Initial Reaction to Nozawa as Goku

[penguintruth]

First:

"Huh. That's pretty weird. Japan, amirite?"

Then:

"Okay, I can see how that works."

Now:

"MASAKO NOZAWA IS GOKU."

[Rocketman]

I can't remember it exactly, but it was probably "ewwww".


It's just so awful.

[TheOverlyMadHatter]

My first exposure to it was with the PAL version of the first Budokai game around the time it came out. I was young, and so it was easy for the voice to grow on me, though I remember still being slightly put off by it, in a more neutral way than negative. I'm pretty sure my thoughts on it were along the line of "Oh, so this how Goku sounds in Japanese. A little weird, but strangely it works." Even during the days my focus was on the dub, i never had an issue with it. She's pretty much the definitive Goku to me.

[RandomGuy96]

First reaction? Pain.

[Fionordequester]

"Why in the WORLD does Goku sound like a woman?! Even if she IS a good actor, it STILL doesn't fit!"

Now though...I really like her. Easily second best, coming first only to Sean Schemmel, who to me, does everything she does, but with better screams and yells, and while actually sounding like a man.

However, even to this day, I still think it was a mistake to cast her, even if it did end up working out much more marvelously than anyone could've anticipated. Kind of like, say, electing a man as president when all you know about him was that he went to prison for several first degree crimes. Just because he just HAPPENED to end up being a better and more virtuous president than even the likes of Abraham Lincoln, that still doesn't mean that it was a good idea to elect him.

Yes, she had a marvelous take on Goku...but was there really no man that could've brought those same qualities? That's what I ask.

[dario03]

My reaction was "hey Goku sounds different..." and that was about it.

[SSJ3_Zack]

It was a bit of a shock to the system but I went and watched DragonBall in Japanese and got over it.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

First time I heard her voice was in BoG. Didn't particularly have a reaction. I thought she was fine. Still prefer Schemmel however.

[Shnuki]

My first exposure to Goku's original voice was probably through Budokai Tenkaichi 2, because it was the first DBZ game I owned which allowed to change the voices (I only bought the first Tenkaichi game about half a year ago, and boy, it sure sucks compared to the sequels).

And my first reaction was... "Is Masako Nozawa a castrated man?"... Yeah, the idea of a woman playing an adult man was not something I ever came across before, so that's what I thought. After I googled for more information later and I found out it's actually a woman, it still made no sense to me why does Goku have a voice like that. I knew his real character, because I read the manga, but to this day, I still think that voice is exaggerated.

While I've grown to like it, it's still not my preffered voice for Goku. Schemmel's is.

[ABED]

I played the Legend of Zelda games so I was used to a high pitched male archetype for Japanese characters.

I assume you are referring to games like Ocarina of Time. If that's the case, the actor who plays Link has a deep voice, what you were hearing were just his battle yells. If you've ever watched Yu Yu Hakusho in Japanese, the actor who played Link also played Hiei.

[Flame Dragon]

The japanese dub of Kai.

At first i was really put off, like... it was so weird to hear such a voice coming out of such a big, muscular man.
I was like "Vegeta sounds awesome, Freeza is amazing, but Goku is just... weird". Now i like her voice, it easily grew up on me because i'm used to shonen heroes with high pitched voices (Naruto, Luffy ecc.), althrough Goku is easily the most hard to get used to since his body doesn't fit at all, meanwhile Luffy and Naruto are slim.

I think her screams are awesome, her comedy moments are awesome, but her serious moments are lacking.
Now the only problem is that i need to get used to Schemmel

[Mystic Buu]

I decided to watch Japanese DBZ and when i heard Nozawa,I was like: Is this fan-made or what?I got used to Nozawa as Goku later,but Sean is best Goku for me.

[dbboxkaifan]

It's interesting that people from Italy, Croatia, Greece and Poland find Schemmel to be their favourite Goku voice rather than what their country got, but in their defence it was probably too horrendous so it's no wonder.

The European dubs all had a male voice actor (iirc) for Goku and then when those viewers saw the original Japanese version of Dragon Ball / Z / GT they were most likely shocked that a woman's been voicing him for years.

I recall seeing Portuguese fans saying things such as "Why does Japanese Goku sound like a woman and high-pitched?! Our Henrique Feist is the true Songoku!".

