Toonami Z-Day 1999 memories?

[SylentEcho]

Does anybody remember the second coming of Dragon Ball Z on Toonami's Z-Day, some time in September '99?

What were your reactions to the new voice cast?

I remember realizing that something was off and not noticing until Vegeta (Sabat) spoke. Almost everyone in school the next day was bummed about the new voices, but we were also really happy that the story was finally continuing.

[Boo Machine]

My reaction was just glad there were new episodes, finally. As for the voices, it didn't bother me all too much. I was 7 at the time so I actually had it in my head that the voices changed because the characters grew up while they were away from being on TV for so long.

[TheBigBoy]

I had already seen the new episodes on VHS so I had time to process my disappointment with the new voices and music. I remember watching the tapes for the first time with a couple of friends - we all threw up a cheer as one of the first shots is Vegeta's face caked in blood, then we all groaned loudly once everyone (especially Krillin) started talking.

What I wanted to see was how cut up the TV airing would be. We knew it wouldn't be uncut, but how censored would it be? Would it be like it had been? Where all blood was covered up, time cuts everywhere and punches to the face with big Batman esque "KAPOW" stars over them?

Fortunately, it was relatively uncensored. "Kill" was changed to "destroy" or whatever, but blood was there as long as it wasn't flying off bodies. Most of the violence, outside of Freeza torturing Krillin, was left intact.

Overall quality of the dub notwithstanding, I remember being pleasantly surprised by the TV airing. It felt like it really pushed the envelope as far as U.S. kids TV at the time.

[ABED]

My reaction was just glad there were new episodes, finally. As for the voices, it didn't bother me all too much. I was 7 at the time so I actually had it in my head that the voices changed because the characters grew up while they were away from being on TV for so long.

Kind of my reaction. I was 13 when the first VHS's came out in 99 and I was happy to see new ones after over a year (which felt like an eternity) of no new episodes. The voices and music stood out like a sore thumb, but I didn't care as much as I would later. It was new DBZ and I was going to finally see the fight against Freeza and Goku turn Super Saiyan. The internet was relatively new and in its infancy, so finding news about when or if new episodes would come out wasn't easy to come by.

[Hellspawn28]

I was 8 years old in 1999 and I didn't care for Dragon Ball at the time. I was watching other anime like Gunsmith Cats, Blue Seed, Devil Hunter Yohko, Those Who Hunt Elves, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, even Pokemon and Digimon. I remember when kids at my school was confused by the voice changes, they thought all of them are on vacation and they would be back soon .

I got into Dragon Ball way later than most people did because I used to thought Dragon Ball was a dumb series. I remember watching Piccolo vs. Freeza on TV back in 1999 and I thought it was awful. It was SSj2 Gohan vs. Cell that got me into the series on the Midnight Run in 2001 oddly enough.

[VegettoEX]

Context: I was 18 and was already running my site in earnest for a year and a half by that point.

I too had already gotten the VHS tapes earlier that year, so the product was already a known quantity by that point. We had endlessly shredded those episodes by the time they aired (see: kamehamedump.wav). It wasn't anticipated; it was dread that a further audience was about to be subjected to them.

Regardless, you could tell how pumped Cartoon Network was to be debuting "new" material. They really made it an event, and it was something that I think even us non-dub-fans could buy into a little bit and feed on said excitement. Always had to give them props for that.

[Chuquita]

Missed it by a year or so (I don't think I knew what Dragon Ball was in 1999; also I was deep into my brief 2 year run with Pokémon at the time) and yet I must've seen the commercial somewhere because it sounds really familiar.

[ABED]

I was so happy that CN was making a big deal about DBZ. It was my favorite show at the time and few knew about it or cared, but by that time, DBZ had finally caught on. I felt vindicated.

[Hellspawn28]

I remember when CN was hyping up the brand new episodes of DBZ at the time since CN was playing the same episodes over and over again in the past year. I was mostly watching Toonami back in 1999 for Ronin Warriors and that was it. I remember as a kid, I was kinda let down that they got rid of Moltar for some fat robot instead. I was a huge fan of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast as a kid and Moltar was the reason why I even bother to watch Toonami as a kid.

[sintzu]

I was only 4 at the time so I don't remember any of it and only got into the franchise through the Japanese version 6 years later.

Some of you are really old though.

[TheBigBoy]

I remember when CN was hyping up the brand new episodes of DBZ at the time since CN was playing the same episodes over and over again in the past year. I was mostly watching Toonami back in 1999 for Ronin Warriors and that was it. I remember as a kid, I was kinda let down that they got rid of Moltar for some fat robot instead. I was a huge fan of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast as a kid and Moltar was the reason why I even bother to watch Toonami as a kid.

Oh man, Moltar's Toonami ruled.

As did SGC2C. Especially in a pre-Adult Swim world, that show as so funny and weird.

[TheGreatness25]

Z Day was great. That was like right when school started for me and I was 11. For at least a year prior to that, DBZ was a huge hit at school and everyone was so pumped for this. I remember watching that last Ocean episode so many times. And now it was being hyped up and from that first commercial, I couldn't wait.

