What's the best way to introduce DragonBall to kids?

[Avenant]

I'm a life-long DragonBall fan and will hopefully pass it on to my future children one day. But as of late I've been wondering how I will go about doing so. For me, like many I suppose, I was introduced to DragonBall via the Ian Corlett Ocean Dub here in the US back in '96 that eventually morphed into the Schemmel/Sabat Funi dub we know and love/hate today. I was obsessed from day 1 and here I am almost 30 years old and that obsession my brother said I'd drop before I left high school is still trucking.

But how should I introduce DragonBall to my Children? If I could, I wouldn't change a thing with my own introduction. But what if I had seen DB before Z? What if I read the Manga first? I personally hold the Manga at the highest regard out of everything, but it was nearly a decade after I became a fan that I read it. Would it be right to introduce my children in a similar way to that which I was introduced?

I wonder if starting off reading the DragonBall Manga to my children would be best. Or should I just start with the show? There's no right or wrong answer, I guess, so I'm curious about your opinions on this as well! Has anyone already experienced this yet? I'd love to know!

[Cipher]

Put on episode one of Dragon Ball. Sit down with them. Enjoy.

I think the manga's superior, but I wouldn't pass up the chance to make it a shared experience. Enthusiasm is infectious.

This is all hypothetical on my end. But it's also a life plan.

[Avenant]

Put on episode one of Dragon Ball. Sit down with them. Enjoy.

I think the manga's superior, but I wouldn't pass up the chance to make it a shared experience. Enthusiasm is infectious.

This is all hypothetical on my end. But it's also a life plan.

That's honestly what I'm leaning towards if I go with the Anime first. And the filler in DB honestly doesn't bother me as much as most of the filler in Z.

But the pure-unadulterated Manga is an enticing prospect. It could be fun to read to them before they go to bed and then, after making it through the DB arcs, starting from the beginning of the Anime.

Who knows. I guess we'll have to see!

[Jinzoningen MULE]

As much as I love the manga, comics are pretty much dead, at least where I live. I'd 100% recommend that you introduce them the show, it's much more likely to take. Secondly, I'd introduce them to the dub, there are plenty of decent English options nowadays, so there's no reason to make them go through with subtitles.

The details after that get a bit more subjective. I personally would start them out on the movies or TV Specials (either score is probably fine). The order doesn't really matter either. If they get into it and like what they see, show them more. If they genuinely take to it, that's when I'd start them watching chronologically (Dragon Ball, Z/Kai (whichever you prefer), GT, Super).

Is that the best method? I've sort of tried it with my baby cousin, he seems interested enough (although he's far more obsessed with Power Rangers, so it's not his primary show). However, I ran into hiccups with his parents being the hyper-protective type, so it's especially difficult trying to introduce him to the older stuff.

It's really up to you, though. My proto-method is basically just what I've gathered trying to introduce 2 kids at most. Experiment for yourself.

[Avenant]

As much as I love the manga, comics are pretty much dead, at least where I live. I'd 100% recommend that you introduce them the show, it's much more likely to take. Secondly, I'd introduce them to the dub, there are plenty of decent English options nowadays, so there's no reason to make them go through with subtitles.

The details after that get a bit more subjective. I personally would start them out on the movies or TV Specials (either score is probably fine). The order doesn't really matter either. If they get into it and like what they see, show them more. If they genuinely take to it, that's when I'd start them watching chronologically (Dragon Ball, Z/Kai (whichever you prefer), GT, Super).

Is that the best method? I've sort of tried it with my baby cousin, he seems interested enough (although he's far more obsessed with Power Rangers, so it's not his primary show). However, I ran into hiccups with his parents being the hyper-protective type, so it's especially difficult trying to introduce him to the older stuff.

It's really up to you, though. My proto-method is basically just what I've gathered trying to introduce 2 kids at most. Experiment for yourself.

I definitely agree with going with the English dub over Japanese, especially when they'll probably be younger than I was when I introduce it to them. If they eventually want to watch the Japanese dub then I'll make it so.

And not like I need one, but it's always good to have an excuse to re-watch/read DragonBall in it's entirety again!

[Boo Machine]

There are some people here who got into the show through the Kai dub of Z. So that's not a bad way to start I suppose. But Jinzoningen's suggestion of starting with the movies or specials sounds good as well. I remember I got my cousin into the show when I was babysitting him and I just happened to be watching the Battle of the Gods movie in the living room. He walks in, says he recognizes a few characters, sits down to watch, then at the end he was super interested and asking for me to bring over more movies and episodes.

I guess the ideal way to start would be with DragonBall though, if you can. But starting with the movies or Kai are the ways I know of that have worked.

