November 19, 2024

Masako Nozawa (S3E24)

53 minutes

What does it take to be one of the most well-respected voice actors of all-time? Jelli and Bekinney have finished the "Dragon Ball" portion of Dragon Ball. That means it's time for Dragon Ball Z, right? Welllll....let's take a break from format and Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon Dragon Ball by pivoting and talking about the life and personality and career of one of the most important figures in Dragon Ball, the voice of Goku himself: Masako Nozawa.

In this episode:

Jelli has Bekinney prep for a spacewalk.

We have already discussed the life and career of Akira Toriyama, Daisuke Nishio, Toshiki Inoue, Takao Koyama, Chiaki Imada, Jackie Chan, and Kazuhiko Torishima. Slowly chewing up "behind the camera" talents to discuss, we talk about one of the "faces" of Dragon Ball, Masako Nozawa.

Nozawa's birth in Nippori Town and childhood in Numata, in Gunma Prefecture

Her early career in child acting and theater acting

Her father Ryoshu Nozawa, a moderately well-known painter, and her unique parentage

Why Nozawa moved from Tokyo to Numata as a child (hint: in 1944)

Her initial intentions to pursue stage acting and her first forays into voice acting, doing dubbing for Western films

Her "big break" in anime voice acting, in an episode of Astroboy, considered by many to be the "first" anime series

An interesting synergy with her husband, voice actor Masaaki Tsukada, and how they both have a character voiced in English by Sean Schemmel

Her career with various talent agencies and her foray into establishing her own

How missing out on a return to Gegege no Kitaro led to her landing the Dragon Ball gig

Her philosophy when it comes to voice acting and her work process

What Akira Toriyama said to her that makes her continue to portray Goku, even as she nears her 90s

and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual

Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise, and unspool what we all love so much about Goku, the Dragon Ball franchise, the Dragon Ball anime, Dragon Ball manga, and more.

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