The Dragon Ball panel at San Diego Comic Con International 2019, hosted by Funimation social content producer Lauren Moore, was a celebration of Dragon Ball fandom, inspired by the 20th anniversary of Dragon Ball Z and the ongoing production of English dubbed Dragon Ball Super episodes.
The panel featured voice actors Sonny Strait, Sean Schemmel, Christopher Sabat, and Monica Rial, the voices of Krillin, Goku, Vegeta, and Bulma respectively. Also on the panel, following up on Funimation hosting two professional football players at their My Hero Academia panel, was wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, Mohamed Sanu. Yes, it was four lead actors on the Dragon Ball series, and an NFL player. No, they did not explain why.
My hope is that Funimation is leading up to a sort of “Scooby Doo meets the Harlem Globetrotters” anime/NFL crossover, but I expect the chances of Deku and Goku meeting Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees are rather low.
Football aside, the format of the panel was a series of fandom-related questions for the voice actors, three of whom were celebrating their 20th year on the cast of Dragon Ball. It was fifty minutes of questions like “what is a fight mashup you would like to see?” and “When did you first realize Dragon Ball was a hit?” or “Do you have a favorite scene or a scene you would want to act again?”
Unlike other convention panels I try to cover, there were no big announcements or exclusive content presented at the panel. It was strictly a sort of conversation between fans and stars, with Mohamed “Mo” Sanu there to represent a sort of fan perspective. The football player grew up watching Dragon Ball Z as a child, and it was fun to see a athlete of his character turn starry eyed when Sean Schemmel put on his Goku voice to cheer him on.
A lot of the voice actors’ musings and stories centered on the two ideas that Dragon Ball has persisted for so long, existing in various forms for three decades now, and that because of its broad popularity and longevity, Dragon Ball fans now constitute a multi-generational family. For whatever reason, Sean Schemmel in particular kept coming back to the idea that some fans who grew up with Dragon Ball now have grandchildren who are growing up on Dragon Ball. I suspect he recently suffered a crisis of his own age and longevity at a signing or Q&A event.
Chris Sabat talked about how early in his Dragon Ball career, “Train hard for fifteen years and come see me again” was a phrase he would often use at signing events, and now some of the things he signed with that phrase are coming back to him, more than fifteen years later. It’s a testament to the ongoing decades of interest by fans. Sabat said he signs them again with “come back in twenty years” this time.
Almost an hour of fun and interesting stories like Monica Rial’s Spanish father finally coming to appreciate her as an actress when she was cast in Dragon Ball, or how Sonny Strait originally auditioned for Krillin with a Texas accent, were an absolute joy for me as a Dragon Ball fan. And I encourage any other fans who grew up with English dubbed Dragon Ball to watch the playback of this panel.