[Vorige Waffe]

I'd say definitely start with a DBZ movie, particularly the first 3, or the beginning of DBZ or Kai.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I think DB Movie 3 (Mystical Adventure?) is a great, fun introduction if you're going for older material. Other good options are any of the first 3 Z movies, along with Broly #1, Bojack, Fusion, or Wrath of the Dragon. Just my two cents on specific movies you might want to try first if that's the route you'd want to take.

[sintzu]

If it's the first anime you introduce them to then you'll be able to introduce them through the original DB which will be the best option cause they'll get the full experience the original story has to offer.

I'd skip the filler episodes to get them through it faster so episodes 30-33, 79-83, 127-132 & 149-153 can go.

Then I'd show them the 1st 54 episodes of Kai then the Bardock TV special.

After that the next 44 episodes of Kai then the Trunks TV special.

Finally the Kai Buu arc minus episodes 101&165.

Once you're done with the original story above you can show them Z's original 13 movies then GT minus episodes 6-15.

The reason I picked GT before all the new material is because it's closer in production to DB & Z so when you're done with all that you can show them Super, the ovas and the new movies.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

If there's one thing I absolutely wouldn't recommend, it's skipping around episodes. It's an incredibly disingenuous way to watch.

[nickzambuto]

Starting with a movie is a good idea. Depending on which movie of course. Several of them do a good job of encapsulating the core elements of Dragon Ball in a short hour and a half period. And don't push them into watching it. Just put it on and watch it, hopefully they'll come and sit with you and enjoy it on their own.

[Ringworm128]

I'd say introduce them in a medium they're into, i.e if they like comics, show them the manga. My nephew who has Aspergers and as a result is very focused on video games played on my copy of BT3 and became somewhat more interested.

[Danfun64]

