It was absolutely amazing to see Masako Nozawa in person this previous weekend down at Animazement in North Carolina. Across multiple panels, the actress provided endless stories from the recording booth along with her own insight into the character of Son Goku.

This makes it all the more fascinating to dive into two particular interviews. The first comes from 1997 within the last of the two Dragon Ball GT Perfect File books, while the second comes from just this past March from the Japanese news and commentary magazine Weekly Asahi.

In the former, in addition to speaking about what was at the time a final wrap-up on voicing Goku, Nozawa relates her favorite moment and non-Goku character from the series, which surprisingly match up exactly as she answered them 16 full years later this past weekend. In the latter, Nozawa lowers her guard with columnist Mariko Hayashi and talks about her family, changing feelings about acting styles and roles in the industry, and more importantly than anything else, explains how it is she has somehow managed to not so much as catch a cold in decades!

Both interviews have been archived on our “Translations” page.

Sundays are traditionally the slowest of the three days at most anime conventions, but Animazement, and in particular its Dragon Ball guests, were clearly not content to let things close out with a whimper. Some of the biggest events were still yet to come!

The entire group of Dragon Ball guests had done an autograph session following the big “West & East Dream Match” panel the previous day, but another session was scheduled for Sunday morning. Convention staff reported that only about 90 people were able to get autographs in said prior session, and so the line on Sunday — well beyond 200 people — was unfortunately capped at the first hundred to arrive. This led to many disappointed fans being turned away, but with more panels to come immediately following the autograph session, it was a necessary evil.

#99 & #100 in line on Sunday morning report their good fortune

The autograph session went approximately 10 minutes over schedule even with the cap, which led to a slightly shorter (45 minutes versus a full hour) “We Are Goku!” panel — packed to capacity — with both Masako Nozawa and Sean Schemmel. The topic of keeping versus replacing the voice actor in both languages was addressed several times. Nozawa noted how it had usually been the case that when a young male character (traditionally voiced by a woman) grew up, he was replaced with an older, male voice actor. In her case, Nozawa kept the role throughout the character’s entire life and was (in her own report) the first instance of this happening. On the English side, Schemmel noted how these decisions were (like in Japan) up to the producers of the show, and that he personally felt his own voice probably would not match a much younger Goku, anyway. When asked how the two actors would prepare for their Goku voice acting sessions, Nozawa retold the story of metaphorically “walking into” the role between the stool in her recording booth and up to the microphone. Schemmel found this answer fascinating, but could only follow it up by saying he always voiced Goku barefoot, which brought about a few laughs. Both actors also noted that they would provide input on lines of dialog in the script, and would voice concerns if something was written that they personally felt Goku would not say — in Schemmel’s case, particularly in Dragon Ball Kai, he was very concerned with finally and truly representing what was there in the original Japanese script, and would consult with translators and re-writers if something felt “off”. Expanding upon this in another question, Nozawa stated that she never even thought if there would be anything that she would change about Goku; she and Goku are one in the same, so it never came up. The fact that Goku was such an inspiring character was one that would be brought up time and time again in several panels, and this one was no different. Nozawa and Schemmel both explained that Goku was so cheerful and always working to better himself, but would also stand up to evil to protect his family and friends. Even during all of that, he never sought to be the center of attention.

Unfortunately, with such a huge group of guests, there was bound to be at least one major overlap even on the Japanese side of things. This occurred Sunday afternoon with “Ryūsei Nakao Off-line!” up against “We are VIDEL!” with both Kara Edwards and Yūko Minaguchi. We attended the former.

Nakao’s panel was perhaps the biggest surprise of the convention. Nozawa was her expected gracious and polite self, but would only heavily expand upon answers perhaps about half the time. Furukawa was a little more chatty and could get going on some fun tangents, but would occasionally need a little prodding from the audience and moderators. In all of those cases, the panels were general Q&A sessions from beginning to end. Nakao, however, had different plans. The incredibly personable, verbose and dapper actor came prepared with an entire DVD filled with examples of his various characters’ laughs and fighting noises. He moderated the entire panel himself (maybe about 40% in English on his own, and the rest in Japanese through translator Takayuki Karahashi), and in addition to the DVD, brought along plenty of giveaways. Nakao conducted a series of competitions between audience members to reproduce the best Freeza (Dragon Ball Z) and Caesar Clown (One Piece) laughs as well as fighting noises from a clip of Freeza versus Goku. After watching the fighting clip, it was muted for the batches of impromptu-seiyū to act along with. All competitors walked away with at least one trinket such as cards or erasers, but the winners of each round (chosen by applause from the rest of the audience) received little Dragon Ball toys.