Well, they changed up the Toonami intro a bit with Tom hyping up the new episodes and more of a static intro than the previous one. They were going to do four episodes -- two last Ocean dub episodes and two brand new ones. I was waiting, happily sitting through those last two episodes.

So then it was time and the recap music hit. I thought it was strange and didn't like it. Then the narrator came on. Also didn't like it. But in that very moment, I knew that they probably changed the voices, honestly. That was a big give-away. Then the music came on for the title card and I knew that it was going to be a totally different Dragon Ball experience. For one thing, not only was the music and narrator different, but even the title card itself was much more plain than the treatment that it received previously where Funimation would edit them to move and whatnot.

I noticed the music and voice changes right off the bat, but wasn't as bothered by them. In a weird way, it's almost as if the animation itself looked different. It's funny because it really did look different than just the episode prior in terms of how they looked.

I knew really early on that it was a totally different ball game than what I knew it as before, but wasn't that bothered by it. I disliked Gohan's, Kuririn's, and Vegeta's voices. BUT I was really happy to see a bloody Vegeta and knew that it would at least be uncensored (or in hindsight, much less censored).

Overall, a very happy day in my childhood and it was shortly after that, that I got the Japanese version of Final Bout and Greatest Legends for PS1 and was exposed to my first bits of Japanese DBZ. I got those right before Goku became a Super Saiyan. I think that episode aired on a Friday (or Thursday) and Goku would turn Super Saiyan on a Monday (or Friday I guess) and remember telling my dad about it as we were going to a Wiz store to get something for my PS1 after I got those games.

Good times, good times. It was such a minor thing, but I really can't imagine myself getting excited like that for anything materialistic ever again. Simple pleasures.

[Gaffer Tape]

I was 13 when it happened and had been following DBZ since the reruns premiered on Toonami a year earlier. I had recorded 52 of the 53 episodes on tape by that point (and filled in the 53rd on Z-Day since the block was the last two "old" episodes followed by the first two "new" episodes). All of my friends and I were certainly pumped, and I remember being at school that day counting the minutes down until we got to run home and see it. Granted, we had seen some of it, as one of my friends had gotten the first "Frieza" tape (the edited version, though) prior to the episodes airing. So I had already been subjected to the new voices and new music and thought they were pretty terrible.

I wasn't deterred, though. People always seem to throw up their arms about "consistency," and maybe things are better now, but kids' shows then were chock full of them, and that was almost part of the fun for me. Long-running shows had frequently-changing voice casts, animation styles, character depictions, and focus, and that's not even getting into the random, day-to-day animation gaffes. I found it fascinating as a kid to figure out which Scooby-Doo series came before another one, which Looney Tunes shorts came from which era. So this just seemed like another one of those things. I mean, it still seemed incredibly amateurish, and I did my fair share of complaining... I still do. But I have to admit that hearing those first couple of notes of that terrible recap music, hearing Dale Kelley's absurd monster truck narration, and seeing blood on the characters' faces for the first time evokes some serious nostalgia in me.

Oh, it would be less than a year before I switched over to the Japanese version and almost never looked back, but it was a very exciting time nonetheless.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

I was bummed that the voices changed but was already so used to the Japanese version it didn't matter at all to me, was just happy I could watch it on TV vs playing tapes

I was pretty happy because after seeing Recoome get defeated so many times was just happy a new episode was airing, was pretty lit too even tho the voices were pretty meh "they were always meh to me anyway"

Fun day, think it lasted until 6PM Central Time.

[precita]

The voices sounded really off in the first few episodes, but I got used to them by the time we got further into it. I remember being disappointed with Krillin and Vegeta the most. Goku I was fine with, as was the Ginyu Force, Freeza and everyone on King Kai's planet.

[TheGreatness25]

I have such nostalgia for that time, that I prefer to watch the dub through my single DVDs for the "Ginyu" and "Frieza Sagas" over any subsequent ones to hear those original terrible voices. I'm not delusional and think that it's great or anything, it's just a fun nostalgia trip for me.

[precita]

LOL, as soon as that Season 3 music came on everything felt different. Especially that weird Ginyu Force theme played when Jeice/Burter were fighting Goku.

I agree with everyone else here that it felt like a completely different show than Saban's Seasons 1-2.

[superfan2024]

Here are the bumpers and promos for the event for nostalgia:

New episodes teaser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnqQo7HhcSA

New episodes coming soon promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0KW9q2bRsY

Official Z-Day promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vnNgUn1ynU

Official Z-Day bumpers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9CyXn6NFGE

[DragonBallKing]

I was only 4 at the time so I don't remember any of it and only got into the franchise through the Japanese version 6 years later.

Some of you are really old though.

I feel your pain brother, oh well I've got 2005 Toonami naruto Nostalgia instead.

[TheBigBoy]

Does anyone know the release date of the original Ginyu Assault and Ginyu Double Cross VHS tapes? I checked the home video guide on the site but it looks like it only covers DVDs (unless I missed it...)