Goku & Krillin's voices

[Super Sonic]

Now even though there was the cast change and the fact that most of DBZ was dubbed before DB, I just thought I'd send this question out there. Are people glad that in the dub Goku's and Krillin's voice actors changed when they grew up, or would you prefer that like in the original Japanese, Ms. Nadolny and Ms. Steele keep portraying them?

[James R. Cadwell]

Now even though there was the cast change and the fact that most of DBZ was dubbed before DB, I just thought I'd send this question out there. Are people glad that in the dub Goku's and Krillin's voice actors changed when they grew up, or would you prefer that like in the original Japanese, Ms. Nadolny and Ms. Steele keep portraying them?

Nadolny's voice would be way too high compared to the other adult male DBZ characters. Having a female portray adult Goku only really works when (a) the VA is sufficiently talented, and (b) when the other characters don't have a voice two octaves lower. (like the Japanese version, where all the male characters sound like they got kicked in the balls a few times, IMO)

[VegettoEX]

(like the Japanese version, where all the male characters sound like they got kicked in the balls a few times, IMO)

Uhhhh...

Toshio Furukawa and Ryo Horikawa hardly sound feminine in any way...

[James R. Cadwell]

(like the Japanese version, where all the male characters sound like they got kicked in the balls a few times, IMO)

Uhhhh...

Toshio Furukawa and Ryo Horikawa hardly sound feminine in any way...

I can't really complain about Ryo Horikawa when he uses a proper speaking voice. Toshio, on the other hand, doesn't exactly sound masculine to me when he's screeching in the middle of combat. "Rwwwrreeewwrrawwaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The voice works fine, but there's just something about it that makes me think he's been sucking helium.

[Jerseymilk]

To Furukawa's credit, his voice is normally younger and higher sounding and he put a lot of effort into making sure his voice stayed low. If you don't think it was a big difference for him, just watch Urusei Yatsura and tell me if you can recognize who he's voicing in there. So what if he sounds higher when he fights? I like the way he sounds, I think it matches with the savagery of his character. Hey, look at Bruce Lee, he was very masculine and he screamed higher than a choirboy in his movies. And you're obviously forgetting about Suzuoki Hirotaka(Tenshinhan), who's voice sounds like a "Japanese Howard Keel". I also think that Furuya Toru(Yamucha) is quite masculine sounding.

[PsyLiam]

With regards to the voices, I think that if the entirity of DB had been dubbed before DBZ (or, more accuratly, before the characters grew up), then they might have gotten away with keeping on Henderson/Nadolny as Goku. After all, whenever the Simpsons has episodes set in the future, Smith and Cartwright still do the voices for Lisa and Bart. And in Bart's case, it's because we no longer see the voice as being a girly voice. Rather, we see it as being Bart's voice.

With Dragonball, that's exactly what happened. Masako Nozawa had been Goku's voice for roughly 100 episodes. People had grown to know that voice as Goku's. They had grown to love it. They weren't going to change it when he got older.

With DBZ in the US though, it was different. Nobody remembered the original DB dub, so there was no real reason to stick to those voices. They did, by and large, but that's presumably because those voices had been chosen because they fit the characters. With Goku, things were different. FUNi/Ocean obviously had to work from the idea that no-one had seen the DB dub. If this new hardcore action cartoon came on, and the main hero guy spoke with Henderson's voice, people up and down the land would have been asking "What the fuck?" It would have been weird. Jarring. Nobody in the US knew what Goku sounded like, so having him sound like a girl for no apparent reason would have been weird. Besides, Henderson was busy doing Gohan's voice anyway.

Now, during the run of DBZ, FUNi did several things when it came to flashbacks involving Chibi Goku. Sometimes they kept the original Henderson voice (if it was from the first 13 episodes). Sometimes they'd get Henderson or Nadonly to do new dialogue. Sometimes they'd do the original Chibi Goku/new Chibi Goku/Gohan voice, sometimes it would sound different. And sometimes they'd get the adult VA to do a young voice (Ocean did that with Peter Kelamis during the Red Ribbon flashback. It sounded weird as fuck).

