Piccolo’s voice actor wants you to ‘be the Piccolo’ for someone else

As a voice-over artist, Christopher Sabat has stolen the show in animated movies and shows so many times, it’s easy to lose count. He is also the English voice of anime characters including All Might. My Hero AcademiaColonel Armstrong Fullmetal AlchemistAyame Sôma is a Japanese actress. Fruit BasketThe. You can find out more by clicking here.His other notable roles He has also played other memorable roles.

Both are fan-favorite characters, but Piccolo has traditionally been a supporting character, while Vegeta has essentially become Dragon Ball’s second protagonist, along with hero Goku. The movie Dragon Ball Super Hero changes that, letting Piccolo step up to star alongside his former pupil: Goku’s eldest son, Gohan.

Sabat recently spoke with Polygon to discuss his role as Piccolo in the film and about his own career. Super Hero, and fandom’s relationship with one of the most memorable characters in anime.

The interview was edited to ensure clarity.

Image: Toei Animation/Crunchyroll

Polygon: Dragon Ball Super Hero is a fun movie for fans like me who grew up with Dragon Ball, but haven’t really kept up. This film is reminiscent of the early Dragon Ball comedies, though you can watch it on its own.

Christopher Sabat Yeah, you can. You can. [Dragon Ball creator/Super Hero writer] Akira Toriyama’s spirit all over it. This is just a hypothesis that I gleaned from 25 years of working on this, but it does seem like, were Akira Toriyama to have his way, Dragon Ball would probably be mostly comedy, because that’s where it started, right? Dragon Ball began as a mostly comical series with some fighting. So whenever stuff is lively, fun, and quirky — that’s when I know Akira Toriyama really had a strong hand in it.

Dragon Ball is known for its ability to balance the characters, which remain largely the same while growing in story after story.

The show’s evolved over the years, and it’s gotten more interesting. Vegeta’s evolution has been in ways that no one could have imagined. He’s actually become a really relatable character for a lot of people. People realize as they age, Goku is a great character because he always tries to do his best. However, he also has some strange motivations.

He has to work harder than Vegeta. Things don’t get handed to him as easily. In fact, I think it almost might be a joke for Akira Toriyama, to always troll Vegeta into thinking that he’s going to finally have something great, and then [he] doesn’t.

Piccolo may also seem more dynamic. It’s like that old line, “I’m not the stepfather, I’m the father that stepped up.”

Yeah. If you really want, you can become the Piccolo of someone. Be the Piccolo.

It’s funny that both of these guys you play are unlikely father figures, but in this movie, Piccolo is kind of a frustrated one, like a tired Mr. Miyagi. Is that what you were trying to get across?​​

The thing I love about this film, though, is that yes, he’s tired — but it really shows that strong family bond that he has with Gohan. It’s so cute. When Videl calls him at the beginning of the movie, she essentially says, ‘Hey, can you go pick up Pan? I’ll get you one of those stuffed animals you like!”

He’s like, “I don’t like stuffed animals!” or whatever. And they pan over and he’s got like, 30 of them. This implies that Piccolo is a big help in picking up Pan. In many ways he’s a part of their household, like a babysitter. That’s why I love him.

Does your Piccolo seem to be subtly distinct from that of the Japanese?

It’s been interesting, because when we first started working on Dragon Ball, back in the late ’90s, we didn’t have a lot of good material, nor did we have the digital technology we have today. So we didn’t even have the correct Japanese version of Dragon Ball. It’s possible that they obtained the master recordings in Mexico. They were a licensed broadcast that already aired, so in Japan, they told us, “Just use theirs.”

So even when we did listen to the “original,” it was in Spanish. So I didn’t get much of an idea what Piccolo sounded like in Japanese. Many of these things were based on guesswork. And it’s been over the years working on all the video games, and subsequently working on Dragon Ball Z KaiAfter re-dubbing some of the original episodes, I started to get a better understanding of characters. Vegeta, in particular. Goku was a revelation to me. So over the years, my interpretation of these characters has changed quite a bit, based on the knowledge I’ve gotten about the show.

Arc System Works/Bandai Namco

The original recording was also a plus Dragon Ball Z, we hadn’t recorded [the previous series] Dragon Ball yet. Piccolo is a character that I found very confusing! What is Piccolo, why do people fear him and what’s going on? So it was nice to play him in a way that kind of pushed him up as a hero, pushed him up as a mentor — the main decision-maker, the main strategist for Dragon Ball Super Hero.

Do you ever find yourself sliding from Vegeta’s voice into Piccolo’s?

To avoid this temptation, I only record one character. It was once when I was still working on my original Dragon Ball Z, where I did meet a fan at a convention who came up to me and said, “Hey, your Piccolo and Vegeta voice are kind of sounding similar these days.”

Then I heard him, and he had a point. I was so damaged by recording for so long that it was stuck right in the middle. So I then made Vegeta’s voice a touch higher, and Piccolo’s voice a touch lower.

Have you ever seen the Fan Reclamation Campaign? Piccolo as a Black character?

It’s true! That’s always actually been my theory on Piccolo. Piccolo as a Black Character would be my choice if I was to cast him in a movie. It’s amazing how many similarities there are. He’s very connected with his race, and [Namekians]Imperialism, etc. did us in. There are a lot of people who believe that Piccolo’s a Black character, and I’m 100% on board with that, I’m way into that.

Image: Toei Animation/Crunchyroll

Because fans look to Dragon Ball as a source for inspiration, rather than a narrative.

Dragon Ball was not very diverse. Back in the late ’90s, Dallas was just in its infancy in terms of the voice-over community. And so we didn’t have the money to afford anybody. We didn’t have the money to afford expensive actors or anything like that.

Dallas, at the time, was simply a place that anyone who could be good left. The great POCs would leave. All right, I’m out of here. I’m going to New York! Because there just wasn’t a lot [of work]Dallas was a different place back then. But it’s been nice especially in Dragon Ball SuperTo be able introduce people from different backgrounds. It is true that I did my best to introduce a variety of people. Super HeroGive some of these roles to POC voices actors such as Aleks Le who is Asian American and Zeno Robinson who is African American [playing antagonists Gamma 1 and Gamma 2.]. They seemed like a good pair.

What would you say has been the biggest change in your understanding of Piccolo since you first started learning?

I think a lot of Dragon Ball fans picked this up, but I didn’t realize how important Gohan was to Piccolo’s evolution. One could argue that Piccolo may have gone down the same path as original Vegeta without Gohan. He could’ve been evil. But Gohan sort of opened Piccolo’s heart up. Piccolo was created by a creature that spit all of the bad in its body out! It was not his intention to be good.

Yeah, and Dragon Ball has always excelled at showing big character growth through action, especially when Gohan shows what he’s learned from Piccolo in Super Hero.

Even on the small screen, my heart dropped when this happened in that movie. That’s got a couple of really key, really beautiful moments. They did some beautiful stuff with the sound design during that moment that you’re talking about, too. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, but there are about three great moments in the movie that make you cry, and that was probably the main one, right?

Dragon Ball Super HeroNow is the time to act Crunchyroll – Streaming on CrunchyrollRent or buy a copy of the. Amazon, VuduOther digital platforms, such as.