Characters/Moments where the JPN cast are better in Kai

[Ajay]

As we all know, a lot of the praise regarding performances in Kai goes to the English cast for the more faithful and accurate portrayals of their characters and their lines. With the Japanese cast considered near perfect on their first go, they were subject to a lot of criticism this time around. For example; Recasts, Horikawa's huskier voice, Nozawa's lacking screams and Wakamoto's near parody of his original performance.

I'm curious as to whether there are any moments or even full performances in Kai that you consider superior to the original?

I personally find Itō's performance as #18 to be a lot more satisfying this time around. It seems more calm and collected but with the sinister nature turned up a lot. I always felt that was lacking originally so this certainly fits how I tend to read the character in the manga/how I wished the original performance was.

[B]

Furukawa and Horikawa are doing God's work.

Okay, that is a bit of an overstatement, but they're incredibly enjoyable in the Saiyan arc and a handful of people believe Vegeta's death scene in Kai is the best acting Horikawa's ever delivered.

[Ajay]

a handful of people believe Vegeta's death scene in Kai is the best acting Horikawa's ever delivered.

I was convinced for the longest time that I preferred that scene in Kai purely for the score but I think that you're right, his performance is just fantastic. Great example!

[Blade]

Wakamoto's near parody of his original performance

I got that a little bit with Ryūsei Nakao's Freeza.

But I think to some extent this goes for all of the Japanese and English cast. You do kind of feel sometimes that Nozawa has done so many day-to-day requests for kids on the street and Schemmell has done so many convention voice-byte requests that they've worn out any freshness for their 'Goku' character voices through endless repetition and 'jump on demand' enactments. Every performance must feel like they're somewhat lampooning themselves, I think that Sabat said something along those lines once - and can you blame him? How many times in a day do you think someone asks him to say 'Over 9000'? A line he never even originally delivered.

The Video Games haven't helped either, when we were getting a new Z game with the Raditz-to-Buu storyline every year, the casts must have felt like they were living in some endless regurgitation of the same lines with minor variation. How can you possibly come to something like Kai and read the lines like you're reading them for the first time after such a repetitive cycle?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Wakamoto's near parody of his original performance

I got that a little bit with Ryūsei Nakao's Freeza.

But I think to some extent this goes for all of the Japanese and English cast. You do kind of feel sometimes that Nozawa has done so many day-to-day requests for kids on the street and Schemmell has done so many convention voice-byte requests that they've worn out any freshness for their 'Goku' character voices through endless repetition and 'jump on demand' enactments. Every performance must feel like they're somewhat lampooning themselves, I think that Sabat said something along those lines once - and can you blame him? How many times in a day do you think someone asks him to say 'Over 9000'? A line he never even originally delivered.

The Video Games haven't helped either, when we were getting a new Z game with the Raditz-to-Buu storyline every year, the casts must have felt like they were living in some endless regurgitation of the same lines with minor variation. How can you possibly come to something like Kai and read the lines like you're reading them for the first time after such a repetitive cycle?

Well, I get the impression that some of the English cast members at least were excited about Kai. It really became clear, hearing them in interviews and reading their comments online, that they were not blind or deaf to some of the less-than-nice things said about their DBZ performances. It seemed like some of the criticisms had really gotten to them, partially because they agreed with the criticisms and partially because they felt their performances were not as good as they could have been because of FUNimation's "reversioning" of the show.

Put another way, if we remember that the word "Kai" means "refreshed," this was probably very true for them in more ways than one. For them, Kai was new in that they were actually dealing with a faithful script and faithful direction this time around.

The Japanese cast, though....their scripts and direction were faithful from the get-go. So every piece of dialogue, for every scene that they recorded for, has been the exact same, verbatim, over and over and over again between the show and the video games. Kai offered little to nothing "new," for them, so I could totally understand if their performances weren't as enthusiastic as their DBZ performances. Quite frankly, considering how little Kai offered that was new (especially after they started using Kikuchi's music again), by far the newest thing about it was the English dub, and if it weren't for the new English dub, my interest in Kai would be close to non-existent.

[Fionordequester]

Can't some of that be circumvented by trying to find new ways to deliver those lines and all of that? I remember Schemmel saying something about how important not staying in one mode all the time was at a con.

[JulieYBM]

The problem is Nagasaki Yukio is not a very good Audio Director. Horikawa Ryou's performance for Vegeta's death speech was probably the best work he worked out of anyone.

[Blade]

Can't some of that be circumvented by trying to find new ways to deliver those lines and all of that? I remember Schemmel saying something about how important not staying in one mode all the time was at a con.

Yeah, but it's not like the video game deliveries were ever identical to those in the Anime. I think there eventually reaches a point where one runs out of ways to deliver the same thing without drastically altering the mood (such as delivering lines intended to be relaxed angrily), which in my opinion, is outside the remit of a voice actor - as it's kind of changing the story.

[TheAldella]

So, can anyone else think of any? For example, I've actually Really liked what I've been hearing from Nozawa's adult Gohan lately, so I'm looking forward to that!

[TheGmGoken]

All of Freeza(character) scenes. I love his voice in Kai. Vegeta during Cyborg arc was better as well. A minor one but the infamous Farmer sounded better

[penguintruth]

Uh... most of the time, still.

If you're looking for a specific example, watch the episode Goku tells his friends about Shunkan Idō. You'll get a good sampling from most of the cast.

The English dub has improved by a great degree, but they don't normally surpass the original cast.

[Puto]

The question wasn't 'when is Japanese Kai better than the English dub'. It was 'when is Japanese Kai better than Japanese Z'.

[Son-Kun!!]

I love how over the top freeza's preformance was!

[Blade]

I love how over the top freeza's preformance was!

I guess that's my problem with it, in that it kinda feels like he's caricaturing his earlier performances.

[sailorspazz]

I don't know if it's just been a long time since I've watched the Boo arc in Z, but I think Takeshi Kusao sounds super cute as Trunks in Kai. I don't know if it's better than before, but it's pretty amazing that this guy who's pushing 50 can still do this really good little boy voice (especially considering most little boy roles are done by women).

And, it's already been mentioned, but Vegeta's death by Freeza. All my tears. Really curious how Horikawa will play Vegeta's second death scene.