Eventually, they decided to dub DB. They had a few choices. They could get Nadonly to do her Gohan voice for Goku (since they are very similar). They could get Schemmel to do a young voice. Or they could try someone else. They did that for the third DB movie, and it did sound...interesting. But by and large I prefer Nadonly's version, and not just for continuity reasons. I think she really grasps the mixture of innocense and toughness that young Goku has.

Imagining Schemmel doing a young voice is pretty scary. I mean, I have nothing against the guy, but I don't think he could pull it off. True, Castallaneta does do Homer's voice whenever that character appears as a young boy, but that's a comedy show. And it's usually just for a bit of one episode, anyway.

I still think it's weird that Nadonly's Gohan was mainly distinguishable from Henderson's in that it was a lot lower and rougher, when the main difference between Nadonly's Gohan and Goku is that Goku's voice is, well, less low and less rough.

[Super Sonic]

That's what Ms. Nadolny said herself for the difference between her voices for Goku and Gohan. As she put it, Gohan's is more low and raspy where Goku's is a little more higher pitched, fun and innocent.

[SpiritBomb]

I think if they need to grow up then there will have to be some kind of change in there.

Come to think of it, I miss Vegeta's voice the first time we ever saw him, it was one of his many trademarks.

[Jerseymilk]

You mean Drummond's?

[PsyLiam]

That's what Ms. Nadolny said herself for the difference between her voices for Goku and Gohan. As she put it, Gohan's is more low and raspy where Goku's is a little more higher pitched, fun and innocent.

It makes sense for Goku's voice to be "high, fun and innocent", but Gohan's voice has always been a bit too low for me, especially early on in the series. It's weird that the 12 year old Goku sounds younger than the 5-year old Gohan. Although that's partly because she's trying to impersonate Henderson's old voice. It does actually suit Gohan a lot more once he's a bit older, but for the Freeza saga, it sounds too mature.

I wonder what it will sound like on the new Saiyan-saga dub? There's no doubt that Nadonly is a much better actress now , so maybe Gohan's voice will be a bit different. (Like most of FUNi's VAs, DBZ seems to have been her first piece of work ever. How old is she anyway, and what did she do before DBZ?)

[Jerseymilk]

You know, most of them actually answered an ad in the local newspaper.

[PsyLiam]

Did any of them have previous VA work? I mean, Sabat has a fairly flexible voice, so it seems likely he was doing some VA work before hand. Strait also seemed fairly competant (the initial bad reaction was I think more due to his extreme different from Klassen). But Nadonly seemed pretty new at it, so it was remarkable that she sounded so much like Henderson. Same with Schemmel, who really did sound closer to Ian Chorlett than any of Goku's other VAs.

[Jerseymilk]

Actually from what I remember, he had done some radio work and he had performed opera. Yes, opera. I know that Schemmel used to be a puppeteer and a teacher. I believe the one that did Buruma was an actress. She apparently got Sonny Strait into it, because they were already friends and she called him up and told him of the ad. I believe Johnson(Trunks) was also already an actor, but I think most of them really didn't have much experience in voice work.

[PsyLiam]

Schemmel was a puppeteer and a teacher? That's an interesting mix, if nothing else? What did he teach exactly, because (and I really don't mean to be nasty), a lot of internet stuff doesn't really paint him as the brightest bulb in the box.

I would kill to hear Sabat do Opera in his Vegeta or Piccolo voice. And he did improve quite a bit too. His DB Yamcha is about a billion times better than his late Freeza saga Yamcha.

I can understand Johnson being an actor. He really did make the best first impression out of anyone, possibly because he was the first main character not trying to emulate an Ocean Group voice (and he is much better than the OC Trunks).

