Does the lack of diversity in sub and dub bother you?

[JulieYBM]

Holy shit, that is some fucking bullshit. $20? How the fuck are you supposed to pay rent for $20?

Eat shit, Fukunaga.

Pretty sure Sabat said he had some other jobs around that time in call centres and some commercial work too. I know when Sabat has said when he started working for Funimation he was paid a salary of $20,000. Though that still wasn't great. It wouldn't cover you for living in Ireland, I can only imagine how tough that wage would be in Texas. Luckily we can safely assume he's doing much better now, but those first few years must have been hard.

Yeah, but it's still ridiculous. If you can't pay your co-worker a living wage for work you deem needs to be fulfilled you shouldn't be in business.

We're still seeing this in modern times, too. $75 an hour when you can maybe work four hours a day--assuming that you can at all--is such bullshit, especially because of the lack of benefits, a social safety net or guaranteed work.

[fleahop]

Oh man, what the hfil did I just step into. Anyway...

Am I bothered by the lack of diversity? No I've never thought about it.

Would I like to see more as actors step down? Yeah for sure.

And while we're here, every King Kai I've ever heard sucks. Just so we're not ragging on Sean Schemmel alone.

[Super Sonic]

Some of you guys are young I take it and never watched older cartoons where often had a small group of actors, including one woman doing all the female voices, and possibly young boys.

[MyVisionity]

This is obviously minutia but I always figured Funi deliberately gave Garlic and Pilaf the same voice.

For the Vancouver cast you had Don Brown voicing Pilaf for the BLT dub and Garlic jr for the Pioneer dub of Dead Zone so there’s certainly a precedent.

Also Shigeru Chiba who voices Pilaf replaces Akira Kamiya as Garlic in the tv filler arc.

I do think that some of the Pilaf/Garlic casting is deliberate, because of their similar appearance. A lot of fans think that Garlic Junior and Pilaf are the same character.

[Aim]

Sean Schemmel voicing Goku, King Kai, and Nail

Chris Sabat as Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Kami, Shenron, King Piccolo, Popo, and more

Chuck Huber as Android 17, Pilaf, and Garlic Jr

Meredith McCoy as Android 18 and Launch

Same dude voicing Imperfect Cell, Pui Pui, and



In the sub -

Masako Nozawa plays literally every male in the Son family. Goku, Gohan, Goten, Bardock.

Ryūsei Nakao as Frieza, Cooler, and Frost.

It's extremely jarring in scenes where Gohan and Goku or Gohan and Goten talk to each other. Or when Frost and Frieza talk to each other.



Doesn't hearing the same voice actors bother you? When these actors step down, do you want more diversity with the characters/voices?

It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that they can actually give the characters the proper voices.

[TheMajinRedComet]

I don't mind it in the old dubs but I really appreciated the fact that they expanded the cast so much for Super.

[90sDBZ]

I just remembered a scene from the Season 2 redub where Vegeta fights Monster Zarbon. Chris Sabat voiced both characters at the time, and his Monster Zarbon sounded very similar to his Vegeta.

I think he even altered his Vegeta voice slightly just for that fight, to make the similarities less obvious. At least that's how it came across to me.

[nhienphan2808]

Yes to an extent. I dont like Chris Sabat voicing 3 WILDLY different characters for example. At least the Son family are alike in the case of Nozawa, and she didnt let her personal ticks bleed into the roles. Voice actors influence a part of perception about characters, and American fandom is pretty messed up for all of them. Let alone Yamcha bashing and mischaracterizations of Vegeta, i am sure Piccolo would have gotten more presence in fandom if someone else voiced him.

[jjgp1112]

I just remembered a scene from the Season 2 redub where Vegeta fights Monster Zarbon. Chris Sabat voiced both characters at the time, and his Monster Zarbon sounded very similar to his Vegeta.

I think he even altered his Vegeta voice slightly just for that fight, to make the similarities less obvious. At least that's how it came across to me.

Nah, I noticed the same thing. It was always weird to me how Vegetas voice went back to its early Buu saga pitch during that episode...and that would definitely explain why

Similarly in the Kai dub, during scenes with both Piccolo and Vegeta, his Vegeta voice would become a bit gruffer.

[JulieYBM]

Every time I think about Sabat I ask myself why he literally doesn't just use his natural voice for all of his characters. Talk about wasting his greatest gift.

