Dragonball Kai (FUNimation English) Dub: General Discussion

[penguintruth]

But, he's not doing a shitty job. Not to your liking? That's fine, but saying it's a shitty job is far from true. The voice is far more natural in the past, and is, in fact, very natural. It's his own speaking voice, but lighter, at this point (during his normal moments). It goes well with his emotions. When happy and silly, you can hear it clearly (and it's delightful), and when he's mad, you can hear it in his tone, a frustration building up, as his voice becomes rougher. Surprise, excitement, anger, calmness, and even the occasional smugness, you can hear them in the tone.

A voice actor's job isn't just to blandly read lines in a monotone character voice. They've got to emote, give life to the voice, give some variety to the role. Sean does that, and in spades. I do wonder if he'll attempt to vary his way of speaking with the SSJ forms, like he did originally (by SSJ3, you could distinctly hear a difference, that I originally thought was his SSJ3 yell roughing up his vocal chords, making him need to talk calmer, lol).

Unfortunately, none of this translates to being good for the character of Son Goku. He can act better than before, but his voice will always be wrong for the role.

[Mewzard]

But, he's not doing a shitty job. Not to your liking? That's fine, but saying it's a shitty job is far from true. The voice is far more natural in the past, and is, in fact, very natural. It's his own speaking voice, but lighter, at this point (during his normal moments). It goes well with his emotions. When happy and silly, you can hear it clearly (and it's delightful), and when he's mad, you can hear it in his tone, a frustration building up, as his voice becomes rougher. Surprise, excitement, anger, calmness, and even the occasional smugness, you can hear them in the tone.

A voice actor's job isn't just to blandly read lines in a monotone character voice. They've got to emote, give life to the voice, give some variety to the role. Sean does that, and in spades. I do wonder if he'll attempt to vary his way of speaking with the SSJ forms, like he did originally (by SSJ3, you could distinctly hear a difference, that I originally thought was his SSJ3 yell roughing up his vocal chords, making him need to talk calmer, lol).

Unfortunately, none of this translates to being good for the character of Son Goku. He can act better than before, but his voice will always be wrong for the role.

Good acting in a multitude of emotions isn't good for the character? Are you saying one dimensional acting is what Goku needs?

And I disagree, I think his voice is right for the role. What makes me wrong and you right? What elevates your viewpoint and opinion over mine?

And I wish that Nicktoons would get to the new episodes soon, the episodes I have been most looking forward to are just a bit away...yet it feels like forever.

[penguintruth]

Good acting in a multitude of emotions isn't good for the character? Are you saying one dimensional acting is what Goku needs?

He could be the best actor of all time and he still wouldn't have the right voice or tone for the character. He's still way too rough-sounding to be Goku.

As for his acting, it's not that great. And really, the only thing he seems to play up in Goku is his determination.

And I disagree, I think his voice is right for the role. What makes me wrong and you right? What elevates your viewpoint and opinion over mine?

This is a severely idiotic thing to ask. What makes you right and me wrong, then? Nothing. But this is a discussion board, and if we just let people state their opinions without analysis, it would be pretty fucking boring, now wouldn't it? If you don't want to be scrutinized, don't post.

[Mewzard]

Good acting in a multitude of emotions isn't good for the character? Are you saying one dimensional acting is what Goku needs?

He could be the best actor of all time and he still wouldn't have the right voice or tone for the character. He's still way too rough-sounding to be Goku.

As for his acting, it's not that great. And really, the only thing he seems to play up in Goku is his determination.

And I disagree, I think his voice is right for the role. What makes me wrong and you right? What elevates your viewpoint and opinion over mine?

This is a severely idiotic thing to ask. What makes you right and me wrong, then? Nothing. But this is a discussion board, and if we just let people state their opinions without analysis, it would be pretty fucking boring, now wouldn't it? If you don't want to be scrutinized, don't post.

You've got to admit, you speak more in absolutes than a Sith. I guess it's just my own way of expressing my opinion is less forceful, lol.

