Hitoshi Uchida left his job to follow his dream: meet Goku voice actress Masako Nozawa. Nozawa is a voice acting superstar and Uchida is hoping to just get a few moments in the limelight with her by amassing the largest Dragon Ball merchandise collection in the world.
“She’s helped me out throughout my life and to this day I am longing to meet her – it’s my final goal in life. When I thought about how I could make that into a reality, I thought of aiming for the record,” Uchida told Guinness World Records. Nozawa is a world record holder. Guinness awarded her the record for “voice actor who voiced the same character in a video game for the longest period” and “longest video game voice acting career” in 2017. Her role as Goku was particularly inspiring to Uchida as a child.
“Since I was a child, I was scared of ghosts, and I was scared of dying. And whenever I got scared, I imagined the voice of Son Goku as I was trying to go to sleep. (Son Goku) helped me cope with my fear,” Uchida said.
In order to prove his collection as the largest, Uchida had to meticulously photograph each and every piece of his collection. The Tokyo resident’s final total was 10,098 different items, enough to earn him the record holder title.
Of Uchida’s massive collection, about 4,000 items are just of Goku himself. Uchida shared why he thinks Goku is such an inspiration.
“I think it wants to tell the audience about not giving up. Goku’s opponents are always stronger at first, but Goku goes beyond that. When you face an obstacle, you go over it. I also challenged myself that way so that I can become stronger.”
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