English Voice Actor Replacements

[dbzfan7]

One voice actor I really wish had returned was Bradford Jackson. He was great as Oolong and King Cold.

I agree with you on Oolong, but the new guy for King Cold is so much better and Cooler. huh..huh...no...okay

[linkdude20002001]

This issue is somewhat similar the "issue" of Kaio's voice. The most common criticism I have heard with regard to Schemmel's take on Kaio (apart from it being a continuation of Don Brown's take) is that it doesn't have a "godly" quality about it, in contrast to Yanami's take on the character, which is deeper, more resonant, and has a bit more of a commanding presence to it. People say that Schemmel's take doesn't have a sense of godly power to it, and the absence of it makes it difficult for some audience members to take it seriously. So it really comes down to whether or not one can take Schemmel's voice for Kaio seriously during the more dramatic moments of DBZ.

When it comes to me, I can. I was introduced to Kaio through Don Brown, and Schemmel continued the character in the same direction. His voice sounds weird and almost alien-like...certainly not god-like. Then again, like the Day-Lewis situation, there's no rule that says gods have to have deep, powerful voices...that's just what we imagined them having. Schemmel's take does sound weird in comparison to Yanami's take, but if Yanami's take weren't around for me to compare to Schemmel's take, I wouldn't have found Schemmel's Kaio voice odd in the slightest. The voice fits that of a short, fat, old, weird-looking creature with an odd obsession for pun-based humor. The voice may not suggest power, but the acting (in my opinion) does. Not unlike Yoda, actually...you wouldn't think he's a master of the Force by listening to him, but you believe it later through his demonstration of the Force and in the sincerity of Frank Oz's delivery.

All this to say...I'm happy with either Yanami or Schemmel for Kaio. Both work for different reasons.

I enjoyed Brown's take on the character, but Schemmel's I can't stand... While Brown's, I felt, was still able to sound authoritative, Schemmel's Kaioh just sounds absolutely obnoxious and I can't stand it. While watching Kai, I skip scenes with him in it.

[matt0044]

The problem is that he is the god of 1/4 of the galaxy, and not only that voice makes him sounding like he is fucking stupid.

Wasn't the point of his character to be a godly being who's pretty goofy? Wise at times yes, but also goofy. That alone doesn't seem like anyone's idea (well, expect Toriyama perhaps) of the god of 1/4 of the galaxy.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Wasn't the point of his character to be a godly being who's pretty goofy? Wise at times yes, but also goofy. That alone doesn't seem like anyone's idea (well, expect Toriyama perhaps) of the god of 1/4 of the galaxy.

Kaio is goofy sometimes. But it's not OK sounding stupid. Goofy & stupid are two different things.

[TheBlackPaladin]

This is why it boils down to the "godly vs. funny" debate, and it's not one with an official right or wrong answer. Schemmel once said that, apart from continuing what Don Brown did, the biggest reason he continues to voice Kaio the way he does is because the primary role that Kaio serves to the story is comic relief. Which asks the audience to ask yet another question, which is to what extent they consider Kaio to be a comic relief character.

[penguintruth]

I don't really consider Kaio to be comedy relief. I mean, yeah, the concept of a catfish man who tells word puns as a god is clearly meant to be humorous, but he gives out useful information and advice in a no-nonsense manner. Mr. Satan is comedy relief. Kaio is not Mr. Satan.

[funrush]

I don't really consider Kaio to be comedy relief. I mean, yeah, the concept of a catfish man who tells word puns as a god is clearly meant to be humorous, but he gives out useful information and advice in a no-nonsense manner. Mr. Satan is comedy relief. Kaio is not Mr. Satan.

QFT. He's supposed to be comic relief in his first few appearances, but not after that.

[Ringworm128]

I personally don't find anything "stupid" sounding about Schemmel's King Kai voice, the voice itself sounds a bit silly but there is nothing in the delivery that would give the idea that he's "stupid". I have the same opinion about Chris Sabat as Reacoom, he may have the stereotypical disabled person voice but his delivery makes him sound like a cocky sadistic bastard who loves beating the crap out of people.

[matt0044]

I have the same opinion about Chris Sabat as Reacoom, he may have the stereotypical disabled person voice but his delivery makes him sound like a cocky sadistic bastard who loves beating the crap out of people.

I do wish that the "durhurhur" tone was scaled back a lot.

[Gonstead]

I have the same opinion about Chris Sabat as Reacoom, he may have the stereotypical disabled person voice but his delivery makes him sound like a cocky sadistic bastard who loves beating the crap out of people.

I do wish that the "durhurhur" tone was scaled back a lot.

If you compare between the Season Set Dub and Kai, you'll notice that sort of difference.

[LordCrumb]

I personally don't find anything "stupid" sounding about Schemmel's King Kai voice, the voice itself sounds a bit silly but there is nothing in the delivery that would give the idea that he's "stupid". I have the same opinion about Chris Sabat as Reacoom, he may have the stereotypical disabled person voice but his delivery makes him sound like a cocky sadistic bastard who loves beating the crap out of people.

