The most famous controversy - Goku's Japanese voice

[Amigo Ten]

RE: Amigo Ten

I almost begin to question if we're reading the same thread if you seriously question whether gender (or the secondary sexual characteristics associated with it) has been an issue used by the anti-Nozawa camp to justify their argument... But maybe I'm wrong, and, if so, I apologize.

It wasn't part of Savage's argument is what I was saying.

[Puto]

EDIT: Also, I just thought of something else. Let me preface by again saying that I don't necessarily think either method is flat out better than the other, just different. For another live action film example, take Forrest Gump. Two actors playing Forrest, one as a kid, one as an adult. Tom Hanks learned the particular dialect the kid used and added that to his character. Their mannerisms are the same, their vacant look is the same. It's not that hard to buy it's the same character. But I never hear dub fans drawing comparisons between, say, Stephanie Nadolny and Sean Schemmel. Again, I don't think Schemmel is a bad Goku, but does anyone really view these two performances as a consistent character? Did it look like there was any time spent coaching one actor in the mannerisms, speech patterns, or vocal qualities of the other? Because, honestly, I don't see it. Aside from both having the general characteristics present in the character, Nadolny and Schemmel seem to have completely different takes on the character.

No, but the child and adult voices for dub Kuririn matched pretty well.

[B]

There's an interview floating around where Nadolny claims Schemmel coached her a bit for playing Goku in GT... Which kind of defeats the point of him being reverted to a kid, but whatever, it's GT.

[Ex-Dubbie369]

There's an interview floating around where Nadolny claims Schemmel coached her a bit for playing Goku in GT... Which kind of defeats the point of him being reverted to a kid, but whatever, it's GT.

Y'know, that's actually kinda interesting. I remember when I saw GT dubbed and actually thought her Goku felt a bit more like a younger version of Schemmel's, rather than just using the Gohan voice like she did in DB.

[TonyTheTiger]

I just want to throw this out there. Has anybody ever listened to the Four Seasons? Nozawa's adult Goku isn't worlds different from Frankie Valli's voice.

[Tamagon]

I hated Goku's JPN voice at first but it grew on me and now I like it

[Cipher]

There's an interview floating around where Nadolny claims Schemmel coached her a bit for playing Goku in GT... Which kind of defeats the point of him being reverted to a kid, but whatever, it's GT.

That doesn't defeat the point at all. Goku in GT isn't the Goku we knew in Dragon Ball. He still has all the knowledge, experience, and gained traits of his adult years.

Even Nowaza has said she voiced child Goku differently in GT. And if you listen, you can hear that he speaks with quite a different canter.

[Tsukento]

It always irked me how even to this day, people still find Masako Nozawa being inappropriate as Goku's voice simply because he "sounds girly" and that "the voice doesn't match the body." I'm no doctor or anything, but I'm pretty sure the tone of one's voice isn't dependent of their body structure. You don't hear all girls with high pitched voices or all fat guys with blubbering cotton mouth tones. I'm hitting 25 later this year and I more often than not get mistaken for being much younger (or very rarely even a girl) by anyone who hears my voice. I don't have a deep, manly voice like most other guys my age do. So it always kinda bugged me that people seem to be under the impression that age and body structure for Goku should automatically dictate that he shouldn't sound "girly" or "kiddish." Also mentioned earlier is how there IS a change in how she voices Goku's different ages that seem to get ignored simply because they're looking at it from the "That's a woman!" thought process.

Another one, brought up earlier, is how the ol' "The Japanese voices suck because everyone sounds like a girl" excuse gets tossed around just from hearing Ms. Nozawa's and Ms. Tanaka's roles. It's like they somehow breeze right past how deep Tenshinhan's voices have generally been, or how Piccolo and Vegeta have older male voices and always have. The funniest part of all this is how they disagree with this for Goku, yet are perfectly fine with hearing an older woman portraying Freeza, while throwing in all sorts of disturbing innuendo in his dialogue. The difference between Ms. Nozawa voicing Goku and Ms. Young voicing Freeza is that one does a proper portrayal of their character, while the other is way off.

As for the mentions of Boo earlier, I did not like Mr. Boo's voice in the dub simply because of the fact that they basically made him dumber. Yeah, he wasn't exactly bright in the original, but not to the point where he spoke like an infant that's just learning how to construct sentences. The great thing about the original Japanese voice, also mentioned earlier, was how he changes during transformations. He goes from a jolly, simple fatty to an impatient monster who's still a little simple minded, to someone with a lot more intelligence (due to absorbing Piccolo) and so on. That seemed to be really absent from the English dub. This was the same issue with Freeza and Cell.

[Mewzard]

It always irked me how even to this day, people still find Masako Nozawa being inappropriate as Goku's voice simply because he "sounds girly" and that "the voice doesn't match the body." I'm no doctor or anything, but I'm pretty sure the tone of one's voice isn't dependent of their body structure. You don't hear all girls with high pitched voices or all fat guys with blubbering cotton mouth tones. I'm hitting 25 later this year and I more often than not get mistaken for being much younger (or very rarely even a girl) by anyone who hears my voice. I don't have a deep, manly voice like most other guys my age do. So it always kinda bugged me that people seem to be under the impression that age and body structure for Goku should automatically dictate that he shouldn't sound "girly" or "kiddish." Also mentioned earlier is how there IS a change in how she voices Goku's different ages that seem to get ignored simply because they're looking at it from the "That's a woman!" thought process.