[Freeza Soldier #156]

I never had the "Goku is voiced by a woman?! HOLY CRAPS!" reaction. I actually really liked Nozawa the first time I heard her. I also thought it was impressive how she was able to make subtle differences in each of the voices that she did so that none of her characters sounded exactly the same.

[Flame Dragon]

It's interesting that people from Italy, Croatia, Greece and Poland find Schemmel to be their favourite Goku voice rather than what their country got, but in their defence it was probably too horrendous so it's no wonder.

The European dubs all had a male voice actor (iirc) for Goku and then when those viewers saw the original Japanese version of Dragon Ball / Z / GT they were most likely shocked that a woman's been voicing him for years.

I recall seeing Portuguese fans saying things such as "Why does Japanese Goku sound like a woman and high-pitched?! Our Henrique Feist is the true Songoku!".

Actually, the voice actor we got for the anime in Italy was awesome. Capturing both the inner child, and sounding like a badass when needed... he was the perfect balance, and his voice wasn't awkard since he still sounded male.

Here's an example video, listen how Goku sounds at the beginning and at the end while giving Kid Buu his speech. Childish and then like a badass at the end.

Now i'm getting used to Schemmel because he has trouble with the "inner child" part, while Nozawa has trouble with the "badass" part.

Honestly he was awesome, Schemmel is very good for what he does, but i will always have a special place in my heart for our Goku.
R.I.P Paolo Torrisi

And don't get me started on how good our Vegeta and Freeza voices were, our dub was certainly somewhat lacking in the script, but the voices were awesome.

[Shnuki]

It's interesting that people from Italy, Croatia, Greece and Poland find Schemmel to be their favourite Goku voice rather than what their country got, but in their defence it was probably too horrendous so it's no wonder.

Eh, I can't speak for other countries you mentioned, but I'm in minority. FUNi's dub is hated in Poland.

[VegettoEX]

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

I don't ever remember having a reaction. I just watched the show, and the characters were the characters. Full stop. The end.

[Kakarot88]

I played the Legend of Zelda games so I was used to a high pitched male archetype for Japanese characters.

I assume you are referring to games like Ocarina of Time. If that's the case, the actor who plays Link has a deep voice, what you were hearing were just his battle yells. If you've ever watched Yu Yu Hakusho in Japanese, the actor who played Link also played Hiei.

Wow! Had no idea about him playing Hiei. I only watched some of Yu Yu Hakusho and it was in English. I really liked it but Dragon Ball was the only anime that I truely got into. And you're right about the battle cries, grunts etc that he did for Link as being what I am referencing. Also influencing my opinion at that time was the Link sounds in Super Smash Brothers on the N64. ABED, not sure if you've also played the Zelda series, but for the benefit of those on the thread who haven't or aren't aware, I'm going to explain the lack of audio dialogue from Link. In those games the protagonist, Link or whatever name you create, does virtually no audio dialogue other than in game battle cries etc. The reason often given is not cost but done so that the gamer connects with the game so as if they feel they are the Hero of time, so that the dialogue choices the gamer makes are actually their words.

So going off just those sounds it sounds like Link has a high pitched voice. That idea was a readily acceptable concept to me for Goku's voice, and still is. Even in the US broadcast dubs of Goku in Z [not Kai], the character was portrayed as not having a macho deep voice. Corlett obviously began that trend, which was copied by Kalamis (but less so and sounding more macho), and then continued by Scemmel (who went back to being higher like Corlett and really took in the quirks). Now, in Kai, Schemmel has tweaked his delivery in favor of a more manly less unique and quirky sound. I'm not as big a fan of the change but I can see why others like it.

[Patrick]

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

I don't ever remember having a reaction. I just watched the show, and the characters were the characters. Full stop. The end.

Well, I would think it depends on which dub you grew up watching on or are most familiar with. I would assume most people who grew up with the English dub would find it surprising that Goku was voiced by a woman for the first time, but a person who watched the JPN dub wouldn't think anything of it.

[MagicBox]

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

I don't ever remember having a reaction. I just watched the show, and the characters were the characters. Full stop. The end.

As Patrick said, that makes perfect sense for you because (if I remember right) you got into the franchise before any major American dubs were out. You "just watched the show" because all you had was the show.

The only reason so many people here had any "reaction" was because they were used to (drastically) different interpretations of the show and the character from the get-go. Surely it's understandable enough that someone would notice a difference between such interpretations and the way the character actually sounds. I always assumed that's what the thread was asking.