Who saw the Japanese version as a kid?

[LuckyCat]

My viewing order was: Saban/Ocean dub of Dragon Ball and Saiyan Saga (1996) > International Channel DBZ (1997).

So, I mainly watched DBZ in Japanese. I did buy some of FUNimation's season 3 because that was the first big release of DBZ (legally) where I lived, but eventually I picked up enough Japanese to not need English versions.

[90sDBZ]

My first experience with the Japanese cast was the UK release of Budokai 1. At the time I was really taken aback by it and saw the voices as being pretty bizarre i.e. Goku being voiced by a woman and Gohan having the exact same voice. The badly translated subtitles only made it feel weirder for me, for example Vegeta shouting "YOU AUNT SALLIES!!!".

At the time I didn't even know that was the original cast. These days I can appreciate just how great the performances are when I go back to the game.

[VegettoEX]

Not sure what expectation for "kid" is here, but I'll answer it by year (and I consider myself a kid at that time anyway) and where I was at in my fandom:

Got into the series in 1996 via English dubbed syndication broadcast. I was 14. Would have first been exposed to Japanese clips starting that next year in 1997. Also got my first fansubs sometime that year in 1997 (I remember it being summer?). From there, it was a bit of following the dub alongside fansub acquisition, but soon turned to fullscale fansub viewing. Site began in January 1998. Bought a few Ginyu/Freeza dub tapes in 1999 for reviewing/discussion purposes, then turned to just occasional Toonami check-ins during season four (android stuff), followed by essentially zero dub viewing post-Cell.

[Lunaar]

Reading through your responses, it's clear to me that I am no longer of the "young" or "modern" audience of Dragon Ball. ...I'm 25, so maybe that goes without saying, but it's still a shock considering how I remember the fandom during the early 2000s so vividly.

Just gonna put it right out there - I was a deliciously bratty kid when it came to stuff I liked. "My hobbies are better than your hobbies!" My older brother and I were lucky enough to have caught Dragon Ball Z on it's first stateside broadcast in 1996. I was 4 years old. Those incredibly early days I cannot remember, save for some flashes of sitting in front of our (then) old TV and watching Tree of Might. We were VHS recording nuts, even pausing during commercials to save space for rewatching later. After the Saban dub unceremoniously stopped just before Goku takes on Jheese and Butta, there was a lull in episodes and content for a while. Lots of reruns. Nothing was more disappointing than hoping for a new episode and watching Raditz' space pod shoot down onto Earth. Behind the scenes, FUNi was gearing up for their own resurgence and in-house casting. DBZ was about to blow up in a big way when Z-Day hit on Toonami in 1999...

- but I gotta back up a bit, because I was already way ahead of everybody around me. Rewind the clock a year to 1998. Brother and I are channel surfing around 9ish at night when we land on the International Channel. The IC, now known (EDIT: and closed, as of 2008, apparently) as AZN Television, was a channel that was included with our basic cable (70ish channels, included Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, but no Disney). None of that mattered to me before that night, because the stars aligned and oh my god - there's Goku. On Namek. And he's FIGHTING Jheese and Butta. Wow, Vegeta has so much blood on his face!! We ended up turning off the TV after watching for a couple minutes (bed time was at 9, I was already up late), but every Sunday night we set the VCR to record DBZ on the IC. The mere fact that we just so happened to land on the very episode that followed where we left off still blows my mind to this day. After that, I had watched every episode up until Vegeta's death completely raw, unsubbed. This made me an eight year old weeaboo goldmine. I knew nothing about the Japanese language and just made up words when I sang along with Cha-La. I didn't care. You know why?

This was the show I was supposed to be watching. And I liked it. Everything clicked for me. The music, the unrelenting action, the voice cast - oh hey, personal attack incoming: Y'all are nuts for disliking Nozawa's voice when you first heard it. I had zero problems as an eight year old. Never understood why people got upset. I was the target audience and grew up with the Ocean dub, so there's really no excuse besides preference. Not too long after Z-day in 1999, I discovered Chris Psaro's DBZ Uncensored and Planet Namek on the web - leading to many nights reading up on episode summaries and downloading teeny snips of the original show on Dial-up. I was in deep, to say the least. I was the most informed kid elitest snob on Dragon Ball in my classes. And my friends may tell you that nothing has changed since then. The rest is history.

It's my experience with the show that convinces me children can absolutely watch the original, uncut show at age 7 or 8. It's a perfect blend of adventure, comedy, raunchiness and drama that every fantasizing kid can crave. Though, I'm surprised nobody has a similar experience to my own - either personally or here, on Kanzenshuu. Plenty of kids watched DBZ back then, but nobody I knew (unless I told 'em) that the uncut show was on TV - well into the Artificial Human arc, before "Season 3" ever ended on Toonami. It's for this reason that I never really grew up with anyone that appreciated Dragon Ball like I did, save for my older brother. These past two decades have been crazy.

