Would Z Kai have benefited from a complete cast overhaul?

[Ringworm128]

No not really most of the voice actors do decent to good to down right excellent jobs. So why fix it if it aint broken.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

No not really most of the voice actors do decent to good to down right excellent jobs. So why fix it if it aint broken.

Because you can get something even better....?

[linkdude20002001]

The only "imitation" I can think of that remains is the new Ginyu, simply because Armstrong is now retired. The only thing the new Jeice has in common with Sabat's is that they have a fake Space Australian accent.

Everyone else who is a returning cast member has made the roles their own. Not just "some". Even if you don't like them, they're far beyond imitations of the Ocean cast at this point.

I mentioned these points as well, but even still, in FUNi's eyes, they want imitations. Or, in other words, they want the characters to sound the same, always, so hopefully the fans don't notice the difference and become angry. They're a company, so their goal is to make money first, worry about fans second. But of course, they can't ignore fans' wants if they want to make money. But their fans have conflicting wants... For other shows, every fan wants the same thing: an accurate, well acted dub. For Dragon Ball? You've got fans who WANT replaced music, and WANT fucked up scripts, and WANT super-hero/goody-goody Goku, and gruff/angry Vegeta.

As much as I'd like a new voice actor for Gokuh, Schemmel's acceptable enough. Vegeta? Eh... Not so much. It doesn't sound like he's even trying to sound like Vegeta. Instead, he gives him that gruff/angry sound that fans of their dub expect; it's still an "impersonation" of his Vegeta from the Cell and Majin-Boo arcs of DBZ.

[ohaimynameiserik]

The only "imitation" I can think of that remains is the new Ginyu, simply because Armstrong is now retired. The only thing the new Jeice has in common with Sabat's is that they have a fake Space Australian accent.

Everyone else who is a returning cast member has made the roles their own. Not just "some". Even if you don't like them, they're far beyond imitations of the Ocean cast at this point.

I mentioned these points as well, but even still, in FUNi's eyes, they want imitations. Or, in other words, they want the characters to sound the same, always, so hopefully the fans don't notice the difference and become angry. They're a company, so their goal is to make money first, worry about fans second. But of course, they can't ignore fans' wants if they want to make money. But their fans have conflicting wants... For other shows, every fan wants the same thing: an accurate, well acted dub. For Dragon Ball? You've got fans who WANT replaced music, and WANT fucked up scripts, and WANT super-hero/goody-goody Goku, and gruff/angry Vegeta.

As much as I'd like a new voice actor for Gokuh, Schemmel's acceptable enough. Vegeta? Eh... Not so much. It doesn't sound like he's even trying to sound like Vegeta. Instead, he gives him that gruff/angry sound that fans of their dub expect; it's still an "impersonation" of his Vegeta from the Cell and Majin-Boo arcs of DBZ.

If they always wanted the characters to sound the same, our ears would still be getting tortured by Linda Young and Stephanie Nadolny. If they wanted to keep goody goody Goku, they wouldn't have made the script accurate, nor have him swear more than nearly anyone else in the show.

Honestly, I like Sabat's Vegeta. But even if I didn't I wouldn't say it's an imitation of his Cell arc voice. It's much more natural and better acted now. And even if it DID sound similar, how can Sabat imitate Sabat?! Unless he sounds like Drummond, he isn't imitating anybody. And his current voice is clearly not a Drummond imitation.

[linkdude20002001]

Well, Young was incapable of reading the script correctly. Sabat said he wanted her to be Freeza. And Nadolny doesn't do voice acting for FUNi anymore. Also, I didn't really mean to imply that FUNi wanted him to be goody-goody; many fans certainly do, though. And the swearing was part of their English dub DBZ is hardcore/badass now, just the the Japanese version! plan to get more sales.

The word imitation was in quotes for a reason. Sabat has different portrayals for his characters... So what I was saying is that he's doing one of those in particular, and since none of them were accurate to Vegeta's cool-headed and obstinate attitude, he's doing ("imitating"?) that old way of portraying Vegeta (as either insane or angry all the time).

[ohaimynameiserik]

Sabat said he wanted her to be Freeza.

In the interview. Maybe he could have been looking for any opportunity to replace her while still seeming nice, I dunno.

When talking with Kirbopher, I believe he said Young's Freeza sounded like "your grandma trying to sound tough".

[linkdude20002001]

Of course, that could just be him trying to get on our good side. You know, trying to show how "important" accuracy is to him. :/

[ohaimynameiserik]

Of course, that could just be him trying to get on our good side. You know, trying to show how "important" accuracy is to him. :/

I'm just saying, it's much more likely that he'd say what he really meant to someone he was speaking with in person, rather than in a video interview released to the public.

[linkdude20002001]

Based on his other decisions (i.e. refusing to give up rolls he enjoys, refusal to change character portrayals he either enjoys or thinks would anger [reversioned DBZ] fans, refusal to correctly pronounce...Gokuh, Saiyan, et cetera..., refusal to refer to God as God, refusal to......), I'd say he full-well wanted to have Young voice Freeza.

The only reason we got ANY voice changes at ALL is because Nadolny, Vollmer, Jackson, Clarke, and Antonelli no longer work for FUNi.

[RazorX]

For Gohan, I'd say Sabat wanted a change from the start in Funi's Kai dub. Nadolny wanted to voice Gohan and was upset when she wasn't called back for Gohan. Both Sabat and Schemmel said that they wanted Gohan to "sound like his age" in Funi's dub this time.

