Are English Speakers the Only Ones that Have a Problem...

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, I don't have a problem with Nozawa per say, so much as I think it was kind of a sketchy casting decision to cast her simply because "Goku is pure and innocent and all of that"...

I've heard two explanations offered as to why Nozawa voiced Goku in the entirety of his appearances on the show, rather than just as a child. The first is what you said, that Toriyama wanted to demonstrate that Goku was "pure and innocent," and the second is that Toei simply didn't want its young viewers to have to get used to a "new" Goku. The latter explanation seems to make way more sense, as it would explain why every single character in the show kept their first voice actor, regardless of age. It struck me as more of a business/branding decision than an artistic one (although I'm sure some artistic reasons were still involved).

Personally, while I think all of the Japanese voice actors are great, I would have preferred it if they recast the characters when they got older (or younger, in the case of Trunks). Or, I would have preferred it if they recast all the characters depending on their age except for Goku. Having Goku continually voiced by the same actor while surrounding him with other characters whose voices developed "normally," could have potentially been a very charming, funny, and memorable way to reinforce how quirky and odd he can sometimes be.

[ACCloud]

@Fionordequester and TheBlackPaladin - I recall reading an interview which I believe was with Sean Schemmel where he talked a bit about Nozawa as the voice of Goku in Japan. In it, he said that as far as he understands it, once a voice actor plays a main character in Japan, they are then kept as that character regardless of changes such as age throughout the run of a series. I think he then made some joke about him playing Kid Goku, but anyway. So assuming that my memory isn't wrong, I'd say that's a very possible reason.

For me personally, I really like this concept. I always hated it in western cartoons when the voice actors were changed, and I think that the Japanese cast do a fantastic job of ageing their voices to suit their character's current stage of life. Particularly Nozawa - kid Goku sounds very different to adult Goku, and I love how her voice changes when Goku is in Super Saiyan 3.

[matt0044]

For me personally, I really like this concept. I always hated it in western cartoons when the voice actors were changed,

True but the VA changes can be because of behind the scenes issue (payment or whatever) or because of artistic reasons (aging characters like with the Lion King and because the VA might not do well with altering his/her voice to suit an older age like after puberty hits the character) so it can be understandable.

[Eire]

Remember that Japanese voice actors are stars on their own rights and fans, so every reasonable producer will think twice before changing them for the sake of artistic vision.

I don't remember if I wrote about it here, but IMHO Americans do have a greater problem with dubs and foreign pieces of culture at all than the rest of the world combined. That doesn't have anything in common with intelligence or so on, but the fact that USA exports more entertainment than they import. The TV series takes place in idealised version of your own life, teenagers in teen movies have similar school path to yours, lips in dubs are synchronised to your language.
"Foreign entertainment" in USA is a bunch of niche melting pots gathering everything from particular destination (K-dramas, anime and manga, Latin Literature, French Cinema etc), something you must be particularity interested to begin with to find it.

In the meantime everyone around the world learns English, by watching said USA series and movies, reading books, listening to the songs. From the beginning people are used to the fact that in some cartoons dub will always flip a bit, that somewhere people pay in dollars, eat bagels for breakfast and have mortgage to go to university. While USA citizen will treat everything foreign like dog who sees a hedgehog, the rest of the world seems pretty laid back about that- even if the discussions about translations and dub vs sub debates are sometimes hot, they are the the matter of life. Even if someone finds translated version more appealing (case in many Pixar and Disney movies) nobody uses it as an argument against original.

[Mewzard]

I like Masako Nozawa as Goku...but it is weird. It's weird because we grow up and our voices change. No matter how innocent and childlike we are, our voices change. No amount of child-like wonder was going to stop my voice from deepening from the bat pitch that was childhood.

That happens to us all...and even though Goku's voice does change somewhat, for someone as muscular and trained as he is, it just feels strange to hear a high pitched voice coming out of his adult mouth.

It's kind of like Mike Tyson; the man's built as all heck, yet hearing that voice coming out of a man like him is just bizarre, lol.

That's probably where most people have an issue. People's voices generally do change...and in the case of boys becoming men, they tend to change to a bit deeper, more bass (not all, but at least to some degree, most guys I knew growing up changed to at least somewhat deeper voices, all of them more so than Goku's change in the Japanese).

