FUNimation Announces "Kai" License ("DBZ Kai")

[Chuquita]

The magical pixies that tell me things say that Sabat is directing and Sean has been flying back often to record Goku.

I just realized, if Mr. Schemmel IS going to be doing Goku in Kai, that means he can't duck out of redubbing the later half of "Season 3" like he did on the UUE's and there won't be the weird jump from his experienced!Goku voice to newbie!Goku voice. Huh. Curious to hear how those episodes will turn out.


I remember being disappointed back during the UUE's that Goku wasn't redubbed during those episodes, so actually getting it now through Kai should be something for me to look forward to.

[Mountain]

Y'know, I'm gonna have to agree to disagree with you, too, because it's difficult for me to find a voice that is over the top. There's uh, current-day Vegeta and, um, random pedestrians and maybe a couple of Sabat voiced minor villains, but that's really it. And this is coming from someone who's watched every episode with the dub. Twice. And that's only counting the times I took all 9 of the Season sets and Marathon'd them. I've watched the dub so substantially that I'm pretty sure of what I'm saying.

Just because I'm a bigger fan of the Japanese version doesn't mean that I haven't seen the dub many times through, and I have. There are many aspects of the dub that I like, don't get me wrong. I was trying to turn this into something positive. I even stated that I was going to mention only voices that I enjoyed. I didn't stop and think that by listing what I did like, I was also making it very clear what I didn't like. I'm sorry, I just have standards. If I left someone out, it didn't necessarily mean that their voice annoyed me, but that I found them to be miscast. But yes, most of them do annoy me. I'd like a dub that I didn't feel embarrassed to show to a newcomer. A lot of people don't want to read subtitles, which is why I'd like a decent English version. Is that so much to ask?

Edit: I love reading subtitles myself, but I was referring to many possible newcomers.

[penguintruth]

from his experienced!Goku voice to newbie!Goku voice.

They're the same.

[jjgp1112]

from his experienced!Goku voice to newbie!Goku voice.

They're the same.

I know I'm probably opening a can of worms, but you can't be serious when you say that. The fact that most people here actually do see the difference should say something. I know it's kinda silly to turn to the majority opinion, but sometimes, something's gotta give (I couldn't find a good phrase to use here, urgh).

[TheMajinRedComet]

They are not the same. Sean is an Ace these days when playing Goku.

[Chuquita]

I think he definitely improved over the course of those 6 years. Mr. Schemmel's UUE Goku has more experience and is more flexible than his old 1999 Season 3 Goku. 1999 dub Goku was really stilted sounding to me, it's why I prefer his UUE Goku and why I was disappointed he ditched Funi on redubbing his lines (especially during a chunk of episodes where his character is front and center).


Kuririn and Vegeta both got to redub their lines in the UUE, so it was just surreal watching their more experienced versions interacting with Season 3 era dub!Goku.


Even though I don't watch the dub much anymore, at least if I want to I'll have the option to hear those episodes with his 2010 Goku and not his 1999 one.

[Metalwario64]

Kuririn and Vegeta both got to redub their lines in the UUE, so it was just surreal watching their more experienced versions interacting with Season 3 era dub!Goku.

Yeah... It made Goku look incredibly stupid... More so than he did in the original Season Three...

[penguintruth]

from his experienced!Goku voice to newbie!Goku voice.

They're the same.

I know I'm probably opening a can of worms, but you can't be serious when you say that. The fact that most people here actually do see the difference should say something. I know it's kinda silly to turn to the majority opinion, but sometimes, something's gotta give (I couldn't find a good phrase to use here, urgh).

I know it seems like I'm doing this on purpose, but I honestly can't hear much a difference. I've even checked out clips from the latest DBZ video games and it still sounds too rough to me, and nearly the same as when I last listened to it in the series. It's not exactly the same, but any difference is negligible.

[fps_anth]

If those are the only changes to the dub cast, then I can officially say that I've lost all interest in the Kai dub. I seriously can't believe that they aren't changing any of Sabat's roles. It's nothing against him, but, unlike 10 years ago, there's plenty of talented voice actors at FUNimation that could cover some of his roles.

Well, actually, no Freeza VA change is the auto-fail here

[UristtheGreat]

I know it seems like I'm doing this on purpose, but I honestly can't hear much a difference. I've even checked out clips from the latest DBZ video games and it still sounds too rough to me, and nearly the same as when I last listened to it in the series.

He's tolerable in the video games honestly but he still sounds like he's just reading. Then when he tries to get excited about it he sounds stupid.

[DemonRin]

If those are the only changes to the dub cast, then I can officially say that I've lost all interest in the Kai dub. I seriously can't believe that they aren't changing any of Sabat's roles. It's nothing against him, but, unlike 10 years ago, there's plenty of talented voice actors at FUNimation that could cover some of his roles.

Well, actually, no Freeza VA change is the auto-fail here

Well, is this all true?...
DAMNIT! WHY MUST YOU PERPETUALLY SCREW UP DRAGON BALL FUNIMATION!?!?!? WHY?!?!?!?!?!?