For the others, it's probably a mixed bag of reasons; actors left, changes made for the sake of changes, changes made to market the dub, etc.

Jason's Jeice is decent, better than Sabat's version.

[linkdude20002001]

I remember that upset Nadolny was actually a fake. I'm pretty sure the real one didn't actually know about it till PurpleWarrior13 told her about it. And I don't recall them saying they WANTED him to sound his age; I recall Sabat saying that Clinkenbeard's Gohan sounds age appropriate.

The only characters to get a new voice for reasons other than "so-an-so doesn't work for us anymore", "so-and-so can't read the scripts correctly", or "let's try to lessen my (Sabat's) workload" are: Ghurd and the guide who took Gokuh to Serpentine Road. :/

[RazorX]

I recall reading the said comments about Gohan on Sabat & Schemmel's facebook pages months ago. I don't know about the "fake" Nadolny being upset but I do recall Nadonly being reported as upset about not being able to voice Gohan in the Funimation, and subsequently Daizex, forums.

Nadolny was also reported to be upset at not being asked to voice Kid Goku in the DB Movie 1 redub. Clinkenbeard does so much better than Nadonly on both characters, she surprised me with her Kid Goku portrayal, she reminds me of Saffron Henderson's performance.

If Sabat wanted to keep Nadonly but couldn't for various reasons, he may have asked Colleen to do what he asked Brina to do, imitate the previous actress. Brina's Chaotzu ( and I think Puar, I need to hear more of that to be sure) is an obvious imitation, though the performance is not bad. Colleen's Gohan on the other hand is not like Nadolny's, it's a new direction which is closer to the Ocean and Japanese versions.

[linkdude20002001]

Well, Nadolny was hired to impersonate Henderson (though, she never really succeeded...), so it's more like Clinkenbeard's doing the impersonation that Nadolny was meant to do.

I'll have to look for it, but I know there was a fake response before we got the real one.

[RazorX]

Well, Nadolny was hired to impersonate Henderson (though, she never really succeeded...), so it's more like Clinkenbeard's doing the impersonation that Nadolny was meant to do.

Agreed. Funimation has improved even in the aspect of imitations.

I'll have to look for it, but I know there was a fake response before we got the real one.

I didn't know that.

[xzero]

Sabat said he wanted her to be Freeza.

In the interview. Maybe he could have been looking for any opportunity to replace her while still seeming nice, I dunno.

When talking with Kirbopher, I believe he said Young's Freeza sounded like "your grandma trying to sound tough".

While I don't doubt the latter statement, it's worth noting that Young voiced Freeza in episode 1. This is completely consistent with the director (Sabat) wanting to have her voice the character throughout. Now granted he might have felt she was inappropriate for the part as written for Kai, but it cannot be denied that she was both appropriate for the part and clearly desired, at least at first, as evidenced through the laugh in the first episode.

[obiwan23s]

Z Kai didn't need a completely new cast. The DBZ dub's biggest problem is the script. And stemming from the script is that the actors were directed in such a way that pandered to that watered-down script. The voices themselves, save Freeza and maybe a few others, were never really a problem. So it's no surprise that when acting from a script that's true to Dragon Ball and directed by Chris Sabat who has grown to be a big Dragon Ball fan and knows what we want in a dub, that the new dub is actually good. And on top of that they've replaced a few actors with, arguably, better ones and the beat goes on. If Dragon Ball had this attention to detail from the start, then the old dub would be just as good.

[Turtle Marked Stone]

The voices themselves, save Freeza and maybe a few others, were never really a problem

Matter of opinion but eeeh, I'd disagree personally. A lot of them were pretty terrible choices in my book that they'd probably never make nowadays. I honestly couldn't see them giving say... Trunks, Vegeta or Goku the voice they gave them if this was a fresh 2011 dub of Dragonball. Conversations like this always make me wonder what Kunzait thinks of Kai. Hey Kunzait if you're lurking chime in and put my curiosity to rest. Or at least tell me if you're posting at another forum, I need my long Kunzait post fix.

I just look at all the love and care they put in their One Piece dub and then look at Kai and see a very notable difference in the voice casting is all. Of course this is because they're still cuddling the old DBZ voice casting from "we don't know what we're doing what's an animes?" Funimation. This is all obviously just a matter of preference but I figured I'd chime in again to clarify myself.

The English cast is doing a pretty good job. We went from a terrible Z dub to a good Kai dub, and even if it's not perfect, at least it's doing the job right this time around.

You've grown soft Mr.Truth!

[linkdude20002001]

Well, Mr Truth speaks the truth.
The dub went from an F to a C, and is something I can (mostly) enjoy now. We've come a long way.

And you speak truth, as well. I know that their dub of One Piece is either a B or A (I haven't seen much yet), while Kai gets a C just because they can't stop thinking about making money for just one second. Sure, it might make some old fans angry, but I think if they made this an A+ dub, they'd make up for the loss by gaining support by us crazy hard-core fans who care more about what Toriyama wanted than what we personally want.

[jjgp1112]

Whelp, there'd be no Z Kai for me then. Or maybe I'd buy the first set out of curiosity and break the second disc on accident like how I did with the actual set 2, and not have a single problem with it.

[linkdude20002001]

I don't see why people would actually not watch Kai because of a complete re-cast. That happened to Season Three, and people (including myself) still watched it despite preferring the original cast. :/