That said, like I mentioned above, I do like Japanese Goku. But it still sounds weird to me. I really think Schemmel found the right balance for his Goku voice for both innocent childish moments and rage-filled beatdown moments. That's one reason why he joins Nozawa for my favorite Goku (and they're going to meet at that one con in a few weeks?! Curse my poor financial standing...).

[DBZ Mick]

The funny thing is when I think why I don't like Schemmel as Goku is it's because he sounds too masculine...

[Hellspawn28]

I never had a issue with the Japanese voice cast. I notice most fans on the Internet that bitches about Goku sounding like a girl are US fans most of the time in the past 10+ years.

[DBZ Mick]

I never have either.

[Mewzard]

The funny thing is when I think why I don't like Schemmel as Goku is it's because he sounds too masculine...

Really? I'd say DB has had more masculine sounding Gokus than him.

http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/tv- ... -Ball-Kai/

The clips they use for Goku in the above link really show to me the range of his Goku that really works for the character. Kai's improved direction and script (plus 10+ years acting experience) really did wonders for the performance.

[DBZ Mick]

I've started watching Kai after only watching the Japanese and I do admit Schemmel has drastically improved, yet, I still prefer Nozawa. I think she has a better balance, I think it's Schemmel when he's playing angry Goku sounds too masculine for me (althought I guess it's appopriate), I don't know...

[Mewzard]

I've started watching Kai after only watching the Japanese and I do admit Schemmel has drastically improved, yet, I still prefer Nozawa. I think she has a better balance, I think it's Schemmel when he's playing angry Goku sounds too masculine for me (althought I guess it's appopriate), I don't know...

Wait, you're saying a muscular alien who trained his whole life in martial arts...sounds "too masculine" when he's angry?

...I have to ask, what does one expect from that scenario? I mean, to take it in another direction...had Nozawa not stayed as Goku into adulthood, but had been replaced...what would you think Goku would sound like as an adult? Pretending Nozawa never did it, tried it, and nobody even put the idea in your head prematurely...would you expect a more masculine voice? Or something more towards Nozawa's higher pitched rendition? *Note, this isn't meant to be pressuring or anything, I'm just legitimately curious as to what would come to mind under such a scenario*

Now, I wouldn't expect Akira Kamiya to bust out his Kenshiro or anything, but I would at least expect something on the level of Tohru Furuya's voice (his Seiya *13 years old* certainly sounds more masculine), but more likely a bit beyond that, given his age and physical build. If you saw a guy like Goku scream with Nozawa's trademark screams...you'd struggle to hold in a laugh (because, much like Mike Tyson, a funny voice he may have, but you know you'd lose some teeth from that punch afterwards).

The transition works for Goku, and Nozawa's a good actress...but it's still somewhat off-putting even while I like her role as Goku. But, that comes from hearing voices change as I grew up (which is what generally happens; even many animals' "voices" change as they grow...from cute when young, to something a little deeper). You'd just expect more from a guy like Goku.

[Gaffer Tape]

The latter explanation seems to make way more sense, as it would explain why every single character in the show kept their first voice actor, regardless of age. It struck me as more of a business/branding decision than an artistic one (although I'm sure some artistic reasons were still involved).

But, see, I'd argue that that is an artistic decision: maintaining a consistency of character and performance. While it's true that in real life our voices change from what they sounded like as children, they don't become completely different voices and completely different people. They simply become deeper versions of what they already are. So it's really no more realistic either way. Either you keep the actor and have a potentially unrealistic vocal timbre but maintain a consistency with your character, or you change the actor and get a realistically "masculine" voice at the cost of radically altering the character.

[Dalesy]

Honestly, even though I was introduced to Sean Schemmel's Goku first, I had quite the opposite experience with the Japanese version. The first time I heard Nozawa's Goku was when I played DBZ2: Super Battle on MAME. I hadn't watched the show in a good many years, but the thought of playing through a game never released in the US caught my interest. When I first heard the voice, I was a little shocked, but not in a bad way. I actually thought it was really cool. Rather than thinking it unmanly, I thought it fit the character like a glove. When I actually got down to watching the show in Japanese, I was neutral to start with, but I grew to greatly prefer Nozawa over any other VA.

