance as Shinji? No.

A good actor, doing a character that already has had a great performance done of them by another actor, should not have to try and sound like the supposed better actor. When an actor does the role of Hamlet, they don't try and just perform in the voice of Sir John Gielgud. They make the character their own. That's what good actors do.

That's a really good point, Ashy. Just because a dub voice for a character sounds nothing like the same character's Japanese voice, doesn't make the voice bad or unfitting. A lot of Dragon Ball fans fail to grasp this concept.

That's taking what people have said about Dub!Freeza and twisting it pretty hard. Failry certain if you look around, you will find posts detailing how Linda Yound couldn't act, the writing was terrible so she suffered, and her voice just didn't match a character like that.

Nobody, in Freeza's case, is hating on the voice simply because of the voice.

Excuse me but, how did you take what I said about dub voices compared to original voices and turn it into me prasing Linda Young's Freeza? I wasn't referring to any specific dub voice. Jeez, talk about oversensitivity.


BTW, whether Linda Young can act/fits the character of Freeza is entirely subjective. You and I may not like her voice, but there are some people who do. There is a Dragon Ball fanbase outside the Daizex forums, you know. Refer to what I said before in my that post you quoted.

[MR.Mark]

I don't understand why some of you are acting like the voice is constantly evolving or something. "The voice has improved a lot since that first line we heard," "The voice has been getting worse lately," "The quality of the voice acting varies from episode to episode." To me, Ayres has always given a consistently amazing, Ryusei Nakao-esque performance as Freeza. Yeah, even since that first, controversial line in episode 17 (I'm not sure why everbody had to freak the fuck out over one line, but I guess that's anime fans for you). I can finally take an English Freeza seriously. With the two older voices, I simply could not believe that the words I was hearing were being spoken by an actual person (well, alien... thingy), I only heard "actor in the booth." Not a problem anymore. I've never once heard a line of his that sounded "off" to me. Unfortunately, I can't say that about all of the Kai performances, but at least everyone's a lot more believable than they were in Z.

So, yeah. English Freeza is here. Enjoy it, because unless Ryusei Nakao learns to speak perfect English, I think this is the best we're gonna get!

Well said, fully agreed.

Now, Spike Spencer does not "sound" like Ogata Megumi. Does that stop him from giving a great performance as Shinji? No.

Actually yes, well it's mainly his acting not being anywhere near the level Of Megumi, but his laughable screams are far from great as well. Even in the rebuild dub, Spike's voice has this cartoony "putting on a voice" quality that I just can't stand for Shinji. They should of hired a female VA, then maybe they could of got more intense delivers instead of trying so hard to put on a voice.

Ogata's performance at the end of You cannot advance is chilling, I can already predict Spike will be no where near as intense.

[jjgp1112]

So, yeah. English Freeza is here. Enjoy it, because unless Ryusei Nakao learns to speak perfect English, I think this is the best we're gonna get!

I don't think I'm obliged to enjoy anything

[batistabus]

The voice doesn't have to sound exactly like the Japanese voice or even close. It just has to maintain the spirit of the original.

[jjgp1112]

The voice doesn't have to sound exactly like the Japanese voice or even close. It just has to maintain the spirit of the original.

That's not even what I care about, though.

[batistabus]

The voice doesn't have to sound exactly like the Japanese voice or even close. It just has to maintain the spirit of the original.

That's not even what I care about, though.

I wasn't referring to you, there was a comment made earlier against people claiming the voices have to sound exactly like the Japanese versions for them to be considered good.

[VegettoEX]

The voice doesn't have to sound exactly like the Japanese voice or even close. It just has to maintain the spirit of the original.

That's not even what I care about, though.

But then aren't we back yet again to you and your apathetic attitude versus what others who are looking for accuracy want?

The two do not compute, and shouldn't even be part of the same conversation. Am I just missing something here? Is it that people don't understand that you have a totally different value set, in that you have no real desire/cares for a product that's accurate to the original version? If that's what we're coming back to, I'm still flabbergasted why you're wasting your time having a conversation about it if your apathetic side cares so little, or at least "differently". I'm just not getting where you're coming from -- you can't be both apathetic and invested at the same time.

[jjgp1112]

The voice doesn't have to sound exactly like the Japanese voice or even close. It just has to maintain the spirit of the original.

That's not even what I care about, though.

But then aren't we back yet again to you and your apathetic attitude versus what others who are looking for accuracy want?

The two do not compute, and shouldn't even be part of the same conversation. Am I just missing something here? Is it that people don't understand that you have a totally different value set, in that you have no real desire/cares for a product that's accurate to the original version? If that's what we're coming back to, I'm still flabbergasted why you're wasting your time having a conversation about it if your apathetic side cares so little, or at least "differently". I'm just not getting where you're coming from -- you can't be both apathetic and invested at the same time.

I was actually confuzzled and misread what he was saying. I thought that he meant that I was bashing the performance because it didn't sound like the Japanese version, which wasn't what I was arguing.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

BTW, whether Linda Young can act/fits the character of Freeza is entirely subjective. You and I may not like her voice, but there are some people who do. There is a Dragon Ball fanbase outside the Daizex forums, you know. Refer to what I said before in my that post you quoted.

Obviously nobody can say 100% objectively that somebody's acting sucks, but if someone is seriously going to claim that the guy who played Tullece in the "Big Green" dub was acting well ("everyoneinmyracecanbecomeagiantgorilla!"), I'm entitled to think they're crazy. And about that "fanbase outside the Daizex forums," you can find those wonderful people at places such as the DB Wikia. Those people are nuts.

In short, Linda Young's acting sucks, and her granny voice made Freeza into a joke.

[jjgp1112]

BTW, whether Linda Young can act/fits the character of Freeza is entirely subjective. You and I may not like her voice, but there are some people who do. There is a Dragon Ball fanbase outside the Daizex forums, you know. Refer to what I said before in my that post you quoted.

Obviously nobody can say 100% objectively that somebody's acting sucks, but if someone is seriously going to claim that the guy who played Tullece in the "Big Green" dub was acting well ("everyoneinmyracecanbecomeagiantgorilla!"), I'm entitled to think they're crazy. And about that "fanbase outside the Daizex forums," you can find those wonderful people at places such as the DB Wikia. Those people are nuts.

Yup. Because daizex and Dragon Ball Wiki are the only Dragon ball fan communities ever.