Within the Dragon Ball narrative, one of the most unique characters is Goku’s son, Gohan. He is probably the only Saiyan who hates fighting and wants to be a scholar. In many ways, he is the exact opposite of his father, who loves challenging strong opponents and testing out his own abilities against them. However, there is a reason for that.
While almost all of the other fighters in Dragon Ball had to go through intense training, Gohan is the only one who trained under Piccolo, and by the looks of it, the training was quite dense for Gohan as he was a child at that time. The intensity of the training was not only felt by Gohan but also by the voice actors in Dragon Ball.
During an interview, Gohan’s voice actor Masako Nozawa talked about a past incident where King Kai’s voice actor Joji Yanami had an outburst at Piccolo’s voice actor, Toshio Furukawa, for the way his character was harshly training Gohan.
King Kai’s Voice Actor Got Angry at Piccolo’s Voice Actor
An interview involving Akira Toriyama, Takao Koyama, and Goku and Gohan’s voice actors was featured in TV Anime Guide: Dragon Ball Tenka’ichi Densetsu, which was translated by Kazenshuu. During the interview, Nozawa recalled an incident while discussing the training of Gohan and how hard it was for the character.
Nozawa stated:
He gets a big bump on his head, and yet he doesn’t hate Piccolo. Now that you mention it, during young Gohan’s training, it seemed like Piccolo was picking on Gohan, didn’t it? At that time, all the performers were really into their roles, so Jōji Yanami-san (Narration / Kaiō-sama) got angry at Piccolo’s voice actor, Toshio Furukawa-san, and shouted, “Hey, knock it off. He’s just a child!” (laughs) Furukawa-san was perplexed, and said, “I’m just voicing the character…” (laughs)
Masako Nozawa revealed that Gohan was a very cute character as a kid, and he was different from his father in terms of fighting and training. So when Piccolo was getting a little harsh with Gohan while training, Yanami-san (King Kai’s voice actor), who was really into his role, got angry at Furukawa (Piccolo’s voice actor).
Furukawa got puzzled and replied that he was just voicing the character and had no contribution to the way Piccolo was treating Gohan.
Gohan’s Unbearable Training Sessions With Piccolo
Piccolo was introduced as an enemy in the beginning of Dragon Ball, but later on, he changed sides and became an ally of Goku and the group. However, he still had to earn his redemption in the series, which is why he decided to train Gohan and help him become a great warrior who would later change the narrative of Dragon Ball.
However, Piccolo’s training methods were quite harsh, and he was generally criticized by the fans for being rough on Gohan, who was just a child at the time. His methods involved leaving Gohan in the wild alone to fend for himself, fighting him constantly to teach him martial arts, and using difficult methods to unlock his ki.
With Goku being dead at the time, Piccolo’s training was the only way Gohan could have unlocked his true potential and lived up to the name of his father. While Gohan was not a fan of Piccolo’s methods, he later realized the importance of the training and became one of the strongest fighters the Dragon Ball world has ever seen.
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