For dub fans, how much of a deal breaker is Nozawa's Goku?

[Kid Buu]

I think so, since I never anti-original audio people that they dislike Vegeta/Piccolo/Krillin/Yamcha's voice, just Nozawa.

[WittyUsername]

I used to dislike her as the voice of adult Goku, but I've come to very much enjoy her voice. I think a man could have potentially done just as good a job as Nozawa(as I consider to be the case with Sean Schemmel) but she does a good job of capturing Goku's childlike nature, and she actually does have a good range of emotions. I'm generally not a big fan of "cross dressing voices" as TV Tropes calls it, but I think Nozawa is probably one of the few cases where it works perfectly fine.

Can't say the same for her Bardock voice unfortunately.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Nozawa is 100% the dealbreaker. Not because she's a woman, not because Goku's a man, but because her voice is so fucking horrid.


And it only gets worse as the series goes on and she voices Gohan and Goten too, until you have Nozawa versus Nozawa and Nozawa and then Nozawa blasts Nozawa and Nozawa away and you get the double-dose of BWAAAAAAKKKKKHHH.


"kkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKKKK BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHKH" - Goku

Ha, I knew Rocketman would be responding within the first page. Yeah, pretty much this. Her voice is hell on my ears, and she voices fucking EVERYBODY, even characters that really, really don't fit, and wouldn't fit even if her voice wasn't godawful. Goku and Goten? Annoying, but fine, if that's what they're going for. Gohan and Tullece? I don't think it fits much, especially since Gohan is basically the anti-Goku. Bardock? What the fuck, why?

It is a strange one, especially considering they got someone else to play Raditz. So why not the rest of Goku's family?

[Zephyr]

I hated Goku's Japanese voice at first, but I got used to it. Watching the series in the order it's meant to be watched in helps a lot. The "grown man, high voice" complaints make little sense when you understand how much that voice helps drive home the point that this tall, buff, badass is still just silly little Goku (while at the same time it does deepen a bit starting with the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, for that dash of realism).

A lot of people complain about her voicing other characters, but if you've watched it in Japanese enough you can normally pick up on the nuanced differences between her performances between the characters.

As someone who also had her Goku voice as a huge barrier of entry, I have to say that letting this thing be a deal breaker is doing yourself a disservice in terms of your enjoyment of the series overall. But that's just me.

[Valerius Dover]

And it only gets worse as the series goes on and she voices Gohan and Goten too, until you have Nozawa versus Nozawa and Nozawa and then Nozawa blasts Nozawa and Nozawa away and you get the double-dose of BWAAAAAAKKKKKHHH.


"kkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKKKK BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHKH" - Goku

Well, let's not pretend that Sabat vs. Sabat hasn't happened on occasion, like Vegeta vs. Zarbon.

Ha, I knew Rocketman would be responding within the first page. Yeah, pretty much this. Her voice is hell on my ears, and she voices fucking EVERYBODY, even characters that really, really don't fit, and wouldn't fit even if her voice wasn't godawful. Goku and Goten? Annoying, but fine, if that's what they're going for. Gohan and Tullece? I don't think it fits much, especially since Gohan is basically the anti-Goku. Bardock? What the fuck, why?

I think the Turles example was going for an "Evil Goku" feel so they cast the same VA in that case. Then again, I should probably see the movie before I act like I know what I'm talking about. Although, It'd be pretty awkward if the dub did this, too. Nothing against Schemmel, but I don't think it'd really work here. Bardock, I have no clue why he gets the same voice, too.

[Gaffer Tape]

Ah, my mistake. I was thinking about the low-quality, but wrote Mono instead. I really should know better.

Not a problem. Just like to squash the spreading of that mistake when I can because it's so prevalent.

Nozawa is 100% the dealbreaker. Not because she's a woman, not because Goku's a man, but because her voice is so fucking horrid.


And it only gets worse as the series goes on and she voices Gohan and Goten too, until you have Nozawa versus Nozawa and Nozawa and then Nozawa blasts Nozawa and Nozawa away and you get the double-dose of BWAAAAAAKKKKKHHH.


"kkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKKKK BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHKH" - Goku

One might think such an opinion would annoy me, but the fact is, I can understand that, and I can respect that much more so than someone who goes, "I can't accept the idea of a woman playing a man, despite all of the other examples in dramatic history, both past and present, where it's done. It's just too much of a break from reality! Now let me get back to watching the talking pig, three-eyed guy, and all those people who shoot fireballs from their hands because that's reality, yo!" Just having a problem with Nozawa specifically and explaining why in a cohesive manner? That is such a nice change of pace in this thread... and the one before it... and the one before it... and the one before it... How many times has this topic come up?

[Rocketman]

Well, let's not pretend that Sabat vs. Sabat hasn't happened on occasion, like Vegeta vs. Zarbon. :P

True, but Sabat doesn't voice all four main characters. It's "on occasion" with Sabat, it's "all of Dragonball Z" with Nozawa.

[MajinMan]

I don't hate it as much as I used too, Battle of Gods made me appreciate it more. I just don't like how she voices Gohan and Bardock, they took it too far when they decided every man that's related to Goku should sound like an old grandma.

[DarkPrince_92]

Took a LONG ass time to grow on me. A couple years actually. Now when I see Goku I can easily hear Nozawa in my head as easily as Schemmel. Watching Z subbed definitely helped. Still working on DB and GT.

[IDreamtIWasABee]

Maybe I've got a tin ear for Japanese, but I couldn't tell Goku was voiced by a woman.

[MagicBox]

I know that we always have new forum members joining us and that certain topics are going to be repeated, but I'm astounded by how much mileage these threads get. I feel like we're starting to get one every month.

Anyway, is Nozawa a deal breaker? Absolutely. Once I heard her performance, I left the FUNimation dub and never looked back. I had found my perfect Goku.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Nozawa is 100% the dealbreaker. Not because she's a woman, not because Goku's a man, but because her voice is so fucking horrid.


And it only gets worse as the series goes on and she voices Gohan and Goten too, until you have Nozawa versus Nozawa and Nozawa and then Nozawa blasts Nozawa and Nozawa away and you get the double-dose of BWAAAAAAKKKKKHHH.


"kkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKKKKKK BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHKH" - Goku

One might think such an opinion would annoy me, but the fact is, I can understand that, and I can respect that much more so than someone who goes, "I can't accept the idea of a woman playing a man, despite all of the other examples in dramatic history, both past and present, where it's done. It's just too much of a break from reality! Now let me get back to watching the talking pig, three-eyed guy, and all those people who shoot fireballs from their hands because that's reality, yo!" Just having a problem with Nozawa specifically and explaining why in a cohesive manner? That is such a nice change of pace in this thread... and the one before it... and the one before it... and the one before it... How many times has this topic come up?

I can't speak for every dub fan, but for me, I never had a problem with the idea--or actual practice--of a woman playing a man. If they can convince me in their performance, I don't care who plays the role. I merely find it difficult to believe that the specific voice that Nozawa has utilized for adult Goku is coming from the body of an adult man. Its high pitch always used to take me out of the moment, because I was too distracted by it to focus on the character. I kept being brought out of the world of the show by it, as was everybody who I showed it to for the first time.

Quite frankly, this kind of concern is not one unique to dub fans. I read plenty of comments from fans of the Japanese version who took issue with the fact that Linda Young was playing Freeza. They took issue with it for several reasons, but one of the oft-repeated ones was that the voice she used sounded too much like a woman, when Freeza was a male character. To quote Chris Psaros...

"Thought Pauline Newstone made Freeza sound like your old grandmother? Well now he sounds even more like a woman, there is absolutely no reason for any new viewers at this point to believe that the character is male."

Heck, it was too obvious to me too, even as a kid, before I had heard the original Japanese version. I lost count of the number of times that me and my friends used to accidentally refer to Freeza as "she." I even vividly recall one instance where one of my friends--in sixth grade--said, in recalling the events of a recent episode...

"And then Freeza showed up and she--"
*We all started chuckling*
"OK, I know, but it's so obviously a woman's voice!"

Anyway. All that to say, how far a suspension of disbelief can be stretched will vary from person to person. From my point of view, I don't think it's necessarily out of line to have difficulty believing that certain voices come out of certain character's mouths.

[Solid Snake Way]

Never bothered me because I always thought of Goku as a unique, strange person, so the voice was just part of that personality. EDIT: I am a dub fan, although I watch the Latin dub.

