If
you watch the English-language dub of Dragon Ball Z shown on the Cartoon
Network, you might get the impression that the lead role of Goku is shouted
as much as spoken. Sean Schemmel, the actor who portrays Goku, said at
a Katsucon Panel that there's a secret to his ability to scream those lines
and sustain those long battle cries. He's a former musician who played
the French horn for 20 years, and the breath control from holding a note
lets him maintain the high volumes needed to turn in a convincing performance.
The shouts you hear on the finished dubs are less loud than what Schemmel
produces in the recording booth. Because of the volume of his shouts, Schemmel
has broken microphones, amplifiers and the "compressors" used to
reduce the dynamic range of audio so it works better on air.
And
there's a lot of that shouting left; Schemmel said he had recorded fresh
DBZ episodes just before Katsucon, and had another 40 or so episodes left
to work. The character he voices has changed with Schemmel's trek through
the DBZ universe where Goku has fought, won, lose, died and more or less
come back to life. The revived Goku in super saiyan form doesn't have the
same chipper, tenor youthfulness that the original Goku had. Schemmel describes
his take on the grittier Goku of the later episodes as 50 percent Goku,
50 percent Piccolo and 50 percent Clint Eastwood.
It's
not uncommon for anime purists to complain about the changes made to Dragon
Ball for U.S. cablecasting. The series is toned down to meet North American
standards and practices, and the writers add English-language slang that
never appeared in the Japanese original. Schemmel said "I get feedback
from the fans all the time - I consider everything. I personally like the
Japanese version a lot, but we're trying to appeal to people who haven't
seen it...If you want to to see it to an audience, you don't want to stick
to the Japanese version - they're a different audience."
If
you watch the English-language dub of Dragon Ball Z shown on the Cartoon
Network, you might get the impression that the lead role of Goku is shouted
as much as spoken. Sean Schemmel, the actor who portrays Goku, said at
a Katsucon Panel that there's a secret to his ability to scream those lines
and sustain those long battle cries. He's a former musician who played
the French horn for 20 years, and the breath control from holding a note
lets him maintain the high volumes needed to turn in a convincing performance.
The shouts you hear on the finished dubs are less loud than what Schemmel
produces in the recording booth. Because of the volume of his shouts, Schemmel
has broken microphones, amplifiers and the "compressors" used to
reduce the dynamic range of audio so it works better on air.
And
there's a lot of that shouting left; Schemmel said he had recorded fresh
DBZ episodes just before Katsucon, and had another 40 or so episodes left
to work. The character he voices has changed with Schemmel's trek through
the DBZ universe where Goku has fought, won, lose, died and more or less
come back to life. The revived Goku in super saiyan form doesn't have the
same chipper, tenor youthfulness that the original Goku had. Schemmel describes
his take on the grittier Goku of the later episodes as 50 percent Goku,
50 percent Piccolo and 50 percent Clint Eastwood.
It's
not uncommon for anime purists to complain about the changes made to Dragon
Ball for U.S. cablecasting. The series is toned down to meet North American
standards and practices, and the writers add English-language slang that
never appeared in the Japanese original. Schemmel said "I get feedback
from the fans all the time - I consider everything. I personally like the
Japanese version a lot, but we're trying to appeal to people who haven't
seen it...If you want to to see it to an audience, you don't want to stick
to the Japanese version - they're a different audience."