Bulma is Tiffiny Vol...something, right? No wonder she sounds like a valley girl with a first name like that. I'm a bit surprised to hear that she's an actress. She really doesn's strike me as the best actor of the bunch, but that may be due to the slightly misappropriate voice (although it's not quite as out of place in DB as it becomes in late DBZ and GT. She's in her 40s, fercryingoutloud).

[Jerseymilk]

Bulma is Tiffiny Vol...something, right? No wonder she sounds like a valley girl with a first name like that. I'm a bit surprised to hear that she's an actress. She really doesn's strike me as the best actor of the bunch, but that may be due to the slightly misappropriate voice (although it's not quite as out of place in DB as it becomes in late DBZ and GT. She's in her 40s, fercryingoutloud).

That's exactly what I thought too when I first found out her name. And as far as I know, she wasn't too experienced. I think Schemmel was a teacher of Phys-ed or some kind of trade type shop class, which would make sense, with the I.Q. thing, although I shouldn't stereotype like that. It just shows apparently anybody can get a teacher's license! No wonder so many turn out to be child molesters! I agree about Eric Johnson. I think he's the best English equivalent to Kusao Takeshi. The best character equivalent period.

[PsyLiam]

Thank God the Blue Water GT dub seemed to try and copy him, rather than the Ocean Group one (who made Trunks sound far, far too old).

Actually, that makes me think of something else. Did Kusao Takeshi (isn't Takeshi normally a first/given name? Or are you writing Japanese style?) do Chibi Trunks' voice during the Buu saga? Did he make his voice higher?

[B-kun]

Thank God the Blue Water GT dub seemed to try and copy him, rather than the Ocean Group one (who made Trunks sound far, far too old).

Actually, that makes me think of something else. Did Kusao Takeshi (isn't Takeshi normally a first/given name? Or are you writing Japanese style?) do Chibi Trunks' voice during the Buu saga? Did he make his voice higher?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he voiced all of Trunks' incarnations.

[Jerseymilk]

Yes he did do both ages. And yes I usually write Japanese names the traditional way of surname first. So his first name is Kusao. But from now on, I'll do it the Western way if you wish. Incidentally, he's also the voice actor for Parn in the Lodoss OAVs.

[PsyLiam]

And how did that sound? (I haven't got any post-Cell saga DVDs yet.) And do you think Eric Johnson could have pulled off doing Chibi Trunks' voice, or would that have sounded weird?

Actually, that brings to mind another quirk of FUNi's, and a difference between them and the Ocean Group. The OC dub used the same voice for young Gohan and Goten (sort of, if we allow for the fact that Henderson left, and the person who took over also did Goten), and the same voice for adult Gohan and Goku (at least, I think that's Mr Sexy who does Cyclops whose name I've forgotten doing Gohan). That is fairly accurate to the Japanese version, although it might just have been to save money.

FUNi, on the other hand, got new people in to be both Adult Gohan and Young Goten. So should it be applauded that they actually hired new talent for those important voices, or should we be booing because the Son family doesn't all sound the same?

And who did teen Goten's voice in the final episodes of Z and in GT, anyway? I'm guessing Johnson took back over for Trunks, but Goten? Was it Kyle Herbert?

(I'm not fussed about which way you write Japanese names. It just annoys me because half the time I have no idea which is the family name, and which is the "first" name. What would happen if I bumped into them in the street, eh? I'd feel foolish. Besides, I've never seen you write "Toriyama Akira". Nyah.)

[Jerseymilk]

True I don't. When I first started getting into anime, it used to annoy and confuse me too, so because I don't want to turn into an elitist anime snob I will do it the Western way. Takeshi actually sounds okay as Chibi Trunks. I was amazed when I first heard him because he manages to make his voice quite high and also pretty nasal. As for whether or not it would have worked with Johnson, I'm really not sure. I think I would have liked to have heard him try though, just to see. And you mean Cyclops from He-Man right? Why is it I can never remember who does his voice?! Oh well, it's on tomorrow morning, I'll make sure to really listen to it. Watch, he won't be in tomorrow's episode!