Another one, brought up earlier, is how the ol' "The Japanese voices suck because everyone sounds like a girl" excuse gets tossed around just from hearing Ms. Nozawa's and Ms. Tanaka's roles. It's like they somehow breeze right past how deep Tenshinhan's voices have generally been, or how Piccolo and Vegeta have older male voices and always have. The funniest part of all this is how they disagree with this for Goku, yet are perfectly fine with hearing an older woman portraying Freeza, while throwing in all sorts of disturbing innuendo in his dialogue. The difference between Ms. Nozawa voicing Goku and Ms. Young voicing Freeza is that one does a proper portrayal of their character, while the other is way off.

As for the mentions of Boo earlier, I did not like Mr. Boo's voice in the dub simply because of the fact that they basically made him dumber. Yeah, he wasn't exactly bright in the original, but not to the point where he spoke like an infant that's just learning how to construct sentences. The great thing about the original Japanese voice, also mentioned earlier, was how he changes during transformations. He goes from a jolly, simple fatty to an impatient monster who's still a little simple minded, to someone with a lot more intelligence (due to absorbing Piccolo) and so on. That seemed to be really absent from the English dub. This was the same issue with Freeza and Cell.

While the dialog was way off in the original dub, Freeza's actual dub voice is no more off than one could see Nozawa as Goku. I like Nozawa as Goku, but with Freeza, he is a soft-spoken (usually) polite villain who loses much of that quality when mad enough. The voice can work with the right dialog.

And Boo still goes through those intelligence changes. Boo still shows low intelligence in both Fat Boo and Super Boo forms, though it's played in a different way. It improves with the fusions.

And I think Cell's dub voice was just amazing. Too bad he's pretty much left voice acting.

And all these references to body type not relating to voice keep making me think Mike Tyson (though, his voice/body combo just seems silly at times, lol). Still, I'm happy with having two Gokus (Schemmel and Nozawa).

[Amigo Ten]

How is it an issue with Cell? Correct me if I'm wrong but Cell's JP voice doesn't change at all during any of his transformations, whereas the dub voice does.

[VegettoEX]

How is it an issue with Cell? Correct me if I'm wrong but Cell's JP voice doesn't change at all during any of his transformations, whereas the dub voice does.

The voice actor himself doesn't change, no... but his acting style and delivery certainly changes. We did a podcast episode about it three years ago, but if I remember correctly, I totally funked up my mixer settings and had us all peaking... the discussion points and samples are all still relevant, though...!

[Amigo Ten]

By style and delivery do you mean he actually changes the voice? Because I remember Cell sounding the same for all his forms.

[Chrono Trigger]

By style and delivery do you mean he actually changes the voice? Because I remember Cell sounding the same for all his forms.

They demonstrate in that podcast that Norio Wakamoto brings something different to each of the forms as far as acting and delivery go. I didn't know they digged Dameon Clarke too. That is truly interesting.

[jjgp1112]

Wait a minute, Tsukento, how can you possibly say that Buu's voice and speaking manner didn't change with his transformations in the dub? Were you even watching? Super Buu and his absorptions are played by a completely different voice actor from Fat Buu, and his voice is much deeper, and when he absorbs Gotenks and Piccolo he speaks very intelligently.

And Frieza and Cell's voices also very clearly changes with their transformations. I'm really baffled that you would suggest otherwise because it's pretty obvious.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, Tsukento's right. He easily looks like he's in his mid-twenties (via his videos), but he really sound it, so there's really no absolute correlation between the two.

By style and delivery do you mean he actually changes the voice? Because I remember Cell sounding the same for all his forms.

Voice, no. Acting, yes. Basically what everyone else has said, but a specific example is how, in his first form, Wakamoto extends is speaking, letting it spew out of his mouth.


While there seems to be speak of Majin Boo, I have to say I find Justin Cook's work really grating. It always sounds like he's having trouble speaking in the role.

[jjgp1112]

That's probably because there was a voice filter used to make his voice deeper. In the season sets, they used an audio take from before they added the filter and it's basically just Justin Cook speaking.

[Amigo Ten]

I'm going to have to disagree with whoever (can't remember) said that Cell's first form JP voice matched his looks in the podcast. The speech pattern is right, but the voice is too deep and growly.

[KaiserNeko]

I'm going to have to disagree with whoever (can't remember) said that Cell's first form JP voice matched his looks in the podcast. The speech pattern is right, but the voice is too deep and growly.

And... WHY is it too deep and growly? Because he looks like a giant bugman? That doesn't make -any sense.-

[Amigo Ten]

Why does it make no sense? Bug's aren't really known for growling. When I see Cell, especially his first form, there's a certain expectation of how he wold sound. Someone even said that in the podcast too, that they expected him to sound more like he does in Funi's dub. The speech pattern fits, and the "bleurhh..." sound or whatever he does is good. But the voice is off.

[KaiserNeko]

Why does it make no sense? Bug's aren't really known for growling. When I see Cell, especially his first form, there's a certain expectation of how he wold sound. Someone even said that in the podcast too, that they expected him to sound more like he does in Funi's dub. The speech pattern fits, and the "bleurhh..." sound or whatever he does is good. But the voice is off.

Oh, so, you've met many 6 foot tall anthropomorphic bug creatures before, then? Tell me, do they make good house guests?

What I'm getting at here, is that the voice can be left up to interpretation. Just because most American media presents us with scratchy, higher pitched voices for bug creatures doesn't mean that is exactly how all bug creatures should sound!