Question for Original JP Fans: Any Good Dub Voices?

[Herms]

You seem to be a good person to ask: How would you characterize Kaio's Japanese voice? It always sounded warm and grandfatherly to me, maybe like Santa Claus.

I'd say that describes him pretty well, warm and grandfatherly. That, plus wise and calm. I've said before that I think that the guy who does the Funi DB narratation would make a much better Kaio than Schemmel (and it would partially preserve the whole Kaio=the narrator thing, though of course they've got a different narrator for Z).

I don't understand why people have such a big problem with King Kai. Everyone says he doesn't sound like a god... but does he LOOK like a god to you? He reminds me of some sort of fish with ears and a lack of fins. (don't know why but he does).

It's not that he doesn't sound like a god, it's that he doesn't sound good...at all. He just sorta sounds like he's choking to death all the time or something.

[penguintruth]

Brice Armstrong

I think Brice Armstrong is one of Funimation's best talents. He has this great, deep, authoritative voice. But I think he would have been a better King Kai than Ginyu.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

No one sounded like Masako period, I really liked Sabat's Vegeta in the games but no SOO much in the anime.

A Recast should be done...

[Kaboom]

Chris Rager as Mr. Satan. Brilliant!

Seconded... or whatever number'd it is by now. He does a great job with the voice, and pulls off the character perfectly.

Chuck Huber and Meredith McCoy as 17 and 18 do a great job when given a decent script. Daemon Clarke's voicework for Perfect Cell is amazing. As is the performance for Dabra, though I can't recall who voices him.

I'll say the same for Sean Schemmel's Goku... he's really evolved and grown, and I really like his Goku nowadays. No, he doesn't sound like Mrs. Nozawa, but he can still pull off the character. He does a good job of switching back-and-forth between serious, time-to-kick-some-ass Goku, and goofy, carefree Goku. Give him a good script and direction, and he shines.

Though I admit the same thing as others; when I 'hear' Goku in English in my head... it's now MasakoX's Goku, not Schemmel or some odd 'Nozawa-speaking-English' voice.

Mr. Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta sound much better to me when he lays off the raspiness. Especially Vegeta; he's got that high-class, regal attitude to him.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

I really liked seans later performances of Son Goku, now if FUNimation dubs Kai I want correct names.

The Voice acting for DBZ at least the games is very well done, but if they dub kai and use the correct script I could really enjoy it. But for now subs will do.

[jda95]

Stephanie Nadolny as Goku, and Gohan to a lesser extent.
Bulma.
Piccolo Daimao, and Piccolo.
Nappa. But that's mostly because of Abridged.
Cell.

[B]

I'm assuming we are talking Raging Blast-era performances? Or just how well they did in the actual show? I think pretty much everyone is fine now, but as for those who didn't need ten years to do that:

-17
-18
-All Buus
-Commander Red(same guy as Mr. Buu!)
-Kuririn(he started out rough, but shaped up fairly quickly, i.e. before Freeza kills him)
-Kid Goku
-Oolong
-Mr. Satan
-Lunch
-Ginyu
-Babidi

Yeah... Basically, the main cast, i.e. the ones who had the most speaking lines, improved the slowest.

[Jon Jon]

I loved the Pioneer Raditz dub!

[bkev]

-Commander Red(same guy as Mr. Buu!)

I disagree on this, his disappearing-reappearing Scottish accent was really really annoying. Though it was a fine voice without it, as featured in Path to Power.

[theoriginalbilis]

As someone who watched the Ocean dub first, then the Japanese version, then the FUNimation dub last, I like:

FUNi:
- Brice Armstrong as the narrator in DragonBall
- Sean's DB-era and Season 1-2 redub Goku
- Sonny Strait's Krillin sounded great during the Season 1-2 redub)
- 17 & 18
- Dabura
- Eric Vale's Trunks
- Chris Sabat's Vegeta and Piccolo (2005-onward)
- Videl
- Mr. Satan

Ocean:
- The majority of the Season 1-2/Movies 1-3 cast, except for Freeza.

The Japanese cast still sets the standard (even in Kai), but the Ocean and FUNi dubs have some solid voices too.

[caejones]

You seem to be a good person to ask: How would you characterize Kaio's Japanese voice? It always sounded warm and grandfatherly to me, maybe like Santa Claus.

I'd say that describes him pretty well, warm and grandfatherly. That, plus wise and calm. I've said before that I think that the guy who does the Funi DB narratation would make a much better Kaio than Schemmel (and it would partially preserve the whole Kaio=the narrator thing, though of course they've got a different narrator for Z).

In an interesting coincidence, I watched "Santa Vs. The Snowman" in IMax this weekend, and found myself wondering if Santa was voiced by Brice Armstrong.

Generally, though, there's something about Brice Armstrong's voice that bothers me; I guess his narrator is the exception.

[Thanos]

I generally base my opinions of the dub voices on how accurately they portray the original voice. I think the best, of course, was Brian Drummond as Vegeta back when the dub was slightly less daunting. Chris Rager did a good job with Mr. Satan. However, I can't help but get the "H"-word fiasco out of my head when I think of his English voice. Juuhachigo's (#18 ) voice is good too, if not a bit deep. I find Juunanago's (#17) voice to kind of be a testament to the over-dramatization of dub voices; because let's face it. His Japanese voice sounds like nothing more than an average Japanese guy.

Some of the Ocean Group voices were great. Oolong was perfect, Vegeta was perfect, Raditz was perfect.

