Am I the only one who feels like I missed out on Dragon Ball?

[Chuquita]

Well, I don't miss phone-modems, dvds with 3-episodes-for $24, and lower-quality merchandise.

I do miss the 00's DB community (same for BoG and the Weekly animated DBS era) and how much fun I had creating fanworks and enjoying others' fanworks. Periodically traveling to the Kinokuniya in NY to collect the kanzenban over the course of a couple years was good.

As messy as everything is now, you can't beat it for easy streaming access and merchandise; nostalgia is so much more popular in current culture that nothing ever really is over (for better or worse) so it's still possible another weekly DB series will appear next year or this fall.

[ABED]

I love most of these eras. While 3 episodes per disc sucked, I loved the sense of anticipation for the show to air or the next disc(s) to come out. But now I also love being able to go at my own pace and watch the entire show knowing I can watch it in its entirety.

[MyVisionity]

I do miss phone-modems, and the excitement of connecting to the internet so I could download another batch of episodes or movie. The slower download speeds helped build up the anticipation and I would get hyped watching the progress bars reach the end.

[Aim]

Also, personally I think things are super exciting at the moment, we are literally in an era where we have the best quality sound for the whole DB series and Toei doesn’t even use it. We have fan releases that do everything we want Toei to do.

I think if there was another dub that did DB from the beginning we would have another huge wave of fans pop up in the next generation, it’d be cool to see it air and see what kind of reaction we’d get to a proper faithful dub. Not done by Funimation of course.

[KentMan]

Also, personally I think things are super exciting at the moment, we are literally in an era where we have the best quality sound for the whole DB series and Toei doesn’t even use it. We have fan releases that do everything we want Toei to do.

I think if there was another dub that did DB from the beginning we would have another huge wave of fans pop up in the next generation, it’d be cool to see it air and see what kind of reaction we’d get to a proper faithful dub. Not done by Funimation of course.

Faithful dub ironic considering that the Japanese version of Dragon Ball wasn’t always accurate to
The manga. That’s why they had a Kai version and even that had many problems like Cells regeneration. Let’s not kid ourselves here funimation no matter what anyone thinks and Toonami had more of a hand in the great boom of Dragon Ball in the USA. And considering how there are certain Japanese fans that like the American music heck in the Super endings Yoka Yoka dance they pronounce Saiyan rather than Saiyajin.

[Majin Buu]

Faithful dub ironic considering that the Japanese version of Dragon Ball wasn’t always accurate to
The manga.

False equivalency. The anime was generally very faithful in adapting the manga. The dub in contrast wasn't nearly as faithful in adapting the original Japanese version of the anime and at its best was only faithful about half of the time.

Let’s not kid ourselves here funimation no matter what anyone thinks and Toonami had more of a hand in the great boom of Dragon Ball in the USA.

You're clearly a Funimation dub fan given how defensively you reacted to the mere mention of the dub not being faithful, so it's not surprising that you would make this argument; but Dragon Ball became big here in spite of Funimation's bad dub, not because of it.

And considering how there are certain Japanese fans that like the American music heck in the Super endings Yoka Yoka dance they pronounce Saiyan rather than Saiyajin.

Japanese fans that like the dub replacement score are a minority in the Japanese fandom (we know this because we have Japanese fans on this forum). Most Japanese fans don't care about foreign dubs of Dragon Ball to begin with.

[MasenkoHA]

Faithful dub ironic considering that the Japanese version of Dragon Ball wasn’t always accurate to
The manga.

Aside from padding and filler the anime was almost entirely faithful to the manga. Especially when you compare it to other Toei products like Sailor Moon or Devil Man.

That’s why they had a Kai version and even that had many problems like Cells regeneration.

We have Kai so Bandai could sell old toys. The Akira Toriyama Cut was just a cheap marketing gimmick to repackage an old show into a 2 year advertisement to sell old toys to gen z kids.

Let’s not kid ourselves here funimation no matter what anyone thinks and Toonami had more of a hand in the great boom of Dragon Ball in the USA.

And let’s not kid ourselves its not because Funimation did great work. Practically any company that would have licensed and dubbed the show into English would have seen the same level of success. Funimation didn’t make Dragon Ball big in the USA, Dragon Ball made Funimation big.

And considering how there are certain Japanese fans that like the American music

Statistically that was bound to happen. Doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not an overwhelming opinion.

[JulieYBM]

Speaking as someone who was there from as early (or late) as 1998 I would say you didn't miss anything any less special than anything you would experience now. Personally, I think there's a half-life on how long fandom experiences really mean anything to an individual, so I would just focus on enjoying your own personal experiences and not the experiences of a bunch of 30-somethings. I've picked up on plenty of older and newer series both during and after their initial releases and don't feel like I'm missing out on any experiences. Then again, I also think fandom is just exhausting to participate these days, not simply for the fandom itself but because I'm just not a teenage girl anymore.

