Sean Schemmel has been a fundamental part of Dragon Ball’s anime since first stepping into the role of Goku all the way back in 1999. Throughout the many series that were forged by Akira Toriyama, and many that weren’t, the voice actor has lived and breathed the shonen franchise. Unfortunately, not every part of the shonen franchise is beloved by Schemmel, especially when it comes to one major fan-made project. At a recent convention, Schemmel unleashed on Dragon Ball Z Abridged and discussed how his work on the series puts him at odds with the project.
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During this year’s FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention, Schemmel was in attendance to discuss his work on the Dragon Ball franchise when a fan asked about Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Before the fan could fully complete his question, Sean shared his thoughts, “I think that you’re f-ing with me a little bit, and you’re really putting me on the spot. I hate this question because you know what you’re doing. You want to ask me about a show that is an illegal thing, that I didn’t work on, and you know what the deal is. I’m very uncomfortable right now. Like, you want my opinion that Toei sent them a thing and they said ‘F You’ to it? That they’re disrespecting Akira Toriyama?”
Schemmel did praise the fan voice actors at the same time, however, “I think they’re very funny, I think they’re very talented, but I get tired of being put on the spot with this question. I’ve been working on the show for twenty-six years, and I’m here to promote the real deal. Again, I think those guys are funny, I love parody, I think it’s funny, but I’m not here to talk about that.”
Abridged’s History With Dragon Ball
For those who might need a refresher on Dragon Ball Z Abridged, the fan-made parody series was released in 2008, covering a good portion of the anime adaptation. Forged by Team Fourstar, the YouTube series took the anime’s original animation and re-dubbed it with the fan voice actors, making it far funnier than the source material. The series would “end” when the Cell Saga came to a close, as the creators didn’t want to fully adapt the Majin Buu Saga. While the creators would voice over several key moments of the final DBZ arc for a differen YouTube series from creator “TotallyNotMark,” Team FourStar has branched out to other avenues.
What might make this reaction from Schemmel all the more surprising is that the voice actors of Team FourStar were brought onto the official Dragon Ball Z English Dub. Fan voice actors Scott Frerichs, Nick Landis, Lawrence Simpson, and Curtis Arnott were brought on to hilariously recreate the events of the Cell Games, via Hercule’s interpretation of events for the small screen. While Abridged never returned for the likes of Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Daima, they have become a big part of the shonen franchise all the same.
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