The thing with the English dubs is that they have different tiers of accuracy and quality. Note that for Funimation dubs that have been released with the option to choose between both the original Japanese score and American replacement music, I'm only counting the versions with the replacement music, as that's what the dub originally used.
[spoiler]-The first tier are dubs that have a good mix of accuracy and voice quality, contain the original music, and have almost no dub errors, if any. In addition, everything in this tier is uncut. These include the Funimation/Ocean/Pioneer dubs of the first three DBZ movies, pretty much any Funimation dub of DB from Kai onwards (meaning Kai 1.0, Kai TFC, BOG, Res 'F', Super) and xXInfinite026Xx's fandub of Bardock Father of Goku.
-Second tier would be dubs that retain the original music and are mostly faithful, but have some fairly noticeable dub errors. Either that or they are censored with no uncut versions available. Sometimes both. These include Funimation's dub of Path to Power, the AB Groupe/Ocean/Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball GT, and the Bang Zoom dub of Super.
-The third tier still retains the original music, but has some fairly big changes. This includes Funi's in house dub of the original Dragon Ball as well as the in house dub of the Dragon Ball movie trilogy.
-The fourth tier is similar to first and second... but replaces the music... which results in things being the direction being less faithful than it could have been. This include Funimation's in-house dubs of DBZ Movie 1 (Dead Zone), DBZ Movie 2 (World's Strongest), and the Broly Trilogy. It is assumed that the Ocean Kai dub is also in this category (though unlike the other dubs in this tier it will most likely be censored), although nobody will know for sure until the dub is released.
-The fifth tier is a combination of inaccurate scripts and replacement music. At the very least though, the inaccuracies are consistent and everything in this tier is available uncut. This includes the In-house Funi Remastered DBZ dub, the In-House Funi dub of DBGT, and most of the In-House Funi DBZ Movie dubs as well as all three of the In-House Funi DB specials.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]-The sixth tier not only contains both inaccurate scripts and replacement music, but are also censored. At the very least, the censorship kept scenes mostly intact. The Funimation/Ocean/BLT dub of DB episodes 1-13 and the first DB movie as well as AB Groupe/Ocean/Westwood's dub of DBZ of episodes 123-291 (episodes 108-276 by cut episode count) go here. Even though it's available in a mostly uncut format, the Original In-House Funi dub of DBZ of episodes 67-291 (episodes 54-276 by cut episode count) also belongs here because it (along with the aformentioned Westwood dub) are chained to the seventh tier dub I'm about to mention.
-The seventh tier heavily edits the episodes, at times removing whole scenes while changing the meaning of others due to what was removed. At the very least, you get a somewhat clear view of what events took place. This tier includes the Funimation/Ocean/Saban dubs of episodes 1-67 (edited down to 53 episodes) and DBZ Movie 3 (Tree of Might, which actually added a couple of scenes)
-The eighth tier is mostly uncut and accurate, but is marred either by horrendous voice acting or only existing in horrendous quality. This includes most of the Speedy dubs as well as the Fillipino English dub of DBZ Movies 5 and 6 (both Cooler films).
-The ninth tier has the original music, but is censored (albeit competently) and has several name changes to major characters, most of which don't stick around for newer dubs (and most of the ones retained only appear in the sixth tier BLT dub of DB Movie 1, and are removed in the fourth tier In-House Funi dub of DB Movie 1.)
-The tenth tier is similar to the second and third, but is marred by the AB Groupe's video edits, some of which make things vague, others are directly contradicted by the recaps. The only reason dubs in this tier aren't any lower is because the script is consistent. The AB Groupe/Ocean/Blue Water dub of the original Dragon Ball goes here. To make matters worse, the way the audio is handled is too smart for its own good, done in such a way that attempting to syncing with uncut footage with Japanese audio filling the blanks will result in audio that either sounds looped or a loss of English audio due to how things are set up. The fact that replacement music covers areas where some Insert songs would have been played doesn't help matters.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]-The eleventh tier is the AB Groupe's in-house dub of most of the pre BOG movies and specials in the DB Franchise (DBZ Movies 1-9 and the two DBZ specials were released on DVD. DB Movies 1-3 as well as the DBGT special are known to exist, but were not released on home video and can't really be found anywhere. It's unclear if AB Groupe dubbed DBZ Movies 10-13, but for other regions the AB Groupe released movies 10-11 and 12-13 as double features in theaters.) The original music is retained, and most of these are uncut, but they are marred by the AB Groupe's horrendous scripts, which tend to avoid naming places and secondary characters (and at times major characters), somewhat bizarre renames for some characters which are named (most famously Piccolo's name is changed to Big Green), strange dub errors which contradict character personalities and various truths ("Blooma" asking "SonGohan" when he plans on training "Trunk" when both the original Japanese and the Funimation dubs specifically have her ask Gohan not to train him, saying "Big Green" perished but Yamcha, "Tenshin", "Vegehta" and "Clearin" "survived", saying the legendary "Space Warrior" (Space Warrior is what the AB Groupe called the Saiyans) was attacking the North Galaxy, only to correctly state that Broly was attacking the South Galaxy later on, and Clearin not remembering who "Big Green" was. At least the voice acting is better than Speedy. Which reminds me...
-The twelfth and worst tier of DB dubs, the Speedy dub of DBZ Movies 9 (Bojack Unbound) and 10 (Broly Second Coming). Not only are names changed (the worst changes being Goku and Gohan swapping their names in Movie 9, and in movie 10 Goten being called Goku and Videl called Kami...which she pronounces as... Cumming), but at least in the case of Movie 9, unlike their earlier dubs, Speedy didn't have access to M/E audio tracks, meaning the audio came from the Cantonese dub with English parts using either looped audio or very conspicuous replacement music that interrupts the regular audio and then disappears once the voice acting is replaced. Ugh.[/spoiler]
Personally, if I were you, I'm sure it wouldn't be a good idea to let the aforementioned kids see anything below tier 5 for a serious dub experience, and that's being generous. Even then the higher stuff trounces the lower stuff (Funi Kai dub trumps Ocean Kai, and it trumps Remastered Funi Z for everything except filler episodes Kai doesn't cover. Likewise Funi Super trumps Bang Zoom Super, Pioneer DBZ Movies 1-3 trump the In-House Funi dubs of those movies...maybe you could say Path to Power trumps the dub of original DB for the Pilaf arc and maybe if you're stretching it the Red Ribbon arc.) Granted, that's if you are willing to let them see DB uncut. If you demand they watch edited versions of things, you'd have to abandon some of the higher tiered dubs (like the aformentioned fandub of Bardock Father of Goku, the Pioneer dub of DBZ Movie 3, and (as of this writing) the Funimation dubs of Kai TFC and Super) and be forced to look at tiers 6, 7, and 10. I highly suggest you don't go any lower than that though. It would also be wise to invent in a vhs player (preferably one that can play both NTSC and PAL tapes) to get things like the old censored in-house DB and DBZ tapes. Granted, the reason why i'm suggestion you look at tier 10 as an option for censored original DB is because there are some censored episodes not available on VHS, while the Blue Water DB dub can be easily found online.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