[Saiya6Cit]

If it makes you feel better I completely missed the Dragon Ball return with dragon ball super, and let me tell you, it was a very succesful one. In mexico we even got very cool collectables, like this ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04y4M9JIxNM but at that time I was dating someone who did not like anime at all and thought it was for children, I was like "of course, I liked Dragon ball, when I was 10"...

OH DEAR LORD I MISSED THE HYPE! and back then I had good money to buy tons of sh*t!

Anyways...

If you think about it all of us who watched DB on TV everyday (at 8:30 PM in my country) have white hair by now. I remember when I started to fo to comic conventions in early 2000s I was like 12-13 and I would see guys 35-37 talking about master of the universe... I guess we have turned into that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2zTX88SSpM

I also think is cool you are 14 and interested on DB.

[KentMan]

Faithful dub ironic considering that the Japanese version of Dragon Ball wasn’t always accurate to
The manga.

False equivalency. The anime was generally very faithful in adapting the manga. The dub in contrast wasn't nearly as faithful in adapting the original Japanese version of the anime and at its best was only faithful about half of the time.

Let’s not kid ourselves here funimation no matter what anyone thinks and Toonami had more of a hand in the great boom of Dragon Ball in the USA.

You're clearly a Funimation dub fan given how defensively you reacted to the mere mention of the dub not being faithful, so it's not surprising that you would make this argument; but Dragon Ball became big here in spite of Funimation's bad dub, not because of it.

And considering how there are certain Japanese fans that like the American music heck in the Super endings Yoka Yoka dance they pronounce Saiyan rather than Saiyajin.

Japanese fans that like the dub replacement score are a minority in the Japanese fandom (we know this because we have Japanese fans on this forum). Most Japanese fans don't care about foreign dubs of Dragon Ball to begin with.

I thought discrimination wasn’t a thing anymore anyways I take it that way especially after having seen what Mistarefusion had to say when he was reviewing the manga. Calling me a funi dub fan and claiming that I reacted so and so doesn’t mean anything. You call it a bad dub when something worse came after and that one claimed to stay true to the manga not the anime. If the anime had respect for the manga or Toriyama he would ever had said anything negative about the portrayal of Goku. Now the fans aren’t all the same I am basing this on what I’ve heard in person not on the internet.

[KentMan]

Faithful dub ironic considering that the Japanese version of Dragon Ball wasn’t always accurate to
The manga.

Aside from padding and filler the anime was almost entirely faithful to the manga. Especially when you compare it to other Toei products like Sailor Moon or Devil Man.

That’s why they had a Kai version and even that had many problems like Cells regeneration.

We have Kai so Bandai could sell old toys. The Akira Toriyama Cut was just a cheap marketing gimmick to repackage an old show into a 2 year advertisement to sell old toys to gen z kids.

Let’s not kid ourselves here funimation no matter what anyone thinks and Toonami had more of a hand in the great boom of Dragon Ball in the USA.

And let’s not kid ourselves its not because Funimation did great work. Practically any company that would have licensed and dubbed the show into English would have seen the same level of success. Funimation didn’t make Dragon Ball big in the USA, Dragon Ball made Funimation big.

And considering how there are certain Japanese fans that like the American music

Statistically that was bound to happen. Doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not an overwhelming opinion.

So you choose to ignore the cell problem in Kai? Perhaps I wasn’t clear with what I was saying I said Dragon Ball being a success in the USA had a lot to do with Funi and toonami. I’m not saying that the Japanese anime or Toriyama himself had nothing to do with it. But knowing how guys were back then I’m pretty certain they would have made fun of Gokus Japanese voice. And this is coming from someone that loves Masako voice since I first heard her in Galaxy express 999.

[VegettoEX]

Some of the usual suspects here are taking the conversation in far too many different directions, unnecessarily distracting from some real genuine, productive, engaging conversations coming from a real place of honesty and vulnerability in the topic creator. Maybe reflect on that a little bit before you continue posting, please!

[KentMan]

Some of the usual suspects here are taking the conversation in far too many different directions, unnecessarily distracting from some real genuine, productive, engaging conversations coming from a real place of honesty and vulnerability in the topic creator. Maybe reflect on that a little bit before you continue posting, please!

My apologies I will not further ruin this topic that the person has made. He deserves to know what he wanted to experience so I was sorta in the same boat. I mentioned previously how I wish I was there when the manga was still ongoing. I wondered how fans felt when Toriyama was drawing and revealing things like super saiyan and Bulma and Vegeta.

[NeverRamza]

I was around 12 years old when Dragon Ball first started reaching the U.S. and I remember when I finally started finding chat rooms that there were a whole host of people who had been there quite a while. Dragon Ball had hardly been released in an official capacity and yet there were tons of websites, discussions, summaries, fanfictions, etc. from people that were already fans. At that time, existing fans were even confused at times that there would be new fans coming in from the North American broadcast. I remember it feelinglike playing catch-up. A lot of existing fandom was centered around people who got to know each other through anime college clubs at a time when I didn't even know what those were.