Nakao left about 15 minutes at the end of his panel for general Q&As. Nakao explained that Toriyama likely wanted to create the strongest villain yet to fight against Goku, which is why he was given so many transformations. Our own question for Nakao was with regard to his voice for Coola, and what he did to separate it from being just Freeza’s voice. He explained that his Coola voice was a little more mature than Freeza’s was, since Coola was the elder to his “cute little brother Freeza”. There were a few voice requests from the crowd, including a very special (surprise) request from our community member theoriginalbilis:

Nakao concluded the panel by handing out trinkets and shaking the hand of every single audience member, a incredible way to bring the convention to a close.

Animazement 2013 was an experience like no other. Look for more clips and stories to come in the near future, particularly next week on our podcast!

Animazement 2013 continued into overdrive for its second day with a couple key events: Toshio Furukawa’s own panel and a gigantic “West & East Dream Match” panel (with all Japanese and American Dragon Ball guests).

Furukawa’s panel — “Talking With Ataru? Piccolo? Or…?” — was filled with stories from the actor’s rich history of roles from series such as Urusei Yatsura, Fist of the North Star, One Piece, and (of course!) Dragon Ball. Furukawa updated his figure collection count to roughly 800 Piccolo figures and 350 Ace figures, noting that whenever he sees foreign variations of figures online, he grabs them and enjoys comparing them to the Japanese versions. He noted that during the original process of coming up with his Piccolo voice (a role he was hand-selected for with no real audition), the producers asked him to tone down his otherwise higher-pitched voice. Furukawa asked why they wanted him since he clearly was not a match for the voice they envisioned, but who was he to argue? When asked what Dragon Ball in particular meant to him, Furukawa responded by saying that sometimes the series takes slack for being filled with fighting and violence, but for him it is filled with messages of courage and dreams, and that children can take so much more away from it such as standing up to bullies. Our own question for Furukawa was his thoughts on the character’s change into “Uncle Piccolo” during the Majin Boo story arc (particularly with all the Goten and Trunks babysitting). Furukawa responded that he had been hoping for a change in the character by that point in the series, and was relieved and excited to see him move in that direction. In fact, he received many letters of support from fans at that time, too!

The “West & East Dream Match” panel was one of the biggest for the entire convention, spanning two sections of the upstairs ballrooms. All Japanese and American Dragon Ball guests were invited for a large-scale Q&A session with the fans. The panelists included (from left to right):

• Ryūsei Nakao (JP: Tambourine, Freeza, Coola)
• Sean Schemmel (US: Son Goku, Kaiō-sama, Nail)
• Masako Nozawa (JP: Son Goku, Son Gohan, Son Goten, etc.)
• Toshio Furukawa (JP: General Blue, Piccolo)
• Kara Edwards (US: Son Goten, Videl)
• Yūko Minaguchi (JP: Videl, Pan)
• Kyle Hebert (US: Son Gohan, Paikuhan, Narrator)

Schemmel began things by noting that we were “sitting in history-making” with such a gathering. Questions kicked off with fun requests such as the types of wishes each actor would make with the Dragon Balls. Answers ranged from Nozawa’s wanting to walk the Earth like Goku and make friends with everyone, to Nakao’s wishing to turn Freeza into a good guy and not be a villain (thus giving Goku and Freeza very little to do). Her fellow actors shared stories about Nozawa, such as — even these 20+ years later — always coming into the studio wondering what was going to happen next in the story, and Nakao’s confession that “Mako-chan” turns into Freeza when she drives. A heartfelt request from a Super Saiyan 3 Goku cosplayer to perform a Kamehameha alongside both Schemmel and Nozawa brought the entire panel to huge applause. Fans asked about favorite episodes, scenes, and specific lines of dialog. Nakao responded that Freeza was only around for a comparatively-short amount of time, but each time they recorded together, Nozawa would remark to him that he (as Freeza) really was a bastard! A particular highlight was Edwards’ and Minaguchi’s English-then-Japanese performance of the same line: Videl exclaiming to Gohan that she was flying for the first time.

