9. Goku's Japanese voice actor is a 78 year-old woman
Goku gets around in America. He was voiced by a dozen different voice actors before settling on the gold standard Sean Schemmel. But in Japan, Goku has had the same voice since the very beginning, even when he was depicted as a child. Masako Nozawa has played Goku for 30 years, and she shows no signs of stopping. So engrained is Nozawa's voice into the Japanese populace that an unresponsive, hospitalized child responded to a personalized recording of Goku -- while the child was in a coma.
Nozawa might be 78 years-old, but she doesn't have this guy beat:
Joji Yanami is almost 84 years old, but is still voicing King Kai in new episodes of Dragon Ball Super. Perhaps more importantly, Yanami has voiced the narrator of the series since the first episode of Dragon Ball. When it comes to an enduring series like Dragon Ball, you're bound to have a few actors start getting up there in years.
Let's be honest with ourselves: With respect to the separate lives and spouses of these voice actors, Joji and and Masako should abandon their lives and marry each other and invite us to their Dragon Ball-themed wedding.
10. There was a Dragon Ball video game for NES, only it wasn't Dragon Ball
Despite the enormous popularity of the series, none of the various Dragon Ball video games made it stateside until 1997's Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout on the PS1. We're not here to talk about that shitshow; what's more interesting is that we technically DID get a Dragon Ball game in 1988, but we didn't know it. The US-released "Dragon Power" is almost exactly the same as the first Dragon Ball game on NES, but Bandai didn't have the license, so this is what we got.
All the sprites referring to Dragon Ball were stripped out -- sort of like the opposite of what happened toDoki Doki Panic when it was turned into the Super Mario Bros 2 that you know and love. Goku was altered to resemble the Monkey King from Journey to the West, Dragon Balls became "Crystal Balls," and the Kamehameha Wave became "Wind Wave." And the bit where Master Roshi appeared with several pairs of Bulma's panties floating around him was replaced with a random old wizard levitating a handful of sandwiches.
Naturally.
11. Goku's American voice actor once fainted from screaming so hard
Anyone who has tried to power-up by screaming along in their room knows that yelling at the top of your lungs can take it out of you. Now imagine what it must be like for the voice actors. Longtime Goku VA Sean Schemmel probably has the worst of it, given that he plays the main character of the series and therefore has the most scream time.
There was an urban legend going around that he actually screamed so hard that he fainted in the recording booth, and it actually turned out to be true. The scene that broke him: The transformation to Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball GT.
Apparently a mixture of exhaustion and misjudgment caused the episode, after which Sean quickly recovered. He's recounted his entire tale here in this video.
Schemmel is living proof that no matter how hard you scream, you'll never become a Super Saiyan. But you shouldn't let that stop you from trying.
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