Sub Fans: What's Wrong with Your Version?

[OutlawTorn]

But yeah, as people bring up time and time again, there are people in their 40s and 50s like Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson with extremely high-pitched voices, so Goku's voice is plausible.

Plausible, perhaps, but it isn't all that realistic when you consider the amount of screaming that goes on through-out the series. To pluck a real world example, just listen to the changes in wrestling announcer Jim Ross's voice over the years just from being a commentator. Over the past twenty years, his voice has deepened significantly and this isn't even an issue of kid vs. adult, his voice deepened that much after he was fully grown.

Just saying.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Well, a guy's voice does usually naturally change as they get older, but Goku is a cartoon character. An alien cartoon character that doesn't look a day over 18 when he's 50.

[Gaffer Tape]

I stand by my earlier assertion that adult Goku being played by a woman is no less strange than believing that the same set of vocal cords can produce both Stephanie Nadolny's and Sean Schemmel's voices at different points in life. They're either equally absurd or equally believable, but there's no logic in accepting one while not buying another. If you have problems with Nozawa's voice specifically, that's one thing, but saying it's not "realistic" amidst other dramatic conceits is just silly.

[TripleRach]

Plausible, perhaps, but it isn't all that realistic when you consider the amount of screaming that goes on through-out the series. To pluck a real world example, just listen to the changes in wrestling announcer Jim Ross's voice over the years just from being a commentator. Over the past twenty years, his voice has deepened significantly and this isn't even an issue of kid vs. adult, his voice deepened that much after he was fully grown.

By that logic, people should also complain that Yamcha's voice didn't get significantly deeper over the years either. He was around just as long as Gokuu and aged just as much as he did, but his voice is pretty much the same from the beginning of DB to the end of DBZ.

[penguintruth]

That's because Tohru Furuya never ages. He survives off of Newtype energies.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

@Piccolo Daimaoh: I assume you like the dub? I guess I"ll use that as my argument.

Why would you assume that? Please re-read the thread title. I don't like the dub, but Schemmel's Adult Gokū is far more suiting than Nozawa's.

See, I don't understand this. Muscle size and age really don't have anything to do with how deep your voice is.

Really? Do you know what puberty is?

I'm 21, and fairly big, but I still sound like I did when I was when I was young; my voice just never changed that much. Obviously I don't sound like Masako Nozawa, but Goku's a cartoon character, so...

So? Just because he's a cartoon character, does that mean he has to have a cartoony voice?

But yeah, as people bring up time and time again, there are people in their 40s and 50s like Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson with extremely high-pitched voices, so Goku's voice is plausible.

I never said that it was impossible, just highly unlikely considering Gokū's age and structure.

Plus, even in GT, when Goku's about 50, he's physically seven years younger (time spent dead). And Saiyans retain their youth much longer than Earthlings (as Vegeta explains to Bulma when she wonders why she's an old hag while he's still young and fit), so Goku and Vegeta seem to be physically in their 20s at the end of the series. That explains why Goku's voice never changed much.

What about Vegeta, then?

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

No, I didn't say Goku has to have a "cartoony" voice because he's a cartoon character, but... he does. Because it's a cartoon, not real life. Yeah, puberty does change a man's voice (compare child Goku's voice to adult Goku's), but it doesn't automatically make you sound like James Earl Jones (see: me). And I still don't see what Goku's build has to do with anything. Muscles make your voice deep?

As for Vegeta, he's had a deeper voice than Goku since he was five years old (see: Burdock TV special). Like I said, it's a cartoon. ^_^;

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

No, I didn't say Goku has to have a "cartoony" voice because he's a cartoon character, but... he does. Because it's a cartoon, not real life.

Okay, then. Because Dragon Ball Z is a cartoon, Adult Gokū can't possibly have an age appropriate voice. I get you.

Yeah, puberty does change a man's voice (compare child Goku's voice to adult Goku's), but it doesn't automatically make you sound like James Earl Jones (see: me).

But your voice still deepens considerably. As in, you don't sound that much like you did when you were seven-years-old.

And I still don't see what Goku's build has to do with anything. Muscles make your voice deep?

No, but I have never seen a male bodybuilder that speaks like Masako Nozawa.

[rereboy]

Like it has already been said, Goku`s japanese voice is just like bart simpson`s american voice. In the episodes where Bart was shown as an adult, they didn`t change his voice because that voice is the voice of the character. That`s the voice people relate the character to. Period.

Also, Goku`s japanese voice doesn`t sound like a woman at all, like bart simpson`s american voice doesnt sound like a woman. It sounds like a cartoony voice, a voice of a cartoon.

[Eire]

Sayians seem not to age as humans, so why should their voices change as ours?

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Like it has already been said, Goku`s japanese voice is just like bart simpson`s american voice. In the episodes where Bart was shown as an adult, they didn`t change his voice because that voice is the voice of the character.

They probably only did that because Adult Bart only appeared for like half an episode, and they couldn't be bothered finding someone else.

Also, Goku`s japanese voice doesn`t sound like a woman at all.

Whoa, are we watching the same show here?

Sayians seem not to age as humans, so why should their voices change as ours?

