Crunchyroll Expo 2022

Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO Panel

With Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero hitting U.S. theaters just a few weeks from the time of this writing, fans are positively excited and ready to see some of their favorite iconic characters presented on the big screen once again. Honestly, the only people that could probably match or even potentially exceed the excitement of those fans are the people bringing the English voices of such iconic characters and even new characters to life. At Crunchyroll Expo 2022, there was a small panel hosted by Lauren Moore that featured special guests Kyle Hebert, the English voice of adult Gohan, as well as the voice actors Zeno Robinson and Aleks Le who will be voicing two of our upcoming villains for the series, Gamma #1 and Gamma #2. The three of them were able to answer a few questions regarding their history with the franchise as well as offer some insight on what the recording process was like for this movie before the panel screened roughly the first 20 minutes of the film. While the actors and myself are unable to spoil the film for those who have not gotten a chance to see it just yet (shout out to Kyle Hebert's shirt that read “Don't ask me, I signed an NDA”), there were still a couple of nice tidbits that some longtime fans might be excited to know about.

For example, it was interesting to hear that Aleks and Zeno actually recorded their scenes as the twin Androids together in the same booth. While it is relatively common for western cartoons and a lot of Japanese media to have actors record and play off of each other in the same booth, such a practice is very rarely done for anime dubbing. According to Aleks, he had gone to the recording studio with Zeno even though his recording session wasn't until a couple of hours later because Aleks didn't have a ride. However, while Zeno was recording in the booth, the ADR director Chris Sabat asked if Aleks wanted to go in the booth and record alongside Zeno. Aleks is a huge fan of Japanese voice actors so he said it was an honor to record to Hiroshi Kamiya's performance. Both Kamiya and Mamoru Miyano have very distinct sounding voices so while Aleks and Zeno sit in a similar vocal range, they did try to push each other to sound more unique. In fact, given how close they have been, the two seemed to be mindful and help each other practice before they were even announced to get the roles. Gamma #1 and Gamma #2 seem to be close despite having very different personalities so having these two friends play off of each other in real time was interesting to know. I'm curious if this practice will noticeably affect the characters' on-screen chemistry in English.

Speaking of chemistry, hearing Aleks and Zeno reflect on the fact that they pretty much grew up on Kyle's work in Dragon Ball was heartwarming. Kyle even joked that he narrated their childhood considering that he was one of the early narrators for the show. One of the first bits of media that Aleks saw when he came to America as a kid was the Dragon Ball dub and Zeno collected a bunch of Dragon Ball merch from a young age. So the both of them being a part of it all so many years later still hasn't quite hit him yet but it's clear that they both brought that passion to the recording booth. Also, they practiced their own hero action poses for everyone! These two are great.

Kyle has never hid his love for the franchise or the character of Gohan so the fact that this film seems to have him as a focus clearly made him excited. He knows where the character is in life and knows what to bring to the table. He's aware of the almost father/son relationship between Piccolo and Gohan while also joking that Piccolo is kinda like the main babysitter for the franchise. However, even Kyle seemed to joke that no one really knows what goes on in the mind of series creator Akira Toriyama but that's part of what makes everything exciting. This is a new tale in a beloved franchise and while there are certainly people that might lament the fact that the franchise is still going, there are others that are happy they get to still be a part of it.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero opens in theaters in the U.S. on August 19.