What if Masako Nozawa dies? (God forbid)

[DBZ Expert]

The lady is 86 years old. Will Dragon Ball continue after that? And if so, what will happen with Goku?

[JulieYBM]

The lady is 86 years old. Will Dragon Ball continue after that? And if so, what will happen with Goku?

After a period of mourning a different actor will eventually play Son Gokuu in future projects that require new voice lines. That's all there is to it.

[Hellspawn28]

The Lupin the 3rd series was able to move on after Yasuo Yamada and Kiyoshi Kobayashi passed away. Dragon Ball would do the same thing too.

[theherodjl]

The role of Bulma has already had to be replaced as a result of her original voice actress, Hiromi Tsuru tragically passing away at only age 57. A few more of the original voice actors such as the ones that voiced the roles of Roshi & Kaio-sama, sadly passed on due to old age and had to be replaced as well. It hurts to lose great talents in the arts, but the show must go on. Masako has stated that she intends to voice Goku for years longer, but she or the team may find someone who could serve as a temporary replacement and from there, could become the permanent one if Masako ever does decide to pass the torch.
I firmly believe that Dragonball will never die. If characters like Superman can have a franchise that has lasted 85 years and counting, we'll continue to see Goku for a long time as well.

[Cure Dragon 255]

This thread is in the wrong section. This section is for in universe discussion, as in the plot itself and the characters within it, not behind the scenes stuff like this.

[Dr. Casey]

The role of Bulma has already had to be replaced as a result of her original voice actress, Hiromi Tsuru tragically passing away at only age 57. A few more of the original voice actors such as the ones that voiced the roles of Roshi & Kaio-sama, sadly passed on due to old age and had to be replaced as well. It hurts to lose great talents in the arts, but the show must go on. Masako has stated that she intends to voice Goku for years longer, but she or the team may find someone who could serve as a temporary replacement and from there, could become the permanent one if Masako ever does decide to pass the torch.
I firmly believe that Dragonball will never die. If characters like Superman can have a franchise that has lasted 85 years and counting, we'll continue to see Goku for a long time as well.

If you mean Kohei Miyauchi, he died at 65 which isn't too much older than Bulma's seiyuu. Dying of old age is where someone passes to no identifiable cause other than their body just giving out and is usually more a 95+ thing. Before then there's almost always an identifiable cause (stroke, heart attack, cancer).

[ATA]

Not to be that guy and be a pretend moderator..but we recently had a topic less than a month ago about the Japanese cast in general. General consensus seems to be that they will just move on and replace her. Nature of the business. Especially with an older series like Dragon Ball

viewtopic.php?t=48250

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

A few years ago I would have said as Aya Hisakawa took over the role of the late Hiromi Tsuru as Bulma so too would Masako Nozawa have a successor whenever her time comes.

Now with the rise of AI I fear that TOEI will avail of the technology to recreate Goku's voice as a way of getting around having to recast such an iconic role.

[Hellspawn28]

A few years ago I would have said as Aya Hisakawa took over the role of the late Hiromi Tsuru as Bulma so too would Masako Nozawa have a successor whenever her time comes.

Now with the rise of AI I fear that TOEI will avail of the technology to recreate Goku's voice as a way of getting around having to recast such an iconic role.

AI voices can't do human emontions and bots will never learn the true feelings of a living being.

[DB1984]

AI is one of the scariest things in the world in recent years, and it needs to die a horrible death.

[Jord]

We can only hope that AI will replace her considering the level of recasts. Except for Bulma's VA, every other replacement was a letdown.

[Cold Skin]

Knowing people, they will complain about Goku's new voice when the day comes, regardless of the quality, simply because (s)he's not Masako Nozawa.

The voice/acting can NEVER be exactly the same, even if they tried to find someone who perfectly imitates her, and just because it will not be EXACTLY the same, (most) people will say "no, it's not what I've always known, it sucks" by default.

Sadly, most people get stuck on the originals and will accept no compromise, no alternative, as anything different is something that alters their original perception and they want the original perception as it always was.

So I say Goku's new voice will probably be very nice, while perhaps taking a bit of time to get used to after decades, which is only natural. But people will generally find it terrible, outrageous, abysmal and probably say that "the real Goku is no more" and some might even say that they won't ever watch any new material again because of that.

I feel sorry for the voice actor/actress that will have to take over and suffer all the "(s)he's no Nozawa!!", "(s)he's not Goku!!" despite probably doing a good job!