[MyVisionity]

Yeah, I think I enjoyed Sabat the most when he would do the narration. It suited his voice better.

[TheGreatness25]

Eh, not bothered by it as much as long as there's distinction in the voices. For example, Masako Nozawa changes her voice ever so slightly for each of the characters. I have no problem with the same voice actor playing multiple family members.

Schemmel's King Kai is awful and whoever gave him the green light for that, which can't be undone at this point, is a terrible, terrible person.

My only real gripe is when you can tell that it's the same voice actor because the voices are so similar. Originally, I was alright with Schemmel's portrayal of Nail, but I believe it was Kai where I thought he sounded too much like Goku.

And the only real thing that bugs me is that now, Sabat's Vegeta and Piccolo sound way too similar. I wish that Sabat kept the original rasp to Piccolo's voice. I'm glad he stopped Dummond Lite for Vegeta, though.

With regard to the Japanese version, I think it's perfectly fine.

[AlexSketchy04]

Tbh, I'm not bothered by it as long as it fits

However, I find it odd that Americans have this weird thing where they have a select group of actors (10 or 15) and that group plays every we single character of an animated show, in Latin America most of the time we have an individual actor play 1 character (Or background voices)

Like, the Ocean dub is one example, where most of the extras or characters are done by Scott McNeil, Cathy Weseluck, or Terry Klassen

[jjgp1112]

Tbh, I'm not bothered by it as long as it fits

However, I find it odd that Americans have this weird thing where they have a select group of actors (10 or 15) and that group plays every we single character of an animated show, in Latin America most of the time we have an individual actor play 1 character (Or background voices)

Like, the Ocean dub is one example, where most of the extras or characters are done by Scott McNeil, Cathy Weseluck, or Terry Klassen

It's a matter of budget and time basically. A lot of American dubs are made on the cheap.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Tbh, I'm not bothered by it as long as it fits

However, I find it odd that Americans have this weird thing where they have a select group of actors (10 or 15) and that group plays every we single character of an animated show, in Latin America most of the time we have an individual actor play 1 character (Or background voices)

Like, the Ocean dub is one example, where most of the extras or characters are done by Scott McNeil, Cathy Weseluck, or Terry Klassen

It's a matter of budget and time basically. A lot of American dubs are made on the cheap.

It's also a skill thing. The ability to match the lip sync is not "a nice bonus skill" when it comes to dubbing, it's a necessity, and it's one that a lot of actors--even ones who are exceptionally talented otherwise--don't have. Crispin Freeman said he was booked for a two-hour session for Howl's Moving Castle because that dub mostly used film celebrities who weren't used to dubbing work, so they booked in large time increments to compensate for the fact that it took them longer to complete the work. Freeman then proceeded to dub all his lines in fifteen minutes.

Combine that with the fact that dubbing rates generally aren't that good, and what dub producers are essentially asking for is for actors who have this not-so-common skill to put it to use...for a rather low rate. In other words, plenty of actors either don't have the skill, or do but don't want to work for that little. Hence the reason you see a lot of familiar names in dub casts. Some foreign producers will also ask that the dub actors in question have a huge social media following, which narrows down the list even more.

Fun fact, though, just so it doesn't sound like I'm ragging on-camera celebrity actors: apparently, while lip-syncing isn't a skill that many of them have, a few of them are actually quite good. I once had an ADR engineer tell me that Sean Connery was apparently masterful at lip-syncing, and whenever he had to come in to do ADR for his movies, his sessions were ridiculously quick.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's also a skill thing. The ability to match the lip sync is not "a nice bonus skill" when it comes to dubbing, it's a necessity, and it's one that a lot of actors--even ones who are exceptionally talented otherwise--don't have. Crispin Freeman said he was booked for a two-hour session for Howl's Moving Castle because that dub mostly used film celebrities who weren't used to dubbing work, so they booked in large time increments to compensate for the fact that it took them longer to complete the work. Freeman then proceeded to dub all his lines in fifteen minutes.

Dale Wilson said in an interview he did for the old UKDB site in December 2002 that dubbing was not stressful, but rather "frustrating and downright annoying" because often he found he had to sacrifice performance to match the "damn lip flaps". I found that really enlightening because while I enjoyed his Cell in the Westwood dub it takes a certain amount of modesty for a fine actor, such as himself to acknowledge dubbing is a skill in itself that is not easy for even the best performers to master.

