Posted in: Anime, TV | Tagged: dragon ball, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Z, Mindraker: Background Anger, one piece, Sean Schemmel

Dragon Ball: Sean Schemmel on Hollywood Live-Action/Anime Disconnect

Dragon Ball star Sean Schemmel (Mindraker: Background Anger) spoke with us about One Piece & Hollywood's live-action anime misfires.

One thing voice actor Sean Schemmel desires above anything is authenticity, which is why he struggles to understand Hollywood's obsession with turning anime into live-action, given their perpetual misfires. As a veteran of the American dubbing anime scene for 40 years, the actor is synonymous with Akira Toriyama's most famous work in Dragon Ball, voicing protagonist Goku and its spinoffs since 1988. Based on the popular Chinese story Journey to the West, Schemmel would perform the role in every incarnation to date, which includes the current series Dragon Ball Super. He's even voiced alternate versions of the story in the LEGO & Amazon Kids Plus animated series Monkie Kid. With nearly 240 credits to his name, Schemmel's latest is a passion project with frequent collaborator Roy Burdine in the audio drama sci-fi mystery Mindraker: Background Anger. Schemmel spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he feels about how Hollywood's tried to mainstream Japanese anime into live-action with less-than-favorable results while there have been some recent exceptions, including James Cameron's 2019 hit Alita: Battle Angel and Netflix's One Piece, which was recently announced a renewal for a season two.

Schemmel: Why Hollywood Has Largely Failed in Anime Live-Action

"It's weird because I've kind of got an insider view, and I've watched Hollywood try to understand anime my entire career, and they still don't get it. It's not until you see, and I'm not entirely sure the anime genre trends will ever translate well to live-action. I'm not entirely convinced," Schemmel said. "I've only watched part of the live-action 'One Piece' (from Netflix), and I frankly think it's terrible. The (2009) 'Dragon Ball Z' live-action movie was also terrible for a different reason, though. They had switched directors halfway through before they even started production. It's interesting to watch Hollywood trying to grab onto it and try to get in that space. It comes across to me as a jealous thing because I watch, I do a lot of appearances, and I watch a lot of Hollywood actors be jealous of my autograph line. I'm like, "Cool, I'll trade you for your residuals and your giant house in Beverly Hills so your children will like you more."

How Celebrities at Conventions Are Jealous of Dragon Ball Star

Schemmel couldn't help but be a little cynical in the pop culture battle over the hearts and minds of youths. "A lot of it is jealousy, and I don't want to mention that actor, but there's a famous actor, ['Dragon Ball' franchise costar] Chris [Sabat] and I roasted on the red carpet because he'd done a superhero film," he said. "It always comes across as some Hollywood celebrity trying to get his kids to like him more because they're jealous that their kids like me more. It's not always the case, but I've seen it a couple of times, and even my famous voice actor friends, children are adults and like, "Yeah, they don't care about me. They like you're you because they grew up on you."

The Pokémon star is aware of public perception of his opinions even when his criticism is well-intentioned. "It's interesting, and I'm sorry about my opinions. I feel as a public figure, I feel so nervous about like even saying, 'I don't like the 'One Piece' live-action very much.' That's not necessarily the crew and cast's fault," he explained. "They're probably all talented. That's more of the execution and in terms of the genre translating. Once we see a real bona fide attempt by a high budget [studio] handling the effects, they do an anime because you also got to reconcile a big part of anime. A big part of the style is giant eyeballs, which makes a big difference in the style. When you're shooting anime, everybody's human beings with normal-sized eyeballs, but anime has these giant eyes that have fascinated everyone for decades. It's part of the style, and that alone, plus the hair, special effects, and subject matter, can be.

Schemmel is willing to put his anime fan cred up online anytime and offers a nuanced take on American and Japanese animation culture. "I always found Japanese television to be wildly more creative in terms of storyline and storytelling than American animation. When I was a little boy, I watched 'Ultraman,' 'Goldar,' 'Johnny Sakko and His Flying Robot,' 'Akira,' and 'Ninja Scroll.' I was like, 'Why is this so off the hook?'" he said. "Everything I watch is like 'Speed Buggy' and 'Scooby-Doo.' I'm a huge fan of that stuff, but in terms of depth, complexity of story, and ideas that twist your head inside out, anime is it. Now that a lot of those ideas are in the mainstream and when I'm driving down the road, I see so many anime stickers."

The Dragon Ball star offers one way Hollywood could bridge the gap with its fan base, and it starts with the creatives brought in. "I see so much stuff going on, and it's all mainstream. I still don't feel like Hollywood higher-ups are ever going to get it until all these kids who grew up in it get jobs doing that and start doing that, which is evidenced by the fact that Roy [Burdine] pointed this out to me," he said. "The last season of Picard. the showrunner [Terry Matalas] was a giant fanboy who ended up growing up around Star Trek or was on set assistant 'Next Gen.' Now he's digested it so much you've got this fantastic last season of Picard I don't even tell people to watch the first two seasons. My point about anime is the same thing. Once you have somebody like that helming something, the test will then finally be, we've got the right person in the slot. Will this genre translate to live-action? I'm not convinced it will yet, but I could be wrong for sure."

New episodes of Spiral Opus Audio's Mindraker: Background Anger are released on Thursdays.

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