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After listening to some of the Season 3 dub files on VegettoEX's
page, I feel that I can now talk about the new voices with a fair amount
of knowledge. If they get better, or they change, that's great. I'm
talking about the ones I just listened to. I'm also writing a response
to all of the Pro-season 3 opinion essays, because it seems to me like
most of you are attacking Chris and the other Japanese purist people.
Well, perhaps someone should speak in our defense. Even if most of this
essay sounds like an attack, I want you to know I'm just trying to
explain how we see things. I respect your opinion; respect mine.
I'm not going to deal with Goku, or Gohan, or the Ginyu Force,
because I don't think their voices have changed much. While that's not
necessarily a good thing, nobody really made a fuss over it like they
did about everyone else. So I'm going to talk about Bulma, Krillin,
Vegeta, and Freeza.
To the Japanese purist type, Bulma's new voice is horrible. It makes
the bitchiness and utter uselessness of her last English voice even
worse. It takes away all of the charm of the original Bulma. That is why
we don't like it. However, the pro-season 3 people seem to think that
the voice is fine, even to the point of ridiculing us for going against
their laidback opinion. They even compare Bulma to a "Japanese airhead".
Really. I had no idea that airheads could invent capsulated vehicles,
Dragonball radars, time machines, spaceships, and learn other languages
in mere days. Isn't the idea of having a genius airhead a complete
oxymoron? You see, the point of Bulma was not to make you cringe through
the Bulma Crab episodes; the point is that she's a charming girl with an
attitude, and it's interesting to see her stick it out with the boys.
Her English voice makes her an *entirely* different character. Your own
words prove that it's true, because you don't see her the way she was
meant to be seen, and that is why we prefer the Japanese voice.
Krillin is a cute, charming guy who's always the comic relief.
Season Three made him into a vulgar, dirty sounding runt with a voice
reminiscent of Beetlejuice. The pro-season 3 people feel sorry for
Vegeta for having to put up with him. They also believe this was
Toriyama's original intent. Oh, really? Toriyama meant for us to think
Vegeta was the protagonist temporarily, and that Krillin was a little
dork that should be killed off? If Krillin's such a dislikable
character, why would his death mark the turning point in all of
Dragonball Z, the point where Goku became a Super Saiyan for the first
time out of his rage towards Freeza for killing his best friend? Why
would he care if the little dirty runt died? Why would Goku be friends
with him? Because Krillin is a brave little warrior, who tried his best
despite his limitations, who even faced Freeza, someone with a power
level much too high for him, just to help out Gohan, who he had only
known for a few months. Japanese Krillin embodies everything I just
said. English Krillin makes him the comic relief, and nothing more. Once
again, the opinions of the pro-season three people prove why Krillin's
voice is not acceptable; it makes him into an entirely different
character.
A brief note on Vegeta, because I have a lot to say about Freeza.
Vegeta's new voice makes him sound about sixteen. Vegeta has the body of
a forty-year-old man. Does anyone else see a problem? What will they do
when Trunks arrives, and Vegeta looks almost fifty? How will they
explain his voice having less maturity to it then his own son?
(Assuming, of course, that Trunks is cast right.) Brian Drummond sounded
more mature, as did the original Japanese Vegeta. And don't say the same
should be true for Goku. He always sounded about thirty, and he always
looked about thirty, too. There's no problem there.
Now we get to what I consider the most hotly debated voice so far. I
have heard Japanese Freeza now; it is the most intriguing sound I've
heard in a while. You have to listen to it for awhile, I think, to fully
appreciate it. When he acts tough, his voice takes on a sort of huffy
quality, like a cat with the hair on its back raised. When he's
surprised, his voice gets all scratchy. It changes with emotion, and I
like it. It gives the impression of someone you don't want to mess with,
someone who's in control, arrogant, and serious. I think Freeza is my
favorite enemy now, and it certainly isn't because of his color scheme.
Yes, we complain about Freeza's English voice. But we're not
complaining because it's a woman. If that's what you think, you've
missed the point. We're complaining because the aristocratic evil known
as Freeza is now a short, whiny old dork, whom we can't possibly believe
to be worth Goku's time to fight. Some people seem to think it's because
we can't stand anything different. In a way, you're correct. We can't
stand characters being mutilated beyond the point of recognition just to
humor a few of Funimation's writers. But not standing voices that sound
different? Come on. Would we bother trying to learn another language if
we didn't like anything different from us? And what about Ian Corlett
and Brian Drummond? We like them, and they don't sound anything like the
original. Instead, we like them because they brought the same character
across. And that's all we're asking. If Freeza sounded as tough and
indestructable as he does in Japanese, I wouldn't care if he sounded
like a girl, and I don't think anyone else would either. That's what
we're trying to get across, and that is the main problem with all the
voices.
I guess the bottom line is, we don't hate the American voices for
being different, we hate them because they give the wrong idea about the
characters we love. I'm sorry if some of you newer fans misunderstood
that. I hope this essay may have cleared it up, without being too
patronizing. I respect your opinions, but I just wanted you guys to see
how I (and I assume the other Japanese purists) looked at things.
Thanks for listening, and I'm sorry this essay isn't as good as the
last.
- Miko Charbonneau |
   
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