A Dragon Ball Actor Once Passed Out Whilst Voicing Goku

If you don’t know who Sean Schemmel is, then it may not be because you recognize the name. There is a far better chance that you will know the actor’s voice. Schemmel has been the man behind Son Goku’s English voice since Dragon Ball was first brought to the U.S. Over the decades, Schemmel has voiced Goku in hundreds of anime episodes, and the actor recently reprised the character for Dragon Ball Super. With so much work under his belt, fans have started to wonder what kind of crazy issues have arose while Schemmel was knocking out a Kamehameha.

Well, apparently, it was when the voice actor passed out in the booth.

In the past, Schemmel has opened up about his various recording antics, but one story has become an infamous one within the fandom. During an appearance at London Comic-Con, Schemmel admitted that he had passed out while recording Goku. However, he made a point to stress it was not during Dragon Ball Z‘s introduction of the Super Saiyan 3 form.

“Here’s the deal. I never, ever passed out in Dragon Ball Z, but I did pass out in Dragon Ball GT,” he told fans. “It was during the Super Saiyan 4 transformation, and I was really tired and hadn’t been sleeping well. I just calculated the amount of air you’d need for a Kamehameha or another power-up, but I made my voice lower.”

The actor went on to say that lowering his voice allowed his vocal cords to widen, allowing him to let out more air than usual. As such, Schemmel miscalculated how much air he needed for the take, and he ended up passing out for 2-3 seconds. Luckily, the actor said that the recording booth was padded, so the fall was at least a cushioned one.

Dragon Ball Super‘s “Universal Survival” saga is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturdays at 7:15 p.m. CST. Toonami will begin airing the English dub on Adult Swim Saturdays at 11:30 p.m.