Al Roker’s Dragon Ball Intro at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Goes Viral

Dragon Ball is back in a big way these days, and it seems the franchise is as powerful now as ever. After all, Goku is taking a tour of New York City thanks to Macy’s, and one newscaster is about go go viral for their bit on the Saiyan.

Earlier today, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade got underway, and it was there Goku showed up. This year marks the Saiyan’s debut at the event as Funimation brought the fighter to New York City. Television networks across the country are showing footage of the Goku balloon’s tour, and Al Roker went the extra mile for his bit.

Commentating for NBC, Roker introduced Goku to millions of people at home watching the parade, and he did so with plenty of pizzazz.

“Funimation brings us the Earth’s mightiest warrior Goku with superhuman strength. He’s also god of the popular Dragon Ball franchise and came to the parade for his Thanksgiving Day debut,” the man told audiences as Goku’s balloon came onto the small screen. “Featured here in his Super Saiyan Blue form, you can experience Goku’s other forms — his blazing speed, power of light — in his new movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly.”

The brief introduction is perhaps the most detailed one given for Goku on cable yet, but Roker is going viral for his delivery of the description. After all, the anchor did flub up a few words, and anime lovers were hoping for such a thing to happen. Not only did Roker mispronounce “Funimation” with a hard consonant, but his delivery of “Saiyan” has drawn out controversy.

As you can see above, Roker transitions his lines to talk about Super Saiyan Blue, but the newscaster pronounces “Saiyan” as if it were “scion.” That delivery does not match up with how the English dub says “Saiyan,” but international fans are defending Roker for his gig. After all, the Japanese dub makes “Saiyan” sound more like “scion,” and plenty of other dubs for Dragon Ball followed suit. Fans are going to bat over the term’s proper pronunciation, and Roker is in the middle of the brewing war.

So, are you feeling emotional over Goku’s big holiday debut? How do you feel about Roker’s way of saying Saiyan? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Dragon Ball Super currently airs 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 FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media.