Unpopular Opinion: Nozawa should have never been Adult Goku?

[Mewzard]

Interestingly enough, Bennett the Sage talked about Goku's Japanese voice at the start of a video last week after talking about female characters' tendencies in anime to be a bit on the...high pitched side in Japanese-voiced anime (one particular example being why he prefers dubs). It was mostly focused on female characters, but Goku came up:

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/the ... the-legacy

Sage does not think keeping Nozawa as Goku as an adult was a good idea. To quote the man:

"Have you listened to the original dubs of Goku doing the Kamehameha? He sounds like a goddamn witch. *insert clip* I understand that they kept the original actress that played Kid Goku, Masako Nozawa, mainly for nostalgic reasons when they first aired Dragon Ball Z, but I simply can't get behind that decision. If you love her Adult Goku, more power to you! But if you're going to try and convince me she DOESN'T sound like a dying cat, then you're just wasting your breath."

I disagree here of course (though can't deny it's rough on the ears at times), but I agreed on Japan's tendencies as of late to make female characters shatter glass with their voices to be too much for my taste. They don't need to sound like Dr. Girlfriend from the Venture Bros., but there has to be a reasonable middle ground. >_>

[Ashelia]

I've never had an issue with her voicing Goku as he isn't a gruff guy, he's a lovable not too bright manchild thus her performance works for him imo. When I first heard her Goku in Z during the late 90s it didn't bother me like most US fans claim it does, it just made sense instantly but I was used to high Japanese voices prior to Z. I liked her more over Sean Schemmel because she portrayed Goku's innocent nature while Schemmel focused too much on being a hero though thankfully that is changing. Nozawa is Goku to me and that will not change.

Bardock is actually my issue as he is fundamentally different than Goku and should have a different voice imo just like Raditz does. I'd be fine with everyone else in the Son family being recast too but Bardock bothers me the most as I don't see the point beyond familiarity. Was there a particular reason for her being cast as Bardock?

[thomas1up]

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/the ... the-legacy

There are still people who use that pronunciation of Kamehameha? I haven't heard that outside of the dub itself.

[Valerius Dover]

I still use the Funi pronuniciation.
Maybe it might change if I'm referring to Kai, but in general I still consistently use all the Funi terms. I'm probably the only person on the site that does this, though.

[Cold Skin]

The question is: should Adult Goku be voiced Nozawa-style in the future?

Concretely, there will be a time when Nozawa has to be replaced, and when it happens, do you want adult Goku to still be voiced by a woman trying to mimic Nozawa's style, or would you rather have a male voice actor giving his own new spin to the character rather than trying to mimic someone that would be hard to mimic properly?

Should the character keep a Nozawa-style voice even if it can't be as good as with Nozawa, or should they try something vastly different rather than trying to imitate what can't be imitated?

I find both of these solutions to be interesting, but what do you think? Can you imagine Goku with a regular male voice in Japanese, or does he now have to be voiced by a Nozawa-style female voice forever as part of his "audio identity"?

[Ajay]

Part of the identity for me.

I don't think anyone can mimic Nozawa. Her voice just too unique for someone to ever impersonate. I still have Romi Park in my mind for the role. I just worry that it'd be far too much like Edward Elric. Either way, a voice like hers is likely to be chosen.

[Thanos]

As I've said before, and I understand many hold polar opposite opinions on this, but I don't think 'woman' when I hear adult Goku's voice anymore. I hear energetic, youthful, and yes, somewhat high, but never does "woman" come into my head and take me away from the character. To be honest, though, that does come into play with Bardock... honestly, that was really the only one that didn't make sense to me.

[thomas1up]

I still use the Funi pronuniciation.
Maybe it might change if I'm referring to Kai, but in general I still consistently use all the Funi terms. I'm probably the only person on the site that does this, though.

It's just really foreign sounding to me, considering I didn't have any exposure to the dub until after I had watched the series.

It was the same thing with FUNi pronunciation for Dabura, or Great Saiyaman, sounds off to me.

On-topic I'm so used to hearing Goku with Nozawa's voice it'd be weird without it, I really dislike the re-cast for Master Roshi, so I can imagine a re-cast for Goku would be even more jarring.

Also your opinion isn't really an un-popular, at least in the English speaking fandom, you'll find tons of people on YouTube who complain that Goku's voice is too "gay" or doesn't sound macho enough for them.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Bardock is actually my issue as he is fundamentally different than Goku and should have a different voice imo just like Raditz does. I'd be fine with everyone else in the Son family being recast too but Bardock bothers me the most as I don't see the point beyond familiarity. Was there a particular reason for her being cast as Bardock?