I know I will welcome them with open arms when the time comes, although I hope the legendary Nozawa can still perform our good old Goku for as much time as possible, as long as she still has the energy for it! (wouldn't want to have a case of Kaio at the beginning of Super, who couldn't perform well enough anymore).

[Cipher]

There will be a recast of Goku when Nozawa steps down or passes away. I don't wish it, but it's inevitable.

I have a feeling her advanced age is potentially one of the reasons DB isn't seeing a long-form TV anime right now. I kind of doubt we'll see another one until there's a recast.

[Thanos]

bots will never learn the true feelings of a living being.

I don't know how you can possibly make a definitive statement to that effect. Every time we think there's something special and magical about ourselves, we figure out a way to break it down and realize it isn't as special as we thought. With enough advancement, it's probably inevitable until it's ubiquitous and indistinguishable from the real thing. What we already have now I'm sure would've been thought impossible a few years ago, or at least a lot further off than it ended up being. The human ego will continue to shift the ever-receding goalposts until it undeniably exceeds our own capability.

I think you could probably get something pretty close with AI now, actually. AI can replicate emotion with the technology Lucasfilm uses, where one actor reads the lines and the AI goes over it and puts someone else's voice over it (already being used as of a few years ago with young Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader more recently). There's already amateur, homemade AI song covers all over YouTube where emotion was able to be captured. Even if we're not there yet, as much as is available today I don't know how you can say something will never happen when that exact thing appears quite close. Maybe AI genuinely feeling emotions is decades or more off, but replicating it with audio and fooling the human ear by emulating the sounds that elicit emotions in humans? That's something different entirely and child's play in comparison.

[DBZ Expert]

From Akira Toriyama and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru intreview TV Anime Guide: Dragon Ball Z Son Goku Densetsu (released in 2003)

"Nowadays, I can't think of anyone other than Masako Nozawa to voice Goku".

[WittyUsername]

AI is not only creepy, it’s also a very gross concept that puts actual artists out of work, and can easily be used in ways that can be seen as exploitative. There’s a reason AI has been one of the big sticking points in the Hollywood strikes going on right now.

Also, this should be in the general discussions board.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I mean, when the point comes where Nozawa is (either due to age, health or whatever reason) no longer able to voice Goku, Gohan, Goten and others either with retiring or passing it's definitely going to be the end of an era. Whoever succeeds her going forward is going to have some VERY big shoes to fill and that's not an understatement. I hope when they eventually do recast the roles her successor whoever it ends up being is able to live up to the precedent she's set for nearly 40 years of being the voices of the Son family, but even then it's likely not going to be a smooth or seamless transition either. Even if they go for trying to match as close to her voice as possible it's NEVER going to be the same. We've had cases before where one of the big name seiyuus of the series died, like with Daisuke Gori back in 2010 and his successor the now since passed Unsho Ishizuka (Dr. Ookido/Oak, Pokemon. Jett, Cowboy Bebop.etc) and his successor after felt like a step down from the distinct poweful, gutteral performance that Gori had for characters like Mr. Satan, Gyumao/Ox King among others. To a lesser degree was Sailor Mercury's (Ami's) seiyuu succeeding Hiromi Tsuru as Bulma after her tragic passing and while not quite the same she's done fairly well in the role since then. Plus of course all of Roshi's voices since Kohei Miyauchi passed back in 1995 have been at varying degrees but none of them (Even Masaharu Sato, arguably the most decent of the recasts) have been able to recapture quite the same warm tone he carried.

So, i'm just hoping that whenever the time comes that Nozawa is gone, that whoever succeeds her can pick up and carry on in the wake of the legacy she has held though it's definitely not going to be the same.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

Masako Nozawa seems to be in impeccable health for a woman of her age. She's the highest paid JP voice actor if this article is to be believed.
https://fandomwire.com/japans-highest-p ... lack-adam/
She also mentioned that she can continue to play Goku until "[she's] at least 110." I think she'll stay around for quite a while longer.

[funrush]

Goku would be recast. This is a franchise that makes too much money to be halted by the death of one VA, as cold as that is to say.

[MasenkoHA]

639 episodes (not counting a 167 episode recut of the most popular series)

21 movies

3 tv specials

Some Yu-gi-oh esque advertainment...thing

A buttload of video games


Please tell me why this franchise needs to go on even before she dies?

"What if Masako Nozawa dies!?"

Hopefully the franchise is finally laid to rest before that happens