If Dragon Ball was first dubbed after 2007, who plays Goku?

[huzaifa_ahmed]

No mentioning of actors who have previously played Goku, besides Masako Nozawa, and only because Toriyama selected her.

I have found plenty of replacements for many of the other characters, but Goku... Man, that is very specific.

[B]

Masako Nozawa after a rigorous ESL program. I'll help pay for it.

[Attitudefan]

Anyone other than Schemmel. He's a symbol of season 3 Funimation and represents everything that is wrong with the dub. He isn't accurate to Goku at all.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Anyone other than Schemmel. He's a symbol of season 3 Funimation and represents everything that is wrong with the dub. He isn't accurate to Goku at all.

I must respectfully--but completely--disagree. Even during Season 3, I wouldn't consider him the "symbol" of it.

[Attitudefan]

Anyone other than Schemmel. He's a symbol of season 3 Funimation and represents everything that is wrong with the dub. He isn't accurate to Goku at all.

I must respectfully--but completely--disagree. Even during Season 3, I wouldn't consider him the "symbol" of it.

Sabat more so than Schemmel. He just isn't Goku in my eyes. We've heard better English Gokus, and it disappoints me that we are stuck with him out of all of them!

[MajinMan]

I think Sean Schemmel from Kai going forward is the best English Goku. He may not have the iconic childish voice that Nozawa gave Goku, but he can nail the character pretty well these days. As for kid Goku, I have no clue.

[Kakacarrottop]

Trey Parker (using his Stan or Cartman voice) and Tress Macneille (using any of her typical voices) could pull off a sound similar to Nozawa after some adjustments i think. Although for what it's worth, i don't see Sean Schemmel or Chris Sabat ever giving up Goku & Vegeta, their egos simply won't allow it.

[NitroEX]

I've always thought Samantha Reynolds could have made a decent Kid Goku. She voiced Ikki Tenryou in Medabots and if she used that voice for him I think it would be a perfect fit for young Goku. She's also one of those actresses who does a believable boy voice which is always a plus, she'd certainly sound more believable than Funimation's past and current choices.

As for adult Goku well, you could go in many different directions with that one but if it were up to me I'd offer Kelamis a second chance. I think with the right direction we'd get more awesome performances out of him, especially now since he's a more experienced actor. His screams were perfect for an English Goku as they sounded Nozawa-esque which is something you'd have difficulty finding again.

If I absolutely had to go with a new actor? I think Robert Buchholz might be able to do a good job if he used his Gene Starwind voice.

[Alex9196]

What is wrong about Sean Schemmel? He is my favorite voice of Goku by far.

[Diotor]

I've always thought Sean Schemmel was a pretty solid Goku.

[Lord Beerus]

I've never really seen the need to replace Schemmel. Especially after his performances in Kai and beyond.

[Thanos]

The thing about Schemmel is, I really don't think he was the right guy to cast at the time. He was obviously an inexperienced rookie voice actor. But he's had so much damn practice over the years that he's gotten to the point where he's actually pretty good. I feel like his interpretation of the character in recent portrayals is a satisfactory one for an English adaptation of Goku. Obviously, it isn't perfect, but he clearly understands the character and has molded his voice in such a way that it's about as close to the character as his voice is capable of going. These days he speaks with a lot more of a high-pitched, childlike tone as compared to his early portrayal. Something tells me he must have trained his voice for higher range, because he used to sound too deep and throaty, whereas now he genuinely sounds fairly high-pitched and clear... though maybe there's some digital alteration going on? I dunno.

[DBZAOTA482]

Sarah Strange

[fadeddreams5]

Trey Parker (using his Stan or Cartman voice) and Tress Macneille (using any of her typical voices) could pull off a sound similar to Nozawa after some adjustments i think.

Masako Nozawa after a rigorous ESL program. I'll help pay for it.

As for adult Goku well you could go in many different directions with that one but if it were up to me I'd offer Kelamis a second chance. . .His screams were perfect for an English Goku as they sounded Nozawa-esque which is something you'd have difficulty finding again.

Perhaps Todd Haberkorn, similarly to Steven Jay Blum's Guilmon, and more natural as Son Goku grows up, would be a good fit, with the high-pitch voice?

I don't get it. Why does an English actor have to sound ANYTHING like Nozawa, a Japanese woman, to fit the role well? As far as I can tell, the Japanese version is the only version of this show ever that has him sounding high-pitched like that.

