Did Daisuke Gori take on too many roles?

[Kurillin-Sama]

It's a cute idea -- a voice actor of any nationality turning down work he auditioned for and was given.

I hate to harp on the topic but he chose to audition for those roles. He didn't have to.

It's very sad that he killed himself over that, but at some point you have to realize doing too much for a product can be worse than doing not enough. I would have loved if FUNimation came up to me and said, 'Hey, we want you to do every single voice for DBZ' but I also realize that me doing every voice would not create the best product.

I don't think I'm being disrespectful or lacking compassion in any way by saying I don't think he should have taken as many roles as he did. My critique of him is not on a personal level but a professional level.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Most of the voices he did were minor characters. And it didn't hurt the product at all, to my knowledge at least.
Did anyone in Japanese forums complain about Gori's multiple roles? (Asking Japanese fans)

[JulieYBM]

Gouri didn't hurt Dragon Ball. He only ever has 'two' voices, his badass voice and his Umigame voice. Aside from a few changes in his badass voice he pretty much spent his entire time on the franchise being music to the ears. Sabat on the other hand, spends his entire career using terrible voices to voice two dozen characters. There's a bit of a difference between the two.

[AgitoZ]

I don't think I'm being disrespectful or lacking compassion in any way by saying I don't think he should have taken as many roles as he did. My critique of him is not on a personal level but a professional level.

As a professional, why wouldn't you take as many roles as you could acquire? If having that many voices was a problem it's the director's job to deal with it, not the actor's.

[Fionordequester]

Artistic integrity? I do think that if he had any choice in the matter, he should've at least attempted to vary his acting in some way...

EDIT: Wait a minute...oh no, I just read VegettoEX's post, and...um, please don't think that I'm coming down on him...even if I do still think using the same voice for everything isn't a good idea, whether the actor had a choice or not...

EDIT2: But you know what...something is seriously wrong here. If not being able to do the roles he had was SO BAD that he slit his wrists over it...I can't help but wonder about the quality of his life outside of the booth. I'm scared to even think about the implications of that...

[JulieYBM]

Depression is a disease of the mind. It's not logical and it's not something you can easily manage. Obviously Gouri didn't get the help he needed in time to save his life.

This is a touchy subject, so I think we should try to steer clear of his death.

[Gozar]

As far as the Gori/Sabat comparison goes, I think there's one major thing that people are forgetting in regards to Sabat. Sabat, while voicing way too many characters in Z, voiced every one of his major roles with a completely different voice. You can say what you will about any personal distaste towards Sabat's voices. But the fact is that Christopher Sabat is NOT FUNimation. FUNimation is a business and at the time (1999) was a very small business that had a limited number of resources. While Sabat may not have been as good of an actor in 1999 as he is now, he was fantastic at providing numerous distinct voices, which at the time, was what FUNimation needed.

As for the subject at hand, I do not find it distracting at all. Gori not only has a fantastic voice, but is a fantastic actor. He got so many roles because few people could play that archetype to a tee like he does. Gori's voice has a unique nature to it that other gruff burly voices fall in comparison to.

[Gaffer Tape]

Here's something I think people are forgetting: the distinction between voice acting and, well, acting. And specifically, I mean the Japanese industry's thinner distinction between the two. I remember several years back the podcast touting an interview with Nozawa who chided younger performers coming into the industry who didn't want to be actual actors but just wanted to be voice actors and how, in her philosophy, you had to be an actor first and a voice second.

Take a moment to think about live-action acting, be it on the stage or on television or in film. How many good actors can you think of who sound totally different in every role? That's not to say that actors don't make vocal choices. That is certainly a primary element of creating a character. However, if you close your eyes, I'm sure you can, in almost every role, recognize Tom Hanks, Sean Connery, Bernadette Peters, Woody Allen, Alan Rickman, or Patrick Stewart by voice alone, regardless of what vocal choices they are making with their characters. And when they get actors to voice in, for example, Studio Ghibli films, you're still usually going to get that same thing too.

In solely the voice industry, though, is the emphasis more on creating a voice, a "character" voice, usually much more cartoony, as that is often the nature of the beast. When Chris Sabat hopped onto the scene in 1999, most of the criticism leveled at him was for that reason. His Piccolo was a "character voice" made up to sound really gruff. His Vegeta voice was a "character voice" made up to sound really gruff and with an affected accent. His Yamucha voice was a "character voice" made up to sound like a surfer stereotype. His Jheese was a "character voice" made up to sound Australian. And so on...

But you have to remember that the line isn't a strong in Japanese animation. Many of those seiyuu are actors too. I know that, for example, Aono Takeshi was mentioned as being a stage actor in the articles accompanying his death. So, yes, more of an emphasis is made on creating a character than creating a character voice. And I know I can certainly easily distinguish his Gyu-Mao from his Umigame from his Mr. Satan.

[penguintruth]

Sabat, while voicing way too many characters in Z, voiced every one of his major roles with a completely different voice.

[VegettoEX]

Good points to bring up. I remember when we attended Yuuji Mitsuya's panel at Otakon a couple years back, he mentioned how he knew Mayo Suzukaze from his acting troupe, and desperately tried to convince her to take the lead role in "Rurouni Kenshin" (which he was voice directing). He also worked with Mayumi Tanaka, I believe... and didn't he have a band with Tooru Furuya, or something, too...?

These people all did full-scale acting, and Gaffer already said everything I could have said if I was thinking about it and spent the time typing it. Can I just take credit for it, anyway?

