Masako Nozawa is one of the most iconic seiyuu in the industry’s history. And one of the keys to her success is of course, her role as Dragon Ball’s Son Goku. Now, for those who aren’t familiar with the Japanese dubbed version, the Saiyan actually has a catchphrase that’s popular in Japan.

His catchphrase is “Ossu! Ora Goku!” which kinda means “Yo! I’m Goku!”. The line pops up in several episodes, from the original to Dragon Ball Super. It’s a reference not only to Goku’s martial arts background (Ossu is a typical word which martial artists often use in Japan), but also his simple-mindedness. But recently, Nozawa admitted that the catchphrase itself is an Ad Lib during her appearance in a recent episode of Fuji TV’s Downtown Now variety show.

She appeared together with Piccolo’s seiyuu, Toshio Furukawa to talk about Dragon Ball itself. There, Furukawa recalled that Nozawa was once questioned by a director about her so-called “Goku language”. It seems that this “Goku language” has helped Nozawa create Goku’s iconic character through the years, and the director was kinda curious about it. To this, she said that if she spoke in standard Japanese, it wouldn’t be Goku anymore. This made the director relent and made her use the Goku language since. This proves Nozawa’s penchant for ad libbing, which is already known throughout the seiyuu industry. Among these is that “Ossu! Ora Goku!” catchphrase, which she admitted that she accidentally created because of a certain incident.

She said that she first said the line in front of a microphone as a joke. However, the staff found the line amusing, and used it ever since. Well, if we take into consideration that many consider Nozawa as Goku himself and vice versa, then it’s all the more amusing.

source: 0takomu