Nozawa did a fine job as Bardock, but I wonder if the role would have been better served by Shigeru Chiba (the voice actor for Raditz). He was much more like Radtiz in personality, and that way, they'd still be able to say that they used another voice from the Son family.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Nozawa did a fine job as Bardock, but I wonder if the role would have been better served by Shigeru Chiba (the voice actor for Raditz). He was much more like Radtiz in personality, and that way, they'd still be able to say that they used another voice from the Son family.

I've actually been starting to wonder about that too. Is it possibly Shigeru Chiba was too busy to come in for Bardock at the time, even to audition? I don't recall him having any other DBZ roles past Raditz, until they got to Garlic Jr.'s return.

[VegettoEX]

We've been back and forth over this several times, and some of you have already even responded to Gaffer Tape's theory in this very thread:

Nozawa is the one constant in the entire franchise. She is the voice of the show. She's in everything. She's the only one who's in everything. Even when Goku is not there, it's Gohan, and it's her. The one time it's neither Goku nor Gohan (Bardock), it's her.

(And later Goku Jr., I suppose.)

That's gotta be the main reasoning behind it. Nozawa is animated Dragon Ball. Can't do it without her. It probably wasn't even a thought to go to anyone else for the role of Bardock (in addition to all the other points I've laid out before somewhere).

And to address an earlier point, yeah, you're not a unique snowflake if you don't like Nozawa!

[Mewzard]

Nozawa is animated Dragon Ball. Can't do it without her.

Going to make Dragon Ball hard to do in 40-50 years then, isn't it? Yes, I'm assuming she'll make it to mid 110s at least and not retire before then.

I would say Mel Blanc is at least tenfold more Looney Tunes than Nozawa is Dragon Ball (since I can name over ten major characters he voiced for decades for the series), yet it went on without him after his death.

If Mel Blanc is replaceable, then every voice actor on Earth bar none is replaceable (whether they're replaced with better is up for debate).

I would say Akira Kamiya IS Kenshiro and Tohru Furuya IS Pegasus Seiya, but both were replaced (Kamiya by retirement, and Furuya by leaving the role due to his old friends getting recast). Whether by being replaced due to age of actor, age of character, fired for personal reasons, retirement, or death, nobody is untouchable.

Nozawa could have been replaced when Goku grew up, and it would have been easier to accept then. Because for a lot of roles, that is the norm (people's voices do tend to change, and many boys get fairly significant voice changes post-puberty). Whether the adult voice would have been good, we can argue until the cows come home, but it does occur. Fans were fine with keeping the voice due to familiarity, but in a world where it had changed then and there at the end of Dragon Ball, how many people would have complained about the voice change (for the change itself, not for any notions of a drop in quality acting/an off voice), verses how many would have just accepted it?

We can never really know exact numbers, but we can speculate if nothing else.

[Valerius Dover]

I'm getting a sense of Deja Vu here...

[ImmaDeker]

That's gotta be the main reasoning behind it. Nozawa is animated Dragon Ball.

By the same token, I could make the argument asking why anyone would ever not cast Juliet Capulet as the original 12 year old boy that likely played her first.

[Valerius Dover]

^I think the point was primarily whoever was there the longest, not necessarily the one who was there the first. It's just that in this case, Nozawa happens to be both.

[ImmaDeker]

^I think the point was primarily whoever was there the longest, not necessarily the one who was there the first. It's just that in this case, Nozawa happens to be both.

Greater works than Dragonball have replaced seemingly iconic actors.

[Valerius Dover]

^True, but it isn't always a positive thing. Granted, the reasons may vary and are at times unavoidable. I think it's a good thing when voices stay consistent, but I don't really mind replacements too much either.

[Ashelia]

Bardock is actually my issue as he is fundamentally different than Goku and should have a different voice imo just like Raditz does. I'd be fine with everyone else in the Son family being recast too but Bardock bothers me the most as I don't see the point beyond familiarity. Was there a particular reason for her being cast as Bardock?

Nozawa did a fine job as Bardock, but I wonder if the role would have been better served by Shigeru Chiba (the voice actor for Raditz). He was much more like Radtiz in personality, and that way, they'd still be able to say that they used another voice from the Son family.

Its not bad, just doesn't seem necessary like how Nozawa being Tullece was. I just would've liked more variety in the family starting with Bardock (or only him). I've always heard Bin Shimada (Broly) in my head for Bardock though but I'm bias in that regard so Chiba would've been fine too.

[VegettoEX]

Greater works than Dragonball have replaced seemingly iconic actors.

Yes, but they've apparently not seen the point in doing so thus far for Goku in Dragon Ball, and I say good on them.

If and when the time comes, well yeah, obviously something will have to be done. I never said otherwise. It's preposterous to me that people responding specifically back at me about this don't think I understand that this will have to happen at some point in the future.

[RandomGuy96]

I guess I'm in the extreme minority. I don't really care that Nozawa is an old lady voicing a young man (or at least that's not the main issue), nor do I think she's a bad actor. Rather, I just really, really dislike the sound of her voice.