I would like to see FUNimation (or another company altogether), dub Kai with a clean slate. Rehire actors, try their damnedest to find actors that sound as much like the originals as possible... I'm probably asking for waaay too much, but still.

[Dr. Casey]

I remember liking wounded Goku's tired voice from the Piccolo Daimao arc a lot during the initial Cartoon Network run in September 2003. It's nowhere near as good as I remember from back when I was a fan of the dub (Goku's dialogue starting around 4:40 in this video), but Stephanie's Goku is still easier on the ears to me when she's being mellow and subdued.

[JulieYBM]

Mimicing the Japanese voices is a bit of an insult (then agan, you look at Season Three...but that's a bit of a different story). You won't find and actor who plays Romeo in a Seattle production of Romeo and Juliet who performs exactly like a Romeo actor in Miami, after all. All that can be done is making sure the casting and script are as sharp as possible. Chris Sabat's Zoro certainly sounds nothing like his Japanese counterpart, but he sure brings that Zoro feel through the delivery lines.

[DBZfan29]

Mimicing the Japanese voices is a bit of an insult (then agan, you look at Season Three...but that's a bit of a different story). You won't find and actor who plays Romeo in a Seattle production of Romeo and Juliet who performs exactly like a Romeo actor in Miami, after all. All that can be done is making sure the casting and script are as sharp as possible. Chris Sabat's Zoro certainly sounds nothing like his Japanese counterpart, but he sure brings that Zoro feel through the delivery lines.

Mimicking them is not an insult. I think it's what most people wanted. Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.

[B]

Mimicing the Japanese voices is a bit of an insult (then agan, you look at Season Three...but that's a bit of a different story). You won't find and actor who plays Romeo in a Seattle production of Romeo and Juliet who performs exactly like a Romeo actor in Miami, after all. All that can be done is making sure the casting and script are as sharp as possible. Chris Sabat's Zoro certainly sounds nothing like his Japanese counterpart, but he sure brings that Zoro feel through the delivery lines.

Mimicking them is not an insult. I think it's what most people wanted. Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.

>>Mimicking them is not an insult.
Yeah, it kind of is. "Wow! You're a great actor! Could you act like this other great actor?"
>>Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.
Who lied to you? If they were actually trying to imitate Nakao, they would not have hired women.

[DBZfan29]

Mimicing the Japanese voices is a bit of an insult (then agan, you look at Season Three...but that's a bit of a different story). You won't find and actor who plays Romeo in a Seattle production of Romeo and Juliet who performs exactly like a Romeo actor in Miami, after all. All that can be done is making sure the casting and script are as sharp as possible. Chris Sabat's Zoro certainly sounds nothing like his Japanese counterpart, but he sure brings that Zoro feel through the delivery lines.

Mimicking them is not an insult. I think it's what most people wanted. Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.

>>Mimicking them is not an insult.
Yeah, it kind of is. "Wow! You're a great actor! Could you act like this other great actor?"
>>Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.
Who lied to you? If they were actually trying to imitate Nakao, they would not have hired women.

Well, I agree that they shouldn't have cast a women to voice Freeza. She did try to sound like him, though, and actually somewhat did. People want a faithful dub with characters that sound like the original. Are you insulted by little Goku's voice actor in the Mexican dub of DB? Nozawa is being mimicked...

[penguintruth]

Mimicing the Japanese voices is a bit of an insult (then agan, you look at Season Three...but that's a bit of a different story). You won't find and actor who plays Romeo in a Seattle production of Romeo and Juliet who performs exactly like a Romeo actor in Miami, after all. All that can be done is making sure the casting and script are as sharp as possible. Chris Sabat's Zoro certainly sounds nothing like his Japanese counterpart, but he sure brings that Zoro feel through the delivery lines.

Mimicking them is not an insult. I think it's what most people wanted. Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.

>>Mimicking them is not an insult.
Yeah, it kind of is. "Wow! You're a great actor! Could you act like this other great actor?"
>>Don't get me wrong, mimicking Freeza's voice was horrible... but you can see that they tried.
Who lied to you? If they were actually trying to imitate Nakao, they would not have hired women.

The English dub should suffer because we're trying to spare the feelings of fill-in voice actors? That's ridiculous.

I say, do whatever gets the job done the right way. It's their business to do the best by the characters they're cast as, so they should swallow their pride. Don't tell me about the pain, just show me the baby.

(At the same time, if their voices aren't a good fit for the character's personality, they shouldn't be cast in that role to begin with.)

[JulieYBM]

Dub actors aren't there to imitate the Japanese cast. Plenty of dubs have proven that they can be good and bring faithful but uniqie performances. If you want to hear Wakamoto, Horikawa, Nozawa, et cetera...watch the original Japanese version.

[B]

Dub actors aren't there to imitate the Japanese cast. Plenty of dubs have proven that they can be good and bring faithful but uniqie performances. If you want to hear Wakamoto, Horikawa, Nozawa, et cetera...watch the original Japanese version.

Gotta agree with this.

I mean, I'm not against an actor who's micking the original voice and still sounds fine, but at the same time, there job is to convey the same feelings and eccentricities of the characters. "Sounding like" some other actor shouldn't be a priority.

Hate to take a page from dubfan logic, but... Goku voiced by an English actor should sound like a grown man. This grown man should be able to ACT within the context Goku's basic personality(Which most of his actors... have attempted this, to put it politely); coming off as not very intelligent, and almost childlike in his speech pattern, but still SOUND like a pubescent man.