[Hellspawn28]

By kid, I usually mean before you become a teenager or maybe pre-teen. It seems like the younger fans was able to get into the Japanese version thanks to faster Internet and now with the whole show on home video. As a kid, I never had the best Internet until 2002 when we got rid of dial up. With my slow Windows that we had the time, I remember I would spend hours trying to find every Dragon Ball stuff I can find as a 9-10 year old kid before my Mom told me to get off the Internet because she wanted the phone.

[TheUltimateNinja]

Thanks for correcting the spelling of version in the title, whoever did it.

[Hellspawn28]

Reading through your responses, it's clear to me that I am no longer of the "young" or "modern" audience of Dragon Ball. ...I'm 25, so maybe that goes without saying, but it's still a shock considering how I remember the fandom during the early 2000s so vividly.

Just gonna put it right out there - I was a deliciously bratty kid when it came to stuff I liked. "My hobbies are better than your hobbies!" My older brother and I were lucky enough to have caught Dragon Ball Z on it's first stateside broadcast in 1996. I was 4 years old. Those incredibly early days I cannot remember, save for some flashes of sitting in front of our (then) old TV and watching Tree of Might. We were VHS recording nuts, even pausing during commercials to save space for rewatching later. After the Saban dub unceremoniously stopped just before Goku takes on Jheese and Butta, there was a lull in episodes and content for a while. Lots of reruns. Nothing was more disappointing than hoping for a new episode and watching Raditz' space pod shoot down onto Earth. Behind the scenes, FUNi was gearing up for their own resurgence and in-house casting. DBZ was about to blow up in a big way when Z-Day hit on Toonami in 1999...

- but I gotta back up a bit, because I was already way ahead of everybody around me. Rewind the clock a year to 1998. Brother and I are channel surfing around 9ish at night when we land on the International Channel. The IC, now known (EDIT: and closed, as of 2008, apparently) as AZN Television, was a channel that was included with our basic cable (70ish channels, included Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, but no Disney). None of that mattered to me before that night, because the stars aligned and oh my god - there's Goku. On Namek. And he's FIGHTING Jheese and Butta. Wow, Vegeta has so much blood on his face!! We ended up turning off the TV after watching for a couple minutes (bed time was at 9, I was already up late), but every Sunday night we set the VCR to record DBZ on the IC. The mere fact that we just so happened to land on the very episode that followed where we left off still blows my mind to this day. After that, I had watched every episode up until Vegeta's death completely raw, unsubbed. This made me an eight year old weeaboo goldmine. I knew nothing about the Japanese language and just made up words when I sang along with Cha-La. I didn't care. You know why?

This was the show I was supposed to be watching. And I liked it. Everything clicked for me. The music, the unrelenting action, the voice cast - oh hey, personal attack incoming: Y'all are nuts for disliking Nozawa's voice when you first heard it. I had zero problems as an eight year old. Never understood why people got upset. I was the target audience and grew up with the Ocean dub, so there's really no excuse besides preference. Not too long after Z-day in 1999, I discovered Chris Psaro's DBZ Uncensored and Planet Namek on the web - leading to many nights reading up on episode summaries and downloading teeny snips of the original show on Dial-up. I was in deep, to say the least. I was the most informed kid elitest snob on Dragon Ball in my classes. And my friends may tell you that nothing has changed since then. The rest is history.

It's my experience with the show that convinces me children can absolutely watch the original, uncut show at age 7 or 8. It's a perfect blend of adventure, comedy, raunchiness and drama that every fantasizing kid can crave. Though, I'm surprised nobody has a similar experience to my own - either personally or here, on Kanzenshuu. Plenty of kids watched DBZ back then, but nobody I knew (unless I told 'em) that the uncut show was on TV - well into the Artificial Human arc, before "Season 3" ever ended on Toonami. It's for this reason that I never really grew up with anyone that appreciated Dragon Ball like I did, save for my older brother. These past two decades have been crazy.

Wow that is a very interesting story. You must be close to my age since I was born in May 4th, 1991 and you must be the very few people who saw DBZ on syndication as kid back in the mid-late 90's given it seems like most people who saw it on syndication at the time was teens and adults. When I saw DBZ in Japanese as a kid, I prefer that one over the dub airing on TV too. Even as a kid, seeing something in Japanese was always cool.

[Black Hawk]

My first exposure to the Dragon Ball anime was GT back when it began airing on Fuji TV in early 1996. My dad was in the U.S. Air Force and we were living in Japan at the time. I was pretty spoiled over there; instead of having to learn the language fluently for myself, a friend of mine, whose father was an American Air Forceman and whose mother was a native Japanese, was fluent in both Japanese and English and, as we watched GT together, she pretty much played translator for me and told me what was being said and what was going on and whatnot. Looking back, I wish she'd taught me the language fluently instead so I could keep up on my own. My first exposure to the English dub was probably Toonami a few years later, but I must not have seen much of it, because I remember being thrown for a loop when I saw Gokū in orange and Vegeta without his biker clothes in the 2008 Jump special. I didn't watch with the FUNimation English voice actors on a regular basis until Dragon Ball Kai was added to Toonami a year or two ago. Still watching it and Dragon Ball Super on Toonami to this day, so I've grown pretty accustomed to the English voices, but my nostalgia lies with the original Japanese version.

