Like with many other online communities, AI generation tends to be extremely unpopular within the fighting game community. The sentiment holds true for us staff members here at EventHubs.
Understandably, Masako Nozawa — who has voiced Dragon Ball’s Goku for over 40 years at this point — is not a big fan of AI generation found within productions that use her voice without her permission.
Japanese outlet NHK (via IGN) recently interviewed Nozawa. During this exchange, Nozawa was shown a video that used an AI imitation of her voice. Evidently, she wasn’t too happy about this.
“The AI-generated voice may resemble me. It may even be identical. But it lacks heart, doesn’t it? Without heart, it’s no good, no matter what the role.” — Masako Nozawa
“That’s not my voice. I can’t forgive them for using it without permission; it’s like theft, and it makes me furious,” she said in response.
“The AI-generated voice may resemble me. It may even be identical. But it lacks heart, doesn’t it? Without heart, it’s no good, no matter what the role. Even if it’s just a crying voice, I believe it’s different if you cry with emotion.”
Notably, Masako Nozawa has an estimated net worth of $20 million, marking her as the richest voice actor in Japan. At the age of 89, she could very easily retire.
And yet, Nozawa continues to act as the voice of anime’s most famous protagonist. There’s clearly a passion within her that can’t be found in an AI generation of her voice.
“I want you to work hard so that you become someone people will definitely remember as a voice actor,” she said on the subject of voice acting. “If you don’t put your heart into it, you’ll just be reading the lines, so make them come alive.”
Of course, it’s not just anime in which Nozawa portrays Goku in. She also acted as Goku’s voice actress in 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ.
It’s just a small portion of the game, but it’s difficult to imagine a fighting game like Dragon Ball FighterZ without the passion of someone like Sean Schemmel or Masako Nozawa. As mentioned before, this is just something that AI cannot replicate.
“Rules are now being established, so I hope everyone will follow them. It’s all based on the premise that everyone will truly follow the rules,” said Nozawa of the Tokyo District Court ruling on September 30 with regards to the unauthorized usage of someone’s voice.
