Renan Roque's Super Saiyan 5 Goku Animation Praised for Art, Criticized for AI Voices

I gave Renan Roque's Super Saiyan 5 Son Goku fan animation a live reaction, watching the English version with his permission. I'd reacted to his animations before, and going in I said, "he's good. He's very very good."

Renan Roque's Super Saiyan 5 Son Goku Animation Gets Praised as "On Model"

Before the fight even started, one detail stood out to me: Tablos, the artist whose Goku design had sparked a brief dispute with me last year, got a credit in the animation. That dispute was over my use of his design in a thumbnail, which got resolved after I took the thumbnail down. Seeing the credit, I said, "It's a good thing because if he didn't get credited, I assure you you'd hear about it."

I said the Goku model itself was very on model, and that it looked quite a bit like Masako Sato's Goku. The transformation sequence into Super Saiyan 5, including the red eyes and hair design, stood out to me as praise-worthy, and I called the animation "a beautiful beautiful piece of art" and "great work from Renan."

The Art Impresses, but the AI Voice Kind of Hurts It

The voice acting raised my suspicion almost immediately, and checking the credits confirmed it was AI generated. "So the AI voice, I'm going to be honest with you and don't get mad Renan. I'm just keeping it real with you. Kind of knocks some points away," I said, suggesting Renan could have reached out to a real voice actor used on my own animated fan project, or offering to help connect the two for a redub.

Specific dialogue moments suffered for it: the name Uub came out sounding like "you up," and Pan was rendered so it sounded closer to "Ben." Even so, I defended the writing itself: "The dialogue isn't really that bad. Like I can imagine somebody delivering these lines... and making them sound cool. The AI voice is just kind of hurts it." My final verdict was that the art, shading and line work were all great, and "it's just the audio. The audio needs improvement."

Asked whether any AI voice currently sounds convincing, I said, "There isn't really one that sounds natural just yet but we don't have that long to go with AI," pointing to how fast both AI and quantum computing are evolving and guessing it might only take "a few years." I admitted I've underestimated how fast AI would improve before.

A Possible Future Collaboration on My Animated Fan Project

After the reaction, I put a poll to viewers asking whether Renan should be hired to work on future episodes of my animated fan project, alongside the animators already used for that project. I said this was not a guarantee that new episodes are coming soon, since other commitments are currently taking priority, but I'm discussing the idea with my co-producer, with "a lot of ideas" planned for future content on that project.

I also checked Renan's channel live, finding a Moro teaser animation I called "incredible," and I praised Renan, who I said is from Portugal, again as "a great animator."

Update on the Goku Black Remake and Dragon Ball Super's Later Arcs

Asked whether there was new information on a possible Goku Black remake, I said an update video is coming later in the week, tied to a phone call scheduled for Thursday, possibly moved up to Wednesday.

If Toei ultimately decides not to move forward with the Goku Black and Tournament of Power arcs, I said that outcome would be acceptable to me: "the anime version's production-wise still looked okay, I didn't think there was that many issues," and I said skipping ahead would mean reaching the Moro arc sooner, which is what I want either way.

Why There's No Plan to React to Another Fan-Made Dragon Ball Project

Asked about reacting to a fan-made Dragon Ball project by another creator, I passed, saying I don't want to react to it. I have no personal issue with its creator, who has never been rude to me, but his vision for Dragon Ball simply isn't what I like, and having already seen it, reacting now wouldn't be a genuine surprise reaction.