How Much Does Your Mom/Sister/Grandma/Girlfriend Know About Dragon Ball?

[nickzambuto]

Weird question, yes, I know. But it's actually a relevant one, because moms and sisters and such are usually the best representation of a general audience. People who aren't swept up in geek culture like us. Therefore, I believe they are the best test of how mainstream or niche something is.

I'm turning 20 in a few days, and my mom was teasing me asking if she should hire Spider-Man or Batman to come like when I was small. I rolled my eyes at her until she said this: "Or what about that... Kugo guy? What's his name?" For a split second, I was confused. But then it hit me. And I was like... wow.

This isn't the first time either. Whenever my hair is messy, my sister will tease me by saying I look like Goku. So she definitely knows him by name, and I'm pretty sure my mom could get his name right if she really thought about it for a minute.

So they can both recognize Dragon Ball, and they at least know Goku by name, although probably not any other characters. Is that enough to qualify as "mainstream?" If your mom knows Goku's name, does that mean Dragon Ball is no longer strictly geek culture, and it's more in line with what can be culturally accepted as cool, like superheroes and Star Wars and Harry Potter?

[VegettoEX]

This makes a really weird assumption that every person reading this — and furthermore that every single fan — is male. Dragon Ball is not some exclusive boys' club.

[TheGreatness25]

It actually reminds me of something that I thought was hilarious. I would always watch Dragon Ball Z after school when it was on Toonami. And every now and then, my mom would be around and pass through the living room (where I watched it). One day, I was watching it and someone else was around and my mom literally explained the entire story of DBZ up until that point. And I was like, "How do you know all of that?" She basically compiled the entire story by passing through every now and then. Pacing, huh? lol

I got my girlfriend to watch "Season 1" of Dragon Ball, but she tapped out. There's just too much content. She doesn't really know beyond that, but does know there are Super Saiyans, as she got me some DB merch just because she knows I like it.

But yeah, like what VegettoEX said, maybe the title should be, "How Much Do Your Disinterested Friends and Family Members Know About Dragon Ball?" lol

[Avenant]

While nowhere near as big a fan as me, my fiance is a big fan of Dragon Ball. My mom would sometimes watch it with me when I was a teenager, but I don't think she paid much attention to it.

I would recommend prefacing your thread title with something along the lines of "Question for Male Dragon Ball Fans:" or just something that's not assuming that all Dragon Ball fans are male.

[Jackalope89]

Terminology of your question aside;

Not much more than that they know I like it, and it has a lot of fight scenes in it. Did, kind of, get a couple of my cousins into it. Though the one doesn't like the Enligsh dub, and outside of the DBZA, refuses to watch the real Dragon Ball Z/Dragon Ball. But has been keeping up on Super at least.

[Cure Dragon 255]

This makes a really weird assumption that every person reading this — and furthermore that every single fan — is male. Dragon Ball is not some exclusive boys' club.

I hate to try and defend sexism. But it COULD also be asking female members as well as male ones. After all, even they can have a Mom/Sister/Grandma/Girlfriends!

[Bruma rabu]

My mom next to nothing other than me liking it. One of my sisters liked it for a while but doesn't seem to interested in it anymore the other one hates it. My grandma probably doesn't even know it exist. As for girlfriend, I had one I tried to show her but she just didn't want to. She said nah it's for boys, I tried to convince her it has something for every one but she just wouldn't budge. Although I have a niece that loves it but her mom isn't to happy about it dunno why though. From my experience most girls don't seem to like it or just grow out it.

[Bruma rabu]

This makes a really weird assumption that every person reading this — and furthermore that every single fan — is male. Dragon Ball is not some exclusive boys' club.

I hate to try and defend sexism. But it COULD also be asking female members as well as male ones. After all, even they can have a Mom/Sister/Grandma/Girlfriends!

I don't think what the poster ment any harm. It could be that through his life experience he just hasn't really seen girls into the series.

[Kuwabara]

My mother has seen Dragon Ball Z and likes it, but has since gone on to prefer Hunter x Hunter and My Hero Academia by a wide margin. My father doesn't like anime at all, he complained through the entirety of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. My boyfriend has basically the same taste in anime and manga as me.

