STACK September 2017 Issue 155

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This month, the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball Super are
hitting the shelves exclusively at JB Hi-Fi.We were lucky enough
to speak with the English voice of Vegeta, Christopher Sabat,
about how far the franchise has come. Words Alesha Kolbe
C hristopher Sabat
provides a
number of
voices for the English
dub of Dragon Ball
Super, and first joined
the franchise back with
the humble beginnings of
Dragon Ball Z. His talent for voice
acting was made apparent to him
at an early age.
“It was like one day I just woke
up between my sixth and seventh
years at school, and went from
having a really high voice and
singing in a boys’ choir to having
my voice drop to almost as low
as what it is now,” muses Sabat.
“It was almost like the universe
told me what to do at that point,
and it was through everyone
else’s voice. All of our neighbours
and everyone else always said
‘you should get into radio!’,
because back when I
was growing up that
was the profession of
choice. The Internet
wasn’t even a thing
yet, and I’m not sure that anyone
in the USA had even heard of
anime.”
Sabat provides the voices
for the likes of Vegeta, Piccolo,
JUST
SAIYAN
Yamcha, and
even Shenron in
Dragon Ball Super
– but who is his
favourite?
“Vegeta is my
favourite character – but
only because in my opinion
he has a better story arc than
anyone in the show – including
Goku, because Goku sucks,” he
laughs. “I’m not kidding, he’s
terrible. I don’t know if it’s like
a chicken before the egg thing
because I voice Vegeta, but I really
don’t like him. I think Vegeta has
more depth to his character, he
has a more interesting backstory.
He’s mean. He’s the bad guy that
hangs out with the good guys
because he chose to. He’s got the
coolest wife, and the coolest toys,
and he’s just an epic guy.
"Vegeta’s the best character to
play, but honestly the most fun
I have is whenever I get to do
anything with Yamcha, because
he was the original – the first
character I ever got to voice. He’s
so dorky; he’s fun to play, he’s
easy on my voice, and he’s got a
pet cat. He’s such a goob.”
Dragon Ball Super ’s story fits in
towards the end of Dragon Ball Z,
following the defeat of Majin Buu.
According to Sabat, it’s a great
entry point for those who might
not have seen a frame of the
famous anime.
“The group has come off
defeating a huge enemy, and
now they’ve got a little bit of
time to relax. Vegeta is kind of
settling into his home life, fulfilling
promises to his wife [Bulma], and
they’re really just joking around
with him at first. Then, some
pretty interesting new characters
show up. They introduce Beerus
and Whis pretty quickly into the
story, and these two make it clear
that Vegeta and the other Saiyans
aren’t as big in the grand scheme
of the universe as they thought
they were.
"A lot of the story involves
the typical getting stronger and
training. Whis – Beerus’s trainer –
ends up training Goku and Vegeta,
and it seems to me that the two
of them have this sort of yin-
yang quality to them. It looks
like they’re going to have
to team up to defeat some
serious foes.”
It was almost like the universe told me
what to do at that point...
• Dragon Ball
Super – Part 1
is out Sept 6
What would you be doing if you weren’t acting?
“I would probably be doing something creative. I might still be in a band, I might be making music still,
but who knows because Dragon Ball has changed my life in the most incredible ways. I can’t even
fathom what my life would have been like without it. I might be on this path for another 15-20 years; they
never stop making the games, and they never stop making the shows it seems, so here’s to that.”
024 SEPTEMBER 2017
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
Did you
know?
Chris Sabat actually
attended school for a
short time in New South
Wales, at Killarney
Heights High School!
Christopher Sabat