The thing with the English dubs is that they have different tiers of accuracy and quality. Note that for Funimation dubs that have been released with the option to choose between both the original Japanese score and American replacement music, I'm only counting the versions with the replacement music, as that's what the dub originally used.
[spoiler]-The first tier are dubs that have a good mix of accuracy and voice quality, contain the original music, and have almost no dub errors, if any. In addition, everything in this tier is uncut. These include the Funimation/Ocean/Pioneer dubs of the first three DBZ movies, pretty much any Funimation dub of DB from Kai onwards (meaning Kai 1.0, Kai TFC, BOG, Res 'F', Super) and xXInfinite026Xx's fandub of Bardock Father of Goku.
-Second tier would be dubs that retain the original music and are mostly faithful, but have some fairly noticeable dub errors. Either that or they are censored with no uncut versions available. Sometimes both. These include Funimation's dub of Path to Power, the AB Groupe/Ocean/Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball GT, and the Bang Zoom dub of Super.
-The third tier still retains the original music, but has some fairly big changes. This includes Funi's in house dub of the original Dragon Ball as well as the in house dub of the Dragon Ball movie trilogy.
-The fourth tier is similar to first and second... but replaces the music... which results in things being the direction being less faithful than it could have been. This include Funimation's in-house dubs of DBZ Movie 1 (Dead Zone), DBZ Movie 2 (World's Strongest), and the Broly Trilogy. It is assumed that the Ocean Kai dub is also in this category (though unlike the other dubs in this tier it will most likely be censored), although nobody will know for sure until the dub is released.
-The fifth tier is a combination of inaccurate scripts and replacement music. At the very least though, the inaccuracies are consistent and everything in this tier is available uncut. This includes the In-house Funi Remastered DBZ dub, the In-House Funi dub of DBGT, and most of the In-House Funi DBZ Movie dubs as well as all three of the In-House Funi DB specials.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]-The sixth tier not only contains both inaccurate scripts and replacement music, but are also censored. At the very least, the censorship kept scenes mostly intact. The Funimation/Ocean/BLT dub of DB episodes 1-13 and the first DB movie as well as AB Groupe/Ocean/Westwood's dub of DBZ of episodes 123-291 (episodes 108-276 by cut episode count) go here. Even though it's available in a mostly uncut format, the Original In-House Funi dub of DBZ of episodes 67-291 (episodes 54-276 by cut episode count) also belongs here because it (along with the aformentioned Westwood dub) are chained to the seventh tier dub I'm about to mention.
-The seventh tier heavily edits the episodes, at times removing whole scenes while changing the meaning of others due to what was removed. At the very least, you get a somewhat clear view of what events took place. This tier includes the Funimation/Ocean/Saban dubs of episodes 1-67 (edited down to 53 episodes) and DBZ Movie 3 (Tree of Might, which actually added a couple of scenes)
-The eighth tier is mostly uncut and accurate, but is marred either by horrendous voice acting or only existing in horrendous quality. This includes most of the Speedy dubs as well as the Fillipino English dub of DBZ Movies 5 and 6 (both Cooler films).
-The ninth tier has the original music, but is censored (albeit competently) and has several name changes to major characters, most of which don't stick around for newer dubs (and most of the ones retained only appear in the sixth tier BLT dub of DB Movie 1, and are removed in the fourth tier In-House Funi dub of DB Movie 1.)
-The tenth tier is similar to the second and third, but is marred by the AB Groupe's video edits, some of which make things vague, others are directly contradicted by the recaps. The only reason dubs in this tier aren't any lower is because the script is consistent. The AB Groupe/Ocean/Blue Water dub of the original Dragon Ball goes here. To make matters worse, the way the audio is handled is too smart for its own good, done in such a way that attempting to syncing with uncut footage with Japanese audio filling the blanks will result in audio that either sounds looped or a loss of English audio due to how things are set up. The fact that replacement music covers areas where some Insert songs would have been played doesn't help matters.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]-The eleventh tier is the AB Groupe's in-house dub of most of the pre BOG movies and specials in the DB Franchise (DBZ Movies 1-9 and the two DBZ specials were released on DVD. DB Movies 1-3 as well as the DBGT special are known to exist, but were not released on home video and can't really be found anywhere. It's unclear if AB Groupe dubbed DBZ Movies 10-13, but for other regions the AB Groupe released movies 10-11 and 12-13 as double features in theaters.) The original music is retained, and most of these are uncut, but they are marred by the AB Groupe's horrendous scripts, which tend to avoid naming places and secondary characters (and at times major characters), somewhat bizarre renames for some characters which are named (most famously Piccolo's name is changed to Big Green), strange dub errors which contradict character personalities and various truths ("Blooma" asking "SonGohan" when he plans on training "Trunk" when both the original Japanese and the Funimation dubs specifically have her ask Gohan not to train him, saying "Big Green" perished but Yamcha, "Tenshin", "Vegehta" and "Clearin" "survived", saying the legendary "Space Warrior" (Space Warrior is what the AB Groupe called the Saiyans) was attacking the North Galaxy, only to correctly state that Broly was attacking the South Galaxy later on, and Clearin not remembering who "Big Green" was. At least the voice acting is better than Speedy. Which reminds me...
-The twelfth and worst tier of DB dubs, the Speedy dub of DBZ Movies 9 (Bojack Unbound) and 10 (Broly Second Coming). Not only are names changed (the worst changes being Goku and Gohan swapping their names in Movie 9, and in movie 10 Goten being called Goku and Videl called Kami...which she pronounces as... Cumming), but at least in the case of Movie 9, unlike their earlier dubs, Speedy didn't have access to M/E audio tracks, meaning the audio came from the Cantonese dub with English parts using either looped audio or very conspicuous replacement music that interrupts the regular audio and then disappears once the voice acting is replaced. Ugh.[/spoiler]
Personally, if I were you, I'm sure it wouldn't be a good idea to let the aforementioned kids see anything below tier 5 for a serious dub experience, and that's being generous. Even then the higher stuff trounces the lower stuff (Funi Kai dub trumps Ocean Kai, and it trumps Remastered Funi Z for everything except filler episodes Kai doesn't cover. Likewise Funi Super trumps Bang Zoom Super, Pioneer DBZ Movies 1-3 trump the In-House Funi dubs of those movies...maybe you could say Path to Power trumps the dub of original DB for the Pilaf arc and maybe if you're stretching it the Red Ribbon arc.) Granted, that's if you are willing to let them see DB uncut. If you demand they watch edited versions of things, you'd have to abandon some of the higher tiered dubs (like the aformentioned fandub of Bardock Father of Goku, the Pioneer dub of DBZ Movie 3, and (as of this writing) the Funimation dubs of Kai TFC and Super) and be forced to look at tiers 6, 7, and 10. I highly suggest you don't go any lower than that though. It would also be wise to invent in a vhs player (preferably one that can play both NTSC and PAL tapes) to get things like the old censored in-house DB and DBZ tapes. Granted, the reason why i'm suggestion you look at tier 10 as an option for censored original DB is because there are some censored episodes not available on VHS, while the Blue Water DB dub can be easily found online.