[MasenkoHA]

I have a very different story to tell. It was March 2011, I was 7, I, before watched the series on 4Kids.

I'm jealous. Wish I was a kid when Kai was airing, even if it was the PC Toonzai/Vortexx version, rather than Z.

[theoriginalbilis]

I was 13 or so when I got into DBZ in 1998, right around the time the internet was starting to blow up. Between the fansub trading scene (both on-and-offline) and sites featuring Japanese clips, I managed to see a sizable chunk of Dragon Ball in its original language.

The late 90's through the mid-2000s were very formative for my anime fandom in general, so access to uncut Dragon Ball couldn't have come at a better time.

[DrBriefsCat]

I saw the Dead Zone movie subtitled through Pioneer's VHS release back in the '90s. It was probably one of the first anime I watched in the Japanese language, which was an interesting experience to say the least. Goku's high-pitched voice caught me off guard at first, as did Chichi's. The use of a JPop song as the intro surprised me as I was expecting something edgier like Rock the Dragon. That infamous scene with Gohan in the middle of the movie came out of left field.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I'm kind of enraged at hearing either Chala Head Cha La or Makafushigi Adventure being called "J Pop". THEY ARENT DAMMIT.

[DrBriefsCat]

J-Pop as in Japanese popular music.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I know! I know! I still dont like the implication that is implied with that phrase.

[ABED]

I know! I know! I still dont like the implication that is implied with that phrase.

What's the implication?

[Cure Dragon 255]

That to him either Cha La Head Cha La or Makafushigi Adventure are crappy generic J Pop crap. Then again, I'm DEFINITELY a bit off the mark here.

[Lunaar]

Wow that is a very interesting story. You must be close to my age since I was born in May 4th, 1991 and you must be the very few people who saw DBZ on syndication as kid back in the mid-late 90's given it seems like most people who saw it on syndication at the time was teens and adults. When I saw DBZ in Japanese as a kid, I prefer that one over the dub airing on TV too. Even as a kid, seeing something in Japanese was always cool.

Yeah, was born on September 27th that year, so we're pretty close in age. I agree entirely about seeing it in a different language as a kid. The quality difference was obvious to me, even at that age. Not to mention the language brought an air of mysticism and wonder to something I already liked so much, despite having no idea what was being said. For example, I was very confused when Piccolo fused with Nail. I thought he straight up vaporized the guy! Not cool, man. Long story short, I was a trashy weeaboo before trashy weeaboos became an epidemic after the turn of the century. Hipster weeaboo? I think that's even worse...

I saw the Dead Zone movie subtitled through Pioneer's VHS release back in the '90s. It was probably one of the first anime I watched in the Japanese language, which was an interesting experience to say the least. Goku's high-pitched voice caught me off guard at first, as did Chichi's. The use of a JPop song as the intro surprised me as I was expecting something edgier like Rock the Dragon. That infamous scene with Gohan in the middle of the movie came out of left field.

I was not able to catch Dead Zone in Japanese until I caught the Pioneer DVD on rental probably around... 2003? Definitely before the "First Strike" redub, but not early on. I did however, watch Pioneer's uncut dub of Dead Zone on VHS around '99 at my friend's house. Chichi, Piccolo and Kami say the word "Hell!" And you can see Goku's butt!! ...I was an excitable child. I had already caught the censored movies on reeeeeal old school Toonami, before Tom took over. We had the first three movies recorded all in a row during the "DBZ20XL" block. Loved the first two for the music alone, but if you thought the Gohan scene came out of left field, think of how absolutely batshit random it was watching it dubbed up until that point. And with no subtitles. Just... moonspeak. I think even the VHS tapes had subtitles for those bits - so strange that they omitted them on TV.

[DrBriefsCat]

Loved the first two for the music alone, but if you thought the Gohan scene came out of left field, think of how absolutely batshit random it was watching it dubbed up until that point. And with no subtitles. Just... moonspeak. I think even the VHS tapes had subtitles for those bits - so strange that they omitted them on TV.

Actually I was referring to the scene where Gohan took a whiz on Krillin. Up until that point I had thought that kind of humor only existed in American cartoons.

[ABED]

Loved the first two for the music alone, but if you thought the Gohan scene came out of left field, think of how absolutely batshit random it was watching it dubbed up until that point. And with no subtitles. Just... moonspeak. I think even the VHS tapes had subtitles for those bits - so strange that they omitted them on TV.

Actually I was referring to the scene where Gohan took a whiz on Krillin. Up until that point I had thought that kind of humor only existed in American cartoons.

What American cartoons have people getting peed on?

[ecrockedboston]

I had watched the Japanese version on the international chanel because obly 50 episodes had aired in English ><

No, really though. I rememver beibg mesmerized by "Head Cha La" and "We Got Power" when I saw them for the first time. This was at a time when anime was this new, exotic thing.