[Pantalones]

Mom -- would recognize and be able to name a few characters (I know she'd know Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo... possibly Freeza, Buu, and Cell, maybe Androids 17 & 18 but I'm not sure she'd know the numbers or just know "the Androids"), but hasn't actually watched the show at all.
Sister -- knows quite a bit! Played some of the video games, wrote some fanfiction, has watched most of Dragonball, all of Z, as much GT as she could tolerate before dropping it, and most movies but not Super (yet?)
Girlfriend -- not an anime fan at all. I don't believe she's watched Dragonball or had any real exposure to the series at all.

And hey, why not?

Dad -- probably even less Dragonball knowledge than the girlfriend.

[Chuquita]

Did you know you can't delete posts in this subforum? Interesting.

[KBABZ]

I can't speak to my parents and sister, but my girlfriend doesn't have a high opinion of it. She doesn't like the type of story it is (mostly fighting) and she finds the odd moment of sexual content in the show to be a major turnoff.

[Tian]

Female

Mom - She calls all the characters Goku
Sister - She's not interested in the series. The only DB thing she saw was Battle of Gods.
Grandma - I remember she didn't like DB because she deemed it too violent.
Girlfriend - I don't have one yet.

Male

Dad - He never watched it but like my mom, he wasn't against the series since he let my brother and me watch it from an early age.

Brother - We watched/are watching all the series together. We always are hyped for any new installment of the series.

[Bajosexto]

My parents know that it exist. And thats about it. Other than the name Goku, they don't know anything about Dragon Ball. My Grandparents don't even now Dragon Ball exist.

[MozillaVulpix]

In a somewhat-relevant answer to this, I was discussing the fact I like Dragon Ball with my cousin recently, and she replied with "Yeah, I don't know anything about Dragon Ball. All I remember is when my brother used to watch it on TV. I remember there were these things that looked like Poke Balls and I think they had, like, fire in them?"

Which isn't too inaccurate, in all honesty.

[Draconic]

My mom can recognize the show at least on the level of "that thing you watched as a kid" or "the guys from the stickers you would collect on your bedroom door" and she also recognizes Goku.

My grandma, though, would probably know a lot more than that, if she were still alive that is, since it was her place I mostly watched the show as a kid and I'd have the neighbor kids over to watch it together (even if they weren't really friendly to me outside of that ) and if we had groceries or something to do we'd always get up early so we can do them before the episode started. She'd sometimes even make me special treats so I can eat while watching an episode. So yeah, she would be familiar to Dragon Ball even today, since it was a pretty big part of my schedule when I basically lived at her place.

[nickzambuto]

This makes a really weird assumption that every person reading this — and furthermore that every single fan — is male. Dragon Ball is not some exclusive boys' club.

The question isn't assuming that every Dragon Ball fan is male, but rather that every male (in our age bracket) is going to have some familiarity with Dragon Ball. Women have moms, sisters and grandmas too. If I included boyfriends as well, the title would be really long, but more importantly I didn't think those would be interesting stories. But anyone in this thread is free to talk about whoever they want. We've got people in this thread talking about their fathers, which is just as relevant because fathers also represent that casual, general audience.

[Cure Dragon 255]

My mom knows more about Dragon Ball than my dad lol.

[MadSpecialist]

This makes a really weird assumption that every person reading this — and furthermore that every single fan — is male. Dragon Ball is not some exclusive boys' club.

I hate to try and defend sexism. But it COULD also be asking female members as well as male ones. After all, even they can have a Mom/Sister/Grandma/Girlfriends!

I don't think what the poster ment any harm. It could be that through his life experience he just hasn't really seen girls into the series.

That being said, it's exclusionary and consequently, isn't really fair to say of those people at all.

Members of my family that aren't already fans (like my sister) could probably recognise the characters anywhere and Goku's almost like a household name in the very least.

[Zillamon51]

My GF and I have been together a long time. She watched some DBZ with me on Toonami back in the day, enough to recognize the main characters. And she knew how drawn-out it was.

A few years back, she watched the DBZ Kai Blu-rays with me, and enjoyed it. Drawn-out problem, solved!

Currently, she watches DBS with me. Likes it okay, but is beyond ready for the ToP to end.

(Before DBZ was a thing, she was really into Sailor Moon. That actually helped bring us together, as a conversation starter. I had seen an episode or two and asked her about it.)