It all began after the premiere of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods in North Texas. Local news stations and newspapers covered the event, and because of that day, Sonny Strait was pleased to have a bit of ammo when family reunions took place. “It kind of gives me a bit more legitimacy, you know?” he said jokingly as he recounted how, after all these years in the business, the recognition for voice actors was rising.
And since that premiere in 2014, it’s still going up.
One of the better trends over the past 4 or 5 years, maybe really past 2 years, is seeing anime films in North American theaters. Normally they would be licensed and sold as DVDs (later BDs) in stores, or they would have select premieres at conventions. You’d also get Disney releasing a Ghibli title. However, theaters have recently held premieres of anime films. More festivals have shown them. And for most of this year, anime films were shown in theaters in North America, with more (Mirai, Liz and the Blue Bird to name a few) still coming. 
Recently, Perfect Blue had a theater revival last month, and on November 3rd and 5th in the US, TOEI & Fathom Events will air two DBZ movies: Bardock — The Father of Goku and Fusion Reborn. Cineplex will present the Saiyan double feature November 3rd in Canada.
Sonny Strait, the voice of Usopp in One Piece, Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist, and, of course, Krillin from Dragon Ball, has been pleasantly surprised at what’s been going on.
“I’m blown away by this rise of anime in theaters,” he said over the phone as we discussed the significance of this double feature. We then discussed his role of being Bardock and bringing these movies out now in 2018. That generally brings him back to when this originally was dubbed in the early 2000s and how they were usually conducted: going in cold. “We didn’t even get to hear the Japanese first. It’s a rare treat for us today because we can hear them first, the emotions they’re going for, and be able to emulate them.
“Back then we didn’t have that.”
But Sonny connected with Bardock and his story. A low-class Saiyan under the command of Frieza, Bardock learns, after he and his team destroys an alien race and is then cursed with the gift of foresight, that his own planet would soon be destroyed by Frieza. Initially believing them to be delusions, he soon learns Planet Vegeta’s destruction will come to pass, and there’s nothing he can do about it. But there is that one last hope that he sees that will eventually end Frieza’s reign of terror.
For Sonny, it was an interesting character to be cast for, since he did do a few lines whenever Bardock was in the TV series. But he believes the video games have done a lot for Bardock’s popularity. “We were doing sometimes like 3 a year of all these Dragon Ball games, and Bardock became a favorite character for a lot of people.
“So to see this released now, in widescreen for more people to see it and digitally remastered is a treat to see.”
And with these showings, he hopes the fan base continues to keep growing, whether they’re going to see the two movies for the first time or once again. “The cool thing about doing this for 20 years is I’ve seen several generations of fans attracted to this series, and it’s amazing to me to see people bring in their kids, and say, ‘Yeah my kid’s a big fan!’ Now I have a grandson who will be 10 this month and he’s a huge DBZ fan.
“So I hope it continues to make the franchise stronger and gain new, young fans, but I think for older fans, it’s gonna be a thrill to see these things they already know all about on the big screen.”