That said, I really liked Kelamis (I...think?) and Corlett. I still prefer Schemmel, as he's pretty much become iconic to that role here in the US, but if anyone had to replace him, I'd just give one of those two a chance again.

[ABED]

He just isn't Goku in my eyes. We've heard better English Gokus, and it disappoints me that we are stuck with him out of all of them!

Maybe Ian Corlette, but even that is a stretch given how far Schemmel has come. Please don't say Kelamis, he's terrible as Goku. Yes, he's got a good scream, but that's all he has going for him. Even at Schemmel's greenest, he was a breath of fresh air after Kelamis's run as Goku. Schemmel is passionate and understands the character.

[Sora Saiyan]

I'm another that believes Schemmel is the best English Goku, well, from Kai onwards anyway. I don't think he needs to have the same voice as Nozawa to be brilliant, in fact I already think he is, especially post BoG.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I too don't really understand why people feel the need for a Nozawa sound-alike. I don't want the actor to play Nozawa, I want them to play Goku.

I'm not saying a woman can't play Goku, I'm just saying that a woman doesn't necessarily need to play Goku. Besides, when looking at the international dubs, Schemmel is actually one of the higher-pitched Gokus out there. Not the highest-pitched, no, but higher than a lot of the others. And that's just talking about the voice...when talking about the acting--which is really the more important aspect--I think he has nailed the character from Kai and onward...even before that if one counts the video games and some of the later movie dubs. He's not playing the "reversioned" Superman-Goku hybrid anymore, he's playing the unintelligent, goofy, friends-food-and-fighting-obsessed man-child that Goku is.

[B]

I don't get it. Why does an English actor have to sound ANYTHING like Nozawa, a Japanese woman, to fit the role well?

Every English actor that I'm aware of has proven they aren't up to the task.

Also, nobody wants a sound-a-like. It has nothing to do with the literal sound of the voice, and never has. There's nothing wrong with Schemmel's voice. It's all acting. It's a cartoon. I don't get why it's so unreasonable for anything to sound like anything.

[Attitudefan]

What is wrong about Sean Schemmel? He is my favorite voice of Goku by far.

You only like him because, either your first encounter with DBZ is with Schemmel, and second, he's the only English Goku that you can obtain and watch for the whole series as Goku. Basically, you're use to him as Goku. But he isn't Goku! He's a guy in a Goku mask playing the character. He will never be the definitive Goku, no matter how long he plays the character.

People think it's okay that he sounds nothing like the original because the English dub didn't originally give us that. Therefore, we become complacent or normalized to that fact. His Kai Goku is still so far from how Goku is in the original and in the Manga (which is basically a transcript of the anime). He plays Goku his way, not the way it should be.

[NitroEX]

He just isn't Goku in my eyes. We've heard better English Gokus, and it disappoints me that we are stuck with him out of all of them!

Maybe Ian Corlette, but even that is a stretch given how far Schemmel has come. Please don't say Kelamis, he's terrible as Goku. Yes, he's got a good scream, but that's all he has going for him.

I'd say he has more than just his screams. He was the first of the actors to succeed in making Goku sound dull-witted and more like a man child which is something I don't think Schemmel pulls off that well, even in Kai. After Corlette left, Kelamis brought more naivety and innocence to the role whilst also being able to switch to a cool and commanding tone when necessary, unlike Schemmel and Corlett who popularized the Superman-esque Goku, Kelamis just sounded more like a quirky guy which in hindsight was more faithful to how the character was meant to be portrayed.

A minor thing that bothered me with the other actors was that none of them chose to fully embraced the martial artist aspect of the character. Kelamis was the only one to use martial arts kiais and fight noises while the others just went for normal boring grunts. This is a minor detail that I felt really helped make his performance stand out among the others, even as a kid I recognized how much more energetic his Goku sounded when throwing punches and kicks.

Even at Schemmel's greenest, he was a breath of fresh air after Kelamis's run as Goku. Schemmel is passionate and understands the character.

I disagree with that, Kelamis had his bad moments but he was never this bad. Plus when you compare Schemmel's 1999 performance to the Pioneer dubs a year prior, it was clear who the better Goku was at the time. Admittedly Schemmel has come a long way since then but to say he was better than Kelamis when he started? That's a stretch.