Dragon Ball Z leaks: Voice actors, Funimation at center of audio recording controversy

Ultra Instinct Goku in Dragon Ball Super. Pic credit: Funimation.
Ultra Instinct Goku in Dragon Ball Super. Pic credit: Funimation

When you find yourself trending on Twitter, it’s not always a good thing. Case in point Funimation, which recently found itself trending as a result of NSFW comments made by several Dragon Ball Z voice actors while in character.

Leaked recordings of the comments — which were said to have been made while the cast were enjoying downtime during recording sessions — involved various controversial topics, including sodomy and incest, and contained homophobic remarks.

One of the actors said to be heard in the recordings is Sean Schemmel, the English voice dub for the character Goku. Others reportedly recorded include Sonny Strait, the English voice of Krillin, Chris Rager, who provides the English voice of Hercule/Mr. Satan, and Christopher Sabat, the English voice actor of characters such as Piccolo, Yamcha, Kami, Mr. Popo, and Guru.

Some of the leaked audio recording can be heard in the YouTube video below. We warn you though, some of the language used is definitely NSFW, so please listen with caution.

The clips were originally revealed by attorney Nick Rekieta during his Rekieta Law livestream (video below). According to Rekieta — who said he obtained the recordings “absolutely, one hundred percent legally” — the off color comments and “jokes” made by the voice cast were, he believed, a violation of Funimation’s work guidelines.

The clips were released after Rekieta had been public in his support of former voice actor Vic Mignogna, who was fired from Funimation due to sexual misconduct allegations made against him (which is a whole other can of worms).

When IGN reached out to Funimation about the leaks, they responded that they had no comment. However, the leaked recordings could well still result in some sort of fallout. There has already reportedly been some outrage made by Japanese voice actors about the controversy.

However, fans on Twitter are divided — with some calling out the voice actors for their comments, with others saying they were just having fun. There are many who are now also accusing Funimation of hypocrisy in the wake of how they dealt with Vic Mignogna.

What do you think? Is this just voice actors blowing off some steam? Or should it result in the actors being reprimanded?

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