Piccolo’s voice actor wants you to get out there and ‘be the Piccolo’ for someone
As a voice-over artist, Christopher Sabat has stolen the show in animated movies and shows so many times, it’s easy to lose count. The prolific actor is the English voice behind anime characters like All Might in My Hero Academia, Colonel Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Ayame Soma in Fruits Basket, among many other memorable roles. But his most popular scene-stealing performances might come from the Dragon Ball franchise and his roles as Vegeta and Piccolo.
Both are fan-favorite characters, but Piccolo has traditionally been a supporting character, while Vegeta has essentially become Dragon Ball’s second protagonist, along with hero Goku. The movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero changes that, letting Piccolo step up to star alongside his former pupil: Goku’s eldest son, Gohan.
Recently, Sabat spoke to Polygon about his career playing Piccolo and his role in Super Hero, and fandom’s relationship with one of the most memorable characters in anime.
This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
Polygon: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is a fun movie for fans like me who grew up with Dragon Ball, but haven’t really kept up. It really hearkens back to those early comedic Dragon Ball days, but you can also watch it as a stand-alone film.
Christopher Sabat: Yeah, you can. It has [Dragon Ball creator/Super Hero writer] Akira Toriyama’s spirit all over it. This is just a hypothesis that I gleaned from 25 years of working on this, but it does seem like, were Akira Toriyama to have his way, Dragon Ball would probably be mostly comedy, because that’s where it started, right? Dragon Ball started as mostly comedy and some combat. So whenever stuff is lively, fun, and quirky — that’s when I know Akira Toriyama
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