[linkdude20002001]

This is the keyword, for me, when it comes to many of the dub voices.

I've spent so much time talking about the voices that I don't like, so I'll talk about the ones that I do. In my opinion, it's not that hard to make a watchable dub. Of course, I'll always be a bigger fan of the original Japanese version, but that's not preventing me from enjoying a tolerable English version. The voices don't have to be AMAZING but they do have to be tolerable. It's really that simple: don't annoy me with raspy, redneck, retarded, wrestler, overly-shrill, or gruff voices, FUNimation! I like Artificial Human 17's and 18's voices. They both sound normal, memorable, and thoroughly enjoyable. I also like Dr. Gero's voice. Again, he sounds like a normal man his age and doesn't disturb me. Man, this is getting hard already... Well, here are the rest that I can think of from the top of my head: Kaioshin, Mister Satan...okay, I'm going to stop there. I'm sure there are a couple more that I enjoy, but they're just not coming to mind at the moment. I honestly tried.

Y'know, I'm gonna have to agree to disagree with you, too, because it's difficult for me to find a voice that is over the top. There's uh, current-day Vegeta and, um, random pedestrians and maybe a couple of Sabat voiced minor villains, but that's really it. And this is coming from someone who's watched every episode with the dub. Twice. And that's only counting the times I took all 9 of the Season sets and Marathon'd them. I've watched the dub so substantially that I'm pretty sure of what I'm saying.

He didn't actually say "over the top"; he said "raspy, redneck, retarded, wrestler, overly-shrill, or gruff voices". You've got plenty of those in FUNimation's dub of DBZ. Gohan is raspy, city people are redneck, Kaio is retarded, et cetera. I'm not quite sure which catagory Freeza fits into, though.

So anyways, FUNimation's dub is full of terrible voices or unfitting ones. Most of FUNimation's other dubs don't have this problem. It's just that FUNimation dubbed DBZ at the level 4Kids dubs shows.
(As a side note, I was watching their uncut dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters today and I cringed everytime Insector Haga/Weevil spoke )

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I'm happy that Sabat and Schemmel are keeping their roles in Dragon Ball Kai. I just couldn't imagine Goku and Vegeta being played by anyone else.


I still can't believe they replaced Kyle as the narrator, I'm sure everyone will agree that he was the best Dragon Ball/Z/GT narrator by far. Tiffany Volmer was okay as Bulma but her voice got a bit annoying after a while, so I'm in support of her voice change.


As for Gohan, Puar and Chiaotzu, I really couldn't care less.

[UristtheGreat]

I'm not quite sure which catagory Freeza fits into, though.

Creepy chainsmoking transvestite.

[ThunderPX]

Let's all remind ourselves that these aren't necessarily the only changes. I find it hard to believe that not a single one of Chris Sabat's roles has been recast.

[Li'l Lemmy]

From Sabat:

Yes, there were some casting changes. And there were good reasons for all of them. I really can't go into it, but trust me the reasons are totally valid. But you have nothing to worry about. The new Narrator is awesome. Monica sounds JUST like Tiffany's Bulma, only better! Colleen is a very age-appropriate Gohan and brings a new quality of acting that you haven't experienced before. The scripts are totally true to the REAL story of DBZ. The new music and SFX are great. The editing of Kai is SO MUCH TIGHTER and more exciting than the original Z. You are going to LOVE this new version. A lot of hard work has gone into this new version and I'm sure that once you see how much better EVERYTHING is about this version you'll completely forget about all these little things that worry you now. Just wait...

He does note as well that he's the voice director on this production.


~Da Lemmy

[LeprikanGT]

I kind of feel like throwing around a 'Booya' to everyone that was like 'theres no way Sabat is going to be doing all of his voices still and we need a new Frieza'.

[TheMajinRedComet]

I trust Sabat, when he says that it will be good.

[JulieYBM]

From Sabat:

Yes, there were some casting changes. And there were good reasons for all of them. I really can't go into it, but trust me the reasons are totally valid. But you have nothing to worry about. The new Narrator is awesome. Monica sounds JUST like Tiffany's Bulma, only better! Colleen is a very age-appropriate Gohan and brings a new quality of acting that you haven't experienced before. The scripts are totally true to the REAL story of DBZ. The new music and SFX are great. The editing of Kai is SO MUCH TIGHTER and more exciting than the original Z. You are going to LOVE this new version. A lot of hard work has gone into this new version and I'm sure that once you see how much better EVERYTHING is about this version you'll completely forget about all these little things that worry you now. Just wait...

He does note as well that he's the voice director on this production.


~Da Lemmy

Sabat's a pretty cool guy. Sometimes I have to wonder how I can keep myself from allowing that to cloud my opinion of his Dragon Ball work. O.o

[Undercooked Sausage]

I don't think that may be the only voice changes, keep in mind we didn't know that here would be cast changes in Kai of the Ginyu Force until well after it started, this might just be the voice changes for the first 13 episodes.

Maybe they haven't gotten around to dubbing the Freeza arc yet. We can still hold out hope for a new Freeza.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just remembered that Freeza is in the first episode....fuck.