A poster for the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods was hung behind the panelists the entire time, leading to at least one question about whether or not we would hear anything about the movie today or perhaps get a chance to view a clip. A quick laugh and resounding, “NO!” from Nakao shut things down pretty quickly, but all hope was not entirely lost: the poster was autographed by the entire group of panelists and submitted for the charity auction to occur shortly thereafter.

The charity auction was another highlight of the day bringing in an impressive amount of fans (and their money!) to go toward relief efforts. Ryūsei Nakao was on-hand as well as the convention’s main emcee to bring in the cash. A batch of kanzenban autographed by the Japanese guests brought in $430 (two Vol. 21 for $50, two Vol. 22 for $55, two Vol. 13 for $40, two Vol. 1 for $70). A copy of Derek Padula’s “It’s Over 9000!!!” When Worldviews Collide (signed by the author and the Dragon Ball guests) brought in $35. A signed copy of the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods theatrical program guide brought in another $50. A complete set of small, bouncy Dragon Balls were auctioned off one-by-one, saving the four-star ball for last: 1 for $35, 2 for $27, 3 for $27, 5 for $32, 6 for $30, 7 for $45, and finally Sūshinchū itself for $100! A Piccolo figure signed by Toshio Furukawa went for $70, while a Son Goku figure signed by Masako Nozawa went for $120. The final item was the Battle of Gods poster, which immediately shot up to a $100 price point by one enthusiastic fan.

Today was definitely the “big day” of the convention (with the Kanzenshuu community representing in full effect… and you all are awesome), but tomorrow brings us more panels and autograph sessions by the guests — stay tuned for more stories and tidbits!

Animazement 2013 kicked off yesterday at the convention center here in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the excitement over the amount of esteemed guests could be felt in the air!

Masako Nozawa (Son Goku, et al.) held a “World of Heroes’ Voices” panel early in the afternoon to the delight of a room full of Dragon Ball fans, with translations courtesy of Takayuki Karahashi. Nozawa touched upon Goku’s character in that he is not constructed with a traditionally-attractive type of design, but appeals to so many people because of his “boy-next-door” earnestness. Nozawa believes that if everyone in the world could act more like Goku with his selflessness and striving to improve oneself, the world could be a better place. As we have heard from her in so many interviews, she also never confused her various Son family roles; in the couple steps between her stool in the booth and the microphone, simply seeing the characters on screen allows her to fully become those characters. Nozawa also dove back into the early days of her career in the theater business, the real-time dubbing of movies, and how this type of work brought more opportunities. In terms of favorite scenes, Nozawa recounted Goku during the Red Ribbon Army arc where Snow’s house is attacked and Nozawa was seriously concerned for Goku’s safety, but his “Itaaaaaaai!” (“That hurt!”) even after being on the receiving end of gunfire made everything OK. Nozawa also told a story of her (at the time) nine-year-old niece whose friends did not believe her aunt was the voice of Goku, and so went down the line of friends on the pay phone saying, “Ossu! Ora Goku!” as each said “Thank you very much!” and passed the phone to the next friend in line to receive this confirmation.

The “Here Comes One Piece!” panel later in the afternoon consisted of Toshio Furukawa (Ace in One Piece, Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z), Ryūsei Nakao (Caeser Clown in One Piece, Freeza in Dragon Ball Z), and Yūko Minaguchi (Portgas D. Rouge in One Piece, Videl/Pan in Dragon Ball Z & GT, ) with translations courtesy of Toshifumi Yoshida. While the title of the panel generally pushed the conversations toward One Piece more than anything else, Dragon Ball obviously made its way into most answers — without prodding! — by all three participants. Furukawa spoke of his monstrous collection of roughly 700 Piccolo figures and 300 Ace figures (now housed in what used to be his wife’s clothes closet), while Nakao and Minaguchi confessed that family and friends confiscate any merchandise they bring home. All three spoke of the horrors of video game recordings, with phonebook-sized lines of dialog and sounds to make, usually consisting of endless repetitions of long, medium, and short fighting noises. While each recounted being exhausted when they recorded games, all were in awe of what Nozawa has to do each time with her multiple characters and fusions on top of even them. When asked what would happen were their Dragon Ball characters to meet their One Piece characters, Furukawa responded that Piccolo and Ace would absolutely brawl with each other, Nakao responded that there really was not much difference between Freeza and Caesar Clown besides their laughs, and Minaguchi responded that Videl and Pan would want to protect her other characters.

Look forward to more great coverage of Day 2 coming soon!