But the grow bigger and mature, don't they?

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Proved wrong my Goku and Vegeta.

[rereboy]

Like it has already been said, Goku`s japanese voice is just like bart simpson`s american voice. In the episodes where Bart was shown as an adult, they didn`t change his voice because that voice is the voice of the character.

They probably only did that because Adult Bart only appeared for like half an episode, and they couldn't be bothered finding someone else.

Also, Goku`s japanese voice doesn`t sound like a woman at all.

Whoa, are we watching the same show here?

I don`t think that is the reason. If they decided to do a new series of simpsons in which Bart would be an adult, do you think they would recast his voice? Of course not. That IS his voice. People are used to it and thats the voice they relate the character to and also the voice that they want.

As for Goku sounding like a woman, I`ve never heard a real woman ever sound like japanese Goku or american Bart. So, at the very least, their voices are not normal woman voices (or normal man voices). They are very peculiar voices who sound like voices of cartoons and not real life voices.

[Eire]

Sayians seem not to age as humans, so why should their voices change as ours?

But the grow bigger and mature, don't they?

Unless Toriyama publish "Complete Sayians anatomy"(for die-hard fanboys) we can't say how their larynx change, but even in human race dependence of the size and shape of vocal chords to "growth and maturity" isn't as simple as it seem to you. To say it in the simplest way- it depends mainly on hormones, so we don't have any data about how it worked in that case. (In race where 5 years old boys behave and are taken as adults it don't have to be as we image)

[TripleRach]

I don`t think that is the reason. If they decided to do a new series of simpsons in which Bart would be an adult, do you think they would recast his voice? Of course not. That IS his voice. People are used to it and thats the voice they relate the character to and also the voice that they want.

That sort of happened with the Rugrats series. They made a spin-off called "All Grown-Up" where the characters were all teenagers. And all the boys kept the same female actresses they had as babies.

[rereboy]

I don`t think that is the reason. If they decided to do a new series of simpsons in which Bart would be an adult, do you think they would recast his voice? Of course not. That IS his voice. People are used to it and thats the voice they relate the character to and also the voice that they want.

That sort of happened with the Rugrats series. They made a spin-off called "All Grown-Up" where the characters were all teenagers. And all the boys kept the same female actresses they had as babies.

Yeah. Its pretty much common practice.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yeah, puberty does change a man's voice (compare child Goku's voice to adult Goku's), but it doesn't automatically make you sound like James Earl Jones (see: me).

But your voice still deepens considerably. As in, you don't sound that much like you did when you were seven-years-old.

I wouldn't say that. Overall, one's voice and speech remains the same through puberty, it just gets downshifted in pitch. I sound pretty much the same as I did as a kid. I bet if I took out some old home movies of me and down pitched the sound, it would end up sounding much like I do as an adult, which is basically what Nozawa attempts to do (to the extent that she's able, obviously). If you want to find out what an English Goku would REALLY sound like, someone should take a clip of Nadolny and down pitch her. There's your "realistic" Goku.

Please somebody do this. I would love to hear this. I think it would be hilarious.

[TonyTheTiger]

Like it has already been said, Goku`s japanese voice is just like bart simpson`s american voice. In the episodes where Bart was shown as an adult, they didn`t change his voice because that voice is the voice of the character. That`s the voice people relate the character to. Period.

That's not really fair to lay it down like that because there are plenty of examples to the contrary. In Superman, for instance, Jason Marsden played teenage Clark Kent while Tim Daly was the adult version. And that was arguably even less necessary because Clark was already in high school at the time where he would already have had his adult voice. And whenever shows do flashbacks of characters as kids they very often recast.

It's a stylistic choice. You can't say that a casting decision is just a default that's how it is "period" like that.

[rereboy]

Superman had dozen of incarnations over the years, many at different ages. There isn`t one single voice that people relate to Superman.

However, there is one single japanese/original voice that people relate to Goku. And the same its true to american/original Bart simpson, which is why I picked him as an example.

Of course, it will always be a casting choice, but its common to keep the same voice in these circunstances because the public sees that voice as the character voice.

[TonyTheTiger]

Fine, you want a better example? Batman. Yes, Batman has also had many voices over the years but lord knows Kevin Conroy is as iconic as possible. Yet when they did one of those "everybody becomes a kid again" episodes in Justice League they recast the young Bruce Wayne.

Here's the issue as I see it. Goku started out as a kid. Most young boys are played by women. If the story started with Goku already grown up it's highly unlikely they would have cast Nozawa. But because Nozawa had already been playing the character as a kid they kept her. Therefore, if you followed a "no recast" rule, any male character who had started out as a young boy will be voiced by a female while any male character who started out fully grown will be voiced by a male. Whether or not that's appropriate...well...I don't know. But if there is such a rule that's pretty much how things will go.

I'm not saying keeping Nozawa was a bad choice. I like her as Goku. But this is one of those suspension of disbelief situations when we realize that the men who we watched grow up from childhood just happen to have higher pitched voices. Meanwhile, all the men who we were introduced to as fully grown adults just happen to be voiced by males. What a coincidence! You can't really dwell on this stuff or you ruin the viewing experience.