(On a side note, I would LOVE to see Nozawa do the "I am the hope of the universe" speech in English. It would be friggin' hysterical.)

[dario03]

Can't say I've ever had a problem with the Japanese voices. The little noises they make can get annoying sometimes but only when they did it a lot and even then it wasn't a big deal.
What I want to know is why do so many people care about what other people think? I can understand getting upset if someone starts insulting your favorite VA or saying things that are just factually wrong but someone simply saying they prefer one version over another shouldn't be a big deal. And saying Goku sounds like a woman in Japanese isn't a insult since Nozawa is a woman. Goku sounds like a woman to me, doesn't mean I don't like the voice but him sounding like a man doesn't bother me either and in my opinion fits fine. Personally my favorite version for voices and music is different depending on the scene, some is Japanese, some Funimation, some Ocean but as long as I'm simply stating that I like one more than the others without insulting them why should anybody care?

[JEFFMAN90]

The Japanese had the luxury of watching Dragon Ball first, and Nozawa's Goku voice evolves, albeit in a subtle fashion, as he grows up.

It doesn't matter gokus Japanese voice still sounds bad. The voices that I like from the Japanese version is Freeza's, Vagetas, and Piccolos

[DBZ Mick]

...I have to ask, what does one expect from that scenario? I mean, to take it in another direction...had Nozawa not stayed as Goku into adulthood, but had been replaced...what would you think Goku would sound like as an adult? Pretending Nozawa never did it, tried it, and nobody even put the idea in your head prematurely...would you expect a more masculine voice? Or something more towards Nozawa's higher pitched rendition? *Note, this isn't meant to be pressuring or anything, I'm just legitimately curious as to what would come to mind under such a scenario*

Sorry for the late reply, I'm not sure. Someone emulating Nozawa's rendition, I'd say. I find it hard to hear anyone else as Nozawa's voice as Goku did change as he grew up as you mentioned- I very clearly noticed it during the first episode of the 23rd Budokai. His voice did sound deeper.

[Majin Vegeta Fan]

Nope, we hate it too.

[Mirai Z]

I 'm from Latin America. Personally, I love watching DBZ with japanese voices and I like Nozawa's voice for Goku. The first ten seconds sounded weird to me, but then I just felt like "This is THE REAL CHILDISH goku". Mario Casteñeda's voice is very masculine but I have to say I like them both.
And the main problem that people have is Goku. I never heard people complaining about Vegeta's japanese voice for example (which is good because he's awesome, I love Horikawa... and Rene Garcia, too )

[Ajay]

The Japanese had the luxury of watching Dragon Ball first, and Nozawa's Goku voice evolves, albeit in a subtle fashion, as he grows up.

It doesn't matter gokus Japanese voice still sounds bad. The voices that I like from the Japanese version is Freeza's, Vagetas, and Piccolos

Why are all your posts so antagonising? The guy posts an interesting non-opinion and you dismiss it straight up simply because you don't like Nozawa's Goku.

Anyway, with regards to the actual topic - I'm sure it varies from country to country. Being that the English speaking crowd is what we see the most around the net, I imagine that's where this thread kinda spawns from but I imagine it's probably pretty even across the board. It would depend heavily on what their version of the voice compares to the Japanese.

I think the English fans have such a hard time with it because it is just so different. I know that growing up with the 'Ocean dub' in the UK made me have a hard time even getting into Kai with Funimation's one but after a while I got used to it and realised it was much better. The same thing happened when I switched over to the Japanese and now I simply can't go back to the English. Everything sounds so over characterised and unnatural, to me.

I think most responses we see are knee-jerk rather than a properly formed opinion given the popularity of the show and most of these comments appearing on YouTube videos or casual forums.

[Dalesy]

The Japanese had the luxury of watching Dragon Ball first, and Nozawa's Goku voice evolves, albeit in a subtle fashion, as he grows up.

It doesn't matter gokus Japanese voice still sounds bad. The voices that I like from the Japanese version is Freeza's, Vagetas, and Piccolos

Tip: If you're going to dismiss someone's statement, you should at least explain why. Masako Nozawa is a well regarded voice actress because of her work on Dragon Ball. I don't think anyone here will take you seriously if you don't back up a statement like that with some actual criticism.