I think he's gotten the determination down, but he gets the other sides as well, and he sounds like it as well. You can here joy, rage, amusement, irritation, shock, and just normality as well.

As for being too rough, that's ridiculous. Hell, have you never heard Nozawa in the role? She can get pretty rough with that voice. Just as rough, or worse, at times. The voice works fine with Goku. To me, both Masako Nozawa and Sean Schemmel work as Goku, despite not being the same voice. Different depictions and adaptions of the same characters are acceptable.

And what's wrong with his acting?

[penguintruth]

She's rough when Goku needs to be. Otherwise, manchild. With Schemmel, it's more like tough guy all the time, and forced cheeriness when he tries to lighten up. The acting only sells the old Funimation version of Goku, not the more accurate one of today's dub scripts. Granted, he's a little more tolerable now, but mostly because the scripts are better, so at least he's saying things Goku would say.

The guy who accused the Sith of speaking in absolutes also followed it up by saying the Sith are absolutely, completely evil.

[Mewzard]

She's rough when Goku needs to be. Otherwise, manchild. With Schemmel, it's more like tough guy all the time, and forced cheeriness when he tries to lighten up. The acting only sells the old Funimation version of Goku, not the more accurate one of today's dub scripts. Granted, he's a little more tolerable now, but mostly because the scripts are better, so at least he's saying things Goku would say.

The guy who accused the Sith of speaking in absolutes also followed it up by saying the Sith are absolutely, completely evil.

That's what made it ironic, and amusing. Obi-Wan didn't care, he was just trying to be a dick.

And I personally don't think his cheeriness sounded forced at all. It sounded natural. He doesn't sound tough guy all the time. You seem to have a personal vendetta against the guy. The acting's improved, the script's improved, the voice direction's improved, yet you still compare to the dub of old, when it couldn't sound much farther away without him altering his voice completely. His Goku has a lot of instances of sounding innocent and childish, when he's not mad (like Nozawa turning from manchild to ear shattering screech when mad), which does go along with the character.

As for later episodes of Kai, I'm looking forward to seeing how some of the Cell Saga voices will hold up/change. Trunks, 17/18, Cell, etc.

[penguintruth]

I have a personal vendetta against people who don't perform well in their professions.

Then again, it's hardly Schemmel's fault. Sabat cast him, after all.

On the subject of the androids, I hope Chuck Huber and Meredith McCoy return as 17 and 18, but I'm sort of hoping 16 gets recast.

[Gaffer Tape]

That's what made it ironic, and amusing. Obi-Wan didn't care, he was just trying to be a dick.

I don't think George Lucas is a competent enough writer to inject irony into his scripts. Not on purpose at any rate...

But, ahhh, I never grow tired of this Goku voice debate. Seriously, I don't. I always find it entertaining.

[RazorX]

To add to the criticism of Funi's Kaio voice, it doesn't help that Sean's Kaio is not much of an improvement over his season 3 voice in Funi's season 3 episodes redub in Kai. In Z his Kaio sounded like his tongue was stuck in his throat, in Kai it sounds like his throat is full of stones, I don't know why Sean thinks he has to make his Kaio sound that "rough"

However the worst voice in Funimation's Kai dub Ox King's voice. Sean's Kaio is good compared to Kyle Hebert's terrible voice for Ox King. Kyle's voice is even worse than any voice in Funimation's season 3 DBZ dub, it's that bad. Take the worst criticism that Sean's Kaio gets, multiply that by 100x and direct it at Hebert's Ox King, even that is being generous considering how horrid Kyle's voice for Ox King is.

But we don't to put up with Funimation's awful voice for Ox King or their annoying voice for Kaio. The Ocean dub is bound to have much better casting and voices, so we should be able to enjoy Kaio's and Ox King's voices in Ocean's dub of Kai. I hope Don Brown and Dave Ward reprise their roles of Kaio and Ox King respectively. If they do, we have nothing to worry about

I couldn't agree more. As terrible as Schemmel's Kaio is, Hebert's Ox King is painful. These two voices really take me out of the story. I just feel embarrassed to even be watching when they come on screen.

