Sean Schemmel Talks 'Dragon Ball Super' and its Growing American Influence

Dragon Ball Super's audience is growing more and more everyday, and its popularity is even more noticeable for those close to it such as Goku's voice actor for the English dub, Sean Schemmel.

Schemmel sat down with Comicbook.com and talked all things Dragon Ball Super, and he had some very enlightening things to say about the series' bigger influence in America.

Schemmel talked Dragon Ball Super's growing influence in the United States is because of the greater interconnectivity between regions, "We're all affected by each other's art...Japan is consuming American culture. We're consuming Japanese culture. We're all consuming different cultures. No artist is an island, I don't believe."

Because of that interconnectivity, Schemmel's noticed a change in Toei Animation's production style, "I noticed that the pacing and the story boarding and things are much quicker, and I don't want to say it's more American style because I don't know that we invented that but it definitely matches more with the pacing of 2018 cartoons and American cartoons and the story boarding's real similar."

This new style has in fact impacted Super's pace too, as Schemmel states "There's less powering up for two weeks and more story, more dialogue, more comedy, better quality animation, better frame rates."

To Schemmel, Dragon Ball Super can stack up next to any modern American cartoon you put it against, "...when I make the argument about the popularity of our cartoon as a dub, as American cartoons, I can say, 'Look. You can throw up Dragon Ball Super next to an American made cartoon and in terms of polish and fit and finish and delivery of story, it's real close and real neck-and-neck with shows like Family Guy or the Simpsons or whatever that are mainstream American content."

But just as Schemmel is pushing for an authentic Goku portrayal every day, the rest of the staff is working harder too. It's one of the many reasons Dragon Ball has more of an influence than ever, "Everybody's getting better. They're drawing animation better in 2018 in some cases than in 80s and 90s when you look at old original Dragon Ball Z footage and it's scratchy and grainy, but it's definitely hand drawn and looks really beautiful."

Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on Funimation, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

If you want to catch up with the English dub, the first 52 episodes of Dragon Ball Super are now available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and available to purchase on Amazon Video as well. The 52 episodes span the full range of what has aired in the North America and covers the "Battle of Gods" arc, "Revival of F" arc, the "Universe 6" arc, and bringing the series right up to the current TV airings of the "Future Trunks" arc.

The first Dragon Ball Super film, now titled Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is set to release this December in Japan, and has released its first trailer. The film will focus on the Saiyans, the "origins of Goku's power," and has been confirmed to feature a rebooted take on the famous raging Saiyan Broly. The series will get a major makeover when its first film drops, and fans can thank Naohiro Shintani for that.

The beloved animator was brought in by Toei Animation to oversee the movie, and was approved by series creator Akira Toriyama. He'll be contributing to the film's script and character designs. Fans will get their first look at the new film during the Dragon Ball North America Tour and San Diego Comic-Con, as well.