[OutlawTorn]

Why did this turn into a sub vs. dub thing? Of course people who don't like Sabat are going to bash him, and wasn't there another thread which had enough people bashing Sabat? Honestly, if people cannot distinguish between Sabat's characters and claim they sound exactly alike, they should really get their hearing checked.

On topic, though, if the majority of the roles listed were just bit parts then no, I don't think Gori took on too many roles, because it is actually a common practice in animation for actors to perform more than just a single voice. I believe actors can perform roughly three roles in an episode before they must be paid more, so I don't blame the actors for voicing minor characters, particularly if their primary doesn't appear in an episode.

I also cannot see why Toei wouldn't utilize their talent as best they could before looking outside their pool for one-off voices or even major players. To use a FUNimation example, in the grand scheme of things, how often are Yamcha, Piccolo and Vegeta all involved in the scenes through-out the run of the series. I don't see why it wouldn't be as easy to distinguish between Gori's roles as it would be to tell the difference in Sabat's roles.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Sabat, while voicing way too many characters in Z, voiced every one of his major roles with a completely different voice.

Thaaaaat's not entirely true, is it? Even in Kai, Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta still occasionally slip into one another, especially in their screams/laughs/(insert more intensely emotional vocalizations).

It'd be perfectly fine if he just had Piccolo, Karin, Mr. Popo and Shenlong (which is just a bit part anyway) to work with. Although I'm still not sure whether or not it's good for his God of Earth (which isn't necessarily bad) to sound similar to his Piccolo, since they are two halves of the same being. I mean, Takeshi Aono played both Piccolo Daimaou and God too. Maybe that's something worth talking about.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Sabat's voices are both different & same. While they sound differently (at least those of the main characters), you can tell that it's the same guy who do the voices.

[TripleRach]

Gouri didn't hurt Dragon Ball. He only ever has 'two' voices, his badass voice and his Umigame voice. Aside from a few changes in his badass voice he pretty much spent his entire time on the franchise being music to the ears.

Yeah, I really don't see how he hurt the product by voicing lots of minor background characters in similar ways. He was a utility actor who could come in and voice those guys appropriately. If not him, it likely would have been another recurring utility actor voicing all those guys, like Masaharu Satou or Banjou Ginga.

Most animation has utility actors like that, like David Herman and Maurice LaMarche for Futurama. I'd imagine either one of those actors has done at least as many Futurama characters (minor and major) as Gouri has throughout all of Dragon Ball.

[Gozar]

Sabat, while voicing way too many characters in Z, voiced every one of his major roles with a completely different voice.

Thaaaaat's not entirely true, is it? Even in Kai, Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta still occasionally slip into one another, especially in their screams/laughs/(insert more intensely emotional vocalizations).

It'd be perfectly fine if he just had Piccolo, Karin, Mr. Popo and Shenlong (which is just a bit part anyway) to work with. Although I'm still not sure whether or not it's good for his God of Earth (which isn't necessarily bad) to sound similar to his Piccolo, since they are two halves of the same being. I mean, Takeshi Aono played both Piccolo Daimaou and God too. Maybe that's something worth talking about.

Yes, that's true. Occasionally there is that fine line in Kai between Piccolo and Vegeta. But I was referring to solely Z when he first took over. His Vegeta and Piccolo were very different. Although, in the infamous "I'm awake. I'm wide awake", he did slip into something like his Vegeta would become a little later down the road, lol.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Thaaaaat's not entirely true, is it? Even in Kai, Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta still occasionally slip into one another, especially in their screams/laughs/(insert more intensely emotional vocalizations).

It'd be perfectly fine if he just had Piccolo, Karin, Mr. Popo and Shenlong (which is just a bit part anyway) to work with. Although I'm still not sure whether or not it's good for his God of Earth (which isn't necessarily bad) to sound similar to his Piccolo, since they are two halves of the same being. I mean, Takeshi Aono played both Piccolo Daimaou and God too. Maybe that's something worth talking about.

Yes, that's true. Occasionally there is that fine line in Kai between Piccolo and Vegeta. But I was referring to solely Z when he first took over. His Vegeta and Piccolo were very different. Although, in the infamous "I'm awake. I'm wide awake", he did slip into something like his Vegeta would become a little later down the road, lol.

I disagree. Piccolo and Vegeta still sounded quite similar, with subtle differences. Either way, you could still tell that it was the same guy voicing both characters.

[Gozar]

I disagree. Piccolo and Vegeta still sounded quite similar, with subtle differences. Either way, you could still tell that it was the same guy voicing both characters.

You're referring to Z or Kai? Keep in mind, I'm referring to a Pre-2005 Sabat. Once we get to the UUC Era, the voices do have a similarity between them, no doubt.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I disagree. Piccolo and Vegeta still sounded quite similar, with subtle differences. Either way, you could still tell that it was the same guy voicing both characters.

You're referring to Z or Kai? Keep in mind, I'm referring to a Pre-2005 Sabat. Once we get to the UUC Era, the voices do have a similarity between them, no doubt.

I'm referring to pretty much anything pre-Kai. Granted, I haven't heard them in a while.

[Cipher]

With all respect for his work (he has a fantastic voice and his major roles steal scenes all over the place), I do feel he was distractingly over-cast throughout the series.

I think part of the problem is that he's a character actor through and through; there was very rarely an attempt to alter his voice, so he's immediately noticeable in every role he's in.

It's kind of par for the course for a long-running cartoon, though. Major actors double up on bit parts constantly.