I think if Sean let go of the "must make Kaio sound like he's talking through stones" thought, it might be a bit better. But there's no cure for Hebert's Ox King, he should not be voicing the character.

Yeah, but compare the prevalence of both characters. No one gives two shits about Gyuumaoh. He's less than a background character. He's got less screentime in Z than Mr. Popo. Kai is removing most unnecessary filler content. How the Hell often is the character even going to be on screen for his voice to do any real harm? Kaioh, however, is actually an important character. He's there to often heavenly wisdom and the occasional lame puns to our heroes. Sure, he's not on the battlefield slugging it out with the bad guys, so we're obviously not getting as much of him as our main cast on Earth (or Namek as it were). But he's an important character, he's got important dialogue, and enough of it for his horrible voice to actually be significant. I don't really care if Gyuumaoh or Oolong or Puar or Bulma's Mom or etc doesn't have the most perfect voice. I'm never going to have to pay any real attention to them in this portion of the series for it to matter. Kaioh matters. And he's butchered beyond belief.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Sean's Kaio. But as bad as it is, Hebert's Ox King is much worse than Sean's Kaio. Even though Ox King doesn't get a lot of screentime in the Saiyan-Namek sagas, I still hate hearing Hebert's voice. Also, Ox King gets more screentime in the Cell Games, Hebert's gonna be unbearable there. However much like with Z, I can ignore Funi's dub and watch Ocean's. Thus eliminating the need to tolerate the horrid voices Funi doesn't have the courage to recast.

But what about poor Kaioh? No one will ever be able to take him seriously, because even with the aims and efforts made in Kai, FUNi just didn't care enough to recast everyone who needed it - and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was because some people *cough* didn't want to give up certain roles, completely disregarding the goal for 'a more faithful dub'. Hypocrisy pisses me off.

Sean's Goku is still better than pretty much all of Sabat's voices. I think it may have been a combination of Sean being too stubborn to let go of Kaio and him being friends (as it appears) with Sabat which enabled him to keep the role. Even though Sabat's been stripped of some of his roles, he is still voicing too many characters. At the very least; Kami, Korin, Yamcha and Reccome should've been recast. Sabat can't even voice Kami without it sounding like his Vegeta, same with Korin, what business does he have keeping those roles which he is blatantly not fit for. Even though Sabat has improved his Vegeta compared to his previous performance, I think there are others who could do a better job.

Chris Ayres is good as Freeza but Linda Young is not as bad as you suggest.

Or, we could just keep watching the tried-and-true Japanese version, where there are no (or very few) complaints and we can just enjoy the content of the show.

We can do that, but it's nice to have an English version which we can enjoy. I've had English versions of all three DB series I can enjoy (Ocean & Blue Water dubs) and now via Ocean I can enjoy an English version of Kai as well. DBZ is the best Anime in existence, I would want to enjoy it in English and Japanese.

Can we talk about something else other than how Sean Schemmel supposedly sucks at voice acting. It's pissing me off because it seems like that's the one dub actor that always gets smack.

Generally speaking, Sean's Goku is better than pretty much all of Sabat's voices. Sabat should get more criticism than Sean, but Sean's Kaio is standout bad. The person who deserves the most bashing is Kyle Hebert. His Ox King is unforgivably atrocious.

On the topic of Freeza's voice, Chris Ayres confirmed that his voice would be pitched down for his second form, and even moreso for his third form, and then back to his first form voice for final form.

I guessed that Freeza's second form will be pitched down but his third form will be pitched down even more? That should be.....interesting. IIRC, Funimation had a dual voice effect for Linda's third form Freeza voice, it didn't sound pitched down though.