[Tatakae!!Ramenman]

It wasn't a deal breaker for me. When I first heard it it definitely sounded very weird to me, but all the voices sounded different because I had only heard the Funimation voices. Now, I've heard the voice come out of Goku so many times, it sounds normal, but I do remember it sounding weird when I first heard it.

[TheWhiz]

I never found this an issue when I first saw DBZ in Japanese. I can understand why people hate it though.

[ABED]

I read plenty of comments from fans of the Japanese version who took issue with the fact that Linda Young was playing Freeza. They took issue with it for several reasons, but one of the oft-repeated ones was that the voice she used sounded too much like a woman

Unless there's dialog to indicate such, you can't tell just by looking at Freeza that it's a he, not that it would be a problem if Freeza was in fact female. Goku's clearly a male. More than that, Nozawa's a great actress, whereas Young isn't. That's the big difference. I was taken aback when I first heard Nozawa's voice emanating from Son Goku, but that quickly went away. It's like when I first heard Led Zeppelin, it took me a few listens until I became a big fan. I honestly don't mind Nozawa playing most of the Son family because other than Goten, you can hear the differences in pitch, delivery, and performance who's who.

I can understand why people hate it though.

I guess it's the same reaction I have when I hear Vollmer and Nadolny, except Nozawa can act, so it's not the same thing. While this seems like another swipe at the actress, it's not what was intending to do. My point is that while I can understand maybe the sound is odd for Goku, I don't think there's any question that Nozawa is a great actress, whereas the aforementioned American actresses aren't.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I read plenty of comments from fans of the Japanese version who took issue with the fact that Linda Young was playing Freeza. They took issue with it for several reasons, but one of the oft-repeated ones was that the voice she used sounded too much like a woman

Unless there's dialog to indicate such, you can't tell just by looking at Freeza that it's a he, not that it would be a problem if Freeza was in fact female.

I agree, purely in terms of appearance, I think Freeza looks relatively androgynous (even if a way-too-easily-concerned exec at the CW didn't think so). However, in the case of this particular character, there was plenty of dialogue addressing Freeza as "he," "him," etc...so FUNimation's initial casting decisions for the character certainly confused the heck out of me as a kid.

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

I've been watching the dub since I was a kid and didn't hear the original Japanese version until I watched a subbed version of movie 13. It was my first time hearing Nozawa's Goku and I was shocked, it took a while to get used to but it's all good now. However, I'm still not accepting Yajirobe's voice, after watching the dub for so long where he has a deep voice then to hear him in the Japanese version where he sounds like a chipmunk is incredibly hard to get used to.

[Gyt Kaliba]

You know, it's weird: I don't think I ever really had an issue with Nozawa's adult Goku, even though I could always (and still can) see why others do. I think the first time I ever heard her, and the Japanese version period, was either Super Android 13, or the very last DBZ single DVD (which I don't even know what happened to after I got it, huh...). I had already heard about Goku being a woman in Japanese thanks to the internet, but actually hearing it was definitely an...interesting...experience. But it never really drove me off or grated on my ears, I just went 'huh, well that's different' and moved on. It was always just a curiosity to me.

Nowadays, having watched the entirety of the franchise (save for Kai, the extended version of BOG, and Fukkatsu no F - obviously ) in Japanese? I still don't have a problem with it, and even enjoy it a majority of the time. I do have a problem with her keeping the role, getting Gohan, keeping Gohan, getting Bardock, getting Goten, and keeping Goten though. It's all just...too much, far too much. There are noticeable differences between the voices, but not enough so to really set them apart. Heck, I think there's more difference between Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta in the old days than there are between Nozawa's takes on her different roles. So when that sad but inevitable day comes and they have to re-cast the Son family, I'm really hoping they divvy up the roles to a few different people, or at least find someone who can make each one stand out a little more from each other.

[Codarik]

I'm perfectly fine with her being Goku during his adult years, I never really had a problem with it. But SHE HAD NO BUSINESS BEING TULLECE AND BARDOCK. Gohan in his later teen years/early adulthood I can understand, whoever had her casted as Bardock must've been on drugs, how can anyone take Bardock seriously after hearing how he sounds while trying to save his planet and race? And her being Turles was so pointless. Also, she makes Vegito and Gogeta sound horrible.