I agree about Reacoom. His voice matches his characteristics well too. He looks slightly retarded, so he should sound like that too.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

He looks slightly retarded, so he should sound like that too.

Except that he's not retarded, just goofy, like the rest of the Ginyu team.

[dbzfan7]

He looks slightly retarded, so he should sound like that too.

Except that he's not retarded, just goofy, like the rest of the Ginyu team.

Exactly. Listening to his japanese voice, he does not sound retarded at all. He is just goofy like the other members. Perhaps they couldn't find a replacement for the role, or Sabat must like that role.

[penguintruth]

It didn't help that the previous English voice of Recoome was a bad Stallone impression.

[Piccolo Daimao]

It didn't help that the previous English voice of Recoome was a bad Stallone impression.

Although that was at least tolerable. Sabat's Recoom just sounds fucking stupid, but he's not. FUNimation seemed to literally take one look at him, go, "Well, he looks like a retard, with those blasted teeth and hulking figure, so let's give him a stereotypical retard voice", and skimmed over his actual, you know, personality and character intent. Like Kaiou, I can't take him seriously. Yes, he's meant to be a goofy Power Ranger parody, but he's still meant to be actually intimidating outside of that too.

[matt0044]

Eh, I didn't really care about Reccome in Kai. Though I wish they'd scale back the whole... well, you know by like a billion, the rest of the dub made up for it though. Kaio's voice I honestly didn't see as bad overall even in serious situations. Maybe I was just use to it by then.

Man, FUNi just can't win. If a dub voice in Kai is changed from Z, they got old dub fans at their throats. But if they don't in the case of Reccome (or Kaio), they got us going at them. Either way, some group of people is going to be pissed as hell for whatever reason.

[CaBrPi]

Eh, I didn't really care about Reccome in Kai. Though I wish they'd scale back the whole... well, you know by like a billion, the rest of the dub made up for it though. Kaio's voice I honestly didn't see as bad overall even in serious situations. Maybe I was just use to it by then.

Man, FUNi just can't win. If a dub voice in Kai is changed from Z, they got old dub fans at their throats. But if they don't in the case of Reccome (or Kaio), they got us going at them. Either way, some group of people is going to be pissed as hell for whatever reason.

Some minority group that probably isn't much of a factor in the way of profits. I'm pretty sure that Linda Young would've been kept as Freeza if she could've handled the pacing of the dialogue, Stephanie Nadolny if she hadn't outright left, etc. etc.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Eh, I didn't really care about Reccome in Kai. Though I wish they'd scale back the whole... well, you know by like a billion, the rest of the dub made up for it though. Kaio's voice I honestly didn't see as bad overall even in serious situations. Maybe I was just use to it by then.

Man, FUNi just can't win. If a dub voice in Kai is changed from Z, they got old dub fans at their throats. But if they don't in the case of Reccome (or Kaio), they got us going at them. Either way, some group of people is going to be pissed as hell for whatever reason.

While I think that's true--that somebody's going to be furiously angry for whatever reason--I think the majority of the comments I've seen here so far are people citing disappointments for specific reasons, rather than a furious anger about the dub overall. I LOVE the Kai dub, and recommend it to everybody over the Z dub, but even I have small disappointments with it (the biggest among them that FUNimation inexplicably stopped dubbing the insert songs).

On the other hand, I do think what you said is very true (that FUNimation will always have somebody angry at them). I've heard others speak before--and I agree--about how FUNimation's old dub of Z essentially created a "divided fandom," because their presentation of Z was almost like watching a different show entirely. So, sub fans and dub fans were, in a way, not even discussing the same show when talking about the dubbed version and the subbed version. At first that wasn't a problem, but when FUNimation went back to dub Kai, the "divided fandom" problem really came back to bite them in the you-know-what. Now they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, trying to create a new, more faithful dub while still not angering those who were used to the old dub. It's a battle that, unfortunately for them, they never could have won.

Well, they could have won it, if they had just dubbed Z loyally in the first place but...I mean, you get the idea.

In the end, it's not a huge concern for me to see a "united fandom." No matter how good the dub was, there were still going to be people who said that the dub sucked in comparison to the original Japanese version. So as long as I got a version that I personally could enjoy, that was all that mattered to me...and I got that in the Kai dub. FUNimation, though...after the precedents set by their Z dub, they never stood a chance at pleasing both camps of fans with their Kai dub.

[matt0044]

Sadly, no fanbase is wholesomely pleasable.

Anyways, I thought #16's VA was replaced when I heard him break out of his monotone voice during Cell's fights. Those grunts, yells and whatnot were a step up than before.

[penguintruth]

Actually, quite a bit of the fanbase was pleased with the DBZ dub before Kai (which mystifies me, since back in the day you couldn't find a positive word about it).

But that was the problem. They grew up watching a poor representation of the show and assumed anything different was wrong.