Sean Schemmel, the Actor Voicing Dragon Ball’s Goku, Explains Why He Passed Out During ‘Kamehameha’

Credit: Crunchyroll

The ‘Kamehameha’ wave is not only one of the most famous attacks in anime history. It’s also the reason for many windows broken and a lot of decibels. Dragon Ball fans know very well the pleasure behind mimicking and yelling a ‘Kamehameha’ attack, but probably nobody can do it better than Sean Schemmel, the English voice actor for the one and only Son Goku.

Even though Sean has been voicing Goku in the English dub version for many years, he still has his limits. It’s crucially important not to strain your voice if you’re willing to ‘do’ a Kamehameha wave similar to Goku or even as Yamcha or Krillin do it.

Super Saiyan 4 Kamehameha made Sean Schemmel pass out

The stronger the transformation that Goku goes through, the more powerful his Kamehameha wave becomes. And it seems that it also becomes more difficult for the actors to voice the attack correctly.

Sean Schemmel explained how he passed out during such a screaming session as We Got This Covered quotes:

One of the reasons I passed out on Super Saiyan 4 Kamehameha Dragon Ball GT was because I exhaled too quickly relative to the amount of air and the length of the scream, and I didn’t calculate it right. And so I exhaled so quickly, I compressed my diaphragm and cutting off my blood supply. And then I guess I passed out.

Dragon Ball continues even nowadays, 38 years after the initial manga of the first series was released. While the first Dragon Ball series presented Goku’s adventures when he was a little boy, the next series, called Dragon Ball Z, showed him as an adult while having to confront much more powerful foes. The same thing happened during the Dragon Ball Super series, while it was a bit different in Dragon Ball GT. In GT, Goku became a child again because of a mistake from Shenron.

Cristian Antonescu
Cristian is in love with technology, as are many of us. He has a vast experience as a content writer in the field. He's involved especially in the hardware area, where he covers the latest news regarding smartphones, laptops, PC components, and so on.