Dragon Ball Recasts One of Its Greatest Villains
In January earlier this year, the legendary voice actor who brought to life one of Dragon Ball Z’s greatest villains passed away. Kozo Shioya had brought to life Majin Buu for decades, first getting his start in DBZ and then continuing to bring the pink powerhouse to life across video games, movies, and more. With the shonen franchise planning to make a comeback later this year with a remake of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, and the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol, it seems that the franchise has a new face to take on the character of Buu.
In the recent video game, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, a new downloadable content addition, has added quite a few new characters along with brand new story modes to expand on the digital entry. With the passing of Shioya in January this year, the franchise has brought in voice actor Mitsuaki Kanuka to voice Majin Buu as part of the DLC. While Kanuka hasn’t been confirmed to take on Buu in the anime proper, it seems highly likely that this will be the case when the franchise returns with Dragon Ball Super: Beerus later this year. Hilariously enough, Kanuka doesn’t just have a major anime resume; he helps voice another pink powerhouse thanks to a Japanese Dub of an American favorite.
Bikini Bottom Meets Buu
In his anime career, Kanuka has taken on roles in franchises including Rooster Fighter, Clevatess, Digimon, My Hero Academia, The Apothecary Diaries, Overlord, Jujutsu Kaisen, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. One of his biggest roles makes Mitsuaki hilariously have a lot in common with Buu, as Kanuka plays the part of Patrick Star in Spongebob SquarePants for the Japanese Dub of the legendary Nickelodeon series. Even though Patrikck was never threatening the galaxy from under his rock in Bikini Bottom, he has more than a little in common with Majin Buu when it comes to the appearance department.
While Majin Buu doesn’t play a significant role in the upcoming remake of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, should it stick to the source material, it makes sense that the shonen franchise would need to recast the former villain. In the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Galactic Patrol, Buu plays a significant role in the fight against the villainous Moro, not just lending Goku and Vegeta a physical assist, but helping to explore more of the sorcerer’s backstory. Without diving too deep into spoiler territory, the now-good Majin Buu plays a major role in the upcoming storyline as fans will be set to learn more about the shonen character’s origin than they might have expected. With artist Toyotaro also hinting at the return of the Dragon Ball Super manga, it’s a good time to be a supporter of the Z-Fighters.