It's interesting to think that Dragon Ball started in 1984 and that an entire wave of fandom truly did experience the franchise from the very beginning. Very few people of the English-speaking fandom can give a first-hand account on that, though. Dr. Slump, Akira Toriyama's previous series, started in 1980. I guess what I'm trying to say is that everybody jumps in somewhere and I recommend against feeling like you've missed out because you have the entire future to look forward to which will continue to have tons of cool stuff. Dragon Ball as a franchise will likely outlive us all after all.

Something as an older person that I find really awesome for younger fans is the abundance of accessibility of being able to find and enjoy the series. I must say I would have also loved to have been able to go to today's version of anime conventions throughout my entire teens. Back when Dragon Ball was first coming out in North America, conventions only existed in a small number of states and few younger people went to them. Trying to convince your parent to take you on a road trip to a convention 5 states over in the name of Japanese cartoons wasn't very practical. When I tried it, I couldn't even explain what an anime convention was because I had never been to one before and information on them was limited.

[coola]

I remember Dragon Ball craze in Poland in 2000 - 2003, even if it all stopped when series reruns stopped, the amount of sites that were created, fanfics wrote (Some of them of course included Freeza coming back ) browsing sites and finally find that DBZ Legends PSX ROM (100 MB, took whole day to download with modem connection) good times

[Aim]

Also, personally I think things are super exciting at the moment, we are literally in an era where we have the best quality sound for the whole DB series and Toei doesn’t even use it. We have fan releases that do everything we want Toei to do.

I think if there was another dub that did DB from the beginning we would have another huge wave of fans pop up in the next generation, it’d be cool to see it air and see what kind of reaction we’d get to a proper faithful dub. Not done by Funimation of course.

Faithful dub ironic considering that the Japanese version of Dragon Ball wasn’t always accurate to
The manga. That’s why they had a Kai version and even that had many problems like Cells regeneration. Let’s not kid ourselves here funimation no matter what anyone thinks and Toonami had more of a hand in the great boom of Dragon Ball in the USA. And considering how there are certain Japanese fans that like the American music heck in the Super endings Yoka Yoka dance they pronounce Saiyan rather than Saiyajin.

I would love to respond but you got blown tf out by my beautiful fellow Kanzenshuu users. Anything extra I have to add would be like trying to roast ash.

[KentMan]

Well I don’t know what the person before me is talking about but he really should be discussing that elsewhere. But yes I did miss out on things like the manga and even the Dragon Ball video game boom. I wish I could tell you how popular GT was with the kids we really liked it. Of course we had no idea there was a vocal hate for it. Don’t know if you wanna experience that though?

[PacificOceanDub]

I was there for the whole Dragon Ball Boom of the late 90s/early 00s in the U.S. It was certainly a cool time, seeing it air on Toonami after school, and seeing DBZ action figures every time we went to the store. I really missed that after around 2005 when it started getting less and less. But the cool thing is that the merchandise has really made a huge resurgance in recent years, so at least there's that! And like others are saying, you can stream/buy the whole series these days, instead of waiting for new volumes to release on VHS, or for Toonami to air them! In a way, we all missed out on Dragon Ball. I was here for the FUNi dub, but how cool would it have been to see it as it originally aired in Japan in the 80s and 90s? Or to have been one of the first to read the manga?

I often think about that, and how I wish I could have been there from Day 1.

[Thanos]

I became a fan in late 1999/2000, and I feel like I missed out. Hell, even if you live in America and jumped on board in 1995 around when the series came here, you'd be coming in right as Z was ending in Japan.

I know how you feel though, I feel that way about a great deal of things I enjoy--not to bring the mood down but many of which involve people who have long died. For example, I am an enormous David Bowie fan, but became a fan about four or five years after he stopped touring. It just sucks to get into things that are new to you but the world has forgotten about or with zero chance of anything new coming out from it. At least we can take solace in the fact that there are good franchises that are now evergreen and continue to release content such as Dragon Ball or Star Wars (with varying quality). At least you're around as the new movie is releasing, and who knows, maybe Super will return this year based on comments from staff.

I don't necessarily have a solution on shaking the feelings of missing out, but surely you have friends or know people who are also fans and there's obviously a healthy fanbase online in various communities (YouTube, Reddit, etc.) that you can interact with, present company included!

[super michael]

I watched Dragon Ball in this order:

Dragon Ball Z english version > Dragon Ball Z spanish version > Dragon Ball GT spanish version > Dragon Ball Japan version
Then later I read the manga.

I don't feel like I missed anything out, I enjoyed all of them even if I watched it in the wrong order. Then I watched DBZ Kai, the movies and DBS.