[90sDBZ]

The Simpsons is (or was) one of the most iconic shows of all time, but even it has a relatively small cast with several characters sounding similar. Moe and Chief Wiggum sound almost exactly the same, and Willie sounds like a Scottish Homer. It doesn't bother me, and doesn't seem to bother anyone else who watched the show. Perhaps cartoons that are primarily comedies don't get judged in the same way.

I remember Family Guy making a joke about Peter's Father and the Doctor sounding the same, with them acknowledging they hadn't shared a scene before and that there were only so many voices in the world.

Every now and then in real life I'll meet someone who sounds almost exactly like someone else I know or used to know. Sometimes they'll even remind me of that person in other ways, to the point were I feel I already know them.

[MyVisionity]

Moe and Chief Wiggum sound almost exactly the same, and Willie sounds like a Scottish Homer.

I remember Family Guy making a joke about Peter's Father and the Doctor sounding the same, with them acknowledging they hadn't shared a scene before and that there were only so many voices in the world.

I personally don't think that Moe/Wiggum and Willie/Homer sound all that similar. I mean you can tell it's the same actors, but that's to be expected.

Lois's dad and the doctor, on the other hand, are basically the same exact voice if I'm remembering correctly, so it makes sense that they might make that joke.

As for DB, for me it's only really a problem when the characters sound the same due to a poor or lazy performance. Like I don't mind Daisuke Gōri or Nozawa because all of their characters sound unique in some way. It never feels like it's the same voice.

[AlexSketchy04]

Tbh, I'm not bothered by it as long as it fits

However, I find it odd that Americans have this weird thing where they have a select group of actors (10 or 15) and that group plays every we single character of an animated show, in Latin America most of the time we have an individual actor play 1 character (Or background voices)

Like, the Ocean dub is one example, where most of the extras or characters are done by Scott McNeil, Cathy Weseluck, or Terry Klassen

It's a matter of budget and time basically. A lot of American dubs are made on the cheap.

It's also a skill thing. The ability to match the lip sync is not "a nice bonus skill" when it comes to dubbing, it's a necessity, and it's one that a lot of actors--even ones who are exceptionally talented otherwise--don't have. Crispin Freeman said he was booked for a two-hour session for Howl's Moving Castle because that dub mostly used film celebrities who weren't used to dubbing work, so they booked in large time increments to compensate for the fact that it took them longer to complete the work. Freeman then proceeded to dub all his lines in fifteen minutes.

Combine that with the fact that dubbing rates generally aren't that good, and what dub producers are essentially asking for is for actors who have this not-so-common skill to put it to use...for a rather low rate. In other words, plenty of actors either don't have the skill, or do but don't want to work for that little. Hence the reason you see a lot of familiar names in dub casts. Some foreign producers will also ask that the dub actors in question have a huge social media following, which narrows down the list even more.

Fun fact, though, just so it doesn't sound like I'm ragging on-camera celebrity actors: apparently, while lip-syncing isn't a skill that many of them have, a few of them are actually quite good. I once had an ADR engineer tell me that Sean Connery was apparently masterful at lip-syncing, and whenever he had to come in to do ADR for his movies, his sessions were ridiculously quick.

Tbh, I wasn't referring only to dubbing, but also American Animation too

It's not a thing that really bothers me, but it's something I've always found odd comparing it to Latin America

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The Simpsons is (or was) one of the most iconic shows of all time, but even it has a relatively small cast with several characters sounding similar. Moe and Chief Wiggum sound almost exactly the same, and Willie sounds like a Scottish Homer. It doesn't bother me, and doesn't seem to bother anyone else who watched the show. Perhaps cartoons that are primarily comedies don't get judged in the same way.

I actually never realised Moe and Chief Wiggum sounded so similar, though it may be because they are such different characters as the former is a sleezy barman and the former is a lazy, but loving family man. I would say Groundskeeper Willie sounds more like Krusty than Homer, because Homer's voice is quite unique, even Barney who is very similar in terms of being a heavy drinker (albeit to a much greater extent) doesn't sound a lot like him even though you can tell they were both voiced by Dan Castellaneta, which is a testament to his skill.

Dragon Ball is similar in that you can tell several characters are voiced by the same actor (Son family all voiced by Nozawa and Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha and eternal Dragons being played by Sabat in Japanese and Funi dub respectively) but the performances are distinct enough as each one captures a certain personality.