You are vastly overestimating how much these kids are going to care about the quality of a dub. They're kids, they're stupid. You can show them whatever is convenient and it won't make a difference in their enjoyment. Unless you're trying to engineer them into a near-omniscient superfan like us, there's no reason to adhere to these "tiers". Just use your best judgement and show them the best that you conveniently can.

[Ringworm128]

Never underestimate the intelligence of children.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Never underestimate the intelligence of children.

I've been living with one for 9 years. I've lived with others beforehand, and occasionally even during those 9 years. They're pretty oblivious to anything you don't clue them in on in some way.

[Ringworm128]

When I was a child I could easily pick up on certain things especially in TV shows, and games. I've been around kids my whole life and my niece and nephew show ignorance in some cases but are also very adept and self aware in other places. Kids are people, they all have different levels of intelligence and/or different ways of showing it.

[Chuquita]

Videogames maybe? Pick your favorite and share it with them; kids love interactive stuff and this way you could make it a family thing playing the game with them.

[Avenant]

Videogames maybe? Pick your favorite and share it with them; kids love interactive stuff and this way you could make it a family thing playing the game with them.

The videogames route is an interesting one. But I'm so picky on the DB games. Then again, how much of my personal preference should I push on them? Letting them discover most of DragonBall on their own should be the exciting part, I think, so I guess I'll just have to make a decision based on their personality.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'd definitely start with original Dragon Ball. Since the majority of fans skip it a kid who watches it first at a young age will have nostalgia and be more likely to return to it than someone who started with Z/Kai and then checked out Ball simply as a curiosity. Add that to the fact if they get attached to the first part of the story they will become more hardcore in the long run .

By the end of original Dragon Ball you'll probably be able to gauge whether they should watch Z or Kai first depending on their patience levels. Personally I'd do Kai first, not that I think my future kids will be impatient but Z's pacing and dub haven't aged well, and kids have better critical thinking skills than some give them credit for but I'd definitely show Z at some point, same way if they loved Ball and Z I'd show them GT, Super, the movies and alternate dubs (Ocean, Bang Zoom, Blue Water, etc) as a surprise, especially if your kids end up being like many of us on these forums who will just eat up any Dragon Ball we can get.

I can't speak for the video games as I'm not a gamer personally but if you like playing them and would like your kids to get into them too I'd say go for it.