I am now a regular!!
I was saving this topic for my 1000the post or for another time, but I’ll do it anyway.
Gather around… light up some firewood… outcome the BBQ… I’ll tell you my story with Dragon Ball and how I became the fan that I am today…
Where should I start? Oh, I got it…
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As you can see from my Username, I am a ninja fan ((used to be a Narutard)). When I was a kid in the early 90’s, I used to love an anime series called “Manga Sarutobi Sasuke”.
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That show was one of my favorites back in the day and I became a ninja lover thanks to it.
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In the year 2000… an Arabic channel for anime & cartoons was first premiered by the name of “SpaceToon”. There were some trailers for some of their shows and one of them was “Dragon Quest: Dai No Daibouken” or what’s known to the Arabian fans as “The Brave Dai”.
Japanese opening
Arabic opening
I watched the trailer, and judging by the scenes from it I wanted to watch it because it reminded me a lot of Manga Sarutobi Sasuke! And therefore, I liked it and made it one of my favorites.
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Time has passed… and the summer of the year 2002 has come. Summer is the time SpaceToon premier’s new shows and one of them was… Dragon Ball!!
At first, I didn’t know anything about the show more than “a boy with a tail” and some pictures on the internet…!! But it reminded me of Dai’s show and I thought I should check it out.
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I talked to one of my friends about the show, and he said that there is another show staring the Kid with the tail as an adult that was premiering on a European channel ((I can’t define the language)). He also showed me in one my videogame magazines an article about one of its games and I’m pretty sure it was Legacy of Goku.
Anyway, I went to his house the other day, and he showed me what he taped from the show. They were some episodes from the inside Boo ones ((I didn’t knew at that time)). When I was watching it, I had some questions about it in my head like:
“I’ve seen pictures of the guy in orange with a ring on his head. Why the other one in blue have it?”
“How do they change their hair to yellow? And why?”
“Who is that fat monster in the ball that looks like “The Jelly Man*”? ((*Our nickname for Super Boo))
All what I remember from the episodes were Goku & Vegeta walking their way, and a scene of “The Jelly Man” getting all muscular all of a sudden.
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But from what I’ve seen, I really got into the show, and I’ve taped all the episodes of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai with such joy in my heart. But when the dub concluded it with the fight between Goku and Blue, I felt kinda sad for not going further.
During that time, I got a copy of FUNimation’s movie 3 dub from KFC and saw some clips on Cartoon Network’s website.
And when summer 2003 came… it brought Dragon Ball Z!!
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But before seeing the first episode, I read some comments from other Arabian fans saying that the Arabic dub sucks with their re-writes… I was like: “What?!! The show that I saw was nothing close to the original?!!” That killed my excitement a bit… but I got over it.
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How did I feel when watching the first episode of Dragon Ball Z? Kinda close to the American fans… I had no idea who was Piccolo and other characters like Tenshinhan and Yajirobe ((When he first appeared, I thought he was a relative to Kuririn)) and I was kinda lost at the beginning because I didn’t know the back story behind some of the characters…
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But slowly, I started to get into the story with the help of many things. And they are as following:
- Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2: The first game I owned from the Dragon Ball franchise. ‘Though the story in it was a bit different, it kinda helped grasping some of the main points.
- Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3: The second game I had, and I learned more and more about the story and some characters, as well as introducing me to the “Funny, yet enjoyable” Japanese cast.
But the main thing that made me really know the series was the manga. I used to read those crappy scanlations that were flipped right to left, some untranslated dialogue and looked like it was drawn using Microsoft Paint and I think you all know it.
I also downloaded bootlegged DVD-ripped episodes and movies because they were not available “yet” in our region, and nobody had a problem with that…!!
And of course, the informative websites!!
One of the best sites that I used as a reference for Dragon Ball information was Dragon Ball Arena. I liked the guides they had as like "Mistakes", "Attacks" and "Parodies" well as the video and sound clips.
The other site was one I forgot its name, but I remember it had some information about the tournaments and funny pictures as well like a fan art of Trunks laughing at Vegeta’s loss against Perfect Cell, Gohan and the drugs, and loads of middle fingers.
Pojo’s website was also one of the regularly visited sites
And lastly……… Daizenshuu EX
I remember my first visit to it was during the year of Lunch ((year 7)). I loved the “Ask VegettoEX” part of it, as well as the Rumor guide, Transformation guide, movie guide and everything it had.
And last year, I started listening to the Podcast, and I’ve learned a lot with every episode I’ve listened to.
And finally, I’ve subscribed to the forums, and now… I know as much as an average fan… probably more than average, but not the same level as the masters!!
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My most notable achievements: Bought all of Viz’s mangas, Bought all the Kanzenbans ((Chinese anyway)), Starting to collect all the official releases, reviewing the Black and Fire Red Bricks, Became a huge fan of Journey to the West.
My goals: Getting all the Japanese data books, buying all of FUNimation’s Dragon Boxes, Buying Super Cool figures, and lastly… watch all of Dragon Ball Kai.
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And that my friends… was my story… my journey of knowing the greatness of Dragon Ball… One of the greatest things in the entire world!!
I like to thank all of those people who helped me building my knowledgement and interests of the series:
-Mohammad Noor Addeen: My best friend who got me into the series
-VegettoEX: The Master of DaizenshuuEX the website and podcast
-SaiyaJedi: The Grand Master of Dragon Ball information
-Meri: The wife of the Master
-Jeff: The Sexy voiced N00b
-Herms: The ((current)) No. 1 Walking Dragon Ball Library
-Hujio: The other Walking Dragon Ball Library
-Daimao: The best translator for the anime releases
-Tannoki Kuribo: The Information Provider of new Dragon Ball-related releases and items
-TeamFourStar: Best Dragon Ball Fan-Dubbing team
And everyone else in the Universe of DaizenshuuEX the forums…
Thank you, and enjoy what’s left from the BBQ
