Johnny Yong Bosch, the voice actor who took over the role of Dragon Ball’s Broly following Funimation’s controversial firing of long-time Broly voice actor Vic Mignogna, has revealed that he was specifically offered the role from the Japanese producer of the Dragon Ball anime, Toei Animation.
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Last month, on September 18th, Recording Time Media founder and producer Steven Alvarez published an interview with Mignogna wherein the two discussed various topics regarding the voice actor’s long career, such as anime’s growth in the United States, fan fiction, and theoretical meetings between various characters voiced by Mignogna.
During the interview, Alvarez asked Mignogna why he “picked [Bosch] to take over the role”, to which the voice actor replied that he “didn’t pick Johnny” and “had nothing to do with that.”
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“Funimation chose Johnny,” explained Mignogna. “But I will say this. All of my interactions with Johnny have been very positive. I like Johnny a lot.”
“Now you can’t say that for everybody in the industry, but I can say that for Johnny. He’s a good guy, and if somebody else is going to play the character…Honestly, I told Johnny this. You know Johnny, it’s sad to lose this role, but at least if somebody else is going to do it, I’m glad it’s you,” Mignogna stated.
Weeks later, on October 5th, Alvarez would publish a separate and brief interview with Bosch, in which the two similarly discussed the recasting of Broly.
In this interview, Alvarez broached the subject of Broly by explaining to Bosch that he “actually talked to Vic Mignogna not too long ago and he said that it was Funimation’s doing” and asked if he would “care to elaborate on that.”
“Same, my answer’s the same,” said Bosch. “It was Funimation’s doing. Like, I don’t know all the details of what went down with him and all that stuff, y’know.”
Bosch would then reveal that he was approached for the role by Toei Animation due to his connections within the company from having “worked for them on different projects and things like that.”
“They had contacted me and asked if I would be interested in voicing Broly, in the future,” Bosch recalled. “I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know if I was replacing him, or if it was a new iteration of it, or something new.”
However, Bosch also noted that after he “found out there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that I wasn’t privy to,” he approached Mignogna directly “to see what’s going on there.”
Bosch has so far voiced both versions of Broly in Dragon Ball Legends and the Dragon Ball: Super iteration of the character in Dragon Ball: FighterZ.
What do you make of Toei’s choice? Do you like Bosch as Broly? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!