Ayres' first form voice for Freeza's final form eh, will I thought they'd follow what they did to Linda's voice and pitch it down (though not as much Freeza's second form). I don't know if it will work better than a pitched down version but at least it will sound like Pauline Newstone's final form Freeza

[penguintruth]

What? Sabat is probably the most improved of all the returning voices, and every one of his voices is better than Schemmel's. Except maybe Recoome.

[RazorX]

Sabat seems most improved because he was one of the worst voice actors in Funi's Z dub, add to the amount of voices he did, he probably couldn't help but improve. Sabat has improved more than Sean has, but Sabat had a lot more scope for improvement. I can't think of one voice Sabat does that is better than Sean's Goku in Kai. I'm not saying that Sean's Goku is very good (It normally ranges from OK to good in Kai) but despite his improvement, Sabat still hasn't got a voice which I could say is consistently good.

[JulieYBM]

Schemmel hasn't proven to have to talent to hide his naturally rough voice when voicing Gokû. Not successfully, at least. It's like hiring Brad Garrent (great actor, by the way) to voice a James Bond...it just doesn't work.

His Kaiô's awful, but I don't think anyone needs to be reminded of that.


I don't like his Nail, either. Blah.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

As for being too rough, that's ridiculous. Hell, have you never heard Nozawa in the role? She can get pretty rough with that voice. Just as rough, or worse, at times.

Rough? Lol. She sounds like she's got fricking sandpaper in her mouth, at times.

And what's wrong with his acting?

Nothing. You can say that Schemmel's Gokū doesn't fit the character. That's fine. But you just can't watch some of his later roles and honestly say that his acting sucks. You just can't.

It's RARGH SUPERHERO AMERICAN MACHO GOOD GUY FIGHTING GOKU that bugs me from Schemmel.

Yeah, that bugged me too. Good thing he's stopped doing that in Kai.

[penguintruth]

It's RARGH SUPERHERO AMERICAN MACHO GOOD GUY FIGHTING GOKU that bugs me from Schemmel.

Yeah, that bugged me too. Good thing he's stopped doing that in Kai.

Somewhat, but not entirely.

And his voice is just wrong overall for the character. They need somebody with a lighter voice. Maybe Ocean will get the hint.

[Kendamu]

It's RARGH SUPERHERO AMERICAN MACHO GOOD GUY FIGHTING GOKU that bugs me from Schemmel.

Yeah, that bugged me too. Good thing he's stopped doing that in Kai.

Somewhat, but not entirely.

And his voice is just wrong overall for the character. They need somebody with a lighter voice. Maybe Ocean will get the hint.

I'm no hater of Schemmel's acting by any means, but I will very loudly and proudly say that he's certainly no Peter Kelamis.

[Rory]

I'm no hater of Schemmel's acting by any means, but I will very loudly and proudly say that he's certainly no Peter Kelamis.

I know I've said this before, but Kelamis channels Nozawa some goddamned well, it's almost frightening at times.
Shit, I know he won't return for Ocean's Kai dub, but if he did.... Wow, that's be worth watching.

[Raven]

Does anyone have a good clip of Peter Kelamis's Goku? I don't think I've really heard it before. I searched on Youtube but there were only some short parts of fights so I couldn't really hear the ''Goku side'' of him

[TheGreatness25]

There will always be people out there who will claim that the voices are not good for the role if they do not sound like the original Japanese ones. That is why Peter Kelamis is praised. However, there is no original voice (for the manga)

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Does anyone have a good clip of Peter Kelamis's Goku? I don't think I've really heard it before. I searched on Youtube but there were only some short parts of fights so I couldn't really hear the ''Goku side'' of him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzL8PEWha9k


He tries to sound angry, but it just doesn't work. At all.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

Does anyone have a good clip of Peter Kelamis's Goku? I don't think I've really heard it before. I searched on Youtube but there were only some short parts of fights so I couldn't really hear the ''Goku side'' of him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzL8PEWha9k

Oh...oh wow...Muten Roshi...I think I officially found a contender for Worst DBZ Dub Voice Ever to compete with Schemmel's Kaioh...

@_X;